Annal:2003 Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Science & Technology
From AwardAnnals
Results of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize in the year 2003. 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.
Protecting America's Health: The FDA, Business, and One Hundred Years of Regulation
- 2003 LATimes–Sci/Tech winner
- Score: 10.53
Emerging out of the era of the robber barons and Theodore Roosevelt’s desire to “civilize capitalism,” the Food and Drug Administration was created to stop the trade in adulterated meats and quack drugs. In the almost one hundred years since, it has evolved from a squad of eleven inspectors dogging dishonest tradesmen into America’s most important regulatory agency, keeping tabs on the products of about 95,000 businesses and more than $1 trillion worth of goods annually.
This book shows how the agency combats self-serving political and industrial interests and…
The Beast in the Garden: A Modern Parable of Man and Nature
- 2003 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.53
The time: the late 1980s. The place: Boulder, Colorado. When residents report cats as massive as African leopards in their yards and driveways, it becomes clear that mountain lions (cougars, pumas, panthers) are repopulating the land, rebounding after decades of persecution and bounty hunting.
To inhabitants of the environmentally aware city of Boulder, the lions’ return is cause for celebration—initially. As the massive cats take up residence among houses and feast on pets, the animals’ presence turns ominous, provoking political battles and culminating in…
The Emperor of Scent: A Story of Perfume, Obsession, and the Last Mystery of the Senses
- 2003 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.53
For as long as anyone can remember, a man named Luca Turin has had an uncanny relationship with smells. He has been compared to the hero of Patrick Süskind’s novel Perfume, but his story is in fact stranger, because it is true. It concerns how he made use of his powerful gifts to solve one of the last great mysteries of the human body: how our noses work.
Luca Turin can distinguish the components of just about any smell, from the world’s most refined perfumes to the air in a subway car on the Paris metro. A distinguished scientist, he once worked in an…
Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension
- 2003 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.53
An Award-Winning Writer Explores science’s boldest frontier—extension of the human life span—with the researchers and entrepreneurs who are racing to create medicines that will allow us to live longer and better.
Aging, cancer, stem cells, cloning—the themes of Merchants of Immortality are the stuff of today’s headlines, yet they reflect some of humankind’s most ancient hopes and fears. Stephen S. Hall delves behind the headlines to reveal just how close scientists are to fulfilling hopes of longer, healthier lives. Merchants of Immortality…
Wings of Madness: Alberto Santos-Dumont and the Invention of Flight
- 2003 LATimes–Sci/Tech finalist
- Score: 6.53
From the acclaimed author Paul Hoffman comes the engaging true story of Alberto Santos-Dumont’s extraordinary life and the thrilling days of early flight.
Santos-Dumont grew up on a remote coffee plantation in Brazil. Influenced at an early age by Jules Verne and historical accounts of balloon flights, Santos-Dumont set out to create the first practical flying machine.
By the turn of the century, Santos-Dumont had moved to Paris. Soon, the dashing and impeccably dressed aeronaut was barhopping around the city in a one-man dirigible he had invented, circling…
