What science book is your most recent read? What do you think about it? Pt. 2

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by Amanda Ripley called The Smartest Kids in the World: And How They Got That Way. The book explores the education systems of 3 countries that perform very well on international tests: South Korea, Finland and Poland (with the aim of helping America find a way out of its education woes). Some very interesting insights here. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/09/12...

[Steve]

Five stars for Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight by paleoanthropolgist, Pat Shipman.

I loved this book and was sad that it had to end. I now wish I had done a better job of promoting it for the group read a couple of months back. Here's my review:

http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[David]

Steve wrote: "Five stars for Taking Wing: Archaeopteryx and the Evolution of Bird Flight by paleoanthropolgist, Pat Shipman.

I loved this book and was sad that it had to end. I now wish I had done a better job..."

Steve, nominate it again!

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

Yeah, that one sounds interesting.

[Rohan]

I read a bunch of science books in last 2-3 months.
1. A Planet of Viruses
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow
3. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't
4. Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe

All were great books. But Thinking, Fast and Slow and Time Reborn are must reads. Here are my reviews:
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...
http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[David]

I have just finished reading The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code, by Sean Kean. It is an excellent book, very entertaining and informative. Here is my review.

[Jair]

Empire of the Stars not quite done with it yet but so far is good lots of astronomy

[BetseaK]

Rohan wrote: "I read a bunch of science books in last 2-3 months.
1. A Planet of Viruses
2. Thinking, Fast and Slow
3. The Signal and the Noise: Why So Many Predictions Fail - But Some Don't
4. Time Reborn: From..."

I've just started reading Thinking, Fast and Slow, which made me take a look at your review of this book. I agree! The book forces me to use System 2 but the initial chapters engaged me. In other words, they induced 'a sense of flow'. Btw, the sections on priming effects are worth everyone's attention. :)

[David]

Half a year ago, Aaron mentioned the book The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies? by Jared Diamond. I enjoyed reading the book, as it relates many of Diamond's first-hand knowledge of societies in Papua New Guinea. Here is my review.

[Steve]

I followed my reading of the Pat Shipman book a few posts above with Glorified Dinosaurs: The Origin and Early Evolution of Birds by Luis Chiappe. Thank heaven for libraries. This gorgeously illustrated book sells for almost $200 but I was able to get it via an interlibary loan. It's a fascinating but somewhat technical review of the full story of the evolution of birds as known at the time of writing. The fossil photos and beautiful color reconstructions alone are worth the time. Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[David]

I just finished reading The Fallacy of Fine-Tuning: Why the Universe Is Not Designed for Us by Victor Stenger. It is an excellent book for those who are at ease with mathematics. Stenger does not try to be witty or humorous. He wrote a straight-forward book that goes into detail about the right ways to think about physical laws, and the fundamental "constants" of physics. Here is my review.

[May]

In July I finished Brian Greene's The Hidden Reality and the last book (finished a few days ago) was basically a bathroom reader for intellectuals: Zidbits: Learn Something New Today.

Both were absolutely fantastic reads. I think I'm starting to get spoiled. I'm trying to figure what I should read next and I think I'm still in the mood for some more non-fiction. I think Hawking's Black Holes and Baby Universes will be up next on my list.

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by William Eggers called The Solution Revolution: How Business, Government, and Social Enterprises Are Teaming Up to Solve Society's Toughest Problems. The book explores how businesses have recently joined governments and non-profits in addressing public goods and social goals. It's an interesting discussion about an important and timely topic--though the reading experience leaves much to be desired. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/08...

[Kenny]

I just breezed through Lee Smolin's Time Reborn Time Reborn: From the Crisis in Physics to the Future of the Universe and found it very interesting. I must note that I did not read this word for work and did a lot of skipping over his explanations of things I knew -- the history of physics/cosmology etc. but tried to focus on his new information.

This book in many ways rehashes some of his 'beefs' against leading edge physics - string theory, quantum mechanics, etc. but takes a bit of a new approach by making the bold claim that Time is itself the fundamental component of the structure of reality. As a result of this his claim is that the laws of physics must evolve and change over time. He also makes the claim that this 'setting of time as invariant' is another way of looking at Einstein's relativity (which set the speed of light as invariant - resulting in different experiences of time, time dilation, etc).

I personally have always wondered if what Einstein did was somewhat arbitrary (fixing the speed of light and that it was invariant) and have always wondered if other elements might not be set as invariant with the same results of giving us a completely new view of reality.

I found the book quite interesting. Lee Smolin is a bit of the 'bad boy' of physics but if you are interested in that perspective this is worth the read.

P.S. I'm finally getting to Sean Carroll's From Eternity to Here as well, will post on it if/when I finish it.

[Kenny]

I just got the new Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013 The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2013

I've only read a couple of the entries and will come back with a full review later but I had to share a paragraph from the editor's introduction which sort of summarizes all of modern science and the personalities in one paragraph. :) He's speaking of Gregor Mendel father of modern genetics:

"How on earth, then, did this man, in this place, unlock the secret of genes? Newton had his cometary intellect; Einstein was born a rebel and bred to defy convention; Feynman was the comic genius of physics, exposing his discipline’s vanities like a jester in a court of fools. But Gregor Mendel? The founder of modern biology seems, in contrast, to have been born without contrast—a man of habits plodding his way among men in habits."

[Steve]

I picked up Supercontinent: Ten Billion Years in the Life of Our Planet from the library. Pretty quick read. Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Steve]

...and then I read The Fossils of the Burgess Shale...

Here's the review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

Have you read Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, Steve?

[Kenny]

Thanks for those Steve!

[David]

Am at the end of The Brief History of Time!!Although it's been praised as an easy read but I had to repeat more than twice on some pages in order to understand some of the concepts and theories!!!but still it's a Good Read!!

[David]

I just finished reading Connectome: How the Brain's Wiring Makes Us Who We Are by Sebastian Seung. The first part of the book was not of much interest to me, as it duplicated what I had read in other books. But after that, the book began to describe fascinating new technologies that are being developed to try to unravel the connections between neurons. The last two chapters are highly speculative, and are on the verge of science fiction. Very interesting! Here is my review of the book.

[Kenny]

Thanks David!

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by Malcolm Gladwell called David and Goliath. The book explores the curious nature of advantages and disadvantages and how each can (under circumstances) become its opposite. Gladwell gets bogged down in his anecdotes at times, and his arguments are occasionally overly-simplistic (as usual), but there’s plenty of interest here to keep you going. I’ve written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/10/22...

[Kenny]

I've kinda lost interest in Gladwell's work....was interesting at first, but he seems to be just repeating, reiterating a formula that is getting old....

[Steve]

Just finished Snowball Earth: The Story of the Great Global Catastrophe That Spawned Life as We Know It by Gabrielle Walker. This one gathered a significant number of votes in a past book-of-the-month poll. It's a quick and easy read and would probably generate a lot of discussion if someone wants to re-nominate it. Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Betsy, co-mod]

I'd like to read that. If I remember, maybe I'll nominate it for January.

[Steve]

It only took me a couple of days to read The Cambrian Fossils of Chengjiang, China: The Flowering of Early Animal Life because it is mostly photographs and illustrations. Before investing time in this one though I would recommend reading a book that goes more into the history and significance of the so-called Cambrian Explosion. In my review below, I make a couple of recommendations:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

Currently reading Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family. So far, subject more interesting than execution, but we'll see what happens.

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by Uri Gneezy and John A. List called The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and The Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. The authors have become famous for applying controlled field experiments to everything from education, to charity, to business, to healthy living, to discrimination etc. and in this book they update us on their experiments and results. The book is a fun and very interesting read. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/05...

Cheers,
Aaron

[David]

Aaron wrote: "Just finished reading the new book by Uri Gneezy and John A. List called The Why Axis: Hidden Motives and The Undiscovered Economics of Everyday Life. The authors have become famous..."

This book sounds fascinating--thanks for the recommendation, Aaron!

[Steve]

I picked up Dava Sobel's The Planets at the library. A quick, easy read, in fact a little too easy, but for someone not up to date on planetary exploration it would be a very pleasant way to get up to speed. The writing is excellent. Here's my review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

A History of the World in Twelve Maps, by Jerry Brotton. Very interesting.

[Steve]

The Killer of Little Shepherds: A True Crime Story and the Birth of Forensic Science by Douglas Starr had been on my TR list for some time. As I say in my review it was a nice (shocking!) change of pace from my normal science reading. Here's the full review:

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

[Katy]

Susanna - Censored by GoodReads wrote: "Currently reading Marie Curie and Her Daughters: The Private Lives of Science's First Family. So far, subject more interesting than execution, but we'll see what happens."

I think I'll try this one.

[Katy]

Steve wrote: "I picked up Dava Sobel's The Planets at the library. A quick, easy read, in fact a little too easy, but for someone not up to date on planetary exploration it would be a very pleasan..."

Thanks Steve. I will pick up this one to read.

[Sana]

I'm almost done with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, and I have loved it all the way through so far.
The subject of using African Americans as medical test subjects without consent is disturbing, though. I plan on reading more about it once I'm done with this.

[Kenny]

There has been much medical research and testing on prisoners over the ages as well....

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by Howard G. Buffet called 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World. Buffet draws on his 25+ years of humanitarian and philanthropy work (and 30+ years in farming) to detail what does and does not work in the effort to fight global poverty and hunger. This is a very enlightening look at the fight against hunger, and a must read for anyone interested in making the world a better place for everyone. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/11/19...

[David]

I just finished The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin. It is an excellent book by a prominent physicist, about how theoretical physics has lost its bearings. It was published in 2006 so it may be a bit out of date. But I believe that much of what Smolin writes about--especially the sociology of how science is done--is still true. Here is my review.

[Kenny]

Excellent Book David. It certainly changed my thinking about the edges of physics and about the way science is done these days -- particularly in academia.

He extends this/his thinking a bit but in a more focused direction in Time Reborn.

Thanks for the review!

[Jessie]

Hello from a new member,
There is a giveaway until Dec 31st of a wonderful book called Survival Of The Fittest by Robin Hawdon. It is part tense detective story, part a daily journal about life in the Charles Darwin household, and partly a Second World War spy story. It sounds highly confusing, but in fact all the strands are connected and the whole is the best argument for science and against religion I ever read, because it climaxes with the discovery of Darwin's own secret thoughts about it, which can hardly be faulted.
I think the giveaway is on Goodreads but if not it's on the publisher's web page http://sbpra.com/robinhawdon.
Jess Fellow

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[David]

I just finished reading Brilliant Blunders: From Darwin to Einstein - Colossal Mistakes by Great Scientists That Changed Our Understanding of Life and the Universe by astrophysicist Mario Livio. This insightful book has some surprising revelations about the so-called "blunders" of the most brilliant scientists. It goes into the psychology of how scientists think, and how science is conducted. Here is my review.

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by legendary biologist J. Craig Venter called Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life. Venter takes us through the major discoveries and advances in biology (and especially genomics) since the discovery of the structure of DNA in 1953--leading all the way up to the synthesizing of DNA, and the first synthetic life form. It's a fascinating story told by one of biology's most accomplished practitioners. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/12/03...

[Aaron]

Betsy wrote: "Angus wrote: "Aaron wrote: "Just finished reading the new book by David Epstein called The Sports Gene: Inside the Science of Extraordinary Athletic Performance." ...I liked the look of this Aaron ..."

The book was really fantastic, and I think it'd make an excellent book of the month eventually...

[BetseaK]

Aaron wrote: "Just finished reading the new book by legendary biologist J. Craig Venter called Life at the Speed of Light: From the Double Helix to the Dawn of Digital Life. Venter takes us throu..."

Thanks! Sounds interesting!

[BetseaK]

My recent reads were:
The Violinist's Thumb: And Other Lost Tales of Love, War, and Genius, as Written by Our Genetic Code
(my short review's here: www.goodreads.com/review/show/415723149)

and

The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next
(here's the link to my review, a short one again: www.goodreads.com/review/show/774115099)

Both the books were enjoyable to read and highly informative (I learned quite a lot), though I must admit that there were parts, in both the books, in which the technicalities were more-or-less beyond me.

[Kenny]

Xox wrote: "An Appetite for Wonder : The Making of a Scientist"

And what did you think of it? I have this one on my TBR list.

[Aaron]

Just finished reading the new book by Charles Montgomery called Happy City: Transforming Our Lives Through Urban Design. Montgomery takes us through the history of the modern city, and argues in favor of the new urbanist movement in design--which advocates moving away from suburban sprawl and towards mixed-use, multi-income communities; laced with parks and plazas of varying sizes; and tied together with transportation networks that reintroduce walking, cycling and public transport as real options. The book is fantastic, and a great introduction to the ideas of the new urbanists. I've written a full executive summary of the book available here: http://newbooksinbrief.com/2013/12/17...

[Devinder]

Finished reading - The Big Bang Never Happened: A Startling Refutation of the Dominant Theory of the Origin of the Universe by Eric J. Lerner

This book not only raises genuine doubts on the validity of Big-Bang Theory of Origin of Universe, but also gives a plausible alternative based on plasma technology.

Rest of my review is at: http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/...

[Susanna - Censored by GoodReads]

A History of the World in Twelve Maps. Very interesting.