Book Talk

Which formats do you use? Which is your favourite? Which won't you use, and why? Let battle commence!

What books are you reading now? Doesn't matter what kind, what subject, whatever. It'll just be fun to see what everyone's reading. I'd certainly like to get more reading material in. I'll start: I'm currently starting The Blind Watchmaker, by Richard Dawkins, as I'm currently writing a report discussing evolution and I spotted it in the library while doing research.

Let's start a list of the popular (and unpopular) science books you recommend. Perhaps we can all get some worthwhile reading material out of this. I'll start: Fabric of the Cosmos by Brian Greene: good intro to modern physics Anatomy of an Epidemic by Robert Whitaker: a look at modern psychopharmacology and the effects of psychiatric medicine. Well-written and researched. Why People Believe Weird Things, by Michael Shermer. Engaging, amusing, and enlightening. The Last Man on the Moon, by Gene Cernan. Cernan landed on the Moon on Apollo 17, and this book is his memoir of the entire Gemini, Mercury and Apollo programs. Great if you like space exploration. Wha…

I read this a few weeks ago and have been meaning to mention it here. Historian/journalist Burrough is mainly known for his 2003 book "Barbarians at the Gate", about RJR Nabisco, and has recently published a new book called "The Big Rich", about the rise and fall of Texas oil fortunes. Public Enemies was a 2009 publication, and was made into a movie starring Johnny Depp and Christian Bale that seemed to bear almost no resemblance to the book at all. Burrough's thesis is fascinating -- that the FBI as we know it was created by a sequence of events that took place over only 18 months in 1933 and 1934. This era, commonly known today as the "public enemy era", but whic…

I'm currently reading "The Trouble with Physics...." by Lee Smolin and he mentions Antony Valentini. I found this on Amazon published late last year. Anyone read it or familiar with his work? http://www.amazon.com/Quantum-Theory-Crossroads-Reconsidering-Conference/dp/0521814219/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1267880664&sr=1-1 Quantum Theory at the Crossroads: Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference Product Description The 1927 Solvay conference was perhaps the most important in the history of quantum theory. Contrary to popular belief, questions of interpretation were not settled at this conference. Instead, a range of sharply conflicting views …

So I was given a book by someone who is a distant friend of the family who had found this old book lying around that they thought i might like, I wasn't sure picked it up and within the first 2 pages it had be so damn interested i couldn't wait to see how the rest of the book turned out. Il type you the back of the book. "Winner of the Nobel prize for physics in 1965, Richard Feynman was one of the world's greatest theoretical physicists, but he was also a man who fell, often jumped into adventure. An artist safecracker practical joker and storyteller Feynmans life was a series of combustible combinations made possible by his unique mixture of high intelligence, unque…

I picked up mathematics, physics and philosophy. I would recommend these to anyone who doesn't have a list of principles, theories, and laws on hand. I am reading the physics one now. There is everything from Mach's principle to Absolute Zero- Newton's theory of color to General relativity- String theory to cosmic inflation. So far it has been a good read- short, direct and to the point. I found these at Walden books for about 5 USD a peice. I also found Essential Einstein, Universe, A Brief History of Time, Universe in a Nutshell, Stem Cell Now, and The Scientists. I only paid 60USD for all of them!

This book is great; however, I suspect the lack of scientific evidence and reasoning for each debunked myth. But that is my opinion, and it is a good book to pass the time. I recommend you guys to read it. The following is a quote from the introductory. Many of us leap to the conclusion that because A precedes B, then A must cause B. But many events that occur before other events don’t cause them. For example, the fact that virtually all serial killers ate cereal as children doesn’t mean that eating cereal produces serial killers (or even “cereal killers”—we couldn’t resist the pun) in adulthood.

this is a good book also a good movie.make me cry

Anyone have suggestions for a good chemistry book? I have pretty good knowledge of chemistry, understand the language, but i would love to learn more. Preferably, I would like one with expiriments in it.

Did anyone read A study in scarlet by Arthur Conan Doyle ? any comments ? plot holes ? thanks.

Hi fellow scientists! I have a new e-book on Amazon and wanted to get the word out. The title is "Academania: My Life in the Trenches of Biomedical Research". It is a memoir about my life in science, written for both scientists and non-scientists in lay language. If you are interested, here is a link: advertising link removed, per Rule 2.7 Thanks, and happy reading!

I'm currently reading Against Method, a book by Paul Feyerabend, which makes an interesting argument against a theme we commonly cite on SFN. The so-called scientific method, Feyerabend writes, is both a poor description of how science has actually been conducted over centuries and a poor framework to adopt if one were to enforce its rules. Strictly following the scientific method would only prevent discoveries, says Feyerabend. I haven't finished the book, but so far, Feyerabend has made interesting points. For example, we on SFN often argue that new hypotheses must be able to explain phenomena that older theories already can, and must make testable predictions which…

Hi, I just wanted to share a book with you on Quantum Theory and Alien Conspiracy. Here are the notes on Internet Archive: (Free Version is posted there) Mental Potentials Create Many Realities or Many Worlds is a book written by Kevin Luckerson, which contains compiled research in quatum theory and relativity physics -- and suggests that the universe may actually exist as a light hologram. (The book, Holographic Universe by Michael Talbot, proposed this same idea, suggesting that the universe is never completely established ... until the observer interacts with it or engages with it.) The research strongly suggests that the universe exists in this way so t…

Kenneth C. Davis is kind of the James Burke of American history, tackling subjects from perspectives that differ from the traditional ones and looking for insights that are normally overlooked by the history books. His series "Don't Know Much About History" has been widely well-received. This book should be seen as lighter fare, but it's entertaining and informative at the same time. Particularly unique and interesting insights are provided on the lives of such figures as Benedict Arnold, Queen Isabella of Spain, and George Washington. Worth a look! America's Hidden History: Untold Tales of the First Pilgrims, Fighting Women, and Forgotten Founders Who S…

It is finally done. The book 'An Introduction to Gravity Modification' (Universal Press, 03/01/2008, $29.95) results are: 1. Force is a non-inertia field. The macro forces, gravity, electromagnetic force, and all mechanical forces, obey non-inertia fields exactly. This is a major step forward towards unification of forces, as gravity is included. 2. A review of published experimental data shows that a particle’s probability distribution is not Gaussian, but a new distribution (not one of the 37 known distributions) that under certain conditions is a Gamma distribution. 3. Gravity modification consists of two parts, field modulation and field vectoring. The non-inert…

Hello. I'm new here. I'm a mechanical engineer and an artist. I've worked professionally in both fields. I've read many books on theoretical physics and cosmology by authors including Brian Greene, Albert Einstein, Stephen Hawking and Lisa Randall. Beyond engineering school requirements, I have not taken any advanced or theoretical physics courses. Can anyone recommend any other good authors and titles to read on cosmology and theoretical physics? I'm particularly interested in higher dimensional geometry/cosmology. Maybe something just a bit above lay person on the technical level for now. I have a fairly good intuitive grasp of mathematics but have not gone muc…

hi, guys, do you know any user-friendly free ebooks websites? we can either read online or download to pc and cellphone free of charge ? thanks.

Would prefer a nuclear apocalypse, but any kind is A-OK to me.

hey guys, any very wonderful medical detective books you guys can recommend ? PL provide with authors, thanks. : - )

Hi,folks. I've just had a stab at Richard Dawkins' 'the greatest show on earth',and found it to be quite heavy going. I only have a brief,general gist of what evolution is,so I'd appreciate a book on evolution for the layman. Out of curiosity,what did you make of the greatest show on earth - the evidence for evolution? Thanks in advance!

It's about a man who has a shipwreck and ends up in a land of tiny people to whom he is a giant, written by Jonathan Swift. Maybe such place do exist because we can't be sure if the Pygmies are the tiniest of people.

It's the first book in the teen vampire trilogy. I'm almost done with it and I must admit I'm hooked. I just took a peek at the movie trailer and it looks good!! The book is not scary and I see why teens (and adults) are so fascinated by it. It's kind of like "The Breakfast Club" for dead teens. LOL! Has anyone else been reading this?

The author Sir Salman Rushdie 75 has been attacked on stage at a literary festival being held in The Chautauqua Institution in New York USA https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/live/uk-62524833 He is reported to have been stabbed in the neck by an attacker who rushed the stage. Rushdie was subsequently airlifted to hospital in a helicopter, and the attacker was taken into custody immediately by the police. Sir Salman Rushdie has been living under the threat of a fatwa calling for his death pronounced by the late Iranian cleric Ayatollah Khomeinei in 1989 in response to Rushdie's novel The Satanic Verses (1988).

Some Professors are noted for the wide understanding of their subject and how it all fits together and combine this with the ability to present an understandable and coherent picture. This ability picks out important insights. Firstly the 2022 book 'Elusive' by Frank Close, Professor of theoretical physics at London University offers a remarkably clear account of 'Higgs Theory' and its connection to Quantum Theory, Relativity, and particle physics, in plain English in the body of the text and in Mathematics in the appendices. Secondly the 2012 book '17 Equations that changed the World', Professor of Applied Maths at Warwick University is equally worth …