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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

Katia wrote: "I nominate https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6..."

This The Song of the Cell: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human book looks excellent, but it was just published less than a month ago. Please wait a few months, and then nominate it again!

CatReader wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Welcome CatReader. Can you recommend any good books in your field that the lay reader might enjoy?"

Who We Are and How We Got Here: Ancient DNA and the New Science of the Human Past ..."
Thanks for the suggestion! I've put the book on hold at my library.

Welcome to our group, Evergreen!
It is wonderful that you would like to become a scientist! Are there any areas in science that are especialy interesting to you?

Please post your thoughts about books or any science-related subject on any of our discussion threads -- or start a new thread!
I worked as a scientist for many years, but this group is for everybody who is interested in the subject.

I just finished reading Stephen Hawking's short book Brief Answers to the Big Questions. It is a marvelous book! It is very readable--definitely not a technical book, and I learned what a great sense of humor Hawking had. Here is my review.

Lucy wrote: "On newspapers and television, it is more common to see celebrity controversies and political debate than information about climate and environmental crises. I decided to write an article listing fi..."

It is great that you have listed the most important of the greenhouse gases. It's not just a carbon dioxide problem.

But the avenues for mitigation that you list are not very comprehensive; in fact, some are not really relevant. As an example, since the #1 source of methane in the atmosphere is livestock, it would be fair to say that cutting back on beef consumption would be the most effective thing we could do to reduce methane in the atmosphere.

I read this book last year; it is marvelous! The author has a great sense of humor, and it's not overly technical. I also listened to the audiobook--it is read by the author, and he is very good! Here is my review.

Woman Reading wrote: " A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them.
[author:..."

I really enjoyed this book--very engaging!

I forgot that I had read Logicomix: An Epic Search for Truth
Here is my review.

I just finished this book. The entire book is fascinating, but it just doesn't seem to hold together. He doesn't really have a "theory", but just a reasonable "hypothesis" about how the neocortex works. He doesn't go into much detail about the hypothesis, and doesn't seem to support it very well. His 4 attributes of AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) are interesting. But I've written software with these 4 attributes, and I would never claim it to be intelligent! Here is my review.

Juan wrote: "David wrote: "Hi Juan. Why don't you post a review of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory and list the inaccuracies. That would be really he..."

Well, no need to quote exactly ... just paraphrase.

Juan wrote: "Betsy wrote: "Yves wrote: "We've read both The Elegant Universe and Genome already. Elegant Universe in April 2018 and Genome in September 2019. Both good books"

"The Elegant Universe" is a horrib..."

Hi Juan. Why don't you post a review of The Elegant Universe: Superstrings, Hidden Dimensions, and the Quest for the Ultimate Theory and list the inaccuracies. That would be really helpful to all future readers of the book! Thanks.

Sorry -- I don't remember reading any.

I have started reading this book. The deeper I go into this book, the more fascinating the story becomes. The author has some really good insights into the functioning of the neocortex.

Woman Reading wrote: "▪︎ Possible origin of the Black Death plague -- https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsand...
▪︎..."
Fascinating articles!

George P. wrote: "Just started A Life on Our Planet: My Witness Statement and a Vision for the Future by David Attenborough, and I am liking it so far."

It is a great book. There is a film also, produced by David Attenborough, which follows the book very closely.

Ricardo wrote: "Hello. I'm Ricardo and I'm from Portugal. Currently I'm an undergrad International Relations student, but I plan to switch to Economics. I particularly enjoy game theory and politics, so naturally ..."

Hi Ricardo! I took a course from Coursera on game theory. Very interesting branch of mathematics. I do believe that the application of game theory to politics and economics would be especially interesting. I can see how it might be applicable to economics, where the economic cycles lead to semi-periodic situations. And, I can see how it is applicable to politics, where parties that used to repeatedly cooperate with each other to achieve an "optimal" outcome have broken ranks.

Why don't you start up a thread, where you might recommend some books about the applications of game theory to these subjects?

Derek wrote: "I’d like to nominate Limits and Beyond by Ugo Bardi & Carlos Alvarez Pereira. It seems rather timely given the various crises currently playing out across the world. Or perhaps almost-out-of-time-l..."

Derek, I suggest that we hold off on this nomination of Limits and Beyond: 50 years on from The Limits to Growth, what did we learn and what’s next?. It was published just last month. You could re-nominate it again in a few months ... after it becomes available in libraries.

I enjoyed this book very much, especially toward the end, where the author describes allergies, cancer, Covid-19, and the ways we harm or can help our immune systems. I was also really struck by what the book says about measles, and how anti-vaxxers are not doing any favors for their children. Here is my review.

Jaye wrote: "Lakes: The Birth, Life, and Death of These Fascinating Bodies of Water byJohn Richard Saylor"

This book was just published last month. I suggest that you wait a few months until it becomes more widely available, and then nominate it again.

I think the best approach to get a large audience, would be to emphasize math and logic puzzles and games.

So, instead of a "library" of books, it would be a collection of puzzles, games, books, images that specialize in math and logic and related fields. People could post their puzzles, and others could post suggested answers and spoilers. The puzzles could be subjectively rated by level of difficulty. People could upload images generated with math-based designs.

People could also post math-based and logic-based paradoxes, interesting derivations or proofs of theorems, interesting applications of math to everyday problems, ... the sky is the limit!