Weird science

I love Henry Petroski and his books like The Evolution of Useful Things, The Book on the Bookshelf, Remaking the World: Adventures in Engineering and The Pencil: A History of Design and Circumstance. He has a new book, a memoir since he won't be outdone by Oliver Sacks, Paperboy: Delivering the Press in the 50s which I'll have to read because anyone who can write an entertaining book on something as mundane as the pencil has to have had an interesting childhood.

The MIT Bookshop, a dangerous place I only dare enter a few times a year at the behest of my wallet, has a new book to interest Petroski fans, Inventing Modern America: From the Microwave to the Mouse. It's filled with 35 profiles of inventors and their inventions like Stephanie Kwolek the DuPont chemist who invented Kevlar and was an inspiration to me when I studied chemistry. I am a bit disappointed that Wozniak is named inventor of the personal computer since he simply created something that J.C. Licklider had laid much of the foundation for years earlier [ the biography is one of the absolute best computing history books I've ever read....read it if you haven't already ].

Inventors and their inventions are terrific reminders that being in the right place at the right time is sweet serendipity:)