What a fabulous book! I love science books that are well-written, especially when the author is a practicing scientist with a big story to tell!
Laura What a fabulous book! I love science books that are well-written, especially when the author is a practicing scientist with a big story to tell!
Laura Mersini-Houghton grew up in Communist Albania. Her story about life there is not a happy one. Her father, a mathematician, was punished for attending a conference in Western Europe. His punishment was internal exile -- and it could have been much much worse!
Houghton's life story is interspersed with the science in this book. She strikes me as a free thinker. She did not follow the crowd. Instead of following her friends and escaping from Albania at the first opportunity, she continued with her undergraduate studies. She was rewarded with a Fulbright scholarship to attend the graduate program at the University of Maryland (my alma mater!) where she earned a Masters degree. She got her PhD from University of Wisconsin, and after some other prestigious academic positions she became an assistant professor of theoretical physics and cosmology at the University of North Carolina.
In the first part of the book, Houghton lays down the background of cosmology, quantum mechanics and string theory. These various topics become central to her own hypothesis, which she describes in a build-up step by step. First, she describes her theoretical physics research. She explains how her research into the birth of our universe strongly deviates from previous research. For example, Roger Penrose speculated that the probability of our universe existing is astronomically low. Houghton, on the other hand, computed a rather high probability -- so high that it may be possible for other universes to exist as well.
Then Houghton proposes evidence against the anthropic principle, which states that the fundamental physical constants are finely tuned; if any of these constants were slightly different, then the universe either wouldn't be stable, certainly not sufficiently for the development of life. She reasons that a pre-big-bang landscape would allow a vast array of different quantum mechanical wave packets. Those wave packets that occupy high energy states could evolve into a stable universe.
Well, this is a tad beyond me, but the real kicker is when Houghton and her collaborators, Tomo Takahashi and Richard Holman, published a series of papers in 2006 called “Avatars of the Landscape”. Their explorations predicted the existence of multi-verses, that is, multiple universes existing simultaneously. But how in the world could you prove such a thing??? She did! She and her collaborators made some a series of 9 predictions about variability in the CMB (Cosmic Microwave Background radiation field). She doubted though, that today's technology could observe with enough precsion to confirm or deny the predictions.
Then, the Planck satellite was launched in 2009. By 2013, data from the satellite confirmed their predictions! It is very unlikely that the observed variability in the CMB could be caused by behavior inside our universe! This is not 100% proof of the existence of other universes, but it is a big step in that direction!
I highly recommend this book to those who are interested in cosmology and the big questions about our universe! ...more
This is a short, easy-to-read book about cosmology. I would like to say that it is current--it was published in 2020. However, since then, new images This is a short, easy-to-read book about cosmology. I would like to say that it is current--it was published in 2020. However, since then, new images from the James Webb telescope have started to cast doubt on the standard model of cosmology. Some say, though, that the controversy is overblown, and that the standard model is still good. See for example: https://www.wired.com/story/no-the-ja...
Despite all this, the book is informative, entertaining and full of subtle humor. After all, when talking about the end of the universe, why not keep the tone light? As an example:
I dabbled in experimental particle physics in my misspent youth, playing with lasers in a nuclear physics lab (despite what the record might say, the fire was not my fault).
Or, another example:
Fortunately, the process is entirely painless; at no point will your nerve impulses be able to catch up with your disintegration by the [quantum] bubble. It's a mercy, really.
Cosmologists speculate among several possibilities for the end of the universe. One of the possibilities that really intrigued me, was the so-called "de Sitter state". The universe reaches a state of steady-state expansion, and reaches a maximum entropy. The temperature is 10^-40 degrees. Nothing exists but radiation. Since entropy cannot increase further, nothing can happen, and the arrow of time is gone!
Also, if you wait an infinite length of time, any arrangement of particles can occur again out of the vacuum, an infinite number of times. If you wait a trillion-trillion times the age of the universe, you can watch an entire piano spontaneously assemble itself in a seemingly empty box! (But it won't last long!)
I was particularly gladdened that a new observatory being built in Chile is named after the discoverer of evidence for "dark matter". The Vera C. Rubin Observatory will have an 8.4-meter telescope, and with a wide-angle field of view it will take images of millions of supernovae and billions of galaxies. The purpose is to better pinpoint the universe expansion rate and shed light on dark energy. Interestingly, it will also be well-suited to spotting early detections of potentially hazardous asteroids. So, by better understanding dark energy that will eventually destroy the universe, it could potentially help save Earth!
If you are interested at all in cosmology, this book is a good place to start. Informative diagrams and good writing will make this book a pleasant journey....more
So many heroes in this story! (Even one of Hall's daughters, who is named "Hero"!) I am super-impressed by how many people helped to save the author'sSo many heroes in this story! (Even one of Hall's daughters, who is named "Hero"!) I am super-impressed by how many people helped to save the author's life, and to make it livable again.
Why, in the first place, would someone want to be a war correspondent? In the case of Benjamin Hall, he "wanted to experience and record extreme events in far-flung places -- life at its very edges." I think that both of his parents contributed to his aspirations. His father saw action in the Phillipines during World War II, and was saved in a dangerous situation. And Benjamin Hall's mother took him and his brother all over the world, exploring non-touristy places. She instilled a wanderlust in both of them.
The first half of the book covers Hall's travels before his trip to Ukraine. He witnessed mind-jarring events, and was struck by the stark contrast between the horror of war, and then being able to retreat to a nearby swanky hotel.
The second half of the book describes how he was severely injured while traveling in a car in the outskirts of Kiev. The car was blasted, and all the other occupants died. Hall was able to crawl out of the car, and was retrieved by a brave Ukrainian soldier. At the time, Hall was working for Fox News. In the past year, I have acquired a strong distaste for Fox News. This story, however, raises my opinion about Fox News somewhat. The organization went all-out to help their employee in a desperate situation.
There was heroism every step of the way. Incredible measures, plus a few miracles, helped to get Hall to some decent hospitals in Ukraine for immediate triage and short-term fixes, and then a BIG miracle to transport him to Poland. After that, he had some incredible friends--and a host of strangers who would become friends--who helped get him back to a livable state.
I picked up this book from the library. Hall's picture is on the front cover. He looks perfectly normal. Another photo is on the back cover, and I thought it odd that he would be wearing short pants, instead of long pants. It wasn't until the third time I picked up the book, and stared at the photo on the back cover, that I understood the reason why. (Clue -- I am not very observant!)
I sort of wish that the book could have told more of the stories from Hall's earlier career, and spent less time concerning his recuperation. Nevertheless, I highly recommend the book. It is a very human story, and inspirational on many levels....more
How do we navigate? What parts of the brain are responsible for our ability to navigate? Why are some people really good at navigation, while others aHow do we navigate? What parts of the brain are responsible for our ability to navigate? Why are some people really good at navigation, while others are terrible? Can you train yourself to be a better navigate? What allows certain animals to be master navigators?
This book discusses all these questions, and sometimes the answers are surprising. Neuroscientists have discovered that so-called "place cells" fire in the hippocampus portion of the brain, coding for location. Perhaps about 10,000 place cells fire in a pattern to represent a particular location. Maybe 20% of the hippocampus is devoted to these place cells. So-called "sharp-wave ripples allow us to mentally simulate future possibilities, and map out routes. There are also head direction cells that act like the needle of a compass. When they fire, they have among the highest signal-to-noise ratio of all neurons in the brain. They help to give us an absolute (not relative) sense of direction.
Women and men navigate differently. Men rely on cardinal directions and metric distances, while women rely more on memories of landmarks. Men perform better at mental rotation tasks, while women are better in tests of location memory.
Some scientists believe that this is in agreement with the hunter-gatherer theory. Mental rotation is useful for hunting, while location memory is more useful for gathering food. Modern women seem to be better at remembering the locations of school textbooks, spare house keys, and homework folders. However, some anthropologists say that this is all nonsense! A few hours spent playing a video game can erase these differences.
In countries where men and women are treated equally, both sexes have good navigation skills. But in countries where women are treated as second-class citizens, and forbidden to drive, they score worse in navigational tests. This isn't too surprising. Interestingly, people who perform best at smell identification tests also do best at navigation. It seems like spatial memory and olfaction are linked.
Released in a forest, people can walk in a straight line for hours on a clear day, using the sun as a guide. But on an overcast day, few people could walk further than a mile from their starting point, as they backtrack and loop erratically. GPS guidance is degrading our ability to navigate. GPS maps show fewer landmarks, which are needed for navigation. Scientists have shown that when using a GPS, neurons in the hippocampus are flatlined!
Many books on psychology mention the significantly enlarged hippocampus found in London taxi drivers. They spend years learning all the roads in London, in preparation for a taxi-driving entrance exam. This book, however, points out that the volume in a brain is finite. An enlargement of one portion of the brain means that other portions must be somewhat smaller, as a result.
The author, Christopher Kemp, is a molecular biologist. He writes in a straightforward style, avoiding cutesie humor. He brings lots of interesting anecdotes to the narrative. My only problem with the book occurs on page 143, where he demonstrates a misunderstanding of statistics and test scores. Nevertheless, this is a short and engaging book. It deserves to be read by anyone who finds navigation to be important in daily life....more
This book is a marvelous blend of stories about crime, and biochemistry. I love how the author describes each type of poison in a separate chapter, inThis book is a marvelous blend of stories about crime, and biochemistry. I love how the author describes each type of poison in a separate chapter, interleaving stories about crimes committed with the poison's chemical and biological characteristics. A major theme in the book is the multiple uses of these poisons. The lethality of many of them depend on dosage; at low dosage these poisons are actually in use to improve health in some way!
The crime stories are absolutely fascinating. Here are some examples:
"Gin and tonic" was invented by the British in the mid-1800s. It consisted of gin, sugar, lime, and a quinine tonic. The gin, sugar, and lime were used to mask the bitter taste of quinine, which was discovered to prevent malaria. However, during the Napoleonic era, French physicians assumed that since quinine, a bitter white powder, was medically useful for treating malaria, that all bitter white powders would also be beneficial. Strychnine is also a bitter white powder, so ...
In 2017, Betty Miller lived in a retirement home in Vermont. She harvested castor beans on the home's property, and processed them to make ricin. She put the ricin in the food of other residents. She wanted to test the effectiveness of ricin as a poison, before using it to commit suicide. However, none of the residents became very sick, because her ricin was not pure, and ingestion of ricin is not an effectivve route for poisoning. Today, research is being done to see if ricin could be targeted to kill cancer cells.
Alexander Litvinenko was a KGB agen, and after the fall of the Soviet Union, he became an FSB agent. He found evidence that his superiors were colluding with a crime syndicate that was trafficking heroin from Afghanistan to Western Europe. He alleged that Putin was personally involved in a cover up. He later defected to the West. In 2005, while living in the UK, he was poisoned with polonium-210. It is suspected that Putin himself gave the order to poison him!
I am very much puzzled by the stories about arsenic. It accumulates in the body, so it can be used in a series of small doses to simulated a slowly-worsening natural illness. On the other hand, consider the people living in the region of Styria in Austria, home of Arnold Schwarzenegger. Many people there regularly eat arsenic as a health tonic! They start with small doses, and gradually build up an immunity. There seems to be some truthg that a series of small, increasing doses does provide some health benefit. But, how does this reconcile with its usage as poisoning in small, cumulative doses?
I was encouraged to start this book because of the high ratings here on Goodreads. But before I started reading it, I thought that this would not be an interesting book. But -- it is a real page-turner for me! It is so well-written, and the blend of chemistry and crime is presented so nicely. I highly recommend this book!...more
I have read all of Steven Pinker's books, and enjoyed this one as well. Before reading this one, though, I thought that it might be somewhat boring. AI have read all of Steven Pinker's books, and enjoyed this one as well. Before reading this one, though, I thought that it might be somewhat boring. After all, how interesting could this subject be?
Boy, was I wrong! Pinker has written a truly engaging book. Every page is fascinating. In addition, this is the most humorous book that Pinker has written. For example, this quote from comedian George Carlin:
“Tell people there’s an invisible man in the sky who created the universe, and the vast majority will believe you. Tell them the paint is wet, and they have to touch it to be sure.”
Or, this quote from the book:
“Mao Zedong forced Chinese farmers to crowd their seedlings together to enhance their socialist solidarity, and a recent American leader suggested that Covid-19could be treated with injections of bleach.”
Naturally, there is a lot of discussion about the difference between correlation and causation, summed up nicely in this little cartoon by XKCD: [image]
I particularly found the last chapters to be interesting. Why do so many people have such bizarre beliefs? Pinker's answer is that there is believing and "believing". People can hold "beliefs" that they don't hold as factually true. If people really held their fantastical theories to be true, they would behave quite differently, and more seriously.
This is a fantastic book that puts together in one place, all the ways in which people's rationality goes awry. There is a big emphasis on Bayesian reasoning--and rightly so. Most people don't know what Bayes' theorem is, but when they think things out rationally, they apply it. If you don't apply it--even implicitly and unconsciously--your thinking may likely become irrational....more
If you are concerned about climate change, and your contribution to the production of greenhouses gasses--then this is the book for you. Just about evIf you are concerned about climate change, and your contribution to the production of greenhouses gasses--then this is the book for you. Just about every product, every behavior, every activity, is put into perspective. The author estimates, to the best of his ability, how big the contribution is, to one's carbon footprint. Of course, some things contribute toward other greenhouse gasses--like methane, for instance--and these are converted into equivalent carbon footprints.
What sorts of activities are included in the estimates? Things like spam email, regular mail, drying ones hands with a paper towel, with a Dyson Airblade, or a standard electric dryer. There are some surprises here; disposal diapers are no worse than reusable diapers!
Estimating a carbon footprint is far from an exact science. Many assumptions are made, in the face of a great range of diversity. The book is very helpful in converting carbon footprints into perspective, like driving a certain number of miles in a car. For example, two people bicycling a mile while powered by cheeseburgers is equivalent to two people driving a mile in an efficient car. But if the bicyclists are powered by bananas or a breakfast cereal, then a bicycle is ten times more carbon efficient than the most efficient gas-powered car! A dishwasher beats washing dishes by hand.
The book emphasizes that a carbon footprint should not be the only factoer in one's life decisions. Other values are also important. For example, plastic bags contribute negligibly to one's carbon footrint, but can be bad for the environment. Another example is traveling by train. A car fully loaded with passengers is more carbon efficient (on a per-person basis) than a fully-loaded train. However, trains are faster and much safer.
Then there is the rebound effect. When somethiong becomes cheaper to do, we do more of it so that it doesn't really become cheaper. (An example of this is computers vs. paper.) So, when some product becomes more carbon efficient, we might tend to use more of it, more than making up for dropping a less efficient product.
I was impressed by the categorization of carbon footprints by sectors of the economy. For the UK, domestic energy contributes 22%; cars are 15%; food and drink 20%; air travel 17%; construction 6%, and public administration, defense, education and health care 11! toward the total national carbon footprint.
The book is already 12 years old (published in 2010), so that many estimates are probably out of date. However, I am not aware of any other publication that so nicely puts all these estimates together, in a convenient reference. The book is fun to read, and describes many surprising aspects of carbon footprints. Highly recommended for all climate activists....more
This is a collection of 65 interviews with leaders in the field of media composing; not just composers, but also music supervisors, executives, perforThis is a collection of 65 interviews with leaders in the field of media composing; not just composers, but also music supervisors, executives, performers and sound mixers. The range of people who are interviewed is quite impressive. Here I summarize what are for me the most important take-aways. At the end of this review, I relate my recommendations.
Television studios usually limit orchestra size. To conform with this limitation, Bernard Hermann once composed a score with 6 bass clarinets, 6 bassoons, and 6 double-basses. The highest note was middle-C!
Sound effects in films has become sound design, which is not friendly to music.
Cinema schools usually ignore the use of music in films. Therefore, young directors simply do not understand the effect that music has on a film. A cynical composer once said that filmmakers need music, but they don't want it. This reminds me of a similar problem in medicine. Most medical schools severely limit (or even exclude) education about nutrition. As a result, most doctors do not understand how important nutritiion is to prevent diseases!
Christopher Lennertz had some very cogent remarks about his composing of film music. He said that a composer should respect the story. He writes music that characters might hear in their hearts and minds, rather than what the audience sees. For example, if a character thinks he is a tough guy, then play heavy guitars. If a character thinks he is a hero, then play heroic music, and so on.
Some good advice for aspiring composers; be a brand, not a commodity. This means don't make yourself interchangeable with other commodities. Many people in this book interpreted this to mean that a composer should find his own voice. To be successful, you need "to bring something unique to the table." A music score cannot satisfy everyone. An interesting quote: "Artistic death is creativity by consensus."
An interesting work-flow advice from Joel McNeely: He starts each film score with two flow charts. One maps out the dramatic intensity of a story, while the other maps out the themes to be played during the film.
What do film studios look for when hiring a composer? Talent is a prerequisite, but the important factors are: 1) Credits and experience built over years and hard work. 2) A unique voice and versatility. 3) Reputation. A very important piece of advice about how a composer goes from no credits to having experience and reputation? An aspiring media composer has to be willing to start small, find projects where developers or directors are more concerned with having any music at all.
When talking to a director about music for a project, for example during a spotting session, ask him to talk to you as if you are an actor, not as a musician.
So, what did I think about this book? It is certainly not the first book I've read on the subject. This book is useful for the sheer variety of types of people who are involved in composing, producing and distributing music. It is useful to see the perspectives of many other people who are involved in the industry. The people who are interviewed have incredible reputations and experience, so one should carefully take the advice into consideration. I appreciate that each person interviewed received five separate questions that were carefully chosen to fit that person's experience and background. I definitely recommend this book for those who would like to understand how an aspiring composer gets into the industry.
I have a few other comments about the book. First, the book sorely needs a good editor! While most of the content is good, it is just filled with typos, grammatical errors, and incomplete thoughts and sentences. Also, some of the interviews seemed to be just a bunch of name-dropping; this is not very useful to the aspiring media composer.
Second, the film music supervisors are never asked my most burning question: Why do so many movies end with songs that have absolutely nothing in common with the story, and are even in a different style from the majority of music in the film?...more
This is an entertaining book about recognizing bullshit, researching and calling it out. Much of the book describes the various types of bullshit, andThis is an entertaining book about recognizing bullshit, researching and calling it out. Much of the book describes the various types of bullshit, and the research required to snoop out its origin. Then, a short portion of the book is about calling it out; how to call it out, and even when to call it out. The book is filled with anecdotal bullshit, and the research the author used to ferret out its origin. Much of the bullshit is unintended--it is simply a matter of passing along incompetent analyses and conclusions. When bullshit is intentional--that is simply called lying.
Selective bias is the reason for a lot of bullshit. This occurs when a survey or a statistic is unintentionally biased in the sampling population. The author describes the situation for waiting for a bus at the airport, for your particular brand of rental car. It always seems like all of the other busses pass you by, before your bus arrives. This is not a coincidence; it is a statistical rule when busses tend to get clumped together instead of arriving equally spaced in time. The author also explains why people who are dating seem to meet nice people who are unattractive, or attractive jerks. This also is not a coincidence; the book describes why this happens!
Then there is the misleading biases in data visualization. After the Florida "Stand Your Ground" law was enacted, a figure seemed to show at first glance, a drop in homicides. A close look at the vertical axis shows that it was inverted, giving the wrong impression. It turns out that the author of the figure did not intend to mislead, but used an unfortunate representation of the truth.
The book describes how scientific journal articles often go awry. It comes down to this: "When a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure." Scientific journals have a strong preference for a statistical measure called the "p-value" to be less than 0.05. As a result, scientists use the p-value to imply the probability of a hypothesis being true. They often alter the original hypothesis during analysis--absolutely a 'no-no'. Self-selection of statistical groupings that give low p-values is called "P-hacking", and is one reason why so many scientific studies are not reproducible. As a result, p-values no longer serve their original purpose.
The author gives a set of useful suggestions for spotting bullshit on the Internet: 1) Pay attention to where information comes from 2) Find multiple sources for a story 3) Dig back to the origin of a story 4) Use reverse-image lookup; very useful for fact checking 5) Beware of deep-fake media (photoshopping, etc.) 6) Use a fact-checking organization, like Politifact.com, FactCheck.org, or Snopes.com 7) Beware of the illusory truth effect; repetition does not imply truth. 8) Beware of social media: "Think more, share less"
The book contains a set of recommendations on how to call out bullshit. They are: 1) Reductio ad absurdum (very entertaining!) 2) Be memorable 3) Find counter-examples 4) Provide analogies 5) Redraw figures
Finally, the book describes when it is useless to call out bullshit and when it is a moral imperative. And, the chief take-away from the book is this: "If a story sounds too good--or too bad to be true--it probably is!"...more
Innovations come primarily from intersections. These are intersections between fields, between sciences, cultures, and geographic regions. The book isInnovations come primarily from intersections. These are intersections between fields, between sciences, cultures, and geographic regions. The book is fun to read, and seems to be based mainly on anecdotes. But, there isn't much new here. Just a few weeks ago I read the book Range: Why Generalists Triumph in a Specialized World, which is so similar, but better....more
What a fascinating book! As of 2009, after the United States, Israel, with a population of only 9 million, has more companies listed on the NASDAQ thaWhat a fascinating book! As of 2009, after the United States, Israel, with a population of only 9 million, has more companies listed on the NASDAQ than any other country in the world. The per-capita venture capital investments in Israel were 2.5 times greater than in the United States, more than 30 times greater than in Europe. Startup companies proliferate in Israel like nowhere else. This is all despite the wars and terrorism that Israel has experienced. The question is, why in Israel?
There are a number of reasons. Israel is a nation of immigrants. One third of its population is foreign-born. And, immigrants are not averse to starting over, as they are by definition risk-takers. Unlike the United States, whose Citizenship and Immigration Service is designed to keep immigrants out, Israel's Immigration and Absoption Ministry is focused on bringing them in.
Another key contributor to innovation is the army. Everybody (with the exception of ultra-Orthodox Jews and Israeli Arabs) serves in the army for a few years. The army is remarkably egalitarian and meritocratic. Responsibility, independent thinking, and innovation are strongly encouraged in the army. The culture of the Israeli army is very different from that in other countries. At the end of the day, everybody participates in a sort of a brainstorming session, where all decisions and actions are discussed, analyzed, and critiqued. The team is held in higher regard than individual achievements.
Innovation and entrepreneurship is also strong because of the tight proximity of great universities, large companies, startups and an ecosystem that connects them. They are in tight proximity--not explicitly stated in the book--because the country is so small! In area, it is the size of New Jersey. The military pumps R&D funds into cutting-edge systems and elite technology units; there is a big spillover into the civilian economy.
Other small countries (Denmark, Finland, Ireland, and Sweden for example) also have an advanced technology and infrastructure, and produce lots of patents and fast economic growth and a high standard of living. But Israel has many more start-ups and more venture capital investments. Israel has a culture of aggressiveness and team orientation, being small yet aiming big.
The book is filled with plenty of fascinating anecdotes. The book describes the history of the government's investments in startups, such as investment in an aeronautical industry when the country couldn't even build a bicycle!
Culture is an essential part of the answer to the problem of innovation. Young companies everywhere, that are developing a new company culture, would be well advised to take a look at this story....more
This book is about scientists and doctors who are genetically engineering humans. They are using CRISPR and other technologies to alter the DNA structThis book is about scientists and doctors who are genetically engineering humans. They are using CRISPR and other technologies to alter the DNA structure of embryos.
The book focuses on Chinese scientist Dr. Jiankui He, who genetically altered two twin embryos. The purpose of the alteration was to remove the possibility of contracting AIDS. He was encouraged by officials at his university and by governmental officials to pursue his research. It seems, though, that he tricked doctors into performing IVF treatments using modified embryos. However, a year after he announced his research at a conference, he was arrested in China for illegal medical practice, and committed to three years in jail.
There are still big technical problems that are very concerning with genetic modifications. There is always a possibility for off-target effects, like scrambling DNA in unintended locations. Also, gene therapy to perform personalized medicine is presently very labor intensive and costly. And, it only works in one person.
A big part of the book is the stress on social privilege. There is fear that only the elite will be able to afford enhancement technologies, and therefore use them to become more elite. Also, even in these very early stages of research, experimental treatments can incur high costs for transportation and hotels. This prevents low-income people from participating in the research. In the research experiments performed by Jiankui He, these costs were subsidized by the company that sponsored the study.
Genetic tests are being done in the US for many genetic conditions; the selection for gender is already legal. However, the medical risks of IVF do not outweigh the potential benefits of genetic enhancements. Instead of genetic editing, it would seem to be preferable to use genetic selection to filter out known serious genetic defects.
The author seems to go into diatribes against social inequality. Much of this has to do with the unequal availability of genetic treatments to low-income people. But this inequality is already affecting society in a big way--for example, IVF procedures are extremely expensive. We don't have to dig into genetic enhancements to find inequalities. At this point in time, the major issue seems to be the possibility that mistakes can cancel out any perceived improvements in an embryo's DNA. The author does describe how most genetic conditions are the product of multiple genetic defects. I would have liked to have read more about quantifying the likelihood that attempts at genetic enhancements will go awry, in unforeseen ways....more
Kirk Johnson is known as the founder of the List Project, for resettling Iraqi allies. After some successes, he became despondent, and found this inteKirk Johnson is known as the founder of the List Project, for resettling Iraqi allies. After some successes, he became despondent, and found this interesting story. In 2009, the flutist Edwin Rist burgled the Natural History Museum at Tring, and stole 399 bird skins. Why?
It turns out that these were valuable bird skins, with beautiful ornamental feathers. These feathers receive high prices from collectors who practice the obscure hobby of Victorian fly-tying.
And why are these bird skins in the museum in the first place? Many of them were originally collected by Alfred Russell Wallace, the naturalist who independently of Charles Darwin developed the theory of evolution by natural selection. Such bird skins are used by scientists to study historical evolution, DNA, and other areas of biology. For me, the chapter on Wallace is the most fascinating portion of this book. I had no idea about the tribulations that Wallace went through--twice--in order to collect his specimens.
The author describes his investigations into the case of the feather thief. It is a detective story, with one major thrust; according to Edwin Rist, he packed the bird skins into a single suitcase. But how could so many fit into a suitcase? Didn't he have a collaborator?
There are a few other mysteries that I won't spoil in this review. This is a fascinating book, connecting multiple topics of natural history, scientific endeavors, the hobby of fly-tying and mental illness. But I didn't read the book--I listened to the audiobook, narrated very nicely by MacLeod Andrews....more
This is an entertaining book about what genetics tells us about ourselves, and what it does not tell. For example, genetics tells us that a certain smThis is an entertaining book about what genetics tells us about ourselves, and what it does not tell. For example, genetics tells us that a certain small percentage of our genes comes from Neanderthals. It cannot tell us if you descended from a particular tribe of Native Americans. DNA analyses tell us about tendencies, but does not tell you that you are violent, or prone to Alzheimer's disease, or what "race" you belong to. In fact, genetics cannot distinguish among races--it is a social classification, not a biological one.
I got a kick out of reading about how so-and-so claims to be a direct descendant of Charlemagne. The claim is true; but just about every European is also a descendant.
The book is packed with interesting anecdotes. The most riveting story is about England's King Richard III. The exhuming of his grave and subsequent DNA analysis fully corroborated the legend of his life and death, and the his portrayal by Shakespeare. Since he died 600 years ago, he is probably the oldest corpse positively identified through DNA analysis.
I enjoy reading science books that are written by scientists who truly understand their field--as long as the book is well written. And this book is--the author is a geneticist, and the book is filled with the author's dry wit. It reminds me a lot of the books by Bill Bryson. I listened to the audiobook, which is narrated by the author. The author's narration is clear, and his British accent is charming. ...more
What a marvelous book! Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. His dry wit shines in all of his books. Before reading this book, it was hard for meWhat a marvelous book! Bill Bryson is one of my favorite authors. His dry wit shines in all of his books. Before reading this book, it was hard for me to imagine what the book would be like. I've read some of Bryson's travel books--all delightful--but I couldn't image what a book about the body would be like. As it turns out, it is a tour book, written in the same style, as a metaphorical tour of the body.
Bryson interleaves talking about a lot of facts with interesting and often humorous anecdotes. Every single page is very interesting, even entertaining. There are a few gruesome parts that I simply skipped over. This is not a comprehensive book about the body; Bryson relates interesting facts, lots of trivia, and really skips the details. That is the magic he brings to a very engaging book.
I didn't read this book, I listened to the audiobook, as read by the author. Bryson has a pleasant, soft voice. Unlike other narrators with soft voices, this audiobook's audio engineering allowed me to hear and understand the narration distinctly. It is also fun, because Bryson's voice inflections bring out the points he wants to emphasize, and the humor comes out in a perfectly deadpan manner....more
Enrico Moretti has studied why jobs accumulate in certain cities and regions, while other regions remain stagnant or worse. He shows how important a hEnrico Moretti has studied why jobs accumulate in certain cities and regions, while other regions remain stagnant or worse. He shows how important a hub of innovation can be. But while that hub is aided by the presence of a prominent university, it is not sufficient. Other factors tie in, such as the presence of a few prominent innovators--individuals who draw more and more top innovators into the region. People like to "be where the action is".
The whole issue of the geography of jobs, is that there is a vicious cycle at work. A hub of innovation and technology attracts more innovators, while other areas lose them. There are some things that can be done to reverse this trend--and many municipalities try by introducing tax incentives to lure high-tech companies.
The author is informative, and he as done a massive accumulation of statistics and research to back up his findings. There isn't much technical jargon here, and the casual style is quite approachable by the average reader. Actually, I listened to the audiobook, narrated very nicely by Sean Pratt....more
This book is an engaging look at the multitude of ways in which generalists can generalized thinking is essential in the modern world. The emphasis inThis book is an engaging look at the multitude of ways in which generalists can generalized thinking is essential in the modern world. The emphasis in today's society is increasingly on specializing in specific fields. This book contains many anecdotes about how generalized training and thinking resulted in the greatest successes.
Later in the book, the author shows that societies certainly need specialists. The specialists dig deep into technical areas, increasing our knowledge and skills. The generalists look at disparate areas, and find bridges between them. So often, it is the generalists' bridges, the interfaces between different areas, that result in the greatest benefits and successes. So, it would seem that the book's title is somewhat misleading. Generalists don't always triumph--so often it is a collaboration between specialist and generalist thinking and approaches that combine to generate the greatest advances.
But the author makes some excellent points. So often, we point to celebrity athletes, artists, musicians, inventors, and learn that they were trained to excel by their parents from an early age in their specialties. However, just as often, people who excel did not specialize in a single sport or art or vocation; they trained in many different areas, and perhaps never specialized, or did so at a much later age.
None of this book is revolutionary. We all know about how generalists often excel. The interest in this book derives from putting lots of examples all together into a single volume. The writing reminds me a lot of the books by Malcolm Gladwell. It combines lots of anecdotes together to make a point. It makes for fun reading!...more
I love reading science books that are well-written by an author who is really an expert in the field. And, in this case, Dr. Satchin Panda definitely I love reading science books that are well-written by an author who is really an expert in the field. And, in this case, Dr. Satchin Panda definitely fits the bill. He is a professor at the Salk Institute of Biological Studies. His specialty is the molecular mechanism of the biological clock and the part it plays in overall health. On the other hand, I do not care for self-help books written by scientists, and while there is some excellent advice here, there is also some bad advice.
The basic idea here is TRE--Time Restricted Eating. Dr. Panda's excellent advice is to restrict your eating to a 12-hour window. In fact, 10 hours is better, and 8 or 9 hours is optimal. When you are eating, your body is in a fat-making mode. Your body cannot burn fat at the same time as it makes fat. So, in order to burn fat, you should open up your window of abstaining from eating to as long a period as possible. Even a tiny snack in the evening will cause a delay in the fat-burning process. And, if you eat at random times throughout the day and night, then the fat-making process stays on all the time.
So, this advice seems very worthwhile, and Dr. Panda relates research that helps to back up his claims. Where he diverges from common sense, is when he suggests that you can eat any type of food you want; the time windows when you eat and don't eat are most important to weight loss. Hmm ... seems like if your concern is to reduce the fat in your body, then restricting fat intake should also be a consideration. Or am I missing something here?
Nevertheless, the author has a lot of very good advice, especially for getting a good night's sleep. He suggests eating a last meal of the day at least two to four hours prior to going to bed. This allows your body temperature to go down about one degree Fahrenheit, which is necessary for sleeping. He also suggests reducing blue light from computers, tablets and smartphones as night approaches.
Dr. Panda also dispels a few myths about circadian rhythms. For example, the belief that people are inherently morning larks or night owls is a myth. There is no genetic connection; it is simply a matter of bad habits that are learned. He describes an anecdotal experiment about camping, when melatonin rose earlier in the evening, without bright lights, allowing a longer and more restful sleep. Another myth is the idea about sleep debt as the reason why we often sleep late on weekends, in order to make up for lack of sleep during weekdays.
Another interesting aspect of the book, is the description of circadian rhythms at the cellular level. You body's cells do not all operate on the same cycle. Cells in different organs of the body each have their own circadian rhythms. They are not equally active throughout the day. They become active sequentially, and it is here where the author's research is particularly insightful.
It was interesting for me to read this book at the same time I was listening to the audiobook, When: The Scientific Secrets of Perfect Timing by Daniel Pink. These two books overlap a great deal. But while Pink's book is about more than circadian rhythms, I much prefer Dr. Panda's book; it is much better researched. Despite this book's shortcomings in the "what to eat" department, the advice about "when to eat" should be taken to heart....more
This is a marvelous book about the intelligence of birds. In this book, Jennifer Ackerman describes a wide range of bird species, brain sizes and capaThis is a marvelous book about the intelligence of birds. In this book, Jennifer Ackerman describes a wide range of bird species, brain sizes and capabilities. Bird brains, in size relative to body weight, are similar to those of mammals. Of course, in absolute terms they are small, as their total weight must be minimal in order to fly. I learned so much from this book. I had no idea about some of the capabilities of our feathered friends.
The smartest birds appear to be crows, ravens, and parrots. The most clever bird seems to be the New Caledonian crow. Take a look at this video which shows a crow that has learned an 8-step method to get to some food. Only four animals make complex tools; humans, chimps, orangutans, and New Caledonian crows. And, the crows make hook tools; the only other species than humans. New Caledonian crows demonstrate cumulative technological change. Their tools are too complex to be invented by a single bird. New Caledonian crows have an extended juvenile period of learning tool-making from parents. Also, the lack of predators on New Caledonia allow crows time and ease of mind to tinker with sticks and barbed leaves.
Bird brains have evolved separately from mammals, so their brain architecture is quite different from that of humans. Nevertheless, their neural connection patterns are quite similar to those of humans. Sleep patterns and functions are similar between birds and mammals; these patterns seem to have evolved separately, in parallel.
Birds have a trade-off at birth, between immediate functionality--flying almost as soon as they are hatched--and greater brainpower, later. The question this book raises is not whether birds are smart--some are definitely smart--but rather, "why are they smart?" The best answer seems to be that birds are smart so that they can solve problems in their environment; how to get food from hard-to-get places. In Japan, crows drop nuts onto a roadway, and position the nuts so that passing cars break the nuts which they then recover. Crows and ravens have been observed to dig up rocks and drop them on invading researchers.
Scrub jays play a shell game with food that they store in caches. They bury, then later move or pretend to move food from one cache to another. They try to trick and confuse other scrub jays. They do this only in front of rival birds--not their mates. But they play this shell game only if they themselves have pilfered food from others in the past.
There is a fascinating description of how birds learn to sing, with parallels with humans learning to speak. It is a mystery, how birds and humans independently evolved similar approaches for vocal learning. One theory is that birds and humans evolved neural circuits that control body movements into vocal capabilities.
The book describes the art projects that male bower birds develop in order to attract mates. And this is followed by Darwin's really dangerous idea; colorful feathers or beautiful bowers might not just be indicators of a male's fitness, vigor and health--they can be desirable qualities, beatiful traits in the mind of the female. The female's preference has acted to evolve these traits in the male. Birds have been trained to distinguish between paintings by Picasso and Monet; they could distinguish impressionists from cubists. They could also learn to discriminate between good and bad paintings, as defined by human critics.
There are lots more areas where birds excel, even in comparison with humans. I won't cover them all here. I simply recommend to everyone who enjoys watching birds to read this book. It is beautifully written, comprehensive in scope, and the writing style is very engaging.
Oh, and one more thing; last night I dreamt that I was a bird. I flew up into the upper region of a big tree, worrying whether the thin, upper branches could support my weight. I figured out how to perch on a branch (a feat that seemed difficult at first), and then I talked with some of the other birds in the tree. ...more
I am sure that Taleb makes new enemies with each book he writes. If, by the end of the book, you have not been offended by something he has written, then you haven't been paying attention. Taleb is blunt, sometimes obtuse, and often right. But it really irks me that his very strong opinions are not always backed up by reasoning. Like a mathematics professor, he will often "let the reader fill in the lines of his proof."
The basic premise of the book, is that one should not believe opinions or forecasts of others, unless they have some "skin in the game." Results are all that count--opinions and talk are worthless. It is so easy for people to spout utter nonsense, so unless they could potentially suffer consequences of being wrong, you should ignore them. This goes especially for intellectuals in academia. However, "hard" science seem to be immune to this problem, because of the redeeming nature of falsification, while "scientism" -- the excessive belief in science is worthless.
The broad sweep of his aphorisms are overwhelming. Here are some examples that actually are given some logical reasoning: Genes follow majority rule. Languages follow minority rule. Islam is widespread because of its rules of conversion and parentage. "Someone with a high public presence who is controversial and takes risks for his opinion is less likely to be a bullxxxt vendor." "Employees are slaves."
And then there are aphorisms that may very well be true, but do not seem to have much back-up reasoning: "Courage (risk taking) is the highest virtue. We need entrepreneurs." "Anything that smacks of competition destroys knowledge." "Academia has a tendency, when unchecked (from lack of skin in the game), to evolve into a ritualistic self-referential publishing game."
Among the people Taleb dislikes: Steven Pinker, Hillary Clinton, journalists, intellectuals who are idiots, the Saudi regime, Monsanto, ... the list goes on and on. Taleb goes into some detail about how psychologists totally misunderstand "loss aversion", due to the concept of ergodicity.
Taleb introduces so many quirky words and expressions, that he devotes a glossary in the back of the book to explain the terms. And, the end of the book is filled with a technical appendix with some very technical mathematical proofs about probability theory.
With so many issues that I have with this book, why do I recommend it with five stars? Because the book is so thought-provoking. It jabs me everywhere, and gets me to think about a lot of things, basic assumptions about life. Take a risk--read this book....more
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