28 December 2008
Two Must Read Books
Posted by Dan Satterfield
It has been awhile since I recommended some books to you faithful readers. (Readers from 71 countries have now visited my journal! Thank You!)
The fisrt book is related to a post about Dr. Richard Muller’s course at U. C. Berkeley. “Physics For Future Presidents”. He has written a book that includes even more material than is available in the online lectures! (I have the link to his course in my previous post.)
Think Plutonium is the most toxic substance known, worried about a dirty bomb? Then your Physics needs updating. This is a complete course in modern Physics, with almost no math. (The Math is beautiful though, as Dr. Muller points out, in his online lectures).
Muller’s online course has been voted the most popular at Berkeley. This, by Non Science majors!
It would be great to meet Muller someday. He is a renowned Physicist. He knew Feynman too!
You can get it from Amazon here:
PHYSICS FOR FUTURE PRESIDENTS
The other book is a new one on climate that is really fascinating. It is also recommended by the Climate Scientists who write the Real Climate blog. That is high praise indeed.
Ice, Mud and Blood, by Chris Turney, is also available from Amazon HERE.
Have you wondered just how we know what the climate was like millions of years ago? This book explains it. I am rather familiar with the basic climate proxies, but I have learned a lot of new things from this book! Very readable and interesting.
I’m now on page 87, and my opinion of this book keeps climbing rapidly. If your tired of the junk online about climate change being a hoax or a liberal plot (please!, read a book folks!) This book is a real world look at Climate Science.
Chris Turney, is a climate professor in the Uk, and a graduate of Royal Holloway, a very prestigious school.
If you know a young person interested in Science, these books would make a great gift. If you like learning things the rest of the world doesn’t know, buy them for yourself!
Later,
Dan
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
Funny you should mention that b/c I tried to watch those lectures on an earlier blog (I guess I wasn’t as much of a geek as I thought) and went, man, if these were only in book form I could get into it but not in flash videos online. I may well get a copy of that when finances permit . . . physics, esp. all the perplexing stuff Einstein came up with and quantum physics, has always fascinated me, perplexing as it may be. (Oddly enough Tim “The Toolman” Allen actually wrote a book on quantum physics that I read way back when . . . not the kind of thing you’d expect from him at all.) Current working on DIVINE WIND by Kerry Emanuel, which I’d heard you recommend some time, somewhere. It’s one of the best science books I’ve ever come across, because of the way he combines depictions of hurricanes in art, literature, even sacred texts with the raw science of it. Keep the book recommendations coming . . . until such time as I can get into college I will be learning as much as I can on my own . . .
Hi Matt, Your right about Divine Wind. It’s fantastic isn’t it!