Science and Inquiry discussion

I've read quite a bit since I last updated I think:

Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory

This book was only okay to me. It's a little too dense at times for a casual read. It also helps if you know a lot more about Quantum Mechanics and the subatomic world. My Intro-Quantum professor had us read this book, but it's a terrible thing to read if you don't know a lot.

Collider:
I thought this was a great book! It's all about the Tevatron Collider at Cern. This kind of goes over the history of it's building and so on. I think this book was written before they started doing research with it, so keep that in mind if this interests you.

Absolute Zero: And the Conquest of Cold:
I thought this was a rather fascinating read. It's the history of trying to reach absolute zero. Along they way they discover superconductivity! The book has a lot of anecdotal stuff concerning the interplay of the scientists conducting this research. I've seen some people complain it didn't have enough science and was too historical. I liked the historical and I fully expected it, so I think it's masterfully done.

Atom: Journey Across the Subatomic Cosmos:
This is simply a masterpiece. Asimov does a superb job of explaining the subatomic world in wonderful detail. It is not overly dense like the Gamow book, so this is an excellent introductory type of book for the interested.

Perfect Rigor: A Genius and the Mathematical Breakthrough of the Century:
This is my most recently finished book. This is about the mathematician Grigori Perelman who solved the Poincare Conjecture. It's a fascinating book and the highlights of this are the historical background of mathematics being done in Cold War era Russia. Simply fascinating.

"Was too historical"? What, they didn't do science in the past?

The one about Absolute Zero sounds very interesting, Adam.

Yeah I thought it was fascinating. In that book it discussed the relationship between a few scientists, like their personal ideas and life. It wasn't just about the science they did. I think that's what they meant by "too historical". I, however, liked those anecdotes and I am very glad they were in there. He even quoted personal letters between the scientists and so forth where they complained about some of their troubles in getting funds or building something etc. All good stuff to me!

Sounds like perfectly reasonable material to me, too.

I knew joining this group would be a positive feedback loop for my to-read list!

Absolute Zero looks like a fascinating story. Most my professional career has been working at 100-300mK. (The devices, not me!) Yet, I know almost nothing about the history of those refrigeration techniques.

Does the book spend overly long on the more modern miniscule advancements?

No, in fact I don't think the book really hits the modern era very much. It's really about documenting man's attempt to reach 0K, which they wound up determining was actually not possible.

There's some touches of more modern applications that have come out of the late 1800's/early 1900's research, but that's all the detail the book goes into when it comes to modern era stuff.

Oh right. That's probably good, because "Hey, I'm not 1% colder" is just not that interesting.

Does it go much into the adiabatic demagnetization? The discovery of magnetic cooling happened right around then, I think.

Yeah it goes into a little bit of that. The problem is that when Onnes discovered that superconductivity happened, they were all so focused on reaching 0 K, that it was sort of an afterthought for a while. However, later on Onnes decided to research it a bit more in depth.

The only time it starts talking about 1K degree increments is around when they start trying to find Liquid Helium. Going from Liquid Helium to any lower is a tremendous effort, so that's covered a little bit as well. Once the main scientists in this book died, they really just say what else was done in modern times, there's no more race anyway. This book really documents the efforts of Onnes, Dewar, and Oszlewski (sp.). It does start off with a bit of history on the interest of refrigeration though.

Cindy! When did you sneak in here?

(I sneak around, Julie!)

Hey, thanks so much for the extra information, Adam. I think I have a better sense of what to expect - i.e. not so much the sub-Kelvin story. (There's some fascinating physics to get to below 1K.) I still think it's something I would totally get into.

Speaking of Dewar, in the lab, the usual joke goes something like this:
"Hey, Cindy - are you finished with the LHe dewar?"
"Dewar? I hardly even know her!"

Ba-dum-bum.

haha... oh lab humor.

Yeah that kind of physics is very interesting. I'm very into Electromagnetism and things like that. At the lab I'm at we do some super cooling of things in the cryogenics part, but I don't do any hands on stuff. I'm not an experimentalist and I would likely break everything if I attempted to be one.

I just finished the book Feynman's Rainbow: A Search for Beauty in Physics and in Life by physicist Leonard Mlodinow. This is a charming little book that shows a portrait of Feynman during one of his last years at CalTech. Here is my review.

There is a BBC 2 part documentary based on the book which you can view at:
http://youtu.be/qzwfUAUCx04 and for part 2 http://youtu.be/eSATpul-2iU


Cindy wrote: "(I sneak around, Julie!)

Hey, thanks so much for the extra information, Adam. I think I have a better sense of what to expect - i.e. not so much the sub-Kelvin story. (There's some fascinating phy..."

Cindy wrote: "I knew joining this group would be a positive feedback loop for my to-read list!

Absolute Zero looks like a fascinating story. Most my professional career has been working at 100-300mK. (The devic..."

Oh wow, thanks Marcelo!

I've just finsihed Uncle Tungsten:Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sachs. this is an elegantly written memoir of an unusual, interesting childhood of a intellectually precocious boy in the cradle of a remarkable family of intelectuals, scientists, and physicians. His personal passion for chemistry is contained withing fascinating stories about the origins and founders of chemistry, about the elements and their character, about everything chemical. Just fascinating as is the unusual, remarkable family that nurtured Sack's own character and talents. A real gem

I just enjoyed The Wisdom Paradox: How Your Mind Can Grow Stronger as Your Brain Grows Older. Most of the best information is at the beginning; the rest is explaining and justifying. So, if you agree that our mind is integral with our brain which is integral with our body, and that our brain works better if one has a well-rounded 'exercise' program for it, and that intuition and wisdom are both aspects of good pattern-recognition abilities, you're pretty much all set.

Finished Strange New Worlds: The Search for Alien Planets and Life beyond Our Solar System, and I freakin loved it for the most part. Granted, planetary science is a pet subject of mine. Review is here

ETA: I'll be starting the group read for July at some point, and have 3 climate books to read for the Green Group that I moderate...and you know, probably something else that I pick up along the way.

Maureen wrote: "I've just finsihed Uncle Tungsten:Memories of a Chemical Boyhood by Oliver Sachs. this is an elegantly written memoir of an unusual, interesting childhood of a intellectually precocious boy in the..."

Hi Maureen,

I read it a few years ago, I loved it, made me want to visit the local science museum....

by Alexandra Robbins Boy did I feel dated reading this. I graduated from a very small high school over 40 years ago and don't watch much television. Interesting look at the growing up process.

That book is definitely on my to-read list. Just from reading the description I can tell it has a lot of truth to it.

Oh, that does look interesting.

I re-read The Double Helix by James Watson. Good reminder of how science actually progresses and that it is NOT devoid of politics either.

Alex wrote: "Oh, that does look interesting."

I just finished that book (The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth.) It had some really interesting science and studies in it, but I didn't enjoy the individual stories too much. It was an interesting read though. (I'd post my full review if I knew how, but I'm still tryihng to figure out how to do that.)

You type <a href="http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/... my review.</a>

And Here's your review.

Thanks! Now if I can just remember/find that the next time I need it...

You can just click on the some "html is ok" above the comment box and it will remind you.

School is trying to kill me slowly (sometimes quickly), but I'm working on
The Change in the Weather: People, Weather, and the Science of Climate and Dry Run: Preventing the Next Urban Water Crisis. The former is ok, having a hard time really getting into it just yet, but the second is great. Really hands on kind of a book.

Just finished by Brian Greene. This book explains why multi universes are almost certainly a reality but boy was it hard to slog through. The mathematics are in the notes so the main book is readable. It just seemed to me that I was making myself read the book rather than looking forward to reading it.

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I personally liked this book and enjoyed learning about the history of this cell line. It also looked into several social controversies surrounding the cell line. I have worked with these cells in my research and therefore had a connection with the work. The average person will probably still find it interesting, but probably not to the same extent I did.

Jacob wrote: "The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks I personally liked this book and enjoyed learning about the history of this cell line."

This was our group read a few months ago. Did you check out the discussion thread?

This looks like an excellent book! I teach a unit on microbes and am always searching for additional resources.

Patricrk wrote: "John L. Ingraham The author convinced me that this is really their world and they merely tolerate us. I gave it a 5 st..."

Emily wrote: "just thought i'd add Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, it's very easy to read and oddly, humorous."

I just recently completed this book and found the information fascinating and funny. I, too, really enjoy all of Mary Roach's books. Another author of the same genre is Hannah Holmes (The Well-Dressed Ape: A Natural History of Myself and Suburban Safari: A Year on the Lawn; Her work is intriguing and exceptionally funny.

Science Verse is a fun picture-book but has some Bad science - not recommended.

Just finished The Flooded Earth: Our Future In a World Without Ice Caps, which is about projected sea level rise at various rates of CO2 production. Very interesting, as he's a paleontologist by training, so he gives a little different perspective.

Kluge is recommended for your friends, not for any of you, because it's a concise compilation of lots of other books lately popular, from Blink to Stumbling on Happiness. I'm trying to get my teen son to read it but we're kinda prickly right now.

I just finished The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements; highly recommended. I have The Elements iPad app and I wish it was integrated with the stories in this book or vice versa.

I also just finished reading The Disappearing Spoon: And Other True Tales of Madness, Love, and the History of the World from the Periodic Table of the Elements. I enjoyed it, but not quite as much as I'd hoped. My review: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

I'm currently reading The Variety of Life: A Survey & a Celebration of All the Creatures that Have Ever Lived. This is a huge, heavy (literally and figuratively) book. Thankfullly I was able to get it through my LL.

At 50 pages in it's a wonderful book. In other readings on evolution and biology I kept running into the classification methodology known as cladistics. In most if all cases, those books or online sources all assumed a knowledge of the rules and terminology of cladistics and it was difficult at times for me (64 and not a scientist) to follow what was being said.

This book starts out with wonderful analogies (which we've discussed here before) to help explain both the development and terminology of cladistics starting with Aristotle and continuing through Owen, Darwin, Linnaeus, and finally Hennig.

At first from the heft and the density of the text I was expecting it to be a slog. So far it's just the opposite, pulling me through.

My favorites are three



The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Lives of a Cell - Lewis Thomas

The Immense Journey - Loren Eiseley

(yes I love Mary Roach - "Stiff" is incredible
also Bill Bryson)

The Selfish Gene -Richard Dawkins WOW!

I just finished by Spencer Wells. I was disappointed with this book. It seems like a collection of essays that all seem to say things have been changing ever since mankind went to an agriculture based food supply. Things are still changing, some people are upset about the changes and want to return to a "Golden Age".

Patricrk wrote: "I just finished by Spencer Wells. I was disappointed with this book. It seems like a collection of essays tha..."

Thanks for that, it's on my To-Read list, but will stay there for now. :)

Patricrk-I wasn't really impressed with Pandora's Seed either. It's a short book, which is great. Otherwise I wouldn't have finished it.

by Dante Chinni This is a political/economic science book that looks at the USA at the county level by various factors. It divides the countys into 9 different classes based on these factors. More of a data presentation book than trying to explain a theory. But, there really isn't any blue or red state.

I finished The Bigger Bang a few days ago and found it informative but uneven. It was a good, quick read, and I definitely recommend borrowing it. You can read my review for more details.

I did not enjoy Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion. I felt turned off by it, as I started to read, but I really wanted to like it, so I skimmed the whole thing. Then I realized that the collection of essays was worked up off a false premise. The schism between science and religion isn't as dramatic, and therefore doesn't need as much refutation, as Numbers et al would have us believe.

It's more like a political strategy - like in the USA we've supposedly got this huge divide between 'Blue' and 'Red' and there's no hope, at least unless we elect Senator Blowhard. Numbers would seem to have us believe that if it weren't for this book, there'd be no hope of reconciling science and religion.

Interesting that Patricrk's book, above, is also an attempt to think about divisiveness & more thorough reasoning.

I finished a couple books:

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created, which in a word was rad. In another word was very cluttered. This book is definitely packed, and was nearly as excellent as his last book. He mostly discusses the Colombian Exchange, which includes the transportation of goods, living creatures, cultures, languages, etc all to the Americas. Asia, Africa, Europe, and the original inhabitants all converged and clashed. It's an epic story over all. Highly recommended.

I also (finally) finished With Speed and Violence: Why Scientists Fear Tipping Points in Climate Change which I liked for the brevity of its chapters and things, but it's definitely written by a journalist, not a scientist. Which is fine, different view points are great, but I did get a little bored with some of the story telling he did. It did give me some new examples to use when trying to explain what I studied to people, though. So that's helpful at least. I recommend this book to the more casual reader who is interested in climate change, but not interested enough to want a lot of complex everything. Readers of newspapers and magazines would like it.

ETA: I also read Unnatural Selection: Choosing Boys Over Girls, and the Consequences of a World Full of Men which was 2 parts really interesting, 1 part crazy, and 1 part sad. That being said, I think she did a really nice job researching the book, and brings an interesting perspective to the topic given she is a woman who was raised by two women. I recommend it, it was a quick read, but definitely one that will stick with me.

I've been eying 1493; it looks fascinating, and 1491 was a very good read.

I just finished the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist. It is a fascinating exploration of the linkages between art/language/music/cooking/writing and the science of the brain. Here is my review.

I've just finished North Pole, South Pole: The Quest to Understand Earth's Magnetism. The book was very interesting and informative, but took a little while to reach its stride. It dealt with a topic, geomagnetism, that doesn't receive much coverage in popular science forums.

Just finished a re-read of The Immense Journey by Loren Eiseley....man I love that book!

Gary-I thought that too. The beginning of the book was...slow. Kind of like research into geomagnetism, actually. I did like the last few chapters a lot, though. Really interesting topic.

James W. Pennebaker A fascinating look at how our word choice of pronouns, conjunctions and articles reveal a wealth of information about our attitudes and perceived relative status to others. Psycholinguistics is a field made possible by computers being able to do word counts and Pennebaker's graduate students responding to his "we should take a look at ...."