2023, The MIT Press
Sharing Our Science: How to Write and Speak STEM offers a personal, practical guide to written and oral communications for scientists, engineering and tech folk. The tidy tome confronts unique scientific considerations, from handling numbers and deploying effective metaphors to navigating both deep silos and interdisciplinary boundaries.
Nature Physics: “It should be required reading for scientists at any stage of their careers.”
Civil Engineering magazine: “Straightforward, funny, endlessly practical, and simply a pleasure to read, Sharing Our Science might just deserve to become the Elements of Style of the STEM crowd.”
Available in paperback and e-book formats. (And an introduction is available as a surprisingly engaging colloquium talk. Hit me up!)
2019, Oxford University Press
In page-turning fashion, the narrative illuminates lesser-known stories behind the bright lights of the space race, showing the earthbound Apollo engineers confronting one impossible technical challenge after another. From the program’s roots in World War II to the final moon mission of 1972, The Apollo Chronicles relays the unlikely triumph for general audiences, free of acronyms and technical jargon.
2015, Oxford University Press
The German physicist Max Planck (1858-1947), known as the father of quantum theory, also nurtured a young Albert Einstein. The story here begins in 1945. As Planck navigates the madness of crumbling Nazi Germany, each chapter opens a window to his fascinating past.
Planck was a “best history book of 2015” (Times of London), a “best science book of 2015” (Science to the People), and it won the 2016 Housatonic Award for nonfiction. Available in English, Spanish, Chinese, and (soon) Swedish language versions. And, ahem, ideal for screenplay adaptation.