Science and Inquiry discussion

For April 2022 we will be reading Ingredients: The Strange Chemistry of What We Put in Us and on Us by George Zaidan.

Please use this thread to post questions, comments, and reviews, at any time.

Finished this one last night. I appreciate how the author explained complex issues in an enjoyable and easy-to-understand manner, especially as this was his first book. My big takeaway is the danger of P-hacking large observational data sets full of confounding variables, which results in questionable findings on the impact of specific processed food items, which are then reported in mainstream news sources.

I really liked it. The subtitle for this book should be "How Science Works" & this is the perfect topic since there are conflicting reports on what is good & bad for me. Often they're the same thing, such as coffee. How can this be? It's complicated, but Zaidan makes sense of it & explains the scientific process behind the headlines including what many of the numbers mean. He does so with a common sense approach in modern, common language that is often somewhat vulgar & comedic. It was refreshing & completely understandable.

I also finished this book. It is not my cup of tea. It's not that it isn't interesting--the topics are fascinating, and covered very well. It's just that the author tries way too hard to be humorous--no, that isn't quite the right word. He tries to be over-the-top hilarious. For example, he writes "You have to see the best in people, but you also have to be kind of an asshole. Don't worry, it's really fun."

Here is my review.

I really enjoyed this book. I don't have a background in science so I like that the explained the topics well, but wasn't condescending; I'm a huge fan of sarcasm so that was appreciated as well. A very entertaining read.

The humor in this book reminded me of Math with Bad Drawings (which I absolutely loved). It was a bit over the top at times but my life has been in serious mode for a while now so this was exactly what I needed. It also brought me into remembrance of that book we read a few months ago, Calling Bullshit.