books on science this holiday season

Books on science this holiday season

From his new book, I am America (and so can you!), part of Stephen

Colbert's view of science:

" 'Why?' -- The question scientists are always asking. You know who

else is always asking 'why?' ? Five year olds! That's the kind of

intellectual level we're dealing with here."

That's the best justification for my desire to be a scientist that

I've seen since I read Tom Weller's book Science Made Stupid back when

I was in high school:

"What is science? Put most simply, science is a way of dealing with

the world around us. It is a way of baffling the uninitiated with

incomprehensible jargon. It is a way of obtaining fat government

grants. It is a way of achieving mastery over the physical world by

threatening it with destruction."

I've also been reading Uncertainty, a very well-written book about the

birth of quantum mechanics that focuses mostly on the personalities of

the major players. It's a compelling story, though there are no major

surprises: Heisenberg was ludicrously bright; Bohr was incapable of

writing a short, declarative statement; Pauli was a sarcastic bastard

who could get away with it because he was brilliant; Einstein was

already the grand old man.

I can also recommend American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of

J. Robert Oppenheimer. I'm not done with this one yet, but it's

extremely interesting. If you thought that socially awkward, neurotic