"OVER THE PAST THIRTY-FIVE YEARS, I have worked as a newspaper reporter, a magazine writer and occasional editor, as well as a coauthor and author of books, but I always state my occupation as "science writer. I love the distinction, the nerdiness of the term and of course the science, which I loosely define as everything arcane and wonderful worth knowing, though often though often difficult to fathom, unpopular, and best described in mathematical terms...."
Dava Sobel, who visited this past Thursday, writes about science writing in the introduction to The Best American Science Writing 2004, which she edited. Read more.
Showing posts with label dava sobel. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dava sobel. Show all posts
Saturday, November 12, 2011
Loving the Nerdiness of Being a Science Writer
Thursday, November 10, 2011
Dava Sobel on WAMC This Morning
In association with her visit to the Writers Institute today, Dava Sobel will be on WAMC's The Roundtable this morning to speak about her new biography of Copernicus, the Polish astronomer who overturned humankind's understanding of the Universe, twenty years before Galileo's birth.
No exact time is available, but based on the schedule of guests, we anticipate she will be on around 11AM.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
The Power of Books!
"It doesn't happen often, but there are times when a single book turns the world on its head. Isaac Newton's Principia unraveled the mystery of gravity. Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species explained how evolution worked."
"But before either of these, there was On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus. It was published in 1543. In it, Copernicus made the astounding claim that Earth revolves around the sun, not the other way around."
Dava Sobel, who visits tomorrow, Nov. 10, was profiled yesterday on NPR. The author of A More Perfect Heaven, a new biography of Copernicus, Sobel speaks about the huge impact the astronomer's small book had on human civilization. More.
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Falling in Love with Copernicus
In an interview entitled "Why I Fell for Copernicus," Dava Sobel talks with Michael Bond of the New Scientist about the importance for a biographer of falling in love with her subject:
Q: You've [also] admitted to having a "long-term crush" on Galileo. Do you always fall for the scientists you write about? A: Yes, I think it's important to feel something like a love for the person, because it's a long time to sit alone in a room. It's not like journalism when you're moving from topic to topic. That sense of some kind of bond with the person makes it easier. More.
Dava Sobel visits this Thursday, Nov. 10th.
Oceans of Oil, or Possibly Soda Water....
Dava Sobel, who visits Thursday, Nov. 10, talks of the childhood origins of her "planet fetish" at the beginning of her book of essays, The Planets (2005):
"Every planet opened its own realm of possibility, its own version of reality. Venus purportedly hid lush swamps under its perpetual cloud cover, where oceans of oil, or possibly soda water, bathed rain forests filled with yellow and orange plant life. And these opinions issued from serious scientists, not comic books or sensational fiction." More.
Friday, November 4, 2011
Galileo's "Bastard" Daughter
Early scientists whose ideas "shatter the cosmos" are a specialty of science writer and biographer Dava Sobel, who comes to speak Thursday, Nov. 10, about her new book on Copernicus.
Sobel's earlier bestsellers include Galileo's Daughter (1999), about the relationship between Galileo and his illegitimate daughter Virginia who, because of her "bastard" status, was regarded as unmarriageable, and was placed in a convent at the age of 13 to live out her life in poverty and seclusion. Galileo carried on a rich correspondence with Virginia. 124 letters survive.
From the book:
"She alone of Galileo's three children mirrored his own brilliance, industry, and sensibility, and by virtue of these qualities became his confidante." More.
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Dava Sobel vs. Dava Sobel
Dava Sobel battles herself about whether or not it is legitimate to write an original play about Copernicus (which she did) in order to fill a two-year gap in the known facts of his life, and embed it in her new biography of Copernicus (which she also did). The piece appears in the Huffington Post.
Sobel visits the Writers Institute Nov. 10th.
The dramatis personae are Dava Sobel Author (DSA) and Dava Sobel Playwright (DSP).
DSP: But one could imagine the dialogue.
DSA: Imagine?
DSP: Based on what's known of the facts, of course....
DSA: You mean make it up?
DSP: To recreate the yeastiness of the situation.
DSA: I wouldn't touch that. I've based my entire career as a journalist on not making up things.
DSP: As long as I'm candid about calling the work a play, who's to fault me? More.
The published play, “And the Sun Stood Still,” was presented as a staged reading by the Writers Institute in April 2008, and has continued to be developed over the course of the past few years in consultation with playwright, director, UAlbany professor and New York State Writers Institute Program Fellow W. Langdon Brown, among others.
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