Science and Inquiry discussion

Please post a comment below to nominate a book for the group to read for October 2020.

Please use the "add book/author" link just above the comment box to insert a link to the Goodreads book page for the book you are nominating, so other members can more easily assess it. Apparently this only works on the desktop version of the site; if you use the app, the link is not available yet, so just be sure to put the full title and author.

You may nominate a book which has been suggested previously and did not win. You may nominate more than one book, but we might not include all of your nominations in the voting.

Please do not nominate a book which is unlikely to be available to all members, such as one which was just published within the last three months or which is only available on Kindle in the U.S.

Nominations will close on August 24 or when we have about 10 good nominations, whichever occurs first.

I'll nominate Reflections: The Magic, Music and Mathematics of Raymond Smullyan. Raymond Smullyan is one of my favourite Recreational Mathematics authors. His books do a fantastic job of presenting playful puzzles which sneak in serious mathematics under the unsuspecting radar of the reader. He was also known to perform entertaining magic tricks and had a great curiosity.

This book is somewhat of an autobiography of his. It also includes some material from his other books.

I nominate I, Mammal: The Story of What Makes Us Mammals by Liam Drew.

It isn’t too new or too old and descrbes the unique features of mammals.

I’d like to nominate Transcendence by Gaia Vince, the award winning author of “Adventures in the Anthropocene”.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

The book describes the origins and evolution of humans, with some novel and interesting insights.

Brian wrote: "I nominate Factfulness and The Skeptics' Guide to the Universe."

Factfulness: Ten Reasons We're Wrong About the World – and Why Things Are Better Than You Think is an excellent book; we read it back in August, 2018. Here is the link to our discussion of the book.

How to Build a Dragon or Die Trying: A Satirical Look at Cutting-edge Science by Paul Knoepfler

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...

I nominate “Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality” by the Swedish cosmologist Max Erik Tegmark.

This work explores the idea that the universe is isomorphic to a mathematical structure, with its only intrinsic properties being its relations: Timeless and unchanging.

It explores the concepts of randomness and probability with respect to (The presence of) ensembles, where they are a way for observers to “quantify their ignorance about which element(s) of the ensemble they are in.” “Specifically, all mathematical statements about probability can be recast as measure theory.”

Furthermore, it is asserted that “the mathematical structure that is our external physical reality is defined by *computable* functions.” Specifically, that only fully decidable structures (That is, mathematical structures that are Gödel-complete) have physical existence, which places an ‘upper limit’ on complexity.
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1...
See Mathematical Universe Hypothesis, Decidability (Logic), Ontic Structural Realism, and Objective Idealism.

Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup

Nancy wrote: "Bad Blood: Secrets and Lies in a Silicon Valley Startup"

We previously considered this book and decided it was not so much about science as about business, and therefore not qualified. I know we are generally pretty generous in our definition of what's qualified, but I think this one is pretty clear.

The Blank Slate: The Modern Denial of Human Nature by Steven Pinker

Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

or

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World

Hi, I nominate The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll. I just read "Something Deeply Hidden" and like his breezy but rigorous approach. In that book he even included a few equations, I can only imagine the anguish of his publisher!

Emily wrote: "Infinite Powers: How Calculus Reveals the Secrets of the Universe

or

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World"

We read The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs: A New History of a Lost World in January of 2019. Here is a link to our discussion of the book.

Lemar wrote: "Hi, I nominate The Big Picture: On the Origins of Life, Meaning, and the Universe Itself by Sean Carroll. I just read "Something Deeply Hidden" and like his breezy but rigorous appr..."

This is a wonderful book! But we already read this book in February, 2017. Here is a link to our discussion of the book.

I've been dying of curiosity about the book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. It seems likely to provoke some disagreement. That's a good thing, right? Within reason? So I might as well nominate it.

Dana wrote: "I've been dying of curiosity about the book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. It seems likely to provoke some disagreement. That's a good thing, right? With..."

Looks interesting, but it was just published in June, so it's too new for this selection.

Dana wrote: "I've been dying of curiosity about the book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. It seems likely to provoke some disagreement. That's a good thing, right? With..."



Michael Shellenberger is a one-man wrecking crew when it comes to climate science. He is a one-issue person: Build nuclear power plants. An argument can be made for that, and I follow that argument, but it can be done better elsewhere. His writing is filled with "AOC" and "Thunberg" and "alarmists" and basically nothing to worry about.

Jimmy wrote: "Dana wrote: "I've been dying of curiosity about the book Apocalypse Never: Why Environmental Alarmism Hurts Us All. It seems likely to provoke some disagreement. That's a good thing..."

We read lots of books about one issue. If nuclear power is his "one issue", I'm okay reading a book about that.

Nominations are now closed. Please vote for your preference at the following poll, which will be open through August 31:

https://www.goodreads.com/poll/show/2...

Please NOTE: a couple of the selections seemed to be rather expensive in the print editions. Before you vote for a book, I suggest you check it's available and price to make sure it will be accessible to you.