Recommend a Popular Science Book

[emperor_of_localgroup]

There are hundreds of popular science books in the market. It is not possible for an average reader to find and read all these books or browse through the pages to decide which book is worthy of reading. I am very certain SDC members are avid readers and love this type of books.

That is why I'm requesting you recommend a book that you have read in the past to other SDC members, a book that raised your curiosity, made you think, and gave you new knowledge. The books I'm interested in, they do not have to, may be of the following type:

a) Not a textbook
b) Explanation of new scientific discoveries (findings)
c) Alternative explanation of scientific discoveries
d) Books may or may not contain Maths, some math is always useful/necesarry for explanation.
e) Books on other subjects, such as DNA, genetics, human brain, archeology, etc are also interestng.

As an example, I'll start with a book which I do not recommend to all but to those who are interested in ideas of new way of thinking.

Title: Our Undiscovered Universe, Introducing Null Physics.
Author : Terence Witt

What this book is about?
This book contains alternative explanations of many physics/astronomy topics, and mathematical formulae or equations of physics. For example,

There are only 4 basic building blocks, electron, positron, proton, and anti-proton. Not even neutron, neutrons are protons with a captured electron. [my comment: The way we are now correcting proton size, we may someday change proton mass as well

Gravitational field of an object is actually energy of object's rest mass distributed in space. [my comment: the strange behavior of gravity as it tugs everything along with it like a solid object has always puzzled me (even though we call it inertia).

The book explains double slit experiment this way. Once a photon (or electron) goes through a slit, it changes the quantum state (i think wavefunction) of the slit. The path of the next photon is affected by the new quantum state of the slit.

There are lot more. The part I did not like about the book is its use of Infinity in many places. I'm one othose people who think infinity can not exist to humans.

 

[theridane]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Come on, a proton is not a basic building block, we've known that since the sixties.

 

[drwayne]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Why not a textbook?

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Why not a textbook?

Because we (well, most of us) already know contents of a textbook.
Popular science books actually try to explain contents of textbooks.

Come on, a proton is not a basic building block, we've known that since the sixties.

So, you are a Quark person. No argument there.
I thought we are recommending a book, not criticizing a book.

 

[ramparts]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Why not a textbook?

Because we (well, most of us) already know contents of a textbook.
Popular science books actually try to explain contents of textbooks.

What sort of textbooks have you been reading? I'm sure even a freshman college physics textbook would contain plenty you don't know, and doing the problems in a textbook is going to help you understand the material far better than any layman's explanation will. Listen, not everybody wants to have that deep an understanding of this stuff, I mean, it's hard, but the reason for wanting to read a general public book rather than a textbook isn't that you already know everything a textbook can teach, it's the exact opposite.

Think about it like this: popular science books try to explain things because they generally don't require you to put any work in. You just sort of passively absorb the information, you'll think about it and ponder it, but you're not actively solving problems. That's what a textbook is for - learning what the theories are, and how to solve problems in them, which is the only way to get an actual understanding (a real "explanation") of a subject.

 

[nimbus]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Feynman's Lectures.

 

[darkmatter4brains]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

I've got to agree with others. Although there are some very good layman's books out there, nothing can come close to a textbook and actually going through and working all the math behind the theory, if you really want a deep understanding. There are plenty of good textbooks that get deep into the conceptual side of the theories, AND do the math, as well.

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Why not a textbook?

Because we (well, most of us) already know contents of a textbook.
Popular science books actually try to explain contents of textbooks.

What sort of textbooks have you been reading? I'm sure even a freshman college physics textbook would contain plenty you don't know, and doing the problems in a textbook is going to help you understand the material far better than any layman's explanation will. Listen, not everybody wants to have that deep an understanding of this stuff, I mean, it's hard, but the reason for wanting to read a general public book rather than a textbook isn't that you already know everything a textbook can teach, it's the exact opposite.

Think about it like this: popular science books try to explain things because they generally don't require you to put any work in. You just sort of passively absorb the information, you'll think about it and ponder it, but you're not actively solving problems. That's what a textbook is for - learning what the theories are, and how to solve problems in them, which is the only way to get an actual understanding (a real "explanation") of a subject.

Come on folks, I did not mean to start this thread to argue about which book is better or what type of book is better or which book has the correct theory. If you think a textbook raised your curiosity, by all means, recommend it for reading with one or two examples, why do you think so.

Many recommended book titles are already scattered around in these forums, Brian Greene, Michio K, Penrose, Herbert, etc. I just like to see them in one place, hope many will agree with me, to pick one book at a time from the list based on poster's description. The description is important because many like me will not read a book on UFO, doesn't matter how catchy the title is.

 

[nimbus]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Feynman is one of those guys that people like Neil deGrasse Tyson can hope to one day equal.

 

[drwayne]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Textbooks I think are well written and can be used to get perspective on physics. Note that some
are classics, and many are old. I chose them because I found them helpful for filling in the gaps
for me.

Some of these were part of a class, but most were not. I will update this as time allows.

(1) Elmer Anderson's "Modern Physics and Quantum Mechanics" - for me, this was a fantastic book.
Despite the title, which suggest a Modern Physics level text, it is a book that supports understanding
Quantum Mechanics at a graduate level.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Physics-Qu ... 0721612202

(2) Liboff's "Introductory Quantum Mechanics"
http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Quan ... 0805387145

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Textbooks I think are well written and can be used to get perspective on physics. Note that some
are classics, and many are old. I chose them because I found them helpful for filling in the gaps
for me.

Some of these were part of a class, but most were not. I will update this as time allows.

(1) Elmer Anderson's "Modern Physics and Quantum Mechanics" - for me, this was a fantastic book.
Despite the title, which suggest a Modern Physics level text, it is a book that supports understanding
Quantum Mechanics at a graduate level.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Physics-Qu ... 0721612202

(2) Liboff's "Introductory Quantum Mechanics"
http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Quan ... 0805387145

I have never seen objectives of a thread was misunderstood so badly.
This thread is not for me only. For all SDC forum readers who like to read a good popular science book.
This thread is NOT to LEARN PHYSICS, but
to read about interpretation of physics, and other branches of science.

 

[darkmatter4brains]

Nick Herbert , Quantum Reality is a good one on the interpretation of QM (as well as covering some basics)

David Bohm , Wholeness and the Intricate Order was an interesting read. Although, I'm sure this book would just convince some folks on here that one of our founding fathers of physics went insane

 

[nimbus]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

I have never seen objectives of a thread was misunderstood so badly.
This thread is not for me only. For all SDC forum readers who like to read a good popular science book.
This thread is NOT to LEARN PHYSICS, but
to read about interpretation of physics, and other branches of science.

Could you explain the difference for those of us who don't get it?

 

[yevaud]

Sorry, I missed this thread until now; haven't been around much the last week.

OK, I have a few. Some of them are a bit dated, but excellent reads and good primers on various scientific topics:

The Breakthrough - Robert M. Hazen, 1988: This was the book that described the race to create and understand the first useful "room temperature" Superconductors.

Parallel Worlds - Michio Kaku, 2005: The title says it all.

Stuff like that?

 

[drwayne]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Textbooks I think are well written and can be used to get perspective on physics. Note that some
are classics, and many are old. I chose them because I found them helpful for filling in the gaps
for me.

Some of these were part of a class, but most were not. I will update this as time allows.

(1) Elmer Anderson's "Modern Physics and Quantum Mechanics" - for me, this was a fantastic book.
Despite the title, which suggest a Modern Physics level text, it is a book that supports understanding
Quantum Mechanics at a graduate level.
http://www.amazon.com/Modern-Physics-Qu ... 0721612202

(2) Liboff's "Introductory Quantum Mechanics"
http://www.amazon.com/Introductory-Quan ... 0805387145

I have never seen objectives of a thread was misunderstood so badly.
This thread is not for me only. For all SDC forum readers who like to read a good popular science book.
This thread is NOT to LEARN PHYSICS, but
to read about interpretation of physics, and other branches of science.

Hmmm, you will note the terms I used about perspective and filling in the holes. From my perspective,
these are good examples of books that show how things go forward within a field.

Their strength is that you can also use them to teach a course too.

 

[emperor_of_localgroup]

Re: Recommend a Book on Physics or Other Fields Written for Gene

Could you explain the difference for those of us who don't get it?

In addition to many differences such as presentation of contents, one simple difference is
at the end of each chapter one type of book includes problems to solve, and the other type often includes references.

Feynman is one of those guys that people like Neil deGrasse Tyson can hope to one day equal.

I'm surprised you used Feynmann and Tyson names in the same sentence.

Quantum reality sounds a good title. Some older books can also make one think.

 

[drwayne]

Another one slightly from left field (and not a textbook) is "What if the Moon Didn't Exist"

http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Moon-Didn ... 0060168641

It is interesting in that evaluating the impact of things that have always been present is a fascinating
problem - deconstructing an existing web to see the effects.

ETA I am not sure where my copy is right now

Another that popped into my mind is "Ignition!"

http://www.amazon.com/Ignition-informal ... 177&sr=1-4

Depending on your perspective, this book may be somewhat obscure. The author's sense of humor though
is very funny to me, and it shows how evolution of an advanced topic, like rocket fuel can go forward
in fits and unstarts. I had to jump through some hoops to get it...

 

[arkady]

Just finished "Quantum" by Manjit Kumar. Subtitle: "Einstein, Bohr and the great debate about the nature of reality"

Blew my mind, even though I only understood half of it. But I guess that's quantum physics for ya.
Can definitely recommend it.

 

[ramparts]

emperor, fair enough, I was just taking issue with your reason for wanting a popular book over a textbook, particularly the ridiculous assertion that you "already know [the] contents of a textbook." But yeah, it's obviously totally okay to want a popular book over a textbook (for certain reasons), and unfortunately I can't recommend any good popular books since I haven't really read any