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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

There are a few books on the subject:
Fool Me Twice: Fighting the Assault on Science in America looks like the best one, by far. It was published just last month.

Kirsten wrote: "... Where did the science book thread go? Am I blind? "

No--You're not blind, Kirsten. The discussion thread got buried below a bunch of other topics. I've raised its visibility to the top of the "General" folder.

Ken wrote: "David wrote: "I just finished War of the Worldviews: The Struggle Between Science and Spirituality, by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow. The two authors alternate answers to vario..."

Ken,
I'm trying to dredge up my memory. Hmm... Chopak claimed that neurons in the brain do not fire in a binary manner--either on or off. But I think they do. He also claimed that is absurd to think that a random process could allow organisms to evolve to the complex state where humans are, now. But, evidently Chopak does not understand that while mutations may be random, natural selection (and possibly epigenesis) are certainly not random. Mlodinow understands and explains this, but Chopak just doesn't "get it".

Also, the book is not a debate between science and religion--Chopak is not very enthused about religion. He is excited about spiritualism.

Go to amazon.com, and search for science vs religion. The first several books listed are probably pretty good.

I just finished War of the Worldviews: The Struggle Between Science and Spirituality, by Deepak Chopra and Leonard Mlodinow. The two authors alternate answers to various topics. The book is rather enlightening, with Deepak Chopra taking the side of spiritualism (not religion or god), and Leonard Mlodinow taking the side of science. This book was just recently published; perhaps next year I will nominate for a book of the month. Here is my review.

I just finished the book Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things. It's a really fun book to read, but, but, I still don't know what it's about. NOT Recommended. Here is my review.

Welcome to the group, Greta and Sarah! Please take a look at the discussion threads, and join right in.

For example, take a look at this thread, where we are discussing our October book, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.

I just finished the book. Here is my review. I really enjoyed this book. The thing is, I would never have thought of reading this book, if it weren't for the recommendation here, on Goodreads!

I've started reading The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York. It's a fast, fun book so far. Who else is reading it, or planning to read it?

It's time for the poll for the November book. Please take a moment to review these excellent choices and vote for a book you would really like to read. This poll will close after September 30, so vote soon.

We haven't had much discussion about this book. Does anybody have comments about it? Below is a copy of my review:

I enjoyed this book very much, despite the difficulty of reading the very small typeface. Dawkins' style is almost folksy, and not at all the arrogant, condescending style that some reviewers mention. The first chapter, about echolocation in bats, is fascinating. I also enjoyed reading about the different philosophies involved in taxonomy, the classification of species. Some reviewers mention that Dawkins' explanations are "old hat", and that the computer simulations are primitive; but they do need to keep in mind that the book is already 25 years old! While I do appreciate the arguments Dawkins puts forward against saltationists and punctuationalists, I found them to be repetitive and boring after a while.

Hey everybody, it's time to start nominations for the November "Book of the Month". If you have a good idea for a book, please share it! (Make sure to press the "add book" option, so a link to the book will make it easier for everybody to read up about it.) Many people have trouble obtaining books that were newly published in the last few months, so please keep that in mind.

Nominations will be open through September 27.

Ibis3 wrote: "Hi folks. I'm looking for someone who can help me help my nephew. It's been about 2 decades since I took math or science in school and though I didn't do too badly, I don't really remember it all t..."

Ibis, I could help with occasional questions about physics.
--David

I just finished the book Proust Was a Neuroscientist. It is a fascinating exploration of the linkages between art/language/music/cooking/writing and the science of the brain. Here is my review.

Patricrk wrote: "Pronouns (such as I, you, they), articles (a, an, the), prepositions (to, of, for), auxiliary verbs (is, am, have), and a handful of other common word categories are called function words. On their..."

Thanks for the suggestion, Patricrk; I'm always interested in psychology/linguistics. I especially like the books by Steven Pinker.

Ibis3 wrote: "Very much enjoyed the exposition on bats... "

The chapter on bats was a highlight of the book for me. As I understand a fair amount of acoustics, the explanations all "fit together" quite well. Some aspects of the echolocation were quite surprising to me, but in retrospect, it makes sense. For example, the repetition rate increases as a bat homes in on an insect. Very interesting.

Patricrk wrote: "In chapter two, I love his wolf to Chihuahua as one pace and the totally of evolution as a walk from London to Baghdad. However; distance is 2556 miles and at 2000 paces/mile then this is roughly ..."

I agree, Patricrk, that in terms of evolutionary time, London to Baghdad is too far. But I wonder if the analogy is based not on time, but on the ratio of the number of genes that are different between a wolf and a chihuahua, and the total number of genes?

Betsy wrote: "The Man of Numbers: Fibonacci's Arithmetic Revolution looks fascinating, but it was just published in July 2011. You might want to check availability before voting for it."

I agree. It's a good idea to put the book in this thread, for newly published books that are worthwhile nominations for the future.

Betsy wrote: "The Mathematics of Life, published in June 2011. May not be available everywhere yet, though Amazon US has multiple formats. It looks interesting. One of my friends is reading it,..."

This book looks fascinating! I've put a hold on it, at the library.

1493: Uncovering the New World Columbus Created looks like a good book that was published this month. It is a sequel to the book 1491: New Revelations of the Americas Before Columbus, that was our "Book of the Month" back in January.

Is anybody else reading either of our books, At Home in the Universe: The Search for the Laws of Self-Organization and Complexity or The Calculus Diaries: How Math Can Help You Lose Weight, Win in Vegas, and Survive a Zombie Apocalypse? What do you think of it?

Olivierco wrote: "... The ideas are interesting but some shortcuts didn't convince me, especially when a whole theory is supposed to be proved just because a mathematical model derived from it seems to be in adequation with it on a peculiar point...."

I agree, Olivierco; the evidence for the theory is rather circumstantial. Still, the book is packed with some very intriguing, new ideas.

I just read another book on this subject, The Plausibility of Life: Resolving Darwin's Dilemma. It contains a somewhat different theory about how variations arise in the genotype and the phenotype. But to tell the truth, there was much I didn't understand. At least, in the book "At Home in the Universe", I understood it all.