Science and Inquiry discussion

Please add a comment below to nominate a book for the group to read for January 2015. Please be sure to use the "add book/author" link just above the comment box to add a link to the Goodreads book page for the book.

You may of course suggest a book that has been nominated before but didn't win.

Please do NOT nominate a book that was first published within the last three months. Newer books may not be available to all members.

Nominations will close on November 20 or when we have about ten good suggestions, whichever occurs first.

You may nominate more than one book if you wish, but we may not include all of your choices unless there are not enough other nominations within the time allotted.

Fooled by Randomness: The Hidden Role of Chance in Life and in the Markets

A fantastic book on the role of probability and luck (what's the scientific term for this?) on markets and investment in particular and life in general. Taleb is a first-rate thinker (on the lines of his gurus Soros and Kahnemann) and he does a more than satisfactory job in analyzing the math behind market dynamics (okay, only selected parts of it) and, furthermore, delves a bit into philosophy (re-looking at Jean Buridan, for e.g.) and behavioural psychology (the unmistakable patterns in risk-taking and the art of knowing when to stop). All-in-all, this book is innovative, thought-provoking and seems to be a worthy successor to Kahnemann's Thinking, Fast and Slow, which, I see, that the group has already read, and Mandelbrot's Misbehaviour of Markets.

The Man Who Found Time: James Hutton And The Discovery Of Earth's Antiquity by Jack Repcheck

by Lucio Russo

I'm going to nominate this book again:

The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J. Snyder

Oxygen: A Four Billion Year History by Donald E. Canfield

I second philosophical breakfast club

Kathy wrote: "I'm going to nominate this book again:

The Philosophical Breakfast Club: Four Remarkable Friends Who Transformed Science and Changed the World by Laura J. Snyder"
I second that.

I think this thread is just to nominate books and not to vote in them.

A very good and profound book is
What Is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...

José Luís Pinto wrote: "I think this thread is just to nominate books and not to vote in them."

I think it is okay if 3 people nominate the same book, Louis. It amounts to the fact that people are ready to read this book.

"Aware: An Inquiry Into Consciousness... Our Psychedelic Quest for Life, Liberty and Intellectual Property" by Brandon Earl Bristow.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/2...

Ramin wrote: "A very good and profound book is
What Is Life?: How Chemistry Becomes Biology
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

Ramin, seems like a good book skimming the (fuzzy) interface between chem & bio. It goes straight into my "to-read" shelf! Have you read this?

Through the Language Glass: Why the World Looks Different in Other Languages

I am reading this book at the moment and enjoying it immensely. Would recommend it to both my friends and enemies. I am only one third through, at a very interesting discussion on color perception.

The Goldilocks Enigma: Why Is the Universe Just Right for Life?

Would want to start the year reading this one by Paul Davies

Nominations have been closed.

Please vote for your preference at the following poll:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/1...

The poll will close on November 26.

You may have noticed that the poll for January 2015 has been changed. Aware: An Inquiry Into Consciousness... Our Psychedelic Quest for Life, Liberty and Intellectual Property. "A Psychonaut Adventure" was removed, together with the votes which had already been cast for it.

We did this primarily because we realized that the book was fiction, which is not an appropriate selection for this group.

Hopefully, those of you who joined the group yesterday so that you could vote for this book, will decide to stick around and participate in the group anyway. You should be able to still take part in the poll by casting a new vote.

We have also extended the voting to November 29.