[Book review] "Stalin's Meteorologist" by Olivier Rolin (translated from French by Ros Schwartz)

This is a fascinating book. The story of "love, life, and death" of Alexey Feodosievich Wangenheim (1881–1937) a Russian meteorologist who in 1929 became the director of Soviet Union's Hydro-Meteorological Service. Amongst other contributions, Wangenheim, together with his subordinate Sergei Petrovich Khromov, had helped introduce into the meteorological community from the Soviet Union the "Norwegian theory" (i.e., the Norwegian cyclone model) developed within the Bergen School of Meteorology. One of the early contributors to the Norwegian theory was the Swedish meteorologist Tor Bergeron (1891–1977) who has been invited to lecture Moscow in 1930 and 1932. Bergeron's lectures had a considerable impact on the progress of meteorology in the Soviet Union. Inspired by these lectures, Wangenheim translated some of Bergeron's papers and Khromov published a paper in a scientific journal (lead by Wangenheim) entitled "New ideas in meteorology and their philosophical implications". Khromov will also publish in 1934 the first textbook in Russian on the Norwegian cyclone model, largely based on Bergeron's lectures. Khromov's paper raised the attention of other members of the Hydro-Meteorological Service of the Soviet Union who pointed out that Lenin's works are not mentioned in the article. To aggravate the matter even further, Stalin's works were not, as recommended, cited by Khromov in his paper. As a consequence, Wangenheim ended up being accused of promoting a theory that was "the heap of rubbish deliberately spread by enemy hands" and also of organising and leading counterrevolutionary sabotage work in the Hydro-Meteorological Service. Interestingly, in the accusation (i.e., promoting the Norwegian cyclone model one of the cornerstones of weather forecasting) the sabotage appeared as aimed at depriving the Soviet Union agriculture of the means to forecast the weather in general and droughts, in particular. 

In 1934, after being hailed previously by Stalin as a national hero (for example, Wangenheim organised in 1932 the first conference on the influence on climate on humans, perhaps the first such conference in the world), Wangenheim was arrested and deported to a Soviet prison camp. He will spend the next three years on the Solovetsky Islands, the site of the first Gulag. In the Solovetsky Islands, Wangenheim worked in the library of the prison and even lectured on meteorological subjects, like "the conquest of the stratosphere." From Solovetsky, Wangenheim wrote letters to his daughter Eleonora (1930–2012). These letters containing puzzles, or detailed descriptions and drawings of the flora and fauna of the Solovetsky Islands, were intended to play a role in the education of Eleonora (who would later become a paleontologist). In 1937 the events took a sinister turn. Wangenheim was executed together with other prisoners in November 1937 and then buried in a mass grave. 

Drawing from a letter of Alexey Wangenheim to his daughter Eleonora. [via Wikipedia Commons]

To me, the book was a page-turner, part history, part reportage, part biography. I highly recommend this book about "a man, neither a scientific genius nor a great poet, who was interested in clouds and did drawings for his daughter, caught up in a history that was an orgy of blood [i.e., the Great Terror (1937–1938)]."

[Book review] "The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook" by Michael Brooks

This is a very interesting and atypical book in which the biography of the Italian Renaissance polymath Jerome Cardano (1501–1576) is mixed with discussions about quantum mechanics. Michael Brooks, the author of the book, is calling his approach "magical realist non-fiction". I really liked the magic realism aspect of the book, but I am not going give any details because I do not want to spoil the book. As for the non-fiction aspect, there are two main threads. The first one (and the main reason for which I decided to read this book) is about the life and works of Jerome Cardano. Cardano had an extraordinary life, he was a mathematician, physician, astronomer, inventor, writer, and philosopher, but also an astrologer, and gambler.  I remember learning at school about Cardano's contributions to mathematics, in particular to algebra, and I knew about the Cardan shaft (a mechanical component for transmitting torque and rotation), but I had no idea about his contributions to the probability theory (see Liber de Ludo Aleae/Book on Games of Chance, written around 1564 and published 1663) and imaginary numbers. Probability theory and the imaginary numbers are the connexions to the second thread of the book as they are the "twin pillars of quantum theory". The second thread of the book not only contains a description of the foundations of quantum mechanics but also descriptions of some of the main interpretation of quantum mechanics (e.g., the Copenhagen interpretation, the many worlds interpretation).

Decision: recommended.

[follow Jerome Cardon on Twitter at @JeromeCardano and Michael Brooks at @DrMichaelBrooks]

The Quantum Astrologer's Handbook: a history of the Renaissance mathematics that birthed imaginary numbers, probability, and the new physics of the universe Hardcover by Michael Brooks [Amazon, and Audible].

[Book review] "The Productive Researcher" by Mark S. Reed

The Productive Researcher* by Mark S. Reed (Newcastle University, Fast Track Impact) is a book that aims not only to make researchers more productive, but also to "enable [them] to be happy working less, and being more." (p. 168). The book is based on the author's personal (and sometimes very personal) experiences, interviews with some of the most productive researchers in the world, and literature on psychology, organizational management, ecology, and international development. The first part of the book contains a series of principles (e. g., on motivation, retelling your story, prioritizing, find goals that inspire you) which are relevant both to early career researchers and to more experienced researchers.  The second part of the book contains practical ideas (mainly for more experienced researchers) about how to become significantly more productive (e.g., work planning, say "yes" to say "no", writing, do less to do more, how to spend less time on emails, meetings, and online). 

The book was inspiring (even if in few places I slightly disagreed with the author) and I will try to implement some of his ideas and strategies in my research activities and develop goals that are Stretching, Motivational,  Authentic, Relational, and Tailored (i. e., the new SMART proposed by the author). Furthermore, the book is beautifully done, I really like the cover and the design. 

Decision: Recommended. 

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*) See also this video Work less to achieve more - lessons from the world's most productive researchers.

[Book review*] "Academia Obscura" by Glen Wright

A funny and interesting book about the "hidden silly side of higher education" (Wright 2017). Topics range from "Academic Publishing" (e.g., ATLAS Collaboration& Collaboration 2015 has 5,154 authors, 9 pages discussing the findings, and 24 pages listing the authors and their affiliations), and "Impact & Outreach" (e.g., Kardashian Index, Hall 2014, my K-index is 6.679 = "Kardashian"...), to "Conferences" (e.g., conference bingo, an excellent activity that keeps you engaged and awake at conferences), and "Academic Animals"** (e.g., Hetherington and Willard 1975).

Decision: highly recommended. 

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*) Non-fiction book reviews in 300 words or less. 

**) Co-authoring a paper with a cat is on my bucket list (see photo).