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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

I just finished reading The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura Snyder. I thoroughly recommend this book, especially to those who enjoyed Holmes' The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science.

I wrote a review of the book.

Kirsten wrote: "Next I plan to read Inside of a Dog: What Dogs See, Smell, and Know. Looking forward to this one. "

That's a good book Kirsten--you will enjoy it!

Valerie wrote: "Hey everyone, my name is Valerie and I'm a physics and math major. I've been looking for a group to kind of explore science with and finally came across this one. Hope to get some massive scientifi... I've also read some of David Bohm, Paul J. Steinhardt and a few russian authors I can't remember off the top of my head. "

Hi Valerie. Some of David Bohm's books look really interesting. Which ones would you especially recommend?

The poll is closed. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is the clear winner for the April Book of the Month.

By the way, we had 59 votes cast in this latest poll--a new record for the group!

I found this absolutely amazing article at Cosmology Science News. There is a link to the original article in Journal of Cosmology, which has lots of magnified photographs of meteorites. This excerpt from a review by Lana Tao tells it better than I can:

NASA Scientist Discovers Evidence of Ancient Alien Life
March 5, 2011

By Lana Tao

Famed NASA astrobiologist, Dr. Richard Hoover, has been hunting meteorites and extremeophiles in the frigid Antarctic for over 10 years. To the amazement of all, what this treasure hunt has uncovered is alien life: Fossils of ancient bacteria which hailed from colonies which thrived on comets, moons, and other planets.

In a world-wide exclusive, this startling, paradigm busting research, and the pictures to back up these claims, has been published in the March edition of the Journal of Cosmology.

Using the most advanced micro-scanning technology in the world, Dr. Hoover fractured fresh slices of the interior of these meteorites, and discovered the remains of several species of cyanobacteria, also known as blue-green algae. Blue-green algae have a unique quality, they thrive even under the harshest of conditions.

According to Dr. Hoover, the possibility of contamination has been completely ruled out. "What is both exciting and extraordinary" Dr. Hoover said, "is although many of the bacteria resemble and can be associated with generic species on Earth, there are others which are completely alien. Neither I nor other experts who have seen the evidence have any idea what these creatures might be."

"I believe these findings indicate that life is not restricted to Earth, but is broadly distributed, even outside our solar system" said Dr. Hoover.

Dr. Carl Gibson of the Center for Astrophysics and Space Sciences at Scripps Institute and the University of California at San Diego had this to say: "Dr. Hover has provided the world with extraordinary evidence to back up extraordinary claims. This discovery completely changes our perspective of the nature of life and our place in the Universe, The world will never be the same."

Does this mean life on Earth came from other planets?

Dr. Hoover believes the evidence is consistent with the theories and evidence provided by famed astrophysics Fred Hoyle (who coined "The Big Bang") and Chandra Wickramasinghe, and which has been detailed in the just release edited volume: "The Biological Big Bang."

According to Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe Director of the Astrobiology Centre at Cardiff University, "We believe Dr. Hoover's evidence, coupled with other findings and recent genetic studies, indicates life has a genetic ancestry which leads over 10 billion years back in time. Some of these life forms were delivered to Earth, in comets."

Dr. Rudy Schild, a scientist with the Harvard-Smithsonian's Center for Astrophysics and the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Cosmology, has written in an editor's note: "Given the controversial nature of his discovery, we have invited 100 experts and have issued a general invitation to over 5,000 scientists from the scientific community to review the paper and to offer their critical analysis. No other paper in the history of science has undergone such a thorough vetting, and never before in the history of science has the scientific community been given the opportunity to critically analyze an important research paper before it is published."

What does this all mean?

According to Dr. Chandra Wickramasinghe, "Dr. Hoover's discoveries, coupled with recent findings by other scientists, provides the world with decisive evidence that we are all aliens. Life is a truly cosmic phenomenon."

As summed up by Dr. Rhawn Joseph, in the lead commentary: "The overall pattern of evidence, from genetics to microfossils, indicates that life on Earth came from other planets. Our ancient ancestors were visitors from the stars."

I just finished The Darwinian Tourist: Viewing the World Through Evolutionary Eyes. It's a beautiful book with lots of photographs that the author took in exotic locales. It's very well written. The theme of the book is the evolutionary history of animals and humans, and how scientists and naturalists have learned about their evolution.

Steve, there is just one illustration in the book--it is a line drawing. No photos.

Kathy, How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming is a great book. I love it because it tells a good story in the first-person point of view. It is a personal history of the author's investigations, discoveries, and controversies. You can get a good feeling of how science is really done, and you get a sense of the excitement and disappointments along the way. This is quite unlike most science books, that merely document what others have accomplished. In this regard, only one other science book I've recently read is comparable: Ravens in Winter, our August, 2010 Book.

Nominations have closed ... it's time to vote in the poll. The poll will remain open until March 6. If you are seriously interested in any of the nominated books, please vote!

Any more nominations? Time is running out ...

There is yet another possibility for disaster. A moderately big volcano eruption could put many cubic kilometers of ash into the atmostphere. Worldwide illumination by the sun would take a nosedive, and deprive us of summertime, and cause massive crop failures. It has happened in the recent past (1815). This type of disaster is sudden, and unlike global warming, overpopulation, overdevelopment, bad farming practices and overfishing, cannot be anticipated.

Has anybody else read Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void? What did you think of the book?

It's getting close to the end of the month already--time to start nominating books for April. If there is a book you think that many people would enjoy reading, add to this topic with a link to the book on Goodreads, so others can easily find it. Nominations will close on February 28.

Patricrk wrote: "David wrote: "I just enjoyed reading Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball. It is about the application of physics and math to sociology. Whereas many of the sa..."

Does it work for what is happening in Tunisia and Egypt? "

Well, probably not. I don't think Philip Ball's methodology is sophisticated enough. Maybe it could explain some of what is happening, but certainly not in any detail, and only "after the fact".

On the other hand, I recently read the book The Predictioneer's Game: Using the Logic of Brazen Self-Interest to See and Shape the Future. The author claims to be able to predict political events like this, in detail. Moreover, he teaches college classes, where his students learn how to make political predictions. Absolutely fascinating.

Grace wrote: "I wanted to write also that the app to add your review to blogger doesn't seem to work. I can't figure out how to make it go."

Grace, questions like that can be addressed in the Goodreads Feedback group. You can join that group, and then ask questions. You will get answers to your problems very quickly.

Grace wrote: "I just got accepted as a first-reads winner for this book. When I get finished with it, would it be appropriate to link my review here? "

It would most definitely be appropriate.

Grace wrote: "... I'm also completely addicted to the giveaways page. It gives me an idea of what is new that I can put on my to-read list. It is just a bonus that I can try to get the books for free too. =) "

I agree, Grace. So far, I've received three giveaways books. The first one was a dud. The second one was Brave New Worlds: Dystopian Stories, an excellent collection of short stories. I'm currently reading my third one, The 21-Day Kickstart, and it is great!

I just enjoyed reading Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads to Another by Philip Ball. It is about the application of physics and math to sociology. Whereas many of the same issues were discussed in Malcolm Gladwell's The Tipping Point, this book describes why the "tipping point" occurs in society. Very interesting. (Oh--and no equations.)

Matt,
I looked at the reviews of Gravity: An Introduction to Einstein's General Relativity on Goodreads and also on amazon.com. It looks like an excellent book! I am very tempted to take you up on your offer. (It is somewhat expensive, though.)
--David

Thanks, Steve--some really good books there!