Books Made From Electrons!

[Updated to provide a better link for DtU overlord Carl Zimmer.] The conventional presentation of a book -- words and images printed on sheets, bound together in a folio -- is a perfected technology. It hasn't changed much in centuries, and likely will be with us for centuries to come. But that doesn't mean that other technologies won't be nudging their way into the same conceptual space. Everyone knows that the practice of publishing is being dramatically altered by the appearance of ebooks -- a very broad designation for book-length content that is meant to be read on an electronic device. At the simplest level, an ebook can simply be a text file displayed by a reading program. But the possibilities are much more flexible, allowing for different kinds of images, video, interactivity with the user, and two-way connections with the outside world. The production and distribution process is also ...