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/lit/ - Literature

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17222238 No.17222238 [Reply] [Original]

What are the best books about science? I already read Hawking's book.

>> No.17222284

>>17222238
Science what? Cosmology and physics?

David Z. Albert's Quantum Mechanics Experience is quite easy to laypeople. I still haven't finished, but there isn't much math. Just a chapter with some linear algebra but it is not that hard.

Chimpanzee Politics by Frans de Waal is fucking great. Completely changed my view on life in general. I literally gave up on dying (rationally, still dealing with some unconscious stuff).

There is that Ernst Mayr about Biology, quite cool. Didn't finished it either, but it was reasonably interesting, I didn't quite got everything because it is a bit philosophical heavy. I might get into it again now that I'm more familiar with such things.

>> No.17222312

>>17222284
Mayr is a fun read, I recommend Marjorie Grene's history books on biology too. Her Episodic History of Biology is fun

>> No.17222341

>>17222238
I guess I'd start with Aristotles physics and studying logic

>> No.17222435

>>17222238
based, I love watching rick and morty while drinking schroedinger's cat ATOM beer - though I'm more of an Albert Einstein than a Hawking guy myself.
I feel sorry for the self-important anons who replied to your thread in earnest

>> No.17222470

>>17222238
The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin. Possibly a bit dated (I wouldn't know) but one of the best science books I've read.

>> No.17222505
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17222505

>>17222238
This is the best book about science. Enjoy.

>> No.17222794

The Character of Physical Law
Richard Feynman

It is a book on the philosophy of science, which attempts to dissuade you from a shallow love of Science! and in exchange delves into what is known and knowable and how it could apply to your worldview and attitude toward science.

>> No.17222804

>>17222238
test

>> No.17222816

>>17222238
>I FUCKING LOVE SCIENCE
The Bell Curve

>> No.17222823

Uncertainty: Einstein, Heisenberg, Bohr, and the Struggle for the Soul of Science

This book does a great job of laying out the relationship between all the important scientists who worked on fundamental physics from the turn of the century through the 50s. It explains the core ideas and even goes into some math and explains how it was interpreted into our reality from the equations and catalogs the disagreements on how to interpret quantum mechanics.

>> No.17222857

The Elegant Universe

Goes into quantum physics and then beyond it to all the mathematical theories you hear about from 1990-2015. String theory, super symmetry, membrane theory, SU2- SU3 , etc

It's somewhat outdated now because we can discount the interpretation of most of these theories from that time. Geometric physics has a bunch of new tools borrowed from math and they figured out that most of these theories are all just different formulations of the same ideas. But it will introduce you to the ideas, just ignore the interpretations because they are naive by contemporary standards

>> No.17222866

From Fish to Philosopher

A book on the evolution of the kidney. Seems boring or dumb, but its actually an incredible story. Kidneys allowed us to leave the ocean and carry it with us on to land. The kidney is the key organ that made it possible for humans to evolve.

>> No.17222878

>>17222238
I've never met a Science type that understood Schroedinger's Cat

>> No.17222879

Vital Dust

A book about possible abiotic origin of life. It details all the complex chemistry that had to develop for organic DNA based life to happen. The end of the book waxes theological but it's not hard to be in awe of how unlikely life is, save for an almost hard coded mandate for chemistry to evolve in complexity to create life. Its a book that will make you a Deist. It isnt kooky though. Youre going to be reading about phosphate chemistry and enzymatic substrates in primordial oceans

>> No.17222897

>>17222878
Most of them arent even aware of core experiments or how we progressed to quantum physics from natural philosophy. Their understanding of science ends around 1920 for physics and maybe the late 90s foe biology

>> No.17222911

>>17222505
Based and Feyerapilled

>> No.17223079
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17223079

>>17222238
very light read

>> No.17223124

>>17222284
How did a book on chimps make you give up on dying?

>> No.17224150

>>17223124
KEK it also convinced me on maybe having children.

>> No.17225101

>>17222238
The Technological Society

>> No.17225154

>>17222238
you love something fake

>> No.17225163

>>17222505
/thread

>> No.17225205

>>17222238
Gaia by James Lovelock

If you filter out the Authors personal input you get a very interesting picture of how the earth regulates its environment, for example Atmosphere composition, ocean salinity, and essential trace element distribution. Whenever I now think of the earth, I think of one giant immensely complex organism with endless sensors and counter measures to hazardous situations.

>> No.17225236

A short history of Everything - Bill Bryson

>> No.17225973

>>17223079
this book changes people

>> No.17226066

Classical Electrodynamics-Jackson
Structure of Scientific Revolutions-Kuhn

>> No.17226106

>>17222505
Cringe, kys.