The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing | Pelucid writings from brilliant minds

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing | Worth way more than twenty-five bucks

books:

The Oxford Book of...

	The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing Oxford University Press, USA, 2008 - 448 pages average customer review:based on 8 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

Boasting almost one hundred pieces, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a breathtaking celebration of the finest writing by scientists--the best such collection in print--packed with scintillating essays on everything from "the discovery of Lucy" to "the terror and vastness of the universe."
Edited by best-selling author and renowned scientist Richard Dawkins, this sterling collection brings together exhilarating pieces by a who's who of scientists and science writers, including Stephen Pinker, Stephen Jay Gould, Martin Gardner, Albert Einstein, Julian Huxley, and many dozens more. Readers will find excerpts from bestsellers such as Douglas R. Hofstadter's Godel, Escher, Bach, Francis Crick's Life Itself, Loren Eiseley's The Immense Journey, Daniel Dennett's Darwin's Dangerous Idea, and Rachel Carson's The Sea Around Us. There are classic essays ranging from J.B.S. Haldane's "On Being the Right Size" and Garrett Hardin's "The Tragedy of the Commons" to Alan Turing's "Computing Machinery and Intelligence" and Albert Einstein's famed New York Times article on "Relativity." And readers will also discover lesser-known but engaging pieces such as Lewis Thomas's "Seven Wonders of Science," J. Robert Oppenheimer on "War and Physicists," and Freeman Dyson's memoir of studying under Hans Bethe.
A must-read volume for all science buffs, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a rich and vibrant anthology that captures the poetry and excitement of scientific thought and discovery.

for more information click here

Pelucid writings from brilliant minds

As one who is convinced that Spinoza's monism provides the philosophical basis for all the sciences, reading The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing and seeing Spinoza's view (that God and Nature are one and the same thing, under the dual aspects of thought and matter) confirmed over and over again was enthralling.

While reading it I repeatedly inserted markers into articles that I wished to re-read. In fact, I shall probably read the whole book again and refer to it repeatedly. What particularly fascinated me was the revelation that a quantum of energy appears to us under two aspects: as a wave or as a particle, but never both at the same time. This discovery accords perfectly with Spinoza's dual aspect theory.

My selection of five-star articles is as follows: `Life Itself', by Francis Crick; `One Self: a Meditation on the Unity of Consciousness' by Nicholas Humphrey; `The Language Instinct', by Steven Pinker; `Avoid Boring People' by James Watson; `Consciousness Explained' by Daniel Dennett; `The Fantastic Combinations of John Conway's new solitaire game "Life"' by Martin Gardner; `Computing Machinery and Intelligence' by Alan Turing; `The Goldilocks Enigma' by Paul Davies; `The Elegant Universe' by Bryan Green, and `Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid' by Douglas Hofstadter.

Having been brought up in an evangelical environment, and having had a taste of Roman Catholicism as well, I can only say that there is no contest between the brilliance, lucidity, humility and open-mindedness of the scientists quoted in this anthology and the tendentious, hubristic, convoluted, ill-founded speculations of theologians - few of whom will have the courage to read this book.

The introductions by Richard Dawkins are excellent. I can't recommend this book highly enough.

Basic Flying Instruction: A Comprehensive Introduction to Western Philosophy

A Good Boy Tomorrow: Memoirs of A Fundamentalist Upbringing

for more information click here

Worth way more than twenty-five bucks

Folks often wonder where the scientists draw the energy to spend all those hours studying descriptive models and terminology about the natural world. The answer is in this book!

Personally, I believe we are all born curious investegators. why and how are facinating topics. But about some time in middle school, we enounter science out of the context of spirited, enjoyable curiosity. The education system serves us a bitter dish for this delightful subject of science. Most agree, it's hard to learn something you don't care for. People lose the care, thus losing the affinity for it and then they grow up looking at a scientist as elitist overacheivers.

This book aims to open your eyes and remind you of that spirited curiosity, that maybe science might become a bigger part of your life..because unadulterated curiosity is the key to learning science.

for more information click here

Regarding Science-Ejected Vitalism, 2008:

What a breath of fresh air, in these times of alt.med. vitalistic spiritistic woo, to hear an actual scientist state how nonscientific vitalism and dualism actually are, and I quote:

"life is the execution of programs written using a small digital alphabet in a single, universal machine language. This realization was the hammer blow that knocked the last nail in the coffin of vitalism and, by extension, of dualism. The hammer was wielded, with undisguised youthful relish, by James Watson and Francis Crick [p.030...] for me, the greatest achievement of Watson and Crick was to turn genetics from a branch of wet and squishy physiology into a branch of information technology, in the process slaying, as I suggested above, the ghost of vitalism [p.226]."

-r.c.

for more information click here

A wonderful collection of essays on science

Richard Dawkins has become something of an institution with his interest in biology, atheism, evolution, creationism, and religion. Its a great joy to review one of his books without having to worry about offending the proponents of creationism and intelligent design.

Dawkins has put together a wonderful collection of short essays on various aspects of science by a wide range of people known primarily as practicing scientists rather than writers on science.

This collection requires a bit of scientific knowledge. Like most collections, you may not enjoy all the essays. But it is a great joy to read an essay or two, and save the rest for later.

Robert C. Ross 2008

for more information click here

Beautiful book of science

This book is a must read for every science lover. Moreover for every person who is truly interested about the wonders, mysteries and surprises of science. A book of intellectual honesty that should belong to any private or public library.

reviews: page 1, 2

products you might be interested in