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"The Ancestors Tale" is one of the 2 best books I have ever read. if I had read it as a young person, I would have studied biology in college. Amazing book.
in his other works, Dawson does get a little preachy with his atheism. It ranges from mildly annoying to, "what is this guy trying to do...assure himself of a Special Place in Hell?"

I'm reading the runner up in the last poll Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind. It's really good. Harari comes at evolution from a slightly different angle than the others. Unlike the others I've read recently, he takes a more distant look at homo sapiens - similar to the way he'd study a bug. He's used it to great effect by putting us into a better evolutionary perspective. He breaks our evolution into basic epochs: biological, cognitive, agricultural, unification, & scientific.

His take on our ability to communicate is wonderful. We're not the only species who can lie (monkeys can & do) nor the best at making sounds (parrots are better), but we're the ones that gossip & spin collective fictions (shared myths) that we agree on: money, empires, & religion, the main forces that unify us. I'm in the religion part now & really enjoying it. He makes a lot of sense out why & how religions grew from a macro level.

I am reading The Golden Ratio by Mario Livio

This is my second book on the subject.

It really strikes a deep interest in me. The book dispels the fanciful, reinforces the curious and articulates the ubiquitous mysteries of phi. Math is a gateway to subjects that inspire me and this is a colorful door.

I finished Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari. I forget who suggested it as a group read, but you have my thanks. It was fantastic!!! I even got the ebook so I could reread & ponder bits after listening to them. I think I'll want to reread it & can't recommend it highly enough. My 5 star review is here:
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I just finished How We Got to Now: Six Innovations That Made the Modern World by Steven Johnson who is also the author of The Ghost Map: The Story of London's Most Terrifying Epidemic - and How It Changed Science, Cities, and the Modern World. It was yet another way of looking at our weird development, an interesting one, too. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:
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I just finished Quintessence: The Mystery of Missing Mass in the Universe by Lawrence M. Krauss. The shelf life of a book about current Physics is usually not very long and this was last revised in 2001 however, sadly, there has not been any major definitive discoveries since that time. Krauss does an excellent job of presenting the history of the search for missing matter and how the current experiments seeking to validate the competing theories evolved. The reader is well prepared to follow experiments such as Lux , CRESST many more as they unfold. He is engaging and does not underestimate the ability and desire of the reader.

Just finished The Death of Cancer: After Fifty Years on the Front Lines of Medicine, a Pioneering Oncologist Reveals Why the War on Cancer Is Winnable--and How We Can Get There by former NCI chief Vincent DeVita. I highly recommend all read though I am a bit of a cancer nerd, so I may appreciate the anecdotes more than most. It would go really well after The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer which I also love and is a more comprehensive view of cancer treatment and research,

If you already have a good understanding of plate tectonics, are comfortable with some chemistry, math and physics, and want to dive into the highly technical world of geophysics, then you might enjoy my latest read, Global Tectonics, 3ed. Here's my review:

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I very much like Theodore Gray's Molecules: The Elements and the Architecture of Everything. It's a brilliant introduction to chemistry. Very accessible, well written.
Some of Gray's insights, as "trivia:"

My review:


Another illuminating book is Saturn: A New View by Laura Lovett, Joan Horvath, Jeff Cuzzi.
Great photos, insight into rings, moons, water and organic chemistry on other worlds.
Some of the book's insights as "trivia:"

I just finished The Modern Scholar: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur by John C. Kricher. I gave it 5 stars here:
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Jim wrote: "I just finished The Modern Scholar: Behold the Mighty Dinosaur by John C. Kricher. I gave it 5 stars here:
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Thanks so much for this review Jim. One of my favorite lectures, literally of all time, is the Ecologic Planet by Kricher. I put this series on my list but haven't gotten to it because I am much less interested in dinosaurs. But, after your review, I am bumping up it up the list.

Thanks, Charlene. My library has The Modern Scholar: Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Major Ecosystems & your reminder sparked me to get it, too. Lectures are not my favorite, but he does a great job - far better than many books.

Lectures are like live music to me. Great if I'm there, but if I'm going to listen to a recording, I'd rather it be done in a studio (book). The nuances that make it so great live often don't in the recording, if that makes sense.

Just finished Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic.Found it fascinating, but depressing. I like the chase, the solving of the mystery of how diseases move. However, the tracks followed are made up mostly of lives loss.

Mochajunkie wrote: "Just finished Spillover: Animal Infections and the Next Human Pandemic."

I enjoyed Spillover too. It was one of the better books on the subject. You might also like the following if you are into microbe detective type books.
Superbug: The Fatal Menace of MRSA

And then these ones:
Parasite Rex: Inside the Bizarre World of Nature's Most Dangerous Creatures

Our Stolen Future: Are We Threatening Our Fertility, Intelligence and Survival? A Scientific Detective Story

I am happy to say I just finished "The Ancestors Tale" by Richard Dawkins. It took me over a year and I am glad I am finished with it.

I bought the 2004 edition. I wish I would've bought a more current edition (if there is one). We have discovered much about genetics since 2004.

It is still an excellent book and I enjoy how he explains ideas/techniques/etc in the biological sciences. I thought using the various "pilgrims" (organisms) to discuss these ideas was brilliant. I believe it makes it easier to grasp the various ideas in biology for those whom have no experience in the subject.

Elentarri wrote: "You might also like the following ..."

Oh thank you! I will check them out.

I just finished The Checklist Manifesto: How to Get Things Right by Atul Gawande & gave it 5 stars here:
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It's super interesting & very relevant in our increasingly complex lives, plus it gives a lot of insights into the medical profession. Some are pretty scary, too. Not all doctors & hospitals use checklists, but their success rates speak for themselves. I think it's going to become the first question I ask a doctor from now on.

The Map That Changed the World is both a story of human tragedy and triumph as well as a brief history of the field of geology known as stratigraphy. Here's my review:

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I just finished "Periodic table: an exploration of the elements" by Joel Levy.

The book was alright. It would be a great book to give to middle schoolers wanting to learn some basics. The book covers the foundations of chemistry and where it came from (yes it does discuss alchemy). It also has short little exercises to help learn to do basic things like calculate atomic mass, how much do you need of chemical x to get chemical y, etc. I think he could've done a better job explaining it, but it wasn't too difficult to grasp.

The lectures that make up The Modern Scholar: Ecological Planet: An Introduction to Earth's Major Ecosystems by John C. Kricher were quite good, if pretty basic. I gave it a 5 star review here:
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Courtney wrote: "I just finished "Periodic table: an exploration of the elements" by Joel Levy.

The book was alright. It would be a great book to give to middle schoolers wanting to learn some basics. The book co..."

A good periodic table book that I would recommend is


Very good discussion on the history and modern application of most elements.

I just finished Malcolm Gladwell's "The Tipping Point," which was definitely an interesting read. It was an intriguing book that makes you see and interpret the world a little differently, although in some instances I fear that the world is not quite as simple as some of Gladwell's theories, but the arguments and ideas remain valid. I gave it four stars and a pretty mediocre review here: /review/show...

(Also, if anyone wants to suggest to me any other social science books, I'd love to hear it!)

I'm now currently reading Neil DeGrasse Tyson's "Death by Black Hole and Other Cosmic Quandaries." I'm only about 50 pages in, but so far I'm really liking it. Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a complete astronomy rockstar for a reason--he's amazing at expressing complex cosmological theories and principles in an eloquent and accessible way. I was definitely expecting greatness with this one, and so far NDT is delivering.

I'm listening to Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies by Jared Diamond narrated by Grover Gardner. It's quite good, although a bit dated even though it was first published in 1997. It's fantastic to realize that mapping the human genome cleared up so many questions in anthropology - the drift of human populations around the globe - in a mere decade. Wow. A lot of the science I was originally taught in school has been updated, but this is possibly one of the most glaring examples of such different sciences supporting each other that I recall.

I know it happens all the time, but it's not usually so obvious to me since I'm not a scientist. When Diamond summarizes the global expansion of the race, he's not nearly as sure of the migration directions or times as Nicholas Wade is in Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors. Diamond is close enough in the main so it doesn't make any real difference to the rest of his book, thankfully.

I just finished the Lost Camels of Tartary by John Hale. It's based in Mongolia and China in the Gobi desert. The author was part of an expedition in the '90s that were looking for wild Bactarian Camels. He also established a nature conservancy in the Gobi desert in order to protect the few remaining camels. There is a forward from Jane Goodall in the beginning.

I quite enjoyed it. He did an excellent job of describing his trip and includes direct quotes from his journal. He frequently speaks about another European "adventurer" that had crossed the Gobi about 60 years before.

I just finished reading The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf and literally wept for the beauty of it. It is, without question, my new favorite science book of all time. It chronicles the life and research of Alexander von Humboldt whose work created a foundation for the theory of plate tectonics, Darwin's theory of evolution, human hastened climate change investigation, preservation efforts, the study of ecology (especially as a network), and more. I highly recommend.

Here is my review: /review/show...

That does sound fascinating Charlene!

Thanks, Charlene. I put it on my list, too.

Excellent! Since it will be our group read for May 2016.

I would like to 'wrap up' Kuhn's classic book, but I am 'making room' For this little gem here

/book/show/3... I've been wanted to read this, since last summer, and after a 'meeting session' of University representatives downtown, I couldn't resist
and finally bought this one. Is anyone here familiar with the works of Prigogine,perhaps?

The Innovators: How a Group of Hackers, Geniuses and Geeks Created the Digital Revolution by Walter Isaacson was fantastic. I've read other books on the history of computing, but never one that covered the journey so well. He really brought the people to life & showed how innovation isn't a single person with a great idea, but groups building on the shoulders of giants collaboratively. I gave it 5 stars in my review here:
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Can anyone recommend a good book that covers either of the following topics:

1. Brown dwarfs (formation and traits)
2. "Feeding zones" in solar systems (where material migrates back toward the star at the center of the system and gets trapped in zones).

I would like a more recent book, if there is one?

I just finished Strange New Worlds by Ray Jayawardhana. It was helpful but not as current as I would like. I also have been reading papers and watching talks by Phil Armitage, who looks at feeding zones and models in which planets get kicked out of the solar system.

I would be very excited if anyone knows of a pop-sci book they can recommend, which focus on the formation of solar systems, star formation, planet formation, or even brown dwarf formation.

Sapiens will be hard to top. just started "Hallucinations" by Oliver Sacks. I usually really like his books.

Charlene wrote: "Can anyone recommend a good book that covers either of the following topics:

1. Brown dwarfs (formation and traits)
2. "Feeding zones" in solar systems (where material migrates back toward the sta..."

Charlene, just for the fun of it, I looked on Amazon for books on star formation. There are some textbooks, and they are expensive. The least expensive is "The Life and Death of Stars" by Kenneth Lang. I have not read it, so I don't have an opinion on it.

I did read some books on the subject when I majored in astronomy, but they are all out of date now.

David wrote: "Charlene wrote: "Can anyone recommend a good book that covers either of the following topics:

1. Brown dwarfs (formation and traits)
2. "Feeding zones" in solar systems (where material migrates ba..."

Thanks so much! I will check them out.

I just read Life's Engines by Paul Falkowski as recommended by this group. A mind blower.

Nan wrote: "I just read Life's Engines by Paul Falkowski as recommended by this group. A mind blower."

Great, Nan! :) Just added it to my TBR list. It looks interesting indeed.

We've certainly come a long way thanks to science. Cracked.com posted this fun bunch of comparisons.

Better: A Surgeon's Notes on Performance was another fantastic read by Atul Gawande. I gave it 5 stars here:
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I'm reading The First Brain by One R. Pagan

The First Brain: The Neuroscience of Planarians

It is so much fun. Very interesting.

I am currently reading by Charles Darwin. I'm only about 60 pages in (that's including an introduction). I once attended a lecture where the lecturer stated "everything you can possibly think of, Darwin as already thought of it". He wasn't wrong.

I must admit, that it can be bit difficult to read. I haven't read any books that are "groundbreaking" in their field so to speak. His writing has many commas and is verbose. I also keep comparing his statements with knowledge I already have. It probably doesn't help that I read it while walking on a treadmill.

I gave up treadmill reading; it was just too difficult to maintain the book and actually read with any comprehension. Now, whenever I manage to make it to the treadmill I take an audiobook and earphones. It makes reading so much more possible.

I haven't had problems in the past with other books but it's proving to be difficult this time. It doesn't help that I usually only get 15 minutes to read it a day and it takes about 7 minutes for me to get use to his writing.

Betsy wrote: "I gave up treadmill reading; it was just too difficult to maintain the book and actually read with any comprehension. Now, whenever I manage to make it to the treadmill I take an audiobook and earp..."

I enjoyed listening to his book far more than trying to read it, too.

I've just re-read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. One of the greatest literary acomplishments I've come across. If scientists can start writing like this then professional writers are in serious trouble.

Kaan wrote: "I've just re-read The Emperor of All Maladies: A Biography of Cancer. One of the greatest literary acomplishments I've come across. If scientists can start writing like this then pro..."

I've got to read this one -- looking forward to it.

Hello! Wanted to share with the group about a new book released today that I was able to read early. Stephen Wolfram tells his thoughts on some of the most influential mathematicians and scientists throughout history in Idea Makers: Personal Perspectives on the Lives & Ideas of Some Notable People. Wolfram, who is well known for his innovations in computational technology discovered at his company Wolfram Research, explores his modern and historical peers and their creations. This book shows his candid and insightful perspective on those who have helped shaped life as we know it today. The book includes: George Boole, Richard Crandall, Richard Feynman, Kurt Godel, Solomon Golomb, Gottfried Leibniz, Ada Lovelave Steve Jobs, Benoit Mandelbrot, Marvin Minsky, John von Neumann, Bertrand Russell, Srinivasa Ramanujan, Alan Turing, Russell Towle, and Alfred Whitehead.

Though Stephen is typically a much more technical writer, this is a unique perspective of these leaders in mathematics, science and tech that is much more of a light read. I thoroughly enjoyed it and hope everyone will check it out!

I put Origin of Species on the back burner, it was too difficult to concentrate on it. I'm reading The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution by Richard Dawkins.

Buzz Aldrin's Mission to Mars: My Vision for Space Exploration was pretty interesting. Perhaps the best part was that, although it was published fairly recently in 2012, a lot has happened in the area of space exploration since then. I gave it 3 stars in my review here:
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Just finished The Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution.. I don't honestly recommend reading it. I felt like he did a poor job explaining evolution and he used the term "history deniers" for creationist. The book is suppose to be the evidence for evolution, for a layman/creationist. I highly doubt insulting them is a good idea.

He had some excellent examples and lovely photos, but I"m sure they are other books out there that do a much better job of explaining it.

@Courtney: I agree with your assessment of The Greatest Show on Earth. The condescending tone really put me off and the repetitiveness was annoying... especially when you realize he has more or less copy and pasted from his previous books.