Book Reviews October 2007

The Symbiotic Planet Lynn Margulis Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 1998 ISBN: 029781740X Lynn Margulis is probably the person most associated with the development of the theory of symbiosis. In The Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution she discusses some of the aspects of symbiosis, and how it has shaped life on earth. She explains the development of Serial Endosymbiosis Theory, and goes on to look at the origin of life on earth, and the origin of sex. All the while Margulis emphasises the problems which occur when we insist on thinking of life as consisting of individual organisms, for instance in the way we give them names. The final chapter discusses the planetwide symbiosis known as Gaia. Continued..

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Computability and logic George S Boolos ,John P Burgess and Richard C Jeffrey Cambridge University Press, 2002 ISBN: 0521809754 Mentioned in Gdel's incompleteness theorem Co-authors Boolos,George S Burgess,John P Many books on mathematical logic soon plunge the reader into a mass of difficult to understand symbols. Computability and logic by Boolos, Burgess and Jeffrey starts off in an easier to follow style, and so gives the reader a gentler learning curve for the subject. The book starts off with a look at Turing machines, showing how they can be considered equivalent to any other computer. This is followed by an introduction to the theory of recursive functions. The second part of the book deals with first order logic, leading to the proof of Gödel's incompleteness theorem and related results. Continued..

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Six Easy Pieces Richard Feynman Penguin, 1995 ISBN: 0140276661 Richard Feynman's Lectures on Physics have achieved pretty much legendary status.Six Easy Pieces takes six of these lectures to provide an introduction to the subject for the beginner. These are include a description of how everything is made of atoms, which in turn are made up of smaller particles, a look at the relationship between physics and the other sciences, and a study of the consequences of the conservation of energy. The book concludes with chapters on the theory of gravitation, and on the mysteries of quantum theory - in particular the implications of the two slit experiment. Continued..

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Strength in numbers Sherman K Stein Wiley, 1996 ISBN: 0471152528 Many people have been turned off mathematics by the memorisation of seemingly meaningless facts in school. In Strength in numbers : discovering the joy and power of mathematics in everyday life Sherman K Stein shows that it doesn't have to be this way. He gives an easy to follow explanation of some of the key areas of school mathematics, including why minus × minus equals plus, pythagoras's theorem and the area of a circle. He even gets on to look at calculus. But my impression is that this book isn't really aimed at those who are currently struggling with learning this mathematics at school. Continued..

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The view from the center of the universe Joel R Primack and Nancy Abrams Fourth Estate, 2006 ISBN: 0007193521 Mentioned in Full Review Co-author Primack,Joel R The Copernican Universe demoted us from a central position and every new discovery seems to highlight our insignificance. Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams think that this process has gone too far. In The view from the center of the universe they show how it is due to an out-of-date mindset, and that recent discoveries rather emphasise our importance in the universe. For instance the fact that 99.5% of the universe seems to consist of either mysterious dark energy or of matter that we can't see doesn't relegate us to the sidelines - it shows that we are in the important bit. Continued..

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Just Another Day Adam Hart-Davis Orion Books, 2006 ISBN: 0752873342 In Just Another Day: The Science and Technology of our Everyday Lives Adam Hart-Davis takes a look at the history and science behind many of the things we use in our day-to-day living. Starting with the clock which tells him when to get up, he moves on to the morning wash, with a look at the development of the toothbrush, of soap and other cleansing products, and a history of shaving. The third chapter examines the clothes we wear and what is considered a reasonable breakfast in different cultures. There's also a look at that ever popular subject - visiting the lavatory. Continued..

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On the Shores of the Unknown Joseph Silk Cambridge University Press, 2005 ISBN: 0521836271 What we hear about the universe can sometimes seem a bit unlikely, with most of it being in the form of unseen matter and energy. In On the Shores of the Unknown: A Short History of the Universe Joseph Silk demonstrates that the evidence is stronger than you might think. He describes how the fluctuations in the Cosmological Microwave Background impose constraints on the nature of the cosmos, but goes on to look at several other discoveries which support the cosmologists models. In particular he examines what theories of galaxy formation can tell us about the large scale nature of universe. Continued..

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Descartes' Baby Paul Bloom Arrow, 2004 ISBN: 0090437945 Sometimes it's rather puzzling why people should believe what they do. In Descarte's Baby: How Child Development explains what makes us Human Paul Bloom looks at how we come by some of our thoughts and beliefs. He starts off by examining how children come to recognise the existence of other minds, followed by a look at how we make sense of objects around us - recognising whether or not they seem to be there for a purpose. There is also a discussion of how we get our sense of morality, and at when and why we might experience disgust. The book concludes with a look at our spiritual beliefs. Continued..

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Achilles in the quantum universe Richard Morris Souvenir press, 1997 ISBN: 0285634429 The paradoxical nature of infinity has puzzled thinkers throughout the ages - an early example is Zeno's paradox. But Achilles in the Quantum Universe:The Definitive History of Infinity, by Richard Morris, doesn't try to bamboozle the reader. Rather it gives a clear explanation of how such puzzles have occurred, and of the proposed solutions. Infinity is a mathematical concept, which some might think is unrelated to the real world. Naturally this book mentions mathematical ideas of infinity, such as infinitesimals and the work of Cantor, but its emphasis is on the occurence of infinities in physics, and how to get rid of them. Continued..

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Galileo's Finger Peter W Atkins Oxford University Press, 2003 ISBN: 0716760061 In Galileo's Finger: The 10 Great Ideas of Science Peter W Atkins devotes a chapter to each of Evolution, DNA, Energy, Entropy, Atoms, Symmetry, Quanta, Cosmology, Spacetime, and Arithmetic. The book is written so that the chapters can be read individually if desired. Each chapter takes a look at the historical development and describes of some of the important concepts of the subject. The book gives a wide view of each subject rather than reporting the latest results, but it does help the reader to get an understanding of some difficult concepts, such as String theory, General relativity and Gödel's incompleteness theorem. Continued..

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Jurassic Mary Patricia Pierce Sutton, 2006 ISBN: 0750940395 In the early part of the nineteenth century a lone figure could often be seen walking along the shoreline at Lyme Regis. This was Mary Anning searching for fossils, and in Jurassic Mary: Mary Anning and the Primeval Monsters, Patricia Pierce tells her story. Although she was often seen as eccentric, Mary Anning in fact found a substantial proportion of the fossils that were put on display in this period, and in particular some of the large reptiles which advanced the study of paleontology. But, despite Anning's extensive knowledge of the subject, the credit for the discoveries generally went to those learned gentlemen who bought the specimens from her. Continued..

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Dr. Riemann's Zeros Karl Sabbagh Atlantic Books, 2002 ISBN: 1843541009 The Riemann Hypothesis seems so far removed from everyday life that those who aren't specialists in number theory might have difficulty in understanding why a million dollars is being offered for its proof. In Dr. Riemann's Zeros Karl Sabbagh gives a well presented account of this area of mathematics in a way that can be followed by non-mathematicians. Sabbagh packs plenty of information into this short book - the meaning of the mathematics, the origins and history of the hypothesis, some of the current work on it, and how similar sorts of mathematics, such as Fermat's last theorem, were finally proved. Continued..

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Dreaming in Code Scott Rosenberg Crown Publishing, 2007 ISBN: 9781400082469 Software projects are notorious for their problems - time and budget overruns, bugs and feature creep. In Dreaming in Code Scott Rosenberg describes the early days of development of Chandler by the OSAF. This was developed as an open source program, but with substantial funding, so one might think it could avoid the usual problems of software development. But it seems nothing is immune, and problems soon arose. In particular, there was little financial pressure to get something out of the door and version 1.0 always seemed to be a couple of years away. Continued..

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The Good Back Guide Barrie Savory Century, 2006 ISBN: 1844133958 Back pain is an unfortunately common occurrence in today's society. In The good back guide Barrie Savory explains how we have adopted a lifestyle which doesn't suit the structure of our bodies and shows that this often leads to some sort of back problem. Admit it you're probably hunched up in a chair at this moment - and the computer mouse is a major culprit in this area. But help is at hand. Savory describes a few simple exercises that can help to deal with back pain within your typical daily schedule. Continued..

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I am a strange loop Douglas Hofstadter Basic books, 2007 ISBN: 0465030785 Mentioned in Gdel's incompleteness theorem Full Review In 1979 Douglas Hofstadter shot to fame with his book Gödel, Escher Bach. He realised, however, that readers weren't picking up what he thought was one of its main messages, that is the parallelism between Gödel's incompleteness theorem creating metamathematics within mathematics itself, and the emergence of mind from inanimate matter. In I am a strange loop he gives a more direct explanation of this parallelism. The book looks at feedback loops and at how higher order systems emerge from simple entities, as well as examining what we mean by reality and how we should think of the soul. Continued..

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Quantum Enigma Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner Duckworth, 2007 ISBN: 9780715636541 Most of you will have heard about the strangeness of quantum theory. Many writers use this as an excuse for the promotion of a mystical world view. Quantum Enigma: Physics Encounters Consciousness by Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner is different: here the authors show that however down-to-earth you try to be - remember that quantum theory is involved in the production of many of the devices we use in our everyday lives - you have to acknowledge that there are some questions about the theory which are difficult to answer. The book looks at the differences between classical and quantum physics then moves on to look at the EPR paper and Bell's theorem, ending up with a discussion of the authors' ideas on the links between consciousness and physics. Continued..

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