Meditations at 10,000 Feet

by James S. Trefil

"If studying science in the classroom managed to turn you off for life, you owe it to yourself to read one of Trefil's books...Meditations At 10,000 feet...may be the best one of all." (San Francisco Chronicle). A wonderful book! (Please note: Amazon's detail page for this book lists the publisher as Simon&Schuster. My book's copyright page lists the publisher as MacMillan Pub. Co. of N.Y., N.Y. and "First Collier Books Edition 1987" is at the bottom of the copyright page. They are the same--Simon & Schuster acquired MacMillan Publishing Co. in 1994, so there name is in later printings of this book.)

Genres: Science, Nature, Nonfiction, Natural History

236 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1986

About the author

James S. Trefil (born 9/10/1938) is an American physicist (Ph.D. in Physics at Stanford University in 1966) and author of more than thirty books. Much of his published work focuses on science for the general audience. Dr. Trefil has previously served as Professor of Physics at the University of Virginia and he now teaches as Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. Among Trefil's books is Are We Unique?, an argument for human uniqueness in which he questions the comparisons between human intelligence and artificial intelligence. Trefil also regularly gives presentations to judges and public officials about the intersections between science and the law.

Reviews

[Nick Simpson · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fun excursion into physical sciences that I don’t typically read. Just the right mix of observational imagery, scientific explanation, and charactered history of science.

From a readers perspective, the narrative charm that Trefil commands in the first half of the book (e.g, in discussions of tectonics, convection cells, mineral cycle) is lost in the latter half (where was this charm in his discussion of fluid dynamics and chirality?)

Enjoyed this one overall, but it did not leave me with newfound wonder the way it was promised to. Fun to see the state of fundamental physical sciences a quarter of a century ago.