Capsule Reviews

Proof, Caffeinated, A Sting in the Tale, and The Insect Cookbook

Written byBob Grant

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By Adam Rogers
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, May 2014

Belly up to the bar for this thorough treatment of ethanol, a drug that transcends geography, culture, and maybe even evolutionary time to constitute a key component of human recreation, if not the human diet. In Proof, science writer and Wired editor Adam Rogers leads a tour of breweries, distilleries, bars, and research labs, where craftsmen and scientists seek to learn the mysteries of creating alcoholic beverages and to chart the physiological and psychological effects of the drug.

“Understanding our relationship with alcohol is about understanding our relationship with everything—with the chemistry of the universe around us, with our own biology, with our cultural norms, and with each other,” Rogers writes in the introduction to Proof. “The ...

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Meet the Author

Bob Grant
From 2017 to 2022, Bob Grant was Editor in Chief of The Scientist, where he started in 2007 as a Staff Writer. Before joining the team, he worked as a reporter at Audubon and earned a master’s degree in science journalism from New York University. In his previous life, he pursued a career in science, getting a bachelor’s degree in wildlife biology from Montana State University and a master’s degree in marine biology from the College of Charleston in South Carolina. Bob edited Reading Frames and other sections of the magazine.
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