Book Talk

Reading Lloyd Douglas' "Disputed Passage". Anyone else read this? Douglas has some very interesting ideas about science. Any thoughts? For those who haven't read it, the author proposes that the best scientists are the ones that can practice an extreme level of self-discipline. Self sacrafice, in the sense of completely giving oneself to the advancement of science for science's sake, is a necessary part. Personal life, family, recreation, excess, etc. must all be excluded. Complete devotion and the giving over of one's life in the name of science is necessary to be th best. Any opinions??

So yeah I love science but I'm only in grade 10 and we are severely understimulated (to the point of boredom). They don't get any extra challenge to people who are actually interested in science. I need some physics books mainly. Of course my math education isn't very advanced, but I'd be willing to do math on my own if it helps with any physics. I wouldn't mind some medical/biology books on bio engineering. I don't know-- any recommendations?

I've recently begun reading this book, and so far, I'm enjoying it incredibly. It's not exactly an easy book to describe, but one of the themes that has come up right away is the juxtaposition between art (which the author calls romantic knowledge) and science (which the author calls classical knowledge). So far references to eastern mysticism have been, well, mostly eschewed by the author with confusion. I suppose the conclusion of the book will be an acceptance of eastern mysticism. I await such a conclusion. Until then, I've been rather amazed by the book's treatment of science and technology as essential parts of our lives. I've also been rather impressed …

This is the best popular science book that I have read. It should be compulsory reading for all school children, as it would help stop the spread of psudoscience and quackery! A chapter was missing from the first edition of the book due to legal action being taken by rather unpleasant 'nutritionist' against the author. Fortunately, this is now over and the chapter is available for all to read http://http://www.generoom.net/features-story.php?id=58

I happened across these books the other day, I've only had a quick scan of the EM one but they seem to be good up to first year UG level... http://lightandmatter.com/ Enjoy

I watched the doco and listened to one great lecture that I found more interesting than the docu. And thus far found Jared Diamond's theory to be fascinating - "Diamond argues that Eurasian civilization is not so much a product of ingenuity, but of opportunity and necessity. That is, civilization is not created out of sheer will or intelligence, but is the result of a chain of developments, each made possible by certain preconditions." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guns,_Germs,_and_Steel Has anyone bothered to read the book? Any views?

SOME BOOKS/LINKS/poetry ON THE INTERNET BY RON PRICE These three books were put on the Internet in 2002 and 2003 and contain some 6000 pages of content. In addition I have been able to put over one million words at some 4000 internet sites: forums, discussion sites, poetry sites, essay sites, et cetera. Anyone having questions or comments about this content can contact me at my email address: ronprice9@gmail.com_____________________________________________________________________ 1. The Emergence of a Baha’i Consciousness in World Literature: The Poetry of Roger White: 400 pages http://bahai-library.org/books/white htt…

This book is probably the coolest book ever. I have my copy, but sadly I do not have permission to build my own chemistry lab. Does anyone else have this book? What do you think of it?

I have been reading an interesting book lately called "The Present." It is very hard to categorize, as it is vast, but it is the most thought-provoking book I've ever read. It talks about a lot of obvious things that make sense, but we don't ever think about them. This book opened me up to a lot of new ideas. It's a free book, The Present, at http://www.thetruthcontest.com It's like nothing I've ever read before, and you'll see what I mean just by reading the first 5 pages or so. Share your thoughts!

I'm going through the above book but sadly it's riddled with errors and typos. One possible error I'm slightly unsure about is as follows: 1/2(8m/s^2 , 33m/s^2)(1.0sec)^2 = (8m, 33m) Is this calculation correct? I don't think it is because the 1/2 hasn't been taken into account. Thanks Gareth

Summer is coming up, and in just a couple of weeks I'll be free of exams and school and all that nonsense and properly graduated from high school. Summer, of course, means lots of spare time that can be well-used without feeling guilty about not studying, and I intend to use it well. Part of my time I intend to spend reading. I've been on a book deficit lately, since I've exhausted most of the books I've found by glancing at the covers at Borders. (I also read very quickly. 1984 took me a day.) What I'd like to do this summer is survey some of the more thought-provoking and interesting literature (fiction and non-fiction) available, in hopes of, you know, expanding my…

Lecture Notes on General Relativity Sean M. Carroll These online notes are the best introduction to general relativity "proper" I have seen. Carroll does not shy away from the basics of differential geometry needed to understand relativity theory. Carroll starts with a good review of special relativity paying attention to the more geometric (tensorial) issues. This sets one up to proceed to general relativity with "minimal pain". To do this the elementary theory of manifolds and curvature is discussed. Mostly, this is done using local theory via coordinates. It is not till chapter 4 that gravity is discussed. The apparent delay is unavoidable if one wants …

Has anyone read Big Bang, by Simon Singh? If you haven't, it's a very good book about the history of Cosmology, with lots of science-y facts and the history behind major scientific discoveries.

Has anyone read this? I was thinking about buying it, but I was reading the reviews and some reviews say it is impossible to understand without a lot of background in mathematics and the other reviews say anyone can read it and understand it. I don't know which to believe. I definitely want to read it if I can though. I only have a little background in calculus and won't be taking my first course until this coming school year. Any opinions?

Any one has read "The name of rose" by Umberto Eco? I just wanted to know how is it? I saw it in library, should I read it?I have heard it has lot of semiotics stuff in it.

Being as this is a science-based forum, I think you might like WHEN SCIENCE GOES WRONG: TWELVE TALES FROM THE DARK SIDE OF DISCOVERY. I've just finished it and it is a great, interesting read. It gives true examples of where science has got it wrong - big time! The first story is really creepy. It's about a former Olympic athlete who has experimental brain surgery to cure Parkinson's disease. Unfortunately he dies soon afterwards and the woman doing the post mortem finds a foetus growing in his brain. There's loads of other fascinating stuff like how a man was wrongly convicted and jailed for 25 years for rape on DNA evidence, how weather forecasters failed …

Robert Geroch:Mathematical Physics Geroch uses category theory to introduce us to the basic mathematical structures of vector spaces, groups, topological spaces, associative algebras and Hilbert spaces. Category theory should be thought of as the "mathematics of mathematics", it unifies various structures and makes for a very economical frame work. As such, every mathematician, mathematical and theoretical physicist should have grasp of the basic language. Geroch's book is a great place to pick up some of this. My only disappointment is that, despite Geroch being a relativist there is no discussion of modern geometry. Well, you can't have it all. …

A fascinating book for anyone that might have questions on religion and arguments pertaining to theism and deism.

A while back, bascule recommended to me On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins. I finally started reading it two days ago and it was great. I would have been done sooner were it not for work Anyway, it gives a pretty detailed view of the neocortex and how it works hierarchically to produce/use invariant auto-associative memories. In doing so, he also tears down the skyhook that many people have that intelligence is some sort of magical thing and replaces it with biology. He argues against artificial intelligence and insists that we should instead create machines with real intelligence using the neocortex as a guide. Overall, I think it's a pretty good book; It's als…

Check out GHOSTS/ALIENS by Trey Hamburger (same guy who wrote REAL Ultimate Power: The Official Ninja Book.) The book is AWESOME. I'm obsessed with it. http://www.ghostsaliens.net

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…

So i had to read two peotry books for advanced literature and i read Jorge Luis Borges, which are your classic cosmoplolitian poetry which is always nice but rather boring, then i read a book by Charles Bukowski called The last Night of the Earth poems, which was so funny, it is basically a literary genre called dirty realism (google it if you get a chance) overall i enjoyed reading it and want to sort of get other people started on it, so enjoy! Here is a sample warning: bad language by the way! 8 count from my bed I watch 3 birds on a telephone wire. one flies off. then another. one is left, then it too is gone. my typewriter is tombstone …

hi, im lois. i just joined the forum. i just read a book about hoe the genes came about.

I'm sure 'The Sun and Moon Corrupted' will be enjoyed by many on here, especially anyone who peruses the Speculations forum with a critical eye. My housemate bought me this book for my birthday, the uncorrected bound proof, so I'm lucky enough to have a rare copy. The author Philip Ball is a writer and consultant editor for Nature, and his experience with fringe science becomes abundantly clear in just the first few chapters. The book follows a journalist Lena, who is trying to track the elusive and notorious Karl Neder (the star crackpot), for an article on his ideas, and life. I won't give too much away, but Karl Neder is a special case within the fringe science fr…

I am currently reading The Music of the Primes: Searching to Solve the Greatest Mystery in Mathematics, by Marcus du Sautoy. I am not quite done yet but so far it is a very good book. I was wondering if anyone else had read it and if so what the thought of the book. If you have not read it I would suggest you do. It covers the entire story of prime numbers from the Greeks to the present day. Plus, it is not weighed down with to much complicated mathematics.