The Andromeda Strain by Michael Crichton

The Thriller That Shook A Generation 
Five prominent biophysicists give the United States government an urgent warning: sterilisation procedures for returning space probes may be inadequate to guarantee uncontaminated re-entry to the atmosphere. 
Two years later, Project Scoop sends seventeen satellites into the fringes of space in order to 'collect organisms and dust for study'. 
Then a probe falls to the earth, landing in a desolate area of northeastern Arizona. 
A little while later, in the nearby town of Piedmont, bodies are discovered heaped and flung across the ground, faces locked in frozen surprise. 
But the terror has only just begun, because when they try to find the cause of death, the scientists don't realise just what kind of unearthly danger they are dealing with...Brilliantly filmed by Robert Wise in 1971, The Andromeda Strain was the first book to introduce Michael Crichton's audacious combination of believable plots and white-knuckled excitement to a wide audience.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ] 


Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.87 out of 5 (173,920 Ratings; 2448 Reviews - As on April 13 2017)
My Rating:  3.5 out of 5
My Comments:  Keeps you fully engaged and almost convinces you that it is a true story. The narration of the climax could have been better.


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The Universe Inside You - Brian Clegg

The Extreme Science of the Human Body From Quantum Theory to the Mysteries of the Brain
Built from the debris of exploding stars that floated through space for billions of years, home to a zoo of tiny aliens, and controlled by a brain with more possible connections than there are atoms in the universe, the human body is the most incredible thing in existence.
In the sequel to his best-selling Inflight Science, Brian Clegg offers a spectacular tour through the human body.
He explores mitochondria, in-cell powerhouses once separate creatures; 
how your eyes consume million-year-old photons of light;
your many senses, which include the ability to detect warps in space and time; and why meeting an attractive person can turn you into a gibbering idiot.

Read The Universe Inside You and you'll never look at yourself the same way again.

[Book Description Source: www.amazon.com ]  

Ratings
Goodreads Rating - 3.7 out of 5 (171 Ratings, 19 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 


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Physics of the Impossible by Michio Kaku

A Scientific Exploration into the World of Phasers, Force Fields, Teleportation, and Time Travel

A fascinating exploration of the science of the impossible—from death rays and force fields to invisibility cloaks—revealing to what extent such technologies might be achievable decades or millennia into the future.

One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility.
In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future. 
From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today.
He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never.

 In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:

• How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream”
• How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars
•  How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology.
• Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one.

Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. 

An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.

 [Book Description Source: Goodreads]

Goodreads Rating - 4.05 out of 5 (16,711 Ratings, 789 Reviews)

My Rating:  3 out of 5. 

Buying Options 
 
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Buy the Kindle  version
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3-Minute Stephen Hawking - Paul Parsons & Gail Dixon

Digesting His Life, Theories &  Influence in 3-Minute Morsels

Stephen Hawking is the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. He is possibly the greatest living scientific genius but also a highly successful author who has revealed the most tricky of topics to ordinary minds, and a vocal campaigner for social and political issues, including the rights of disabled people. - See more at: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking/#sthash.fi6YsKBN.dpuf

Stephen Hawking is the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. He is possibly the greatest living scientific genius but also a highly successful author who has revealed the most tricky of topics to ordinary minds, and a vocal campaigner for social and political issues, including the rights of disabled people. - See more at: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking/#sthash.fi6YsKBN.dpuf

Stephen Hawking is the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. He is possibly the greatest living scientific genius but also a highly successful author who has revealed the most tricky of topics to ordinary minds, and a vocal campaigner for social and political issues, including the rights of disabled people. - See more at: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking/#sthash.fi6YsKBN.dpuf

Stephen Hawking is the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. He is possibly the greatest living scientific genius but also a highly successful author who has revealed the most tricky of topics to ordinary minds, and a vocal campaigner for social and political issues, including the rights of disabled people. - See more at: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking/#sthash.fi6YsKBN.dpuf

Stephen Hawking is the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein.
He is possibly the greatest living scientific genius but also a highly successful author who has revealed the most tricky of topics to ordinary minds, and a vocal campaigner for social and political issues, including the rights of disabled people.
3-Minute Stephen Hawking is the instant introduction to this exceptional genius. 
This quark-size biography divides Hawking's life into 3-minute particles - each served up as an easily assimilable feast.
Read it - and the Universe is your oyster.

• Become an expert on the life history and career highlights of Stephen Hawking in 3 hours.
• Divided into 3 sections on Life, Theories and Influence each containing an hour’s worth of fascinating facts.
• Each topic divided into 3-minute bites that you can absorb almost without pausing for thought. - See more at: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking/#sthash.fi6YsKBN.dpuf

Become an expert on the life history and career highlights of Stephen Hawking in 3 hours.
Divided into 3 sections on Life, Theories and Influence each containing an hour’s worth of fascinating facts.
Each topic divided into 3-minute bites that you can absorb almost without pausing for thought.

[Source: http://www.ivypress.co.uk/books/3-minute-stephen-hawking ]

Goodreads Rating - 3.62 out of 5 (21 Ratings, 5 Reviews)

Buying Options 
 
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Rock, Paper, Scissors -Game Theory in Everyday Life

[Author: Len Fisher; Publisher: Hay House; Hardcover: 288 pages ]

Game theory is the study of strategic decision making. 
It has been extensively used to explain many behavioral patterns in 
economics, political science, psychology and biology.
Even in our day to day life game theory can guide us towards effective strategies to use in situations of competition and conflict.

But this book explores the other side of the game theory that concerns  cooperation rather than conflicts, collaboration rather than competition.

Len Fisher, the author discusses how game theory can help us develop 

fresh strategies for cooperation.

The book begins with a chapter that explains Nash equilibrium concepts. 
Nash equilibrium is a situation created during  interaction among two or more parties where at least one party fares worse but from which it can't escape without faring  still worse. This happens when every party acts out of self-interest leading to many serious social dilemmas and problems. 

The next chapter discusses the ways to divide resources fairly using strategies as I Cut and You Choose and shows that we can't rely on external authorities or on our own sense of fairness to produce lasting cooperation. Rather we need to explore how  our own self-interest can be used to make the cooperation self-enforcing.

The third chapter uses game theory to examine how social dilemmas actually arise. Seven social dilemmas are discussed viz;  The Prisoner's Dilemma, The Tragedy of Commons, The Free Rider, Chicken, The Volunteer's Dilemma, The Battle of the Sexes and the Stag Hunt. 

The next four chapters deal with  strategies  for cooperation that include a variant of Rock, Paper, Scissors game, new methods of cooperative bargaining, methods for eliciting trust, and the use of tit-for-tat strategies. The author discusses how such strategies emerge and how to use them to promote cooperation rather than confrontation in the society. 

Then follows a chapter that investigates the possibility of  avoiding  social dilemmas by changing the game itself, either by introducing new players or by applying quantum theory concepts. 

In the last chapter author presents his personal top ten list of tips for effective strategies in different situations which are as follows.

1. Stay if you win, shift if you loose
2. Bring an extra player in
3. Set up some form of reciprocity
4. Restrict your own future options so that you will lose out if you defect on cooperation.
5. Offer trust
6. Create a situation that neither party can independently escape from without loss
7. Use side payments to create and maintain cooperative conditions
8. Be aware of the seven deadly dilemmas, and try to reorganize the benefits and costs to different players so that the dilemma disappears
9. Divide goods, responsibilities, jobs, and penalties so that the result is envy-free
10. Divide large groups into smaller ones 

I really liked the writing style of the author which is easy to understand, humorous and autobiographical (since many game theory examples are drawn from his personal life).

 

Some  alternate titles for this book could be "Game Theory for Dummies" or "Game Theory Without Tears"

 

I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to know the basics of game theory in a quick and interesting manner.

 

 Links 

• Author's Website
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.33 / 5;  437 ratings; 73 reviews

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Geek Nation - How Indian Science is Taking Over the World

[Author: Angela Saini; Publisher: Hodder & Stoughton; Hardcover: 288 pages ]

Who is a Geek ? 
From the author's perspective geek is someone who is very passionate about a scientific, technological or any other intellectual pursuit. She uses this term in a very complimentary manner.
In the western world Indians are perceived as geeks or nerds.
Angela Saini an UK born award winning science journalist of  Indian origin travels widely across India (during 2008-10) to check on the veracity of this perception.

She meets and interviews several scientists, technologists, researchers in premier academic institutions, research institutes, IT companies.
The outcome of this scientific pilgrimage is this book which presents the 
picture of the status of the scientific education and research in India. 

A book of this sort could have easily turned out to be a dry and scholarly compilation of recorded interviews and its readership been confined to academicians and researchers. 
But Saini  very effectively manages to write it in a a fairly enjoyable travelogue style with right blend of information and humor. After all she is a reporter.
"Angela in the Geekland" would have been a more apt title for this book ! 

This book educated me on several facets of scientific and technology research and development  in India which I was unaware of for e.g. OSDD (Open Source Drug Discovery) initiative, Spoken Web project, Lavasa Corporation, e-Courts  etc.

I am not sure whether this book presents a complete scenario of scientific research in India but whatever is presented in this book certainly makes an interesting read.
Therefore I would recommend this book to anyone who is keen on knowing some of the interesting facets of scientific research scenario in India around 2008-2010.

 

 Links 

• Author's Blog
• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.44 / 5;  82 ratings; 17 reviews

Contents
Underlying themes of various chapters and the people and organizations featured in  them are given below.

Introduction : 

Underlying Theme: Origins of Space Research in India

• Professor U.R. Rao, Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Center, Trivandrum 

Chapter 1 Brain Games

 

Underlying Theme: Engineering & Science  Education

• Professor Vijay Singh, International Science Olympiad Training Center
• Nitin Jain, IIT-JEE 2009 Topper & Winner of several medals in Science Olympiads
• Professor Santanu Chaudhury, Dean of Undergraduate Studies, IIT Delhi
• Professor Ambuj Sagar, IIT Delhi
• Prerit Jain  - Undergraduate student, IIT Delhi
• Rajdeep Sahrawat, VP NASSCOM
• Ravindra Shah, Chief Compliance Officer, Tata Consultancy Services
• Ananth Krishnan, Technologist, Tata Consultancy Services

Chapter 2 Electronics City

Underlying Theme: IT Industry

• Thomas Simon, VP-HR, Tata Consultancy Services
• Narayana Murthy, Founder, Infosys Technologies
• Dr. Manish Gupta, Director, IBM Labs, India
• Yusuf Motiwala & Apul Nahata , Founders, TringMe
• Nishant Ranka - Undergraduate student, IIT Delhi

Chapter 3 The Long-Life Banana

Underlying Theme: Genetically Modified Crops

• Dr  Pravendra Nath, Molecular Biologist, National Botanical Research Institute
• Vijay Jawandhia, a farmers' right activist, Vidharba
• Vandana Shiva, a rural rights activist, New Delhi
• Dr. Ajay Parida, Executive Director, MS Swaminathan Research Foundation

Chapter 4 Chariots of the Gods 


Underlying Theme: Vedic Sciences

• Subbarao Narayana, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote
• Dr. Satyanarayana, Oriental Research Institute, Mysore
• Sanal Edamaruku, President, Indian Rationalist Association, New Delhi
• Meera Nanda, Historian and Researcher, Institute of Advanced Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi
• Sunderaj Chandrashekar, Academy of Sanskrit Research, Melkote
• Professor MRS Narasimha Murthy, Head, Molecular Biophysics, Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru 

 Chapter 5 The Mindreading Machine

Underlying Theme: Forensic Sciences

• Dr Sunny Joseph, Directorate of Forensic Science Laboratory, Mumbai
• CR Mukundan, Inventor of Brain Electrical Oscillations Signature (BEOS) software

Chapter 6 Geek's Rule 

Underlying Theme: e-Governance

• Scot Wrighton, City Manager, Lavasa Corporation
• Vineeta Dixit, Principal Consultant -e-Governance Plan, Ministry of Communication and Information Technology, New Delhi
• RK Sharma, Computer Analyst & Programmer, Department of IT, Rajasthan
• Girish Kumar Sharma, Registrar, Delhi High Court

Chapter 7 The Impossible Drug

Underlying Theme: Bio-medical Research

• Professor Virandar Chauhan, International Center for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi
• Dr. Sujatha Narayanan, Deputy Director, Department of Immunology, Tuberculosis Research Center, Chennai
• Dr. Sridhar Sivasubbu, Researcher, Institute of Genomics and Integrative Biology, New Delhi
• Dr. Sulagna Banerjee, Madras Institute of Technology, Chennai
• Zakir Thomas, Scientist, Council of Scientific and Industrial Research, New Delhi 

Chapter 8 Brainpower

Underlying Theme: Nuclear Energy

• Dr Ratan Kumar Sinha, Director - Reactor Design and Development Group, Bhaba Atomic Research Centre, Mumbai

 Chapter 9 Rocket Science

Underlying Theme: Space Program 

• Narayana Moorthy, Researcher, Vikram Sarabhai Space Research Center, Trivandrum
• Madhavan Nair, Ex-Chairman, Indian Space Research Organization

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Science - A Four Thousand Year History

[Author: Patricia Fara; Publisher: Oxford University Press; Paperback: 512 pages ]

 
First I will let the author Patricia Fara  to introduce her book.
(Play the embedded video below. In case of any problem view it on the YouTube site)

This book:

• Does not portray scientists and inventors as ideal heroes but as  real people who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, who trampled down their rivals, or even sometimes got bored and did something else.
• Argues that for a scientific idea to prevail it being right is not always enough. People should accept the fact that the idea is right.
• Challenges the notion of European superiority in science,  by showing how science has been built up from knowledge and skills developed in other parts of the world like China and Islamic world.
• Instead of focusing on  abstract theories proposed and esoteric experiments conducted by scientists , it explains how science belongs to the real world of war, politics, and business.
• Describes the works of many individuals who were not scientists in conventional sense, but who developed a variety of skills - navigating by the stars, smelting ores, preparing herbal medicines, building ships, designing cannon - the contributed to the global scientific enterprises of today.
• Explains why the following questions are important and suggests ways of tackling them:
• Does religion inhibit or encourage science?
• Are alchemy and magic completely divorced from science?
• Were there really so few women or have historians the picture by telling too many exciting adventure stories about intrepid men exploring the female nature of world?
• Is it possible to have different types of science that are all valid?
• If there were indeed different sciences in different places, then how are they related to each other and modern science?
• Investigates the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and academic enterprises that made science global.
• Shows that what counts as a scientific fact depends not only on the natural world but also on who is doing research and where and when.
• Argues that scientific knowledge as it travels from one environment to another, is constantly adapted and absorbed in different ways and such transformation is still continuing.
• Challenges assumptions that appear natural yet have been created artificially - it aims to provoke thought and argument, not just provide information.
• Looks at past in order to find out how we've arrived at the present in order to improve the future.

The book has seven parts each consisting of seven short (8-10 pages) chapters. Discussions are well supported by illustrations, anecdotes. Author's sense of humor and sarcasm.also surfaces at several places.

One drawback in this book is , barring a few stray references here and their the contribution of  India towards the development of science is not given due credit. In fact decimal arithmetic and the concept of zero was  discovered in India before it spread elsewhere.

Though the readers looking for something more technical will be disappointed, overall this book is quite a light and entertaining read on the sociological history of science for a layman.





Key Points from the Book

Part I: Origins
Key Points : Science's origin is traced to ancient Babylonia & Greece. Ideas and discoveries pertained to projects like finding auspicious time for religious festivals, winning wars, vindicating biblical prophecies, divining the future, explaining the cosmos. Science's very foundation lie in techniques and concepts now often designated as magical or pseudo-scientific.
Chapter Titles : Sevens, Babylon, Heroes, Cosmos, Life, Matter, Technology

Part II: Interactions
Key Points: What counts as science depends on where and when you are looking. Information, skills and objects constantly travel from one place to another, gets passed on through generations and get adapted to local needs and taste. Scientific knowledge resulted from many centuries of communications and interactions between different peoples and places especially China, the Islamic world and the mediaeval  Europe.

Chapter Titles: Eurocentrism, China, Islam, Scholarship, Europe, Aristotle, Alchemy

Part III: Experiments

Key Points: Experimental approach towards the world that characterizes modern science developed only gradually and intermittently. Many innovations arose from reformulating traditional expertise rather than from inspired insights. Ancient ideas coexisted with ones now belonging to modern science. For e.g. coexistence of  -  both Aristotle's theory and Copernican theory of the Universe; magic, alchemy and mathematics.

Chapter Titles: Exploration, Magic, Astronomy, Bodies, Machines, Instruments, Gravity

Part IV: Institutions
 Key Points: Science is an integral component of the society, interwoven with industry, business, warfare, government, and medicine. Eighteenth century was the vital transition phase from private experiments of a select few who were wealthy to the public laboratories, state funding of institutions and industrialization. Institutions though lacking the charisma of heroics of individual discoverers and inventors were vital for advertising scientific achievements and for attracting financial backing for research projects.

Chapter Titles: Societies, Systems, Careers, Industries, Revolutions, Rationality, Disciplines

Part V: Laws
 Key Points: The nineteenth-century scientists' proposed  laws governing human as well as physical world  arrived through supposedly objective reasoning and precise recording of  facts as detached observers. But personal biases and subjective assessments of recorded results were not uncommon among these scientists. The viewpoint of German Romantic philosophers of this era who stressed a unified cosmos in which human beings are integrated within natural world resonates more with modern environmental attitudes.

Chapter Titles: Progress, Globalization, Objectivity, God, Evolution, Power, Time

Part VI: Invisibles 
Key Points: Despite development of increasingly precise instruments in the nineteenth and twentieth century it remained impossible for the atomic scientists to know everything about every natural phenomena  both theoretically and practically due to the uncertainty permeating in every aspect of the Universe. Many politically and commercially motivated research programs claiming to further science and improve humanity, launched triggered deep ethical reservations.

Chapter Titles: Life, Disease, Rays, Particles, Genes, Chemicals, Uncertainties

Part VII:
Key Points:  Modern scientists know much, much more than the ancient Babylonians about the structure of the Universe and mechanisms of the living organisms. But they are still unable to answer some of the basic questions about human existence asked by the people several thousand years ago.Massive investments in science, technology, and medicine yielded great achievements. Yet these achievements are like a double-edged sword. Political decisions needs to be made about how to take advantage of scientific discoveries.

Chapter Titles: Warfare, Heredity, Cosmology, Information, Rivalry, Environment, Futures




Links 

• Goodreads Ratings and Reviews -  Average Rating 3.78 / 5;  73 ratings; 15 reviews

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Mathematics of Life: Unlocking the Secrets of Existence

Author:       Ian Stewart
Published:  2011
Publisher:  Profile Books Ltd.
Hardcover: 368 pages


 I remember my high school days in late seventies, when the students who wanted to join the science stream but were not confident about their mathematical abilities would choose PCB (Physics, Chemistry, Biology) instead of PCM (Physics, Chemistry, Mathematics)  as their subjects. 
Seems like this escape from mathematics is no longer an option in twenty-first century !

Many of the important questions opened up by modern discoveries in biology cannot be answered without significantly drawing upon the knowledge of mathematics.
Therefore in the present times biologists and mathematicians are collaborating on finding solutions to such questions especially those related to nature and origins of life itself.
The former pose the biological questions or describe a set of experiments, while the later develop a mathematical models to simulate them.

Welcome to the field of Mathematical Biology ! This book is a layman's primer on this subject.

It explores several connections between mathematics and biology, viz; -  the Human Genome Project; the structure and function of the complex molecules that coordinate the complex process of life; the shape of viruses; the organization of cells; the form and behavior of entire organisms and their interaction in the global ecosystem; evolutionary games that led to huge diversity of life in earth; the workings of the nervous system and the brain; nature of life; possibility of alien life forms.
The theory behind these connections encompass a wide range of mathematical concepts - probability, dynamics, chaos theory, symmetry, networks, mechanics, elasticity, knot theory.

While I don't claim to have understood each and every topic discussed in this book, I found it a really interesting read and would recommend it to anyone who is a keen reader of  popular science genre.
 Pythagoras the renowned mathematician of ancient Greece once said,"All things are numbers".  Ian Stewart, the author of this book and a mathematician of the modern era  has shown that this statement is true to a great extent in life forms.

Links:

• Goodreads Rating - 3.46 out of  5   (112 ratings)
• Review in The Guardian
•  "What is Mathematical Biology and How Useful Is It ?", Avner Friedman, Notices of the American Mathematical Society, August 2010, Volume 57, Number 7 - A technical paper (lots of differential equations !) that discusses application of mathematics in studying wounds, spread of cancer cells, reconstructive microsurgery, lung infection.

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Newton and his Falling Apple

Author:         Kjartan Poskitt
Illustrator:     Philip Reeve 

Published    2011

Publisher:    Scholastic

Paperback:  192  pages

Any school student would have definitely come across - Newton's Laws of Motion, Newton's Law of Gravity, Newton's Law of Cooling, Newton Rings and so on.
But how many of us know the man - Newton - behind these laws that have given sleepless nights to so many students  while they prepared for the exams. How they  wish that Newton was never born !
This  little book meant primarily meant for students (that includes me too an eternal student , though I am over ....well never mind!) is a delightful humorous, illustrated biography of Newton. I came to know many facts about Newton which I was not aware of.

Want to know more about this book ? Well get hold of a copy  and read it. Too good to be missed !
4 out of 5 !


Links:

• Author's Website   
• Good Read Reviews - 3.99  ·  rating details  ·  71 ratings  ·  7 reviews

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The Grand Design

Author:         Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
Published:   2010
Publisher:    Bantam Press
Hardcover: 208  pages
 

This  book is a sort of sequel to Stephen Hawking's classic best seller A Brief History of Time. This time the renowned physicist Hawking teams up with another famous physicist and author Leonard Mlodinow. The book attempts to unanswered questions in "A Brief History of Time".
Questions like - Why is there a universe--why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why are the laws of nature are what they are? Did the universe need a designer and creator?

The authors explain how as per quantum theory there are multiple instances of universe existing simultaneously. Also these universes have not just one but every possible history. 
They question the conventional concept of an objective reality and propose a "model-dependent" theory of reality. 

The book describes how the laws of  the universe we live in are extraordinarily finely tuned to create an environment conducive  to our existence, and shows why quantum theory predicts the multiverse--the idea that ours is just one of many universes that appeared spontaneously out of nothing, each with different laws of nature. 

The authors then conclude that  M-Theory which explains  the laws governing the multiverse, is the only viable candidate for a complete "theory of everything." 

I have read many books which attempt to demystify the esoteric areas of modern physics and cosmology. But I must admit that I am yet to get a complete hang of the subject. Either I am incapable of digesting the stuff or the inherent nature of the subject itself is not amenable to easy explanation. Whatever the case may be, my experience with  this book was no different. 

Initial few pages were quite easy to grasp but things starts getting confusing as I approached the half-way-mark. However it is perhaps better than many of the other books I have read in this genre. Small doses of humor sprinkled and lavish illustrations in myriad colors provide much needed relief to the readers.


Overall a good book to read . I rate it 3.5 in the scale of 5.
Some readers with higher IQ than me may enjoy it much more than I did !

 
Links:

• Stephen Hawking's website
• The Grand Design - Wikipedia entry about the book
• Introduction to M-Theory
  

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25 Big Ideas - the Science that's Changing our World

Author:         Robert Matthews

Published:   2007

Publisher:    Oneworld Publications

Paperback: 200 Pages

The 25 Big Ideas described in this book are based on the discoveries which make a point that the universe in which we live in is magical, bizarre, strange and defies common sense. These ideas have challenged many eminent scientists and mathematicians. These ideas prove that in reality science is not as objective as it is made out to be but it has its own uncertainties and subjectivity since it is a human endeavor. There is still a long way to go before we understand completely our universe.

The book consists of 25 chapters (one for each idea) categorized under the following heads as follows:

• Ourselves - and Others: Consciousness, Small World Theory, Game Theory
• Doing the Impossible: Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, GM Crops
• Life: Out of Africa, Nature versus Nurture, The Selfish Gene
• The Earth: Catastrophism, Plate Tectonics
• Mathematics that Counts: Bayes's Theorem, Chaos, Cellular Automata, Extreme Value Theory
• In Sickness and in Health: Evidence-based Medicine, Epidemiology
• The Physics of Reality: Special Relativity, Quantum Entanglement, The Standard Model, The Theory of Everything
• The Universe- and Our Place In It: The Big Bang, Dark Energy, Parallel Universe, The Anthropic Principle

Each chapter is brief (6-8 pages) and self-contained. It begins with a very succinct summary which introduces the idea in a nutshell and explains it relevance in our day to day life. This serves as an appetizer for the the reader to proceed with the chapter. The chapter then takes us through the story of how the idea evolved, its current state of understanding. It also explains the associated technical terms  and provides suggestions for further reading.

A very well-written book which attempts to explain the abstruse ideas in a very interesting manner . But it requires the reader to have at least a high-school level knowledge of science and mathematics to fully appreciate and enjoy it.

Useful Links:

• Summary of all the Ideas and Further Readings
• Sample Chapter  :  Consciousness.