Natalie Angier’s whirlwind tour through the fundamentals of science (not including Computer Science, must not be real) is a nice—and light— introduction to a selection of the underpinnings of modern scientific thoguht. While, likely not a book to satisfy those looking for technical and mathematical depth—or any math at all—Angier is a talented writer, and her style here, mixing personal anecdotes, metaphors, and interviews with many top scientists makes one of the better popular science introductions around.

Well this book has made me decide. My body should definitely be donated to science. after i die of course.

Ok, also. On the topic of training doctors:
“Nowadays, enlightened medical schools will hire a ‘pelvic educator,’ a sort of professional vagina who allows the students to practice on her and offers personalized feedback…”
Seriously. who wants that job!?

I would have rated this book higher, but they killed Arkady. they should not have done that.

“The individual is, in his future and his past, a piece of fate, one law more, one necessity more for everything that is and everything that will be. To say to him ‘change yourself’ means to demand that everything should change, even in the past…”

I was told to read this book about five years ago and began reading it two years ago. It took that long to finish, not because it isn’t interesting, but because I was very distracted and it is nonfiction so it’s easy to put down for a time. If you happen to have a degree in anthropology the first part of the book will be repetitive and a bit dull, but once you get past that this book is amazing. The scope of understanding why was it that Europe was able to take over the rest of the world in a extremely non-racist manner is incredible. This book won the Pulitzer Prize for a very good reason and everyone who wants to understand the history of the world should read this.

Before today’s teams of scientists and corporate R&D became Big Science, there was a tradition of individuals conducting science experiments in isolation: Galileo’s attempts to measure gravity, Newton sticking a needle behind his eye to figure out how light interacts with the retina, William Harvey using a tourniquet on his arm to study arteries and veins.

George Johnson returns us to the days when doing science was exciting and daring and fun (except for that needle in the eye). My favorite part of the book deals with Ivan Pavlov’s experiments with dogs. This is a story that has become distorted in psychology books. The true story is fascinating!

Considering I work for J. Craig Venter, this might be a slightly biased review. Although, I must mention that this is really his side of the story and I would love to read someone else’s point of view of the same events.

With that said, it was great to hear how Craig has accomplished some of the most important biological discoveries of the current times. It also becomes more evident why others despise him for his ego. Was the book well written? Not really. If I didn’t work for him would I have enjoyed the book? Maybe, hard to tell.

The Confusion is the second volume in the Baroque Cycle consisting of two books: Bonanza and The Juncto. These two books are interwoven in the novel so that the timeline between them stays consistent.

I really don’t have much to say about this book that differs from my review of Quicksilver. Stephenson continues expanding on two main story lines and their corresponding characters, and at times the effects from one novel are seen in the other. The scope is now widened (mostly in Bonanza) to include the Middle East, India, Japan and Mexico / Central America. I do not want to go into too many details of the plot as the stories are long and convoluted and may spoil events in Quicksilver. The end of the novels set up well for the final volume of the series.

Again I greatly enjoyed the books and recommend them.

So having finished my painful trip through the history of salt, I was ready to move on to the next book. Thankfully the next book was another by Erik Larson. Larson, who wrote The Devil in the White City is a fantastic author and well on his way to being one of my favorites.

Issac’s Storm is about Issac Cline whom you may not know was a meteorologist. While the title may clue you in as to the topic despite its probable loss of the true deadliest title, I shall belabor the obvious and direct your attention to the city of Galveston in the year 1900. A hurricane pretty much like no other nailed the city and resulted in a great loss of life. As per usual in hindsight it can be seen that the warnings were there, and were unheeded. The story mostly follows Issac who was the chief of the weather station in Galveston. It speaks of what he did right and what he completely missed. The story also tells of an age where mankind believed in the strength of steel, and knew that the Law of Storms would tell us what the weather would do, and moreover how through our actions we could stop hail and cause rain.

As an aside, I shall say a word about hurricanes, city planning, budgets, and New York. As I read the book my mind was drawn back to the relatively recent disaster in New Orleans, and how our own hubris allows us to believe ourselves safe, and then our greed and penny pinching dooms us in the future. People asked why the levees didn’t stand and I think the core of engineers colonel (if I recall correctly) said it most poignantly when he replied “they were built to levee level 3, the storm was higher than a 3 and they failed.” The incredulous reporter inquired as to why and the colonel replied “cause that is all people were willing to pay for.” So the levees will be rebuilt although almost certainly not strong enough, but New Orleans like Galveston knows to expect another blow. But I await the day with trepidation when the hurricane people continually warn about finally nails NYC and we all suddenly look up in shock like we didn’t know it was coming.

Anyways now that I have made this review significantly more verbose and a bit preachy allow me to continue. Larson again delivers an amazing ride through history. The story is written so well it is hard to believe that essentially you are almost reading a textbook. Again I am willing to recommend this book to almost anyone with a love of reading. I personally I looking forward to later this month when Thunderbolt his newest book hits the shelves paperback style.

Well this is one of those books that I could not walk past in the store without buying it. Most especially since it was a best seller as amazing as that sounds. The subject matter is quite fascinating as few truly realize how large a role salt has played throughout history. That said I had a hard time finishing this book. The author is all about food subjects and he interjects all manner of epicurean information into the book. This may amuse and interest some people but for me it just made it a hard read that seemed disjointed. This is a book I would love to give more stars too because it is fascinating, but I just can’t do it in light of how hard of a read I found it to be.

This book presents as one may expect from the title a biography of Albert Einstein. The author does a decent job of keeping the story interesting and flowing well. However, if you are into the math or science behind the story you may well end up being somewhat disappointed as the author’s treatment is not too in depth. This does have the upside of making it readable by a much larger audience. The life of Einstein is fairly fascinating. A man with problems and at the same time brilliant.

Definitely worth a read if you are a science buff or if Einstein is your cup of tea.

NNT’s argument is that things that we don’t expect to happen matter more so we should stop forecasting (most) things because we aren’t going to get anything (important) right anyway.

He has lots of bits about why we delude ourselves with narratives (and how to prevent narratives from doing that, or how to use narratives to get ourselves to be re-deluded to believe better things), how statistics do nothing for us, and how these “black swans” matter lots and lots and we should leverage them.

The bell curve is very bad. Mandlebrotion randomness is very good. Being a successful writer require random good luck.

Most importantly, one must find their own historical foundation from the works of forgotten/neglected/partially ignored scholars.

Oh Ian McEwan, because of this novel I nearly purchased a large belt buckle at the Cheyenne Frontier Days Rodeo that was covered in hot air balloons, but then I realized that this would be a morbid act and a reminder of death in the shape of hot air balloons.

So while I did not purchase this buckle, I did enjoy this book, which kept me reading, kept me interested, and kept me guessing on what was going to happen, who to believe, and how stable the mental health of the main character is.

Tying in science writing, a childless yet love filled relationship, an obsessed and devout christian stalker, and the search for truth, we find that enduring love is not what we might have thought.

What do Chicago, serial killers, Ferris wheels, and architecture have in common? If you answered the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair you would be spot on. The author chronicles the fair and the events that surrounded it through the lives of two men. The first is the architect responsible for the fair, Daniel Burnham. The second is Dr. H Holmes America’s first serial killer. The author shows you how the magic that was the white city was perverted by the horrid acts of a man who used the draw of the amazing fair to further his murderous schemes. Not only is the book well written, but it is almost hard to believe that all of the events actually happened. Definitely worth a read to learn about the fair that cemented America’s place as a world power and showed the French that we can build it bigger.

An acient artifact is stolen from a long forgotten crypt beneath Temple Mount. The corpse that the Catholic Church has stolen had been crucified. This story revolves around the mystery of who these “sacred” bones belong to, with many religious communities attempting to take control. Interesting read with a rather obvious plot. But a good religious mystery along the lines of the DaVinci Code.

This is one of those books that makes you think about things you never have to think about. Like why someone looks happy or what does it actually mean to pay attention? A lot more on the pyschology side than the neuroscientific side, this book explores many everyday phenomena that we miss on a regular basis.

Not only does Johnson explore our reactions to our own experiences, but he also tries to explain why, evolutionarily speaking, we function that way.

An interesting look into the biggest biological mystery.

This book posed a lot of interesting questions about Progress and the future of religion. What are the issues that people who have “faith” must face to continue to believe? He separates people into Religious Moderates and Religious Extremists, and discusses both thoroughly and coherently. Moderates must pick and choose their beliefs because today’s society conflicts with our basic religious texts. Religious Extremists put too much faith in the literal words of that text. What I like about Harris’ arguments is that he uses these doctrines themselves to argue against continuous unquestioning faith in written word over progress and reason. In the end, he suggests this unquestioning literal interpretation, as well as our conscious decision to ignore what we dislike about them, does more harm than good. A really interesting read. While you may not agree with his points, I think the questions he raises are valid, and makes you question and consider where you position yourself within this debate.