Reviews for Boundless Science for Bountiful Agriculture Winning Student Essays, 2003

The average rating for Boundless Science for Bountiful Agriculture Winning Student Essays, 2003 based on 2 reviews is 3 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2013-08-03 00:00:00 James Kingsley This book is very difficult for me to rate or review. I did enjoy reading it, but for a biography of Ada Lovelace it sure did not have a lot of Ada in it. The first third of the book is devoted exclusively to the relationship of her parents - how they met, their courtship, their short marriage and separation. There is no glimpse of Ada until the second third of the book, where we have some accounts of her youth and - more notably - of her education. More than that, however, we get mini-biographies of the persons she met and who had some kind of impact on her, as well as historical context. Then the final third (which also finally contains descriptions of her scientific work) mostly really deals with Ada herself. I understand that the relationship between her parents is important to understand her upbringing, but still I do not think that this message needs a third of the book and several of Byron's poems to be conveyed convincingly (for my taste, there is too many of Byron's poems and too little of Ada's science. It seems obvious that Woolley is a fan of Byron's, but this book is supposed to be about his daughter who he never really met!). If this lack of Ada in this book is because there is just not a lot of information about her available, Woolley does not a good job in explaining this matter. Furthermore, a lot of the story feels like he is wildly speculating, because he does not often explain where he gets his ideas from. I am sure that he did extensive research for this book, but he does not always clearly distinguish facts from speculation. I assume that this book is a very nice read if you are interested in the historical person Ada Lovelace, British aristocrat and daughter of Lord Byron. If you are more interested in the scientist Ada Lovelace and her mathematical background, this book is slightly disappointing.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-02-05 00:00:00 Lina Lam Ada Lovelace was the daughter of Lord Byron, poet and lover extraordinaire. Her mother raised her hoping that she wouldn't inherit her father's debauched ways and so Ada was schooled in logic and reason, science and mathematics. Today we remember Ada for being the first computer programmer in an age where there were no computers and the engineering didn't exist to build one. Unfortunately, Ada lived in the Victorian era where the world was advancing but women's lives were not. This is a well-written biography of an interesting woman who, I am sure, would be absolutely thrilled with the technology of the 21st century.