Science
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Understanding the Universe. An introduction to physics and astrophysics, James B. Seaborn (ISBN 978-146126868-0, Springer)
James Seaborn has been teaching an introductory course for many years and this book is the translation into book form of that course. The book is intended for non science majors and teaches physics with an emphasis on topics and applications in astrophysics. I was curious to learn how that approach would work. The result…
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Command And Control, Eric Schlosser (ISBN 9780141037912, Penguin)
Command and Control is written by Eric Schlosser. I read his bestseller fastfood nation long ago and liked it a lot so when this book came out in 2014 I bought it and read it. It was a scary read at the time and this year while we were on holiday this summer I decided…
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Space – The Human Quest
This week was a school holiday week. This is always an opportunity to do something together as a family and searching the internet we came across this exhibition. It is an interactive display of the history of space exploration, from the first unmanned flights from the Russians and Americans to the manned Gemini and then…
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The virtue of solitude
‘Put 2 men together and they quarrel. A hundred of them make a rabble, and if there are a thousand or more, they’ll start a war.’― Bernhard Schmidt
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Something for Nothing
There’s no such thing as a free lunch.’― The second law of Thermodynamics
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The fate of a star
The star, like the Cheshire Cat, fades from view. One leaves behind only its grin, the other, only its gravitational attraction.’― John Archibald Wheeler
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The Nature of Vacuum
To physicists, vacuum has all particles and forces latent in it. It is a far richer substance than the philosopher’s nothing.’― Sir Martin Rees
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The nature of man
‘What is man in nature ? Nothing in relation to the infinite, everything in relation to nothing, a mean between nothing and everything.’― Blaise Pascal
