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Thomas Levenson
My day job has me professing science writing at MIT, where I also run the Institute's Graduate Program in Science Writing. I'm not yet wholly ivy-covered yet (and anyway -- the place up the street holds the franchise for that pernicious weed). In fact, I am a recent immigrant to the... show more

My day job has me professing science writing at MIT, where I also run the Institute's Graduate Program in Science Writing. I'm not yet wholly ivy-covered yet (and anyway -- the place up the street holds the franchise for that pernicious weed). In fact, I am a recent immigrant to the professoriat, and I continue to do what I did before: write books (and the occasional article), and make documentary films about science, its history, and its interaction with the broader culture in which scientific lives and discoveries unfold.I'm just finished my fourth book, "Newton and the Counterfeiter" -- which is a great story from a little-known corner of Isaac Newton's life. My previous books include "Einstein in Berlin;" "Measure for Measure: A Musical History of Science;" and "Ice Time: Climate Science and Life on Earth" (now, sadly, out of print). My documentaries have mostly appeared on PBS, and most of those on the NOVA series. Recent work includes the Origins series, hosted by Neil deGrasse Tyson and broadcast on NOVA -- (my favorite is program four, the cosmology show, "Back to the Beginning"); the "Domes" program in David Macaulay's delightful PBS series Building Big, and NOVA's two hour Einstein Revealed, now a little long in the tooth, but featuring a nice turn by Andrew Sacks as Albert Einstein. (You may have seen Sacks in one of the great television comedy roles: Manuel the Spanish Waiter in Fawlty Towers.)Besides writing, film making and generally being dour about the daily news, I lead an almost entirely conventional life in one of Boston's inner suburbs with a family that gives me great joy. The cat has to stop waking me up at five a.m., however.
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Community Reviews
Reading For The Heck Of It
Reading For The Heck Of It rated it 9 years ago
One of my favorite things about libraries is that you stand a very good chance of just happening upon an interesting book. Over the weekend, I stopped into the library so that a friend could drop off a DVD. Another friend pointed out a book that spelled out Vulcan proudly on its cover. And just like...
fruitcakes
fruitcakes rated it 9 years ago
Okay, not great. While the story itself of Newton dealing with the Mint is really interesting, and the issues with counterfeiting are also super interesting, I felt like this was badly told from a story standpoint.
fruitcakes
fruitcakes rated it 9 years ago
Okay, not great. While the story itself of Newton dealing with the Mint is really interesting, and the issues with counterfeiting are also super interesting, I felt like this was badly told from a story standpoint.
Reflections
Reflections rated it 9 years ago
This short but fascinating book works as both an illustration of how scientific ideas advance and an engaging focused history that stretches from Newton, whose work crowned the scientific revolution and helped inspire Europe’s Age of Enlightenment, to Einstein, who spent the WWI years absorbed in hi...
One Page at a Time
One Page at a Time rated it 13 years ago
An interesting view of Isaac Newton, one very different form anything I had seen before -- though to be fair my experience with Newton prior to reading this book was purely school-girl textbooks and the iconic picture of a man sitting under an apple tree. It's also an interesting and engaging histo...
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