Book Reviews January 2008

20th Century Architecture, a readers guide Martin Pawley Architectural Press, 2000 ISBN: 0750646357 Plenty of books have been written about Architecture. 20th Century Architecture, a reader's guide isn't just another one, rather it is a book about such books. Martin Pawley certainly knows his stuff - he has a wide knowledge of the subject and so is able to bring new views to bear on the books he is reviewing. He is probably at his best when reviewing biographies of famous architects - if there are several of the same person then it gives a view of that person from every angle. Continued..

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Boltzmann's Atom David Lindley Free Press, 2001 ISBN: 0684851865 The revolution in physics at the start of the 20th century didn't spring from nowhere. In Boltzmann's Atom David Lindley tells the story of the Viennese physicist Ludwig Boltzmann, and how his work in the second half of the 19th century played an important part in setting the scene for later advances in physics. In particular his work on the kinetic theory of gases helped to demonstrate the existence of atoms. Not everyone agreed with him though - the book isn't just about Boltzmann, it also looks at the views of other scientists in the debate about thermodynamics and the validity of results such as Boltzmann's H-theorem. Continued..

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The Time Traveller Ronald Mallett and Bruce Henderson Doubleday, 2006 ISBN: 9780385612432 When Ronald Mallett was 11 his father died and he took in very badly. Over the next few years he began truanting from school, and looked to be going nowhere in life. But then he read some sci-fi stories about time travel, and realised that if he could build a time machine then he could go back and prevent his father's death. The time traveller is his story. We hear of how he started to study assiduously, and got a job in the air force, where he could continue his studies, and which also paid for his university tuition afterwards. Continued..

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Storm Warning Pauline Halford Sutton, 2004 ISBN: 075093215 While many of us may complain about innaccuracies in the weather forecast, for some the weather is a matter of life or death. This was particularly the case in the 19th century, when a major storm could cause great loss of life and property in the wrecking of ships. Storm Warning by Pauline Halford tells the story of how the governments of Britain and the USA set up systems for the collecting information about the weather and for getting that information to those who need it, as well as the attempts at forecasting. Continued..

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Super Crunchers Ian Ayres John Murray, 2007 ISBN: 9780719564635 We all know that computers are becoming ubiquitous in our society. But you may not realise that they are doing more than just assisting current decision processes. In Super Crunchers Ian Ayres shows how much they are bringing about a huge change in the way decisions are made. The book starts with an example of how the future value of wine may be predicted using a simple formula based on the nature of the growing season - and how this is often beating the expert opinion. Now that so much data is available, the number crunching approach is taking hold in many important areas of our life, such as medicine and government as well as most large businesses. Continued..

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Geometry, topology and physics Mikio Nakahara Institute of Physics, 2003 ISBN: 0750306068 Mentioned in road to reality For those who have studied physics to undergraduate level. the abstract geometrical mathematics of research level theoretical physics might seem like a different language. Geometry, topology and physics by Mikio Nakahara helps to bridge that gap. The book starts with a couple of chapters going over undergraduate level physics and mathematics. This is followed by chapters on homology and homotopy groups. Much of the book looks at topics relating to differentiable manifolds, including Riemannian geometry, complex manifolds and fibre bundles, but with an emphasis on their use in quantum theory rather than general relativity. Continued..

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The collapse of chaos Jack Cohen Penguin, 1994 ISBN: 9780140291254 The aim of science is to explain what goes on in the world using the simplest underlying rules. But chaos theory shows how simple rules can lead to complex behaviour, whilst complexity science shows how relatively simple behaviour can emerge from complex systems. The combination of these should lead us to question whether the simplicities we deduce about the world should really be used as evidence for a simple underlying mechanism. This is the subject of The Collapse of Chaos by Jack Cohen and Ian Stewart. The book has information about fractals, theories of everything and such, but much of it looks at DNA and the part it plays in determining the nature of living things. Continued..

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The Age of Innocence Edith Wharton David Campbell, 1920 ISBN: 1857152026 Edith Wharton's The Age of Innocence is set in upper class New York society in the 1870's. Newland Archer is engaged to May Welland and when May's cousin, Countess Ellen Olenska arrives to escape from an unhappy marriage in Europe, Archer agrees to help with to introduce her to the ways of New York society. But he soon sees her as much more than May's cousin. Now for other men the consequences would be simple, a respectable marriage to May and a clandestine affair with Ellen. Archer doesn't want that - but what exactly does he want? Continued..

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The farthest things in the universe Jay Pasachoff ,Hyron Spinrad and Patrick Osmer Cambridge University Press ISBN: 0521451701 When we look into space, it is natural to try to push our observing techniques in order to see as far as possible. The Farthest things in the universe is an account of what astronomers have found when they do this. The book is composed of four chapters, each written by an expert in the subject. The first chapter, by Jay M. Pasachoff, introduces the reader to the expansion of the universe, and describes the methods used to determine the distances of objects. In the second chapter Ed Cheng describes the Cosmological Microwave background radiation, and looks at what it tells us about the early universe. Continued..

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Consciousness explained Daniel C Dennett Penguin, 1991 ISBN: 0140128670 Mentioned in Consciousness The nature of consciousness is one of the 'hard' problems of philosophy. In Consciousness Explained, Daniel C Dennett tackles the problems head on, arguing that one doesn't need the mysteries of dualism in order to make sense of consciousness. The book is in three parts. The first introduces Dennett's arguments, as well as heterophenomenology - how our minds makes sense of experiences which include other minds. The second part describes Dennett's multiple drafts model, as well as looking at the evolution of mind and the relationship between language and consciousness. The third part looks at other philosophies of mind, with, of course, plenty of attacks on dualism. Continued..

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The Poincare Conjecture Donal O'Shea Allen Lane, 2007 ISBN: 9781846140129 At a first glance at the Poincaré Conjecture it can be difficult to see what all the fuss is about - it seems to be saying something which is faily obvious. So it's useful to have a book such as The Poincaré Conjecture; : In Search of the Shape of the Universe, in which Donal O'Shea explains what the conjecture is really claiming, and why mathematicians have had such a hard time proving it. The book starts with a look at how people deduced the shape of the earth, pointing out that even after it was circumnavigated, they couldn't be sure what would happen if you kept going north - maybe you would go on for ever, or even reappear in the south. Continued..

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Growing artificial societies Joshua M Epstein and Robert Axtell MIT Press, 1996 ISBN: 0262550253 Doing experiments in the social sciences isn't easy - you can hardly meddle with a society just to see what happens. But it's possible to create computer models of societies, to see which features lead to realistic societies. This is what Joshua M. Epstein and Robert Axtell have done with their Sugarscape model, and Growing Artificial Societies is a report of some of the things they have observed. The model starts with a landscape in which sugar grows, with agents who roam about collecting sugar which they need to live. Even with such a simple model is it possible to see featues such as migration and uneven wealth distribution. Continued..

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Critical Thinking for Students Roy Van den Brink-Budgen How To Books, 1996 ISBN: 1857036344 Critical Thinking is an important skill, and it is now a subject which is more and more being taught in its own right. Critical Thinking for Students: Learn the Skills of Critical Assessment and Effective Argument by Roy van den Brink-Budgen is aimed at those who are starting to learn the subject of critical thinking. The book analyses the structure of arguments, looking at whar is and what isn't an argument, and, if there are several reasons supporting an argument, looks at whether they do so independently or whether they form a chain of reasoning. Continued..

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An Ocean of Air Gabrielle Walker Bloomsbury, 2007 ISBN: 9780747581901 The air around us is something we tend to take for granted, but in An Ocean of Air: A natural history of the Atmosphere Gabrielle Walker shows that it provides us with more benefits than we may realise. Not that the study of the atmosphere has always been plain sailing. The book starts with a look at the discovery that air had weight and the acceptance that a vacuum could really exist. Walker moves on to the identification of the constituents of air, and in particular Oxygen. This is followed by a chapter on carbon dioxide - its vital role in providing the food we eat, but how too much of it is leading to global warming. Continued..

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Logical dilemmas John W Dawson Peters, 1997 ISBN: 1568810253 Mentioned in Gdel's incompleteness theorem Kurt Gödel was rather reclusive, keeping himself to himself, especially afte the deaths of von Neumann and Einstein. This presents a problem for a biographer, as there are few people who know much about Gödel's life. What Gödel did leave was massive amounts of paperwork - he seemed to hoard every ticket and reciept he ever had. John W. Dawson has sifted through these and Logical dilemmas : the life and work of Kurt Gödel is the result. Continued..

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Two's Company, Three is Complexity Neil Johnson Oneworld, 2007 ISBN: 9781851684885 Complexity is a subject which makes it into many popular science books, but this is often not written by those doing the research. Two's Company, Three is Complexity is a non-technical account of complexity science written by Neil Johnson, who is an active researcher in the subject. The book includes a look at the formation of crowds as well as anti-crowds. There are also chapters on traffic flow, on financial markets and on the difficulties of finding a partner. The study of biological networks is an important part of complexity science, and Johnson describes work on the distribution of nutrients in fungi as well as looking at work which may lead to new treatments for cancer. At the end of the book Johnson takes a look at quantum entanglement, and the new forms of complexity which this implies. Continued..

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An introduction to the science of cosmology Derek Raine and Ted Thomas Institute of Physics, 2001 ISBN: 0750304057 Mentioned in stretchy space Cosmic horizons Co-author Raine,Derek An introduction to the science of cosmology by Derek Raine and Ted Thomas is a concise cosmology textbook aimed at undergrauates, without assuming a background knowledge of astrophysics. The book falls roughly into three parts. The first part describes the observations which cosmologists have to make sense of. These include the redshift indicating the expansion of the universe, the 'missing matter' problem in galaxy dynamics, and the cosmological microwave background radiation. The second part introduces general relativity, and shows how this can be used to model the universe. There are also descriptions of the experimental tests which can be used to choose between such models. Continued..

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Infinite in all directions Freeman Dyson Penguin, 1988 ISBN: 014014482X Infinite in all directions by Freeman Dyson is a version of his 1985 Gifford Lectures, which were entitled 'In Praise of diversity'. The first part of the book looks at diversity in science, looking at such varied topics as string theory, black holes, the Oort Cloud and the matamorphosis of butterflies - and that's just one lecture. Dyson goes on to compare the position of Athens in Greek science with that of Manchester in the industrial revolution an there are chapters looking at the beginning of life on earth as well as the ultimate fate of the universe. Continued..

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Climbing Mount Improbable Richard Dawkins Penguin, 1996 ISBN: 0141026170 The idea of an evolutionary landscape, with its peaks and valleys, is well known, and quite a few popular science writers have written about it. So what distinguishes Richard Dawkins' Climbing Mount Improbable fom the others? Well, I felt that it was the wide range of examples which Dawkins brings to the reader. He starts off with examples of volutionary convergence, and goes on to look at subjects such as the spiders webs, the different methods of animal flight, and the shape of shells There are also chapters on embryo development and on pollination, including the life of the fig wasp. Continued..

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The Search John Battelle Nicholas Brealey, 2005 ISBN: 1857883616 In The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture John Battelle looks at the development of internet search engines. Starting in the early days with Yahoo starting as a list of sites, and Alta Vista as a program to demonstrate DEC hardware, he explains how search was considered unimportant - what businesses were aiming at was the status of a portal. Then the internet bubble burst, but somehow Google managed to buck the trend and make a rapidly growing business out of pure search. Continued..

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