William J. Broad

Broad knows what's up with missile defense. As the New York Times science correspondent during the 80s, he was close to many of the principles in various stabs at Star Wars during the Reagan administration. The prime mover was Edward Teller, father of the hydrogen bomb, founder of Lawrence Livermore National Lab, and the conservative doyen of nuclear scientific clientage. For all his successes, Teller had a checkered record as a scientist. The mainstream academic community had turned against show more him in the 1950s over his betrayal of Oppenheimer during the Red Scare. He hadn't made a major scientific contribution on the order of his Manhattan Project peers. And the public regarded him as a Dr. Strangelove-esque madman who's plans for peaceful hydrogen bombs had come to nothing.

In this climate, Teller grabbed onto the scientifically advanced bomb-pumped X-Ray laser as a way to defeat the Soviet nuclear arsenal, shield America from mutually assured destruction, and ensure his place in the history books. Theoretically, the X-ray laser could amplify an H-bomb into beams of coherent light billions of times brighter than the blast itself, shooting 100,000s of independently targetable beams at a nuclear strike. Theoretically. Engineering this thing would be a nightmare, as the whole apparatus existed for only a nanosecond next to an exploding hydrogen bomb.

Teller's optimism, vision, and passion were his greatest assets as a scientific leader, but in this case they lead to his downfall, as Teller oversold Reagan on the potential of the X-ray laser. The narrative mostly follows Roy Woodruff, the nuclear scientist in charge of the X-ray laser program, and his attempts to properly inform the Reagan administration and the public about the serious limits and uncertainties around Star Wars in the face of Teller's PR campaign and scorched earth bureaucratic warfare.

The story of Star Wars is bigger than just Teller and Woodruff, but Broad's framing is essentially correct, and provides a gripping and technically accurate account of some of the most fraught science politics in recent memory. show less

Star Warriors is a detailed look at a very strange group of people in a very strange place. O Group was a small team of about twenty to forty scientists, most in their mid-20s, mostly white, mostly with Caltech and MIT pedigrees, and all male, at Lawrence Livermore National Lab in 1985. Under the direction of Lowell Wood, O Group worked on applications for third generation nuclear weapons, primarily the "Star Wars" missile defense project based around bomb pumped X-ray lasers. The team also show more dabbled in supercomputer programming, fusion research, and starship design. Broad uses a week of interviews with O Group to provide flesh to what's often an abstract debate about nuclear strategy and technology policy.

The picture that emerges is of an elite scientific team, sharply competitive with each other and hand-picked by Lowell Wood through his control of the Hertz Fellowship (Wood was in line to succeed Edward Teller as director of LLL before a classification scandal broke his career momentum). What drives these people is the desire to be the best, to prove it mathematically, as when the soul of the group, Peter Hagelstein, made the key calculations that proved X-ray lasers were possible. These are no political naifs, but hardened Cold Warriors who see the Soviet Union as fundamentally evil, and their work as a way to gain a strategic edge. Unlike Reagan, who imagined a perfect shield, they know the limits of any system, and believe that the possibility of merely blunting a nuclear strike might prevent escalation to nuclear war, and that forcing the Soviets to compete on defense would further drain their resources. But above all else, it seems to be the coolness of the physics, of the way that the basic laws of reality break down at a thermonuclear shock front, and how that energy can be harnessed to make dreams real.

Over 30 years on, Star Warriors is a historical curiosity. It still stands as a fascinating look at some very interesting scientists, right next to The Soul of a New Machine. show less

Generally, an interesting (and fairly quick) read highlighting the relatively small set of scientific research behind yoga and measuring it against the claims made by both traditional texts and modern "masters" of the practice. Both the health benefits and the risks are highlighted, and the author does a good job of balancing positive, negative, and indeterminate research. That said, the book is still generally positive toward the practice, and takes an almost idealist view of how science show more can help yoga become safer and part of a more mainstream (MORE mainstream?!) practice.

One thing I would have liked to have seen is some comparative insight in relation other practices that focus on stretching, flexibility and breathing, such as, for example, tai chi and qigong. Similarly to yoga, such practices have also received some limited scientific research that point to various benefits. It would be interesting to see which has more support for various types of health benefits, which might contain greater risks, and perhaps what types of conditions one might be better to practice over another. Perhaps there isn't enough research out there to draw such comparisons, but the author's apparent bias toward yoga seem to have trumped any thought of such a comparison regardless.

The only real annoyance I had with the book was in the epilogue. I agree with the author that more scientific study of the health benefits of yoga is warranted. That said, the implication that it must come at the hands of federal funding is absurd, especially considering a decent amount of the research the author cited in the book was not federally funded. In any case, scientists and science supporters need to get past the idea that government should provide funding for everything they want to study (or have studied). Set up a freakin' kickstarter, for crissake. Or dedicate proceeds from your book to support a study. There are plenty of ways to have scientific studies done without government support.

Anyway, the minor irritation noted above notwithstanding, the book is worth reading overall if you enjoy yoga, are thinking about doing yoga, or even are interested in health-related sciences in general. show less

I found this book very valuable; it has encouraged me to continue with yoga, but also encouraged me to change my practice -- and my attitude --- to reduce the risks of injury. Both of those are big benefits, for me at least, and I would strongly recommend this book to other yoga practicioners, especially the older ones. That's not to say that the book won't infuriate a lot of people. Some of the reviews on Amazon are very negative, and an excerpted chapter in the "New York Times" magazine show more stirred up a hornet's nest. Still, I think it's well worth reading.

First, Mr. Broad reviews the development of yoga as currently practiced in the US -- which is certainly not the only yoga there is. His interests are practical, however, and his likely audience is mostly American, so the focus makes sense. He dispels a good deal of the misty ancient aura surrounding yoga, stressing the relatively modern emergence of asana based yoga as practiced in the US.

Next, he discusses the very real physical benefits of yoga. After that, he looks at some of the non-benefits, examining claims made for yoga (it's a great way to lose weight, for example) that he argues are overstated or flat out wrong.. Then, he writes about the mental/emotional benefit of yoga; here, the evidence in favor of yoga as a major mood- lifter is very impressive.

Next, he writes about the risk of injury in yoga. This is the chapter that was published in the Times, and it stirred a major furor. I think his level of alarm may be a bit overdone (given the number of yoga practicioners in the US, and the number of major injuries he suggests, the rate looks very low). Still, caution is appropriate -- I know from my own history that you can hurt yourself doing yoga, and if this book makes more practicioners and more teachers more careful, that's great! Ahimsa!!

The rest of the book covers several topics that I found less grippping, among them healing and sex (I am an old lady).

All in all, I think this book raises important questions for yoga practicioners. They aren't the only questions, and the answers may be debateable, but the discussion is worthwhile. show less