This is the first in a new series within the Reading and Book Lovers group; it was suggested by LimeLite. The subject is books about science, math and statistics.
This is intended to be a group series, with lots of contributors. I can't do this alone. But I have a list of topics to get us started, and a list of weeks as well. And today, I give brief reviews of some favorite science, math and statistics biographies.
This diary will post on Sunday mid-afternoons. I haven't settled on an exact time, and given the nature of Sundays chez plf, I am not sure I can. After brunch/lunch, before dinner.
Topic ideas (some of which could be collaborative with other RBL groupies):
Book reviews regarding science, math and statistics in fiction or non-fiction.
Diaries about popular science writers
Interviews of daily Kos science, math or statistics authors
A community read of a science, math or statistics book, possibly Feynman's The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, or maybe the much neglected Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski.
"Why it couldn't happen" - looking at some classic books and why they are not possible.
Books on Kindle or other e-reader vs. paper
Note: This list is entirely iconoclastic. It's just books I've read and liked. Add more in the comments.
Albert Einstein
No other scientist is as famous, and Einstein has had a LOT written about him. Of what I have read, I think my two favorites are Subtle Is the Lord by Abraham Pais and Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson. The former is much "heavier" in the sense that Pais is a physicist and gets more into the technical stuff; Isaacson certainly covers that, but it's more for the layman. I reviewed the Isaacson book
Paul Erdos
Erdos was the most prolific mathematician of the 20th century, and probably the 2nd most prolific ever (after Euler). The key biography is The Man Who Loved Only Numbers by Paul Hoffman, which captures Erdos' many eccentricities, but also captures the essential joyfulness of the man. Erdos had no fixed address, and almost no possessions. He gave away whatever he earned to young mathematicians, and lived with a series of mathematicians (he would show up, without warning, expecting to be housed; after he had exhausted his hosts' hospitality, he would pack his single suitcase and move on.
Richard Feynman
Feynman wrote several autobiographical works, all of which are good fun:
Surely you're Joking, Mr. Feynman is the first, and gets its title from the response he got at a formal tea party when he said he would like both lemon and milk in his tea.
What do you care what other people think? is second, and is the response of his wife in a discussion they were having.
and
The pleasure of finding things out is third, and its title is really the essence of Feynman's life. This is a man who just LOVED finding things out. Not just about the fundamental nature of the universe, but about whether you can train ants (you can), whether you can urinate while standing on your head (you can) and so on.
Of biographies, I like Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman which is a very good standard biography, and the very quirky Feynman's Rainbow by Leonard Mlodinow. Mlodinow got his PhD in physics from Berkeley. The people at Cal Tech were so impressed they offered him a full fellowship to do whatever he wanted - teach or not, research whatever. He lands an office next to Feynman. Mlodinow doubts he belongs in such company, and starts talking to Feynman. My full review
Kurt Godel
Godel was very very smart. How smart? Einstein once said the only reason he went to the office was so he could walk home with Godel. He was very very crazy. How crazy? He starved himself to death because of his paranoia. He is regarded as the greatest logician since Aristotle, or maybe ever. The best biography of him is the beautiful Incompleteness by Rebecca Goldstein.
John Nash
Nash was the very troubled genius who was profiled in the movie A Beautiful Mind, but it was a book first (by Sylvia Nassar), and the book is very good.
Isaac Newton
Perhaps more has been written in English about Newton than any other scientist. If you want a scientific biography, the standard is Never at Rest by Richard Westfall. A good, short, nontechnical bio is Isaac Newton by James Gleick. And there is the quirky Newton: The making of genius by Patricia Fara. And a lot of Newton bio is in the Baroque Cycle by Neal Stephenson.
Ramanujan was a self-taught Indian mathematical genius. He wrote to various mathematicians in England about his ideas. One, G. F. Hardy, wrote back. The standard (and very good) biography of Ramanujan is The Man Who Knew Infinity by Robert Kanigel.
Alan Turing was one of the key players in the invention of computers, and the key person in the breaking of the German enigma codes in World War II. The standard bio of Turing is Enigma: The Life of Alan Turing by Andrew Hodges. If you are interested in Turing, then Cryptonomicon by Neal Stephenson may also interest you.
Wish List - Have you found a good bio of any of these people?
Leonard Euler - The most prolific mathematician of all time, and, from what I've read, a totally "normal" human being - the happily married man and father, who would come up with mathematical theorems while he ate dinner with his family.
Karl Gauss - Generally regarded as the greatest mathematician of all time.
Gottfried Leibniz - the rival of Newton; Neal Stephenson has written extensively of Leibniz in The Baroque Cycle. But, while there are tons of books about Newton, I've found little about Leibniz.