Peter Macinnis





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Peter Macinnis

Goodreads author profile


born
in Australia
gender
male

website

twitter username

genre

influences
Peter Mason, Henry Lawson, Peter Medawar, J B S Haldane, Rudyard Kipli...more

member since
March 2008


About this author

A happy grandfather, travels a lot, writes for adults and younger readers, mainly about history or science. Published by the National Library of Australia (Australian Backyard Naturalist May 2012, another book Curious Minds October, 2012, another is on the way). He talks on ABC Radio National and has been translated into seven other languages.

His writing blog is Old Writer on the Block. Google it and say g'day!

He's McManly on most social media. His Kokoda Track: 101 Days was a 2008 Eve Pownall Honour Book in the Children's Book Council of Australia 'Book of the Year' awards. His Australian Backyard Explorer was the 2010 Eve Pownall Book of the Year (listed in 2011, in the prestigious international White Ravens list of children's literature)...more


Yesterday, I spent an exhilarating morning at the local Catholic primary school, talking to and then working with a select bunch of talented young writers (ages 11-12), drawn from Sydney'e northern beaches area.

Old fogeys who mumble about falling standards and the younger generation have their heads up their whatnots. I met and read the work of one youngster who will be winning major prizes in... Read more of this blog post »
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Published on September 02, 2011 16:08 • 88 views
Average rating: 3.57 · 205 ratings · 52 reviews · 37 distinct works · Similar authors
Poisons: From Hemlock to Bo...
3.53 of 5 stars 3.53 avg rating — 116 ratings — published 2004 — 5 editions
Bittersweet: The Story of S...
3.44 of 5 stars 3.44 avg rating — 39 ratings — published 2002 — 5 editions
Mr Darwin's Incredible Shri...
3.58 of 5 stars 3.58 avg rating — 12 ratings — published 2008 — 2 editions
The Killer Bean Of Calabar ...
4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 7 ratings — published 2004 — 3 editions
Kokoda Track: 101 Days
4.0 of 5 stars 4.00 avg rating — 5 ratings — published 2007 — 2 editions
Australian Backyard Explorer
4.5 of 5 stars 4.50 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2009
100 Discoveries: The Greate...
3.33 of 5 stars 3.33 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2008 — 3 editions
Rockets: Sulfur, Sputnik an...
3.75 of 5 stars 3.75 avg rating — 4 ratings — published 2003 — 2 editions
Australia's Pioneers, Heroe...
3.67 of 5 stars 3.67 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2007
The Speed of Nearly Everyth...
3.33 of 5 stars 3.33 avg rating — 3 ratings — published 2008
More books by Peter Macinnis…

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Descants (Nonfiction)
1 chapters   —   updated Mar 29, 2010 04:33pm
Description: Short pieces (I aim at about 700 words a time) on the origins and mutated meanings of certain interesting words. I have about half a book, and I return to fossick around the outlines every now and then.

Peter's Recent Updates

Pluto's Republic by Peter B. Medawar
This is another of the precious ones I would lock away. Only very valued and trusted students would be allowed to get their paws on it. Medawar is brilliant. My son, who emailed recently after hearing a seminar to say that "Apparently winning a Nobel...more
The Good Companions by J.B. Priestley
The Good Companions
by J.B. Priestley
recommended to Peter Macinnis by: my parents
recommended for: humans
read in January, 1957
I enjoyed this so much as a teenager (that's half a century ago, near enough for government work) that I have just bought it for Kindle so I can read it again on my travels.

A mixed group of English "characters" go on the halls, having adventures of a...more
Peter Macinnis is currently reading
English Journey by J.B. Priestley
Bring On The Apocalypse by George Monbiot
Peter Macinnis is currently reading
Mrs Duberly's War by Frances Isabella Locke Duberly
Peter Macinnis is currently reading
Churchill and Australia by Graham Freudenberg
Travels Under the Southern Cross by Maturin Murray Ballou
Zodiac by Neal Stephenson
Reamde by Neal Stephenson
Reamde
by Neal Stephenson
read in May, 2013
The Chalk Circle Man by Fred Vargas
The Chalk Circle Man
by Fred Vargas
read in January, 2013
An elegant read, not your usual murder mystery at all.
More of Peter's books…
Jacques Loeb
“The writer found that certain freshwater crustaceans, namely Californian species of Daphnia, copepods, and Gammarus when indifferent to light can be made intensely positively heliotropic by adding some acid to the fresh water, especially the weak acid CO2. When carbonated water (or beer) to the extent of about 5 c.c. or 10 c.c. is slowly and carefully added to 50 c.c. of fresh water containing these Daphnia, the animals will become intensely positive and will collect in a dense cluster on the window side of the dish. Stronger acids act in the same way but the animals are likely to die quickly. . . Alcohols act in the same way. In the case of Gammarus the positive heliotropism lasts only a few seconds, while in Daphnia it lasts from 10 to 50 minutes and can be renewed by the further careful addition of some CO2.”
Jacques Loeb

Shirley Hazzard
“In the circle where I was raised, I knew of no one knowledgeable in the visual arts, no one who regularly attended musical performances, and only two adults other than my teachers who spoke without embarrassment of poetry and literature — both of these being women. As far as I can recall, I never heard a man refer to a good or a great book. I knew no one who had mastered, or even studied, another language from choice. And our articulate, conscious life proceeded without acknowledgement of the preceding civilisations which had produced it.”
Shirley Hazzard

“Science is part of culture. Culture isn't only art and music and literature, it's also understanding what the world is made of and how it functions. People should know something about stars, matter and chemistry. People often say that they don't like chemistry but we deal with chemistry all the time. People don't know what heat is, they hardly know what water is. I'm always surprised how little people know about anything. I'm puzzled by it.”
Max F. Perutz

“The division of our culture is making us more obtuse than we need be: we can repair communications to some extent: but, as I have said before, we are not going to turn out men and women who understand as much of their world as Piero della Francesca did of his, or Pascal, or Goethe. With good fortune, however, we can educate a large proportion of our better minds so that they are not ignorant of the imaginative experience, both in the arts and in science, nor ignorant either of the endowments of applied science, of the remediable suffering of most of their fellow humans, and of the responsibilities which, once seen, cannot be denied.”
C.P. Snow

Václav Havel
“At one time, the state of culture in Czechoslovakia was described, rather poignantly, as a 'Biafra of the spirit'. . . I simply do not believe that we have all lain down and died. I see far more than graves and tombstones around me. I see evidence of this in . . . expensive books on astronomy printed in a hundred thousand copies (they would hardly find that many readers in the USA) . . .”
Václav Havel

1139 Science and Inquiry — 1677 members — last activity 18 hours, 33 min ago
This Group explores scientific topics. We have an active monthly book club, as well as discussions on a variety of topics including Science in the New...more
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