I'm not much on philosophy, so when I saw the first lecture had "Metaphysics" in the title, I was skeptical, but I quickly found out that Gimbel is anI'm not much on philosophy, so when I saw the first lecture had "Metaphysics" in the title, I was skeptical, but I quickly found out that Gimbel is an excellent, practical lecturer. If anything, he goes through some very important points too quickly. Great lead-ins from each lecture to the next.
He has a good sense of humor. There's quips here & there to great effect. His examples of how science has influenced art & every day life are good. He shows it in art & literature. Very good examples. I do wish he had consistently gotten The Moon is a Harsh Mistress correct. He did the first time, but then changed 'Harsh' to something else - rough, maybe. Still, his point was well made.
What did science, the scientific method, mean to our civilization? It took away the mystery in the world. No longer was it something unknowable by the common man & that democratized society by cutting the legs out from under the existing power structures of religion & the divine right of rulers. Of course, there are always holdovers in our thinking & Gimbel mentions some of these.
Best of all, he does a great job of describing these basic ideas as they came about & how they as well as the people worked together to develop them. It's really helpful to see how the various scientists & their discoveries played out in broad form over time building on each other. He really makes sense of the progression.
It might be a bit too simple, but I appreciate that since it would be very easy to get too complicated. The first half dozen lectures deal primarily with physics & math, so he barely mentioned germ theory or the theory of evolution. He does eventually & covers them well, but the 19th & 20th centuries had so many society-shattering revelations that it's great he kept it simple & understandable. He eventually gets into psychology, AI, & Big Data, so he covers all bases.
We lived with Aristotle & Euclid for something like 2000 years before Newton & his ilk changed our worldview. Only a few centuries later Einstein & company pulled the rug out from under that & Quantum Mechanics expanded & changed their theories mere decades later, about the beginning of my generation. The changes since the 1950s are just mind boggling, accelerating ever faster. Some of the wildest dreams of SF writers are commonplace while some seem hopelessly dated.
All of these are changing our views on reality in amazing ways, but it also brings us a lot of questions. Toward the end, he kept leaving more open. What is mental illness? Homosexuality was one as late as 1974 in the US, I think. A child can now have up to 7 parents without trying to hard with our current tech. I was disappointed that he didn't mention the trouble we're having defining a GMO.
Excellent series of lectures. He missed very few things & glossed over some areas that I wish he would have gone into a bit more, but it was a fantastic job. Who would think that 18 hours of lectures would seem to short? It did. I wanted more. Highly recommended!
-------------------- This is not the correct edition. I guess this is one of The Great Courses that GoodReads has decided isn't a book. Jerks. This is course 4140 & you can find it here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours... It's pricey - $220 right now for the audio version & $100 more for the video. The audio version I got from the library is fine, though.
Table of Contents 1 - Metaphysics and the Nature of Science 2 - Defining Reality 3 - Mathematics in Crisis 4 - Special Relativity 5 - General Relativity 6 - Big Bang Cosmology 7 - The Reality of Atoms 8 - Quantum Mechanics 9 - Quantum Reid Theory 10 - Chaos Theory 11 - Dark Matter and Dark Energy 12 - Grand Unified Theories 13 - Quantum Consciousness 14 - Defining Reality in the life Sciences 15 - Genes and Identity 16 - The Birth of Psychology 17 - Jung and the Behaviorists 18 - The Rediscovery of the Mind 19 - The Caring Brain 20 - Brain and Self 21 - Evolutionary Psychology 22 - The Birth of Sociology 23 - Competition and Cooperation 24 - Race and Reality 25 - Social Progress 26 - The Reality of Money 27 - The Origin of life 28 - Exoplanets and Extraterrestrial life 29 - Technology and Death 30 - Cloning and Identity 31 - Genetic Engineering 32 - Medically Enhanced Humans 33 - Transhumans: Making living Gods 34 - Artificial Intelligence 35 - The Internet and Virtual Reality 36 - Data Analytics
Merged review:
I'm not much on philosophy, so when I saw the first lecture had "Metaphysics" in the title, I was skeptical, but I quickly found out that Gimbel is an excellent, practical lecturer. If anything, he goes through some very important points too quickly. Great lead-ins from each lecture to the next.
He has a good sense of humor. There's quips here & there to great effect. His examples of how science has influenced art & every day life are good. He shows it in art & literature. Very good examples. I do wish he had consistently gotten The Moon is a Harsh Mistress correct. He did the first time, but then changed 'Harsh' to something else - rough, maybe. Still, his point was well made.
What did science, the scientific method, mean to our civilization? It took away the mystery in the world. No longer was it something unknowable by the common man & that democratized society by cutting the legs out from under the existing power structures of religion & the divine right of rulers. Of course, there are always holdovers in our thinking & Gimbel mentions some of these.
Best of all, he does a great job of describing these basic ideas as they came about & how they as well as the people worked together to develop them. It's really helpful to see how the various scientists & their discoveries played out in broad form over time building on each other. He really makes sense of the progression.
It might be a bit too simple, but I appreciate that since it would be very easy to get too complicated. The first half dozen lectures deal primarily with physics & math, so he barely mentioned germ theory or the theory of evolution. He does eventually & covers them well, but the 19th & 20th centuries had so many society-shattering revelations that it's great he kept it simple & understandable. He eventually gets into psychology, AI, & Big Data, so he covers all bases.
We lived with Aristotle & Euclid for something like 2000 years before Newton & his ilk changed our worldview. Only a few centuries later Einstein & company pulled the rug out from under that & Quantum Mechanics expanded & changed their theories mere decades later, about the beginning of my generation. The changes since the 1950s are just mind boggling, accelerating ever faster. Some of the wildest dreams of SF writers are commonplace while some seem hopelessly dated.
All of these are changing our views on reality in amazing ways, but it also brings us a lot of questions. Toward the end, he kept leaving more open. What is mental illness? Homosexuality was one as late as 1974 in the US, I think. A child can now have up to 7 parents without trying to hard with our current tech. I was disappointed that he didn't mention the trouble we're having defining a GMO.
Excellent series of lectures. He missed very few things & glossed over some areas that I wish he would have gone into a bit more, but it was a fantastic job. Who would think that 18 hours of lectures would seem to short? It did. I wanted more. Highly recommended!
-------------------- This is not the correct edition. I guess this is one of The Great Courses that GoodReads has decided isn't a book. Jerks. This is course 4140 & you can find it here: https://www.thegreatcourses.com/cours... It's pricey - $220 right now for the audio version & $100 more for the video. The audio version I got from the library is fine, though.
Table of Contents 1 - Metaphysics and the Nature of Science 2 - Defining Reality 3 - Mathematics in Crisis 4 - Special Relativity 5 - General Relativity 6 - Big Bang Cosmology 7 - The Reality of Atoms 8 - Quantum Mechanics 9 - Quantum Reid Theory 10 - Chaos Theory 11 - Dark Matter and Dark Energy 12 - Grand Unified Theories 13 - Quantum Consciousness 14 - Defining Reality in the life Sciences 15 - Genes and Identity 16 - The Birth of Psychology 17 - Jung and the Behaviorists 18 - The Rediscovery of the Mind 19 - The Caring Brain 20 - Brain and Self 21 - Evolutionary Psychology 22 - The Birth of Sociology 23 - Competition and Cooperation 24 - Race and Reality 25 - Social Progress 26 - The Reality of Money 27 - The Origin of life 28 - Exoplanets and Extraterrestrial life 29 - Technology and Death 30 - Cloning and Identity 31 - Genetic Engineering 32 - Medically Enhanced Humans 33 - Transhumans: Making living Gods 34 - Artificial Intelligence 35 - The Internet and Virtual Reality 36 - Data Analytics ...more
As short as this book is, it's packed with a lot of information. Unfortunately, that means very little background on the players, especially the politAs short as this book is, it's packed with a lot of information. Unfortunately, that means very little background on the players, especially the politics. That made it tough going for me, since I'm not a Brit. The other issue was understanding the figures, such as number of planes, tonnage of bombs dropped, & such. Without anything to compare them to, they didn't mean much.
Still, there was a lot I did understand. The air war of WWI was one of an emerging technology in desperate times. Zeppelins could carry a lot, but were highly subject to winds. Planes were little more than cloth stretched over wood hauled along by bulky, low powered engines, so they were limited, but it became obvious early on that they were the future of aviation. Getting there, with hundreds of designs, custom parts, & limited fuel capacity was a battle in itself. The lack of radar or any decent navigation system was tough & flying the damn things was practically suicide even if pilots knew what they were doing & few did. Training was practically nonexistent.
On top of all that, the air force started out as part of the Army & Navy who had completely different needs & tactical objectives for the planes. Trying to create centralized control, which was needed to train the men & bring the dozens of models into line, meant fighting established bureaucracies & politics. There was no overall strategic use for planes, only dreams of what could be when the tech matured enough, so that made centralization a tougher sell than it should have been. The formation of the RFC during the war was a miracle. Evolving that into the RAF after the war went beyond miraculous, especially given the attitudes of those involved.
All in all, well narrated & interesting. The lack of background might not be a problem for those who are taught British history better than I was. As it is, I'm giving it 3.5 stars & I'm rounding it down since most of my friends live in the US.
Merged review:
As short as this book is, it's packed with a lot of information. Unfortunately, that means very little background on the players, especially the politics. That made it tough going for me, since I'm not a Brit. The other issue was understanding the figures, such as number of planes, tonnage of bombs dropped, & such. Without anything to compare them to, they didn't mean much.
Still, there was a lot I did understand. The air war of WWI was one of an emerging technology in desperate times. Zeppelins could carry a lot, but were highly subject to winds. Planes were little more than cloth stretched over wood hauled along by bulky, low powered engines, so they were limited, but it became obvious early on that they were the future of aviation. Getting there, with hundreds of designs, custom parts, & limited fuel capacity was a battle in itself. The lack of radar or any decent navigation system was tough & flying the damn things was practically suicide even if pilots knew what they were doing & few did. Training was practically nonexistent.
On top of all that, the air force started out as part of the Army & Navy who had completely different needs & tactical objectives for the planes. Trying to create centralized control, which was needed to train the men & bring the dozens of models into line, meant fighting established bureaucracies & politics. There was no overall strategic use for planes, only dreams of what could be when the tech matured enough, so that made centralization a tougher sell than it should have been. The formation of the RFC during the war was a miracle. Evolving that into the RAF after the war went beyond miraculous, especially given the attitudes of those involved.
All in all, well narrated & interesting. The lack of background might not be a problem for those who are taught British history better than I was. As it is, I'm giving it 3.5 stars & I'm rounding it down since most of my friends live in the US....more
Do you like spy thrillers? If so, this nonfiction sketch of the birth of the atomic bomb is the place to see where the modern ones were born. The accoDo you like spy thrillers? If so, this nonfiction sketch of the birth of the atomic bomb is the place to see where the modern ones were born. The accounts are barebones, often understated, but the outline is all there from trying to stop Hitler from building his own atomic bomb by destroying the heavy water plant in Norway (Norwegian resistance, gliders, & sabotage) to troubled scientists dealing with the morality of their works. There is also a sketch of the politics behind many of the decisions regarding the creation, use, & finally crazy proliferation of this WMD. How & why FDR started the program, Truman continued it, & Japan caved in due to it. The main scientists are covered;heroic Oppenheimer who was later screwed by the country he loved, the spies (Hall & Fuchs), Heisenberg, & many others.
The facts are all there & often in plenty of detail, but it never got boring. This is definitely an overview of the entire situation with a very brief summation bringing us to the present. It's not much on anyone's mind any more - not like the Cold War days when I was a student practicing hiding under my desk - but there are more atomic bombs now than there were then & they're in a lot more dangerous hands. It's mentioned that a 'small' war between Pakistan & India using a mere 80 bombs (Something less than 1%(?) of the bombs in the world.) could create a dust cloud that would disrupt agriculture over the entire earth for a decade. IOW, they're still a very clear & present danger.
I found this very interesting in light of several books I've read recently. A couple were old spy thrillers by Donald Hamilton, although he doesn't push the Commie scare typical of the period as hard as most. The other was King Rat which was about men in a Japanese POW camp. They feared they would be killed if Japan lost the war & likely would have been had the war been fought conventionally to its conclusion. By killing thousands of civilians in atomic fire, Japan's emperor was forced into accepting an unconditional surrender the military leaders probably never would have agreed to.
The book points out the tough moral questions. Oppenheimer wasn't thrilled with his baby, knew well that others could & would replicate it soon, so thought proliferation was stupid, but Truman disagreed. That eventually got Oppenheimer kicked to the curb with Hoover's boys hovering. Hall immediately saw the dangers of one country having such power & saw to it that the Soviets would also have it. Yes, he was an idealistic young man with a naive view of communism under Stalin & his ilk, but I'm not sure he was totally wrong. I can't say as I have any sympathy for Fuchs & the Rosenbergs certainly paid the heaviest price.
This particular genie is out of the bottle. We haven't dealt with it well, but better than we could have. In some ways it's made us grow up politically. The treaties on containing it, biological, & chemical weapons might not be worth a lot, but the thought is there. This book covers how we got there. Everyone should know the story & this is the best summation of the situation I've ever read.
Merged review:
Do you like spy thrillers? If so, this nonfiction sketch of the birth of the atomic bomb is the place to see where the modern ones were born. The accounts are barebones, often understated, but the outline is all there from trying to stop Hitler from building his own atomic bomb by destroying the heavy water plant in Norway (Norwegian resistance, gliders, & sabotage) to troubled scientists dealing with the morality of their works. There is also a sketch of the politics behind many of the decisions regarding the creation, use, & finally crazy proliferation of this WMD. How & why FDR started the program, Truman continued it, & Japan caved in due to it. The main scientists are covered;heroic Oppenheimer who was later screwed by the country he loved, the spies (Hall & Fuchs), Heisenberg, & many others.
The facts are all there & often in plenty of detail, but it never got boring. This is definitely an overview of the entire situation with a very brief summation bringing us to the present. It's not much on anyone's mind any more - not like the Cold War days when I was a student practicing hiding under my desk - but there are more atomic bombs now than there were then & they're in a lot more dangerous hands. It's mentioned that a 'small' war between Pakistan & India using a mere 80 bombs (Something less than 1%(?) of the bombs in the world.) could create a dust cloud that would disrupt agriculture over the entire earth for a decade. IOW, they're still a very clear & present danger.
I found this very interesting in light of several books I've read recently. A couple were old spy thrillers by Donald Hamilton, although he doesn't push the Commie scare typical of the period as hard as most. The other was King Rat which was about men in a Japanese POW camp. They feared they would be killed if Japan lost the war & likely would have been had the war been fought conventionally to its conclusion. By killing thousands of civilians in atomic fire, Japan's emperor was forced into accepting an unconditional surrender the military leaders probably never would have agreed to.
The book points out the tough moral questions. Oppenheimer wasn't thrilled with his baby, knew well that others could & would replicate it soon, so thought proliferation was stupid, but Truman disagreed. That eventually got Oppenheimer kicked to the curb with Hoover's boys hovering. Hall immediately saw the dangers of one country having such power & saw to it that the Soviets would also have it. Yes, he was an idealistic young man with a naive view of communism under Stalin & his ilk, but I'm not sure he was totally wrong. I can't say as I have any sympathy for Fuchs & the Rosenbergs certainly paid the heaviest price.
This particular genie is out of the bottle. We haven't dealt with it well, but better than we could have. In some ways it's made us grow up politically. The treaties on containing it, biological, & chemical weapons might not be worth a lot, but the thought is there. This book covers how we got there. Everyone should know the story & this is the best summation of the situation I've ever read....more
This was fun, an informal tour of England full of trivia about the country, history, & Bryson himself. I like his sense of humor & really sympathize wThis was fun, an informal tour of England full of trivia about the country, history, & Bryson himself. I like his sense of humor & really sympathize with him about aging. (I use a pair of dykes to cut my big toe nails & they fly off like shrapnel.) Well narrated & definitely recommended....more
My formal education about viruses is close to 50 years out of date from a course in Advanced Biology at a very good prep high school with a fantastic My formal education about viruses is close to 50 years out of date from a course in Advanced Biology at a very good prep high school with a fantastic teacher. I remember much of the material because I found the debates about viruses fascinating. Back then, we couldn't read a genome, hadn't discovered large viruses or HIV, nor was there much experience with pandemics. This, the 3d edition, was up to date into the Covid-19 pandemic, so included SARS, MERS, Zika, AIDS, & more.
It's a quick & basic walk through viruses. It was a good refresher on the history of the discovery of viruses & it didn't bog down in details. I learned a lot such as why there was hope in eradicating Small Pox, but very little hope of eradicating the common cold any time soon. How, why, & the difficulties viruses find in changing host species was of particular interest due to Covid-19.
Much of the speculation we'd engaged in during class was cleared up, but we'd never considered the role viruses play in climate. That was a surprise. My teacher, Dr. Cohen, had speculated on their role in creating life. To the best of my knowledge (Limited!!!) it wasn't popular, but I found it has gained new traction. I especially liked the way Zimmer makes it clear that labels can limit our understanding. "Live" versus "Not Alive" seems like an obvious dividing line, but Cohen didn't like it & we spent quite a bit of time trying to define both conditions. It's still a conundrum & that made me appreciate his teaching even more.
Highly recommended, well narrated, & short enough for everyone.
Contents Foreword by Judy Diamond and Charles Wood Introduction “A Contagious Living Fluid” Tobacco Mosaic Virus and the Discovery of the Virosphere Old Companions The Uncommon Cold How Rhinoviruses Gently Conquered the World Looking Down from the Stars Influenza’s Never-Ending Reinvention Rabbits with Horns Human Papillomavirus and Infectious Cancer Everywhere, in All Things The Enemy of Our Enemy Bacteriophages as Viral Medicine The Infected Ocean How Marine Phages Rule the Sea Our Inner Parasites Endogenous Retroviruses and Our Virus-Riddled Genomes The Viral Future The Young Scourge Human Immunodeficiency Virus and the Animal Origins of Diseases Becoming an American The Globalization of West Nile Virus The Pandemic Age Why COVID-19 Should Have Come as No Surprise The Long Goodbye The Delayed Oblivion of Smallpox Epilogue The Alien in the Water Cooler Giant Viruses and What It Means to Be a Virus...more
This lecture contains visual elements which doesn't help in an audiobook. Starbird is interesting, but I've certainly heard better lecturers. He stuttThis lecture contains visual elements which doesn't help in an audiobook. Starbird is interesting, but I've certainly heard better lecturers. He stutters around too much, although my annoyance at that is offset by his obvious enthusiasm.
It's been many moons since I last had any formal education in probability & statistics, so I wanted some extra help with the basics. I found an excellent series of lessons at Stattrek (https://stattrek.com/tutorials/probab...)
Unfortunately, I just couldn't keep up with the lecture, so I listened to it & then had to do the work through other sites. I got tired of that & just let it roll over me. Good stuff, but just too complex for an audiobook....more
A good, fast overview of our current understanding of human evolution. Occasionally it bogged down a little when listing various hominids by their LatA good, fast overview of our current understanding of human evolution. Occasionally it bogged down a little when listing various hominids by their Latin names (better read in text than listened to), but it trucked along for the most part & hit the high points. Wood also made good points about "our current understanding", dating, & some of the fossils they're working from. This led to explanations alternate theories & arguments between archeologists. There wasn't too much, just enough to show that the news stories aren't always as simple as they seem.
I almost shelved this as reference & it's also a good introduction. Well narrated....more
A GR friend of mine wrote in his review that this is cotton candy for the mind. I'd give it higher marks, but I understand his point. This book is funA GR friend of mine wrote in his review that this is cotton candy for the mind. I'd give it higher marks, but I understand his point. This book is fun, well narrated, & probably informative to those without much experience with math, the history of engineering disasters, & computer programming. I'm not particularly well versed in these subjects, but I recognized many (most) immediately. Still, if you're not familiar with any of that, this would be eye-opening. It's probably a good book for the under 30 crowd down to teens, maybe even somewhat younger.
I liked his point about blame. We want to find a villain in every disaster, but often they were well meaning people who were working at the edge of our knowledge or it was a committee failure. A little larger or heavier construct suddenly passes a limit where previously minor problems become major ones or add up in odd ways. Many of our projects are too complex for anyone to have a full grasp of all the parts &/or market/political forces overshadowed a dire warning. It's instructive, sad, & all too common.
He spent a little too much time with exact, very large numbers which I pretty much ignored since I listened to the audiobook. An exact number in the millions is meaningless to me & everyone else except in very specific situations & this book wasn't one. That's why we have significant digits & scientific notation, a point he made, but could have done better, IMO. He's too young to remember the days of the slide rule. He mentions them, but doesn't really have a feel for them & the way they shaped our thinking since he grew up with calculators & computers, but his example of the increase in numbers is one I use constantly, too. 1,000 seconds = about 17 minutes 1 million seconds = about 12 days 1 billion seconds = about 32 years 1 trillion seconds = about 32,000 years I can't grasp the last in any personal sense, but this helps me keep some perspective when dealing with large numbers.
His narration was excellent & there was enough humor to keep it interesting. Still, it was simple enough that if I zoned out for a few minutes, I didn't really miss anything. I'll give it 4 stars & recommend it to most with the above reservations....more
I listened to this, but also have the ebook. Excellent narration, but text is mandatory as the short (1-2 pages) essays are often dense & need some stI listened to this, but also have the ebook. Excellent narration, but text is mandatory as the short (1-2 pages) essays are often dense & need some studying. For instance, one essay is about "comparative advantage" which discusses tariffs & trade, not something I'm normally too interested in, but I took notice over the simplified example of just how specialization can make even the poorer of two reciprocating trade partners richer. It was brilliant & opened a whole new avenue of thought for me.
The sheer number of essays also requires breaks. There are 175 of them & each is thought provoking. I was surprised how interesting I found almost all of them even though some were fairly esoteric, but they were usually basic principles for the various fields, some spanning many. Any practicing scientist might do well to read this as it would open new avenues of thought within their own field.
Richard Dawkins: How a Scientist Changed the Way We Think is my current text read & its claims are bolstered by quite a few of the essays in this book. Diverse scientists mention how his writing made them change the way they view their own fields. That's great for me since I'm something of a fan & it reinforces my belief in the importance of this book.
Instead of covering anything in-depth, Zacks skims through numerous historical topics with entertaining examples. It was fun to listen to & well narraInstead of covering anything in-depth, Zacks skims through numerous historical topics with entertaining examples. It was fun to listen to & well narrated, but too lightweight. He skipped around in history & topics a lot, so I was never bored or really satisfied either. Too much dessert without a main course.
He hits some subjects multiple times from a variety of angles, but he missed a lot even then. For instance, he covers witches & King James several times, but never mentions Daemonologie & I believe he said that no witches were killed in England. I must have misheard that because hundreds were. He also barely (finally!) mentioned that a witch conviction meant confiscation of all assets, one of the major causes of accusations.
Overall, it was just a fun book. I'd give it 3.5 stars, but I'm rounding down because he left out some really important information that left the wrong impression in some cases that really irked me....more
As so many others have noted, this is a much needed book today since we're drowning in bullshit. Worse, it's difficult to know who or what institutionAs so many others have noted, this is a much needed book today since we're drowning in bullshit. Worse, it's difficult to know who or what institutions are bullshitting us & how. Sure, I expect it from a buddy at a bar & the car salesman, but institutions I grew up thinking were proof against it are now shoveling it with both hands & they're not even subtle about it. I was around for Spiro Agnew & Richard Nixon to fall & the Pentagon Papers to be released so I knew even the president could lie, but they did pretty good cover up jobs for years. Now, Trump just lies constantly & transparently. Deepak Chopra & Mehmet Oz at least try to baffle folks with bullshit. Petrocelli points his finger at all 3 plus quite a few others showcasing just how fast BS spreads, how badly it damages society, & how tenacious its hold is with another well known example in Wakefield & the MMR-autism fake.
He mentions quite a few of the brain bugs that cause our credulity & also points out why we all bullshit at times. Best of all, he gives quite a few tips on how to detect bullshit & avoid believing it. Not all are obvious. It's for this reason that I suggest getting a text copy. It's great to listen to, but parts deserve more study....more
After reading his earlier autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, I wasn't in a rush to read this one, but I'm glad I did. IAfter reading his earlier autobiography, An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist, I wasn't in a rush to read this one, but I'm glad I did. I liked it more since he covers his adult life in roughly chronological order teaching, writing, & lecturing touching on the many wonderful people he's met. Many are quite famous, others are unknown, but his remarks about them were usually quite nice & interesting. He's a lot like my father-in-law, another man I respected immensely. He rarely has anything bad to say about anyone even when they've clashed. Dawkins is always generous with praise where it is due unlike another science book I read recently where the author (Reich) took all the credit for everything. Unlike him, Dawkins seems quite pleased when his students have outpaced him in one respect or another & he often makes much of those who have corrected his mistakes or taken his initial work further. He seems positively delighted when they've outstripped him & that's no mean feat.
One of the best bonuses was learning more about his second wife, Lalla Ward, who often alternates narration in Dawkins' audio editions of his books. I hadn't realized she was a leading lady in Dr. Who or that she was so talented in other arts. (She painted a tie for Dawkins & the Queen thought the animal was ugly, although the artwork was good.)
Dawkins also mentions most of his books & what they cover. It's worth getting a text version of this book for the picture section at the end, but I really enjoyed Dawkins' narration of the audiobook edition. It was very much like a conversation with the great man. Highly recommended....more
I'm not a real fan of true crime nor do I care to ogle at disasters, so this didn't do a lot for me, but it was well narrated & interesting enough. GiI'm not a real fan of true crime nor do I care to ogle at disasters, so this didn't do a lot for me, but it was well narrated & interesting enough. Given the number he covers, there isn't a lot of depth on any of them, but that was did work for me. An overview plus some odd details was all I needed & he went beyond that most of the time. I think the ToC covers the rest pretty well.
Table of Contents Introduction Part 1: Murder with a Twist Chapter 1: Girl Gone Chapter 2: Spell Murder for Me Chapter 3: The Boozing Barber Chapter 4: The Elementary School Murderer Chapter 5: Bad Apples Chapter 6: Sing a Song of Murder Chapter 7: Antifreeze and a Cold Heart
Part 2: Perpetual Puzzles Chapter 8: The Oak Island Mystery Chapter 9: Who Was the Persian Princess? Chapter 10: The Love Me Tender Murders Chapter 11: Dark Water Chapter 12: The Unknown Man Chapter 13: The Dyatlov Pass Incident
Part 3: The Madness of Crowds Chapter 14: Northern Rampage Chapter 15: The UFO Cult Chapter 16: Colonia Dignidad Chapter 17: The Ripper Crew Chapter 18: Los Narcosatánicos Chapter 19: Children of Thunder
Part 4: Notable Disasters Chapter 20: The Great Influenza Pandemic of 1918 Chapter 21: The Eruption of Mount St. Helens Chapter 22: The Space Shuttle Challenger Explosion Chapter 23: The Grenfell Tower Fire Chapter 24: The Boxing Day Tsunami Chapter 25: The Chilean Mining Accident...more
Science defines our lives as never before, yet we know little about those who have come up with so many of the wonders. Klien interviews a couple of dScience defines our lives as never before, yet we know little about those who have come up with so many of the wonders. Klien interviews a couple of dozen about their work, where it's led, & why they chose to study what they did as well as some other matters. It's fairly brief, informal, & was fascinating. I always felt as if I wanted the conversations to go on - that's a good thing. I was never bored nor was it ever repetitive.
Well narrated & I had the ebook to let me skim back over any points I needed to ponder. There were plenty of those. Highly recommended.
Table of Contents Introduction ON THE COURAGE TO SPEND A LIFETIME SEARCHING We Are All Stardust • COSMOLOGIST MARTIN REES • ON THE BEGINNING AND END OF THE WORLD The Genes of the Good • EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGIST RICHARD DAWKINS • ON EGOISM AND SELFLESSNESS In the Hall of Illusions • NEUROSCIENTIST V. S. RAMACHANDRAN • ON CONSCIOUSNESS The Recalcitrant Zebra • PHYSIOLOGIST AND GEOGRAPHER JARED DIAMOND • ON CHANCE AND NECESSITY IN HISTORY Chimps Are Individuals Like Us • PRIMATOLOGIST JANE GOODALL • ON OUR RELATIONSHIP TO ANIMALS The Unity of the World • PHYSICIST STEVEN WEINBERG • ON SCIENCE AND RELIGION Can We Become Immortal? • MOLECULAR BIOLOGIST ELIZABETH BLACKBURN • ON AGING Is Luxury Immoral? • PHILOSOPHER PETER SINGER • ON ETHICS Our Well-Being Depends on Our Friends and Their Friends • PHYSICIAN AND SOCIAL SCIENTIST NICHOLAS CHRISTAKIS • ON HUMAN RELATIONSHIPS The Software of Life • BIOCHEMIST CRAIG VENTER • ON THE HUMAN GENOME The Poetry of Molecules • CHEMIST AND POET ROALD HOFFMANN • ON BEAUTY Do You Remember? • NEUROBIOLOGIST HANNAH MONYER • ON MEMORY The Others in Our Heads • NEUROSCIENTIST VITTORIO GALLESE • ON EMPATHY The Laws of Devotion • ANIMAL BEHAVIOR RESEARCHER RAGHAVENDRA GADAGKAR • ON ALTRUISM The Hunger for Fairness • ECONOMIST ERNST FEHR • ON MORALITY The Strongest Feeling of All • NEUROPHARMACOLOGIST WALTER ZIEGLGÄNSBERGER • ON PAIN The Female Side of Evolution • ANTHROPOLOGIST SARAH HRDY • ON MOTHERHOOD Babies Can Be Smarter Than Us • DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGIST ALISON GOPNIK • ON CHILDHOOD Love Is the Offspring of Knowledge • ARTIST LEONARDO DA VINCI • ON THE BEGINNING OF MODERN SCIENTIFIC RESEARCH...more
Overall, interesting & would have been a lot better if the editor had given him a limited space in which to make his arguments. The science got a soliOverall, interesting & would have been a lot better if the editor had given him a limited space in which to make his arguments. The science got a solid 5 stars, the delivery wandered between 2 & 3 stars. I'd give this 4 stars if I was feeling generous, but he put my teeth on edge a little too often.
The Good: Well narrated & full of really interesting findings even if many are somewhat iffy due to new methods & small sets for statistical analysis. They certainly open our eyes to the complexity of our ancestors' lives, migrations, & breeding. Societies couldn't have been as static as we once thought & ancient DNA is proving that there were 'ghost populations', entire peoples that we have no anthropological evidence for yet. We might never have that evidence, but some of the story is in the gene groups they have passed down such as the genomic signatures of inequality; usually the subservient or conquered race showing signs of the male conquerors or rulers DNA but not female as shown by the Y chromosome & mitochondrial DNA.
The Bad: His explanations confused me too often. He'd state a point as part of larger statement which I might or might not get. I might be willing to just go with it, but then he'd make a convoluted explanation that completely lost me. Sometimes this was through redundancy. An example or two would be fine, but 4 or 5 would either make me lose the point or they had enough differences that I'd get confused. In several cases, he seemed to take a stance & then keep talking until it seemed as if he'd reversed course. This usually happened in politically sensitive topics where he seemed to want to please everyone.
Reich always refers to work as taking place in HIS laboratory. It irks me because even though he acknowledges working with others, he never mentions that they did most, if not all, the heavy lifting since he's clearly in a position of oversight much of the time. If he had even occasionally said "we" or "our", I would have liked it a lot better.
The Ugly - RACE: He did an excellent job handling this at first. It's touchy & one of the ugliest subjects to deal with since "race" is such a fraught word. ...On the one side there are beliefs about the nature of the differences that are grounded in bigotry and have little basis in reality. On the other side there is the idea that any biological differences among populations are so modest that as a matter of social policy they can be ignored and papered over. It is time to move on from this paralyzing false dichotomy and to figure out what the genome is actually telling us... There is more genetic variation within 'races' (even using Feldman's 7 genetic clusters rather than the traditional 3) than between them, but that doesn't mean the overall differences aren't important in the sciences. They help doctors narrow down symptoms for conditions that are more likely to occur in some groups & forensic scientists to figure out just who died. I like that he also pointed out that as the speed & accuracy of genetic testing increases, such categories will become less important, especially in medicine. They'll have to since we're mixing more.
All good to that point, but then he blathered on & lost me. He really should have stopped trying to explain in many instances. In this, it was similar to A Troublesome Inheritance: Genes, Race and Human History which is both instructive & amusing since Reich takes Wade to task for making assertions that I remember as possibilities, not fact. This is something which Reich also stresses. In my review of Wade's book, I wrote, "If he had stuck to these points, the book would have been a lot shorter & I would have liked it better. Instead he tries very hard to appease the politically correct, so he broadens his examples into areas that I thought were sketchy." That applies to this book as well. OK, the amusement is minor, but it is instructive that both think Political Correctness is damaging this area of research & they provided quite a few examples including their own efforts to avoid getting on the wrong side of it. I found Reich's wiggling & over explaining even more annoying than Wade's.
We really need a set of new words to describe groupings of people that don't trigger everyone, a point he passes over quickly without offering any solutions. That might have been the biggest disappointment by the end of the book since he's in the position to provide them.
Table of Contents Introduction
Part I The Deep History of Our Species - 1 How the Genome Explains Who We Are - 2 Encounters with Neanderthals - 3 Ancient DNA Opens the Floodgates
Part II How We Got to Where We Are Today - 4 Humanity’s Ghosts - 5 The Making of Modern Europe - 6 The Collision That Formed India - 7 In Search of Native American Ancestors - 8 The Genomic Origins of East Asians - 9 Rejoining Africa to the Human Story
Part III The Disruptive Genome - 10 The Genomics of Inequality - 11 The Genomics of Race and Identity - 12 The Future of Ancient DNA...more
Very basic stuff, so probably good for people who aren't very Internet savvy & don't understand all the tricks that are used. It would have been borinVery basic stuff, so probably good for people who aren't very Internet savvy & don't understand all the tricks that are used. It would have been boring for me if it wasn't so short. They did mention most of the really obvious stuff, but didn't go into the reasons for or dangers of many of the fakes. Their examples of fake pictures, video, & audio were good since too many don't know just how easy it is or how often it's done. They also discussed some of our cognitive biases a little, too.
I quit watching 'documentaries' on anything requiring thought many years ago. Camera tricks have always been far too easy to play & most seem to have an agenda now. In text, I can examine the arguments, search out portions of text (highlight the text, right click & left click "search") for further clarification, & jot down questions. I can't do any of that with a video. They're just too good at getting me caught up in their narrative. For instance, seeing a video about people killing sea turtles is horrific & I want it to stop now. In a text article I can look up the area & might find out that this slaughter is a mainstay of their economy. Stopping it would be great, but it's not going to happen unless another means of income is provided first. Dead turtles are bad, starving kids are horrific, though.
They mentioned political divisiveness, but didn't delve enough into the profit or information gathering that many use. For instance, those stupid Facebook posts that say something like "Name your first car" or "Bet you can't name a state without an "a" in the name" aren't doing it just for fun. Most are scraping information about you. A common security question is naming your first car. Just posting on their post lets them look for security holes such as your friend list, phone number, birthday, email address, etc.
They didn't list nearly enough free sources for checking bullshit, but listed several that cost money without mentioning it. Most folks won't pay a monthly fee to fact check. Heck, we're lucky if we can get anyone to do it. This site lists some good free ones: https://webliteracy.pressbooks.com/ch... You'll probably have to open a new tab & search with both the site name & the fact you want to check, though. This site lists mostly sites that require a monthly fee. https://thetrustedweb.org/browser-ext... On the plus side, they usually have browser plug-ins to make look ups easy. Media Bias/Fact Check Extension is one exception that automatically rates news sites in Facebook, though. It's not 100%, but pretty good.
This is something to recommend to your older relatives & less savvy friends. It will give them a start in the right direction in just a couple of hours. Because of that, it gets 4 stars....more
It was a great deal since two of my favorite things come together in this series of lectures. The TOC (listed below) speaks well enough for the material covered. He covers both books & movies with an emphasis on the first, thankfully. I've read or watched almost all of them, so I didn't have to waste brain power on that aspect. Instead I could concentrate on the lessons he pulled out of them. He also does a pretty good job of tracing portions of the evolution of SF. If you're new to the genre, reading the books & stories he holds up as examples would be a great introduction.
Adler is a physicist & spends most of his time looking at SF through that lens, although he occasionally gets into other sciences briefly. While I missed some of the biology & chemistry he could have covered, it was probably best that he stayed in his lane. His explanations were usually quite good & he avoided getting too technical. While he did some calculations, he kept them simple.
He's very even-handed in his treatment of the material. - He's a big fan of Becky Chambers & points out a lot of good science in the Wayfarers trilogy, but also points out where she apparently confused a tidally locked planet & moon in her descriptions of Port Coriol & the issues of powering a spaceship with algae. - He takes Jules Verne to task for the bullet to the moon in From the Earth to the Moon while praising the rest of the actual science behind the story. It's the best explanation I've come across for its launch location being so close to Cape Canaveral. - The 6th lecture covers Iron Man, Captain America, & Spiderman. It was the most fun even if he did ruin Iron Man's flying & Captain America's shield. He made up for it by getting into Spiderman's webbing.
He's a good lecturer & a pleasure to listen to. I highly recommend this to one & all.
Table of Contents 1 Science and Fiction! The Wayfarers Series 2 Cheating the Science: Protector 3 Prediction: From the Earth to the Moon 4 World‑Building in The Left Hand of Darkness 5 Advanced World‑Building in Avatar 6 Action and Reaction in The Avengers 7 Space Travel and 2001: A Space Odyssey 8 Interplanetary Travel and The Martian 9 Space Battles and Energy Weapons: Star Wars 10 Advanced Rocket Systems in Star Trek 11 Relativity and Time for the Stars 12 Black Holes, Wormholes, and Interstellar 13 Time Travel and Doctor Who 14 Teleportation and Star Trek 15 Cyberspace and the Singularity: Neuromancer 16 Steampunk Science and Leviathan 17 Design Your Own Dragon: Game of Thrones 18 Planetary Ecology in Dune 19 Extraterrestrial Intelligence and Contact 20 UFOs, ESP, and The X-Files 21 Social Sciences and the Foundation Series 22 Designed Languages and Arrival 23 Cosmology, the Mind, and Star Maker 24 Science Fiction’s Purpose: Childhood’s End...more
He uses the word "species" a lot & bemoans diversity loss, but never defines what a species is at any level & he's discussing everything from bacteriophages (bacterial viruses) to large mammals. There is no single simple definition of species & it varies tremendously depending on the organisms involved. Mammals that can't produce fertile offspring together are considered separate species, but birds that can are still separate species just because their range & plumage is different. Unicellular organisms don't fit the 'standard' definition at all. This article covers the issue better. https://thelogicofscience.com/2017/08...
At one point he says that 'species' doesn't really matter. "The new pests, parasites, weeds, and other organisms that have evolved among our crops are not always referred to as new species. Sometimes they are called strains, varieties, or lineages. Typically, these are distinctions without a difference, subtleties of the agricultural subdisciplines..." It matters a lot to make sense of the messages he's harping on: our ignorance, loss of species diversity, & creating BAD things. (We apparently never create good things, at least not in the portion I read.) That's just sloppy writing & logic. After all, there isn't much difference genetically between a Pekinese & a Rottweiler. They're not even separate species, just different varieties of the species Canis lupus familiaris (dogs), but that tiny difference is huge to the livestock or home they're guarding.
He preaches a lot of doom & gloom. It reminded me too much of Al Gore on Climate Change where he thought exaggerating & outright lies were fine so long as they pushed us to change our ways, but the bad science has just lent fuel to the deniers. He lost me when he used Caspar A. Hallmann's (& others) study “More Than 75 Percent Decline over 27 Years in Total Flying Insect Biomass in Protected Areas” & portrayed it as a definitive study, but there's been a lot of controversy about it because of poor methodology. The only books I know that use it as gospel all have an agenda. It wasn't long after this that I stopped.
Well narrated & interesting, but I just can't trust it. It plays too much to my own biases, so I'll wind up believing junk science. No thanks.
Table of Contents INTRODUCTION CHAPTER 1 BLINDSIDED BY LIFE CHAPTER 2 URBAN GALAPAGOS CHAPTER 3 THE INADVERTENT ARK CHAPTER 4 THE LAST ESCAPE CHAPTER 5 THE HUMAN NICHE CHAPTER 6 THE INTELLIGENCE OF CROWS CHAPTER 7 EMBRACING DIVERSITY TO BALANCE RISK CHAPTER 8 THE LAW OF DEPENDENCE CHAPTER 9 HUMPTY-DUMPTY AND THE ROBOTIC SEX BEES CHAPTER 10 LIVING WITH EVOLUTION CHAPTER 11 NOT THE END OF NATURE CONCLUSION NO LONGER AMONG THE LIVING...more
Kind of funny at times, but rather exhausting. The book is narrated by the author who does so very quickly. I usually listen at 1.5x, but had to slow Kind of funny at times, but rather exhausting. The book is narrated by the author who does so very quickly. I usually listen at 1.5x, but had to slow it down for her since her accent & a slight slurring of words caused me to miss points at times. Not terrible, but the last book I listened to was narrated by a pro. The difference is rather stark.
As she says, As far as offensive language goes, you are now entering a hard hat area. The subject matter & words used are NOT safe for work & are quite explicit, so I'll have to be in my review. Don't read further if you're hung up on words with sexual connotations.
As she points out, this isn't a complete history of sex, just some topics she found interesting & was passionate about. I generally liked the female point of view & found much of the material interesting, but she went a bit far at times. She completely excluded the male's point of view in too many cases which hurt her narrative. -She spends the entire first chapter on the word "cunt" & why she hates "vagina". I agree that a word describing it as a sheath to pleasure a man's sword is ridiculous & demeaning. Still, an entire chapter was too much. She traced the origin of "cunt" back through the ages into the realm of nonsense without coming to any definitive conclusion. Far more than I wanted to know. - She never mentions the most basic reason males don't want to raise someone else's child - the selfish gene. She also doesn't really mention men's fear of disease. I don't think she believes in male monogamy. The whole mythology surrounding virginity & the hymen was interesting & fairly horrible.
I'll list the table of contents below. Some of the topics interested me, some didn't. Some baffled me since I wasn't aware & still find it hard to believe. For instance, she discusses fetishizing black women & spends far too long on this short, weird part of UK Colonial history without mentioning some of the other people & things they displayed.
Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION
SEX AND WORDS ’Tis Pity She’s a Whore: The ‘Whore’ in Whores of Yore ‘A Nasty Name for a Nasty Thing’: A History of Cunt
SEX AND VULVAS Looking for the Boy in the Boat: A History of the Clitoris Colonising the Cunt: A History of Racial Fetishization ‘As Easily Made as a Pudding’: A History of Virginity Tests
SEX AND PENISES Spilling the Beans: Orgasm and Onanism Gland Larceny: Testicular Transplants in the Twentieth Century Tough Love: Medieval Impotence Tests
SEX AND FOOD Staff of Life: Sex and Bread The Food of Love: A History of Oysters Turning Down the Heat: A History of the Anaphrodisiac
SEX AND MACHINES Buzzkill: Vibrators and the Victorians On Your Bike: Sex and Cycling Boys’ Toys: A History of the Sex Doll
SEX AND HYGIENE Don’t Hold Your Breath: Sex and Smells in the Middle Ages Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow: A History of Pubic Hair Filthy Fannies: A History of Douching
SEX AND REPRODUCTION French Letters, English Raincoats and Mrs Phillips’s Wares: A History of the Condom Bringing down the Flowers: Abortion in Eighteenth-Century Britain Period Drama: A History of Menstruation
SEX AND MONEY The Oldest Profession: Sex Work in the Ancient World Public Relations: A History of the Tart Card Feasting with the Panthers: A History of Male Sex Work
I'm a fan of the author. He's goofy & fun while teaching some great lessons. My boys were of the right age to enjoy his show, so I caught bits of thatI'm a fan of the author. He's goofy & fun while teaching some great lessons. My boys were of the right age to enjoy his show, so I caught bits of that. I live in Kentucky, so I loved it when he took on Ken Hamm over his ridiculous Ark Park & Creationist Museum both in a live debate & Undeniable: Evolution and the Science of Creation. I really liked Unstoppable: Harnessing Science to Change the World, but this book was less focused. It was part autobiography & part nerd pep rally. I found the former interesting, but had issues with the cheer leading.
In some ways, Nye reminds me of another hero of mine, Mike Rowe. Both are from middle class roots that evolved into self-made stars promoting ideologies that I subscribe to. I liked the overall message Nye pushes here: Science & its methods gave us a better world with unintended consequences. We need to keep learning all we can & use it to make better decisions. We can & have changed the world. It's similar to Isaac Asimov's quotes “The saddest aspect of life right now is that science gathers knowledge faster than society gathers wisdom.” & “If knowledge can create problems, it is not through ignorance that we can solve them.”
Since I liked one major thread & agree wholeheartedly with the other, why didn't I like this book more? It was too long & repetitive. Not terribly so & it may not be a problem for those who don't fully agree with him. In my case, he was preaching to the choir. I did find some new facts & ways of persuading doubters, just not enough to really light my fire.
I was disappointed that he never delved into why he thinks electric & self-driving cars are so much better for the environment. I'm not convinced since I've yet to find a study that looks at the cost in rare earths & other materials needed. While we all know how bad drilling for & burning oil is, a lot of really horrendous mining & manufacturing practices are used for the batteries & electronics. I wonder what the carbon footprint is of all the fancy & unnecessary electronics on current cars, especially when repairs are taken into account. For instance, we had to replace the entire hub assemblies on my wife's pickup because the ABS sensors died even though we pulled the fuse on that system. It was a ridiculous waste of resources.
Nye's arguments were completely city-centric. It's as if he doesn't even realize that most of the US is & a large portion of the population lives in rural areas. More automation in cars makes them less usable in those areas. My son typically rents a new car when he visits & he always has problems, more each year. This last time, he couldn't even turn off the traction control so had to park at his sister's house rather than ours since he couldn't get in our lane during a snow storm while our older cars had no problem.
I'm all for renewable, distributed energy generation, but he never delved into any of the issues I & people like me have faced when evaluating it. KY has a lot of coal & problems due to it. We have a terrible economy & some of the cheapest electric, but some of the poorest renewable resources according to NOAA. Still, we have a lot of rural area with barn roof tops that might be great solar & wind collectors. They might not, though. There are very few resources to help us decide whether it's worthwhile to invest in either. I've spent a fair amount of time, but with no help from the government, an impartial expert, or local data, I've decided it's too expensive. I may well be wrong, but I can't afford to bet $10k or more. I'm not rich, but I'd invest the money if there was a good chance I'd break even. Instead, Nye talks about cluttering the landscape with huge standalone wind towers. Not only are they ugly, but there are a lot of conflicting reports on just how bad they are for birds. I'm sure storage & transmission issues will be solved eventually, but he never mentions them.
Yes, we can change the world & we should. His rallying cry was well narrated, but a little too long, strident, & far too superficial to really blow any wind up my skirt....more
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