Books : Unsolved Mysteries of Science: A Mind-Expanding Journey through a Universe of Big Bangs, Particle Waves, and Other Perplexing Concepts
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Type of bind: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 500
EAN num: 9780471384410
ISBN number: 0471384410
Label: Wiley
Manufacturer: Wiley
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 240
Printing Date: August 03, 2001
Publishing house: Wiley
Sale Popularity Level: 1147967
Studio: Wiley
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A LIVELY EXPLORATION OF THE BIGGEST QUESTIONS IN SCIENCE
How Did the Universe Begin?
The Big Bang has been the accepted theory for decades, but does it explain everything?
How Did Life on Earth Get Started?
What triggered the cell division that started the evolutionary chain? Did life come from outer space, buried in a chunk of rock?
What is Gravity?
Newton’s apple just got the arguments started, Einstein made things more complicated. Just how does gravity fit in with quantum theory?
What Is the Inside of the Earth Like?
What exactly is happening beneath our feet, and can we learn enough to help predict earthquakes and volcanic eruptions?
How Do We Learn Language?
Is language acquisition an inborn biological ability, or does every child have to start from scratch?
Is There a Missing Link?
The story of human evolution is not complete. In addition to hoaxes such as 'Piltdown Man' and extraordinary finds such as 'Lucy,' many puzzles remain. What, in the end, do we mean by a 'missing link'?
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Rated by buyers -
In addition to cutting edge questions in physics and cosmology (chapters 1 and 14-21) polymath writer John Malone considers the origins of life on earth, the causes of mass extinctions and ice ages, what it's like inside the earth, whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded, if there's a "missing link," how we acquire culture and language, how smart dolphins are, the nature of colour perception, how birds migrate, and what the Mayan astronomers knew. Whew!
Needless to say neither he nor anyone else can be a cutting edge expert on such a wide range of scientific topics. The time of the renaissance man is long past. Science is so complex yesterday that virtually no one can be a world class expert in more than one or two disciplines. But Malone doesn't need to be a world class expert since his goal here is merely to introduce the general reader to 21 unresolved questions in science. I think he does a fine job.
The chapters are from eight to 13 pages each, just long enough to introduce the subject and outline the various opinions. Each chapter is concluded with suggestions for further reading.
I was especially impressed with his efficient and balanced presentation of string theory in Chapter 20, "How Many Dimensions Are There?" Malone makes it clear why so many physicists are thrilled with the theory even though it requires at least six addition dimensions that we cannot in any way discern, and even though it has as yet no empirical support. He also does a nice job of presenting the contending theories about how life began on earth in Chapter 2. As I was reading that chapter I was suddenly struck with a conception of primitive life forms in a dormant state being formed in dust clouds and the like floating about the universe looking for a fertile place to express themselves, leading to, if conditions are right, intelligence life forms. The potential of the seed (in the form of a pre-bacterium cell) suddenly appeared to me as amazing, but as a way the universe might work. My sudden understanding was that the bacterium and the right environment together constitute intelligent life. Given enough time and a wide enough distribution, the potential becomes the actual; and therefore looking from a large enough perspective, both in terms of time and space, intelligent life may be seen as being built into the universe as a natural development of matter and energy.
I also liked his exposition on the Mayan astronomers and some of their accomplishments. According to Malone, the Mayan culture was only one of three in human history to have invented the number zero (p. 135), something, for example, the Greeks and Romans were unable to do. Also impressive was the Mayan calculation of the transit of Venus around the sun, correct to within eight one-hundredths of a day, hundreds of years before Europeans achieved such accuracy. I also liked the chapter on quantum mechanics in which Malone concentrates on the development of the theory and the personalities involved.
I was less impressed with the chapter on dolphin intelligence. I thought he could have done more with it. The books he cites are rather old (Couseau (1975), Lilly (1978) along with two newer but more general books). However Malone's suggestion that learning to interpret the "language" of the dolphins might be a good preparation for deciphering signals from ET's (should such signals ever come) is a wise one. If we can't understand our fellow creatures on this planet, how can we expect to understand creatures from another, who might be enormously more dissimilar?
Malone writes clearly and includes enough in the way of colour and insight to keep us interested. On pages 124-125, for example, he notes that all invertebrate eyes developed from the skin while all vertebrate eyes "are an outgrowth of the animal's brain," an observation that is particularly relevant to an understanding of ourselves. His report on the details of a bet between physicists Kip Thorne and Steven Hawking concerning the grey hole in Cygus X-1 is amusing. Hawking, who bet it wouldn't be confirmed as a grey hole, conceded the bet in 1990 with a validation by his thumb print. Also amusing was the story about science fiction writer Cleve Cartmill and his editor at Astounding Science Fiction magazine (John W. Campbell) being investigated by the FBI in 1944 because of Cartmill's short story, "Deadline," which was about a secret atomic research project code named the "Hudson River Project." This was a little too close to the reality of the Manhattan Project for the sensitivities of the FBI! But it was in fact just a case of fiction imitating life. (Or is that the other way around?)
Malone brings up an interesting philosophic point on page 194 in his discusion of parallel universes. If all possible outcomes of our every action exist in other universes, "Does it really matter, then, what we do?" In other words, why bother ... Read More
Rated by buyers 
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I enjoyed this enormously--it's interesting, solid, and fun science for the non-scientist. A valuable book well written.
Rated by buyers 
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If you pick this book up in a store you will notice that there are no quotes on it from book reviewers or from the author's peers. Only now do I realize why. This book appears to have been churned out by an obiviously smart fellow who gives readers a 40,000 foot fly-by on twenty-one different topics. This book is appropriate for teenagers who are very first encountering ideas such as ice ages and gravity. ("What are Black Holes Really Like" is a chapter that is all of 8 pages.) If you already have a basic working knowledge for any of the topics in this book I recommend you choose more advanced and detailed books.
Rated by buyers -
"Unsolved Mysteries of Science" is a well-written, interesting survey of twenty-one questions that continue to stump scientists. The book is pitched toward a reader who is not a scientist but who is curious and rational--no scientific formulas, no charts or graphs, and no UFOs or other pseudoscience.
Malone gives each question its own chapter. He then offers some very helpful and clearly presented background information to frame the question. He explains what it is the scientists are struggling with--this is the tough part, because it is sometimes hard to articulate exactly what the problem is, especially when the subject is quantum physics. Each chapter concludes with a good set of suggestions for further reading.
Some of the questions are fairly esoteric ("How Did the Universe Begin?"; "How Will the Universe End?"), some may affect the survival of the human species ("What Causes Mass Extinctions?"; "What Causes Ice Ages?"), and some are just plain mind boggling ("Are There Multiple Universes?" "How Many Dimensions Are There?"). Each chapter is fascinating.
My guess is that this book will be fairly "sequel friendly"--I can think of a few other questions that are kicking around out there (for example, "Is There Life Anywhere Else in the Universe?"), and I would be happy to read "More Unsolved Mysteries of Science" someday.
If you get a kick out of well-written, rational "mysteries" books (as opposed to "von Danikenesque" drivel), you might also have a look at Paul Aron's "Unsolved Mysteries of American History" and "Unsolved Mysteries of History," both of which are published by Wiley in the same highly readable and useful format used by Malone's book.
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