Summer Reading

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Summer Reading Does anyone just relax on the beach anymore? The history of vacations is complicated and apt to depend on location as well as era, but I remember a time, eons ago and far, far away, when a summer vacation unquestionably meant time spent at the beach, and there was no such thing as a winter vacation. And because there is really not very much to do at the beach, there was also a great tradition of recreational reading in those long-lost lazy summertimes. Well, in case any of you have the time to catch up on your reading this fine July, here are a few literary suggestions that have materials research connections. First, allow me to suggest a book that aroused a minor controversy and murmurings about academic freedom earlier this year, when a charitable foundation provided grants to a number of U.S. universities on the stipulation that they include it as required reading in at least one course. It is also rumored to be in production as a movie, starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie, but of course you always want to read the book before you see the movie, right? Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged has been controversial ever since it was published, in 1957, but it has also never been out of print, so it must have something going for it. It is certainly the heavyweight of my three suggestions, both literally and literarily, weighing in at 1,075 pages and packing a blatant political message. This one would justify the purchase of an electronic reader, on weight-savings alone. As far as the message is concerned, well, pay heed to Robert Frost: “Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your selfconfidence.” Once in every chapter, the narrative veers off into a speech of 30-orso pages about the effect of government control on free enterprise, delivered by one of the story’s heroes. These are placed in the story line about as fittingly as an ape in an opera, even occurring in the midst of one torrid bedroom scene somewhere between the discarding of silken clothing and the opening of silver cigarette cases. Despite all this, the book is not entirely unamusing: There are striking characters, atmosphere, intrigue, power, romance, mystery, shadowy political figures, a Shangri-La-like earthly Eden… and technology! A major theme of the book is the disruptive effect of new technology, and the particular case in point is a material invented by one of the leading characters, Hank Rearden. “Rearden metal” threatens to displace steel from its traditional markets and creates industrial disruptions that 720

precipitate government controls. These controls, in turn, remove incentives for innovation, and the leading entrepreneurs and inventors start to vanish from the scene. The consequences of this titanic shrugging, as portrayed in the novel, are worthy of some consideration in the light of the present-day, real-life support levels for scientific research in the United States. The book might be paired intriguingly with the National Academies’ report Rising Above the Gathering Storm. (“In you