Want to get a recondite understanding of our biggest scientific mystery ? Here are five great books about the lookup for the Higgs Boson , the secrets of quantum mechanics , and the world power of “ proofiness , ” from Jennifer Ouellette with Cocktail Party Physics .
Written in Stone : Evolution , the Fossil Record , and Our Place in Nature , by Brian Switek . I get warm and fuzzy just thinking about this book , since I watched Brian conflict with it in the earliest stage of evolution . So yeah , there ’s some personal preconception at looseness . But I ’m enthralled to say that it came together beautifully — it ’s a commendable piece of work by a promising young science author with a bright time to come in advance of him . I write primarily about physics and math , so the open matter of Brian ’s book — evidence for development in the fogy disc — was for the most part new to me , making me the ideal reader for this insightful introduction to the matter .
He starts off with a hit , opening with the ruckus arouse in May 2009 over the entry of the ancient and extremely photogenic fossil dearly know as “ Ida ” — wrongly nickname a “ lacking connection ” in the phrenetic pressure coverage that introduce Ida to the world . That was in reality as much the fault of those who discovered her — the whole affaire was carefully organize for maximum exposure and , candidly , personal net income — and Brian give an first-class summation of the events leading to the medium circus . ( fortuitously for science , the general world probably remembers very little by now , save up , “ Hey , was n’t Ida that really nerveless fossil ? ” And gosh darn it , Ida is still middling cute . )
But the real import of Ida — and the intellect Brian choose to open up Written in Stone with that level — has to do with the “ missing connection ” title , and the public ’s misperceptions about evolution . The iconic epitome of development is the March of Progress , evidence the progression from other archpriest to modern man — a whimsy that Brian justly points out has its source in the Renaissance whimsey of the Great Chain of Being . And while Creationists hump to spirt off about how ridiculous it is to acquire we come from ape , what phylogeny actually lay claim is that mankind and apes share a uncouth derivation . There is a difference between those two statements .
Evolution is far more complicated , and this organize the central thesis of the book . Our journey through the dodo disk , and run into with such fascinating historic figures as Nicholas Steno , the charlatan Albert Koch , and Athanasius Kircher ( one of my all - time favorite diachronic figures ) , serve to illustrate one basic stage : phylogenesis is more of a fork summons , often taking many dissimilar paths ( even if the end result is similar ) , with one species germinate and another remain largely unchanged — a constantly shifting saltation . It ’s kind of messy , with progression occur in fit and starts — the furthest affair from the idealized March of Progress . I ’ll let Brian have the last give-and-take :
“ For to ask ‘ What make us human ? ’ strike that there was some glorious moment , hidden in the yesteryear , in which we top some edge and left the ape part of ourselves behind . We forget that those are labels we have created to help organise and understand nature … . There was never an ‘ ascent of man , ’ no matter how desperately we might care for there to be , just as there has not been a ‘ lineage of homo ’ into degeneracy from a imposing ancestor . We are merely a shivering twig that is the last trace of a richer family tree . ”
Proofiness : The Dark Art of Mathematical Deception , by Charles Seife . I used to hang out with Charles in the wardrobe room at American Physical Society meeting as a bud young skill author , and his classic ledger , Zero : The Biography of a Dangerous Idea ( still in mark ! ) made me realize that the world of numbers could be as fascinating as physics . With Proofiness — and with that claim , why has Charles not yet been on Colbert ? Why ? — he tackles the myriad ways our cultural innumeracy blinds us to the many dissembling perpetrated by a misuse of bit , in particular statistic and probability . There ’s a lot about election polling and nose count solvent , these being raging topics of the day , but even if you ’re not especially concerned in those , Charles has such an piquant manner and ironical wittiness that his prose is bound to pass you in . Also ? The covering design is really cool . In this case , you really can guess the quality of the book by its cover .
The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics , by Jim Kakalios . The author of The Physics of Superheroes is back with another installment , this time explore how quantum machinist changed the humans and usher in a future very different from the one image by the classic comics of the 1950s . We were promised jet mob and flying cars , dammit ! And I ’m still bitter about the lack of advance on human teleportation . I was struck by a comment Jim made this retiring summertime when we were both on a skill board at CONVergence / Skepchicon in Minneapolis . Someone asked what he thought would be the technical breakthroughs of the next 50 years , and he replied that anything need vast breakthroughs in energy would credibly not transpire — but anything related to the blowup in information ? Now that would be something capable of transforming the future .
That ’s kind of the inherent premise of The Amazing Story of Quantum Mechanics : we did n’t get jet packs or flee car , or unlimited supply of free vim , but we got tons of astonishing things we were n’t expecting at all . We convey atomic bomb , atomic magnetic reverberance ( and MRI ) , lasers , death beam , MP3 and videodisc histrion , spintronics , and the World Wide entanglement . This is a fantastic priming on the intricacy of the quantum cosmos , using entertaining examples from — yes — classic comic books to exemplify his points . Along the way of life , we are treated to a blanket overview of some of the coolheaded things quantum mechanics has render us , and a stoolie peek at what might be in store .
Massive : The Missing Particle That set off the Greatest Hunt in Science , by Ian Sample . Good intelligence for devotee of objectivity ! I do n’t know Ian Sample personally ! So when I secern you that Massive turns the dry - sound hunt for the Higgs boson into the equivalent of a scientific detective story that you ca n’t put down , you make out it ’s not come from a biased position . Also ? There ’s only one mention of the dreadful “ god molecule ” — a nickname , strike by Leon Lederman ( who co - author the popular book ) , that is universally loathe in physical science circle , and badly misunderstood by the general populace as claiming it hold the response to spirituality . Of course , it has nothing to do with religion , or the existence ( or lack thereof ) of a graven image .
In an intriguing side anecdote — one of many — Sample writes that Lederman in the beginning wanted to call his book The Goddamned Particle because it proved so difficult to rule , but it was shorten to The God Particle . For Lederman , the name is minded because the Higgs ( write Sample ) , “ is critical to our understanding of matter , yet deeply elusive . ” ( More literal - tending kind overlook the shade . ) That ’s the form of lifelike contingent and backroom chatter that makes monumental such a compelling read : it ’s about scientific discipline as that scientific discipline is being done , and we do n’t yet have all the answers — the Higgs continues to elude us . But for anyone peculiar about the narration of the Higgs so far , you ’re not likely to find a skillful book than Sample ’s on the subject .
How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming , by Mike Brown . You might do it Mike by his Twitter handle , @PlutoKiller ( it ’s an entertaining feed ; you should follow him ) . Clearly , he takes a certain amount of pleasure in his role demoting this smallest of major planet — or , in this case , former planet — even though it means he gets a unbendable stream of hate mail and a surprising number of obscene headphone call . People have an unusually strong heat for Pluto . But Brown did n’t in reality set out to get such a tumult ; he was just going about his business concern , hunting planets , and what he found was Eris , in short vaunt as a “ 10th major planet ” before astronomers decided it did n’t really meet the criteria — and if Eris did n’t qualify , neither did poor Pluto , or any of the large number of exchangeable objects that have amount to light in recent geezerhood .
Like Sample ’s Massive , Brown ’s book give us that rare glimpse behind the drapery , a peek at how skill is actually done . The guy rope can spin a yarn , that ’s for sure , and he ’s arrest some great material , and a slap-up sense of humor ( and perspective ! ) . Even those who defend Pluto ’s eventual return to planetal condition — yes , the debate rages on — will find it middling unmanageable to cover detest Brown after understand this Bible ; he ’s just too damned likeable . As James Kennedy drop a line in his Wall Street Journal review , Brown ’s book pose “ the scientist neither as madman nor mysterious , but mensch . ”
Pluto art viaNASA .
Jennifer Ouellette is the author of The Calculus Diaries . This postoriginally appeared over at Cocktail Party Physics .
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