The most important science book I've read in years
353775
I came across this book while studying applied linguistics, and was curious about what Connectionist theory had to say against Noam Chomsky's nativist approach, which is that language is too complex a thing to be learned in the same way that we learn to swim or drive a car, and that it must be genetically ingrained, with a specific "language gene" that determines the fundamental parameters of how all human languages work.

  Until reading this, I had heard all the conventional arguments against connectionsim -it was all computers and had nothing to do with the human mind, no computer simulation could ever come close to mimicing the complexity of the human mind, etc.

  This book, mostly concerned with human development, has some fascinating and paradigm-changing ideas to add to the debate. If genes are so important, the authors argue, why don't we come out of the womb as fully formed adults with everything we need to know hardwired into us, as some lower species are? The authors show that there are simple flowers that have more genes than we do, demonstrating that gene count isn't the last word on an organism's complexity.

  The authors make a powerful case that the state of childhood , and the complex development our minds experience during this time, is the reason that genes with specific codings don't have to do all the work- we are formed in interaction with our environments.

  Rather than explaining everything, connectionist models simply demonstrate how, on the simplest level, our minds COULD work. While the models are simple, the results are fascinating. While obviously far less complex, the models really do demonstrate some of the quirks of human learning and acquisition in ways that more rigid, rule-based artificial intelligence doesn't.

  I could write more, but this is a sprawling book packed with countless ideas, and even a brief summary would cover several pages. I admit that it can get technical at times, and I had to limit my reading of it to a few pages a day to fully digest it. But if you want to learn about this subject and have the dedication to get through it, it's an extremely worthwhile and rewarding investment of your time.
2283542
This book was very popular with my friends when I was in college, so popular, in fact, that I balked at it as being something trendy and never got around to reading it. Until now. I love this book. And I'm glad I waited to read it.

GEB is a difficult book to describe. The three central figures, a mathematician, an artist, and a composer, don't seem to share much on the surface aside from their obvious brilliance in their respective fields.

Hofstadter brings the work of the three together in a lengthy examination of the nature of thought and intelligence. Along the way, he touches on symbolic logic, number theory, music, visual art, molecular biology, Zen, computer science, neuroscience, and artificial intelligence.

He does it all while interspersing his chapters with humorous dialogues using the style and characters of Zeno and Lewis Carroll, and formatting inspired by Bach's compositions.

Going into this book, I had almost no knowledge of classical music. I'm okay with math, and have a pretty reasonable grasp of molecular biology (I teach high school biology and chemistry). I'm a fan of Escher's work, although I don't have much theoretical knowledge about visual art.

I found myself referencing many, many books I'd read and ideas I'd encountered over my lifetime as I made my way through GEB, which I why I was glad to be reading it now, rather than when I was 18. There is a LOT to ponder in this book.

And throughout it all, Hofstadter engages in some amazing wordplay, adding new layers to the text in an incredible variety of ways.

This book definitely asks a lot of the reader. It's dense in places, and it jumps rapidly to so many wildly different ideas that it can feel like a scramble to keep up.

But it is absolutely loaded with brilliance. A fascinating read.
1196159
This is the best science based fiction I've read in years.
187062
'A New Worldview', edited and published by Russell E. DiCarlo, is somehow a radical book in that it really holds its promise: it presents a new worldview, and all its contributors are leading-edge scientists and paranormal healers of the highest caliber and with the highest credentials.

This is the most electrifying science book I have read so far, and each contribution is a major one. I go as far as saying that this book will really contribute changing your regard on life forever, and your regard on science as well because it presents, through and through, a holistic science approach of the finest, and part of its discourse is science theory, and systems theory.

It would be preposterous to even remotely attempt to paraphrase the contributions of this reader. I therefore decided to put a small number of quotes for each of the eight contributions to the reader that I present here. I think it would be a good idea to really follow up with each author after having read the quotes, and read some of their own books, which is why I have sought out for each author one of their most popular or bestselling booksand indeed all of the contributing authors to this reader are themselves bestselling authors.

Contributing Authors
Barbara Brennan
Caroline Myss
Gary Zukav
Jacqueline Small
Larry Dossey
Peter Russell
Peter Senge
Stan Grof
2852580
What an important book!  I'm eagerly sharing the vital insights to any of my friends and family who'll listen - wanting everyone to live healthier lives through informed food choices.  If only they'd read the book so they'd know for themselves.  Deep Nutrition explains the science just enough to enlighten me about the lurking realities, but without losing my interest via incomprehensible scientific minutia.  I've been a "victim" of chronic back pain for 12+ years, but after incorporating the four food pillars for only the past 3 1/2 weeks I'm already feeling markedly better, am able to do so much more, and LOVE eating real foods again.  Even more important is the utter hope and sense of control I now feel about improving my own health, and my future health.  I no longer see myself as powerless to my body's continuing degradation. Rather, thanks to Dr. Cate's pioneering research, I now understand how it's all connected and reversible: with the simple adjustment to diet.  What a huge emotional relief, as well as physical. I cannot thank the authors enough for sharing their good work with the masses.  But I think of them - and thank them - with every delicious meal I make.

Melody Bissada
4807753
This is an excellent review of cosmology, particle physics and biology. The book explains complicated concepts clearly in everyday language. It is a valuable guide to what is known in science as compared to that which is speculation - In this regard it's far superior to books written by Lawrence Krauss, Brian Greene and Stephen Hawking. The author leaves us with an appreciation of the beauty of nature, and a healthy respect for its complications. His insistence on the need for measurement or observation to test theoretical speculation is refreshing given what appears to be publishers' tendency to favor spectacular unproven theoretical guesswork to known facts of hard science.

However, this is a book of metaphysics, and the author has a message he wants to impart based on what is known: We should appreciate how rare and vulnerable we are as a human race. We may be one of a kind in our universe, and even if others exist, the probability of communication is very unlikely. The author exhorts us to care for ourselves and our planet, to preserve our existence for future generations.

Specifically, the author rejects the search for universalism or unification in a description of nature, because we must recognize that we will always be limited in our knowledge by our ability to observe our world. Regardless of the sophistication of our methods, we'll always be deficient in our understanding, and thereby incapable of deriving a unified picture of existence. This leads to the supposition that we cannot ever prove a first cause, and that we must accept the possibility that we exist by chance, not as a result of some predetermined destiny. Because we may be rare, a mere fluke, we're obliged to preserve the miracle of our existence.

The metaphysical arguments will not appeal to every reader, although they are interesting by themselves. Nonetheless, the book is an excellent read for those who really want to understand the cutting edge of modern day science.
383969
For the last couple of days I have been browsing through No Small Matter: Science on the Nanoscale, a collaboration between art and science that has yielded a stunning new way of looking at a world we never see. The goal is to present through photography a way of looking at and thinking about how life and nature work at the smallest scale.

What I find so powerful about the book is the way in which it leads the reader to understand how little we know about the such fundamental things as water and the role it plays in the chemistry of living and non-living things. That's assuming we know exactly where that line is, which after reading this book you might not be so sure about any more.

This is a wonderful work of art and some of the most lucid science writing I have ever come across. Makes you thing anew about the vast void that exists in our understanding of just about anything.
1410022
A Crack in Creation by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg is simply a must-read popular science book.  Professor Doudna led the research team responsible for the breakthrough gene editing technology, CRSIPR.  This important book promises to stimulate informed conversation about the new, unprecedented powers of creation that have recently been placed in human hands.

The book is divided into two sections. Part I: The Tool documents the discovery process that led to CRISPR. No doubt, the authors painstaking reconstruction of events will prove immensely valuable to students and scientists.  The authors have a knack for explaining complex concepts in an accessible manner. Still, for generalists like myself, I found myself skimming through sections because the science (for my taste) trends towards the arcane.

Part II: The Task talks about the potential uses and abuses of CRISPR.  The authors envision useful systemic applications including immunotherapy to fight disease, the purposeful engineering of more productive crops and livestock, and so on.  Human germline applications, of course, are more problematic.  The authors are sympathetic to the cause of eradicating genetic conditions but are concerned about unwise experimentation (e.g., designer babies).  After reading the authors reasoned thoughts and perspectives, I feel much better informed and engaged. There is no doubt that gene editing will be widely discussed and debated for many years to come.

I highly recommend this excellent book to everyone.
1607247
The first chapter was somewhat difficult to read. I found that this was so initially because the author talked about so many seemingly disconnected and unrelated things that I was unsure what to make of the book and why he was talking about them.
Only as I read some more, did I see it all come coherently together, and as the many examples that he provided eventually built more evidence for his theory of a monolithic Natural Law that solves many problems in various divisions within science and religion and language and symbolism and within social and racial issues.

Mr. Romer discusses the historical and "politically-incorrect" fact of almost 100% White European/American supremacy in their own Modern Western Civilization's cultures and inventions, in their scientific accomplishments, and in their technology and medicine.
Romer then tells us just why this is important to the world and to the relationship to the informational-based purposes that are inherent to our own continued Human survival and that is also true for all species and for all of life.

There is a coherence and a natural hidden force behind our everyday world that allows us to recognize patterns, metaphors, analogies, symbols, and to develop languages based upon our experiences and consciousness.
This coherent and natural hidden force is slowly revealed by Romer in his many original examples and in his many colorful illustrations.

Reading this book will be quite a mind-expanding journey for the open-minded and for any of those capable of free and independent thought.

An April 2004 issue of Scientific American had a cover story on glial cells in the brain that echos many of the ideas in the glial cell chapter of the book.
This fact alone reveals the revolutionary and cutting-edge nature of what Romer explores in his book.
This also gives some actual scientific credibility to some of his radical ideas since these very same ideas are now being backed-up by much of the more recent and emerging scientific evidence through research.
Big changes are coming soon and based upon this new knowledge and Romer is one of the first to see it.

I do highly recommend that you read this book
by Romer for your own self and to discover these
recently uncovered scientific and religious insights
into these previously-hidden Natural Laws of the Cosmos.
4035402
"Overheated," by Andrew Guzman, is not just another climate change book. For one thing, Guzman is a lawyer with a background in economics, not a scientist, so those looking for a thorough scientific explanation of climate science will be disappointed. Those who are concerned that he would approach the scientist like a lawyer will have their concerns allayed - his scientific exposition is relatively brief, but it is firmly grounded in science. But it is his background and his ability to bring the subject to a human scale that makes this an invaluable volume.

Guzman does explain enough of the science to make the subject understandable, but his strength is in describing the effects of climate change, both current and future. From drought to famine to war to pestilence, Guzman constructs a veritable stable for the apocalyptic horsemen. The scenarios are alarming without being alarmist. The history of these factors in human civilizations, an understanding of what is currently happening and predictions of what could happen to these factors and are all used to drive home the point that the effects of climate change put our civilizations at risk. The story is less about saving the earth than it is about saving civilization. Although the former is important, it is realistic to assume that action by governments will come about because of the risk to people.

Besides its readability and clear language, the book succeeds because of four factors. First, Guzman bases his predictions on conservative estimates of the experts, a change of 2C, so he is looking at a scenario that has a high probability of happening (acknowledging that it could be even worse). Second, the fact that he is not a scientist means that he has a good handle on what information is important for the non-scientist. Third, his expertise in economics allows him to look at economic scenarios and assess their probabilities. Last, he uses a wealth of analogies to make daunting concepts understandable. We respond much more to stories than to data, and Guzman has obviously learned this important communications lesson.

At the end of the book, Guzman describes the excuses for inaction (using the analogies of a child putting his head under the covers and a teenager procrastinating) and assesses the actions that are being discussed. This final section is relatively brief, but particularly strong, and his explanation of the economics and politics of a carbon tax vs. cap-and-trade is a must-read. In fact, the volume itself should be widely read, and should take its place along with the heavy-duty scientific books and books about the denial machine.
1375458
I haven't enjoyed reading a book this much in ages. It captures why There is so much to love and admire about science and plants, how it feels to be a woman in a male-dominated field of academia, why some of us are driven to write, and how understanding humans and their relationships is so challenging. She's really insightful and articulate, a wonderful combination to find in a book. She should follow up with a Reddit ama if she hasn't already.
1612575
Thi is a very well thought out, very well documented, very well written book on a subject that should have been far more carefully studied than it has been.  Namely, over the last two hundred years the natural sciences have changed enormously - not just in their theoretical foundations but their methodologies as well.  This book focuses on the life sciences, but as a geologist I can confirm that very, very similar things to what this book describes have also taken place in the earth sciences during the 20th century.  No practicing natural scientist who wants to understand the changes in their science, well enough to keep up with them, should be without this book.
4092229
This book was absolutely enlightening. It reads easily from start to finish, it gives excellent, thorough citations of all the science it talks about, it goes back quite a ways in time and keeps up with the most modern studies, and it makes excellent points on the topic. I will be promptly taking the books advice quite soon
4213708
Tom Friedman has written what is probably the most important book published in the past 50 years.  Having been a Professor of Environmental Technology for three decades I can unequivocally say that Friedman has pulled it all together in a very readable book.  There is HOPE for the future and a lot of people who jump on board are going to get rich. I just ordered 50 copies for my undergraduate class. This should be REQUIRED reading for ALL college students and the public at large.
1603637
When you read this book, you feel that it is a chronicle of human history of increasing knowledge about single cell operation and information purpose in it functionality.  I read this book like a novel with a zest of specific nomenclature and classification. It stands for fresh unbiased and innovative approach to most up-to-date knowledge about application of:  information, mathematical statistics and computer science in modern biology. I agree that is easier said than done to read all of 508 pages of this book plus every one of meticulous notes. It did take me at least three weeks to absorb about half of facts this book has to offer.
This book is not about religion or God or faith. This book is about science, historical science process, its developments and falls. Author brilliantly teaches us in a direct way about logic, implications, surprise conclusions and unexpected outcome of scientific discussion and debate.  I learned a lot from his discussion about evidence and facts interpretation. This book is a "manual" for those who like to conduct systematic and methodical conversation.  Beside his incredible knowledge on subject, author is offering astonishing skills in arguing with opponents.
 From this point of view I highly recommend this book for those who are sophisticated as well as for those who are not. You will learn about subject and you will absorb stylish way to go in any rational and civilizing debate on any subject. Have a nice (and challenging) journey into scientific discussion.
732811
This book is fairly easy to read and provides the best explanation of complex carbon molecules in particular DNA. There is always the question of when to read a mind expanding book, but I wish I had read it in High School -- I'm now a senior citizen. Its like a user manual for humans. One of the most important books I have read aside from the Secret Life of Plants.
2124886
I've read over 150 popular science books over the past couple decades, from Timothy Ferris to Murray Gell-Mann, all the recent Nobelists, and most everybody in between.  Scientists, science writers... it's a long list.  **Trespassing on Einstein's Lawn** is entirely unique among them, but not only for the occasional use of expletives in appropriate situations!  It's the story of a journey, a very real journey... in learning about the world and universe around us.  And Amanda takes the reader along with her, cracking us up with her reactions to her learnings and her encounters with many of the popular names in theoretical physics today.  She's not short on covering current physics and cosmology, either.  Maybe because I can particularly identify with her journey, to a degree anyway, but this book is one of the best.