Philip Morrison's long look at the literature

the long version

The reviews in this collection, written during the 1960's, '70's and '80's, are more like essays, cutting through the sometimes arcane writing of the original to weave an engaging story that captures the essence of book he is reviewing, enriched by a broad familiarity with other sciences, history, mythology, and popular culture. A review of a book on the specialized gyroscopes used in ballistic missiles begins, "About as numerous and expensive as Rolls Royces..." Another, on the eradication of smallpox in India, begins with a digression on the Hindu deities associated with milk and smallpox, and the disease's conjectured origin as a side effect of the domestication of cattle, before proceeding to the disease's methodical and triumphant eradication. As a gateway to the love of science, it ranks with Slosson's "Creative Chemistry," de Kruif's "Microbe Hunters" and Asimov's "One, Two, Three...Infinity." In an unusual oversight it appears not to be listed in Google Books. It is probably out of print, but used copies are widely and economically available.