Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku
Category: Science Grade: B
I'd like to speak to the inner nerd in each of you. If you don't have an inner nerd, go do something else -- you won't like this book. If you think you might, ask yourself some of these questions. When you first saw Star Trek, did you get interested when Kirk said "Shields up!" or "Beam me up, Scotty."? When you watched Star Wars (the good ones), did you jump up and down when Yoda levitated the cruiser in the swamp? When a Jedi Knight turned on his light saber, did you say "I want one of those!". If you answered yes to any of these questions, you should give this book a shot.
Kaku is a serious scientist. He's in the theoretical physics department at City University of New York where he's searched for years for the "theory of everything", the grand unifying theory that, with one set of equations, would tie all the forces of nature together. On the side, he writes popular science books. This could be one of the more difficult genres to write. You have to oversimplify things a tremendous amount to interest the lay reader while not squeezing the reality out of your descriptions (or embarrassing yourself among your peers).
Kaku starts from the premise, proven true over and over again, that "impossible" is not an absolute description. Things we take for granted -- air travel, global communication and others -- were, at one time, thought impossible by reputable scientists. Here, he looks at lots of things that are science fiction staples -- force fields, invisibility, teleportation, starships, time travel and others -- and tries to describe how they might be accomplished at some point in the future. He carefully analyzes each subject and tries to slot that subject as one of his three classes of "impossible" -- 1) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the next century, 2) doesn't violate the laws of physics and might be doable in the distant future and 3) violates the laws of physics. The results are sometimes surprising and always interesting.
As he gets farther in to the class 3 impossibilities, I have to admit that he frequently lost me. No matter how many times I read a lay explanation of quantum physics, it still doesn't make sense to me.
Anyway, if you're bored by this point of the review, the book will put you to sleep. If your interest has been tweaked, give it a shot.
He uses quotes at the beginning of each chapter and he had me at chapter one when he used my favorite quote - Arthur C. Clarke's Three Laws. I'll only give you the third here since it sums up why cutting edge science can be so interesting -- "Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."!
Wednesday, April 23, 2008
Sunday, April 20, 2008
Compulsion
Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman
Category: Mystery Grade: B+
I really love Taco Bell. It's the best of fast food. You know you're never going to get a gourmet meal, but you know you're always going to enjoy what you get for what it is. It's also dirt cheap. My favorite is the double-decker taco - a crispy taco smeared with refried beans and wrapped in a flour tortilla. Sometimes there's not enough meat; sometimes the taco shell isn't quite crispy; sometimes, for me, there's not enough tomato, but it always fills me up and tastes good and costs $1.29.
Kellerman (and his wife Faye, but, to me, not his son Jesse) writes fast food fiction. The investment is low - they're fast reads that don't require a lot of thought - no big words and lots of dialogue. You know you're never going to get lasting literature. Sometimes the plot is a little thin; sometimes the conclusion is a little silly, but it's always a fun read with great characters and an interesting story.
Enough said.
Category: Mystery Grade: B+
I really love Taco Bell. It's the best of fast food. You know you're never going to get a gourmet meal, but you know you're always going to enjoy what you get for what it is. It's also dirt cheap. My favorite is the double-decker taco - a crispy taco smeared with refried beans and wrapped in a flour tortilla. Sometimes there's not enough meat; sometimes the taco shell isn't quite crispy; sometimes, for me, there's not enough tomato, but it always fills me up and tastes good and costs $1.29.
Kellerman (and his wife Faye, but, to me, not his son Jesse) writes fast food fiction. The investment is low - they're fast reads that don't require a lot of thought - no big words and lots of dialogue. You know you're never going to get lasting literature. Sometimes the plot is a little thin; sometimes the conclusion is a little silly, but it's always a fun read with great characters and an interesting story.
Enough said.
Gertude Bell
Gertrude Bell, Queen of the Desert, Shaper of Nations by Georgina Howell
Category: Biography Grade: A
I consider myself well-educated and well-read so, after reading this book, it's pretty mind-boggling to me that I had never actually heard of Gertrude Bell. In my unscientific poll of friends and family, essentially no one had ever heard of her other than a few who had recently seen this book on the shelves. In the first half of the 20th century, especially between the World Wars, Bell was one of the most interesting, most adventurous, most influential and probably most important women alive. In the Middle East, she was probably the one person, per this book, responsible for the decisions made in how the imperial powers would treat this area of the world. Certainly far more important to history than T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who has gotten all the good press and, of course, the Oscar winning movie. Hopefully, this book will kick off a resurgence in interest in Bell. Her life would make an incredible movie!
Born in the late 19th century, Bell, from the beginning, discarded the roll assigned to women of the time. What she wanted to do, she did. She became a traveler and adventurer - visiting all over the world and becoming one of the foremost mountain climbers, certainly the foremost female mountain climber, of the day. When she decided she was interested in the Middle East, she learned from the bottom up - by repeatedly hiring a small party of guides and heading in to the desert for months and even years at a time. In an era (still the norm today), when the sheikhs of the region were absolute rulers of their tiny area and when women were not accepted anywhere except the harem, Bell became an unveiled, intellectual friend to the male leaders. When, after World War I, the time came to decide the political future of the area, Bell was the strongest proponent for the independence of Middle Eastern countries. And yet, first hand, she understood the difficulties that would arise from the inherent tribalism as a competitor to nationalism. She drew the borders of modern Iraq. She was largely responsible for elevating King Faisel to the initial throne of Iraq. She was a major advisor to Churchill and others at the time.
Not surprisingly, this story is extremely relevant to the world today. The political lessons that Bell learned the hard way - the dominance of tribalism and religious sects over national identity - seem to have been, once again, forgotten by Western powers. The seeds of our current inability to bring coherence to the region are definitely visible in Bell's story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in history, current affairs or even just good story telling.
Category: Biography Grade: A
I consider myself well-educated and well-read so, after reading this book, it's pretty mind-boggling to me that I had never actually heard of Gertrude Bell. In my unscientific poll of friends and family, essentially no one had ever heard of her other than a few who had recently seen this book on the shelves. In the first half of the 20th century, especially between the World Wars, Bell was one of the most interesting, most adventurous, most influential and probably most important women alive. In the Middle East, she was probably the one person, per this book, responsible for the decisions made in how the imperial powers would treat this area of the world. Certainly far more important to history than T. E. Lawrence (Lawrence of Arabia) who has gotten all the good press and, of course, the Oscar winning movie. Hopefully, this book will kick off a resurgence in interest in Bell. Her life would make an incredible movie!
Born in the late 19th century, Bell, from the beginning, discarded the roll assigned to women of the time. What she wanted to do, she did. She became a traveler and adventurer - visiting all over the world and becoming one of the foremost mountain climbers, certainly the foremost female mountain climber, of the day. When she decided she was interested in the Middle East, she learned from the bottom up - by repeatedly hiring a small party of guides and heading in to the desert for months and even years at a time. In an era (still the norm today), when the sheikhs of the region were absolute rulers of their tiny area and when women were not accepted anywhere except the harem, Bell became an unveiled, intellectual friend to the male leaders. When, after World War I, the time came to decide the political future of the area, Bell was the strongest proponent for the independence of Middle Eastern countries. And yet, first hand, she understood the difficulties that would arise from the inherent tribalism as a competitor to nationalism. She drew the borders of modern Iraq. She was largely responsible for elevating King Faisel to the initial throne of Iraq. She was a major advisor to Churchill and others at the time.
Not surprisingly, this story is extremely relevant to the world today. The political lessons that Bell learned the hard way - the dominance of tribalism and religious sects over national identity - seem to have been, once again, forgotten by Western powers. The seeds of our current inability to bring coherence to the region are definitely visible in Bell's story. I highly recommend this book to anybody who is interested in history, current affairs or even just good story telling.
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