David’s Comments (group member since Dec 13, 2009)

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Emily wrote: "Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

or

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World"

We read The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World in January of 2019. Here is a link to our discussion of the book.

Brian wrote: "I nominate Factfulness and The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe."

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think is an excellent book; we read it back in August, 2018. Here is the link to our discussion of the book.

I have been reading e-books for many years. The vast majority of these e-books have been downloads from my local library. My first e-book reader was a Barnes & Noble "Nook", and when that died, I replaced it with a Kobo e-reader. They both use the popular EPUB book format. More recently I've been using a Kindle, which uses the Kindle format.

There is a free piece of software called Calibre that helps to manage a collection of e-books. The software is compatible with Windows, Linux, IOS, Android, and macOS. (At least, compatibility is claimed on the Calibre web site.) And, it is compatible with all the most popular e-book formats (EPub, Kindle and many others). It is capable of translating between formats, so that no matter which format you have downloaded, you can translate into the format that is best-suited for your e-book reader. (PDF can also be translated, but this is always a problem.) Calibre also has a lot of advanced features that allow you to tweak formats if you are so-inclined.

I have no connection to Calibre--I don't know the developer; but it has proven to be very helpful for me.

Susan,
You mention that a Kindle version is not available to you. But is an epub version available? Conversion from epub to Kindle version is possible (I've been doing that occasionally).

I am actually listening to the audiobook version, which I downloaded through my library.

Jim wrote: "A couple of weeks ago, UW announced they'd made a Go-Pro camera for a beetle. Pretty cool.
https://www.washington.edu/news/2020/..."

What an amazing device!

Brian wrote: "I recently read The State of Science by Marc Zimmer. It was a great book about the current obstacles in science and the things we can do in order to advance it. I re..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Brian. I put it on my to-read list.

I enjoyed the book. It is well-written, and the author's dry wit helped to keep my attention, along with some very interesting stories. The author is a geneticist, so to my mind that lends to the book a lot of credibility. Here is my review.

Hi Saikat. Yes, it is definitely OK to comment on older threads. I encourage you to post comments on as many threads as you like!

Woman Reading wrote: "I finished my first Bill Bryson book - The Body: A Guide for Occupants. I can't say that a lot of the information was new or truly vital to read if you've read or had som..."

I just finished reading the book, too. Well--I listened to the audiobook, narrated by the author. His voice is rather soft, but still quite clear. I agree, some of the experiments are a bit gruesome--Sometimes I just skip ahead!

Betsy wrote: "DNA linked to Covid-19 was inherited from Neanderthals:
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/04/he..."

Very interesting--and timely! The article is so relevant to the book we are reading this month, A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived: The Human Story Retold Through Our Genes as the book discusses our inheritances from Neanderthals.

Jim wrote: "I'm a real fan of xkcd.com & loved a previous book of Munroe's. It was also narrated by Wil Wheaton. Great combination, so when I saw the library had [book:How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Comm..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Jim! This looks great!

Woman Reading wrote: " ... and am close to wrapping up Bill Bryson's The Body: A Guide for Occupants, ..."

I just started listening to the audiobook, and should be finished in about a week. It seems to be very engaging and informative. Not a lot of details, just right for me. Bryson reads his own book, and his reading is pretty good.

Shubham wrote: "I'll nominate The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood"

This is a wonderful book. However, we read it back in May, 2011. Here is our discussion.

Candice wrote: "I nominate Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex by Mary Roach."

This is an entertaining book. But we read it a while ago, in July, 2015. Here is our discussion.

David wrote: "Life on the Edge: The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology please"

This was an excellent book. However, we read it back in October, 2015. Here is our discussion.

Paul wrote: "I'll nominate Stuff Matters: Exploring the Marvelous Materials That Shape Our Man-Made World"

This is a very good book! But we read it back in April, 2016. Here is our discussion.

Welcome to our group, Andrew! Perhaps you can point us to some good books about archaeology? Also, since you have written a book, you could post it in this forum.

Hi George. Welcome to our group!

Welcome to our group, Ty!

Tim wrote: "Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization

Transcend: The New Science of Self-Actualization was published just last month. Since it is so recent, please wait a few months before nominating it again.