Reviews for Science Was Fun Selected Recollections of a Life in Science

The average rating for Science Was Fun Selected Recollections of a Life in Science based on 2 reviews is 3.5 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2010-02-10 00:00:00 Troy Rittner I’m really fond of Yum Cha – despite the fact that it has been years since I’ve eaten Yum Cha – but I really like the idea of it. Lots of little dishes all quite different from each other that come in no particular order and are small enough for you to try things you wouldn’t normally dream of trying if that was all you were going to get, but it is okay given you are only going to have a bite or two to be adventurous. Not too different from reading friends’ reviews here on Good Reads. I am pretty unlikely to ever read very many books on ship building, say – but I always read Eric’s book reviews on ships and they are invariably fascinating. This is a book of maybe 100 three page essays on funny little things to do with science. A kind of Yum Cha for the brain really. The essays are just long enough and some of them are not just amusing but fascinating too. He is a biologist, so naturally there are frequent digs at creationism – par for the course while serving an essential social function. There are also lots of witty asides, one of my favourites is a quote by Dr Johnson who said of visiting the Giant’s Causeway in Northern Ireland (something I intend to do before I die – and hence I have reason enough to put it off for a while longer) “Worth seeing, yes; but not worth going to see.” He also does the ‘fish’ = ‘ghoti’ thing, however, he says that ‘ghoti’ also = water – ‘gh’ as in plough, ‘o’ as in cord, and ‘ti’ as in tin. Unfortunately, I can’t get the ‘er’ sound out of the ‘ti’ in tin – but perhaps it is an accent thing – one of the main problems with phonetic spelling in English, I would suspect. There are lots of fascinating factoids along the way too – did you know the death rate dues to heart disease and stroke increases by 10% for every 3 degrees drop in temperature? That our fight against infant mortality this century has been so successful that if tomorrow all deaths of people in Britain below the age of 50 were banned the average life expectancy would only increase by one year. That the onset of puberty isn’t set by age, but by body mass – hence why we are seeing the age of the onset of puberty plummeting while our kids grow increasingly chubby. But the best article in this book was Vultures, Cultures and Criticism – where he defines evolutionary psychology as ‘the palace of strawless bricks’. Now, if that isn’t a quote worth remembering it is hard to know what is. I’ve read quite a few of this man’s books – but all too long ago to do reviews of them here – much like most of Gould’s wonderful books of essays which I would need to give five stars each to as they, more than anything else, introduced me to biology in all its remarkable awe and wonder. This was a fun read and often just enough.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-01-31 00:00:00 Duane Powell This is the first science book that I have read besides school and it won't be the last.It was well written,in a way even a foreigner could understand.For those who were allergic in the stem subjects at school there is no need to panic. It covers a broad range of subjects,in quite small chapters that don't get exhausting. Totally recommend!!!