Leglessbird Reading guide

Afterglow of Creation: From the Fireball to the Discovery of Cosmic Ripples (buy from Amazon) by Marcus Chown
Type: Science
Author: Marcus Chown
My rating: 4

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
This book talks about the "Big Bang" - the creation of the universe. The after effect and how we detect the "background" radiation. Also the history of these scientic discovery.

My review:
Very interesting if you are a scientist or you are facinated about science :-)

Beyond the Black Hole: Stephen Hawking's Universe (buy from Amazon) by John Boslough

Type: Science
Author: John Boslough
My rating: 4

Book introduction:
A book that summarises Stephen Hawking's work on the Black Hole.

My review:
As a Cambridge graduate, I was able to see Prof. Hawking in person in seminar or even the common area the applied mathematics dept. It is remarkable that he is such an outstanding scientist with such a devasting diseases.

The Meaning of It All: Thoughts of a Citizen Scientist (Helix Books) (buy from Amazon) by Richard Phillips Feynman
Type: Self-improvement Science Leisure
Author: Richard Feynman
My rating: 5
Book introduction:
A collection of the seminar notes of Prof. Richard Feynman letures on the meaning/definition of science, how to be scientific, what is unscientific, how to keep pushing the research front, the conflict between benefit that science brings and the potential damages that it caused; between science/religious and between science/politics.

My review:
Well written and delivered seminar. I particularly enjoyed reading the conflict between science and religious, how religious can be defined into 3-parts

Meta-physics: Who we are and how we come about.

Ethic: How we should behave

Spirtual: Meta-physics and ethic alone are not enough to pursuade people to behave, we need a spirtual link to inspire people to behave as defined in ethic part of religious.

He further explained how meta-physics has been challenged many many times and has been modified, such as how man came to this earth, how the Sun didn't go round earth. How ethic has been upheld most of the time. The link meta-physics and spritual means that each time meta-physics is shaken, the spirtual part is shaken also.

Science Vs. politics:
Voters want to hear someone to tell them a "solution" instead of someone to tell them ways to find a practical solution. Politicians end up promising unachieveable goals/solutions and end up being called liars, and people have lost trust in politicians and they seek a new "liar" to tell them lies. This is very unscientific as Prof. Feynman puts it.

Prof. Feynman has also defined what it means to be scientific, and how people today have been very unscientific in many many ways.

Very interesting reading and it helps you to solve problems and everyday tasks in the scientific way. Highly recommended.

A Brief History of Time : From the Big Bang to Black Holes (buy from Amazon) by Stephen W.; Sagan, Carl Hawking
Type: Science
Author: Stephen Hawking
My rating: 5

Posted by Dominic
Book introduction:
How does the Universe begin or is there a beginning? Was it big bang? Is there going to be a big crunch? How does human fit in? What is the meaning of time? Must it too has a beginning and will it end? Is black hole really black? What is the history of modern science? How do we get to know so much about the universe? What more to learn? How close are we to the final goal "a grand unification theory"?

My review:
A masterpiece by Stephen Hawking that covers all the above questions. I truly enjoyed reading this book and there is so much more to learn.

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