Science ebook recommendations

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Angst

Hi MickeyC,

I would recommend re-reading Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. A doctor's subjective experience with an "afterlife", doesn't quite meet scientific standards for validity.

Just picked it up. I also found two articles in Scientific American that state the same thing.

[MickeyC]

And just finished the Sagan book and it was excellent. Recommend anyone who reads Proof of Heaven also read this one.

[MickeyC]

Highly recommend The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne. Thorne is a theoretical physicist who assisted Christopher Nolan, the director of the movie.

When I saw the film I was impressed by how accurate the science seemed to be. Then I saw the book and couldn't resist. And it was a very interesting read and made the movie much more understandable.

[kennyc]

Just started The Meaning of Human Existence by E. O. Wilson.

[WT Sharpe]

I recently read At Day’s Close: Night in Times Past by A. Roger Ekirch. While this historical account of how we dealt with those hours when the Earth faced outward of its home in times past only peripherally touches on science, the author does develop an hypothesis late in the book concerning how all of us living in the post-Thomas Edison and friends period sleep. He claims we're doing it wrong, or at least, quite differently from the way our ancestors did it. Of course, we're all aware of how electricity has made considerable inroads into established sleep patterns built up over countless generations of evolution, but he goes one step further. He claims that until the last couple of hundred years, when gas and especially electrical lighting forever changed things, that people normally slept in two discrete chunks. The mid-night period after the "first sleep" was generally used to reflect upon the day's events, contemplate those things for which the day allowed little time, and to consider the dreams that had visited us in that first slumber and ponder their meaning. He claims that, as a result, we've lost a bit of insight into our own natures. I'm not sure I buy it, but it's an interesting proposition, and one that I hope sleep researchers will look into.

[Rizla]

Project Identification: The First Scientific Field Study of UFO Phenomena, by Harley D. Rutledge.

http://www.amazon.com/Project-Identi.../dp/0137307055

Harley D. Rutledge was Professor and Chairman of the Physics Department at Southeast Missouri State University.

From Wiki:

Challenged to explain sightings of unidentified lights and luminous phenomena in the sky around Piedmont, Missouri, Dr. Harley Rutledge decided to subject these reports to scientific analysis. He put together a team of observers with college training in the physical sciences, including a large array of equipment: RF spectrum analyzers, Questar telescopes, low-high frequency audio detectors, electromagnetic frequency analyzer, cameras, and a galvanometer to measure variations in the Earth's gravitational field.

The resulting Project Identification commenced in April 1973, logging several hundred hours of observation time. This was the first UFO scientific field study, able to monitor the phenomena in real-time, enabling Rutledge to calculate the objects' actual velocity, course, position, distance, and size.

A remarkable book. Because there were so many UFOs in the area, Rutledge and his team were able to triangulate sightings and take photographs of the same objects from multiple vantage points, leading to remarkable conclusions. It's a book that is a breath fresh of air in a field that is dominated by blind believers and skeptics.

This work is largely forgotten and is only available as a used tree-book.

[Rizla]

Originally Posted by Angst

Hi MickeyC,

I would recommend re-reading Carl Sagan's The Demon-Haunted World. A doctor's subjective experience with an "afterlife", doesn't quite meet scientific standards for validity.

Sure, but then neither does the entirely subjective experience of consciousness meet scientific standards for validity.

[MickeyC]

Just reread Michio Kaku's Einstein's Comos and gained more insight into special relativity. Not saying I understand it all but have a much better picture. Kaku has to be one of the best science authors.

[Dngrsone]

Originally Posted by MickeyC

Just reread Michio Kaku's Einstein's Comos and gained more insight into special relativity. Not saying I understand it all but have a much better picture. Kaku has to be one of the next science authors.

Ever listen to his radio show?

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Just started The Meaning of Human Existence by E. O. Wilson.

Just noticed this....as a follow-up....

This book did not address the title but was nothing more than his attempt to justify his personal theory/belief about cultural evolution which is far from mainstream.

Very disappointing.

[MickeyC]

Originally Posted by Dngrsone

Ever listen to his radio show?

Yes and like it a lot!

[kennyc]

Scatter, Adapt, and Remember: How Humans Will Survive a Mass Extinction
In its 4.5 billion–year history, life on Earth has been almost erased at least half a dozen times: shattered by asteroid impacts, entombed in ice, smothered by methane, and torn apart by unfathomably powerful megavolcanoes. And we know that another global disaster is eventually headed our way. Can we survive it? How?

As a species, Homo sapiens is at a crossroads. Study of our planet’s turbulent past suggests that we are overdue for a catastrophic disaster, whether caused by nature or by human interference.
It’s a frightening prospect, as each of the Earth’s past major disasters—from meteor strikes to bombardment by cosmic radiation—resulted in a mass extinction, where more than 75 percent of the planet’s species died out. But in Scatter, Adapt, and Remember, Annalee Newitz, science journalist and editor of the science Web site io9.com explains that although global disaster is all but inevitable, our chances of long-term species survival are better than ever.
....

http://www.amazon.com/Scatter-Adapt-.../dp/B00A9ET57Q

Great book covering a number of topics all focused on Mass Extinctions and Survivors of them.

[MickeyC]

Just finished Beyond Words which was an excellent review of how animals (primarily elephants, chimps, wolves, dogs and dolphins) think and feel. It was both very informative but also emotionally arousing.

[kennyc]

Thanks Mickey!

[MickeyC]

Anybody read What If by Randall Munroe? It looks interesting and amusing. Details here on Amazon http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scient...randall+munroe