This book is not about astronauts or space technology but about dinosaurs. Koppes, a science writer at the University of Chicago News Office, describes the sudden and mysterious extinction of dinosaurs 65 million years ago. He says scientists primarily believe that dinosaurs' disappearance was due to a huge cosmic bomb — a comet or asteroid approximately six miles in diameter that blasted into the surface of the planet.

Kevles, who recently held the Charles A. Lindbergh Chair at the National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C., and now teaches at Yale University, describes many of the obstacles faced by the 40 women who have been in space as well as the excitement associated with space travel.

This book's more than 200 images range from the realm of subatomic particles to the entire universe. Amato, a Maryland freelance specializing in technology, says he has always been smitten by the stunning visual appeal of scientific data: "In the 15 years since I have been writing about science, the aesthetic values of imagery emanating from almost any particular field has multiplied manyfold. To leaf through the covers of Science and Nature is to experience what amounts to an art gallery distributed over time."

"Here's another story behind the story. Marilyn Chase is a medical reporter at the Wall Street Journal and a longtime NASW member. In this, her first book, she writes about the 1900 outbreak of bubonic plague in San Francisco, caused by ship-borne rats. The plague was denied by local politicians and the business community. The protracted cover-up allowed the infection to spread beyond the city into the rural West.