Books

A Beautiful Math

Gang January 5th, 2008

Author: Tom Siegfried
ISBN: 0309101921
Read: 2007.11 ~ 2008.1
Rating:

John Nash became known to many people because of the movie “A Beautiful Mind”, but the movie only focused on his personal struggles and almost ignored what made him a Nobel laureate. In this book, Tom Siegfried sets out to let people know Nash’s contribution to the science world. But it seems to me that the writer just tries too hard. From Adam Smith to Freud to Maxwell, the writer wants to get everyone on board. There must be continuity in the history of human being understanding the nature and ourselves, but trying to associate the game theory to every possible science fields but only covering them inch deep just diminish the serious science into something that gives a lot of promise but fails to deliver.

The logics are often broken and sometime preposterous. At one chapter, the writer states the game theory, like thermodynamics, is to study the statistics result of human behaviors; and in a later chapter, the writer spends a big portion to explain the behaviors are so different in different cultures; and then in the next chapter, the writers seems forgets all these and starts talking about Neuoreconomics. To me, the most worth reading are some of the experimental games. Those are more interesting.

Tags: mathematics, science

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Gang August 20th, 2007

Author: Bill Bryson
ISBN: 0767908171
Read: 2007.5 ~ 2007.8
Rating:

I am really amazed by the vast amounts of human knowledge that this 560-page book covers: From pre-history to the current event; from the quark to the black hole; from the bottom the sea to the rim of the universe; from the sing-cell to our human being; the author touches almost every aspects of the natural science. What makes this book stand out is, unlike common popular science books, Bill Bryson tells the story not by the discoveries themselves but by the people who made the discoveries. It’s a fun reading experience.

Tags: anthropology, archaeology, astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, history, physics, science