I’ve always been fascinated by great ideas, even wrong ones. As a child, I read a ‘science’ book that proposed that atoms are like solar systems inhabited by electron-sized people and animals. It was bonkers but it got me thinking about astronomy, biology, and particle physics and I retain that fascination today (though I no longer believe in tiny people living inside atoms). But ideas, even wrong ones, can be endlessly fruitful. Einstein came up with the idea of quantum entanglement ‘spooky action at a distance’ as he called it, supposedly as an example of where quantum mechanics goes wrong. A few decades later, experiments proved quantum entanglement was real.
I wrote...
Life Is Simple: How Occam's Razor Set Science Free and Shapes the Universe
Life is Simple is about Occam’s razor, the simplest and most powerful idea that anyone has ever had. It is simply(!) that if you have lots of explanations for say a light in the night sky, then you should choose the simplest – it’s an airplane – so long as it works. The razor is named after William of Occam, a cool medieval friar who disproved the standard ‘proofs’ of God and accused the Pope of heresy. My book follows his razor’s tracks as it cuts through medieval baloney to establish modern science and its subsequent wielding in the hands of Copernicus, Newton to Einstein or Higgs. It remains a cornerstone of modernity and the most powerful weapon against pseudoscience, conspiracy theories, and fake news.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is, first of all, a great read and page-turner.
Harari takes us on a journey from the emergence of Homo sapiens in East Africa to the present day, covering key milestones such as the Agricultural Revolution, the rise of civilization, empires, and technology. Through insightful analysis, he delves into topics like the development of language, the impact of myths and religions, and the role of technology in shaping our species and our lives.
This thought-provoking book challenges readers to question the fundamental nature and future trajectory of humanity. Was agriculture a ‘good thing’? What about technology? Or money? Harari may not have all the answers but he has some great questions.
100,000 years ago, at least six human species inhabited the earth. Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come?
In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the…
Tired of Western-orientated histories of the world? Then take a trip along the Silk Road with Peter Frankopan.
His book is a captivating exploration of the history of the world but with its frame of reference centered in the great cities of the East, such as Baghdad or Peking, and, of course the Great Silk Road that linked much of the world in a single trade route that connected civilizations from East to West, facilitating the exchange of goods, ideas, and cultures.
He highlights the pivotal role the Silk Road played in shaping global history, from the rise and fall of empires to the spread of religions and the transmission of knowledge. Fascinating stories and insights, such as the West to East slave trade operated by medieval Rus tribes.
The No. 1 Sunday Times and international bestseller - a major reassessment of world history in light of the economic and political renaissance in the re-emerging east
For centuries, fame and fortune was to be found in the west - in the New World of the Americas. Today, it is the east which calls out to those in search of adventure and riches. The region stretching from eastern Europe and sweeping right across Central Asia deep into China and India, is taking centre stage in international politics, commerce and culture - and is shaping the modern world.
This region, the…
I love this book because it provides a great account of the theory natural selection, described as the greatest idea that anyone ever had, by its co-discover, Alfred Russell Wallace.
The Malay Archipelago describes what is now largely a lost world, the 19th-century Malayan Archipelago. Unlike Darwin, Wallace had to earn a living as a ‘fly-catcher’ to support his passion, travelling in native canoes rather than Royal Navy ships, and living with native people, rather than European aristocrats.
Wallace's book describes the geographical distribution of animals, the diversity of species, and his observations of the region's fauna and flora, illustrating how natural selection shapes organisms and ecosystems. But he doesn’t stop with the animals, he also gives us sympathetic portrayals of native people and their lifestyles.
The Malay Archipelago is a book by the British naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace which chronicles his scientific exploration, during the eight-year period 1854 to 1862, of the southern portion of the Malay Archipelago including Malaysia, Singapore, the islands of Indonesia, and the island of New Guinea. The book describes each island that he visited in turn, giving a detailed account of its physical and human geography, its volcanoes, and the variety of animals and plants that he found and collected. At the same time, he describes his experiences, the difficulties of travel, and the help he received from the different…
This book brings alive, in startling details, the remarkable explosion of multicellular life in the Cambrian period.
600 million years ago, all life on Earth was unicellular microbes. A few tens of millions of years later and the world was teeming with a fantastic diversity of animals. Gould challenges the notion of a predictable and linear evolutionary path and argues instead that chance events and contingency played a crucial role in shaping the course of evolution.
But what I really love is Gould’s attention to detail. It’s said that “the devil is in the detail" and, in his book, Gould revels in the anatomical details of fantastically well-preserved and very strange animals, such as the bizarre Anomalocaris, from the Burgess Shale, their discovery, significance, and just how wonderful life can be.
High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived-a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.
Who would have thought fungi could be so fascinating and clever?
In this very easy to read but informative book, Sheldrake explores the intricate and symbiotic world of fungi and their invisible connections with plants and animals. From mycelium networks that connect plants underground to the potential of fungi in medicine, psychedelics, biotechnology, the book uncovers the hidden and remarkable abilities of fungi.
Sheldrake challenges our perception of fungi as mere decomposers or organic matter and reveals their immense impact on our planet. For my taste, Entangled Life does occasionally stray into wishy-washy mystical magic mushroom ramblings but Sheldrake’s engaging storytelling and scientific insights, Entangled Life offers a captivating journey into the interconnectedness of life through the lens of fungi.
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • A “brilliant [and] entrancing” (The Guardian) journey into the hidden lives of fungi—the great connectors of the living world—and their astonishing and intimate roles in human life, with the power to heal our bodies, expand our minds, and help us address our most urgent environmental problems.
“Grand and dizzying in how thoroughly it recalibrates our understanding of the natural world.”—Ed Yong, author of I Contain Multitudes
ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR—Time, BBC Science Focus, The Daily Mail, Geographical, The Times, The Telegraph, New Statesman, London Evening Standard, Science Friday
Susan Tate Ankeny left a career in teaching to write the story of her father’s escape from Nazi-occupied France. In 2011, after being led on his path through France by the same Resistance fighters who guided him in 1944, she felt inspired to tell the story of these brave French patriots, especially the 17-year-old- girl who risked her own life to save her father’s. Susan is a member of the 8th Air Force Historical Society, the Air Force Escape and Evasion Society, and the Association des Sauveteurs d’Aviateurs Alliés.
The first and only full-length biography of Hazel Ying Lee, an unrecognized pioneer and unsung World War II hero who fought for a country that actively discriminated against her gender, race, and ambition.
This unique hidden figure defied countless stereotypes to become the first Asian American woman in United States history to earn a pilot's license, and the first female Asian American pilot to fly for the military.
Her achievements, passionate drive, and resistance in the face of oppression as a daughter of Chinese immigrants and a female aviator changed the course of history. Now the remarkable story of a fearless underdog finally surfaces to inspire anyone to reach toward the sky.
One of WWII’s most uniquely hidden figures, Hazel Ying Lee was the first Asian American woman to earn a pilot’s license, join the WASPs, and fly for the United States military amid widespread anti-Asian sentiment and policies.
Her singular story of patriotism, barrier breaking, and fearless sacrifice is told for the first time in full for readers of The Women with Silver Wings by Katherine Sharp Landdeck, A Woman of No Importance by Sonia Purnell, The Last Boat Out of Shanghai by Helen Zia, Facing the Mountain by Daniel James Brown and all Asian American, women’s and WWII history books.…
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