5 comments about Einstein Defiant: Genius versus Genius in the Quantum Revolution.

1. This book attempts to place Einstein's work during the 1920s in a social-political and scientific context. I do not have a strong background in physics and I found most of the scientific explanations and descriptions to be confusing, if not completely unintelligible. On the other hand, I found his analyses and description of historical and cultural events in post-WWI Germany to be superficial. Perhaps someone who has a stronger background in physics might get more out of it, but I warn you - don't place too much faith in Bolles' views on history and politics!



2. I abandoned the book after the fourth chapter. I am not a physicist, but I have read quite a lot about quantum theory and philosophy and Einstein's life, so I was very interested in the topic of the book. I found the author's style, however, very annoying. He does not keep to a timeline, but meanders off in five different directions page after page, and digresses left and right before telling what happened. The book reads more like a chat with a slightly tipsy gossip, who has to bring in every little bit of juicy information about the neighbors and their cats before relaying the main story. I finally gave up when the author tried to explain quantum theory by the properties of springs in the mattress where Einstein is supposedly making love to an actress! (Page 43 for those with prurient interests! ;)



3. I found this book to be a little too slow in developing the theme but it is well researched. In the first part, the author tries to describe the post-war Germany and give the reader a sense of the social setting of the time. This is interesting, but I feel that it sometimes also overshadows the main theme -- which should be about the quantum revolution. Had the author been a little more judicious in weighing the materials, it could have been a more absorbing book.
   
   Also, the last famous Einstein-Bohr debate (regarding the "black body emmission on a scale" experiment, in which Bohr defended Heisenberg Principle by using Eisten's own General Relativity) is, in my opinion, one of the most profound and fascinating examples of "thought (or theoretical) experiments" in the history of Physics (others include Einstein's chasing a light beam and Galileo's free fall of two objects with different weights), yet it only appears in the second-to-last chapter and does not get the detailed analysis that it deserves (the author does describe it in detail and has some, but in my opinion not sufficient, commentary).
   
   Despite these flaws, I enjoyed the book and it is well grounded on thorough research.



4. This is one of those books, for which one thinks, that I wish I had read this book years ago! The book clearly shows that how Quantum Mechanics, is NOT a theory. While going through undergraduate Physics program, I used to be bewildered by Quantum. Countering your Profs did not help at all, since you were faced with the canned responses, that "it works"! This book has put me at the highest mountain, that my personal objections to the "theory" were being echoed by Einstien himself!
   
   A very good book which just cracks open the entire Modern Physics revolution in a very concise and simple way in front of all to understand, in the spirit of Einstien himself, who was against the notion of incomprehesibility, even when it came to expalining the laws of the Universe at large. The book puts the reader right next to the Physics gaints of the century, in a very personal way. The picture comes vividly. It's a must have and a must read.
   
   However at some junctures, the book reveals some information, which makes one think about the sources. For instance, the tram ride in Berlin (Einstien & Bohr), while trying to go back home, but keep missing their stops, since they are busy arguing over light quanta. The author regrets, that no passanger heard/witnessed the talk or seeing how pathetically they have been missing thier stops..if there is no account from witnesses, what is the source of our esteemed author? Makes one think. Besides, the editor should pay close attention to typos.



5. Einstein Defiant by Edmund Blair Bolles is a great book that recounts the conflicts between some of the greatest Geniuses of our time. The book explains how Einstein believes that there is order in the universe and you can apply a law and therefore an explanation to everything. Bohr on the other hand believes that there is a form of randomness that takes over and that laws may no longer apply when dealing with quantum. The author obviously has a great love for physics and the scientists that expand the frontiers of physics, because only a person with such passion for physics could write a 300 page biography dealing with physics that has a lot of technical information and keep the reader entertained at the same time. I thought it was a great book and was exceptional in comparison with similar books as it did a great job of explaining some confusing concepts and ideas. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone as it is interesting to see into the minds and achievements of geniuses and it is very entertaining. I really enjoyed this book.

1 comments about An Elusive Victorian: The Evolution of Alfred Russel Wallace.

1. Although it is premature to think that the continuing attention to Alfred Russel Wallace (1823-1913) merits the notion a "Wallace Industry" is underway (as is the case with Darwin), this new study certainly stokes the fire. It is, simply, the best monographic analysis of Wallace's life and work yet produced. Fichman uses a contextualist approach to create a treatment which is roughly chronological/biographical in organization, yet deviates as necessary (and often) to explore the nature of, and influences on, Wallace's thought--which ranged all the way from evolutionary biology, astronomy, and other hard sciences to spiritualism, social criticism, and land reform.

   Wallace is "elusive" because his world view was both all-encompassing, and rather complex. A chronic problem with Wallace investigations has been an unwillingness by most scholars to read enough of his vast output to get a complete idea of what he was about. As a result, the common view has been that he in part gave up on natural selection around 1866 to adopt spiritualist (and later socialist) beliefs: the so-called "change of mind" hypothesis. As Fichman reveals, a newer point of view is emerging: that Wallace's stance had always been more or less teleological, that he probably always did consider man to be a "special case," and that both natural selection and spiritualism--equally and necessarily--fit into this stance as he explored its logical ramifications.

   I am still not easy with Fichman's view that Wallace was a theist: his spiritualism was based on the perspective that the "world of spirit" constituted a *natural* reality, obeying laws of organization like the rest of nature--and this was the case, regardless of whether he actually turns out to be right or not. Still, Fichman uses the "*no* change of mind" hypothesis to explore a lot of interesting things in Wallace's work, including its connections to the ideas of Charles Peirce and William James, and his wholehearted commitment to the means of social progress. The ramifications for today's world, moreover, are extraordinary: it really *is* possible to maintain an internally consistent philosophy leading both to good science, and to a healthy, far-seeing--and spiritual--humanitarianism.

   This book is heartily recommended to anyone who is seriously committed to the goal of understanding our place in the cosmos.

1 comments about Living With Nature's Extremes: The Life of Gilbert Fowler White.

1. While this book is nominally and actually a biography of Dr. White, it cannot help but also be a forum for the ideas he held regarding the nature of disasters (particularily of flooding), and the responses to such disasters by government and individuals.
   
   Perhaps his strongest legacy is the understanding that a reliance on structural works to prevent floods (dams, levees, floodwalls) increased damages caused by flooding rather than decreasing them. This is perfectly exampled by the events in New Orleans where levees and pumping stations failed. In New Orleans they were designed to withstand a Cat 3 hurricane. Katrina came ashore as a Cat 3, but improper design, improper construction, and improper maintenance allowed them to fail with the known results.
   
   It is still not clear that the Army Corp of Engineers believes this as they rebuild the levees, and the local politicians have entertained no thought but that of rebuilding the city.
   
   The situation in New Orleans and in other floods would not have been so bad if the consequences had not been so well predicted before.
   
   To go with this book I also recomment John McPhee's THE CONTROL OF NATURE, particularly the section on the Mississippi River.

3 comments about A Quest for Life: An Autobiography.

1. Ian McHarg has written an autobiography that informs while successfully capturing his bold character. Ian McHarg minces no words. He recalls the incident where he gave public testimony claiming that highway engineers seem to "have a deep insecurity as to their masculinity which can only be appeased by mutilating nature", among other similar ventures.
   This autobiography informs us how a person of such outspokenness has emerged and gained respect. His childhood outside Glasgow, Scotland at the city's edge where homes met nature made him realize, at an early age, the advantages of an environment outside of blocks of treeless tenement homes. Possessing neither an undergraduate degree nor a high school diploma, he entered Harvard's graduate program in Landscape Architecture by telegraphing them and requesting that arrangements be made for his arrival and entrance into their school. He repaid his department by becoming Student Council Chairman and pushing through a resolution of no confidence in his department. Upset that the Landscape Architect faculty focused on designing gardens for the wealthy, Ian McHarg became an advocate that landscape architecture is for all. Further, he would argue, we all should respect nature.
   People familiar with projects where Ian McHarg had a hand will appreciate learning about his eventful life. Among the projects where Ian McHarg was involved include Baltimore's Inner Harbor, the creation of 110 more acres in Manhattan through landfill, the first Earth Day, and his milestone book "Design with Nature". Many credit "Design with Nature" as a major force in creating legislation requiring ecological considerations when planning construction.
   People unfamiliar with Ian McHarg's work will appreciate reading of his life's struggles, from combat in World War II, fighting tuberculosis four decades ago when survival rates were much lower, and founding the Landscape Architecture program at the University of Pennsylvania with no faculty, no office, and no students. A fascinating person has written an excellent book.



2. Ian McHarg is both famous and infamous. Well-known among environmentalists, ecologists, landscape architects and designers, he is Peck's bad boy, even persona non grata, to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, developers, numerous (all?) corporate executives, governmental officials (all levels), and a few university departments. No one believes McHarg to be a benign force, and his autobiography testifies to his lifelong snappish testiness. Born in Scotland on November 20, 1920, he grew up in the thrall of nature and became a Naturist (sic). His long, active, and productive career as a "nature-intoxicated" landscape architect is recorded in this detailed solo cantata, a well-deserved forte encomium of one man's dedication to his own odyssey, his quest for life. It will be a surprise if this tome fails to become a rallying point for future ecological revolutions, for future Earth Days, for a Cult of the Living Gaia. McHarg is 18 months younger than I. Many of us "American" GIs of WWII who grudgingly served a mere 3 or 4 years (1942-1945) must stand aside for our European brothers. McHarg, along with uncounted fellow Brits and other allies, served in sometimes hellish combat conditions for six or seven years, a long period out of young lives. McHarg's account of his war experiences are alone worth reading his story, told in dramatic, gripping terms. Come to realize, so is the entire book. McHarg's besetting sins are his arrogance and his conceptual pugilism. On the other hand, his modus vivendi, that determined his astoundingly productive successes, are his arrogance and conceptual pugilism. As he fights for the right, he generally is right-not exactly a social or political asset. Recipient of numerous academic and civic honors, he includes an impressive bibliography of his publications and works. Design with Nature (1969) is his other important book-to date. A tenacious survivor, he no doubt will yet fire off another volley worth hearing. (Reviewed by Allan Shields in Ballast Quarterly Review, Vol 15 No 2, Winter 1999-2000. Copyright © by Allan Shields.)



3. Ian McHarg is the founder of the field of environmental design, a branch of or approach to Landscape Architecture. His book "Design With Nature" opened the eyes of a generation of planners and architects to the possibilities of environmentally sane design and planning. McHarg's autobiography makes a wonderful read for anyone who read and loved "Design With Nature". And is is a first class read! He has never been a man who pulled his punches, and this book is full of hilarious stories of his run-ins with the establishment. I loved it!

No comments about Women Scientists in America: Before Affirmative Action, 1940-1972 (Women Scientists in America).

5 comments about The Man Who Fed the World: Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Norman Borlaug and His Battle to End World Hunger.

1. Not the best biography -- drags a little in the second half -- still, basically standard reading re: the Green Revolution -- I was unaware how worried some were that the world couldn't feed itself -- things we take for granted now...



2. Norman Borlaug was a man ahead of his time. This book should inspire other people to do something about world hunger. On a scale of 1-5 this book is a 10. It as a fantabulous book to read.



3. This is an account of a Man who WORKED in the field to end world hunger.
   He did not just talk about it.



4. Just by reading the jacket copy, one can glean that Norman Borlaug was an amazing man. In this biographical tome by Borlaug's friend and colleague, we follow Borlaug's life.
   
   We are pulled into the story by an unassuming man toiling in the fields being ambushed by a pickup truck full of reporters and photographers, eager to talk to the latest Nobel Prize recipient, and carried by Hesser's exceptional writing through an uplifting story of how a man who flunked a college entrance exam made huge strides in ending world hunger.
   
   I recommend this book to those interested in the life of Norman Borlaug, those studying world hunger and the efforts to end it, and to those looking to learn how to write an exemplary biography.



5. The Man Who Fed The World an authorized biography by Leon Hesser
   
   Norman Borlaug's life, written by Leon Hesser, is more than magnanimous. It is impressively humble.
   Hesser's remarkable, well-written book, is a wonderful story of the simple life of an Iowa farm boy whose extraordinary determination led him on a lifelong journey to feed a starving world. A young Norman Borlaug, scarred by the effects of the Great Depression witnessed, first hand, how food changes peoples lives.
   
   The Man Who Fed The World is an inspiring book of one man's hope, vision, and the intestinal fortitude to relentlessly pursue his goal to relieve human suffering. And for the millions of the world's starving who were unable to personally express their gratitude Norma Borlaug, on October 20, 1970, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize.
   
   A huge thank you to Leon Hesser for bringing the world this book!
   
   
   Marsha is a writer, speaker, and author of Emerald's Garden How to grieve, mourn and recover from loss. See [...]

3 comments about Archimedes : What Did He Do Besides Cry Eureka? (Classroom Resource Material) (Classroom Resource Materials).

1. EVERYTHING that Archimedes is supposed to have "discovered" already existed in Africa, thousands of years before "WHITE" Greeks existed. The Ancient Egyptians "THE MASTER BUILDERS" had already discovered "ALL" of the Arts & Sciences. The Greeks & Romans were students of the Ancient Black Egyptians, before they destroyed the Egyptian Civilization by raping the women, killing the Priests, forbidding the speaking of the language & burning the Library of Alexandria. Ask yourself this question, if the Greeks were such Great Mathematicians why did they go all the way to Africa to set up this Library, and where are their Pyramids? Huh?
   
   Africa & Africans were the fountainhead of knowledge, at a time when the Whites had recently emerged from the Caves of & Hillsides of Europe, where they were walking on all fours and eating their meat raw, not having the knowledge of fire. Go back and read the ancient historical accounts by Herodotus, where he describes not only the Scientific Wonders of the Ancient Egyptians, but also describes their race as being of "Burnt Skin & Woolly Hair, & that they describe themselves as "THE" Most Ancient of Peoples.
   
   WHY ARE THERE NO ANCIENT RUINS IN WHITE CIVILIZATIONS BUILT BY WHITE PEOPLES? (Stonehenge and other monuments in Europe were built by Blacks who peopled what is called Europe millions of years before the first Whites arrived. Google "Grimaldi Negro", the first inhabitants of Europe. Also see "The Making of the White Man" by Paul Guthrie & "Black Spark, White Fire".
   
   THIS IS THE SAME TYPE OF RACIST LOGIC THAT POSITS THAT CHRISTOPHER COLUMBUS DISCOVERED AMERICA, WHEN EVERYBODY KNOWS THAT BOTH INDIANS & BLACKS WERE HERE FIRST, BUILDING PYRAMID CIVILIZATIONS.
   
   For further edification read: "The African Origin of Civilization" by Cheik Anta Diop (Renowned Senegalese Physicist & Linguist), "Stolen Legacy" by George M. James (Greek Scholar) & "Black Athena" by Martin Bernal (which shows that Early Greece was peopled by two successive waves of African colonization who laid the foundation of both Minoan & Greek Civilization. Take a close look at the Minoans, they are of African stock, as were the early Greeks prior to the invasions of the Barbaric White Dorians, who brought no Civilizing influence to Greece.
   
   Racist White historical analysis cannot replace cold hard facts such as the Pyramid Civilizations appearing only in Black Civilizations such as Egypt, Mexico etc. The Pyramid culture in the Americas begins with the Thick Lipped, Broad Nosed, Wooly Haired Olmec Civilization, "THE MOTHER CIVILIZATION" of the Americas.
   
   FURTHERMORE, WHOSE TO SAY THAT ARCHIMEDES WAS WHITE, AS GREEK CIVILIZATION AT THAT TIME, HAD BLACKS AS WELL AS WHITES.
   
   Truth crushed to Earth will Rise Again!!!



2. The thought of a man running naked through the streets shouting with joy over a physical and mathematical discovery is one to warm the hearts of all who value knowledge. When Archimedes experienced this flash of joy, little did he know that his actions would become the genesis of a legend that would last for thousands of years. However, he should be remembered for so much more than that and several of his significant mathematical contributions are explored in this book.
   It is really amazing to realize how close he was to inventing calculus 22 centuries ago, which was 18 before Newton and Leibniz. With notation that was minimally expressive, he was able to solve problems using a technique that demonstrates at least a rudimentary understanding of the concept of a limit. While many different problems can be solved using calculus, it only takes one breakthrough solution to demonstrate how it can be applied to so many of the others. It can be plausibly argued that algebraic and decimal notations would have been the tools that would have allowed him to overcome those last barriers. One can only speculate on how that would have changed history.
   The book is not exhaustive and no attempt is made to make it that. Ten of his most significant discoveries are presented and the solutions are those of Archimedes, although modern notation is used. While the proofs are generally easy to follow, one is often left in awe as to how he thought of how to approach some of these solutions. The explanations are succinct, yet thorough, which is the signature of a solid storyteller.
   Given the answers to the question posed in the title of this book, one can pose another that logically follows. Was Archimedes the greatest mind of all time? If the legends are correct, then the answer is probably yes. However, even if the unconfirmed stories are false, the mathematical and mechanical discoveries should make him a legend for more than one short stint of becoming a 'natural man.'
   
   Published in Journal of Recreational Mathematics, reprinted with permission.



3. The author's aim is to make what he views "as Archimedes' most mathematically significant discoveries accessible to the busy people of the mathematical community." In this he succeeds admirably. The book is not only understandable by anyone who "recognizes the equation of a parabola," but is also very well written in a style that brings out the beauty of the mathematical ideas discussed, as well as the power of Archimesdes' creativity. As the author points out, the book treats most of Archimedes' mathematical discoveries. The presentation cleverly integrates Archimedes' own writing with the author's modern explanation of the ancient discoveries. Frequently, before a main idea is introduced, a quotation from Archimedes' own writing is presented in which the master reveals his thinking about what he had accomplished in that particular topic.

   In addition to providing the scientific community with a detailed account of Archimedes' main mathematical discoveries and an insight into the ancient master's thinking, this book, I believe, can be useful in the classroom in a variety of ways. The most obvious use, of course, would be in designating it as a textbook or a reference in courses on the history of calculus or, more generally, on the history of mathematics. But it would also make an excellent textbook for a course on axiomatic mathematics: the book starts with a few axioms from which Archimedes had developed the theory of center of gravity and used it throughout a good part of the material covered in the book, including the development of the volumes of a paraboloid and a sphere and the theory of floating bodies.

   In sum, this is an excellent book that should be within reach of any person interested in mathematics or science.

2 comments about Michel Foucault.

1. This is, as far as I am aware, the first Foucault biography to appear in English. Unfortunately, it is not the most interesting. The Passions of Michel Foucault is the most gossipy (and it still doesn't really give up that much dirt) and The Lives of Michel Foucault does a better job of giving you a sense of Foucault's place in theory and philosophy. Eribon knew Foucault, but that doesn't translate into inside information in the book. What we get instead is a decent, but not the best, biography of a man who is one of the most important theorists of our time.



2. As the two other biographies of Foucault (David Macey's and James Miller's flame thrower of a biography) are no longer in print, this objective and fair biography will suffice.

   Eribon concerns his work primarily with Foucault's academic activities (a proverbial who's who of twentieth century French intellectual life) as well as his political engagements. Surprisingly these two aspects bring out a highly contradictory Foucault: on the one hand, we find a determined academic who succeeds to the College de France and becomes an important institutional figure in the French Academy; but on the other hand, there is teh Foucault who was committed to social justice, human rights, and a dedicated iconoclast who mistrusted power, authority, and the institution.

   But what is lacking is a penetrating account of Foucault's last years. Eribon fast-forwards from 1977 (the year of Volonte du Savoir) to Foucualt's untimely death in 1984. This comes as a great disservice for in those seven years Foucault's work, in its absolute silence, underwent a significant and startling change. Also, missing from this period is Foucault's re-engagement with Catholicism, not as a practitioner nor a believer, but as an austere intellectual who felt great affinities with the tradition of the Church and Scholarship.

   On this note, the recent collection 'Religion and Culture' includes a revealing preface by James Bernauer which reflects on Foucault's final years as he conducted research for the last two volumes of the History of Sexuality in a Catholic library.

No comments about Niels Bohr Gentle Genius of Denmark: Gentle Genius of Denmark (Makers of Modern Science).

No comments about The Man Who Stopped Time: The Illuminating Story of Eadweard Muybridge - Pioneer Photographer, Father of the Motion Picture, Murderer.