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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Robert wrote: "I've only been able to publish this book on the Amazon Kindle. It won't show up on Goodreads because it has no SBIN number. Someday I'll get around to publishing a hard copy, but until then it is o..."

Robert, you can put a book on Goodreads, that you have self-published on Amazon Kindle, even without an ISBN number. I put this book on Goodreads: Lessons in Paradise that a colleague published for the Kindle and the Nook. If you have a good cover image, you can also post that with your book synopsis.

Daniel wrote: "Has anyone read this one?
A Random Walk Down Wall Street
It's supposed to be a classic in this area of understanding randomness in markets. "

Yes, I read that book about six years ago. It's very good, and gives some excellent advice about investments. However, recently critics have brought up some excellent points discrediting the concept in the book of "efficiency" of markets.

Daniel wrote: "Did anyone else find themselves reflecting on Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets when reading this?

They took different approaches to similar questions and ..."

Daniel, I didn't read that book, but I read
The (Mis)Behavior of Markets by Benoit Mandelbrot. He was Taleb's mentor, and was the mathematician who discovered fractals. Mandelbrot focuses on the fact that many phenomena--natural as well as man-made, including the stock market--do not fit a normal "Gaussian" distribution. Instead, these phenomena fit a power law distribution. The theme is not exactly the same as the book you mention by Taleb, but is actually more like Taleb's other book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable. All of these are very interesting books.

Welcome to the group, Marc. And, good luck on publishing your short story collection. Sounds interesting!

A consortium of universities is offering free online courses on a wide range of topics. Princeton, Univ. of Michigan, Stanford, and Univ. of Pennsylvania offer online courses on mathematics and statistics, computer science, artificial intelligence, logic, music, art, sociology, medicine, and history. You can find them at http://www.coursera.org

I started taking the course in machine learning. I looked at the discussion forum, and found that people from every continent around the world are enrolled. The lectures, course materials, and assignments are well done. It's worth taking a look.

Angus wrote: "One question that was left unanswered for me was the 2/3 probability that one of 10 tossers will come up with 8/10 heads. Perhaps the explanation eluded me, but if someone could give me a heads up on this one I'd appreciate it.
..."

Angus, I've returned the book to the library, so I'm not sure if I understand your question completely. Is it as follows: If 10 people were to toss a coin 10 times each, the probability that exactly one of the people would toss 8/10 heads is 2/3. Is that a correct statement? If so, then I must disagree. The probability is 0.293. Let me explain.

The probability that a single person tossing a coin 10 times will arrive at exactly 8/10 heads is .0439. You can calculate this using the binomial distribution; Using the standard formula notation, p=0.5, n=10, and k=8.

Now, if 10 people were to repeat this test, each tossing a coin 10 times, the probability of exactly one of them getting 8/10 heads is 0.293. Again, this is computed using the binomial distribution, using p=0.0439, n=10, k=1.

To verify this, you can use a binomial calculator, like at this web site:
http://www.stat.tamu.edu/~west/applet...

Eric wrote: "Just wanted to let everyone know how excited I am that the University that I live by is hosting Dr. Phillip Plait, author of Death from the Skies!: These Are the Ways the World Will End.... He is ..."
That should be an interesting talk! Think of a question that the book left unanswered ...

Aaron wrote: "Just finished reading 'The Social Conquest of Earth' by legendary biologist E.O. Wilson. The book charts the biological and cultural evolution of our species from the time we branched off from the ..."

Thanks for the recommendation, Aaron. I've put the book "on hold" at my local library.

Like Kathy and Casey, I found the book to be quite entertaining. Nothing really new to me, but the wide variety of anecdotes, stories, and applications was very enjoyable. Here is my review.

I have been sorely tempted to get an e-reader. It would be very useful during a long business trip--but I haven't been on a long trip recently. Also, most of the books I read are from the library. In addition I listen to a lot of audiobooks, which I download from the library's web site.

Aaron wrote: "Hello. Every second week I read a brand new popular science book and write an article wherein I summarize the main argument of the book and offer up some of the juicier details and anecdotes to be ..."

Aaron,
Thanks for letting us know about your newbooksinbrief blog. I've been taking a look at it. Some very comprehensive reviews of excellent non-fiction books. I am definitely putting some of those books on my "to read" list. Thanks!
--David

Welcome, Makaela! Good luck on your anthropology studies.

Betsy, I wonder if you are actually counting the pills subconsciously, without being aware of it?

Sometimes when I am driving a car, I suddenly "wake up" and wonder where I am, and how I got there. I wasn't falling asleep--but in a sense, allowing my subconscious to drive.

EggSalad wrote: "Hello:

I've been lurking for a while, and I've gotten some really great ideas from this forum ... thanks!

I am a 40ish semiconductor engineer with a "Piled Higher and Deeper" in applied physics l..."

Welcome, Mike. I agree with you about
Moonwalking with Einstein: The Art and Science of Remembering Everything. It is an interesting book.

And, Pinker is one of my favorite authors. You will probably enjoy his books, especially if you are interested in psychology, evolution, and linguistics.

Jim wrote: "I have (finally) neared the halfway point in the book after a busy week. I would like to go back to the discussion points by Steve and Tasha (messages 7 and 8) about the likelihood of intelligent l..."

Jim, I think you have summarized the early part of the book correctly. I had always thought, that if there is a "bottleneck", then it would have been the original generation of life. I was surprised by Lane's idea that the bottleneck was actually the evolution of the eukaryote cell. Like you, I wonder about how unlikely this evolution really is. After all, if it happened on earth (at least once), how unlikely can it be?

I just finished this book. It is excellent, and I recommend it highly to anybody who has a strong interest in biology. It's not an easy book to read, but it is so jam-packed with awesome information and--well, it reads almost like a detective story. It's great to read books about science by expert scientists who are also good writers. Here is my review

Ka wrote: "I have pretty wide-ranging reading interests, but find books on science really interesting. Is it my imagination, or are there more well-written science books being published these last few years? "

I think you are right, Ka. It seems like there are more science books for the non-specialist being published recently. Not only that, but they seem to be better quality. When I look at the list of books that I read when I was younger, many of them strike me as rather dull, in comparison with more recent books. There are exceptions, of course; just an overall generalization.

Jim wrote: "I did not mean to shut down the discussion of this book! My apologies if I did.

I found this link on the author's website, which is a recent response to the criticisms of the book (and may be simi..."

Jim, that is an interesting response by Sam Harris. Quite a lot to chew on. Thanks for pointing it out!

Susanna wrote: "Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries, by Neil deGrasse Tyson.

Looks very interesting."

Susanna, that is an excellent book. I'm sorry to say, that it was already our Book of the Month back in 2009. We had neglected to put it on the group's bookshelf. :-(

Please nominate another book!

Rebecca wrote: "Hi! I am a physician with an interest in medical science, biology, evolutionary biology and ornithology.

I would love to rub brains with others with like interests and look forward to future di..."

Welcome, Rebecca! You might really appreciate our "Book of the Month" in March, which will be:
Power, Sex, Suicide: Mitochondria and the Meaning of Life.