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Post by bluebiro on Sept 5, 2010 17:34:24 GMT 1
Okay, to get the ball rolling, how about we share views on science books we particularly liked (or disliked!), or which we'd like to get but would welcome advice.
For example, somebody sent me a link to a book called How To Find a Habitable Planet by James F. Kasting. I skimmed through it and it looks like a brilliant introduction to planetary science. The emphasis is on the search for extraterrestrial life, which is interesting enough, but I'm also keen to get an accessible (without being dumbed down) run down on the atmosphereric and geological conditions on Venus and Mars, among other things.
I might buy it as a present to myself when I finish my Open University course next month.
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Post by kiteman on Sept 5, 2010 21:15:42 GMT 1
In a similar vein, What Does A Martian Look Like?
In one, easily-consumed paperback, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen explain evolution in the most universal terms, and also thoroughly destroy the "Goldilocks zone" concept.
(Read it, then read their science fiction novel Wheelers straight afterwards.)
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Post by bluebiro on Sept 5, 2010 22:15:13 GMT 1
I've read half of What Does A Martian Look Like?, then got sidetracked - probably when I started my wretched PGCE course.
It's on my list of "must get back to!" books, although I'll probably restart it.
I once met Jack Cohen at a science fiction convention. Very nice chap.
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Post by helen on Sept 6, 2010 16:11:51 GMT 1
After being totally beguiled by The Cloudspotter's Guide by Gavin Pretor-Pinney his new book The Wavewatchers Companion has a similar friendly, self depricating expert style. On the nature of waves from the sea through to gamma. Quite superb.
Recommend Collapse by Jared Diamond. This is a bit more erudite. Chapters cover the rise and fall of various societies since the stone age and examines the reasons behind their evolution.
Just Six Numbers by Martin Rees, a short but absorbing discussion on six fundemental numbers that describe our universe.
On a different scientific tack This Your Brain On Music by Daniel Levitin. An essay on why our brains appear to be hard wired to respond to and appreciate music.
Finally. It's science fiction but not as we know it. The most recent novel by Ian McEwan: Solar. A fabulous satire on the environmental issues of the early twentieth first century.
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Post by rsmith7 on Sept 6, 2010 16:38:10 GMT 1
helen, darling! How nice to see you again. I particularly enjoyed Fred Hoyle's "energy or extinction". Difficult to get hold of now though, I wonder why? Amazon is your best bet.
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Post by helen on Sept 6, 2010 16:55:41 GMT 1
R Smith. If you want to discuss the case for nuclear energy or Fred Hoyle start a new thread. I know you of old.
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Post by rsmith7 on Sept 6, 2010 17:15:02 GMT 1
Come now helen, there's no need to be so defensive. I was being nice!
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Post by bluebiro on Sept 6, 2010 21:27:21 GMT 1
Come now helen, there's no need to be so defensive. I was being nice! Please try to stay on topic.
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Post by lazarus on Sept 6, 2010 23:02:33 GMT 1
I would have to agree that Bad Science is a good read. You will definitely learn something about media spin and cherry picking stats.
Another one to be recommended is the classic Demon Haunted World by Carl Sagan. Great for learning critical thinking (his baloney detection kit) and the evils of confirmation bias - for true sceptics only.
On evolution, I enjoyed The Ancestors Tale by Richard Dawkins, but found The Selfish Gene hard going at times and was a little disappointed by his latest The Greatest Show on Earth. You Inner Fish by Neil Shubin and Almost Like a Whale by Steve Jones were better.
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Post by marchesarosa on Sept 7, 2010 16:27:54 GMT 1
"The Hockeystick Illusion" by Andrew Montford Tells the ins and outs of the attempts over several years, of Steve McIntyre, to obtain the data and code from Michael Mann and his co-authors so that he could test the 'multiproxy' climate reconstructions that supposedly vanquished the Mediaeval Warm Period and demonstrated "unprecedented" recent warming supposedly due to CO2. Not only does he have statistical nous, Steve actually walked out into the mountains where bristlecone treering samples were taken from and actually found the trees used and still bearing identification tags from decades ago. Don't kid yourself that this is man is not owed a big debt of gratitide by everyone who wants to understand what's happened in climate "science" with the advent of the IPCC. Fascinating detective thriller combined with detailed statistical explanations that keep you turning the pages. Steve's tireless efforts combined with his statistical expertise foretold the death of the AGW hypothesis - at least insofar as it depended on proxy historical temperature reconstructions. www.amazon.co.uk/Illusion-Climategate-Corruption-Science-Independent/dp/1906768358/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1283873189&sr=1-1I'm waiting for someone to do the same for the GHCN instrumental global temperature database. Maybe it will be done by Chiefio (E M Smith) He has the writing skills to keep you entertained as well as the statistical nous and probably knows more about the GHCN than anyone in the world, including its compilers! We'll see!
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Post by lazarus on Sept 7, 2010 22:45:16 GMT 1
I prefer Robert Ludlum, his fiction is a lot more believable.
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Post by trollhunterx on Sept 8, 2010 9:25:32 GMT 1
Now that there is a forum called 'Book Recommendations', might it be better to open separate threads for each recommended book?
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Post by marchesarosa on Sept 8, 2010 18:57:09 GMT 1
Do it then! There's nothing to stop you opening a new thread on this board.
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Post by helen on Sept 8, 2010 19:06:06 GMT 1
Would like to recommend a book of short stories. It's by an Italian industrial chemist named Primo Levi and the book is called The Periodic Table. It's a collection of mostly autobiographical short stories, each named for twenty one elements in the periodic table and each one magical in it's own right. Each story chronicles the mans life from a freedom as a youth in the Italian Alps and love of science in Piedmont, through his love of (girls and wonder at life) and love of chemistry to the privations of life as a chemist and jew in Austwitz. It is so packed with science but also life. The thing that shines through his love of chemistry is his humility and the love of his fellow man. Questioning always right through to his death. This is the one of the most fabulous books of the twentieth century. It's about science; it's about humanity; it's about humility. The greatest science book ever?
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Post by helen on Sept 14, 2010 15:42:11 GMT 1
Tom Fort, Under The Weather. A history of British weather......superb. For anyone interested in....a great book on the British obsession with their weather and if you find this idea compelling, that weather is interesting, then this your book!
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