Bonus Book Thread - 01-04-2023 ("Perfessor" Squirrel)

SCIENTIFIC LITERACY

In my class this past semester, I assigned students the task of selecting one of the above books on physics and then writing a persuasive argument about why it was the bestest physics book ever! They worked in groups to develop their arguments, focusing on elements of rhetoric such as ethos, logos, and pathos. They were not required to read the books, but were expected to delve into them enough to understand the arguments on physics that the authors were making. (This is usually found in the front matter of each book, such as the preface, forward, or author's note.)

One of the purposes of this exercise was to expose the students to different levels of scientific writing. All of my students are studying STEM fields, so they will need to be able to read and understand scientific writing in their academic studies, and perhaps their professional careers as well. They are also all freshman so until now they have had limited exposure to truly in-depth discussions on science. I was also curious to see how they would handle this assignment in an "English" class, where they were probably expected to write very different essays.

As has been pointed out on this blog and elsewhere--like the post I put up yesterday on the stupidity of the "gas station of the future" servicing EVs--there seems to be severe decline in scientific literacy among the general population. My students, for example, were largely brainwashed into supporting the environmental messages about global warming/climate change that they were taught in high school. It was a bit disheartening to see how little curiosity they had about the subject. They just assumed it was "common knowledge," like how EVs are saving the Earth.

TheJamesMadison pointed out earlier today just how bad the problem really is for young boys in K-12 and even in university settings. There is an active movement to get rid of men in STEM fields in favor of disadvantaged minorities and women. Fortunately, science--real science, not "THE SCIENCE"--is agnostic about who learns it. All of the scientific knowledge that anyone could ever want to learn is available on demand.

How do things work? *Why* do they work? What are the fundamental principles that allow our reality to function at all? We are so blessed in these times to have access to the very near sum total of all human knowledge. The power of the Internet gives us unprecedented access to information and wisdom, though sorting through information to find what is useful to you can be a challenge. Developing scientific literacy is a skill like any other that can be mastered through study, training, education, experience, and practice.

You don't even have to become a sage on a specific topic. Just a cursory amount of scientific knowledge can be a wonderful thing because you'll start asking questions when something sounds "off" to you and you will then go seek out more information. I do that all the time. I used to buy a lot of books on science topics, especially with regard to physics. Now I tend to seek out YouTube videos as they are much more condensed, yet give me the basic information that I'm really looking for. Trying to wade through Roger Penrose's book, The Road to Reality, can be fun, but requires a level of dedication and mathematical knowledge that is a little bit beyond basic calculus. Isaac Asimov's Understanding Physics is more my speed.

What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy? What books would be good for children to start their journey towards scientific literacy? How can you as a parent or grandparent engage your students in learning about science?

(NOTE: If you want to see an instance where "scientific literacy" goes horribly wrong, Buck Throckmorton has a great post from yesterday about "Pyramid Power!" - don't comment on old posts...)

Posted by: Open Blogger at 05:15 PM

Comments

(Jump to bottom of comments)

1 Interesting.

Posted by: Turn two at January 04, 2023 05:14 PM (JfxgE)

2 Neil DeGrasse Tyson is my go-to for all things Science.

Posted by: ... at January 04, 2023 05:15 PM (lytEt)

3 all right, let's try this

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:15 PM (V6f9+)

4 Most of my books need crayons.

Posted by: clutch cargo - Now fortified with CPM-S90V at January 04, 2023 05:16 PM (zB/T/)

5 I nooded.

Posted by: Turn two at January 04, 2023 05:16 PM (JfxgE)

6 McCarthy is an expert in the Penis Entanglement Theory.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 04, 2023 05:16 PM (213Ua)

7 2 Neil DeGrasse Tyson is my go-to for all things Science.
Posted by: ... at January 04, 2023 05:15 PM (lytEt)

*sobs*

Posted by: Bill Nye at January 04, 2023 05:17 PM (PiwSw)

8 I got to page 65 of "Road to Reality" before I gave up.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at January 04, 2023 05:18 PM (24fqN)

9 don't comment on old posts...

You're not the boss of me.

Posted by: spindrift at January 04, 2023 05:18 PM (h5TKJ)

10 To begin with, the Heinlein 'juveniles' instilled me in the idea of science being a springboard for adventure and knowledge as a practical tool.

Likewise the 'Mad Scientist Club' stories also fascinated me.

My first math text book killed all that excitement. I'm not good at math beyond the basics. No algerbra, no calculus, no geometry even, ever appealed to me. Once numbers turned into letters, I was lost.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (V6f9+)

11
There is an active movement to get rid of men in STEM fields in favor of disadvantaged minorities and women.

______________

Now that the MBA bean counters have declared that R&D is a non-essental activity, I think I'd avoid it if I was a white guy. Let the womyn and Grievance groups be the ones laid off.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (MoZTd)

12 I would think the foundation for all of this would be a good grounding in math. And not Common Core Math, either...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (PiwSw)

13 Made the bonus book thread!!!!!

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (Angsy)

14 Grandkids grow up in a rural area and are being homeschooled.

They're learning science naturally.

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (9fLxS)

15 One of the book series I learned the most about engineering and science from was David Macaulay's series of books illustrating and showing how things are built and made.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:19 PM (0hOvj)

16 The "How and Why Wonder Book" series was fantastic. They're why, when my father told me to leave the house at the age of 7, I applied for a job as a chemist in a hospital (because I needed money). Sadly, lacking a college degree in chemistry, I was rejected. My father did rescind the demand to move out in exchange for yardwork.

Posted by: SFGoth at January 04, 2023 05:20 PM (KAi1n)

17 Things members of the "reality based community say"

I don't need your fossil fuels I get electricity I get clean electricity from my outlet! (electricity is actually coal/NG)

I don't need your dirty cruel farms I get my food delivered from Whole Foods! (food comes from the same farm)

Posted by: 18-1 at January 04, 2023 05:20 PM (lc5cP)

18
Time-Life Science series and Nature series.

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 04, 2023 05:20 PM (MoZTd)

19 The internet isn't always the best source for scientific information. A few weeks ago I was looking for the IR absorption spectra of methyl mercaptan and internet searches only turned up sources that I could purchase that might have had the information I needed.

I had to call an analyzer company to get the information. The internet isn't all its cracked up to be.

Posted by: sniffybigtoe at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (UuD2k)

20 But, not to go off topic, but James Burke's 'Connections' TV series is a brilliant example of how science progresses and cross- pollinates.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (V6f9+)

21 Mr Wizard > (the set of all: [Bill Nye + Neil Degrasse Tyson] over the set of all: [known universes])

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (0fVbu)

22 Should get my ebook tomorrow, do they mainly come out on a certain day like albums at least use to?

Posted by: Skip at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (xhxe8)

23 Neil DeGrasse Tyson is my go-to for all things Science.
--------------
Santa is a white devil LIE!!!

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 05:22 PM (Vwz3I)

24 I give Bill Nye the edge over Neil Degrasse Tyson because he was at least funny and entertaining on Almost Live.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:22 PM (0hOvj)

25 But, not to go off topic, but James Burke's 'Connections' TV series is a brilliant example of how science progresses and cross- pollinates.

I love that series. I keep looking at buying the series on DVD but I cannot pull the trigger at the prices they demand.

Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:23 PM (0hOvj)

26 I got all my scientific knowledge from Ted Olson.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:23 PM (Angsy)

27 hiya

Posted by: JT at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (T4tVD)

28 That's some pretty highbrow content. Can I just make a dick joke instead?

Posted by: Mare in heat at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (v0R5T)

29 But, not to go off topic, but James Burke's 'Connections' TV series is a brilliant example of how science progresses and cross- pollinates.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (V6f9+)
---
Some of the finest edutainment ever put on television. You will learn A LOT besides science...there's history, economics, geography, and much, much more.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (YIVH2)

30

It takes a pretty in depth understanding of science and especially physics as well as an artistic, creative nature to make lithograph prints.

Of my dick..

Posted by: Dirty Frank at January 04, 2023 05:25 PM (7/wNx)

31 That's some pretty highbrow content. Can I just make a dick joke instead?

Nope, it's phallus jokes on this thread.

Posted by: Blanco Basura at January 04, 2023 05:25 PM (Bd6X8)

32 Neil Degrasse Tyson?

He ain't no Phineas J. Whoopee, that's for sure.

Posted by: Chumly at January 04, 2023 05:26 PM (SYTee)

33 For my kids, we did Basher science - very short nuggets of science, usually almost over my head.

And since we are Lit focused, after old Magic School Bus books (which were genius), we read Stphen Hawking's George's Secret Key to the Universe series. A little leftward or nutty slant for a few of the science pages, but overall there were a LOT of explanatory science pages interspersed into the story, and I admit I learned a helluva lot more than I did in my college Astronomy course (which was a joke).

But mostly, my kids do learn by experience classes and science videos. This year, they've made robots (from scratch to include the welding and computer programming - this was the older boy) and gears and circuits (this was the younger boy - he soldered me a mini simon says)...

Posted by: Nova local at January 04, 2023 05:26 PM (exHjb)

34 Some of the finest edutainment ever put on television. You will learn A LOT besides science...there's history, economics, geography, and much, much more.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (YIVH2)

I liked both series. One thing most people don't think about is, as today, science and learning can be stymied by culture. The Romans had the tech to make a bike and other things, but they didn't because of the mos maiores and disdain of mechanical work.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (Angsy)

35 My scientific curiosity began with The National Geographic Magazines.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (anj39)

36 I have a minor in chemistry. My favorite science books for high school students are written by Dr. Jay Wile. He is an unabashed creationist scientist. I'm not a fundy, more like Wile who basically advocates intelligent design but calls himself a creationist. He is old school in his explanations and focuses on the roots of science, instead of stupid things like the different kinds of light bulbs, like Prentice Hall. We use the Wile books in our homeschool and I teach for a fee from them occasionally. He writes directly to the student as they are homeschool curriculum books (most, but not all, available under the Apologia brand). It makes it far more readable. I wish schools were still open to books like these, but there's the God thing . . .

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (ZSsrh)

37 Spy vs. Spy paperbacks we captivating.
Also, no math.

Posted by: Bosk at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (ZVuYy)

38 > What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy?
____________

"The Dangerous Book For Boys"

Read it and weep.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (Q4IgG)

39 Grandkids grow up in a rural area and are being homeschooled.
They're learning science naturally.
Posted by: SMH

And, animal husbandry! p

Posted by: Dirty Frank at January 04, 2023 05:28 PM (7/wNx)

40 My scientific curiosity began with The National Geographic Magazines.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (anj39)
........

Must have been the native boobehs.

Posted by: wth at January 04, 2023 05:28 PM (v0R5T)

41 My scientific curiosity began with The National Geographic Magazines.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (anj39)

Don't be a boob. There wasn't any science in there.

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:28 PM (Angsy)

42 I have a new theory on inertia, but it doesn’t seem to be gaining momentum.

Posted by: Maj. Healey at January 04, 2023 05:28 PM (213Ua)

43 "The Dangerous Book For Boys"

I think I have that one!

I ought to read it sometime.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (u9m02)

44 Christopher R Taylor, we use the Macaulay books too. Invaluable, especially to my boy that loves maps and straightforward discussion of subjects.

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (ZSsrh)

45 I give Bill Nye the edge over Neil Degrasse Tyson because he was at least funny and entertaining on Almost Live.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:22 PM (0hOvj)

He peaked with The High Fivin' White Guys.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (anj39)

46 The Magic School Bus series, the original, was great. It was entertaining, it engaged.

Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (ZdaMQ)

47 "Darwin's Black Box"

Posted by: Blake - semi lurker at large at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (5pTK/)

48 You have to have a combination of curiosity, critical thinking, and goal oriented to be successful. Oh that's interesting, I love science sexually, isn't enough. What about this what about that, just asking questions, isn't enough. And you have to be able to tie a bow on your idea, invention, analysis or what good have you done.

As for books some of Douglas Hofstadter's books can be interesting. Start with Godel Escher Bach. He's a pretentious jerk. But if you can get past that he presents a lot of interesting thought experiments that might inspire you too. His books are all very easy reads and have some fun puzzle parts too.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (0fVbu)

49 Fortunately, science--real science, not "THE SCIENCE"
---
Keep my name out your fucking mouth!

Posted by: Tony Fraudci at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (OaZlZ)

50 Great post, and addressing a sorely needed topic: scientific literacy.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (dBq3T)

51 "The Dangerous Book For Boys"

I think I have that one!

I got that for grandson when he was little.

Posted by: Infidel at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (ZEa+g)

52 Isaac Asimov - "Understanding Physics, Vol 3: The Electron, Proton, and Neutron". Extremely well-written and easy-to-read book. Great explanation of stellar fusion and creation of heavy particles.

Posted by: SFGoth at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (KAi1n)

53 As a boy I was partial to David Macaulay's "The Way Things Work," not least because of the mischief the mammoths got up to in the illustrations.

Posted by: Ockeghemlives at January 04, 2023 05:30 PM (BEDeZ)

54
Look, bitchez... I know how to give a chimp a machine gun, and that's all the """science""" I need to know.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (oINRc)

55 African Genesis, by Robert Ardrey.

Posted by: davidt at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (SYTee)

56 34 Some of the finest edutainment ever put on television. You will learn A LOT besides science...there's history, economics, geography, and much, much more.

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (YIVH2)

I liked both series. One thing most people don't think about is, as today, science and learning can be stymied by culture. The Romans had the tech to make a bike and other things, but they didn't because of the mos maiores and disdain of mechanical work.
Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (Angsy)

Likewise Confucian China. They were first out the gate for a lot of technology but their culture prevented experimentation, discussion and profiting from inventions.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (V6f9+)

57 David Attenborough
The Life of Birds.

Posted by: nurse ratched, I wanna cookie, please. at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (jAs5p)

58 The Magic School Bus series, the original, was great. It was entertaining, it engaged.
Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (ZdaMQ)
-------

I was just going to say the same - both the tv show and books were great. I remember my kids learning things in high school science (we homeschooled, remember, although I outsourced high school science) and they would say "I remember that from Magic School Bus!"

Posted by: bluebell at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (pTb/Z)

59 57 David Attenborough
The Life of Birds.
Posted by: nurse ratched, I wanna cookie, please. at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (jAs5p)

You know birds aren't real

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (V6f9+)

60 (This is usually found in the front matter of each book, such as the preface, forward, or author's note.)

or by asking chatgpt

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (v3pYe)

61 I recall that the World Book Encyclopedias had some companion volumes, maybe named Childcraft, full of sections on how various things worked, and how to build an example for yourself. I recall building a working periscope, among other things.

I have to say that much of my learning about how household items worked was by taking them apart, and not always successfully reassembling them.

Posted by: Thomas Paine at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (lTGtQ)

62 What I find distressing and frustrating ( frustressing?) is how these charlatans constantly steal bases and move goalposts in propagating their pseudo-scientific opinions in the effort to promote their agenda. Climate Warmering Change is the most bald-faced example. The worst aspect of it being not just unscientific but actually anti-scientific is how the claims it posits are unfalsifiable. That's not science, that's not even magic.

Posted by: Minuteman at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (LaNzR)

63 The "How It's Made" is a good show the grandsons enjoy.

Posted by: Beartooth at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (PX01u)

64 But, not to go off topic, but James Burke's 'Connections' TV series is a brilliant example of how science progresses and cross- pollinates.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (V6f9+)
---
Some of the finest edutainment ever put on television. You will learn A LOT besides science...there's history, economics, geography, and much, much more.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (YIVH2)
---
Can't forget The Day The World Changed, either.

Loved both those series.

Posted by: Axeman at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (OaZlZ)

65 He writes directly to the student as they are homeschool curriculum books (most, but not all, available under the Apologia brand). It makes it far more readable. I wish schools were still open to books like these, but there's the God thing . . .
Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:27 PM (ZSsrh)
--------
I used the Elementary series by Jeanne Fulbright for my younger children. Those were great.

Posted by: bluebell at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (pTb/Z)

66 What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy?

Sort of depends on what you mean. For non-scientists, I think books that help you think about what is scientific and what is not and how science works might be as or more helpful than actual scientific works (philosophy of science).

Posted by: bear with asymmetrical balls - an election is simply a festival for the majority at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (ppBhU)

67 45 I give Bill Nye the edge over Neil Degrasse Tyson because he was at least funny and entertaining on Almost Live.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:22 PM (0hOvj)

He peaked with The High Fivin' White Guys.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (anj39)

They're both jive turkeys

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (V6f9+)

68 Among the many stories that the American press won't cover, the Daily Mail reveals that back in September, Hunter Biden petitioned a court in Arkansas to have the child support for his illegitimate daughter reduced. He's just too gosh-darn poor, you see. (You may remember that in the original court case, Biden claimed that he was too poor to pay any child support.)

The mother's attorney predictably hit Biden with data requests demanding the details of the hundreds of thousands of dollars Biden's been taking in recently from anyonomous purchasers of his "art".

One wonders if Hunter is an idiot or still on drugs, because it was completely predictable that by claiming that he had little income, that he would immediately be hit with a demand that he provide details of his widely-publicized "art sales".

Meanwhile, Senile Joe still refuses to acknowledge the existence of his illegitimate granddaughter.

The Bidens are really pigs, aren't they?

https://tinyurl.com/2p8jcd6a

Posted by: The ARC of History! at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (KCOCK)

69 What got me really into science was my dad's old popular mechanics books. How to make stuff. how to build stuff, how things were like on the inside. People made boats and cars and houses and that thrilled me so much. I learned to read on those books before the kids in school. Too bad PM and PS are crap now.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (0fVbu)

70 Likewise Confucian China. They were first out the gate for a lot of technology but their culture prevented experimentation, discussion and profiting from inventions.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:31 PM (V6f9+)

So many things could have come earlier in time than they did, but for small minds and power hungry rulers who like the status quo. Wait a min....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (Angsy)

71 But, not to go off topic, but James Burke's 'Connections' TV series is a brilliant example of how science progresses and cross- pollinates.
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (V6f9+)
---
Some of the finest edutainment ever put on television. You will learn A LOT besides science...there's history, economics, geography, and much, much more.
Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:24 PM (YIVH2)
---
Can't forget The Day The World Changed, either.

Loved both those series.
Posted by: Axeman at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (OaZlZ)

Yes! Good suggestion.

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (V6f9+)

72 Want to create Chaos?

Go to a school board meeting and suggest Basic Logic be a required course.

Posted by: davidt at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (SYTee)

73 68 One wonders if Hunter is an idiot or still on drugs

does one?

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (v3pYe)

74 I didn't read any scientific books as a kid, all my scientific knowledge came from trial and error. Mainly involving fire or experimenting with the laws of gravity with my bicycle.

Posted by: lowandslow at January 04, 2023 05:34 PM (qH6FZ)

75 The worst aspect of it being not just unscientific but actually anti-scientific is how the claims it posits are unfalsifiable. That's not science, that's not even magic.

Posted by: Minuteman at January 04, 2023 05:32 PM (LaNzR)
---
The deception is to remove the peasants from the conversation.

And just leave them with the "Science is Good" simplification, that you need going forward.

Posted by: Axeman at January 04, 2023 05:35 PM (OaZlZ)

76 I read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and understood none of it. There are some subjects that just cannot be reduced to a layman’s understanding, and theoretical astrophysics is one of them.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 04, 2023 05:35 PM (atmen)

77 67 45 I give Bill Nye the edge over Neil Degrasse Tyson because he was at least funny and entertaining on Almost Live.
Posted by: Christopher R Taylor at January 04, 2023 05:22 PM (0hOvj)

He peaked with The High Fivin' White Guys.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:29 PM (anj39)

They're both jive turkeys
Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:33 PM (V6f9+)

Having watched all the Bill Nye the science guy videos with my kids...his early stuff is also very good, if not 100% accurate anymore for some episodes. He didn't go woke til he got paid...so he had to get paid doing non-woke stuff 1st...they were also funny and engaging for boys in short nugget scene form...

Posted by: Nova local at January 04, 2023 05:36 PM (exHjb)

78 The lack of curiosity over the EV issue is interesting. When I bring up the issue of cobalt mining, the energy to create the batteries, what to do with the old batteries, it’s like blank stares and then a sad little “oh”. We hadn’t even gotten to the “where does electricity come from” question.

Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 05:36 PM (ZdaMQ)

79 When I was a kid, my parents gave me this book called "The Boy Engineer".
It was interesting and good reading. I think I still have it in the house...somewhere. Maybe I can give it to one of my grandsons. My sons weren't that enamored of science and engineering. My oldest son finished high school math as a sophomore, and took pre-calculus (he was good at it), but didn't like it.
I think I got up to differential equations in college, and I was struggling there.
Graduate level organic chemistry, but I never finished my MS.

And yeah, the Heinlein "juveniles" were a great inspiration. I read most of them by the time I was 12 or 13.
I re-read a few of them a few years ago, and I picked up a few subtleties that I never caught before. And really, although "real" science has made a few of his ideas passe', they are still good stories.
No, there are not "dragons" on Venus. And Neil Armstrong was the first man on the Moon, not an employee of Delos D. Harriman (who kind of is a lot like Elon Musk).
And the Sargonese worlds (Citizen of the Galaxy) were Islamic, upon re-reading at the age of +60.

Posted by: A face in the crowd..... at January 04, 2023 05:36 PM (vcOmj)

80 By the way Perfessor, many thanks to you for the extra book threads this week! It seems we luckily caught you on your university's break, and we are the beneficiaries.

That same thanks goes out to all the other cobloggers who are doing all these extra posts this week, along with their day jobs. A very heartfelt thanks, in fact.

Posted by: bluebell at January 04, 2023 05:36 PM (pTb/Z)

81 63 The "How It's Made" is a good show the grandsons enjoy.

tim hunkin has been posting remastered episodes of "the secret life of machines" on his youtube channel.

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:36 PM (v3pYe)

82 76 I read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and understood none of it. There are some subjects that just cannot be reduced to a layman’s understanding, and theoretical astrophysics is one of them.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 04, 2023 05:35 PM (atmen)

That's why we only did the books he wrote with his daughter - she forced him to write science in 1 page snippets that related to the (not amazing) lit story being told...

Posted by: Nova local at January 04, 2023 05:37 PM (exHjb)

83 "Perfessor" Squirrel: "What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy?..."

Gah. I can't remember a one, specifically. My brain triggered on, curiously, in a drafting class in high school. I was already an A+ student in the sciences, so no noticeable trigger ever occurred. But the very precise, organized, and structured process of viewing and translating 3D into 2D for one semester set something off. The concept of perspective.

Fast forward to college and that dimensionality and perspective applied to biology, physics, anatomy, chemistry, mathematics, and any other interpretive exercise I faced. Everything except dance which I wouldn't take even upon penalty of death.

So, not a book, an experience opened the path to great extent.

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 05:37 PM (aXxgO)

84 The Charlie Brown Encyclopedia. No joke.

Posted by: Dr. T at January 04, 2023 05:37 PM (jGGMD)

85 Farmers seem to have a pretty good working knowledge of math, chemistry, physics, business and mechanical and electrical skills to boot. You really need to be able to apply those disciplines just to build things like grain silos and irrigation systems. And, when your combine or tractor breaks down in the field miles from no where, you're either gonna fix it or walk back.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at January 04, 2023 05:37 PM (TgNpw)

86 I read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and understood none of it. There are some subjects that just cannot be reduced to a layman’s understanding, and theoretical astrophysics is one of them.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus

A friend of mine, who is a pretty smart guy, came to the same conclusion. It completely eluded him, too.
And Hawking, truth be told, was a pretty weird guy, and not just because people thought he was a genius.

Posted by: A face in the crowd..... at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (vcOmj)

87 51 "The Dangerous Book For Boys"

I think I have that one!

I got that for grandson when he was little.
Posted by: Infidel

I got it for my boys years ago.

Posted by: nurse ratched, I wanna cookie, please. at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (qtzft)

88

Dr. Asa Akira's definitive text, 'Penetrative Engineering Through Dynamic Friction' although a graduate level text, remains accessible to many and it's worth it for the high definition illustrations alone.

Posted by: Dirty Frank at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (7/wNx)

89 A surprising amount of interesting books can be found in antique stores.

I've gotten any number of old practical home chemistry books from the one here in town.

Some of them are geared toward the housewife, who had to mix her own drain cleaners and rat poisons in the days before such things were commercially available.

Some of them are geared toward the professional craftsman, such as the book of paint and varnish recipes I found most recently.

The difficulty with such books is that the chemical names have changed, even just over the last 100 years.

Which means translating the ingredient list into something that you can actually order from a chemical supply place.

On the other hand, one of the cookery books did contain instructions for how to render fat. I expect that will be useful in the coming days.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (u9m02)

90 I love physics. And I can grasp the basics, but...damn!
I really enjoyed reading The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Rhodes. The explanation of the early work was fascinating. I almost understood it all.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (anj39)

91 "What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy?"

New Lands, Charles Fort. Some say his worst book. Those who don't want the truth.

Posted by: fd at January 04, 2023 05:39 PM (iayUP)

92 >>> The internet isn't always the best source for scientific information. A few weeks ago I was looking for the IR absorption spectra of methyl mercaptan and internet searches only turned up sources that I could purchase that might have had the information I needed.

I had to call an analyzer company to get the information. The internet isn't all its cracked up to be.
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM (UuD2k)

There's been a sharp drop off in the utility of search engine results over the last two years. It's all basically gone to rubbish all of a sudden. Things were significantly better in the past. Just five to ten years ago. But something fundamental has changed in how search engines work to the detriment of their users.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:39 PM (0fVbu)

93 I can't point to any particular book, but had my interest in science piqued by being given a chemistry set when I was 9. I loved it, did all the experiments, bought a whole series of college chemistry textbooks and lab manuals and pored over them by the hour. My father built me a lab in the garage, and bought all sorts of reagents and equipment for me from a chemical supply house (which wouldn't sell them to a kid).

I couldn't possibly do the same thing now, because anyone buying the same stuff, e.g., conc. sulfuric and nitric acids, potassium permanganate, mercury, etc. would get a tete-a-tete with Homeland Security in a heartbeat.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:39 PM (dBq3T)

94 Elementary school age I latched onto a book of early scientific American project reprints, including building your own crook's tube xray projector, unshielded of course. Wish I still had it.

Posted by: Commissar of Plenty and Lysenko Solutions at January 04, 2023 05:39 PM (1gJuC)

95 93 I couldn't possibly do the same thing now, because anyone buying the same stuff, e.g., conc. sulfuric and nitric acids, potassium permanganate, mercury, etc. would get a tete-a-tete with Homeland Security in a heartbeat.

pretty sure you could take them in a fair fight.

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (v3pYe)

96 CrotchetyOldJarhead: "And, when your combine or tractor breaks down in the field miles from no where, you're either gonna fix it or walk back."

I'm going to call an Uber on my Obamaphone.

Posted by: TikTok Generation at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (aXxgO)

97 I read Stephen Hawking’s A Brief History of Time and understood none of it. There are some subjects that just cannot be reduced to a layman’s understanding, and theoretical astrophysics is one of them.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 04, 2023 05:35 PM (atmen)

I made several attempts at Hawking's explanation of how black holes can leak energy and "shrink" over time. At no point did it make sense, and I finally came to the conclusion that either Hawking was wrong, or black holes don't exist.

Posted by: Dr. T at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (jGGMD)

98
After you've read a couple of "normal" aimed-at-the-general-public books on Quantum Mechanics it's ok to read "Wu Li Masters" just so you get the feel of what the wacky side of Quantum looks like.

Posted by: comradearthur at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (lJ0uc)

99 >>There's been a sharp drop off in the utility of search engine results over the last two years. It's all basically gone to rubbish all of a sudden. Things were significantly better in the past. Just five to ten years ago. But something fundamental has changed in how search engines work to the detriment of their users.

Right around the time the government started their censorship attack on Big Tech. Might just be coincidence, though.

Posted by: JackStraw at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (ZLI7S)

100 Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall Down, or Sometimes Do.

https://www.amazon.com/Structures-
Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835

Very entertaining book that explains why things we take for granted are shaped/built the way they are. I recommend it highly.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (tkR6S)

101 "Mainly involving fire or experimenting with the laws of gravity with my bicycle."

I hope you wrote down the results.

You know it's not Science unless you write things down.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at January 04, 2023 05:41 PM (u9m02)

102 sniffybigtoe: The internet isn't always the best source for scientific information.…

Hahahaha. I am shocked. Shocked and dumbfounded. Surely… we have here, the understatement of the year, already!

"I read it on the Internet. Must be true." -Jefferson

Posted by: mindful webworker - 2023: Year of Heterosexual Monogamous Pair-Bond Families at January 04, 2023 05:41 PM (DMc3m)

103 No books that I know of. I learned by osmosis. When I was in 8th grade, my parents thought a good idea to enroll me in a college level (freshman, but still) physics class. Some stuck. But my favorite books (and lectures) are the ones that bridge science and Christianity.

Posted by: David W at January 04, 2023 05:41 PM (5uXrb)

104 When I was growing up, anything that talked about aviation and space travel I would scarf up. Has served me well in my curiosities since.

I too really like YouTube. The laymen's talks on quantum theory and the universe are great binges for me.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:41 PM (BdMk6)

105 The book that changed me:

Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition by Morrison and Boyd

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:42 PM (u82oZ)

106 National Geographic Magazine and Playboy-- two magazines featuring professional photographs of beautiful places you will never see in person.

(I believe I first heard that from Rush Limbaugh in the early 90s)

Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (a/7LW)

107 >> I had to call an analyzer company to get the information. The internet isn't all its cracked up to be.

You can thank Google for that. In the early days, the search engine was designed by people who "thought like us". You could find all sorts of highly arcane and exotic information.

Now, it is geared toward commercial interests. The system is biased towards selling you shit based on what you're searching for, rather than returning information relevant to what you're searching for.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (Mzdiz)

108 I couldn't possibly do the same thing now, because anyone buying the same stuff, e.g., conc. sulfuric and nitric acids, potassium permanganate, mercury, etc. would get a tete-a-tete with Homeland Security in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

I get to do all that stuff for a living, now a days. And they pay me for it. Imagine that. I know you have a PhD in Chemistry and taught and did research....but sometimes I am amused that I get paid for something I would probably do for free.
But as age creeps up, I know my days as a chemist are just about over. Kind of makes me sad.

Posted by: A face in the crowd..... at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (vcOmj)

109 The Dungeon Master's Guide.

Posted by: SFGoth at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (KAi1n)

110 I made several attempts at Hawking's explanation of how black holes can leak energy and "shrink" over time. At no point did it make sense, and I finally came to the conclusion that either Hawking was wrong, or black holes don't exist.
Posted by: Dr. T at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM

Please don't talk about our esteemed Vice President that way.

Posted by: Minnfidel at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (ZKWca)

111 I couldn't possibly do the same thing now, because anyone buying the same stuff, e.g., conc. sulfuric and nitric acids, potassium permanganate, mercury, etc. would get a tete-a-tete with Homeland Security in a heartbeat.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:39 PM (dBq3T)

I'm pretty sure DHS is interested in my Home Science Tools.com orders. They're a good substitute for "I know a guy . . ."

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:44 PM (ZSsrh)

112 Science fiction from the Golden Age of Science Fiction.
Those books, short or long used science, sure they got a lot of it wrong but their logic was good, the plots hung together (no dropped sub-plots!).
John W. Campbell was the publisher of many of those authors. I believe he encouraged them to write good stories that used the science of the day.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 04, 2023 05:44 PM (2dci9)

113 There was some kind of science paperback that came out every month and had a case to keep them in. Can't remember what they were called though. Lots of different subjects. The case was red with a silver front and a fabric tab to open it. One title I remember was "Roman Archeology." That started my interest. Anyway, thanks for the thread, Perfessor. Gotta go....

Posted by: OrangeEnt at January 04, 2023 05:44 PM (Angsy)

114 The collected Issac Asimov essays on science are keepers, and can stand re-reading. Clear explanations in sturdy prose, with a dash of science history.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:44 PM (u82oZ)

115 I'm going to call an Uber on my Obamaphone.

Posted by: TikTok Generation at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (aXxgO)

Heh! When that Uber gets to you in the 200 acre cornfield, make sure you give them a good tip.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at January 04, 2023 05:44 PM (TgNpw)

116 "I read it on the Internet. Must be true." -Jefferson, George.

Posted by: SFGoth at January 04, 2023 05:45 PM (KAi1n)

117 Favorite book for scientific literacy: How to Lie with Statistics by Darrell Huff (1954).

The lack of scientific literacy has crippled at least one, if not two, generations in their ability to develop a decent B.S. Detector.

Posted by: LCMS Rulz! at January 04, 2023 05:45 PM (K58O6)

118 NaCly Dog: "The book that changed me:

Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition by Morrison and Boyd"

But you took on an inorganic nom de plume. What's up with that?

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 05:45 PM (aXxgO)

119 Hunter might still be a drug addic but is raking in bucks making crap art

Posted by: Skip at January 04, 2023 05:45 PM (xhxe8)

120 There a important distinction between Science and Applied Science that needs to be understood better as well.

Posted by: pawn at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (kYVzH)

121 NaCly, that book is one part of why I have a business degree instead of a chemistry degree. Organic. Ugh.

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (ZSsrh)

122
The Life of Birds.

EAT WORMS AND BUGS
DIVE BOMB TOURIST
SIT ON EGG

Posted by: Boyd the Bird at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (v0R5T)

123 Good thread, "Perfessor" Squirrel

I notice you are a full CoB, with the keys and gas card. Congratulations.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (u82oZ)

124 Dr. Asa Akira's definitive text, 'Penetrative Engineering Through Dynamic Friction' although a graduate level text, remains accessible to many and it's worth it for the high definition illustrations alone.
Posted by: Dirty Frank at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (7/wNx)

I'm signing up for her lab

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (V6f9+)

125 95 93 I couldn't possibly do the same thing now, because anyone buying the same stuff, e.g., conc. sulfuric and nitric acids, potassium permanganate, mercury, etc. would get a tete-a-tete with Homeland Security in a heartbeat.

pretty sure you could take them in a fair fight.
Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (v3pYe)
____________
As if they'd fight fair.

In retrospect I'm astonished that I was allowed to do this stuff. The neighbors used to worry I'd burn down the neighborhood, but I didn't do anything stupid, but just did things like extracting bromine from sea water, making and liquifying sulfur dioxide etc. The hairiest thing I ever did was building a carbon arc furnace. It's amazing I survived childhood!

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (dBq3T)

126 Physics for Future Presidents. is definitely a go-to for getting up to speed on practical physics.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (3hSHB)

127 This won't compare with the books you're showing at the head of the thread, but the science book that inspired me the most is probably "The Coocoo's Egg" by Cliff Stoll. It didnt send me off to learn programming or even that much about hardware. It did send me off to research the history of the development and use of the computer. Who were the people who influenced how we use computers now. Who wrote the programs that still have so much influence.

Posted by: Captain Josepha Sabin -- I wasn't particularly fond of the '70s the first time around at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (z7W9M)

128 Ha! I had "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" too.

The 80's were a hell of a drug.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (Dc2NZ)

129 National Geographic Magazine and Playboy-- two magazines featuring professional photographs of beautiful places you will never see in person.

(I believe I first heard that from Rush Limbaugh in the early 90s)
Posted by: Raoul Ortega at January 04, 2023 05:43 PM (a/7LW)

That's not true. I was literally a foot away from Patricia Farinelli , Miss December 1982, on an escalator at a car show in NYC. We were literally the only ones on the escalator and she was unattended.
She looked at me and smiled.

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (mR6Gs)

130 Hawking knows a lot of stuff, but Brief History of Time is a logically flawed book.

I appreciate Hawking's think outside the box ability, such as his agility to rethink the Big Bang.

But there are a couple of non-sequiturs in BHT.

Posted by: Axeman at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (OaZlZ)

131 I majored in linguistics in college, so my favorite technical book to this day is Language Universals and Linguistic Typology, by Bernard Conroe.

Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (atmen)

132 >>> Structures, or Why Things Don't Fall Down, or Sometimes Do.

https://www.amazon.com/Structures-
Things-Dont-Fall-Down/dp/0306812835

Very entertaining book that explains why things we take for granted are shaped/built the way they are. I recommend it highly.
Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (tkR6S)

This is also a good book:

SYSTEMANTICS. THE SYSTEMS BIBLE

It's a good explanation for why we can't have nice things.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (0fVbu)

133 Miss December 1981, 38-23-36

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (mR6Gs)

134 The Tom Swift Jr books may be why I started STEM first. I had every book, until my Mom sent them to a thrift shop.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (u82oZ)

135 Paying attention during chemistry and biology classes in school and actually studying the textbooks has helped me a lot also.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (BdMk6)

136 Good thread, "Perfessor" Squirrel

I notice you are a full CoB, with the keys and gas card. Congratulations.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (u82oZ)
---
I post using the "Open Blogger" account, so I don't have access to the executive washroom quite yet...But thanks for your support!

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (BpYfr)

137
Oh, in astronomical happenings, today was perihelion, Erf's closet approach to Sol. It happened at 16:17 Zulu, or 11:17AM EST. Erf was 91,403,034 mi from the Sun, this time around.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (Mzdiz)

138 I'd nominate "There Are No Electrons: Electronics For Earthlings" by Kenn Amdahl if you seek a fun right-brain approach to the subject.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (Dc2NZ)

139 The internet isn't all its cracked up to be.
Posted by: sniffybigtoe

True dat. I was trying to find an alternative to a radically overpriced form of iron citrate last year, and never did find what i was looking for.
The net is good for generalized knowledge, not so much specialized knowledge.

Posted by: MkY at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (cPGH3)

140 It was cold in the Black Hole. The kind of cold that creeps into your bones and leaves you stiff with fatigue. I unconsciously checked my pocket. Ol Betsy was still there, comforting and ready to blast out 45 megajouls of bad guy killing power. With a final adjustment of my oxygen mask, I stepped into the saloon knowing that soon, somebody, hopefully not me, would be coming out feet/tentacle first, making their last trip to the space port.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (anj39)

141 NaCly, that book is one part of why I have a business degree instead of a chemistry degree. Organic. Ugh.
Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:46 PM (ZSsrh)
______________

I loved all types of chemistry, including organic. I've never understood why people find it difficult.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (dBq3T)

142 I'm not sure how Uber/Lyft are still in business.

When they were the hot new shit, I got it... you could get a cab without waiting on the line, whenever and wherever you wanted, for a third of the price.

But now? WTF? The cab companies all have online portals, and Uber/Lyft cost the same or often even more. And with a proper cabbie, you get someone who knows the town, instead of some peripatetic who doesn't have a clue where you go for a shoeshine. Feh.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (oINRc)

143 The greatest knowledge bestowed upon me was in the early 70s, as a child, reading a college text book on geography. I was probably 12 or so.

I was curious about why the continents mirrored each other across the ocean. I looked at relevant sections, and the book mentioned a "quack theory" called continental drift. It said that the mirroring was a coincidence and only a lunatic fringe think anything else.

At 12 I understood that "the science" was an ass.
I mean, look at a map.
(The book was a little dated, but plate tectonics was not accepted until the 60s, so not that dated.)

That book turned me into a skeptic right from the start. (sorry, I have told this before in these boxes)

Posted by: Gentlemen, this is junta manifest at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (prFJU)

144 Encyclopedia, any of them. Start at A and finish with Z.

Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 05:50 PM (0OP+5)

145 Deplorable Jay Guevara

I always tried to pick C-4 for my sand box experiments. That stuff is very hard to get as a 7th grader.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:50 PM (u82oZ)

146 I really appreciated my large chemistry text book in high school. Otherwise i would have had to walk down the hall between classrooms with an obvious peak in my pants.

Posted by: Axeman at January 04, 2023 05:51 PM (OaZlZ)

147
I made several attempts at Hawking's explanation of how black holes can leak energy and "shrink" over time. At no point did it make sense, and I finally came to the conclusion that either Hawking was wrong, or black holes don't exist.

Posted by: Dr. T at January 04, 2023 05:40 PM (jGGMD)

Physics is just religion now, with "Black Matter/Energy" filling the holes of the things equations can't answer.

Galileo would be amused that these people are still in charge.

Posted by: Auspex at January 04, 2023 05:51 PM (oweJN)

148 I loved all types of chemistry, including organic. I've never understood why people find it difficult.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (dBq3T)

I'm a logic-based learner. Stoic hip entry to me is exactly like converting from feet to inches to centimeters. I did well in Analytical Chem after surviving Organic, but I never could see the logic in OChem. It was all memorization to me, and I am terrible at that. Give me a geometric proof for something and I'll know it forever. To this day I can't remember what results when an alcohol hits a ketone.

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:51 PM (ZSsrh)

149
Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition by Morrison and Boyd
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:42 PM (u82oZ)

__________

- Advanced Inorganic Chemistry, Cotton and Wilkinson
- March's Advanced Organic Chemistry
- Principles and Applications of Organotransition Metal Chemistry, Collman and Hegedus
- Purification of Laboratory Chemicals, Perrin, Amarengo and Perrin

Posted by: Hadrian the Seventh at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (MoZTd)

150 "Isaac Asimov - "Understanding Physics, Vol 3: The Electron, Proton, and Neutron". Extremely well-written and easy-to-read book. Great explanation of stellar fusion and creation of heavy particles."

Loved his "World of Nitrogen" as a kid.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (24fqN)

151 That's not true. I was literally a foot away from Patricia Farinelli , Miss December 1982, on an escalator at a car show in NYC. We were literally the only ones on the escalator and she was unattended.
She looked at me and smiled.
Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (mR6Gs)

That's all you need. The smile tells you that you could have had her right there, but you were busy with other things.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (BdMk6)

152 >>> But now? WTF? The cab companies all have online portals, and Uber/Lyft cost the same or often even more. And with a proper cabbie, you get someone who knows the town, instead of some peripatetic who doesn't have a clue where you go for a shoeshine. Feh.
Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (oINRc)

In a lot of places uber/lyft are all you got.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (0fVbu)

153 134 The Tom Swift Jr books may be why I started STEM first. I had every book, until my Mom sent them to a thrift shop.
Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (u82oZ)
--

I got almost a complete set at a used book store, if you ever need to borrow them!

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (Dc2NZ)

154 Encyclopedia, any of them. Start at A and finish with Z.
Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 05:50 PM (0OP+5)

In our home, we had many "sets" of encyclopedias--the kind you would buy at a drug store or supermarket -- most of them only going up to "D"....

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (mR6Gs)

155 Gentlemen, this is junta manifest

Beautiful theories, defended by aging & prominent scientists, are killed by ugly facts. We have hundreds of years filled with examples.

For fun, look up all the IgNoble Awards.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (u82oZ)

156 Stoic hip entry should be stoichiometry. Totally a word, autocucumber.

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (ZSsrh)

157 Deplorable Jay Guevara: "I loved all types of chemistry, including organic. I've never understood why people find it difficult."

Rote memorization (rules and terminology) and thinking in 3-D. That'd be my guess. Could be conflating some biochem in there, too. It was a long time ago.

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (aXxgO)

158 What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy?

------------------------

It's not science, but I loved all Encyclopedia Brown stories. I could make the argument that they're science-adjacent, as you have to observe and recognize important details to solve the crimes. They are, at least, an exercise in logic.

Posted by: No One of Consequence at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (uPgE/)

159 Paying attention during chemistry and biology classes in school and actually studying the textbooks has helped me a lot also.
Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:48 PM (BdMk6)
_____________

One thing that makes chemistry difficult for many people is that they don't keep up religiously. The subject compounds (?) quickly, especially organic chemistry. Chemistry isn't a subject you can cram for the night before an exam. Understanding a lecture in week N+1 requires mastering the lecture material from week N.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (dBq3T)

160 To this day I can't remember what results when an alcohol hits a ketone.
Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:51 PM (ZSsrh)

If that happens, then you'd better hit alcohol right back!

Posted by: Ketone's father at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (PiwSw)

161 Funny and easy to read:
A Short History Of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson

Posted by: wth at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (v0R5T)

162 Fascinating @fasc1nate
Otters see a butterfly.

https://twitter.com/fasc1nate/status/
1610422747594735616

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (Vwz3I)

163 Read Lavoisier's "Elements of Chemistry" cover to cover as a teen.

Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (24fqN)

164 "The subject compounds" - pun intended?

Posted by: SFGoth at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (KAi1n)

165
When I was a young boy, I used to read Tom Swift all the time. That brings back memories.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (Mzdiz)

166 All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread)

You rule!

On second thought, the juvenile characterizations, the plot holes, coincidences, and lack of yodel sex would properly make me lose interest.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (u82oZ)

167
Read Lavoisier's "Elements of Chemistry" cover to cover as a teen.
Posted by: Preparing gp For Lazy Loading at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (24fqN)

I have it on the very shelf I'm looking at, LOL.

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 04, 2023 05:54 PM (oINRc)

168 "I post using the "Open Blogger" account, so I don't have access to the executive washroom quite yet...But thanks for your support!"

No keys to the flaming skull yet?

Posted by: Tuna at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (gLRfa)

169 There was a running, rather sick joke among the more degenerate physics types back in the day that Steven Hawking was a fake who was secretly fronting for a long line of grad students.

You kind of had to be a physics grad student to get it. You can get kind of punchy down at the accelerator building late at night.

Posted by: pawn at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (kYVzH)

170 We had Encyclopedia Britannica's volumes that were indispensable. Dictionary. Whatever.

I have an 1800 something or other dated 2 volume set on the Civil War. It's falling apart. Has cool maps. Blunt and to the point writing. Probably worth something to someone who actually gives a shit.

Then there were the young people's magazines like "Future" and whatnot that purported to describe a new world. Early priming for today...

YMMV

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (Q4IgG)

171 Absolutely devoured a series of books, almost like an encyclopedia set, called "Childcraft".
They covered just about everything. How it worked, why it was needed, and had cool little experiments you could do with household materials. In fact, made a little paddle boat out of a cigar box lid for the grandson a few years ago. Seemed like the one I made when I was 10 worked better...

Posted by: Gunslinger at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (R2gO3)

172 That's all you need. The smile tells you that you could have had her right there, but you were busy with other things.
Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (BdMk6)

I wouldn't have known the first thing to do.
Neither then or now.

What was funny is that she was alone and after the escalator ride, she simply walked out one of the side EXIT doors

I have no idea where she went.

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (mR6Gs)

173 Encyclopedia, any of them. Start at A and finish with Z.
Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 05:50 PM (0OP+

Yes. World Book of Knowledge. Encyclopedias were my friends.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (BdMk6)

174 Deplorable Jay Guevara, preach! I never studied for a chem test the night before. (A's until the dreaded OChem). If I hadn't already learned it, it wasn't happenin' then.

Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (ZSsrh)

175 137 Oh, in astronomical happenings, today was perihelion, Erf's closet approach to Sol. It happened at 16:17 Zulu, or 11:17AM EST. Erf was 91,403,034 mi from the Sun, this time around.

i thought the sun looked funny...

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:56 PM (v3pYe)

176 Bring back Beakmans World!!!

A few years ago the girl spawn asked for books for Christmas. Books based in science. Chemistry, physics, earth science also mathematics like calculus. We got her a few that were simplified for younger teens who hadn't had those classes in school.

I figured she was trying to figure out how to create a fusion weapon.

Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench) at January 04, 2023 05:56 PM (Wy1BU)

177 I read the Dancing Wu Li Masters many years ago.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at January 04, 2023 05:57 PM (8GBH4)

178 Deplorable Jay Guevara: "I loved all types of chemistry, including organic. I've never understood why people find it difficult."

Rote memorization (rules and terminology) and thinking in 3-D. That'd be my guess. Could be conflating some biochem in there, too. It was a long time ago.
Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 05:53 PM (aXxgO)
_____________

Rote memorization means you were poorly taught. There are only seven TYPES of reactions. Grasp those, and the mechanisms for them, and you're home free. There's no need to memorize all of the name reactions.

Thinking in 3D, like most spatial skills, is genetic, I suspect. You can either do it, or you can't. Teaching it is impossible.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 05:57 PM (dBq3T)

179 We had the Encyclopedia Britannica from 1942. Interesting the articles that were pages long on philosophers or poets you never heard of. The Great War had a huge entry of course. Lots of maps with dashed lines for disputed areas, Vichy France, Greater Germany etc.

Posted by: Ted Torgerson at January 04, 2023 05:57 PM (vN+oL)

180 My nine-years-older brother, now deceased, was a pain as a rule, but I still vividly remember the day he handed me a copy of Flatland and suggested I read it. I might've been 9 or 10. That opened my eye in a few ways.

Posted by: mindful webworker - 2023: Year of Heterosexual Monogamous Pair-Bond Families at January 04, 2023 05:57 PM (DMc3m)

181 I figured she was trying to figure out how to create a fusion weapon.
Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench) at January 04, 2023 05:56 PM (Wy1BU)

As girl spawn are wont to do...

Posted by: I am the Shadout Mapes, the Housekeeper at January 04, 2023 05:58 PM (PiwSw)

182 Hadrian the Seventh

I like every book on your list. But I read them after Morrison and Boyd.

Still have Purification of Laboratory Chemicals, in my tiny Ag Chemical lab.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:58 PM (u82oZ)

183 I fully admit I struggle to read any kind of stuff dealing with science or math, or pretty much anything of a technical nature. I can do it, but it takes a lot more effort than when I read fiction or narrative history/biography.

the curse of the artist's brain.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Gen X Ne'er-Do-Well at January 04, 2023 05:58 PM (UQUAY)

184 156 Stoic hip entry should be stoichiometry. Totally a word, autocucumber.

i thought we had anesthesia these days so we don't need to be stoic when they enter the hip.

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 05:58 PM (v3pYe)

185 Environmental Overkill: What ever happened to common sense?

Or maybe Kicking the Sacred Cow.

Posted by: Anna Puma at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (1BLGl)

186 I have no idea where she went.
Posted by: JoeF.

She came to my hotel room, Joe. She was unquenchable.
The only down side was she kept screaming, "Is that you, Joe?"
Bugged me.

Posted by: MkY at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (cPGH3)

187 Although I have a lot of old Analog magazines from the 1980s, and while there is a lot of technical science-y stuff, it's far easier for me to digest in a fiction setting.

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Gen X Ne'er-Do-Well at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (UQUAY)

188 Ooops, accidently hit enter. Anywho, Dancing Wu Li is presented in controlled chaos way of understanding physics.

Posted by: Guy Mohawk at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (8GBH4)

189 Deplorable Jay Guevara, preach! I never studied for a chem test the night before. (A's until the dreaded OChem). If I hadn't already learned it, it wasn't happenin' then.
Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (ZSsrh)
____________

I used to tell my lecture audiences the importance of keeping up. ("The midterm is in a month. If you haven't been keeping up, PANIC NOW!")

No one has the intellect to grasp a semester of chemistry in an evening. No one.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (dBq3T)

190 172 That's all you need. The smile tells you that you could have had her right there, but you were busy with other things.
Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 05:52 PM (BdMk6)

I wouldn't have known the first thing to do.
Neither then or now.

What was funny is that she was alone and after the escalator ride, she simply walked out one of the side EXIT doors

I have no idea where she went.
Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM
Well, heck. Look it up on the internet.

Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (0OP+5)

191 I have no idea where she went.
Posted by: JoeF.

She came to my hotel room, Joe. She was unquenchable.
The only down side was she kept screaming, "Is that you, Joe?"
Bugged me.
Posted by: MkY at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (cPGH3)

ha

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (mR6Gs)

192 I just wanted to note that Perf Squirrel has done really nice work in adding illustrations to the book threads.

Posted by: mindful webworker - 2023: Year of Heterosexual Monogamous Pair-Bond Families at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (DMc3m)

193 Does Rob comment here incommunicado??

Rob Reiner @robreiner · 2h
Mr. Trump, you know you’re power is wasting away when, on the House floor, Lauren Boebert tells you to stuff it.

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (Vwz3I)

194 I couldn't understand chemistry. I hated it and couldn't balance an equation to save my life. Maybe I had a bad teacher but I'd place most of the blame on myself. Same with EE which I also hated and was terrible at. I also sucked at econ.

While all of math was a breeze and I like most of physics, mechanics, statics, dynamics, aero, fluid dynamics, and structures. But I guess chem, econ, and EE were too much magic hand-waving for me. I really need things doing stuff that I could conceivably touch to understand really well. Although I do really well at programming too.

I'm an odd duck.

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (0fVbu)

195 164 "The subject compounds" - pun intended?

perhaps, if you have a compound interest

Posted by: stochastic kulak anachronda at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (v3pYe)

196 I haven't read much "real science" lately but enjoy watching some physics YouTubers explain things. A little disappointed that Dr. Becky did a review of the move "Don't Look Up" and was so upset that "how can people see a problem and just do nothing about it."

She then wandered into another field of science and showed what looked kinda like the typical fraudulent hokey stick warming chart, and declared "how van people be so stupid to not see it, it's right there".

Sigh ... yes, the one chart explains her lack of depth. She seems to know the basics of her astrophysics field, but full Karen outside that perhaps. Of course YouTube would probably cancel her if she went against "The Science".

Posted by: illiniwek at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (Cus5s)

197 Hadrian the Seventh

My main science bookshelf, with two CRC manuals and lots of orgo books, has Advanced Inorganic Chemistry by Cotton and Wilkinson.

I read that a lot as a senior, and used it in grad school.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (u82oZ)

198 Mr. Trump, you know you’re power is wasting away when, on the House floor, Lauren Boebert tells you to stuff it.
Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (Vwz3I)

Did Lauren tell him to stuff it?

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (mR6Gs)

199 I have no idea where she went.
Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM
Well, heck. Look it up on the internet.
Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (0OP+5)

The pics are still up there

Posted by: JoeF. at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (mR6Gs)

200 140 It was cold in the Black Hole. The kind of cold that creeps into your bones and leaves you stiff with fatigue. I unconsciously checked my pocket. Ol Betsy was still there, comforting and ready to blast out 45 megajouls of bad guy killing power. With a final adjustment of my oxygen mask, I stepped into the saloon knowing that soon, somebody, hopefully not me, would be coming out feet/tentacle first, making their last trip to the space port.
Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 05:49 PM (anj39)

.....go on...

Posted by: Mark Andrew Edwards, Buy ammo, food, water at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (V6f9+)

201 YD,
I am disturbed by your use of peripatetic for itinerant drivers.

The etymology is someone who walks about. It's not wrong, just distrubing.

Posted by: Gentlemen, this is junta manifest at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (prFJU)

202 I have no idea where she went.
Posted by: JoeF.

She came to my hotel room, Joe. She was unquenchable.
The only down side was she kept screaming, "Is that you, Joe?"
Bugged me.
Posted by: MkY at January 04, 2023 05:59 PM (cPGH3)
***

Ok. That was funny. Cold. But funny.

Posted by: Diogenes at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (anj39)

203 Deplorable Jay Guevara, preach! I never studied for a chem test the night before. (A's until the dreaded OChem). If I hadn't already learned it, it wasn't happenin' then.
Posted by: Catherine at January 04, 2023 05:55 PM (ZSsrh)
_____________

The night before an organic chem final I ran into the lecturer in the gym's sauna.

"Aren't you studying?"
"Nope. If I didn't already have it down, it's too late to do anything about it now."

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (dBq3T)

204 Perfessor, I'm enjoying these surprise jump-scare Book Threads.

You hit refresh, expecting some of-the-moment political story, and *BOOM* it's a Book Thread! You're subverting our expectations.

Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at January 04, 2023 06:02 PM (Dc2NZ)

205
Oh, FFS. Boebert is the kind of CO hillbilly chick I'm all too familiar with. She holds no more power in DC than Trump does, or you do, or I do.

Am I supposed to care about her drama? Or Trump's?

Posted by: Yudhishthira's Dice at January 04, 2023 06:03 PM (oINRc)

206 Not blue!!!

uitengebieden @buitengebieden
Pink dolphin.. 🐬

https://twitter.com/buitengebieden/status/
1610626675527622656

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:03 PM (Vwz3I)

207 AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna

I combine my ship-driving days in the Service with my chemistry time in my name.

I did publish some of my organometallic research results. So inorganic elements were in new stuff I made.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 06:03 PM (u82oZ)

208 My main science bookshelf, with two CRC manuals and lots of orgo books, has Advanced Inorganic Chemistry by Cotton and Wilkinson.

I read that a lot as a senior, and used it in grad school.

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (u82oZ)
______________

I have those books literally within arm's reach of me right now in my study.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:04 PM (dBq3T)

209 Did Lauren tell him to stuff it?
------------
Not in so many words I assume.

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:04 PM (Vwz3I)

210
And Jan 7th will be the latest sunrise day (latest sunset in the Southern hemisphere).

And on Jan 11, the rate of change in daylight length will reach 1 minute. It will increase to 2 min per day by Feb 15.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 06:05 PM (Mzdiz)

211 It's not books that excited my imagination about science. It was playing with stuff. That physics teacher that constructed a demo of the old "how do you aim at the monkey when it lets go of the tree the moment you shoot" story. Building electronics kits. Magnets and electromagnets and motors and lasers.

Only later did the books have a role, and most of them are hard going. What really got to me was lectures by great teachers -- Feynman's lectures, and a Great Courses series on particle physics by a particularly talented teacher.

Posted by: Splunge at January 04, 2023 06:05 PM (2Nn0L)

212 193 Does Rob comment here incommunicado??

drat! you've figured me out!

Posted by: BlackOrchidIsNotAmused at January 04, 2023 06:06 PM (w0NJk)

213 Chemistry isn't a subject you can cram for the night before an exam. Understanding a lecture in week N+1 requires mastering the lecture material from week N.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

This.
The professor asked 2 of us to tutor while taking ochem, when I objected because we were currently taking the class, he said you're both getting As the people needing tutoring are not getting As.
So I became a chem tutor.

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 04, 2023 06:06 PM (2dci9)

214 In middle school (School Certificate in Kenya) I read every Inorganic Chemistry text we had then spent the other years doing the same with Organic Chemistry, which totally captivated me. Paul Karrer's book "Organic Chemistry" was the defining source of Organic Chemistry knowledge for me. When I got to A Levels I was well versed in much of the subject except the mathematical parts (pH, Pka, etc.). The more esoteric parts of Physical Chemistry requiring Calculus and more advanced Math were a little beyond me and I never got enthusiastic about them. Deriving mathematically the ratios of ortho- and para-hydrogen was not exciting, particularly when some complicated expression was solved by 'we can simplify this to ....'. Cop out.

Posted by: Ciampino - those early chemists had it tough at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (qfLjt)

215 And Jan 7th will be the latest sunrise day (latest sunset in the Southern hemisphere).

And on Jan 11, the rate of change in daylight length will reach 1 minute. It will increase to 2 min per day by Feb 15.
Posted by: publius

I do the same shit. So, Winter is almost over?

Posted by: Gentlemen, this is junta manifest at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (prFJU)

216 Carpe Donktum🔹 @CarpeDonktum · 2h
I officially endorse the guy that thought guam would flip over for speaker of the house. At least he is bold and says what he believes.

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (Vwz3I)

217 Scientific literacy. Ha. Half the country is functionally illiterate. That's not a joke, and that was from a 2012 or so study of a pro-teacher/pro-education group that was trying to spike the football over the numbers.

It's certainly worse now.

Posted by: Press Juan for English at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (+fJgE)

218 164 "The subject compounds" - pun intended?
____________

No, not really. I recognized the pun, but left it in anyway because "compounding" is the perfect word to describe the effect.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (dBq3T)

219 Everyone here is speaking this in depth science language and I was excited about Magic School Bus.

I feel like I should head to the kitchen and start dinner hoping no one noticed.

Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 06:07 PM (ZdaMQ)

220 drat! you've figured me out!
Posted by: BlackOrchidIsNotAmused
------------
Meathead!

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:08 PM (Vwz3I)

221 The Cartoon Guide to Physics

The Most Beautiful Molecule

The God Particle

Posted by: prolix at January 04, 2023 06:08 PM (RoJMu)

222 I don't see "The Tao of Physics" in that graphic. Surely it deserves an honorable mention.

Posted by: Dr. Bone at January 04, 2023 06:09 PM (Er3sM)

223 Initially: How things Work was a coffee table book my Dad bought for me when I was in grade school.

Later in life, Bruhn: Analysis and Design of Flight Structures. Not a stress guy by any means but the guy takes the time to explain the how and why of analysis, and then explains how the formulae are derived.

Posted by: CrotchetyOldJarhead at January 04, 2023 06:09 PM (TgNpw)

224 What's the Book thread doing here on a Wednesday??

Ace takes the week off and this place goes to hell.

Posted by: dantesed at January 04, 2023 06:09 PM (88xKn)

225 I was going to say the books were my encyclopedia set! read them thru and thru. I didn't keep them, and really regret it now

I think Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy can be a fun science intro, sort of

Posted by: BlackOrchidIsNotAmused at January 04, 2023 06:09 PM (w0NJk)

226 What makes me laugh is atomic physics, you know the one where a particle is a particle until you observe it, then it becomes something else.

Posted by: gourmand du jour at January 04, 2023 06:10 PM (jTmQV)

227 jump-scare Book Threads

-----------

I love this notion and description and move that this should become at least a bi-monthly* feature of the HQ.

* The real bi-monthly.

Posted by: Press Juan for English at January 04, 2023 06:10 PM (+fJgE)

228 Oh crap, I forgot!

*searches for pants*

Posted by: Pug Mahon, Gen X Ne'er-Do-Well at January 04, 2023 06:10 PM (UQUAY)

229 >> I do the same shit. So, Winter is almost over?

No, Winter has just begun. Astronomical Winter (for the North) begins on the Solstice -- think of the winter solstice as seasonal midnight so to speak. And just as it generally the coldest right around dawn, so there's a phase shift with the seasons.

Astronomical Spring begins on the vernal equinox. Now, the meteorological seasons, which generally agree with typical seasonal weather patterns, have Winter being Dec, Jan, and Feb, with Spring beginning at March 1.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 06:10 PM (Mzdiz)

230 I'm not sure that America requires scientific literacy as much as a solid basis in logic and dimensional analysis.

The Scientific method might be a good place to start. Anyone who understands how it works (and it isn't complex...at all!) will do just fine.

Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (XIJ/X)

231 222 I don't see "The Tao of Physics" in that graphic. Surely it deserves an honorable mention.
Posted by: Dr. Bone

The Tao of Poo

Posted by: nurse ratched, I wanna cookie, please. at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (PyjuW)

232 What makes me laugh is atomic physics, you know the one where a particle is a particle until you observe it, then it becomes something else.

---------

Everything I needed to know about raising teenagers I learned from atomic physics.

Posted by: Press Juan for English at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (+fJgE)

233 Rep. Dan Crenshaw on the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy:

"We cannot let the terrorists win."

https://tinyurl.com/yr2w3579

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (9fLxS)

234 figured she was trying to figure out how to create a fusion weapon.
Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench) at January 04, 2023 05:56 PM (Wy1BU)
----

And if she'd have succeeded, you would beamed with pride while saying, "That's my girl!"

Posted by: Blake - semi lurker at large at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (5pTK/)

235 Thanks for the hat tip, Perfesser.

btw - I started reading Glitter Girl by moron author James Y Bartlett a few days ago - 40% read now. It's an easy read and very enjoyable. I learned of his books on your Sunday book thread. Thanks.

Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at January 04, 2023 06:12 PM (d9Cw3)

236 We learned an awful lot about physics with Estes rockets.

Like.... don't shoot them at the neighbor's house.

OTOH... we'd have been awesome at launching mortars or other ballistic projectiles at.... whatever.

Posted by: Martini Farmer at January 04, 2023 06:12 PM (Q4IgG)

237 Brett beer sucks cock by choice. He's desperately trying to smear Chip Roy and conservatives. Not that it's at all shocking.

But damn, Chip handled himself very well. He countered nicely and stayed on message.

Posted by: SturmToddler's phone at January 04, 2023 06:12 PM (Vt3mF)

238 231 I loved that book! And The Te of Piglet.

Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 06:12 PM (ZdaMQ)

239 Rep. Dan Crenshaw on the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy:

"We cannot let the terrorists win."

----------

Holy crap. That is not a joke. He literally said those words about the voters.

Posted by: Press Juan for English at January 04, 2023 06:13 PM (+fJgE)

240 I feel like I should head to the kitchen and start dinner hoping no one noticed.
Posted by: Piper

I never liked the Magic School Bus. Of course I was older when that show was on but my son was in that era. He had no interest in it either. He did watch Bill Nye the Science Guy. He also liked Beakmans World. Beakman was much better than the science guy.

Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench) at January 04, 2023 06:14 PM (Wy1BU)

241 Ha! I had "The Dancing Wu Li Masters" too.

The 80's were a hell of a drug.
Posted by: All Hail Eris, Sans-Culottes (except for the Book Thread) at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM (Dc2NZ)

I was pretty disappointed in that one. I could see the woozy mysticism coming for physics even then. It was quite the relief to actually take a few years of actual Quantum Mechanics to get the taste out of the mouth.

Posted by: Oldcat at January 04, 2023 06:14 PM (eoQWY)

242 Holy crap. That is not a joke. He literally said those words about the voters.
Posted by: Press Juan for English
___

He said it about the 20 "holdouts".

But yeah, he regards us as such also.

Expect the feebs/spooks to crawl all up those 20 butts.

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at January 04, 2023 06:14 PM (9fLxS)

243 I majored in linguistics in college, so my favorite technical book to this day is Language Universals and Linguistic Typology, by Bernard Conroe.
Posted by: Bulgaroctonus at January 04, 2023 05:47 PM

So you're a legit cunning linguist?

Posted by: Someone had to say it at January 04, 2023 06:14 PM (Wnv9h)

244 The problem with chemistry is that it's so often poorly taught.

I used to liken bonding to a tray full of water (electrons) sloshing around over two say, golf balls fixed in place (nuclei). Make the tray asymmetric by deepening one end and more of the water sloshes to the deep end (electronegativity). If end of the tray is deep enough, no water is left at the other end (ionization). Jiggle the tray at the right frequency and you slop some of the water out (electronic transition).

From evocative image people have a visceral grasp of the concepts that can then be cleaned up later.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:15 PM (dBq3T)

245 SMH at what's coming: "Rep. Dan Crenshaw on the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy:

'We cannot let the terrorists win.'"

This hysteric just went plaid. Just how much grift was this maroon promised?

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 06:15 PM (aXxgO)

246 I haven't read much "real science" lately but enjoy watching some physics YouTubers explain things. A little disappointed that Dr. Becky did a review of the move "Don't Look Up" and was so upset that "how can people see a problem and just do nothing about it."

She then wandered into another field of science and showed what looked kinda like the typical fraudulent hokey stick warming chart, and declared "how van people be so stupid to not see it, it's right there".

Sigh ... yes, the one chart explains her lack of depth. She seems to know the basics of her astrophysics field, but full Karen outside that perhaps. Of course YouTube would probably cancel her if she went against "The Science".
Posted by: illiniwek at January 04, 2023 06:01 PM (Cus5s)

She looks like she'd be fun in bed for almost a whole weekend. Any more time than that she'd probably start getting on my nerves even without her leftist screeds.

Posted by: Pork Chops & Bacons at January 04, 2023 06:16 PM (BdMk6)

247 All the science, I don't understand
It's just my job 5 days a week
Signed Rocketman

Posted by: Skip at January 04, 2023 06:16 PM (xhxe8)

248 Well, I'm going to go outside and shovel dirt. Had a friend come over this morning with a Bobcat loader, and he broke up an ancient concrete ring that sat out in the side yard. Might have been a pond, I don't know. Broke it up real good, lifted the concrete chunks out on the forks, and then switched to the bucket, and dug a deep hole. Then piled the broken concrete in the hole, and backfilled with dirt. It will no doubt settle a bit over the next year or two, and maybe I will need to bring in 2 or 3 yards of dirt to level it out. But I got rid of an eyesore that made half the yard useless.

Posted by: Alberta Oil Peon at January 04, 2023 06:16 PM (tkR6S)

249 Neil DeGrasse Tyson is a science denier.

Pluto is a planet.

Posted by: Next2Nothing at January 04, 2023 06:16 PM (tA1/w)

250 Have a great day trying to reproduce cited yield in a journal's experimental section, everyone. It is time to go.

Every Wednesday night our local pragmatic group meets. We put on a Constitution Bee for years. Funded by our sweat-equity. We got stories. Link in nic.

I was talking to one of them Saturday, mentioning how counting out $15,000 in cash became a boring chore quickly. (We got to keep a certain % of the total).

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 06:17 PM (u82oZ)

251
Oh, btw, the rate of change of daylight length (sunrise to sunset) times is latitude dependent somewhat. The rate of change will be faster in the higher latitudes, but they start with lower daylengths at the winter solstice.

For NYC, the one minute change date will be Jan 7th, a few days earlier than down here.

Posted by: publius, Rascally Mr. Miley (Mzdiz) at January 04, 2023 06:17 PM (Mzdiz)

252 Book thread Bonus!!

(NOTE: If you want to see an instance where "scientific literacy" goes horribly wrong, Buck Throckmorton has a great post from yesterday about "Pyramid Power!" - don't comment on old posts...)

See also: The Secret.

Posted by: LASue at January 04, 2023 06:17 PM (Ed8Zd)

253 that can then be cleaned up later.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

So you had grad students available?

Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 04, 2023 06:17 PM (2dci9)

254 Press Juan for English: "Holy crap. That is not a joke. He literally said those words about the voters."

I taught him to say that last night on national TV. He's a fine sheep.

Posted by: Newt Gingrich at January 04, 2023 06:18 PM (aXxgO)

255 240 Posted by: Madamemayhem (uppity wench)

I wonder if that is a girl / boy thing. I have all girls, the older ones where around for the original. My youngest for the newer version. The new was no where near as good as the original, so we went back to those.

Posted by: Piper at January 04, 2023 06:18 PM (ZdaMQ)

256 A few weeks ago I was looking for the IR absorption spectra of methyl mercaptan
Posted by: sniffybigtoe at January 04, 2023 05:21 PM

If you need any samples of CH4S, reach out to me.

Posted by: Eric Swalwell (D-CA) at January 04, 2023 06:18 PM (a3Q+t)

257 Science!!!

@rawsalerts · 16m
🚨#WATCH: Incredible footage of a truck getting struck by lightning
📌#Mooresville | #NC
Incredible footage of a truck getting struck by lightning in Mooresville North Carolina. Notice the truck’s lights go on after the strike as the bolt traveled along a fence line

https://twitter.com/rawsalerts/status/
1610773257065738242

[The middle truck of the three not the big 18-wheeler]

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:18 PM (Vwz3I)

258 222 I don't see "The Tao of Physics" in that graphic. Surely it deserves an honorable mention.
Posted by: Dr. Bone at January 04, 2023 06:09 PM
I really impressed a girl one time when she saw it on the dash of my truck. For the life of me I can't remember how it got there.

Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 06:18 PM (0OP+5)

259 My nine-years-older brother, now deceased, was a pain as a rule, but I still vividly remember the day he handed me a copy of Flatland and suggested I read it. I might've been 9 or 10. That opened my eye in a few ways.
Posted by: mindful webworker - 2023: Year of Heterosexual Monogamous Pair-Bond Families at January 04, 2023 05:57 PM (DMc3m)

That's a classic.

Posted by: Oldcat at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM (eoQWY)

260 McCarthy Fails Again on Ballot Number Six, House in Recess Until 8:00pm ET

https://tinyurl.com/2p86cvuv

I might have to actually watch CSPAN.

Posted by: SMH at what's coming at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM (9fLxS)

261 The Scientific method might be a good place to start. Anyone who understands how it works (and it isn't complex...at all!) will do just fine.
Posted by: CharlieBrown'sDildo at January 04, 2023 06:11 PM (XIJ/X)
_____________

THIS.

You know who is really good at the scientific method? Mechanics and electricians. Snotty college graduates look down their noses at them, but those guys are VERY good at it.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM (dBq3T)

262 nood

CBD oil

Posted by: banana Dream at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM (P69fT)

263 No, wait. That was the Tao Of Poo.

Posted by: Eromero at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM (0OP+5)

264 Barron Trump for Speaker of the House.

Posted by: Marooned at January 04, 2023 06:20 PM (w6hJ9)

265 McCarthy Fails Again on Ballot Number Six, House in Recess Until 8:00pm ET

https://tinyurl.com/2p86cvuv

I might have to actually watch CSPAN.
Posted by: SMH at what's coming at January 04, 2023 06:19 PM

Clearly McCarthy is an election denier.

Posted by: RedMindBlueState at January 04, 2023 06:20 PM (Wnv9h)

266 He said it about the 20 "holdouts".

-

I was thinking of our representatives.

Posted by: Press Juan for English at January 04, 2023 06:20 PM (hoJIS)

267 Some of them are geared toward the housewife, who had to mix her own drain cleaners and rat poisons in the days before such things were commercially available.
Posted by: FeatherBlade at January 04, 2023 05:38 PM (u9m02)

I have one of those and am profoundly grateful I'm not making my own furniture polish, spot remover, etc.

As the detective said in "Gosford Park": "This place is a poisoner's paradise/"

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (wE246)

268 I just wanted to note that Perf Squirrel has done really nice work in adding illustrations to the book threads.
Posted by: mindful webworker - 2023: Year of Heterosexual Monogamous Pair-Bond Families at January 04, 2023 06:00 PM (DMc3m)
---
Thank you. I'm not all that great with graphic design, so I try to employ my technical communication skills instead as a poor man's substitute...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (BpYfr)

269 "Expect the feebs/spooks to crawl all up those 20 butts."

If they hadn't done that already, we're getting even less government value for tax money than anyone expected. The Feral Bureau of Instigations entire raison d'etre is gathering dirt in US pols.

Posted by: FeatherBlade at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (u9m02)

270 Isaac Asimov: The Good Earth Is Dying

Posted by: Marooned at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (w6hJ9)

271 Physics is just religion now, with "Black Matter/Energy" filling the holes of the things equations can't answer.

Galileo would be amused that these people are still in charge.
Posted by: Auspex at January 04, 2023 05:51 PM (oweJN)

Equations *might* be able to answer them, but nobody is working on theories that might explain things. We just are out taking pretty pictures and adding things to ledgers not trying to understand. When your theory breaks down, you need a new theory.

Posted by: Oldcat at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (eoQWY)

272 The middle truck of above the three... I should say.

Posted by: andycanuck (Vwz3I) at January 04, 2023 06:21 PM (Vwz3I)

273 Maybe Chip Roy should be Speaker.

And then the the clowns can discover all flavors of new terminology like SuperMegaUltraTerrorist, or OrangeTerroristBad.

Posted by: AnonyBotymousDrivel Remembers Babbitt and Perna at January 04, 2023 06:22 PM (aXxgO)

274 that can then be cleaned up later.
Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara

So you had grad students available?
Posted by: AZ deplorable moron at January 04, 2023 06:17 PM (2dci9)
_____________

I did, but I cleaned it up myself in later lectures. Once students have an intuitive understanding of the concepts, it's easy to clean up.

Posted by: Deplorable Jay Guevara at January 04, 2023 06:22 PM (dBq3T)

275 Isaac Asimov: The Case Against Man

Posted by: Marooned at January 04, 2023 06:25 PM (w6hJ9)

276 Eye Patch McCain thinks we're terrorists.

Posted by: Jerry Nadler at January 04, 2023 06:25 PM (lYbrt)

277 Thanks for the hat tip, Perfesser.

btw - I started reading Glitter Girl by moron author James Y Bartlett a few days ago - 40% read now. It's an easy read and very enjoyable. I learned of his books on your Sunday book thread. Thanks.
Posted by: Buck Throckmorton at January 04, 2023 06:12 PM (d9Cw3)
---
It looks like we COBs have all been posting science-adjacent threads the past couple of days (or in your case, "anti-science," which is a good contrast!)

We really are one of the most educated collectives on the interwebs. I'm gobsmacked by the stuff I've learned here...

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 06:26 PM (BpYfr)

278 I loved McCauley, when the kids read them, because I need to see how things are put together.

Also, Connections, but in both cases, what really interested me was the way history was changed by the science.

Posted by: sal: tolle adversarium et afflige inimicum at January 04, 2023 06:27 PM (wE246)

279 NOOD McCarthy

Posted by: "Perfessor" Squirrel at January 04, 2023 06:27 PM (BpYfr)

280 i got started down the stem road by my dad as a toddler. he woukd hand me 1/4" drive socket set, and put a lawnmower engine in the back of his pickup truck with me to 'work on'.

from there i graduated to building and wiring my own analog model railroad layout.

built my own analog transformer with braking and acceleration functions in highschool.

Posted by: BifBewalski at January 04, 2023 06:34 PM (3CCua)

281 all the books and magazijes are out of print that i used otherwise, i'd send the links. i still have the transformer book thouh.

Posted by: BifBewalski at January 04, 2023 06:35 PM (3CCua)

282 105 The book that changed me:

Organic Chemistry, 3rd Edition by Morrison and Boyd

Posted by: NaCly Dog (u82oZ) at January 04, 2023 05:42 PM (u82oZ)
----
I have used various editions of that book for my classes when I was still teaching. Did the third edition have that Donald Duck cartoon about Osmotic Fog?
https://is.gd/g96Akk

Posted by: Ciampino - Cotton & Wilkinson for Inorganic Chem at January 04, 2023 06:53 PM (qfLjt)

283 What are some of YOUR favorite books which bestowed upon you a level of scientific literacy? What books would be good for children to start their journey towards scientific literacy?

Metamagical Themas, Hofstadter
What If?, Munroe

Posted by: MarkW at January 04, 2023 07:01 PM (w6veW)

284 I'm so sad I missed this bookzzz thread!

Posted by: vmom stabby stabby stabby stabby stabamillion at January 04, 2023 07:04 PM (Kd4bG)

285 Rep. Dan Crenshaw on the 20 Republicans who oppose McCarthy:

"We cannot let the terrorists win."

The people of Houston need to flush that piece of shit - stat.

Posted by: Reuben Hick at January 04, 2023 07:14 PM (3hSHB)

286 If anybody cares, I've just published a collection of everything I've written about the virus for the lats three years.
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0BRCY1SR3

Posted by: ChrisW at January 04, 2023 07:38 PM (ItDku)

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Posted by: Anita at January 04, 2023 07:49 PM (+q6EH)

288 Physicist George Gamow's "One, Two, Three...Infinity".

I still have the no-ragged paperback I pored over when I was a sophomore in high school....the basics of newly-discovered DNA and its implications, theoretical and practical use of complex numbers, general and special relativity, topology, the Law of Disorder, ...

all written at a layman-friendly level.

I must have been a nerd even then, as hand-written equations for The Carbon-Carbon cycle and the Proton-Proton reaction driving solar fusion are scrawled on the inside back cover.

Posted by: Noam Sayen at January 04, 2023 09:08 PM (IHUXn)

289 271 Physics is just religion now, with "Black Matter/Energy" filling the holes of the things equations can't answer.
*****************

Well, at least you've got the terminology down pat----SNORT

Posted by: Noam Sayen at January 04, 2023 09:18 PM (IHUXn)

290 I bought Arnold Ruth's Crazy Book of Science from Scholastic Books in the 6th grade. It was hilarious and provided me a surprisingl6 good base as well as an interest in science that got me through an Electrical Engineering degree.

Posted by: Tom LeBleu at January 04, 2023 10:09 PM (B6+et)

291 I bought Arnold Ruth's Crazy Book of Science from Scholastic Books in the 6th grade. It was hilarious and provided me a surprisingly good base as well as an interest in science that got me through an Electrical Engineering degree.

Posted by: Tom LeBleu at January 04, 2023 10:13 PM (B6+et)

292 My best present? My Deplorable Gourmet cookbook, of course! The GoPro Max was a close second though…

Posted by: Don Draper at January 04, 2023 11:22 PM (SXH3O)

293 Black Holes and Warped Spacetime by William Kaufman. Amazing explanation for laymen. It makes the mathematically incomprehensible accessible to all. Relativity by Einstein. He includes some of the calculus (which eludes me), but still makes the concepts understandable. Wish I could remember the third…

Posted by: SteveT at January 04, 2023 11:31 PM (ZloeF)

294 Hawking’s A Brief History of Time is also very accessible. Still can’t recall the third I referred to dammit. Oh well. No one’s waded through all these comments anyway, most likely.

Posted by: SteveT at January 04, 2023 11:38 PM (ZloeF)

295 Anything that John Gribbin has ever written, plus anything that Richard Fortey has ever written. Seriously, they are all that good...

Posted by: Bruce Abbott at January 05, 2023 05:29 AM (fRUaM)

296 The Physics of Superheroes

https://tinyurl.com/bddk9nxw

The Martian (not specifically just physics, but really good science, explained for the layman)

https://tinyurl.com/bdd83uka

State of Fear (one of the first books to address the lack of scientific rigor in the Climate Change advocacy)

https://tinyurl.com/ymajbkek

Posted by: Linda S Fox at January 05, 2023 06:38 AM (NDKSW)

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Posted by: Susan Kane at January 05, 2023 01:16 PM (VYzxD)

298 The Ancient Engineers by L. Sprague de Camp got me thinking in Jr High school....

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299

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Posted by: Carla Rogers at January 06, 2023 02:23 AM (AVs3y)

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