Litsy

The Grand Design | Leonard Mlodinow, Stephen Hawking

pick

Scientific takedown of creationism. A good intro to quantum physics. It does get very slightly technical in some places. Quick read.
#StephenHawking #LeonardMlodinow #TheGrandDesign #QuantumPhysics

18 likes

GingerAntics

The Grand Design | Leonard Mlodinow, Stephen Hawking

It‘s Stephen Hawking. What can I say?
#StephenHawking #LeonardMlodinow #TheGrandDesign #QuantumPhysics

17 likes

catiewithac

Reality Is Not What It Seems | Carlo Rovelli

@Jerdencon thank you for such a lovely #JolabokaflodSwap2024 gift! This is one of my favorite Litsy traditions! Wishing you a happy holiday season and lots of good reading time! 🍫 📚 🎅🏼

Thanks @MaleficentBookDragon for hosting such a beautiful holiday swap! #JS2024

MaleficentBookDragon Happy Jólabókaflóð! You're welcome. Enjoy! 4mo

AmyG Merry Christmas! 🎄🎁 🎅🏻 4mo

Jerdencon Enjoy! Merry Christmas!!! 🎄🎁 4mo

54 likes3 comments

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff

pick

Based on the number of times I found myself exclaiming aloud some variation on the theme of “nifty!“, this book is worth a read. The humour and wonder the author exhibits, the playful framing, greatly increased my enjoyment and comprehension, and the likelihood that I'll engage in a non-fiction topic I don't have an educational background in. 1/?

Robotswithpersonality 2/? I'd say the book is about equal parts science history, covering the people, theories and experiments of times past, and science present, introducing current people in various specialities, the current theories, and the impressive new tools available. I'll admit to finding the history portions more satisfying, seeing the contrast between what worked and didn't work when experimental proof arrives to vindicate one theory/angle of focus over 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 3/? another. The latter third of the book focusing heavily on possible theories and repeatedly bumping up against 'but here's why that doesn't totally fit, or here's why we may never find any evidence to prove it', was a bit unsatisfying, even if Cliff is right that there are still many exciting discoveries and avenues to pursue, that theories can be useful for disparate reasons. 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 4/? The subtitle on the cover allows me to say this without spoiler concerns: this is a book by a particle physicist (I know what that means now!) who freely acknowledges that we don't have the full recipe for the universe and may never, and again it's his indomitable curiousity for what we can discover now and in the future that stops that conclusion from being a downer. 5mo

Robotswithpersonality 5/5 Sidebar: I really appreciated the equality in acknowledgement of scientific discovery, not just the contributions of women in the history of the field, but where people of different nations made the same discovery at basically the same time, all are recognized, and there's a reverence for all instances of collaboration, as well as commiseration for those who were not properly acknowledged in their time. 5mo

8 likes1 stack add4 comments

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff

🍰♥️

10 likes

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff

When the scope of the project hits home.
Jaw. On the floor.
Here I am reading about transparent blocks thinking of a glass block wall and then:
Ten years?!
$10 million dollars worth of platinum?! 😲

9 likes

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff

I like it when the scientists get silly. 😁🥧🍕

9 likes

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff

“...go and find a hotter place.“ 🔥🧐🎩

10 likes

shortsarahrose

The Ascent of Gravity: The Quest to Understand the Force that Explains Everything | Marcus Chown

pick

Soft pick for me - an scientific history of how our understanding of gravity has changed from Newton to Einstein to quantum theory to string theory. A little background in physics is helpful, but expertise is not needed (I took an intro level college class in 2007, so…). Some sections dragged a bit (the chapter on tides 🫠), but I thought the last third was a great intro to quantum theory and string theory, which I knew very little about.

36 likes

Robotswithpersonality

How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe, from the Origins of Atoms to the Big Bang | Harry Cliff