My reading list for the next few weeks.
The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next by Lee Smolin
I am reading this book at the moment. Smolin treats a subject that goes to the core of what constitutes scientific progress and how scientists go about their business. In the first few chapters, Smolin recounts the history of physics interspersed with his own personal story. He also discusses the most important problems that physical theories need to address. This is the first book that I have picked up on the recent 'Theories of Everything'. Smolin questions String Theory and it's inability to make any testable predictions. String Theory now dominates academia and that is the trouble with physics that Smolin discuses in detail. Smolin writes well. As a science reader, I find the book very useful in understanding the current state of physics and the controversies. I also understand why so much stake is up with the upcoming Large Hadron Collider.
The Story of Art by E. M. Gombrich
Yes. I am still reading it. I have also taken a cursory trip to the National Gallery to gawk at the paintings. "Until you have seen' the Sistine Chapel, you can have no adequate conception of what man is capable of accomplishing', said Goethe. Michelangelo is an extraordinary genius. Why does religion inspire so much passion?
Mirrorwork: 50 Years of Indian Writing 1947-1997, Edited by Salmon Rushdie and Elizabeth West
My readings of Indian authors is a glaring omission on my part. There's so little science writing in India and since most of my reading is about science I've found very slim pickings on that front in India. Suggestions are welcome.
Of course, these books are heavy going at times and good fiction comes to my rescue. I've got Time's Eye on my bedside.
What have you been reading?
- Log in to post comments
About science writing in India. Do you mean about ancient science or modern? There must be several Govt. of India publications. There were popular science books in Telugu for a long time and there must be some in Tamil too. Anyway, there is one Aravindhan who seems to know quite a bit about ancient Indian science as well as modern things. He is somewhere in U.K. and once in a while posts in
http://forumhub.mayyam.com/hub/
He may be a good person to get in touch with. I do not know him personally but you can communicate with him through the HUB. I was very impressed by his erudition and analysis.
gaddeswarup, thank you for the pointers.
I had modern science in mind. Specifically, science after quantum mechanics came into existence.
Sorry for another vague pointer. I remember reading some popular articles on Quantum Mechanics in http://www.ias.ac.in/currsci/ about 20 years ago. I think that Einstein's papers were first translated in to English and published by Allahabad University (possibly the translators are S.N. Bose and Meghnath Saha). If I find any thing more definite I will send you.