This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.

May 22, 2012

By Carl Zimmer

The Atavist is no stranger to this site. In fact, we’ve set up a category for the ebooks that come from this innovative ebook publisher. Yesterday, The New York Times‘s David Carr broke the news that it has gotten $1.5 million in seed money from some of the biggest names in technology, such as Eric Schmidt of Google. So this afternoon I Skyped Evan Ratliff, the chief executive of the Atavist, to talk about how they do what they do, why they end up publishing so much science, and what lies in the future for their operation. I recorded our Skype conversation on a Macbook that’s really only good these days as a walkway tile. But for some reason the video file turned out to be fairly viewable, and the audio very audible (I think an office dog chimes in late in the conversation). So I’ve uploaded it to YouTube and embedded it below. I’ve posted the audio below, too.

Continue reading “Inside the Atavist: A conversation with Evan Ratliff”

This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.

May 18, 2012

Moon Rocks: An Introduction to the Geology of the Moon by Andrew G. Tindle and Simon P. Kelley. Published by The Open University. iPad (iBooks 2 and iOS5 required), free.

Guest reviewed by Veronique Greenwood

Continue reading “What the Moon is Really Made of”

This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.

May 16, 2012

The Electric Mind written by Jessica Benko. The Atavist, 2012. Kindle Singles, The Atavist app , iBooks, and other outlets via The Atavist website.

Reviewed by Ed Yong

Continue reading “How a locked-in woman took control of a robot arm”

This post was originally published in “Download the Universe,” a multi-author blog about science ebooks edited by Carl Zimmer.

May 11, 2012

Meandering Mississippi, by Mary Delach Leonard & Robert Koenig. Published by The St. Louis Beacon. iPad (requires iBooks 2). $.99 iTunes

Reviewed by Seth Mnookin

Continue reading “Meandering Mississippi: An early journalism iBook is all wet”