Tag: Book Reviews

Apollo 11, a spaceflight forever cemented in history books, signifies the moment when humans first walked on the Moon. Since that historical day, the US has been the only nation to set foot on the Moon.

But what do you do if someone says this event wasn’t real? Conspiracy theorists have always been on the fringe saying the Moon landing was an elaborate hoax, a clever story fabricated in great detail by our government or space agency. But what if — somehow — historical records were changed to show the Apollo 11 mission never happened? In Moon Hoax, a new and entertaining historical fiction novel, author Paul Gillebaard re-writes history with a tale of high-tech subterfuge and deceit played out on the world’s stage.

Currently in 2013, the USA is certainly not the only space faring nation. With the retirement of the shuttle program, we can’t even launch our own astronauts into space. Other countries have a core of trained astronauts and collaboration between nations has become a key mode of operation. Teamwork has become a necessity. The International Space Station circling high above our heads is inspiring proof of countries working together in space research. What if one country wants all of the glory for themselves? What if they have engineered a way to change the face and records of space travel as we know it?

Find out how to win a copy of this book!

Moon Hoax weaves the tale of a rising and formidable superpower country trying to take away our historical facts and show them as false. One of the most populated countries on Earth wants the world to think the United States of America lied and has been lying to them for over 40 years: the twelve amazing American moonwalkers never were. Not only do the antagonists want to rewrite the history books, but they want to stake their claim on the Moon and launch themselves into the annals of space and world supremacy status.

Twisting the truth into an extremely plausible lie is a challenge. Moan Hoax will consistently have you reacting with a range of emotions from dismay and frustration to determination in seeing the truth prevail. It’s a race to prove to the world that the history books are factual versus the changing tide of a public dissuasion campaign. The author, Paul Gillebaard, has substantial space knowledge and an engineering background. This first time author adds a writing flair to make the reader question history’s validity on an enjoyable, entertaining ride.

Find out more about the book at Gillebaard’s website.

Review written by Lois Merritt

Armchair astronomer alert! If you love looking at the images sent back by the spacecraft traveling throughout our solar system, Planetfall by Michael Benson is truly an amazing book, with extra-amazing pictures. The large 15 X 12 inch pages provide great, eye-popping views of some of the most spectacular images of the planets, moons, and other bodies that make up our cosmic neighborhood. Benson has a knack for picking out the ‘best of the best’ from our interplanetary robotic photographers.

Each section of the book starts off with an introduction, a brief look at the area of the solar system involved in that chapter, and the probes that visited them. At the end of the book, there are full captions of each picture, including complete descriptions of what it is you are looking at and what spacecraft took it. The sections are: Earth and the Moon, The Sun, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and the Asteroids and Comets.

The pictures come from the the latest landers and probes that have launched since the start of the 21st century. This includes Spirit and Opportunity, Cassini, Messenger, Aqua, the ISS crews, Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, Solar Dynamics Observatory, among others. A space enthusiast might be familiar with some of these pictures from seeing them online, but to have them bound in a large size book, where they can be examined closely, and even pulled out in some cases, is one of the things I love about this book.

The images were compiled by Michael Benson, a writer, filmmaker, and photographer, who is no stranger to astronomical imagery. His previous books include book Far Out: A Space-Time Chronicle, and Beyond: Visions of the Interplanetary Probes, which include images from previous spacecraft and ground-based observatories.

On a personal note, the Mars section was my total and utter favorite, especially given the lot of super pictures from the rovers. However, I could be a bit biased on that, given Mars has always been my favorite…

This is a great collection of images, and paging through the book is a perfect way to transport yourself whenever you need to get away from it all.

I was worried that the book “Information, Communication and Space Technology” had the potential to be ‘jack of all trades, master of none,’ as it promises to cover all aspects of ICT and space tech, all in 200-ish pages. But I needn’t have worried. Author Mohammad Razani delivers on the ambitious goal of presenting a high level picture on all topics of Information Communication Technology(ICT) and space technology.

Although at times it seems as though there is a distinct split between the ICT and the space tech content, the author presents his information in a manner which most tech-heads and gear-geeks would love. But this book is not for the average fiction-inclined reader. Some previous knowledge is required.

It begins with covering the very large topic of ICT in health, government and education. At times it feels as though this half of the book is there to balance to latter space tech half of the book, like a student presenting the ‘boring bits’ before going crazy about ‘space technologies!!!’. He does skim over some points a little, but this keeps it interesting and exciting because it doesn’t get bogged down in the fine details. This means the book is not too overwhelming, but it remains informative by presenting enough detail.

There is the potential for some of the content to be interpreted as opinion piece…which at times it kind of is. He presents arguments for further resources and investment into ICT in education, particularly in the USA, where he is an educational professional. However, it’s presented objectively and doesn’t read as though he is shouting from the soap box. And there are enough references cited for each point he makes to make each argument objective (if that is not an oxymoron). He presents cases studies, tables and stats for the numerically-minded readers and is a reflection of past ICT and statistics to dictate possible direction of future ICT. Mohammad Razani presents studies on what challenges there are in ICT for health, gov and education, and the possible future solutions through case studies. Not being previously familiar with a lot of the industries issues he covered, I’ve learnt a great deal.

The information presented was very detailed and pleasing for the techno-geek audience. But at times was difficult to understand the information the author uses for comparison. For example, tables on satellites from different agencies presented different measurements and specifications, making it like comparing apples with oranges.

And there seemed to be a couple of product placement mentions — e.g. the software workshop the author attended. Perhaps I am cynical, but it seemed to be like when a doctor presents a certain drug, because he gets kickbacks from the pharmaceutical company.

The space technology section was more well thought-out and exciting. You could tell that Mohammad Razani was more inspired by these topics. He gave a great background on the history and development of the space technology and satellites. The cool parts were definitely the brief scientific explanation of space flight, atmospheric studies and gravity. It kept the pages turning without becoming overwhelming. I felt I learnt a great deal without the aid of any other research or references.

Tip: start your own glossary to refer to. This reader would have benefited from a glossary, instead of having to refer to the index or re-read parts of the book where the definitions and explanations of acronyms and phrases were presented.

The highlights of this book were the scientific explanations of the relevant to content. If a reader was so inclined to do self-research on this topic, it would take them years to find all information presented in this book, without the guidance Mohammad Razani. As a reader, I am left with the hope that ICT could be used to advance all of humanity, rather than promote western culture alone. As a student this has inspired me to pursue this area of technology, as we have only just begun. It gives a great starting point for any interested readers to launch their own research and further reading. I will refer to this book for years to come. The hardcover is also a bonus!

If I had to give this book a rating, it would be 3.5 satellite dishes out of 5.

Review by Evan Gough

Knowledge is changing all the time. New facts replace old facts, more precise measurements supersede previous measurements. What was once considered true is overturned daily in our quickly changing times. In “The Half-Life of Facts: why everything we know has an expiration date,” Samuel Arbesman brings some clarity to our constantly changing factual landscape.

It turns out that facts have a shelf-life, and that there is a mathematical predictability to that shelf-life. With an engaging style of storytelling, and just the right amount of graphs and tables, Arbesman walks us through the field of scientometrics, the scientific study of science itself. What do we learn?

We learn that scientific studies themselves have half-lives. For example, the half-life of a study on hepatitis and cirrhosis, both liver diseases, is about 45 years. After 45 years, half of that knowledge will be overturned or superseded. We also learn that differing sciences have different half-lives. The half-life of a physics paper is on average 13.07 years, in Math it’s 9.17 years, and in Psychology it’s 7.15.

“The Half-Life of Facts” is full of familiar examples of, and insights into, our changing knowledge. Universe Today readers will be familiar with the demotion of Pluto from planet to trans-Neptunian object. Other examples in Arbesman’s book will be unfamiliar. For instance, it may be surprising to find out that for many decades it was an established fact that humans had 48 chromosomes. (We have 46.) This was considered such an elementary truth, that other researchers who counted 46 sometimes shut down their research prematurely, thinking they were somehow in error. Eventually, however, the truth did win out.

How science gets us closer to the truth over time is the main thrust of this book. That, and the predictability of that progress towards greater accuracy. But there are chapters that cover how facts spread, how new knowledge is hidden in connections between previously published studies, and how improvements in technology can spur science on to more accurate truths.

Overall, “The Half-Life of Facts” is an engaging book. It moves along at a nice pace, and I think Universe Today readers will find it very interesting. My only beef with the book is its title. It’s about much more than the half-life of facts. It’s a vivid account of the surprising ways in which new facts are accumulated, and how old knowledge is overturned.

Find out more about this book and the author at this website.