Earth Masters: Playing God with the Climate
Clive Hamilton, Allen and Unwin, $24.99
If the nations of the world will not take the hard decisions to prevent catastrophic climate change, is there another option? Can we engineer the planet to keep it cool, whether by fertilising the oceans, filling the sky with aerosols or blocking some of the sun’s light? Prof Clive Hamilton considers the options and the risks involve if something goes wrong.
David Rivett: Fighter for Australian Science
Rohan Rivett, CSIRO Publishing, free download from csiro.au
Sir David Rivett headed CSIR, the predecessor of CSIRO, from 1927 to 1945 before serving for 4 years as chairman. As such he played as large a role as anyone in the development of Australia’s scientific champion. In 1961 Nature said that “Rivett and his colleagues contrived, in a country woefully weak in research, to create an atmosphere in which it could flourish”. His biography sheds light on the challenges he faced to achieve this task.
The Owl that Fell from the Sky
Brian Gill, AWA Press, $35.00
Natural history museums are a storehouse of items of immense scientific value, but are often insufficiently filed for proper use. Subtitled Stories of a Museum Curator, Brian Gill reveals some of the remarkable specimens he has...
