Levay has a wonderful handle on sexuality as it relates to the brain. A well documented discussion on what is known about sex, sexuality, and the brain. I referenced it in my own book, "The Care and Feeding of your Brain" Giuffre, DiGeronimo, Career Press 1999. Ken Giuffre MD

This is a book about geological hazards in the United States.
The general focus is on the West Coast, if only because that is the most tectoncally active area. Some color plates, and a few black and white photos, are included, but the primary emphasis is on a well-written text. The book is highly readable and keeps one's attention throughout.

The authors begin their examination with a review of the Northwest, discussing both volcanic hazards and the lesser known, recently discoved, but far more dangerous hazard of a truly giant earthquake in that region. Every citizen of that part of the United States should carefully peruse this section.

Attention then turns to California and the San Andreas Fault. Author Sieh is a renowned expert on this transform fault, and thoroughly discusses the extensive research he and others have done on this peril. Again, as with the Northwest, this section is very highly recommended.

The earthquake hazards of the Great Basin and the eruption hazards of Yellowstone are examined in detail, as are mid-continent earthquake problem in the Central Mississippi valley.
The book also looks at potential East Coast earthquake and tsunami hazards.

The authors use particular care in explaining geologic termnology in an understandable manner, and this is rare and impressive. Many books of this genre are deficient in that they either oversimplify the material at hand, leading to inaccuracies and potentially dangerous distortions, or by making geology appear so difficult that the reader with a non-scientific background becomes frustrated. The authors have carefully avoided either pitfall, and the book has profited though such care.

If you live in the United States, you should own and read this book. It may save your investments. or your life.

One of the things that makes this book stand out is that its geology is up-to-date and detailed. I was a geology major back in the late 70s and while I decided not to go on in the field, I've kept up reasonably well. I learned a great deal of new info from this book, including the only coherent explanation I've ever read of the "hot spots" responsible for volcanoes like those in Hawaii.

The basic format of the book is of a west-to-east journey through the U.S., although Southern California (where co-author Sieh lives and works) gets by far the most detailed coverage. We get some vivid anecdotal accounts of earthquakes and eruptions, but the overall focus is more "what we think we know and why we think we know it." As another reviewer said, you must be interested enough in the subject to follow some reasonably complex logical arguments.

The color photos in the book are a valuable addition -- among other things, they made me realize that the oddly ramp-like block just south of Sunset Boulevard in LA is actually the scarp of the fault that has raised the Hollywood Hills.

The writing style is clear and approachable. All in all a very enjoyable read for folks with a serious interest in Earth Science.

This book was very well written. It is a wonder to those whose know nothing about geology and those who have a passion for it. Even though those who know nothing about geology, those who know about it would enjoy this book much more.

In Here Be Dragons, Koerner & Levay take us on a journey through the quest for extraterrestrial life. Filled with interesting comments and interviews with researchers in a myriad of fields, this book gives a great overview of the most current research. Discussions include how life began on earth, SETI, the search for extra-solar planets, how evolution might lead to complex organisms, speculations on life as we don't know it, and cosmology and the anthropic principle. Find out what current researchers are thinking, where we might go with this search and learn some astounding facts from astronomy and biology that might lead you to believe that life might be common after all. All this information was presented in a well written and easy to understand format. I found the discussions on the origin of life particularly illuminating. Also, the sections on recent findings in astronomy were fascinating. The book was worth getting because it contained alot of info I haven't seen elsewhere. The only part of the book I didn't like were the first 4 or 5 pages that discuss a visit to a creationism museum.

This book's been on my shopping list for a while, so I was delighted to find it while strolling through a small bookstore in downtown Astoria. I put it in my shopping bag, along with "The Search for Life on Mars," (Malcolm Walker, Perseus Books, 1999). This is the sort of book that almost anyone with an interest in science and/or astronomy will enjoy. It's easy reading, and doesn't really require any prerequisite knowledge.

The book isn't about dragons. It's about the scientific search for extraterrestrial life. The title's taken from a phrase used by old cartographers to indicate unexplored regions of the earth. The play on words, obviously, is that the search for extraterrestrial life takes us into uncharted territory.

"Here be dragons" is a little like "Rare earth," (Ward, Brownlee, Copernicus press, 2000) with a different slant, and a different opinion held by the authors. While Ward and Brownlee are of the opinion that intelligent life is extremely rare in the universe, Koerner and LeVay tend toward the opinion that "...the resulting pressures [of evolution] may commonly foster a trend toward complexification and the ability to react and learn." In line with the hopes of SETI, Koerner and LeVay are of the opinion that "intelligence and technology is common in the galaxy." They find the Fermi Paradox (if intelligence were common in the galaxy, where are the extraterrestrials) "poorly conceived," though they admit their views may be grounded in faith as much as in reason.

The book's flow is both logical and predictable. It begins by describing the theories of the origin of life on earth, including hyperthermophiles and life at the extreme, near mid-ocean vents and hot springs. There's a brief review of Stanley Miller's experiment in the 50's, and how he synthesized many important organic compounds by simulating what he thought, at the time, was a realistic approximation of earth's early atmosphere. But our understanding of the early atmosphere has changed since then, and it looks like the experiment Miller performed doesn't match atmospheric conditions, as we understand them today. This has led scientists to look at other possibilities for the origin of life. For example, organic compounds have been found in space, so there is some speculation that the initial ingredients for life might have been extraterrestrial. Also, recent evidence suggests that our earliest common ancestors were hyperthermophiles, so deep-sea vents may be where life first arose.

Recent discoveries of the extreme conditions in which life exists on earth has led to new speculation about its possible existence on other planets. Mars, for example, might harbor life today, deep under ground (as it is found on earth). During a warmer and wetter past, Mars might even have supported life on its surface.

Throughout the book, the authors act as scientific investigative reporters. They use the book to teach, but also to give a representative view of what different scientists and researchers in various fields are doing. Ordinarily, I'd prefer to see authors be a little more forceful in presenting an idea or opinion, and then working to defend it. But the situation with Koerner and LeVay is different. Exobiology, unlike other branches of science, is one in which the principal subject of research has not been shown to exist. The field is so new that speculation and widely divergent opinions abound. In view of this state of flux, I think it's particularly valuable for their book to sample the broader spectrum of ideas.

After describing the conditions under which life arose on earth, and how it might exist on other planets, the authors proceed to describe the direction of evolution. The point of this discussion is whether evolution has any tendency toward greater levels of complexity, and specifically whether it drives toward the evolution of beings intelligent enough to build a radio transmitter. They sample the opinions of three scientists: Simon Conway Morris, Stephen Jay Gould, and Stuart Kauffman. While these scientists share common ground, they also draw different conclusions and place emphasis in different ways. Personally, I think Stephen Jay Gould comes closest to the truth. It seems obvious to me that the chances of finding intelligence on other planets (where "intelligence" means being able to design and build a system that can communicate with earth) is about as likely as finding a woodpecker (an example used in the book) or an elephant. Humans - in spite of the inflated opinion we have of ourselves - are not the end product of evolution. Our species represents a single point in a morphological phase space of nearly infinite expanse. While I suspect there are strange attractors in this space, it seems less than obvious to me that intelligence (of the sort possessed by humans) is so close to one of these strange attractors as to ensure its evolution during the lifetime of a given planet.

The authors have a pretty interesting chapter on SETI, as well as one about science and the religion of UFOs. They end the book with some exotic extrapolations and speculation of life on other planets, complete with philosophical discussions about cosmology, the anthropic principle, many worlds, multiple universes, and a whole bunch of other subjects that are as easily tossed about by novices and experts, alike.

The book is sparsely illustrated, with an ample index and extensive list of additional reading material. It's well written, easy to read, and entertaining. It's pure speculation (of course) about what we shall find of extraterrestrial life. The real scientific value is in its descriptions of the origin of life on earth, aspects of evolution, and the way it sets the mind to wondering.

The book presents, chapter after chapter, the points of view of differents scientists (and a few pseudo-scientists) on the subject of life: its nature, definition, origin, rules, etc. The underlying subject is extraterrestrial life, but, in order to discuss it properly, the text does not focus on SETI only, for example, but asks renowed biologists, mathematicians, roboticists and Artificial Life experts what their work about life is all about.

You end up with a very well written text, that gives some speech-time to everyone, including (regrettably, IMHO) creationnists and ufologists.

Funny thing: in the end, you probably still won't know what life is!

When I bought this book I was writing a a report on how the brain structure and hormones contirbute to ones sexuality. I was impressed with the amount of information in the book and how easy it was to uderstand. LeVay wrote this book well. It is importnat to stress that this book does not give any reasons to why a person may or may not be a homosexexual. At this point in science we are still dealing with theroies. Nonetheless, LeVay's book is a good starting point for anyone how is doing research on the subject or just want to know more about themselves.

Simon LeVay's thoroughly goes through what it IS that `causes' homosexuality. Overall this novel is comprehensiveand and widely inclusive. He takes all different standpoints, including his own on the various standpoints of scientific 'theory' regarding homosexuality. The book itself is a good read, easy to understand and very straight forward. If you want a book that is mostly un-biased but discsses many facets of homosexualitythen look no further!

I have read all of the books on the topic, and although there are some fine ones ("Science of Desire" comes to mind), this is the most comprehensive. LeVay is a terrific writer too, clear, balanced, but appropriately opinionated.