Science and Inquiry discussion
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What science book is your most recent read? What do you think about it? Pt. 2
I'm currently reading The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. It is absolutely fascinating to learn more about the woman whom has helped millions of people. The book also lays some foundation for the discussion of medical ethics, not taking cells without consent but using people in experiments without their consent.
I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I really enjoyed it. It raised questions that I've never thought about before and the author did a great job showing how distressful this was for the family. I feel a bit ashamed of my education to be honest. I have a biology degree and I never heard about HeLa cells until my Molecular Biology class during my last semester. We just glossed over the subject.
I'm listening to Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria, a lecture series by Betsey Dexter Dyer. It's not rocking my world. She's very repetitive & basic. I haven't had a biology course in 40 years & only read science articles on a fairly random basis, but even I know most everything covered so far. It could have been presented in 1/4 of the time, too. This is a shame. I'd heard her lectures were good.
Unseen Diversity: The World of Bacteria by Betsey Dexter Dyer only got 3 stars from me. I was expecting to give it more & if the first half had been as good as the last half, I would have. I reviewed it here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished
by Jared Diamond .... it was fascinating. About traditional societies that haven't had much or any contact with the outside world, particularly in New Guinea where Dr. Diamond has spent a lot of time. Some of the revelations were very disturbing, such as practices of infanticide, "widow strangling," abandoning old people or even burying them alive .... He talks about how people from non-modern societies have no diabetes or hypertension, although they do die more often, and younger, as a result of infectious diseases, accidents and violence. A big fat book but never boring. Diamond writes with compassion, humor and humility; I have enjoyed everything that I've read from him.
I just finished The Theory of Evolution: A History of Controversy by Edward J. Larson, a series of lectures from The Great Courses. It was an excellent history of it & also discussed our current understanding as well as social issues that surround it. Not technical at all. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I just finished The Lost City of Z: A Tale of Deadly Obsession in the Amazon. It's a nonfiction book about a man, Fawcett, and two others (his son and his son's best friend) that went missing in the 1920's in the Amazon. Fawcett was a renowed explorer during the 1900's. He mapped a good deal of the Amazon and helped establish borders with Bolivia.If you enjoy explorers, I recommend this book. It also establishes a healthy fear of unknown jungles (nightmarish parasites anyone?).
My last two science books were:Atoms Under the Floorboards: The Surprising Science Hidden in Your Home
This is a well-written and interesting book that discusses the physics behind everyday objects and occurrences, such as why wool keeps you warm; how detergents work; how toilets work; fluid dynamics; the science of cooking; cooling and heating; how digital camera's and music work; how light; radio and cell phones work; squeaky floors and elastics; glass and why we can see through windows; metal alloys and stainless steel; how glue works; fuel and transport; and why buildings don't fall down.
This would make a good book for the interested general reader, teenager or even scientist who may not be familiar with everything covered in this book. The material in this book is not over-overwhelmingly complicated, but not simplified into uselessness. The author also includes addition reading matter suitable for the general public.
My 90 year old grandmother thought this book was brilliant.
and
Armageddon Science: The Science of Mass Destruction
This is an entertaining little book that takes a look at the science behind the things that might obliterate us one day, or cause a great deal of mayhem and destruction. Brain Clegg combines a bit of history with some science (nothing too complicated) to explain how these things work and why they probably will (or won't as the case might be) be feasible in terms of mass destruction. This book was a fun, quick read that covers a different topic in each chapter. Topics covered include: (1) mad scientists; (2) the Large Hadron Collider, antimatter and blackholes; (3) atomic devastation; (4) climate catastrophe; (5) biohazards in the form of gas-based war/terrorism and pandemics; (6) nanotechnology run amok; (7) accidental and intentional meltdown of electronic and information technology systems; (8) human technological upgrading i.e. cyborgs and cybernetics; (9) natural disasters and our interaction with the planet; and the final chapter that is cautiously optimistic about the uses of science and the nature of humans.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...Written by scientists for other scientists, in short: you need some previous knowledge to get their points. The book is voluminous but the content is not necessarily so: I amused myself with removing all charts, references and the reference list from the PDF version available from Stanford, and lo! a chapter of 40 pages shrunk down to a mere 5.
Still, I am not fully satisfied. There is lots and lots about the atmosphere, with more or less one chapter dedicated to every level, but I missed an overview of the topography, for example. Only one chapter is actually dedicated to features on the surface, but beyond the occasional name-dropping ("Xanadu"), it helps little to get an idea of what Titan actually looks like.
12 Essential Scientific Concepts is a lecture series (24 of about 30 min each) by Indre Viskontas. Parts of it are very good, others are OK & a not a bad review. In her own subjects of the brain & the senses, she's fantastic. I've never had a better explanation of hearing & the brain. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
A Field Guide to Lies: Critical Thinking in the Information Age by Daniel J. Levitin is probably the most worthwhile book I've read this year. This is a book about how to spot problems with the facts you encounter, problems that may lead you to draw the wrong conclusions. Fantastic. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Thanks for the recommendation, Jim. I've read three other books by Levitin, and they were all excellent. I've reserved the book at the library.
Venomous: How Earth's Deadliest Creatures Mastered Biochemistry by Christie Wilcox was very interesting & gave me a whole new appreciation both for the creepy-crawlies, the scientists that study them, & the drug companies that both make medicines from & for their toxins. The biodiversity & examples of convergent evolution were staggering. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I tried readingThe Speckled Monster: A Historical Tale of Battling Smallpox. I gave up around page 137. The author tried making it sound like a story. She had paragraphs such as " There they emerged, tight lipped, the captain turning heads with his silver-laced, cockaded hat gripped firmly in white-gloved hands, his finely tailored blue coat fastened with gilt buttons above the clean lines of white breeches and gray hose, his black wig tied neatly with a cow, the glean of his sword competing with the flash of immense silver buckles on his shoes".
The level of purple prose was distracting. Ms. Carrell could give J. R. Tolkien a run for his money when it came to descriptions.
Not only were the descriptions over the top, but it was reading like a story. Which isn't necessarily bad, but I did not get a nonfiction feel from the book. She wrote as if she knew the exact movements and thoughts of the people. It wasn't "and according to her journal entries, it was clear Lady Mary reacted xxx".
This book has a lot of potential, but her writing style was too distracting and made it quite difficult for me to finish. I gave up when I realized I could literally skip whole pages and still know what was happening.
side note: she spent over 20 pages talking about how Lady Mary and her husband met and how they were in a forbidden relationship.
Biological Anthropology: An Evolutionary Perspective by Barbara J. King is one of The Great Courses & was a disappointment. It was published in 2002, but even I found it dated. If nothing else, it shows just how much the Human Genome Project advanced our knowledge, even a tyro like myself. I could have forgiven that, but I didn't care much for her presentation style. She tends to scatter facts like chicken feed & then wander among the kernels. Makes it hard to keep facts straight - too much backing & filling. Anyway, I only gave it a 2 star review here:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Because of an upcoming trip to Africa I pulled The Origin Of Humankind off my bookshelf to read again, 20 years later. I enjoyed it even more the second time. Here's my revised review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I think I found this one Ingredients: A Visual Exploration of 75 Additives & 25 Food Products on Buzzfeed a while back. It was more informative than lit but it was interesting. I wasn't a huge fan though because some of the science was explained in a great way but it would probably get people thinking. It did get me thinking.
Since I'm not really feel versed in food science I had no idea so many of these are derived from petroleum and petrochemicals. I got to thinking they could find a way to use some other source that might help curb the US reliance on imported oil and possibly improve our health as well.
Courtney wrote: "I just finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. I really enjoyed it. It raised questions that I've never thought about before and the author did a great job showing how distres..."I loved this book. I had heard about HeLa cells from a friend but it never came up in my formal education. I had been interested in ethics for a while after reading about a case were a man was cured of his cancer but the people treating him had him kept returning and tried to profit from his cell line. On a related note have you ever read Jurassic Park? One of the things I love about the movie and then later when I got around to reading the book is the ethics in it.
The author put a subject that would bore most people to death (ethics) and used dinosaurs to get people to pay attention. I mean that's pretty genius. The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks gets into it big time but it will probably never reach the audience that Jurassic Park did. At least though since most people have it as a point of reference I am able to use it often when trying to explain why ethics are important in research.
@ Luella, I have not read Jurassic Park (it is on my too read list).
I think what struck me most about this book was the lack of education on the families part. It bothered me that nobody really took the time and effort to explain to the family what exactly the cells did and how they were used. It was clear they didn't understand how the cells were being used or even what exactly cells were. When someone did try to help, they gave a medical textbook about cells. That isn't helping anyone at all, just befuddling the situation.
That was a really good (and disturbing) book. But is it just me? Seemed like there was a lot of finger-pointing and resentment floating around, but the one I was most resentful of was Henrietta's sorry husband who made her sick in the first place by giving her STDs which caused the cervical cancer. I think the author was too easy on him, but I guess it was supposed to be objective. The whole thing was just really sad. The researchers who used the cells, though, it seems did not make money off her genes; nor did they in any way seem to be profit-motivated in culturing and using them. Henrietta Lacks was an unwitting hero for cancer research. That should make her children proud.
Nancy wrote: "That was a really good (and disturbing) book. But is it just me? Seemed like there was a lot of finger-pointing and resentment floating around, but the one I was most resentful of was Henrietta's s..."I was angry about that as well. Everyone wanted to blame the researchers (and they clearly had ethical issues), but yet no one wanted to mention the fact that she had cancer because of her husband.
Exactly. I don't mean to sound like heartless pragmatist, because losing your mother is the worst thing in the world. But the lady was going to die anyway. The fact that they used her cells to cure cancer and save lives did not cause her disease or death. In fact, it sounds like it was common practice to use people's cells for research; Henrietta's just happened to be the ones who turned out to be immortal. It would have been nice for her heirs to profit financially from this, but it seems that no one profited from it for a really long time; apparently there was a time in history when people did research for the actual purpose of curing diseases, and profits and patents and such were not foremost in the researchers' minds at that time. After losing their mother like that, some of those kids seemed to be hell bent on self destruction and I wonder if, by the time the importance of the cells came out, even paying them millions of dollars in royalties would have saved them.
If someone is "hell bent on self destruction", giving them lots of money wouldn't have changed anything.
Elentarri wrote: "If someone is "hell bent on self destruction", giving them lots of money wouldn't have changed anything."Agreed. Often it's the worst thing.
I haven't read any books lately, but I have read a few issues of Nat Geo. I'm currently reading the September 2015 Issue that was focused on the Ivory trade in central Africa. The author, Bryan Christy, had an ingenious idea. He created a fake tusk and put a tracking device in it. Unfortunately, the fake tusk lasted 53 days. However we saw it travel from Central African Republic, through South Sudan, and into Sudan. I'm glad to see that Nat Geo hasn't changed too much under the new ownership. I was quite worried that it would stop including topics regarding climate change, habitat destruction, and evolution.
sounds like a good one. I don't always get around to reading natl geo but it is usually first rate
I recently read A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves by Walter Alvarez who also wrote T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, the story of how he and Jan Smit developed the asteroid impact theory of the end-Cretaceous extinction.This latest book is his attempt to weave together the geologic history of the Earth and the universe with the history of life on Earth and how it has affected the human situation.
A few months from now, when it's more available in libraries, it might be a good choice for our monthly read. Here's my review:
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Munroe, the author of xkcd comic strip was a great read. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
My most recent science read was Sam Kean's The Tale of the Dueling Neurosurgeons: The History of the Human Brain as Revealed by True Stories of Trauma, Madness, and Recovery, which I enjoyed. We mostly learn how the brain works from when things go massively wrong.
10% Human: How Your Body's Microbes Hold the Key to Health and Happiness and Middle Age: A Natural History. I get to understand the smallest things function and affect how we behave. How the evolution really shapes us generations after generations. Enjoy a lot these 2 books.
Primitive Technology: A Book of Earth Skills is actually a collection of journal articles. If you've ever wondered about the actual techniques used by primitive man to create fire, tools, weapons and musical instruments you might like this. Here's my review:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Mod
Here is my review.
The Great Courses: Forensic History: Crimes, Frauds, and Scandals wasn't what I hoped it would be. It was too much about the sensations & not enough about the science, so I only gave it a 3 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
How the Mind WorksI absolutely loved this book. Covers a lot of ground and interesting from cover to cover. 5 stars for this one. Not only lots of information, but delightfully written; lots of humour and GREAT examples to illustrate the concepts.
I am currently reading "Discovery of the first asteroid, Ceres" by Clifford Cunningham (2016). On the positive side: The man has done a meticulous search in contemporary references to compile the history of the search for this elusive dwarf planet that is unlikely to be found elsewhere in such completeness, and he has even corrected some errors in the "biography" of Ceres that have been passed on for two centuries. The drawback is that he, an English native speaker, had to rely mostly on German-language sources of the 19th century which he not infrequently misquotes, as this German native speaker cannot fail to notice. Stranger still, he calls the astronomer Friedrich Wilhelm Herschel, from Hanover, Germany, an Englishman (true, Herschel has lived in England, still ...).
I just finished An Edible History of Humanity & gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I highly recommend it to one & all.
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Life in Our Universe didn't work for me at all. I finally quit after the 4th lecture. My review is here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Breasts: A Natural and Unnatural History by Florence Williams was super. Breasts are fascinating & she discusses their history up to the latest cancer research. Excellent & highly recommended for both men & women. I gave it a 5 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I recently read On A Farther Shore which is a biography of Rachel Carson.
I'm reading The Secret History of Wonder Woman; I mention this because her creator also invented a lie detector (based on blood pressure readings) while an undergrad at Harvard.
Being Human: Life Lessons from the Frontiers of Science was another really good lecture series from The Great Courses. It's all about what makes us human from both a micro & macro point of view which Robert M. Sapolsky is well equipped to relate. I gave it 4 stars in my review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
The Making of the Fittest: DNA and the Ultimate Forensic Record of Evolution by Sean B. Carroll was a really interesting look at some specifics in DNA. The book is 10 years old & yet still blew my mind with our scientific achievements. As a tool to convert Creationists (one of his goals), I don't think it did well. I still gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
I finished
. It was a nice overview of the worlds deserts (minus Antarctica and the Arctic). Quite lovely photos and my favorite part were about wetlands in deserts.
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming by Mike Brown was really interesting. I didn't get all the answers I wanted, but I was never bored & found a renewed interest in space as well as a lot of food for thought. I gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs by Sue Hubbell was wonderful. She reminded me a lot of Rachel Carson in her poetic enthusiasm for bugs & then environment. The science is somewhat dated since this was published in the early 1990s, but not too badly. I highly recommend it & gave it a 4 star review here:https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Recently read Five Days at Memorial: Life and Death in a Storm-Ravaged Hospital. I highly recommend it for those interested in medical ethics and disasters. Sheri Fink did a marvelous job writing from a neutral viewpoint. My opinion did change once the book was finished. Five Days at Memorial is about a hospital in New Orleans during Hurricane Katrina. The hurricane itself wasn't so bad, but the flooding afterwards is what was the major problem. Due to the circumstance, a few doctors/nurses decided to give out strong doses of morphine and midazolam to the more sickly patients. The first half of the book covers the hurricane and its immediate aftermath while the second half covers the investigation and the legalities.
Courtney wrote: "Just finished The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.. I don't honestly recommend reading it. I felt like he did a poor job explaining evolution and he used the term ..."I read it too a while back, and I also had similar issues with it. Personally, I believe in evolution, and I'm also a religious person. I read a lot about evolution, and am fascinated by the science. I was hoping for a basic but fairly detailed scientific overview for someone like me who never studied the theory formally. A sort of foundation of the basics. Instead, I found his writing a bit disrespectful, as if he had a chip on his shoulder and he was trying to preach to the choir. Who is his audience? If it's religious people who don't believe in evolution, does he think that his tone will do any good? If it's atheists who want to tap themselves on the back and get a kick out of putting down those stupid religious people, well, what good does that do either? I didn't feel like I learned much in the way of the science, which is what I read the book for. I learned far more from Edward O. Wilson's various books, or Matt Ridley.
I agree with the above assessments of The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution. Dawkins' writing has gotten worse over the year - condescending, ridiculously repetitive (some identical passages are copied and pasted into various books), and just plain snobbish. I also found his computer programme that he uses to "prove" evolution quite amusing - he is actually "proving" intelligent design, after all, someone built the computer and wrote the programme.
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Science and Inquiry
Books mentioned in this topic
The Basics of Genetics (other topics)Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (other topics)
Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space (other topics)
Why We Sleep: Unlocking the Power of Sleep and Dreams (other topics)
Internal Time: Chronotypes, Social Jet Lag, and Why You're So Tired (other topics)
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Authors mentioned in this topic
Betsey Dexter Dyer (other topics)Carl Sagan (other topics)
Carl Sagan (other topics)
Yuval Noah Harari (other topics)
Carlo Rovelli (other topics)
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This is a really good book that explains how "stuff" works. It stars of with a cringe worthy introduction but then picks up pace.
My review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...