Science and Inquiry discussion

Please post a comment below to nominate a book for the group to read for August 2024.

Please do not nominate a book unless you have read it or you have the sincere intention to read it if it is selected.

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.

To check whether a book has been previously read or already selected to be read, check the following list: https://www.goodreads.com/group/books...

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.

Authors and publishers may not nominate their own books.

Please do not nominate a book which is unlikely to be available to most members, such as one which was just published within the last four months or which is only available on Kindle in the U.S. We will be checking availability more strictly than we have before. Any book nominated should be available in at least one print version (hardback and/or paperback), at least one ebook edition, and at least one audio edition.

A nominated book should have at least 500 ratings in Goodreads and it's average rating should be at least 3.5.

Nominations will close on June 21 or when we have about 7 good nominations, whichever occurs first.

Under Alien Skies: A Sightseer's Guide to the Universe by Philip Plait

Einstein's Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes by Chris Impey

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

I'll nominate Your Face Belongs to Us: A Secretive Startup's Quest to End Privacy as We Know It. I read it at the end of 2023 -- here's my 4-star review: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...

Susanne wrote: "https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/1..."

The book The Light Eaters: How the Unseen World of Plant Intelligence Offers a New Understanding of Life on Earth looks fascinating. However, it was just published last month. I would suggest nominating it again in a few months from now.

Daniel wrote: "Einstein's Monsters: The Life and Times of Black Holes by Chris Impey"

This sounds interesting, but it has fewer than 300 ratings on Goodreads, so it doesn't qualify.

I nominate “Dinosaurs: How they lived and evolved”. It's the best natural history of dinos for adults. I reviewed the 1st edition ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). Also, this group needs more dino love ;) Seriously, the last time a dino book won was March 2019 ( https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/... ).

P.S. Those who can't read Dinosaurs in print can borrow ebook copies from the Internet Archive. As for 500 ratings & 1 audio, those rules are too restrictive for previously-discussed reasons (TLDR: They effectively stop us from nominating most or all of the best dino/paleo books; If we can't nominate the best, what's the point?): https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Hi everyone!
I'd like to nominate Roger Penrose's The Emperor's New Mind:
The Emperor's New Mind
It deals with the concept of human consciousness and compares it to strong AIs. It starts with the Turing machine and goes on to analyze the algorithmic potential of quantum computers.
It also discusses the concept of the "quantum brain", i.e. the idea that the synaptic connection could be based on an entanglement principle. The book is a bit dated, but the topic is very timely.

I hope I checked the list Betsy gave us correctly :)

Transformer: The Deep Chemistry of Life and Death

This book looks interesting:

A Brief History of Intelligence: Evolution, AI, and the Five Breakthroughs That Made Our Brains

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...

Herman wrote: "I nominate “Dinosaurs: How they lived and evolved”. It's the best natural history of dinos for adults. I reviewed the 1st edition ( https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... ). Also, this gr..."

I'm sorry, Herman. The rules still apply.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/4...
The Bonobo and the Atheist by Frans de Waal

I would like to nominate The Blue Machine by Helen Czerski

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

A great book about the world’s oceans - how they work and why they are important to the wellbeing of our planet.

Nominations are now closed. I'll post a poll shortly.

Please vote for your preference, at the following poll:

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

which will be open through June 24.