Books I Read

The best science writers of all time

I don’t know if somebody ever read books written by those great writers, let alone having read all books by 50 writers. Although some fields are inter-related as in biological sciences and genetics and evolution, other fields are way out of overlapping interest; astrophysics and human body.

I looked up the list and found a few writers whose book I have read before.

Physics and Mathematics

Erwin Schrodinger (What is life?)

Genetics and Evolution

Richard Dawkins (Selfish genes)

Matt Ridley (Genome)

Oldies but Goodies

Charles Darwin (Origin of Species)

Multi-topic

Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs and Steels)

The reason why I happened to read “What is life?” by Erwin Schrodinger was when I was flipping through Dr Watson “Double Helix” book, he confessed that his passion of discovering DNA originated from Schrodinger’s book “What is life?” So I thought I might as well give it a try. Instead of buying the latter book, I bought the former, considering my pocket money.

In summary, Erwin Schrodinger book might be something provocative in his time or something worth a read. As for me, his explanation on some of the natural things from the perspective of physics is great, illuminating. But when it comes to relating biology from the aspect of physics and mathematics, he somewhat dived into quantum theory to expound the hereditary material in our biological cells. Of course DNA was not discovered at the time of his writing. Or maybe Watson was able to retrieve some idea out of the book. I don’t know. And I never happened to read Watson’s book ever since then.

Richard Dawkins’ book “Selfish Gene” is not about gene being selfish in terms of common definition of ‘selfish’. Dawkins is a strong proponent of Charles Darwin evolution theory. He even encouraged those of you who don’t believe in “Creationism”. The book is about how we try to survive and how we come to think as a result of our hereditary genetic material. Although we don’t know consciously why we have feeling or preferences, there are blueprints in our DNA which ultimately control the way we become who we are. Of course there are environmental influences as well. However the fact that the better the DNA, the higher the chances of survivorship tells a story of why genes do matter at certain level.

Needless to say this book also falls into a category of those books ever generating controversial debate. When Galileo was claiming the Earth rotates around the Sun and revolves itself, he was prisoned. When Charles Darwin’s book “Origin of Species” hit the books shelf, he faced an enormous amount of public rejection. Although the book I’m about to mention is not related to evolution and biology, but it’s worth a mention here based on public outcry over its publication. It is “Da Vinci Code” by Dan Brown. Whether or not I like the Da Vinci book does not matter here, but I noticed that all of those controversial books themes happened to be defying against the pride of human, dignity of male supremacy, and what not, against the religion. So we are left wondering….

If you don’t have a slightest idea of what is DNA, what is hereditary material doing in our body, how DNA influence in our daily lives, then Matt Ridley’s “Genome” should be your first choice in getting your understanding in the right track. His lucid explanation and appropriate analogy will get you a long way until you exclaimed yourself “oh that explains!”. One of his description of DNA that lasted in my memories is “After all, we all humans are just a form of chariot fighting against each other under the influence of our DNA.” That’s not verbatim. But at least it will give you an idea of our body and DNA relationship. The sentence alone blew my mind.

Charles Darwin is recognized as a father of evolution. I’d say evolution is happening every second. But nobody noticed that. You wonder why. If it’s true, everybody will notice the phenomenon. Yes, when things are happening subtly, it’s kind of hard to notice things around. For example, we don’t sense that the Earth is revolving and rotating at the same time. The reason is it’s so subtle and smooth that our brains cannot simply decipher the phenomenon. Yes, Charles Darwin’s did. Evolution is basically eventual changes to cater to the needs of environmental changes or “adaptation” in short. Recounting his book in a short sentence is not sufficient to convey the idea that evolution is there, happening around us. But you might as well give it a try. But be prepared to open the book with an open mind.   

Some historians look at the human civilization under an agricultural magnifying glass. But it’s one out of hundred probability that one scientist took a different approach to tell the human civilization in different ways. He is Jared Diamond and for his provocative article, the book “Guns, Germs and Steels” earned him a prestigious Pulitzer Prize in 1998. For all we know, the rise of civilization started from waging war against others; but there’s one piece missing in the puzzle. That is “Germs” which will explain why wars cannot conquer some parts of the regions but will lead to succumb instead.

Lately I haven’t been able to peruse a book comfortably. It seems my life has been hectic recently. What it dawns on was the question I used to hear when I was young and couldn’t figure out why it’s making a fuss;

It is

“When do you plan to retire?”

Yes, this question slowly grows on me and I like the idea that,

Imagine one day I wake up fully without a worry and pick up the newspaper, read a book, reflect upon things and enjoy every moment.

Note:
The book review