Posted on May 20, 2019 at 4:00 PM by Sadye Scott-Hainchek
Double up on your intellectualism by reading new books — or interviews of their authors — that incorporate math and science into literature.
Rachel Barenbaum's A Bend In The Stars was inspired by Scientific American magazine years ago.
A blurb in it mentioned that Albert Einstein been able to view a total solar eclipse in Russia in 1914, he would’ve had the last piece of evidence he needed to prove that gravity bends light.
That prompted the question in her head: What if someone had beaten him?
Ultimately this musing resulted in a debut novel that Ari Shapiro calls “a history of science, a story of injustice, a romance novel, and an adventure tale.”
Listen to Shapiro and Barenbaum discuss her novel below, or read a transcript of their conversation on NPR’s website.
And for a dose of digits, former NFL player John Urschel has written a memoir called Mind And Matter: A Life In Math And Football.
In it — and in his interview with Michel Martin — he explains how these seemingly different pursuits play perfectly well together.
Listen to Urschel, who’s currently pursuing his doctorate at MIT, explain how he came back to academics after athletics below, or read a transcript of his conversation with Martin on NPR’s website.
Categories: Author Interview