Science

Download the Universe Right Here: A New Site for Science E-Book Reviews

I’m pleased to announce a new site I’m part of. I’m one of an otherwise distinguished handful of reviewer-editors for Download the Universe, a site conceived by Carl Zimmer in an off-hand remark last month during a ScienceOnline session on e-books. We aim to meet a simple but stark and urgent need: While lots of […]

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I'm pleased to announce a new site I'm part of. I'm one of an otherwise distinguished handful of reviewer-editors forDownload the Universe, a site conceived by Carl Zimmer in an off-hand remark last month during a ScienceOnline session on e-books. We aim to meet a simple but stark and urgent need: While lots of new science books are coming out in e-book-only form, it's hard to find reviews of those books or a single site or publication where such books are noted. Download the Universe is that new place, and along with Carl Zimmer, my fellow editors (listed below) include some sharp minds and some of our best science writers. We'll be regularly posting both short and long reviews of new (and existing) science books that are published only in e-book form — usually 2 or 3 a week — as well as occasional comments or essays on trends in science books and e-book publication.

Why? We all feel the e-book, both standard and enhanced, offers particular advantage to many science topics, both because it allows short-book-length treatments and because the enhanced e-book and app approaches let authors and designers lay in some extra science-y goodness. Thus e-books offer an especially good way to do certain science books; and science offers particularly rich material with which to realize the e-book's potential. We've already seen this in works like The Elements or Journey to the Exoplanets. We'll see it in other venues as well. Meanwhile, e-books also offer a way for writers and readers to explore topics that are too long for magazine works and too short for standard print books. I'll note my own reviews here at Neuron Culture, but as many others will be writing as well, you should add us to your RSS feeds and follow us at Twitter, where we are @downloadtheuni.

And help us out: If you know of a book on science or medicine that is e-book only, shoot me, Carl, or any of the editors below a note giving us a heads-up. It'll go on our rolling list of Books to Be Reviewed and likely get reviewed at some point.

The full list of editors is at bottom. And here's a chunk of Carl Zimmer's intro post. Go get the full thing at Download the Universe.

We may now be at a new stage in the history of science books. In just the past few years, tens of millions of people have bought tablets--iPads, Kindles, Nooks, and more--on which they are reading books. In many cases, they are just reading digitized versions of traditional printed books. For these readers, ebooks are distinguished only by convenience. You can read an edition of The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks that weighs a few ounces, or you can read one that is a stream of bits stored along with a hundred other science books in your phone.

When media change, however, possibilities change with them. Vesalius knew this 460 years ago. His book had two parts: the text, in which he explained how human anatomy work; and the art, in the form of 200 woodblocks based on Vesalius's knowledge of the human body from autopsies. Vesalius packed the manuscript and the woodblocks on mules and sent them over the Alps to Basel, Switzerland, with explicit instructions. Every copy of the book had the same exquisitely accurate, enlightening mix of art and text. Vellum scrolls could never have held Vesalius's dream.

Ebooks are once again redrawing the boundaries. Walk into a book store and look at the science section. Most of the books are between about 200 and 400 pages. Most are created by large publishing houses. There's nothing fundamentally wrong about a 50-page book, of course. It just doesn't fit comfortably into the publishing business--a business that has to contend with costs for printing books, storing them in warehouses, shipping them to book stores, and accepting returned books. Ebooks create an economic space for the very short book (and the very long one). They also allow authors to reach readers without having to persuade a publisher that their book will earn back an investment.

A tablet can display the text of a book, but that's only one of an infinite number of tasks it can carry out. It can illustrate a book with video instead of a static picture. Instead of Vesalius's two-dimensional masterpieces, an anatomy book can include a three-dimensional body that the reader can explore with flicks of fingers.

Some people question whether such a creations really are "books." Aren't we just talking about oversized magazine articles and text-heavy apps? We may not be able to answer that question for a while, as we experiment with creating and reading these newly hatched things.

Many of the necessary elements are falling into place for this experiment. Programming is becoming painless and powerful. Readers can buy ebooks with a tap on a sheet of glass. And there are enough readers now that they can conceivably support a community of ebook authors.

But there's something missing in between. It is still tough for readers to discover new science ebooks. Traditional book reviews limit themselves to works on paper. Some ebooks may appear in computer magazines, but buried in reviews of laptops and printers. In between, we need a community.

Download the Universe is a step towards that community. It is the work of a group of writers and scientists who are deeply intrigued by the future of science books. (You can find our names and links to our web sites on the right.) Here we review science ebooks--broadly defined, except for ebooks that are just spin-offs of print books. We hope to build up a library of titles that curious readers can browse. Some reviews will be positive, others negative. We welcome your own judgments, and we look forward to vibrant (but civilized) discussions in the comment threads. We will also write essays from time to time about the changes that publishing is undergoing.

The editors:

Cheers. See you at the Uni.