스켑틱스/기타 주제

어떤 과학 책들이 많이 읽혔을까?   글쓴이 : kopsa     날짜 : 01-03-03 21:02     조회 : 5364     어떤 과학 책들이 많이 읽혔을까? 어떤 과학 책들이 많이 읽혔을까? 2001년 2월 22일 코넬 대학 홈페이지에 실린 글입니다. 원문의 뒤에 나왔던 1947년부터 1997년까지의 중요한 책 (베스트셀러)리스트를 순서를 바꾸어 앞으로 옮겼습니다. 뒷부분은  해설 글입니다. 리스트 책 외에도 다른 책이 언급돼 있습니다. 많이 팔리는 과학 책을 크게 네가지 종류로 구분했는데, 경계는 분명하지 않다고 했습니다. 대중 과학문화에 중요한 책, 즉 베스트셀러나 수상 저서가 이에 해당합니다. 다음이 내용 상 많은 영향을 준 책입니다. 그리고 교과서 유와 일상 과학에 사용되는 책입니다. 최근 강박사는 과학 커뮤니케이션 주제에 흥미를 갖고 책을 찾아보았습니 다. 어떻게 하면 모든 이에게 과학 내용을 알기 쉽게, 간략히, 정확히 전달 할 수 있는지에 관한 것입니다. 광우병의 필립스 보고서를 읽어보니, 과학 자건 언론이건 일반인에게 위험성(risk)를 알려 줄 때 이 과학 커뮤니케이 션 능력이 중요한데, 모두가 향상시켜야 한다고 말합니다. 이런 점에서 특히 일반인이 많이 읽은 과학 책의 저자에게는 특별한 능력 이 있어 보입니다. 개성이니 스타일이니 그런 것도 있지만 과학 커뮤니케 이션 능력일까요? 그런 것도 중요할 것입니다. 여하튼 누구 아래 책들에 대한 간단한 설명을 인터넷으로 찾아 보내 주십 시오. 그리고 뒷부분 내용 설명도 함께 요약하여 보내 주십시오. 보낸 분의 이름으로 게시해 드리겠습니다. 강박사도 잘 모르는 책들이 있는데, 함께 지식을 공유하였으면 합니다. (강건일 박사)      ......................................... Science-oriented best sellers 1948-1997 (From Publishers Weekly compilations) Date Place  1948 4 Alfred Kinsey et al., Sexual Behavior in the Human Male 1950 5 Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki 1951 6 Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us      9 Thor Heyerdahl, Kon-Tiki 1952 4 Rachel Carson, The Sea Around Us  1953 3 Alfred Kinsey, Sexual Behavior in the Human Female 1958 8 Thor Heyerdahl, Aku-Aku  1966 2 William Masters and Virginia Johnson, Human Sexual Response 1975 4 Jacob Bronowski, The Ascent of Man 1976 9 Shere Hite, The Hite Report: A Nationwide Survey of Female          Sexuality 1977 7 Carl Sagan, Dragons of Eden 1980 2 Carl Sagan, Cosmos 1981 5 Carl Sagan, Cosmos 1988 3 Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time 1989 6 David Macaulay, The Way Things Work     13 Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time 1992 30+ Carl Sagan, Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors 1994 24 Richard Preston, The Hot Zone     26 Richard Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve:                Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life 1995 14 Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence 1996 30+ Daniel Goleman, Emotional Intelligence 1997 30+ The Merck Manual ........................................... Lewenstein asserts an author's style can be crucial in selling science By Jeff Evans '01   SAN FRANCISCO -- In 1962, Rachel Carson's book Silent Spring, a pioneering exposure of the hazards of the pesticide DDT, became one of the most influential books in the history of science and helped set the stage for the environmental movement. But the book had modest sales. In 1980, Carl Sagan's book Cosmos, an overview of how science and civilization grew up together, based on his television series of the same name, sold 900,000 copies in its 50 weeks on the Publishers Weekly best-seller list, phenomenal for a science book in its time. What separated the two? Marketing. "An author's style and personality and the presence he or she brings to a best-selling science book are generally the main factors in making it a best seller," said Bruce Lewenstein, Cornell associate professor of communication and science and technology studies, during a seminar at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science here, Feb. 19. Speaking on the topic "What Science Books Sell Big?" Lewenstein said, "The prominence of a science book author's personality has grown in the past 20 years." And that alone can account for a book being a best seller instead of just influential, he said. His talk was part of a seminar, "What Makes a Science Book Become a Best Seller?" Lewenstein noted that although best sellers and influential books can appeal both to scientists and the general public -- like Stephen Hawking's best-selling A Brief History of Time -- in the main, the non-specialist general reader is attracted to best-selling titles; scientists and those with a close interest in science tend to read books that Lewenstein classifies as influential. That is why, he says, best-selling books about science -- whether the subject is space or sex -- can make their authors rich and famous -- whereas the "influential" book's major accomplishment is in educating the public. But both types of science book, he said, have a major importance in acting as a link between the science community and the world at large. "Science books have been very important in helping the scientific community hold itself together as a community and linking the scientific community with the broader culture," he said. Since World War II, a number of science books have joined the ranks of best sellers by using sex, exploration or a clear authorial presence as a main selling point, he said. But despite the alluring subject matter found in some science best sellers and award winners, the importance of science books generally has been overlooked when compared to the authority of the scholarly journal in the world of science. Yet, he said, science books, from best-selling popular works to textbooks, play a significant role in the public's view of science and even in a scientist's daily work. Lewenstein identified four categories of science books, although, he said, they blur into each other: books important in public culture (prize winners and best sellers); books that are influential because of their content; textbooks; and books used in daily science. Intellectual culture regards Pulitzer Prize winners or National Book Award winners as important, and some of them become best sellers, said Lewenstein. Only two science books had won the Pulitzer prior to 1978, when Sagan, the late David C. Duncan Professor in the Physical Sciences at Cornell, wrote the prize-winning Dragons of Eden. But over the next two decades, 12 other science books won the Pulitzer, including Douglas Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach (1980) and Jared Diamond's Guns, Germs, and Steel (1998). Even science books that were not fully understood -- or even read -- have made it onto the Publishers Weekly best-seller list. A case in point: Human Sexual Response by William Masters and Virginia Johnson. Lewenstein said, "It is likely that many purchasers bought the book expecting something different and never really pursued the detailed research reports in the books." But even if science best sellers and prize winners are hard to comprehend, Lewenstein asserted, they still obtain a status in public culture that gives the books' audiences a shared experience. More influential, but less popular, science books have even shaped the way scientists think about or discuss older disciplines. Books such as E.O. Wilson's Sociobiology (1975) and James Gleick's Chaos: Making a New Science (1987) were widely read and talked about, but did not reach the top of the best-seller lists. These two books have today brought together research and ideas that have helped to create new scientific disciplines. "Textbooks also are tremendously important for science because they convey knowledge to the next generation, and that, in a sense, is how the culture of science is conveyed," said Lewenstein. Knowledge from a textbook, he said, can also pass on a tradition of learning due only to circumstance. For example, Sears and Zamansky's College Physics (1947) was aimed at engineering students. As a result, students who have studied physics at major U.S. universities over the past 50 years have learned 20th century physics "as a sort of add-on, or afterthought, apart from classical physics," Lewenstein asserted. ---------------------- February 22, 2001 | Cornell Chronicle Front Page | | Table of Contents | | Cornell News Service Home Page | ....................................................