Wednesday 15 February 2012

Book Review: "Future Science - Essays from the Cutting Edge"

I'm trying to be charitable here. Problem is that I'm a crotchy old sod.
My problem is that I expected something more.
Of the 18 essays, only a few actually stood out as being "cutting edge" for me.
The reason is that I consume technical and science books and magazines continually.
And this book is not intended for that kind of audience.
It's intended for the casual reader who wants a glimpse into what's happening across a broad spectrum of scientific disciplines.
I just did some checking of other reviews on this book and (apart from the fact that most seem to be puzzlingly similar to each other) they all praise the book for exactly the reasons I'm not.

Most other reviews seem to fixate on a specific essay about infinity as being an example of difficult 'out-there' science.
Hmm. Having studied Brian Greenes descriptions and visualizations of the inflaton field I found that essay slow and not difficult at all.

In general I'd suggest that if you read New Scientist or visit http://www.sciencedaily.com/ or http://www.physorg.com/ at all, then you probably don't need to read this book.

In any case, the book would be a good primer for people wanting a peek into what's new.
For anyone who regularly reads scientific journals or books, not so much.

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