Schewe, Phillip F. 1950-

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Schewe, Phillip F. 1950-

PERSONAL:

Born July 7, 1950, in Evanston, IL; married, wife's name Andrea, May 23, 1981; children: Eric, Kurt. Education: University of Illinois, B.A., 1972; Michigan State University, Ph.D., 1978.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Silver Springs, MD. Office— American Institute of Physics, One Physics Ellipse, College Park, MD 20740. E-mail—[email protected].

CAREER:

American Institute of Physics, College Park, MD, senior science writer, 1979—.

MEMBER:

Dramatists Guild, National Association of Science Writers, American Physical Society.

AWARDS, HONORS:

Art Renewal Center (ARC) contest winner, 1985, for The Expansion of the Universe.

WRITINGS:

(Editor, with Robert J. Barish) Glossary of Terms Used in Medical Physics, American Institute of Physics (New York, NY), 1984.

The Grid: A Journey through the Heart of Our Electrified World, J. Henry Press (Washington, DC), 2007.

Also author of plays, including Pulverfass, 1987; Ezra Pound, 1989; Ziggurat, 1990; The Caspian Sea, 1990; The Expansion of the Universe; The Nether Lands; and Gethsemane.

SIDELIGHTS:

Science writer Phillip F. Schewe's The Grid: A Journey through the Heart of Our Electrified World draws on both his decades of experience working for the American Institute of Physics and his work as a playwright. "Much can be explained by saying that I am a playwright trapped in the life of a physicist. My main job is explaining physics. I write a weekly newsletter and run press conferences at big meetings devoted to physics. For this I must scan numerous science journals and magazines and consult with high-tier experts. My other job is writing plays and books. For this I must read an even larger number of books, and am obliged frequently to test out ideas by visiting museums and attending the theater."

In The Grid, Schewe tells the story of the infrastructure that carries electricity throughout the United States—an infrastructure that we take for granted, even though it touches us every day. Library Journal reviewer James A. Buczynski stated that Schewe "demystifies" the power grid by combining "numerous historical vignettes that draw out key stories, characters, companies, scientific concepts, events, and philosophical ideas." "Schewe illustrates that the grid is often as invisible as it is important and that we tend to grasp its impact only when it fails and strands us in the dark of a blackout," wrote Joshua J. Romero in Scienceline. "‘Do people really need to be reminded that a massively engineered quilt of energy-filled wires is on duty inside their walls? Yes,’ Schewe writes. ‘We neglect to think of electricity as a made thing, a costly substance deliberately delivered to a specific location.’"

Schewe depicts the grid as a kind of machine that operates invisibly—most of the time. "The modern power grid described by Schewe is one of the largest and most complex machines ever made," declared Bruce V. Bigelow in a review for the San Diego Union-Tribune. "Through expansion and improvement, the network has embodied the automation of automation. Schewe says it runs at an efficiency of 99.9 percent, a level the industry refers to as ‘three nines.’ But he explains that the margin for error is shrinking and things can—and do—go wrong. Something went wrong on Aug[ust] 14, 2003, when 50 million Americans, from Ohio to New York, lost power." An even worse breakdown occurred almost forty years earlier, when the northeastern United States lost power, and New York City almost entirely shut down. "Schewe presents [this incident] as the pivotal moment," stated David E. Nye in a review for the American Scientist, "when the ubiquity and vulnerability of centralized power generation first became painfully apparent." During the next four decades, the grid has become even more complex, and with that complexity comes unforeseen weaknesses, which threaten the integrity of the grid. "The grid's complexity demands predictability, Schewe shows," explained a Publishers Weekly reviewer, "but even a minor short circuit can trigger a system-wide avalanche."

The author also confronts the issues of the pollution generated in order to feed the grid, and how the increasing demand for power will be met in the future. "The coal burning that supplies electricity to the grid," National Catholic Reporter writer Rich Heffern declared, "spews climate-changing greenhouse gasses into the atmosphere." Future options that need to be explored, according to Schewe, include hydroelectric generation; gas; nuclear power, a controversial alterna- tive; solar- and wind-generated electricity; and biomass production. The Grid "focuses less on engineering and more on the political, economic, and cultural challenges that the growth of the grid entailed," concluded Laurence A. Marschall, in a review for Natural History. Schewe has also written plays that have been staged in New York and Washington, DC; The Grid, Marschall concluded, "may never make it to Broadway, but, to use Schewe's phrase, it is a ‘drama of volts,’ illuminating an aspect of our world that most of us … take for granted."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Scientist, July 1, 2007, David E. Nye, "America Plugs In," review of The Grid: A Journey through the Heart of Our Electrified World, p. 367.

Library Journal, March 15, 2007, James A. Buczynski, review of The Grid, p. 92.

National Catholic Reporter, May 25, 2007, Rich Heffern, "The Lights We Live By," review of The Grid, p. 8.

Natural History, April 1, 2007, Laurence A. Marschall, review of The Grid, p. 46.

Nature, May 10, 2007, "Plugged into the Matrix," p. 145.

Physics Today, February 1, 2008, Timonthy J. Brennon, review of The Grid, p. 62.

Publishers Weekly, January 15, 2007, review of The Grid, p. 43.

San Diego Union-Tribune, March 18, 2007, Bruce V. Bigelow, "The Power That Be," review of The Grid.