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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Lucy and Michael, yes! I loved reading Rachel Carson's books; I read them as a youngster.

There are many books about science and natural history that are pure poetry. The one that really sticks in my mind is Arctic Dreams by Barry Lopez. The natural history books by Stephen Jay Gould are also beautiful (and controversial), as are those by Carl Sagan.

For quantitative science books, the most poetic for me was The Feynman Lectures on Physics.

Michael wrote: "David, based on your reading of this book and other related ones, is political bias mostly learned or inherited?"

I would think that political bias is learned from people close to you. I do hear many stories of people who are biased in one direction, and then suddenly (or gradually) change to another direction.

Lucy wrote: "As much as I enjoy science, science itself can be quite oversimplifying, reducing the life, beauty, and elegance of the universe to numbers and mechanics...."

I find exactly the opposite to be true! When we can quantitatively describe the universe in terms of numbers and physics, we obtain a unified way to understand nature. This understanding is beautiful and elegant.

As one example, Newton's law of gravitation is F = G*M1*M2/R^2. We use it to describe how an apple falls to the earth, or how the planets revolve around the sun. What can be more beautiful than a unification of such phenomena that appear to be so different?

As another example, Maxwell's Equations are simple, but they describe an incredible number of phenomena, including the fact that light is an electromagnetic wave. Maxwell's Equations help to unify our understanding of so much of nature; they are beautiful and elegant, how they treat electric and magnetic fields as two sides of the same coin:

These equations are as important (and elegant) to physics as evolution is to biology.

I just started listening to the audiobook. It sounded oddly familiar. Then I did a search, and found that I had read the book 11 years ago--and forgot about it! I had enjoyed it very much. Here is my review.

Years ago, everybody in my division took the Myers-Briggs assessment, and then we had a full two-day workshop exploration of the results. I do remember, vividly, how the Extrovert/Introvert dimension was explored. It confirmed for me, how this particular dimension is real, and that the assessment was quite accurate.

First, about half of the group was asked to leave the room (they were called out by name). We did not know it at the time, but those were the extroverts. The rest of us were all introverts, but we didn't know it at the time. We were all asked to sit down in a circle. We did, and we all folded our arms and isolated ourselves.

Then, the group that remained outside was asked in, to sit in a circle. They did, and without any prompting they ALL held hands with their neighbors. These were all co-workers, not friends.

This demonstrated to me, vividly, that the extro/intro-vert dimension is real, and was accurately assessed. Of course, some people will be assessed to be in the middle ground between extroversion and introversion. I don't remember if these people were members of either group.

Welcome to our group, spoko!
Just about all of the books we discuss here are for the lay audience. I also really enjoyed reading An Immense World: How Animal Senses Reveal the Hidden Realms Around Us. From my point of view, one of the great benefits of this group is getting tips about new, fascinating books on a variety of science-related topics.

Lucy wrote: "Hi, everyone! I just wrote this essay about how experiential learning was indirectly used to help facilitate the discovery of this new type of ice called medium density amorphous ice. This essay wa..."

Cool article! Somewhat different from the scientific method. Interesting analogy.

Woman Reading wrote: "I listened to this in January, the traditional month of new beginnings.
[book:How to Change: T..."

Thanks for the review -- looks like an interesting book!

Justin wrote: "An Immense World by Ed Yong"

This is an excellent book! We read this book in December, 2022. Here is a link to our
discussion thread.

Nancy wrote: "OK, I'm done, great book. But I am struggling with a concept so I'm going to ask a question. In Chapter 1, the author presents this problem: Create 2 rectangles so the the first has exactly twice t..."

I tried and tried, and did not come up with that solution (I do not have a copy of the book). However this web page has two different solution approaches, for an infinite family of solutions:
https://math.stackexchange.com/questi...

I keep coming up with the second of the two solution approaches. However, I think that the author took the first solution approach. If, in that mathematics web site we switch a & b around, then we get the requirement that d > 4a. I think the author chose the particular solution that d = 4a+1, so that the denominators are =-1.

Michael wrote: "Lucy - A recent article in the Washington Post's 'Brain Matters' section, authors Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross are highlighted with regard to their upcoming book, 'Your Brain on Art: How the Arts Tr..."

Michael, that sounds like a really great book! Why don't you nominate it in a few months?

Betsy wrote: "Doesn't look like I'll be able to read this in March. I put a hold on it at two different libraries more than a month ago, but the waitlists still say it will be seven weeks. Is anyone else having ..."

Yes, I will be waiting for quite a while, too for the library hold.

Jim wrote: "... Two were fine since they were managerial minimalists, but the other one meddled & she didn't have a clue. She wound up ruining the department..."

I believe that the best managers are ones who have worked in their subordinates' positions, who are very familiar with the work they do.

Although my career has been in science, I love arts and humanities just as much. I really enjoy theater and especially music, since I am also a composer! (I am currently composing music for two films, a visual novel, and a theater production.)

There are tons of books about the connections between science and arts. I especially enjoyed Art and Physics: Parallel Visions in Space, Time, and Light, Proust Was a Neuroscientist, The Power of Music, Why You Love Music: From Mozart to Metallica--The Emotional Power of Beautiful Sounds, and Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination.

I think it is interesting how we acquire these interests. In my case, I probably inherited my love for science from my father, who was a doctor, and my love for the arts from my mother, who was an artist and an actress.

Daniel wrote: "Hers's one I was interested in, but have not read yet:..."

Visions of Infinity: The Great Mathematical Problems by Ian Stewart

CatReader wrote: "Nice review, David, and thank you for sharing that article, Susan!

Re: the article - what do you think is the fundamental problem in our "stolen focus" these day -- is it that technology is so muc..."

I believe that the chief culprit is the addictiveness of all the apps on our cell phones. As I sit reading a book, I feel a huge pull toward my cell phone, primarily YouTube and Facebook. Email is also a big pull. It takes a lot of willpower to override these pulls. Many of us don't have that sort of willpower.

I really enjoyed this book. It explores a wide range of aspects of our losing our ability to focus. Here is my review.

Hayley wrote: "The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee"

It appears that this book was just published a couple of months ago. Please wait a couple more months, and re-nominate it again!

I started reading Stolen Focus: Why You Can't Pay Attention- and How to Think Deeply Again. The book is fantastic! I highly recommend it to everyone.

I just finished reading the book Dark and Magical Places: The Neuroscience of Navigation by Christopher Kemp. I enjoyed reading this book; it describes a wide range of topics related to how humans navigate. The brain has evolved some specialized neurons that specialize in different aspects of navigation. Here is my review.