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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Welcome, Judy. For space biology, a while back our group read the book Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.

I just finished reading Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by astrophysicist Mario Livio. This insightful book has some surprising revelations about the so-called "blunders" of the most brilliant scientists. It goes into the psychology of how scientists think, and how science is conducted. Here is my review.

I just finished The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin. It is an excellent book by a prominent physicist, about how theoretical physics has lost its bearings. It was published in 2006 so it may be a bit out of date. But I believe that much of what Smolin writes about--especially the sociology of how science is done--is still true. Here is my review.

Welcome, Daisy. You are right--every month is a rather tough choice among all the nominations.

Please feel free to get into some of the forum discussions going on.

Hi Michael--welcome to the group!

Shannon wrote: "The Information: A History, A Theory, A Flood https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/8..."

Shannon, that book is meant for you: Claude Shannon invented information theory!

If you want to understand the subject better, then don't take a peek at this hilarious musical video on Youtube, Rolling in the Higgs.

Also, if you like string theory, don't watch this awesome musical video, Bohemian Gravity.

BetseaK wrote: "Thanks for the link to the web site, David! Ehh, I would need someone to explain me those equations… Nevertheless, it's a bit clearer to me now how the equilibrium energy level of the Higgs field can be non-zero. :) "

The equations on that web page are for a standard wave equation. I can give you a physical scenario that corresponds to that equation. Suppose you lay a long, frictionless rope on the ground. Move one end of the rope back and forth, so that you create a wave that propagates down the rope to the far end. This creates a wave with a speed "c", which in the case of the Higgs field is the speed of light. If the field is in equilibrium, then raise the whole rope to a certain level, say, 246 GeV (admittedly doesn't make much sense for a macroscale rope).

Bigollo wrote: "After the message 7. Sean Carroll mentioned that physicists sometimes talk about temperature in terms of eVs (or GeVs), that is – in terms of energy units. If it is temperature that was implied whe..."

Bigolio, I didn't understand this very well from Carroll's book. However, I found this web site that does a good job, if you are willing to look at the math.

The equilibrium level of most fields (e.g., electric) is zero, but the equilibrium level of the Higgs field is non-zero (246 GeV). This is not a temperature, but a scalar level that happens to have units of energy.

Aaron wrote: "Just finished reading the new book by Uri Gneezy and John A. List called The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and The Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. The authors have become famous..."

This book sounds fascinating--thanks for the recommendation, Aaron!

I just finished reading the book. It's very engaging, as Sean Carroll is an excellent author and a theoretical physicist who knows what he's talking about. The book is very good for the history; I learned a lot about the largest machine ever built--the LHC (Large Hadron Collider) at CERN. The stories about the people who predicted the existence of the Higgs boson, and a few of the people involved with the experiments are very interesting. I found that the theory behind it all to be a bit confusing, and I did not follow some of the logic. Here is my review.

Anybody else reading the book? What do you think?

I finished reading the book--it's excellent. I highly recommend it to anybody interested in mathematics. Here is my review.

I started reading the book. Very well written--and it's beautiful! The layout, illustrations, and printing are wonderful.

Our reading selection for December 2013 is The Strangest Man: The Hidden Life of Paul Dirac, Mystic of the Atom. You can use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

I just finished reading Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are by Sebastian Seung. The first part of the book was not of much interest to me, as it duplicated what I had read in other books. But after that, the book began to describe fascinating new technologies that are being developed to try to unravel the connections between neurons. The last two chapters are highly speculative, and are on the verge of science fiction. Very interesting! Here is my review of the book.

Thanks, Laura--I'll check it out.

Welcome to the group, Karen! You have a wide range of interests. Please feel free to add to our discussions here. And, take a look at our newest poll for the Book of the Month for December:
https://www.goodreads.com/poll/list/1...

Matt wrote: "I nominate Richard Dawkins' autobiography, an appetite for wonder."

Matt, let's postpone "An appetite for wonder" for a month, as the book just came out. Thanks!

Thanks for all the excellent books on the nomination list! Nominations are closed--we will open up a poll later today.

Steve wrote: "Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Is that one just out? I haven't heard anything about it before."

Yes, it's new. See my comments at the end of this thread: https://www.goodreads.com/topic..."

Looks like a very interesting book. I suggest we wait a couple of months, and re-nominate the book after it becomes more widely available.