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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Jim wrote: "Thanks. IMO, reviews are one of the things that makes GR the most enduring social site I have ever belonged to. Even short reviews add a lot to picking out a book to read. Sometimes I've had as ..."

I agree completely with you, Jim. I always look up reviews on GR before investing my time reading a book. There are so many great books out there--why waste time reading a dud?

Steve, I agree somewhat. I am 2/3rds of the way through the book. I think that the two authors dealt out the chapters ahead of time, and wrote them without carefully reading what the other author wrote and modifying accordingly. I can see clear differences in the style of writing between chapters.

Still, it is a very good book. I can recommend it to everybody.

Steve wrote: "Which came first, metabolism or genetics? At the end I guess I came down on the side that argues for metabolism first. I bought the argument that it is less complicated than genetics and therefor..."

A very clever person will answer this conundrum, someday.

Jimmy, that's is a fascinating set of projections!

So, is anybody else reading this book? Any comments? What do people think of the hypothesis that the so-called fossil fuels are a renewable resource?

L. wrote: "October 14 I will be speaking to the San Antonio Astronomical Association. I hope some of you can make this book tour."

L: I think if I could travel faster than light, I just might be able to make it to your talk. As it is though, I can only attend future presentations. :-)

Thanks, Steve.

It is remarkable, that so many of the books that have become our "book of the month" would never have appealed to me if I hadn't been using Goodreads. I would not have chosen to read it on my own. But having read it, I am glad I did.

This is an excellent book! The author is a scientist who is deep in the subject, having performed many experiments trying to unravel the mysteries of life's origins. He relates his own experiences in a very nice style--a good blend of casual, informative, and non-condescending. He describes a lot of controversies that surround this subject that is really still in its infancy. Here is my review.

If you are interested in subjects like relativity, cosmology, string theory, dark matter, black holes, extra dimensions, parallel universes and so on, and you have limited math and science background, then you may find World Science U to be very interesting. It is full of videos on these subjects, and more. There are hundreds of short videos of world-famous scientists giving talks about their specialty subjects. There are also one-week "master classes" and multi-week "courses" on a few subjects. It's all free.

Betsy wrote: "Physics themed halloween costumes:

http://www.symmetrymagazine.org/artic..."

Reminds me of Sheldon's costume, in "Big Bang Theory". :-)

I just finished reading Consciousness and the Brain: Deciphering How the Brain Codes Our Thoughts, by Stanislas Dehaene. After reading it, I feel like I understand the biological underpinnings of consciousness. The book really describes how our brain gives us conscious thoughts, and how much more unconscious thinking is going on without our awareness. The book introduces the author's theory of consciousness, and backs it up with a huge body of experimental evidence. Here is my review.

Krishna wrote: "The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution"

Krishna, we read that book several years ago. I recommend it highly!

Welcome to the group, Jan.

Thanks Kenny. I got 86%. Many of the questions do not deal with one's understanding of science, but seem like trivia questions.

Laura, that is a good guideline for writing about all subjects!

I just got around to reading the book that Krishna recommended, Fermat's Enigma: The Epic Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem, by Simon Singh. It is an excellent book--I enjoyed it very much! Here is my review.

Robbower wrote: "Maybe movie and other pop-culture are his way of attracting a wider audience. But to dumb-down the content does no service to us, and can only serve to increase his bank balance."

Robbower--the strategy works for Kaku. His book got the most votes in our poll.

Joseph wrote: "He has to give credit to the individuals whom he interviewed especially since this isn't his specific area of study but more of a hobby. I didn't feel like he was name dropping just applying the na..."

Sorry, Joseph, I didn't explain sufficiently. By "name dropping", I didn't mean the names of people. I meant the titles of movies, especially the sci-fi movies, that he mentioned.

Steve wrote: "It would be interesting if someone who has yet to start the book would record a count of the movie references.

I started early and am about 2/3 of the way through it. There have been a LOT of mov..."

I agree, Steve. It seemed like a pop-culture "name-dropping" exercise, to increase the popularity of the book.

Joseph, this is the right place. People may be slow to discuss, because it is not yet October, and they haven't started reading the book.

Anyway, I read the book a few months ago. It is excellent. Kaku is not an expert in this field, but his speculations are lots of fun to read. Here is my review.