Book Reviews February 2007

The Dawkins Delusion Alister McGrath and Joanna McGrath SPCK Publishing, 2007 ISBN: 0281059276 In The God Delusion Richard Dawkins lauched a no-holds-barred attack on all types of religion. In The Dawkins Delusion Alister McGrath demonstrates some of the faults with Dawkins' book. In particular he shows how Dawkins clearly goes over the top with some of his claims, and that most religions are nothing like the stereotypes which Dawkins describes. The trouble is that that's about all there is to this book. McGrath criticises Dawkins for not being particularly scholarly in his attack, but this book is hardly a scholarly rebuttal - there's too much indignation for one thing, and what is worse there's no index Continued..

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Fitzroy John Gribbin and Mary Gribbin SPCK Publishing ISBN: 0300103611 Robert Fitzroy is known as the captain of the HMS Beagle on the voyage which started Charles Darwin's development of the theory of evolution. Apart from that, all that we generally hear about Fitzroy is that he committed suicide (with the implication that this was to do with Darwin's ideas). In Fitzroy John and Mary Gribbin tell us about the Beagle voyage, but also look at the rest of his life, showing that he was in fact much more than just 'Darwin's Captain'. This is the story of Fitzroy the original thinker, who didn't fit in well with the bureaucracy of the time. Continued..

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Voodoo Science Robert Park Oxford University Press, 2000 ISBN: 0198604432 Science plays a huge role in our lives today. Unfortunately this can lead to things being dressed up as science which don't deserve the name. This can happen in several different ways, but Robert Park has introduced the term Voodoo Science to cover all such occurences. In this book he looks at devices which their inventors claim can provide free energy (including cold fusion), at the success of alternative medicine, and at why claims such as the link between EMF and cancer don't go away despite a lack of supporting evidence. He also discusses why people have a tendency to believe in such claims. Continued..

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The language revolution David Crystal Polity, 2004 ISBN: 0745633129 The twenty-first century is likely to bring many changes in the diversity of languages. Three of these are the divergence of different versions of English, the possible death of a significant number of languages, and the origin of new forms of language mediated by the internet. David Crystal has written books on each of these subjects, but in The Language Revolution he gives a consise overview of each of them, together with a look at what can be done to minimise the damage to culture that these are likely to cause. In particular he lists steps that can be taken to prevent language death. Continued..

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The God Delusion Richard Dawkins Bantam, 2006 ISBN: 0593055489 Richard Dawkins' arguments against religion are well known. The God Delusion is a collection of such arguments, with answers to many of his critics. Some people object to Dawkins' stance on religion, but he rejects the idea that arguing about religion is OK as long as you keep away from a list of taboos which you are not allowed to mention - this is strictly no-holds-barred. Thus he shows how horrible the message from religious scriptures would be if you took it all seriously, as well as speculating on how religious belief could have originated in the first place. Continued..

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The Decline and Fall of Science Celia Green Hamish Hamilton, 1976 ISBN: 0900076062 If you're looking for a book which expresses some of the failings of modern science, then Celia Green's The Decline and Fall of Science isn't it. True, there are some discussions of problems with physics and medicine, but they are the weakest part of the book. The rest of the book concerns two subjects. The first of these is Green's view on the nature of society, which is that far from helping its members to achieve their potential, its main purpose seems to be to hold them back. She makes some good points, and it's certainly entertaining to read her arguments. Continued..

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The sea around us Rachel Carson Oxford University Press, 1950 ISBN: 0195069978 The middle of the 20th century was an groundbreaking time for the scientific study of the seas, with an increasing ability to explore their depths, as well as new knowledge from geology and biology. Rachel Carson's The sea around us allows the reader to participate in some of the excitement of this time. Of course, many of the topics are no longer new, but this classic work is very much still worth reading for Carson's unique 'word picture' descriptions, and her deep love of the seas which it demonstrates. Continued..

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Life on other worlds and how to find it Stuart Clark Springer, 2000 ISBN: 185233097X The possibility of life elsewhere in the universe is one that fascinates many of us. In Life on other worlds and how to find it Stuart Clark provides a well written introduction to exobiology. The book is easy to read, but covers a considerable area of the subject. He starts with a chapter looking at the assumptions we need to make in order to give serious consideration to the question of life elsewhere. The next 4 chapters look at how life arose on earth, starting with the thermodynamics of the universe and moving on to the origin of the elements, and the evolution of DNA based life. Continued..

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The Web of Life Fritjof Capra Flamingo, 1996 ISBN: 0006547516 People have always speculated on the nature of life, and on how living things differ from inanimate objects. In The Web of Life Fritjof Capra approaches the question using some of the new scientific ideas which have arisen in the last few decades such as chaos and complexity theory. He identifies the need to find the structure, pattern and process involved in living things. Structure is based on dissipative structures, as described by Ilya Prigogene . Capra's ideas for pattern and process are based on those of Humberto Maturana and Francisco Varela, with pattern arising from autopoesis, and cognition being the process of life. Continued..

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Game Theory: A critical text Shaun P Hargreaves Heap and Yanis Varoufakis Routledge ISBN: 0415250951 Game theory has sometimes been claimed to be a natural centrepiece for the study of the social sciences. Game Theory: A critical text, by Shaun P Hargreaves Heap and Yanis Varoufakis, gives an explanation of the theory for social scientists, looking at topics such as the prisoners dilemma, evolutionary games and psychological games, showing in each case how game theory can be applied to social situations. However the book also discusses many of game theory's failings, thus contesting the excessive claims made for the subject. For instance Nash equilibria are described, followed by many examples in which they quite clearly do not agree with the way people actually behave. Continued..

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Dune Frank Herbert Gollancz ISBN: 0575068566 Mentioned in Interstellar travel Dune by Frank Herbert, is a classic scifi novel which has spawned a considerable number of sequels and quite a few imitators. The story is centred around Paul Atreides, son of Leto, Duke of the planet Caladan. The Atreides have a long emnity with the evil Harkonnen family, and at the start of the story the galactic emperor has decreed that the two families should exchange homeworlds, so that the Atreides get Arrakis, source of the spice vital to the workings of the empire, and so of immense wealth. A just reward for moral behaviour? - no, Leto sees clearly that it is a trap, which may mean the end of the Atreides family. Continued..

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The touchstone of life Werner Loewenstein Penguin ISBN: 0140289496 The advent of computers has led to a new way of looking at scientific subjects - in terms of the flow of information. In The Touchstone of Life Werner Loewenstein uses this viewpoint to look at the behaviour of cells and so the nature of living things. The book is in three parts. The first introduces the concepts required, and then goes on to look at the origin of life in terms of networks of chemical reactions. The second part looks at information flow within living cells - at how the instructions coded for in DNA are carried out, and at the workings of enzymes. Continued..

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Music to move the stars Jane Hawking Macmillan, 1999 ISBN: 0333746864 Stephen Hawking is probably the best known scientist alive today, but his disability might have posed an insuperable obstacle to his career if it hadn't have been for the dedication of his wife Jane. In Music to move the Stars she tells the story of the 30 years of their life together. We hear of her struggles in the early years to look after their small children as well as Stephen. As he became more well known, she tells of life on the conference circuit, and in particular of meetings with the families of other well-known cosmologists. Continued..

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Liaisons of Life Tom Wakeford Wiley, 2001 ISBN: 0471399728 The classification of living things relies on the concept of a single organism, which can be treated separately from those organisms with which it interacts. In 'Liaisons of Life' Tom Wakeford argues that in fact most organisms are involved in symbiotic relationships, for example many plants are connected to an underground system of fungi, which provides them with vital nutrients. He argues that and this calls for a new way of looking at living things. He also shows how the idea of symbiosis has met a great deal of resistance. Beatrix Potter, for instance, might have devoted her life to the study of lichens if her early research showing their symbiotic nature hadn't been ridiculed. Continued..

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Pi in the Sky John Barrow Penguin Books, 1992 ISBN: 0198539568 Mentioned in fermat undecidable Pi in the Sky by John Barrow is really a combination of two different books. The first is a history of counting from the earliest times. The second is a look at the ideas of Cantor and Göel and their implication for mathematics. I can see the two parts are connected - inventing infinities is no different to inventing zero, or 1,2,3 for that matter - but Barrow doesn't really bring out this connection. The book is a bit philosophical, but it's easy to read an so is suited to those readers who want to find out more about the philosophy of mathematics without things becoming too technical. Continued..

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