Category Archives: blog

The Dream Universe by David Lindley

blog, , , ,

The full title of the book is — The Dream Universe: How Fundamental Physics Lots its Way. This one came out in March of 2020. The author had previously written the book The End of Physics: The Myth of a Unified Theory back in 1994, but I had not read that one — yet. I suppose it would make sense to first read The End of Physics before digging into The Dream Universe, but it was ok to dig into the book without reading The End of Physics first.

The author covers the history of basic scientific thought going back to Plato and Aristotle, but most of the real start of contemporary science and physics started with Galileo and Newton.

Mr. Lindley wrote that Galileo “had no patience with mystical blather about the divine elegance of mathematics, the sort of nonsense that Kepler embraced in his solar system of nested Platonic solids. Galileo spent his life putting mathematics to work in the service of facts and tried hard to extinguish the ancient philosophical idea that the power and rigor of math was the sole source of worthwhile truth.” (page 122) While I am not 100% sure of that, he does present evidence that Galileo diverted from Platonic thought when it came to how math could be used in scientific experiments.

On page 184, Lindley asks some big questions — “Are fundamental physicists still practicing science in an evolved but recognizable form, or have they slipped into another mode of thinking entirely? What are they trying to do, and can they ever do it?”

In the conclusion of the book, Lindley says that the philosophical underpinnings of physics has become too focused on mathematics. While string theory might be elegant and beautiful, it doesn’t necessarily need to be correct. As Lee Smolin had said, string theory attracts the wrong kind of people. (page 159) They are too engrossed in the mathematics of the theory.

The book gave me lots of references to lots of other books that I’ve heard of, but I (mostly) have not had the time to read. So, I should go ahead and read these other books mentioned or cited.

  • The Elegant Universe by Brian Greene in 1999
  • The Hidden Reality by Brian Greene in 2011
  • The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin in 2007
  • Three Roads to Quantum Gravity by Lee Smolin in 2001
  • Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos by Seth Lloyd in 2007
  • A History of Pi by Petr Beckmann in 1976
  • Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea by Charles Seife in 2000
  • e: The Story of a Number by Eli Maor in 2015
  • An Imaginary Tale: The Story of √-1 by Paul J. Nahin in 2016
  • Our Mathematical Universe: My Quest for the Ultimate Nature of Reality by Max Tegmark in 2015
  • Why Beauty Is Truth: The History of Symmetry by Ian Stewart in 2007
  • It Must Be Beautiful: Great Equations of Modern Science by Graham Farmelo in 2002
  • Is God a Mathematician? by Mario Livio in 2010
  • Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos by Michio Kaku in 2006
  • Just Six Numbers: The Deep Forces That Shape The Universe by Martin Rees in 2000
  • Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray by Sabine Hossenfelder in 2020
  • Not Even Wrong: The Failure of String Theory and the Search for Unity in Physical Law by Peter Woit in 2007

Read most of these, but not completely

blog, , , , , ,

Here are some books that I did not quite read 100%.

Eat, poop, die: How animals make our world was interesting, but I could not quite make it past page 110. I learned that collecting whale poop is really difficult. A short description is it “reveals how ecosystems are sculpted and sustained by animals eating, pooping, and dying-and how these fundamental functions could help save us from climate catastrophe.”

I thumbed my way through most of Engineering, design, and construction of portable Newtonian telescopes by Albert Highe, but I did not read it deeply. The author appeared to have some physical disabilities, and that limited him to making telescopes that had less weight for each part of his telescopes. Some of the designs that he covered were well thought out. He made two telescopes of 16 and 20 inches, and they were very light weight. He also covered some different designs that could be used for telescopes in the smaller 8 to 12 inch categories. All of those telescopes used struts of some sort. I got the book because someone in Cloudy Nights wanted to see the engineering data in a mini-CD that was in the back of the book.

I own the book The Pencil: A history of design and circumstance. I’ve got the 1989/1990 hardback version. I had read one of his other books on the Evolution of useful things, so I knew what I was getting myself into. He loves delving into detail and minutiae. In this one, I am stuck at page 86, so we will see if I ever dig deeper in this 434 page tome.

Years ago, I found this book, The Pencil perfect: The untold story of a cultural icon by Caroline Weaver, to be a little more engaging.

2001 Book – In Code: A Mathematical Journey

blog, , ,

I remember seeing the cover of this book 23 years ago when it passed through my collection development shelf at my previous place of employment. I also remember skimming some of the content to see what it was about, since the part about the father and the daughter working on math puzzles at the kitchen table in Ireland stuck with me.

Now, 23 years later, I came across the book at the Jeffco Whale of a Book Sale, and I finally had the time to read it. It was fascinating to learn how Sarah Flannery did her work to land several prizes at several regional and international high school STEM contests. In 1999, she was the “European Young Scientist of the Year.” It gave her instant fame in Europe and in the United States.

The book does a good job of explaining the basics of cryptography. She (and her father) covers a bit of the mathematics behind the theory.

I also found it interesting that she mentioned one of my favorite books of the 1980s — The Cuckoo’s egg: Tracking a spy through the maze of computer espionage by Clifford Stoll. Of course she liked that book.

She is now Sarah Berthelet in San Francisco, according to her LinkedIn account. I am really glad that she didn’t burn out after being a teenage whizkid. I was also surprised to see that she didn’t go on to get a PhD after going to the U of Cambridge, but that may have been all well and good enough. She did not need to get a PhD to prove how smart and capable she is.

Read — Cheap Land Colorado

blog, , ,

This was an eye opening book by Ted Conover in 2022 about how cheap land plots were sold in the 1970s, and how they are still sold and used today.

There are plenty of other good book reviews, so I don’t need to rehash them here.

While I had considered getting some of that cheap land to use for astronomy viewing, I might reconsider after reading this book.

He does cover some of the advantages of viewing the night sky in the San Luis Valley a couple of places in the book. On page 177, Zahra Dilley arrived in Colorado, and she had never seen so many stars in her life. She was from the Chicago area, and she was used to seeing maybe one or two stars in the sky, not thousands. “I’ve been looking at the same star all my life. All my life. And I had no idea that Earth could look so freaking beautiful.”

On page 256, a friend of his (Lance) has a telescope and they looked at the Hercules Cluster and the Andromeda Galaxy. I am guessing that he looked at M13 which is one of the best globular clusters in Hercules.

Anyway, it is a great book. If one is thinking of buying cheap land in Colorado, read this before you buy.

PS. Thanks to Vladimir for making the recommendation.

Finally read – Starlight Nights: The Adventures of a Star-Gazer

blog, , , ,

Why did I wait so long to read this book. Had I read this 35 years ago, it might have turned me into a variable star observer and comet hunter. (Leslie found at least 10 comets during his lifetime. Some say he found 12.) I am not sure how I could add to the plethora of 5 star reviews at Amazon.

In any case, I write these book reviews just so that I can remember that I read it, and what I particularly liked about it or found interesting. So, here we go.

Even though he was not able to graduate from high school (because he had to work on the farm while a brother was off in Europe for WWI) He seems to respect and encourage the academic pursuits of his wife Dottie, who had graduated from college during the mid-1920s.

The discussion of Native Americans was usually somewhat respectful, but there was a mention in the book about him being glad that he did not get scalped by an Indian for trespassing on their land. (Page 161.)

In the chapter where he and his wife went looking for native pots and fragments of evidence of life in a cave, I found this sentence odd. “Had we found the cave untouched we would have left it intact, for we well knew that many times important evidence has been destroyed by amateur explorers and souvenir hunters.” So, after seeing that much had already been dug into, they figured that most of the cave had already been dug up, so they could dig up some more to see what else they could find as “amateur explorers”? (Page 152.)

I am not sure that just because the cave was previously touched, that they should have felt confident in trying to find their own treasure, but the 1930s was a different time in the west.

It was interesting that Robert (Bob) Ingersoll was invoked on page 158. Maybe Leslie had an agnostic bent.

In chapter 20 on Mt. Locke, he took great pains to describe the steak that they purchased and cooked up for a guest of honor, Dr. Van Biesbroek. I was not surprised to learn that Van B was vegetarian, and he did not touch the steak. They could have asked him what he wanted for dinner. They just assumed that he would like what they wanted for dinner.

This is a great book, even though it is now 59 years old. I also like the inventiveness and ingenuity of his mind. The merry-go-round observatory should be a thing that is commercially made.

Some Astronomy Hacks

blog, , ,

Read the book Astronomy Hacks: Tips and Tools for Observing the Night Sky

Even though this came out 19 years ago, it was still interesting to see what kind of tips and tricks I might be able to glean from the 65 hacks that they provide. The book is from O’ Reilly, and while they typically have computer based books, they delved into other technology topics, since they know that they have geeky readers.

Some of the hacks that I found most interesting were:

#9 on choosing the best telescope was quite lengthy. It was about 29 pages. Most of the other hacks are a lot shorter. They do a good job of covering the basics, but they steer people away from apo refractors.

#11 covers eyesight and vision. I don’t think I’ve previously learned about the chemistry of the rods and cones in the eyeball. I did not know that there are L, M, and S cones. I thought all cones were the same.

I learned of the book because the DAS linked to hack #45 on dark adapting your vehicle. Other parts of the book are also online, such as this segment on barlows.

The section on eyepieces at #49 was just ok, and they seemed focused on Tele Vue and Pentax eyepieces to consider. Celestron and Meade were mentioned as well as some other makers, such as Orion, University Optics, and Vixen. They skipped other makers such as Baader, Brandon, RKE, and others. I guess Explore Scientific was not around yet – the company formed in 2008.

The review of 1x finders was good at #53. I will have to see if I can find a Rigel QuikFinder.

I did not like that he only called the Moon — Luna. I’m sure that was done to not confuse Earth’s Moon with other moons of the solar system. Still, it was a little jarring. It was also a little weird to have the authors use the term binocular for a single instrument instead of binoculars or let alone the phrase — a pair of binoculars. Really? We all know that a pair of pants is a single garment that one wears. It is not a pant. One wears pants, or a pair of pants.

End rant. The book is still a useful read 19 years after first publication.

The 4% Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, etc., etc., etc.

blog, , , , , , ,

Ok, the whole book title is The 4-Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality. This book documented the process of how two different teams of scientists discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating back in 1998. If you are interested in the sociology of how different scientific disciplines do their work, this would be of interest. The author explained how the astronomers did group-based work quite differently from the physicists.

For example, on page 229, one can read this. “The core of White’s argument was that astronomy and particle physics constituted two different cultures. Astronomers, White said, were ‘generalists,’ exploring the complexities of the universe on a case-by-case basis. Particle physicists were ‘fundamentalists,’ wringing the complexities of the universe in the hope of squeezing out an ‘ultimate foundation’—a ‘Truth.’ ‘Dark Energy,’ he wrote, ‘is a unique link between them, reflecting deep aspects of the Fundamental Theory, yet apparently accessible only through astronomical observation.'” (From https://millstonenews.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/panek4PercentUniverse.pdf)

The book covered dozens and dozens of scientists, and I got lost trying to keep track of them all in my head. I probably should have taken notes. Pictures of the scientists involved might have helped me keep track of them all.

Overall, if you are interested in learning more about dark energy, and how different scientific teams work together (or not), then this book would be a worthwhile read.

Two more books that I’ve read or skimmed

blog, , , , , ,

And, here they are.

The Evolution of Useful Things. This was by Henry Petroski, may he rest in peace. I don’t know if I would call in fascinating, but it was an interesting look into how very simple things have been designed over the last couple of hundred years. Some of the examples included forks, paperclips, zippers, and more. He did circle back to forks in different parts of the book, so it seemed like he wandered in the topics sometimes. I may have skimmed or skipped some pages, since it was less than thrilling. But, I am looking forward to reading his book about — The Pencil.

Do Numbers Exist? A Debate about Abstract Objects. This was a philosophers pissing contest between Peter van Inwagen and William Lane Craig. I should have looked at the author list first, since I’ve known that William Lane Craig was a theistic apologist. They both brought up god even though I don’t see what god would have to do with the philosophy of whether numbers truly exist or not. They tried to get very deep into the philosophical weeds so that they could impress the readers with how much they know about how to use philosophical jargon over most people’s heads. In the end, I sided more with Peter van Inwagen, since he seemed to be of the mind that numbers actually exist. Most of the book was not really about numbers, but more about the existence of abstract objects in general. I liked the segment starting on page 211 about the concept — do chairs exist? It reminded me of the line by John Oliver — Do Owls exist? Are there hats?

I skimmed the vast majority of the book, but It did get me thinking about the existence of numbers. I think that the number pi exists. If there is an intelligent life form that has studied mathematics outside of our solar system, it also knows how to calculate pi, and it knows that it has an infinite number of digits (in whatever number base it uses). The fact that it is reproducible and exactly calculated in another part of the universe makes it exist. Also, why would god make a number such that it can’t know the last digit. It can’t know everything, since it can’t know every digit of pi. While a theologian might say that God knows the infinite, how does he or she know that god would know every digit of pi and e and all irrational numbers? Numbers just exist, and they were not created by a god. For some reason, these two debated about whether or not god created numbers. As uncreated things, they are still things. Hence, they exist.

Book by Dr. Kate Russo – Being in the Shadow

blog, , ,

The full title is Being in the Shadow: Stories of the First-time Total Eclipse Experience. I picked up the book at the Mile High Astronomy store a couple weeks ago. It is a very quick read, even for me.

It is essentially self-published, and it is pretty well done. Since she is a psychologist and an eclipse chaser, she wrote about the experiences of six non-amateur astronomers to see how they planned to see and experience the Total Solar Eclipse (TSE) of NE Australia on November 14, 2012. She was able to get their experiences before, during, and after the eclipse event. The names were changed so that the people in the book could remain anonymous. I found the stories from the first person, Cara, who was recently married, and the last person, Rose, who is a teacher, to be the most interesting of the lot. Of the six, I am glad that Terry, the festival goer, had a great eclipse experience, but I could not really relate to his partying and dancing vibe.

For more about the author, check out her website. Dr. Russo has written the primary texts when it comes to community planning for cities and communities in the path of totality. Here is the Community Solar Eclipse Planning – White Paper (PDF) which covers the 2024 TSE in the United States, Mexico, and Canada this April 8th.

Another book — Do Dice Play God?

blog, , , , ,

This book is by Ian Stewart. No, not the 3rd baseman who played for the Rockies and the Cubs about 15 years ago, this Ian Stewart is a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick.

Thus, the book has a British focus, and some of his examples are based in the UK, but that is ok.

The subtitle is the Mathematics of Uncertainty. The title is a play on the statement by Einstein, “God does not play dice with the universe.” While god may or may not play dice, do dice ever play god?

Ian says that there are six ages of uncertainty, and he does not cover them in the order that they were found for various reasons. Chaos theory was discussed out of order from when it was found by humans.

  1. The first age of uncertainty involved gods, prophets, fortune tellers, seers, and the like. They could try to predict the future. They could supposedly explain what was going on in the world.
  2. The second age of uncertainty came about during the scientific advances in the 1500-1700s. This is when Newton’s laws defined how gravity works, and it explained how we could predict where the planets will be in the future. If we could predict the movements of planets, would it be possible to predict everything, including human behavior?
  3. The third age came with greater understanding of mathematics and probability. Gamblers, astronomers, mathematicians, and many others would like to know the odds of a future event happening.
  4. The fourth age came with quantum mechanics, and our understanding of never really knowing the location or the momentum of atomic and subatomic particles. These ideas took off in the early 1900s.
  5. The fifth age is when chaos theory was developed.
  6. The sixth age is our current situation. He said that it is “characterized by the realisation that uncertainty comes in many forms, each being comprehensible to some extent.” (page 10.) Mathematics can help us understand the universe a fair bit, but much of the world and the universe is “still horribly uncertain.” For example, we are better at predicting the weather about 5-7 days out, but predicting the weather 10-14 days out is still a crap shoot. Predicting climate change is different matter.

One thing I found fascinating was an oil droplet experiment that made teeny oil droplets behave like both waves and particles. This made Newtonian sized objects behave more like atomic particles. (See pages 233-235.) I had not heard of this experiment since I left physics back in the 1980s. But, it looks like that has been debunked as of 2018. Oh well.

Overall, I enjoyed the book, and I found it interesting. It would probably be best for people who have already had some college-level math or physics.