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Culture, history and society

Culture, history and society

Shelf life: John Singleton

02 Feb 2005

John Singleton is a researcher at the National High Magnetic Field Laboratory, Los Alamos, US


What are the three best popular-science books?

Popular-science books are often flawed in that the author uses the final few chapters to promote his or her often very dated or extremely shallow “philosophical” views on life, the universe and everything. The problem is not that physics has no bearing on life, the universe and everything – of course it does. What annoys me is the seamless transition from what is generally accepted by the physics community to speculation.

In my experience, budding physicists at school often skip the conceptually difficult chapters and end up in the “philosophy” at the end. This material rarely offers a widely accepted world view but is just another scientist sounding off about “the mind of God” etc. And if students then takes another book and land in another author’s rant, they become very confused indeed.

So a popular-physics book should (a) convey enthusiasm, (b) clearly delineate speculation and reasonably widely held opinion, and (c) perhaps educate. Having interviewed many prospective undergraduates, my choices are as follows.

The Mr Tompkins books by George Gamow, as revised by Russell Stannard. Although the approach may appear dated, the books convey the excitement and apparent counterintuitiveness of our subject very well indeed.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, who has emerged as the most successful popular-science writer for many years. His explanatory work is excellent, and appeals to many non-scientists I know who were completely defeated by, for example, Stephen Hawking. It completely outclasses the outpourings of most scientists attempting to write for a popular audience.

Last, but not least, is The Physics of Musical Instruments by Neville Fletcher and Thomas Rossing. Many physicists and mathematicians are amateur musicians; and many musicians have an instinctive grasp of maths. This book is good for dipping into. (I keep it in the bathroom.)

What books are you currently reading?

Too Hot to Handle – Frank Close’s book about cold fusion, which I picked up second-hand.

Power from the Wind by Palmer Putnam, which examines early attempts with large-scale windmills and describes the spectacular failure of the amusingly named Grandpa’s Knob turbine.

The Story of Semiconductors by John Orton – a worthy book, although it is daunting to find that things on which I was working are now history.

What else are you reading?

For entertainment, The Cunning Man by Robertson Davies. For edification, the Old Testament, for the sixth time.

Which popular-science book have you never read, but feel you ought to have tackled?

I have Stephen Wolfram’s A New Kind of Science on my bookshelf but have not yet succeeded in starting it. I think that the length and the style have something to do with it, but I will get into it one of these days. A flight to Japan might be a good starting point, although the thing is very large and heavy.

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