Annal:1999 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the year 1999. For a ranked list of books, try an honor roll:
- Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology
- Nonfiction books
- Nonfiction authors
- Science/Technology books
- Science/Technology authors.
Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love
- 1999 LATimes–Sci/Tech winner
- 2000 Pulitzer–Biography finalist
- Score: 16.49
Inspired by her long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of his daughter, which Sobel has translated into English for the first time, Galileo’s Daughter is a book of great originality and power, a biography unlike any ever written on Galileo. Sobel, the author of the bestseller Longitude, brings Galileo to life as never before-boldly compelled to explain the truths he discovered, human in his frailties and faith, devoted to family, especially to his eldest daughter.
The voices of Galileo and his daughter, Suor Maria Celeste, echo…
Mind of the Raven: Investigations and Adventures With Wolf-Birds
- 1999 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.49
In Mind of the Raven, Bernd Heinrich, award-winning naturalist, finds himself dreaming of ravens and decides he must get to the truth about this animal reputed to be so intelligent.
Much like a sleuth, Heinrich involves us in his quest, letting one clue lead to the next. But as animals can only be spied on by getting quite close Heinrich adopts ravens, thereby becoming a “raven father,” as well as observing them in their natural habitat, studying their daily routines, and in the process painting a vivid picture of the world as lived by the ravens. At…
The River: A Journey to the Source of HIV and AIDS
- 1999 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.49
Based on over a decade of research, involving more than 600 interviews and analysis of more than 4,000 scientific texts, The River examines the myriad theories about the origin of the AIDS epidemic—and reaches a stunning and startling conclusion.
Since the early nineties, serious HIV researchers have been aware that the most common variant of HIV—human immunodeficiency virus—is the direct descendant of an SIV—simian immunodeficiency virus—carried by African chimpanzees. Many doctors and scientists think the transfer was “natural,” the result of…
Lucy's Legacy: Sex and Intelligence in Human Evolution
- 1999 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.49
Alison Jolly believes that biologists have an important story to tell about being human—not the all-too-familiar tale of selfishness, competition, and biology as destiny but rather one of cooperation and interdependence, from the first merging of molecules to the rise of a species inextricably linked by language, culture, and group living.
This is the story that unfolds in Lucy’s Legacy, the saga of human evolution as told by a world-renowned primatologist who works among the female-dominant ringtailed lemurs of Madagascar. We cannot be certain that…
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography
- 1999 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.49
Codes have decided the fates of empires, countries, and monarchies throughout recorded history. Mary, Queen of Scots was put to death by her cousin, Queen Elizabeth, for the high crime of treason after spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham cracked the secret code she used to communicate with her conspirators. And thus the course of British history was altered by a few sheets of cryptic prose. This is just one link in humankind’s evolutionary chain of secret communication, and just one of the fascinating incidents recounted in The Code Book, written by…
