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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Alfred wrote: "Sorry if these have been read. Both by Mary Roach
1.Gulp: Adventures on the Alimentary Canal
2.Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void..."

Alfred,
I believe our group read Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void about five years ago.

We have not read the other three books that you mention.

Mel wrote: "Hey! My name is Mel and love any and all medical/surgical/health related sciences.
Currently I'm reading Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End; the third book I've read..."

Welcome to our group, Mel! I agree with you and Jim, that the book Being Mortal is excellent.

Audrey, thank you for confirming my suspicions. I thought it was just my uncareful reading, when I noticed many awkward sentences. Now I realize that a better editor would have cleaned it up.

I just finished this book. I just love science books where the author has made a significant contribution to the field. Perhaps not as witty as a science journalist, but the book has a more personal touch. What is great about this book is how Lisa Randall first sets the science background, and then outlines the steps that she and her collaborators took to develop their hypothesis. By reading this book, you can get a very good insight into how modern scientific research is pursued. Here is my review.

Welcome to our group, Thomai! I've never met an author of children's books on science.

Welcome to our group, Nayara! You have a wide range of interests!

Welcome to our group, Elliot! If you have a favorite book on zoology (or any other subject), please nominate it for our next book of the month.

Maggie wrote: "Hi! I'm a neuroscience undergrad hoping to go to med school/grad school!"

Welcome to our group, Maggie! Please dig into our forum, and contribute wherever and whenever you can!

It seems to be available for the Kindle. Or am I missing something?

I am almost finished with this book. I agree with Renée: it is fantastic. I heartily urge everyone to read it. There was a time when his name was a household word in America; counties, towns, a river, bays, lakes and mountains were named after him. But for a variety of reasons, including political reasons, Humboldt has since been forgotten in North America. He was the first environmentalist. He was a true explorer, an incredible scientist. He was a strong abolitionist, equating colonialism with the evils of slavery and barbarism. He was immensely influential on many people, including Simon Bolivar, Henry David Thoreau, Emerson, Poe, Goethe, Darwin, Friedrich Gauss ... the list goes on and on.

When I did a search for Jacques Cousteau at the Amazon.com site, I found quite a few biographies for children. Would that be acceptable?

There are also children's books about Jane Goodall, Benjamin Franklin, George Washington Carver; all famous scientists.

Betsy, you are right. It is Miodownik. I have seen it spelled both ways but I guess that thosr including an L. is in error.

The author's name is misspelled on the book page. It should be Mlodownik.

Charlene wrote: "Can anyone recommend a good book that covers either of the following topics:

1. Brown dwarfs (formation and traits)
2. "Feeding zones" in solar systems (where material migrates back toward the sta..."

Charlene, just for the fun of it, I looked on Amazon for books on star formation. There are some textbooks, and they are expensive. The least expensive is "The Life and Death of Stars" by Kenneth Lang. I have not read it, so I don't have an opinion on it.

I did read some books on the subject when I majored in astronomy, but they are all out of date now.

John. at the time when this paradox was brought up, over 100 years ago, there was no reason to disbelieve th as t the number of stars is infinite.

Well, the question of why the sky is dark was actually, when you dig into it, a rather perplexing question. It is known as Olber's paradox, and a lot has been written about it. It is stated something like this: If the universe is static and infinite, then in any direction you look, there should be a star. Of course, stars are almost point-like, but since the brightness of a star decreases with the square of its distance, and the number of stars in a spherical shell increases with the square of its distance, the two effects should cancel each other out. The night sky should be very bright.

The fact that the night sky is dark implies that the universe is not static or it is not infinite (or both). It turns out that the observable is not infinite, and it is also expanding, so it is not static.

I finished the book, and it is fascinating. I highly recommend it. Here is my review.

Welcome to our group, Alfred.

I finally finished this book. It is marvelous, and I highly recommend it. I especially appreciate the unusual terms that Harari uses to get his points across. For example, he calls the modern age "the Age of Ignorance." The growth of civilizations are due to a common beliefs in "imaginary fictions." Here is my review.

I've been reading Sapiens, and it is truly an excellent book.