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

David’s comments from the Science and Inquiry group.

The author tries hard to bring the tiny scales of immune cells up to a level that humans can relate to. And, he uses a lot of metaphors to help us understand the concepts. I like this sentence:
"The awakening of the adaptive immune system usually begins in the lymph node dating pools, where dendritic cells covered in hot dog buns filled with antigens try to find the right T cells."

KG wrote: "I nominate Sentient: What Animals Reveal About Our Senses by Jackie Higgins"

Sentient: What Animals Reveal About Our Senses

Martin wrote: "I would like to nominate “Otherlands - A World in the Making” by Thomas Halliday."
Otherlands: A World in the Making

Karl-Herbert wrote: "The Relativity of the Observer and the Gravity"

This is a brand new book. Please wait a few months and nominate it again.

You don't necessarily have to be a member of a library in order to search the catalog.

Hayley wrote: "I will nominate The Social Lives of Animals by Ashley Ward
..."

This book looks excellent, but it was just published in March. It is available in some libraries, but not in others. I suggest that you could nominate the book again, in a few months.

Jessica wrote: "I really loved Entangled Life. I read it a while back before I joined this group but I think the group has already read it too.

We read Entangled Life: How Fungi Make Our Worlds, Change Our Minds & Shape Our Futures back in February, 2021. Here is a link to our discussion.

I enjoyed reading this book several years ago. The intention of using big data is often "fairness", but the consequence is often exactly the opposite. The book is fairly preachy at times, but it is definitely worth reading. Here is my review.

Betsy wrote: "The mathematics of a musical saw:

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/01/sc..."

What a cool, unique sound! The timbre of the musical saw sounds similar to a theremin (used in old science fiction films). The controlled vibrato and the legato (sound during the transition between notes) are quite unique. The fact that she uses a bow to elicit the sound is also very interesting; I thought only string instruments use bows!

I also finished this book. It is not my cup of tea. It's not that it isn't interesting--the topics are fascinating, and covered very well. It's just that the author tries way too hard to be humorous--no, that isn't quite the right word. He tries to be over-the-top hilarious. For example, he writes "You have to see the best in people, but you also have to be kind of an asshole. Don't worry, it's really fun."

Here is my review.

Betsy wrote: "Scientists translate spider webs into music. Really.

https://www.sciencealert.com/scientis..."

As a composer and a mathematical physicist, this is fascinating, especially the first in the series of videos. It is well known, that listening to waveforms allows you to sense things that you cannot see. In analogy with the poorly-sighted spider, for example, a blind sonar operator could, in principle, out-perform a dear one in certain sonar systems.

On the other hand, as a composer, I do not find much of interest from an aesthetic point of view in algorithmically-generated sounds. It is interesting, aesthetically, for a short while, but then becomes tedious.

I just finished A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury. I was quite surprised--it was really an enjoyable book! It skillfully blends together chemistry, molecular biology, and crime records. Quite entertaining! Here is my review.

Andrea wrote: "Thanks for the welcome and the tip, but I guess that inserting links works only in the browser, not in the phone app?"

Yes, I don't know how to insert a link from the Goodreads phone app.

A. wrote: "Hello all! I'm a biochemist by education and interested in most sciences - more natural science, but that's only because I know so little about social sciences, that I don't even know if history is..."

Welcome to our group, A! Please feel free to jump in, start some threads, or comment about any of your interests!

And, by the way, to make a book into a link, press the "add book/author", enter a title or author, and then press "Search".
Like this:
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Jim wrote: "It is sad. Let's just hope school kids don't go back to hiding under their desk drills like we had when I was a kid. I'd hoped we left that behind us in 1989."

I remember drills in school during the Cuban Missile Crisis, in 1962. Sometimes we would hide under our desks, and sometimes in the hallways. A couple of times we all went home in the middle of the school day, to simulate an emergency.

Petra love is an amusement turned serious wrote: "The Social Lives of Animals I gave this 10 stars it was so fantastic, many insights and beautifully written. This is a new book in hardcover and Kindle, but was issued some time ago..."

The Social Lives of Animals is being published this month. My local library has ordered the book, but it is not yet on the shelves. I suggest that you could re-nominate this book several months from now, after it becomes more widely available.

tana wrote: "A most remarkable creature by Jonathan meiburg"

That would be A Most Remarkable Creature: The Hidden Life and Epic Journey of the World’s Smartest Birds of Prey

Dr. Been wrote: "Immunity by Philipp Dettmer."

That would be Immune: a Journey into the Mysterious System that Keeps You Alive

Jim wrote: "A fine piece of scientific detective work for a really scary problem. After more than 2 decades of searching, scientists finger cause of mass eagle deaths. A new species of cyanobacteria that lives..."
That is quite scary. Some species of cyanobacteria are beneficial, while others cause terrible problems.

aPriL does feral sometimes wrote: "I am starting the book today, but from the comments above, I’m glad I got it from the library. There was a long list of people with holds in front of my hold and there are a lot of people on hold a..."

My thoughts, exactly!