Maxwell's Demon, by Steven Hall. Pub 2021 This was a surprise find for me at the bookstore last month. I was looking for a copy of Hall's Raw Shark Texts that I read a few years ago to send to a friend (my own copy was a Kindle version). When I went online to order... Continue Reading →
The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. Book report #7 (2021)
The Confidence Game, by Maria Konnikova. Pub 2016 I've read several long-form articles by this author, and wanted to read this one to try to understand a) my own gullibility, and b) the psychology of some I've encountered at work - people who fake or mask something about themselves to get a job, and then... Continue Reading →
Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell. Book report #6 (2020)
I read this book with a friend at work; he chose it as something we could each read and then talk about. I should have been wary - the last time I did this, the book was The Tipping Point, also by Malcolm Gladwell. That book was remarkable in that I did learn some new... Continue Reading →
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Book report #3 (2020)
Sapiens, by Yuval Noah Harari. Pub 2011 (English translation 2014) I chose this book after seeing it on Bill Gates’ top-ten book list, reading a bit about it, and then finding it during my January top-up splurge. I was daunted by the length of it (466 pages), and skeptical about getting through it. A previous... Continue Reading →
Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou. Book report #6 (2019)
Vacations makes such a lovely time to read... (books 7, 8 and 9 all read on holiday.) Bad Blood, by John Carreyrou. Pub. 2018 I had somewhat followed the dramatic rise and fall of the brief career of Elizabeth Holmes, Silicon Valley wunderkind cum con artist. I had heard of her a... Continue Reading →
Early experiences in science
April 27th is Tell-a-Story Day. It is also what would have been my Pop’s 71st birthday. Time for another story with him. Pop did his PhD in the mid- to late-Seventies, on the topic of cocaine. Specifically, the study looked at the effects of coca leaf extracts on the physiology of rats, as a way to understand... Continue Reading →
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