Today, just an unstructured diary. Below the fold, there's what I'm reading. In the comments, there's what YOU are reading. On Weds. nights, cfk hosts the wonderful Bookflurries series.
Rereading
Quicksilver by Neal Stephenson. This 1,000 page book is the FIRST volume of three. And I'm reading it AGAIN. SO, I must like it, right? Newton, Leibniz, vagabonds, sex, history, politics, more sex, science.......great stuff.
If you haven't read Stephenson before, I recommend starting with Cryptonomicon which actually takes place much later, but is a good introduction.
Just started
the last man who knew everything by Andrew Robinson. All about Thomas Young, who was a physician, a physicist, and a philologist (and that's just the ph s!). Young proved that light had to be a wave, he deciphered hieroglyphics, he ran a medical practice, and formulated the 3 color theory of color perception. He was also an expert engineer, and contributed about a dozen articles to the Encyclopedia Britannica.
The future of geothermal energy by a group at MIT. You can read a little about this in Geothermal energy: Is it the answer, which I wrote here on Wednesday. I may try for a more detailed diary next week.
In the middle of
The discoveries by Alan Lightman. The greatest breakthroughs in 20th century science, with the original papers. Frankly, I find Lightman's explanations wonderful....clear, concise etc. The original papers....well, I can't understand them.
Out of the labyrinth: Setting mathematics free by Robert and Ellen Kaplan. The Kaplans run The Math Circle, which is, IMHO, a stunningly good way to teach math. This book is good, but not stunningly so. If you are interested in education or math, or, especially, math education, this is worthwhile. It will help if you know some math yourself. To whet your appetite, they get 5 year olds talking about the nature of infinity.
Off to one side of the pile
The singularity is near by Ray Kurzweil. Kurzweil thinks that really really powerful computers will usher in utopia. He's been right before.
Just finished
The man who knew too much: Alan Turing and the invention of the computer. By David Leavitt. Wonderful. If any one person can be said to have invented the computer, it's Turing. Also instrumental in winning World War 2 by breaking the German codes. In return, the English forced him to take estrogen to 'cure his homosexuality' (QUOTES SNARK) and he killed himself.