2003 Aventis prizes for science books

Chris McManus, professor of Psychology and Medical Education at University College London, has scooped the £10,000 General Prize of the 2003 Aventis Prizes for Science Books for Right Hand, Left Hand: The Origins of Asymmetry in Brains, Bodies, Atoms and Cultures, (Weidenfeld & Nicolson).The panel of judges, chaired by writer Margaret Drabble, said, "His book answers some of the deepest questions in biology, physics and chemistry. It is an excellent mix of hard science and engaging games and tricks. It's got a treasury of anecdotes and things you didn't know."From molecules to entire organisms, nature endows each with a defined handedness and McManus explores what this orientation means in a practical sense. "A veritable compendium of everything you might want to know about handedness. …I feel pretty well integrated with my body, the cosmos, human culture and its diversity," wrote Brian Goodwin on April 25, 2003 in the Times Higher Education Supplement.The five other shortlisted books, for which each author receives £1,000, are summarized below.In Small World: Uncovering Nature's Hidden Networks (Weidenfeld & Nicolson), Mark Buchanan begins by explaining the "six degrees of separation" first identified by Harold Milgram in the mid-1960s, which in theory links Saddam Hussein to George W. Bush by only six other people. From here Buchanan goes on to explain how interconnectedness underpins systems like the Internet and the brain and can also be used to accurately model phenomena such as the spread of sexually transmissible diseases.Reckoning With Risk: Learning to Live with Uncertainty (Allen Lane), by Gerd Gigerenzer, explores the thorny world of risk and statistics. As a "frequentist," he outlines the usefulness of making decisions on the basis of frequency data and shows how we find data presented as natural frequencies more intelligible than that presented as a probability.Previous winner Steven Pinker revisits the old nature-versus-nurture debate and attempts to define which is more important in shaping an individual. The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature (Allen Lane) "presents an overarching view of the world in a way that quite a few readers will find seductive. That I can accept so much of what he has to say while rejecting one of the positions that he takes to be fundamental implies that possibly this position is not really so fundamental," concluded David L. Hull in September 19, 2002 Nature.The paradigm-shifting announcement in 1998 that the Universe is still expanding is described in The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy and the Accelerating Cosmos, by Robert P. Kirshner (Princeton University Press)—one of the team that made this outstanding discovery. "In a style not unlike that of Watson's Double Helix, Kirshner has given his version of the events leading to this extraordinary discovery. Kirshner's book is by any measure an extravagant and thoroughly enjoyable account of our amazing universe," said Michael S. Turner in January 31, 2003 Science.If the Universe is Teeming With Aliens… Where Is Everybody? asks Stephen Webb (Copernicus Books). In this book, 49 scientists, philosophers, historians, and science fiction writers offer their responses to the "Fermi paradox," that gives the book its title. "He makes a splendid and enlightening story of it, concluding with his own solution, the 50th: 'We are alone,'" wrote a reviewer in Scientific American in June this year.For the fourth year in a row the children's book prize was awarded to a book published by Dorling Kindersley. This year's award went to The DK Guide To The Oceans, by Frances Dipper, an independent marine consultant, photographer and author.

2003 Aventis prizes for science books

Chris McManus wins the "Science Booker" for his exploration of an uneven universe

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