2008

Author: Fred Pearce
Published: 2008
 

Plenty of bad news along with some good. Thought this would be a bundle of hard-cover guilt, but the author is balanced in his take on his own ecological footprint.

Author: Seth Shulman
Published: 2008
 

The Telephone Gambit: Chasing Alexander Graham Bell's Secret makes a very convincing argument that Bell stole a key component of his successful design of a telephone from Elisha Gray. Using methodical research techniques, Shulman breaks down the many questions and contradictions that he discovered, many of which were raised in challenges to Bell's 1876 patent.
 

Fascinating read, though it should be taken with a full biography of Bell for though his claim to 'inventing' the telephone is tarnished, he was certainly responsible for many, many more innovations.
 

And lest one feel sorry for Elisha Gray (though he did miss out on a huge fortune), the book proves that the real inventor of the telephone was a German named Philipp Reis. Reis had a working device to transmit voices electronically in 1863, thirteen years before Bell's famous shout. Reis was apparently too modest to exploit his discovery commercially.

Author: Edward Willett
Published: 2008
 

Interesting space opera centered on genetically modified amphibious humans called Selkies. On earth, a theocratic world government seeks to wipe out the Selkies using the clone of the man who created them. Fun read.