joining us in our conversation, gautham nagesh of "the hill" newspaper. next topic area. >> host: well, doubling back to intellectual property, you mentioned you felt your committee was more the place where legislation is often written, so are you indicating that you or someone on your committee will be taking the lead on intellectual property or patent reform going into the next session? >> guest: you bet. the chairman of the full committee, congressman lamar smith of texas, has been working on patent reform for many years as have i. and he has tasked me with being very fast out of the gate on patent reform. in fact, i left a patent reform hearing to come over and be with you right now. fortunately, i was able to get my portion done, and someone else -- the vice chairman of the committee -- took over to recognize many other members who were there. lots and lots of interest in this both in the congress and in the various sectors of our economy, not just, you know, the technology sector but, obviously, a very, very keen interest there. we have run into a n

gautham nagesh from "the hill" newspaper. thank you both for being on "the communicators." >> thank you, peter. >>> from the tenth annual national book festival on the national mall in washington, d.c., biographer richard holmes presents his book the age of wonder how the romantic generation discovered the beauty and the terror of science. the book was the winner of the 2009 national book critics circle award for general nonfiction. this is about three minutes. >> it is a great pleasure to be here. i just flown in from london. why i'm the only man in the tent wearing a suit. [laughter] i probably will take it off later on. i am tremendously grateful to the two major institutions, of course the library of congress, which i want to say something about, and also the "washington post," which want to say something about. but there is a third institution that requires me to put this had on. you can't read it, but it says junior league of washington, and they are the young ladies who have been looking after you in hats, the white an

gautham nagesh from "the hill" newspaper, thank you both for being on "the communicators." >> guest: thank you, peter. >> up next on booktv, niall ferguson talks about the life and influence of sigmund war berg who's london-based bank played an important role in rebuilding post-world war ii europe. the new york historical society in new york city is the host of this event. it's about 50 minutes. [applause] >> well, thank you very much, indeed, dale. thank you, ladies and gentlemen, for coming tonight. a great pleasure to be with you in what turns out to be an extraordinarily appropriate venue. now, you may not associate bankers with ethical culture -- [laughter] but what i propose to do this evening is to introduce you to a banker who was steeped in ethical culture and who, i feel, would have got on very well with felix adler, also a german-born jew who, of course, called this society into being. i want to begin by asking a very fundamental question, and that relates to how many of you know who siegmund warburg was. my guess is that it's only a minority of you who had heard of mihm b