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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

This looks like a great book. I've put it on my "to read" list.

Jennifer W wrote: "I'm a little confused as to what books have been read already by the group. Over 130 books are marked as "read" on the groups bo..."

Jennifer,
It is a bit confusing ... take a look at the bookshelf named "book-club". It contains the books that have been read as a "book of the month".

Kristopher wrote: ".... I strongly believe that if I had gone to college immediately after high school, like I should have, I would have become a doctor. There's always time, right? "

Kristopher, while I was in graduate school, there was a fellow student who was in his eighties. I guess that goes to show, there is always enough time.

August is almost over, so it is time to start nominating books for the October read. (We try to give everybody about a month lead time, to acquire the book before we begin discussing it.) Have you read a good one lately, or do you have one in mind that we might all enjoy? Please post your ideas.

We'll take nominations ONLY through September 1 and then run a poll for October's book shortly after that.

Post your nominations in this thread and we will gather them all for the vote!

Jenny wrote: "Hi everyone, I'm Jenny. I live in W. Yorkshire, UK, and work in Manchester in student administration. I'm new to science, having a background in history. I'm studying with the Open University, and..."

Hi Jenny. Welcome to the group. I also majored in physics and astronomy, and you will find many other people here with similar interests. I agree with you, The Edge of Physics is excellent. I learned some interesting things from it, and it is quite an enjoyable read.

Desgreene,
I also thought that Escher created the endless staircase. But Escher actually studied mathematics under Roger Penrose, and got ideas for several of his amazing drawings from him.

By the way, how much of the book "Road to Reality" did you really understand? I am slowly reading through the chapters, but I find that it is very difficult to truly understand everything, due to the brief coverage of the many topics.

Desgreene,
While on the subject of Penrose's book, have you seen the movie "Inception"? There is a scene where two people climb a square staircase that keeps repeating, like in Escher's picture. The guy mentions that it is a "Penrose" staircase. (I later looked it up-it was invented by Roger and his father Lionel Penrose.) I was struck dumb by the extreme irony-"Road to Reality" was a theme of the movie!

Here is what I find most interesting about Ravens in Winter. In the beginning of the book, the author spent very long periods making careful observations of the comings and goings of ravens. He put out food for the ravens in various locations, and did his best to correlate his observations with different hypotheses. With this approach, unfortunately, he could not make specific conclusions. He had a mass of data, but no useful analysis to figure out what was happening.

But then, he decided it would be useful to tag a set of ravens. He realized that tagging would be difficult; in fact, before he began his observations, he thought it would be difficult merely to sight ravens, let alone to capture and tag them. But one of his colleagues, in fact, said that he must tag them, in order to make any progress. And that turned out to be quite true. The analyses progressed by leaps and bounds after he started tagging the ravens. (He also attached radios to two ravens, but makes no mention of any useful results from them.)

This is a general theme in science. Progress is made very soon after a new observation "technology" is put in place. Now, tagging is not a very high-tech thing, but it was, for Heinrich, a new observational technique that was rather difficult to implement. Once in place, there was an avalanche of useful information that helped to put his hypotheses in order. Later in the book, the giant cage was another observational technique that proved to be very useful.

Salvatrice wrote: "...yet again I find new reasons to love the library! "

Hmmm...I thought I loved the library, too. I just returned "Ravens in Winter", along with five other books to the library. But, the library claims that I did not return it! (I have since checked the shelves--the book has not been reshelved, at least, not in the proper place.) This has never happened to me before. The library has put a return claim in, which means they will "look" for the book for the next 120 days. Has this ever happened to somebody else?

Has anybody read this book?
Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void
It looks like a fun read. Some of Mary Roach's other books look quite entertaining, too.

The winner of the September poll is:
The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature

Is anybody else reading this book?

I found this book to be quite different from any other science book. Other science books are filled with "answers". They gradually build up, through narration, a better understanding of the subject matter, and don't ever "keep you hanging". This book keeps you hanging--it's really about "the process" of doing science, and much less about "the answers". And that's what science is all about, really--"the process." While I was always curious about "the answers", I never skipped to the end of the book--probably because it was like a detective mystery. When you read a detective mystery, you don't want to skip to the end; you want to observe clues--sometimes subtle, hidden clues--and try to work it out for yourself. And this book's strong point, is that it gives the reader an opportunity to do just that--to "figure it out". There is no jargon to learn, no special concepts to master. Any reader can follow along, consider the clues, and guess at "the answer".

Wow!

I have been somewhat skeptical about the idea that consciousness is a result of quantum physics operating in the brain. It's not that I disbelieve it--just that it is not well proven in "The Mind and the Brain."

I just found this interesting article about Deepak Chopra's argument that consciousness is a quantum effect. The article mentions a book The Unconscious Quantum: Metaphysics in Modern Physics and Cosmology by Victor Stenger that refutes this idea. He argues that neuron activity in the brain falls outside the realm of Planck's constant, so it could not be a quantum effect. There is a very interesting discussion about the article, in comments that follow the article.

We have three excellent book nominations for the September book-of-the-month. It's time to close the nominations; please vote in the poll, by August 7.

Barnes and Noble sells the book new, for only $387.45 Here is the link:
paperback version

But Amazon sells it for only $140.89. What a bargain!

I found the book at the library. I had it in the back seat of my car, when one of the guys in my carpool noticed it, and asked me what the book was about. He was rather surprised, when I told him that it is about ravens in the wintertime. (He was also interested, since he is a birdwatcher.)

Desgreene wrote: "Re-reading Roger Penrose's 'Road to Reality' - a book well worth the effort to revisit."

I agree--this is a fantastic book, but definitely not for the "weak-at-heart". A few years ago, I read the first third of the book. Then it became really slow-going, and I stopped. I've re-started the book. I hope to make slow, but steady progress through it.

My nomination is:
The Science of Liberty: Democracy, Reason, and the Laws of Nature, by Timothy Ferris. Although I have not read this book, it looks like a fascinating read. The basic thesis is that democracy and science are strongly linked--the best science comes from places with the most freedom, and countries with the best science become more democratic.

I just finished reading a short novel, Uncle Petros and Goldbach's Conjecture: A Novel of Mathematical Obsession by Apostolos Doxiadis. Yes, I know what you are going to say, "A novel? in the Science and Inquiry Group? ... " Well, I mention this book because the story sheds light on how mathematicians view their work, and how they approach theoretical problems. For the general reader, this is an interesting psychological study of how someone gets caught up in a real obsession. Then, after many years of work, he gives up, using a self-deluding rationalization (based on logic theory) that is interesting, in and of itself.

I have just finished The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History, by Stephen Jay Gould. It took me a long time to read--it is not an easy book--Gould's language and style are aimed at educated, but non-professional readers. I read one or two essays at a time, since each essay is totally independent of the others. Each essay is a gem in its own way, on a wide diversity of subjects. Gould sheds much light on how science is done, and the importance of the process of science, rather than the conclusions. Highly recommended!

Melissa, the discussion about quantum physics in this book is quite elementary. I takes up one chapter (well, maybe one and a half), and is not the strong point of the book. He makes an interesting remark, that physicists use quantum theory to make precise observations and calculations, but with only a few exceptions, they rarely think about the larger implications. For example, the implications of "non-local physics" are huge, but physicists rarely bring up the subject.

One of the most interesting aspects of the book, is the author's use of arguments related to natural selection and evolution, to reason about certain aspects of the mind/brain dichotomy. He reasons, (paraphrasing) "Why would the mind evolve as a separate entity from the brain, and not be able to have any effect on the physical world? What is the use in that?"