July 16, 2012

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Science at the Olympics? Our First eBook Can Explain

By Mark Fischetti

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This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American


The Olympics is the world s greatest athletic event. Men and women run, swim, dive, lift, vault, serve, swing, kick and play against one another until a champion is crowned, in sport after sport. But what separates each champion from his or her competitors, who are all elite athletes themselves?

To answer that and many other questions, Scientific American is introducing its first eBook, The Science of Sports: Winning in the Olympics. It has more than 30 chapters organized into eight sections that reveal the science and some scandal behind athletic achievement. It explores the psychology of what s going on inside a champion s mind during training and competition, explains cutting edge therapies that can prevent and repair injuries, reveals the genes, hormones and brain structures that allow certain individuals to push human limits, and looks at the cat-and-mouse games that are sometimes played between athletes who are trying to cheat with drugs and officials who are trying to catch them. The eBook also presents a final section of advice for all of us on how to be fit and healthy. Having organized the book, I can say that some of the insights in that section alone were surprising.

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The eBook is available in a variety of formats, including those for the Kindle from Amazon, the iBook from Apple, the Nook from Barnes & Noble, and the Reader from Sony. Let us know what you think. And if you have an idea for another eBook, tell us that, too; hearing from the world s science enthusiasts makes us a better team.

Mark Fischetti was a senior editor at Scientific American for nearly 20 years and covered sustainability issues, including climate, environment, energy, and more. He assigned and edited feature articles and news by journalists and scientists and also wrote in those formats. He was founding managing editor of two spin-off magazines: Scientific American Mind and Scientific American Earth 3.0. His 2001 article “Drowning New Orleans” predicted the widespread disaster that a storm like Hurricane Katrina would impose on the city. Fischetti has written as a freelancer for the New York Times, Sports Illustrated, Smithsonian and many other outlets. He co-authored the book Weaving the Web with Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, which tells the real story of how the Web was created. He also co-authored The New Killer Diseases with microbiologist Elinor Levy. Fischetti has a physics degree and has twice served as Attaway Fellow in Civic Culture at Centenary College of Louisiana, which awarded him an honorary doctorate. In 2021 he received the American Geophysical Union’s Robert C. Cowen Award for Sustained Achievement in Science Journalism. He has appeared on NBC’s Meet the Press, CNN, the History Channel, NPR News and many radio stations.

More by Mark Fischetti

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