Rish's bookshelf: all en-US Wed, 20 Dec 2023 08:26:03 -0800 60 Rish's bookshelf: all 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[A Field Guide to Indian Mammals]]> 5847947 200 Vivek Menon 0143029983 Rish 0 currently-reading, wildlife 4.17 A Field Guide to Indian Mammals
author: Vivek Menon
name: Rish
average rating: 4.17
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rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Astrophysics for People in a Hurry]]> 32191710
But today, few of us have time to contemplate the cosmos. So Tyson brings the universe down to Earth succinctly and clearly, with sparkling wit, in tasty chapters consumable anytime and anywhere in your busy day.]]>
223 Neil deGrasse Tyson 0393609391 Rish 3 4.07 2017 Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
author: Neil deGrasse Tyson
name: Rish
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2017
rating: 3
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date added: 2023/10/16
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<![CDATA[We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe]]> 31625636 Prepare to learn everything we still don't know about our strange, mostly mysterious universe.

PHD Comics creator Jorge Cham and particle physicist Daniel Whiteson have teamed up to spelunk through the enormous gaps in our cosmological knowledge, armed with their popular infographics, cartoons, and unusually entertaining and lucid explanations of science.

In We Have No Idea, they explore the biggest unknowns in the universe, why these things are still mysteries, and what a lot of smart people are doing to figure out the answers (or at least ask the right questions). While they're at it, they helpfully demystify many complicated things we do know about, from quarks and neutrinos to gravitational waves and exploding black holes. With equal doses of humor and delight, they invite us to see the universe as a vast expanse of mostly uncharted territory that's still ours to explore.

This entertaining illustrated science primer is the perfect book for anyone who's curious about all the big questions physicists are still trying to answer.]]>
354 Jorge Cham 0735211515 Rish 5 currently-reading 4.28 2017 We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe
author: Jorge Cham
name: Rish
average rating: 4.28
book published: 2017
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/09/18
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<![CDATA[The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next]]> 108939
"The Trouble with Physics" is a groundbreaking account of the state of modern physics: of how we got from Einstein and Relativity through quantum mechanics to the strange and bizarre predictions of string theory, full of unseen dimensions and multiple universes.

Lee Smolin not only provides a brilliant layman's overview of current research as we attempt to build a "theory of everything," but also questions many of the assumptions that lie behind string theory. In doing so, he describes some of the daring, outlandish ideas that will propel research in years to come.]]>
392 Lee Smolin 0618551050 Rish 0 to-read 4.05 2006 The Trouble with Physics: The Rise of String Theory, the Fall of a Science and What Comes Next
author: Lee Smolin
name: Rish
average rating: 4.05
book published: 2006
rating: 0
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date added: 2023/09/18
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<![CDATA[How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems]]> 43852758 The world's most entertaining and useless self-help guide, from the brilliant mind behind the wildly popular webcomic xkcd and the #1 New York Times bestsellers What If? and Thing Explainer

For any task you might want to do, there's a right way, a wrong way, and a way so monumentally complex, excessive, and inadvisable that no one would ever try it. How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.

Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and powering your house by destroying the fabric of space-time. And if you want to get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun.

By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.]]>
308 Randall Munroe 0525537090 Rish 2 4.14 2019 How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems
author: Randall Munroe
name: Rish
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2019
rating: 2
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<![CDATA[What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions]]> 21413662 xkcd comic ask Munroe a lot of strange questions: What if you tried to hit a baseball pitched at 90 percent the speed of light? How fast can you hit a speed bump while driving and live? If there was a robot apocalypse, how long would humanity last? What if everyone only had one soulmate? What would happen if the moon went away?

In pursuit of answers, Munroe runs computer simulations, pores over stacks of declassified military research memos, solves differential equations, and consults with nuclear reactor operators. His responses are masterpieces of clarity and hilarity, complemented by his signature xkcd comics. (They often predict the complete annihilation of humankind, or at least a really big explosion.)

In celebration of 10 years of unusual insight, Randall Munroe has revised his classic blockbuster to ask what if? x 10. The result is 10x the adventure of scientific inquiry. Featuring brand-new 2-color annotations and illustrations, this special anniversary edition is far more than a book for geeks, What If? explains the laws of science in operation in a way that every intelligent reader will enjoy and feel much smarter for having read.]]>
303 Randall Munroe 0544272994 Rish 2 4.13 2014 What If?: Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions
author: Randall Munroe
name: Rish
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2014
rating: 2
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date added: 2023/09/18
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<![CDATA["Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character]]> 35167685 A New York Times bestseller—the outrageous exploits of one of this century's greatest scientific minds and a legendary American original.


Richard Feynman, winner of the Nobel Prize in physics, thrived on outrageous adventures. Here he recounts in his inimitable voice his experience trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek; cracking the uncrackable safes guarding the most deeply held nuclear secrets; accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums; painting a naked female toreador. In short, here is Feynman's life in all its eccentric—a combustible mixture of high intelligence, unlimited curiosity, and raging chutzpah.]]>
400 Richard P. Feynman 0393355624 Rish 3 4.26 1985 "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!": Adventures of a Curious Character
author: Richard P. Feynman
name: Rish
average rating: 4.26
book published: 1985
rating: 3
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Cosmos 55030
The book also explores spacecraft missions of discovery of the nearby planets, the research in the Library of ancient Alexandria, the human brain, Egyptian hieroglyphics, the origin of life, the death of the Sun, the evolution of galaxies and the origins of matter, suns and worlds.

Sagan retraces the fifteen billion years of cos-mic evolution that have transformed matter into life and consciousness, enabling the Cosmos to wonder about itself. He considers the latest findings on life elsewhere and how we might communicate with the beings of other worlds.

Cosmos is the story of our long journey of discovery and the forces and individuals who helped to shape modern science, including Democritus, Hypatia, Kepler, Newton, Huy-gens, Champollion, Lowell and Humason. Sagan looks at our planet from an extra-terrestrial vantage point and sees a blue jewel-like world, inhabited by a lifeform that is just beginning to discover its own unity and to ven-ture into the vast ocean of space.]]>
384 Carl Sagan 0375508325 Rish 4 4.39 1980 Cosmos
author: Carl Sagan
name: Rish
average rating: 4.39
book published: 1980
rating: 4
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Physics of the Impossible 1168341
One hundred years ago, scientists would have said that lasers, televisions, and the atomic bomb were beyond the realm of physical possibility. In Physics of the Impossible, the renowned physicist Michio Kaku explores to what extent the technologies and devices of science fiction that are deemed equally impossible today might well become commonplace in the future.

From teleportation to telekinesis, Kaku uses the world of science fiction to explore the fundamentals—and the limits—of the laws of physics as we know them today. He ranks the impossible technologies by categories—Class I, II, and III, depending on when they might be achieved, within the next century, millennia, or perhaps never. In a compelling and thought-provoking narrative, he explains:
· How the science of optics and electromagnetism may one day enable us to bend light around an object, like a stream flowing around a boulder, making the object invisible to observers “downstream�
· How ramjet rockets, laser sails, antimatter engines, and nanorockets may one day take us to the nearby stars
· How telepathy and psychokinesis, once considered pseudoscience, may one day be possible using advances in MRI, computers, superconductivity, and nanotechnology
· Why a time machine is apparently consistent with the known laws of quantum physics, although it would take an unbelievably advanced civilization to actually build one
Kaku uses his discussion of each technology as a jumping-off point to explain the science behind it. An extraordinary scientific adventure, Physics of the Impossible takes readers on an unforgettable, mesmerizing journey into the world of science that both enlightens and entertains.]]>
329 Michio Kaku 0385520697 Rish 3 4.09 2008 Physics of the Impossible
author: Michio Kaku
name: Rish
average rating: 4.09
book published: 2008
rating: 3
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The Selfish Gene 61535 360 Richard Dawkins 0199291152 Rish 0 to-read 4.15 1976 The Selfish Gene
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Rish
average rating: 4.15
book published: 1976
rating: 0
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The God Delusion 14743
With rigor and wit, Dawkins examines God in all his forms, from the sex-obsessed tyrant of the Old Testament, to the more benign (but still illogical) Celestial Watchmaker favored by some Enlightenment thinkers. He eviscerates the major arguments for religion, and demonstrates the supreme improbability of a supreme being. He shows how religion fuels war, foments bigotry, and abuses children, buttressing his points with historical and contemporary evidence.

The God Delusion makes a compelling case that belief in God is not just wrong, but potentially deadly. It also offers exhilarating insight into the advantages of atheism to the individual and society, not the least of which is a clearer, truer appreciation of the universe's wonders than any faith could ever muster.]]>
374 Richard Dawkins 0618680004 Rish 0 to-read 3.89 2006 The God Delusion
author: Richard Dawkins
name: Rish
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2006
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<![CDATA[A Short History of Nearly Everything]]> 21 544 Bill Bryson 076790818X Rish 3 4.21 2003 A Short History of Nearly Everything
author: Bill Bryson
name: Rish
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2003
rating: 3
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<![CDATA[Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow]]> 31138556 Yuval Noah Harari, author of the critically-acclaimed New York Times bestseller and international phenomenon Sapiens, returns with an equally original, compelling, and provocative book, turning his focus toward humanity’s future, and our quest to upgrade humans into gods.

Over the past century humankind has managed to do the impossible and rein in famine, plague, and war. This may seem hard to accept, but, as Harari explains in his trademark style—thorough, yet riveting—famine, plague and war have been transformed from incomprehensible and uncontrollable forces of nature into manageable challenges. For the first time ever, more people die from eating too much than from eating too little; more people die from old age than from infectious diseases; and more people commit suicide than are killed by soldiers, terrorists and criminals put together. The average American is a thousand times more likely to die from binging at McDonalds than from being blown up by Al Qaeda.

What then will replace famine, plague, and war at the top of the human agenda? As the self-made gods of planet earth, what destinies will we set ourselves, and which quests will we undertake? Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century—from overcoming death to creating artificial life. It asks the fundamental questions: Where do we go from here? And how will we protect this fragile world from our own destructive powers? This is the next stage of evolution. This is Homo Deus.

With the same insight and clarity that made Sapiens an international hit and a New York Times bestseller, Harari maps out our future.

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450 Yuval Noah Harari Rish 0 to-read 4.19 2015 Homo Deus: A History of Tomorrow
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Rish
average rating: 4.19
book published: 2015
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing]]> 11337189
“Where did the universe come from? What was there before it? What will the future bring? And finally, why is there something rather than nothing?�

One of the few prominent scientists today to have crossed the chasm between science and popular culture, Krauss describes the staggeringly beautiful experimental observations and mind-bending new theories that demonstrate not only can something arise from nothing, something will always arise from nothing. With a new preface about the significance of the discovery of the Higgs particle, A Universe from Nothing uses Krauss’s characteristic wry humor and wonderfully clear explanations to take us back to the beginning of the beginning, presenting the most recent evidence for how our universe evolved—and the implications for how it’s going to end.

Provocative, challenging, and delightfully readable, this is a game-changing look at the most basic underpinning of existence and a powerful antidote to outmoded philosophical, religious, and scientific thinking.]]>
204 Lawrence M. Krauss 145162445X Rish 0 to-read 3.93 2012 A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing
author: Lawrence M. Krauss
name: Rish
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2012
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Why Evolution Is True 4005310 Why evolution is more than just a theory: it is a fact.

In all the current highly publicized debates about creationism and its descendant "intelligent design," there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned—the "evidence," the empirical truth of evolution by natural selection. Even Richard Dawkins and Stephen Jay Gould, while extolling the beauty of evolution and examining case studies, have not focused on the evidence itself. Yet the proof is vast, varied, and magnificent, drawn from many different fields of science. Scientists are observing species splitting into two and are finding more and more fossils capturing change in the past—dinosaurs that have sprouted feathers, fish that have grown limbs.

Why Evolution Is True weaves together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin. In crisp, lucid prose accessible to a wide audience, Why Evolution Is True dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms that this amazing process of change has been firmly established as a scientific truth.]]>
282 Jerry A. Coyne 0670020532 Rish 0 to-read 4.18 2008 Why Evolution Is True
author: Jerry A. Coyne
name: Rish
average rating: 4.18
book published: 2008
rating: 0
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<![CDATA[Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind]]> 23692271 512 Yuval Noah Harari Rish 5 to-read 4.34 2011 Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
author: Yuval Noah Harari
name: Rish
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2011
rating: 5
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date added: 2023/09/18
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A Brief History of Time 3869
Told in language we all can understand, A Brief History of Time plunges into the exotic realms of black holes and quarks, of antimatter and “arrows of time,� of the big bang and a bigger God—where the possibilities are wondrous and unexpected. With exciting images and profound imagination, Stephen Hawking brings us closer to the ultimate secrets at the very heart of creation.]]>
226 Stephen Hawking 0553380168 Rish 5 4.22 1988 A Brief History of Time
author: Stephen Hawking
name: Rish
average rating: 4.22
book published: 1988
rating: 5
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