Books & Articles
Books by William J. Broad
The Science of Yoga. The Risks and the Rewards.
The agonies of brain damage and the ecstasies of love making are extremes of human existence that seldom get associated with yoga. But as this remarkable book shows, the uncommon states are integral to a hidden world of risk and reward. Broad, a lifelong practitioner of yoga and lead science writer for The New York Times, unravels more than a century of research to present the first impartial evaluation of a practice thousands of years old. He shows what’s uplifting and beneficial, what’s flaky and delusional, what’s dangerous and even deadly. In the end, he offers a compelling vision of how the ancient practice can be improved.
Hardcover, 336 pages. Ships on or around 2/7/12
Praise for The Science of Yoga.
“Yoga, an ancient practice with millions of modern practitioners, has been the subject of overheated speculation and grandiose claims; it has been dismissed without warrant as well, underappreciated by some who might well benefit from it. The Science of Yoga is a lucid and long overdue account of what scientists have found in their attempts to ferret out the truth about what yoga can and cannot do to heal and make better the body and mind. It is a fascinating and important book.”
–Kay Redfield Jamison, author of An Unquiet Mind and Touched With Fire
The Oracle: Ancient Delphi and The Science Behind Its Lost Secrets (2006)
How four scientists discovered the inspiration behind one of antiquity’s most authoritative voices.
Germs: Biological Weapons and America’s Secret War (2001)
The inside story on germ weapons and the secretive programs meant to defuse their threat.
The Universe Below: Discovering the Secrets of the Deep Sea (1997)
How an inconspicuous wave of new technology is opening the planet’s last frontier.
Teller’s War: The Top-Secret Story Behind the Star Wars Deception (1992)
An examination of how a father of the hydrogen bomb became obsessed with undoing his planet-shaking child.
Star Warriors: A Penetrating Look Into the Lives of the Young Scientists Behind Our Space Age Weaponry (1985)
How a secretive group of young geniuses inspired the Star Wars antimissile dream.
Betrayers of the Truth: Fraud and Deceit in the Halls of Science (1982)
An inquiry into scientific cheating and how the social mechanisms of science fail to find and correct fraud.