Some interesting (science-y) books

I've come across a few good science-related-without-being-too-technical books lately. These are not brand new books, I just got around to reading them recently. I recommend them!

The Ghost Map by Steven Johnson: A cholera outbreak in London in 1854, before anyone knew what caused cholera. Was it the air? Was it the water? What I like about this book is it is not just about disease or medicine but about the history (and future) of cities, plus a little medical detective work by John Snow and Henry Whitehead.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot: Doctors took the cells of a poor black tobacco farmer without her permission. Those cells (HeLa cells) revolutionized science and medicine and launched a multimillion dollar industry. Twenty years later, her family found out...this book is really interesting and written in a way that makes you want to keep reading. It is also being made into a movie.

Stiff: The curious lives of human cadavers by Mary Roach. I usually avoid anything having to do with dead bodies, but this actually looks interesting and potentially funny. I haven't read it yet but plan to read it soon.

Science funding is important, people

Scientific research is important. Scientific research takes money. A lot of that money comes from the government (unless we can come up with more creative ways of funding it, see my link here.)

This deserves much more time and attention than I can spare at the moment (writing a dissertation will do that to you), so I'm going to let Carl Zimmer do the talking for now and add my two cents later: http://phenomena.nationalgeographic.com/2013/03/25/ducks-meet-the-culture-wars/