New ScientistRezensionen

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https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/will-we-ever-speak-dolphin-ed-mick-ohare/

Following on from Does Anything Eat Wasps? and Why Can’t Elephants Jump?, here are 101 more questions asked by New Scientist readers with answers also supplied by New Scientist readers. There is a whole chapter on why one might want one’s martini to be shaken, not stirred, with accounts from readers of direct experimentation on the options. Otherwise lots of wholesome science stuff. (And no, we won’t ever speak Dolphin; they don’t really have language to the same level that we do.)½

Another book that doesn't really deliver on its title. I was expecting something slightly more philosophical on why the universe exists. Instead we are treated to a description of modern particle physics ...including the contribution of the Higgs particle and various other speculations but no real detail on why the Universe exists.
it's interesting enough, in its own way, but it's really cobbled together from a series of talks given at a New Scientist, Master Class "Mysteries of particle physics" and maybe that should have been the title of the book. Happy enough to give the book three stars because it certainly has some interesting chapters/articles. but it's just not true to title.

I like science and always read New Scientist front-to-back. This section was always fun to read, since it would be reader answers to reader questions (sometimes with unexpected analogies). These aren’t articles, but specific tidbits on a topic. I like having a collection of some of them in one book, although they are available online, especially since that makes it easier to share with others or read when the power or Internet are down.½

I enjoyed this book, but I don't think the format of so many short articles together suited the way I like to read. For someone who likes to chip away a little at a time without losing the thread of the book it'd probably be quite good.

Attenzione a quello che dite: "Non vale niente, conta quanto zero, dopo c'è il nulla". Non c'è nulla che valga quanto il niente, lo zero conta più di tutti gli altri numeri che lo seguono, il senso lo trovi nel nulla. La lettura di questo libro lo dice chiaro e tondo.

Zero, zip, nada, zero. È fin troppo facile ignorare le affascinanti possibilità del vuoto e della non esistenza, e potremmo chiederci cosa c'è da dire sul nulla. Ma gli scienziati sanno da secoli che nulla è la chiave per comprendere assolutamente tutto, dal motivo per cui le particelle hanno massa all'espansione dell'universo, quindi senza nulla non saremmo esattamente da nessuna parte. Lo zero assoluto (il freddo più freddo che può esistere) e il il potere sorprendente di placebo, lampadine, superconduttori, aspirapolvere, energia oscura, "riposo a letto" e la nascita del tempo: sono tutti aspetti diversi del concetto di nulla. Più guardiamo da vicino, più grande diventa il soggetto. Perché alcuni animali passano tutto il giorno senza far nulla? Cosa succede nel nostro cervello quando cerchiamo di non pensare a nulla? Con capitoli di 20 scrittori scientifici, inclusi nomi di spicco come Ian Stewart, Marcus Chown, Nigel Henbest, Michael Brooks, Paul Davies e David Fisher, questo libro affascinante e intrigante racconta un argomento che ha stuzzicato le menti migliori per secoli e dimostra che non c'è niente che soddisfi di più del nulla.

9788498676815

This book covers many different types of machinery and all the different aspects of science behind the machines that are made. I think this would be a good book to have for students to be able to access in the classroom because in this time period, technology is extremely popular. This book could be used in a lesson for science as well as used for pleasure reading in any classroom. Students would be engaged with this reading especially those who use different types of technology, for example student who have phones or gaming stations.

While I was looking for new non-fiction books to read, I stumbled upon this one: Question Everything. It contains Q&A's from the various readers of New Scientist, the scientific magazine. I know the magazine, but have never read a copy. The questions and answers were taken from the printed magazine and online at www.newscientist.com/topic/lastword/, which is regularly updated.

Also, it seems that they (New Scientist) regularly publish such a book, compiled of Q&A's and ordered by theme. Selecting appropriate questions and answers that fit best to those questions.

In this new book, 132 questions and several more answers (as there were sometimes more answers per question, from various readers, including experts in those specific fields) offer a very informative and interesting way on many aspects of life. Themes range from Earth, Space, Physics, Health, Meteorology, Cognition, Biology, and more, to Biology, Evolution, Transport, and Various / The Rest.

The index at the back is a helpful means to find an answer to a specific item.

You don't have to read the book from start to finish. Just select a theme and question whenever you like. While the book is made to be accessible for a large audience, some technical jargon will be part of the answers as well, obviously. Sometimes a certain answer, depending on your preferences, will not provide enough information or reasoning.

Regardless of this small issue, I can recommend Question Everything, as you can pick it up any time you want to and read something from it now and then, and at the same time refresh or expand your knowledge on many things that happen / exist in life.

Lazy compilation of what I imagine must've been a weekly column. Nothing else explains the endless repetitions and the general depth lacking pop science trivia.

This was an interesting read, but I only gave it 3 stars because i skipped a lot of pages which weren't of interest to me. However, other questions were interesting and i read the answers thoroughly.

Un libro que recopila preguntas de lectores que son respondidas por otros lectores (Seguro que les suena de algo ). Debo reconocer que desconocía la sección “La última palabra” (The last word) de la revista New Scientist , pero me he quedado impresionado. Hay un segundo libro, aún no traducido, que compré en Florencia y que ya estoy terminando.
Y qué les puedo decir, estimados lectores. He devorado el libro. Me lo compré en el aeropuerto de Barajas cuando salía para Italia y me lo acabé casi casi en el avión. Es adictivo. Es fantástico. Es una gozada ver la colaboración entre los lectores, salpicada con comentarios humorísticos que arrancan muchas sonrisas. Es el foro CPI, si me permiten la comparación CPIcéntrica, con la diferencia de que lleva en marcha desde 1994.
Entre las muchas preguntas que podremos resolver están la que da título al libro: “¿Hay algo que coma avispas?”. El propio preguntante da una hipótesis: “Pájaros estúpidos”, pero la respuesta documentada de los lectores tiene mucha más miga. Hay mil preguntas más, muchas de las cuales han visto ustedes respondidas en blogs como CPI, MedTempus, Ocularis y otros: ¿Por qué los moretones cambian de color con el tiempo? ¿Qué debo hacer si quiero convertirme en fósil? Si tiro una piedra al mar en Menorca, ¿llegaría la ola a EE.UU.? ¿Cuántas especies viven dentro del cuerpo humano? ¿Por qué, si la rueda es tan útil, no hay animales que hayan desarrollado evolutivamente ruedas para desplazarse? Un auténtico montón de preguntas muy interesantes. Una que me encantó: “Dicen que la cerveza contiene un montón de nutrientes y vitaminas. ¿Cuánto tiempo podría una persona resistir alimentándose únicamente de cerveza?” Una de las respuestas: “Lo único que puedo decir es que tengo 39 años y sigo vivo” . Son 100 preguntas en total.
Sólo puedo decirles que adoro este libro. Que me encanta, que me ha dado muchas ideas para escribir cosas interesantes y que estoy seguro, segurísimo de que a cualquiera con interés en la ciencia curiosa pero inútil (a veces) le fascinará.
Mi nota no puede ser otra: Imprescindible.

Segunda parte del grandísimo libro ¿Hay algo que coma avispas?, que recientemente comentamos en CPI. Son preguntas y respuestas que hacen y dan los lectores de la sección “La última palabra” (The last word) de la revista New Scientist .
Y, de nuevo, la lectura es absolutamente adictiva. ¿Por qué salen las canas? ¿Por qué lloramos al pelar cebollas? ¿Por qué la mayoría de los perros tienen la nariz negra? ¿El efecto placebo siempre es bueno o hay efecto placebo negativo? ¿Por qué hacen tanto ruido al agitarlas las bolsas de plástico del supermercado? ¿Cómo funcionan las gafas que se oscurecen con la luz? ¿Por qué la barandilla de las escaleras mecánicas casi siempre va a velocidad distinta de la escalera? Si me pierdo en un supermercado, ¿Cuál es la mejor estrategia para encontrarme de nuevo con mi acompañante: quedarme quieto o empezar a recorrer los pasillos?… Así hasta 115 preguntas interesantísimas.
Se lo aseguro, estimados lectores. Fue empezar a leer y no poder parar. Y este es un libro que hay que releer, pues está lleno de información CPI. Me encanta.
Mi nota, nada sorprendentemente, es Imprescindible

Science works by asking questions and then seeking answers to those questions and modifying as you go along until you learn more about the thing that you asked the question about. In this book, a plethora of authors have looked at some of the most imagination-stretching, brain-staggering questions in the universe and have set about trying their best to answer them.

It is wide-ranging in its choice of subject matter, from the tiny quantum world to the vast chasms of space, trying to understand why lightning shouldn’t exist and how we can read each other minds all the time. It ventures into the seriously weird world of quantum physics and heads beneath the surface of the earth to discover creatures that somehow are managing to live without oxygen. There are people who can see time, some seriously odd materials and details on why we all need to take an acid trip every now and again.

It had some interesting stuff that I didn’t know, but did it blow my mind though? No. Though there were some articles that I had not come across, a fair number of them I had had some prior knowledge of. If you read widely you will have almost certainly come across some of these stories already. Not a bad book if you want to introduce someone to a broad range of science.

Having never read the column its based on, I found some of the topics interesting while others not so much.

What a confusing topic. What I did learn from this book...which was first published in 2017 and already seems out of date?.....that the end of money is probably not just around the corner. This is probably a good introduction to cryptocurrency and it's fascinating history. None of the systems of exchange that people seem to have come up with seem to be foolproof. There were a group of techos ..including the mysterious Satoshi Nakamoto (who initiated Bitcoin) who came up with the idea of using technology and computers as a way of ensuring proof of exchange over the internet.
It seems to me to boil down to an issue of trust. With normal export contracts for example a seller in one country sells to a buyer in another country and there are two main issues: have the correct goods been shipped/delivered and has the buyer paid for them? To ensure that this process works both parties typically use trusted intermediaries...normally Banks. And the banks themselves are really relying on the trust that has been built up over a period with the correspondent bank in the other country. But even with this process ....many things can go wrong and have gone wrong. (Inferior quality goods may be supplied, one of the banks may default, and so on).
Bitcoin is built around a block-chain system whereby each transaction is protected with a private key (which one person holds) and a public key which is available to all. It also relies on new "coins" being added to the system via work done by computers.....and this seems to be a significant barrier to expansion. The computers have to work for long periods to solve complex problems and this takes time and energy...massive amounts of energy. So these are physical limits..you have to provide proof of work to gain new coins.
All sorts of innovations have been developed to get around these physical limits.....providing several "levels" of trusted and less trusted computers, for example. Or "proof of stake" with another system.
Most of these systems seem to have been vulnerable to somebody who gets a 51% share and therefore can call the shots....or they underestimate human nature ..."why would anybody want to do that ...it's not logical?" .....But people still do that. And so on. My impressions from reading this book are that the blockchain idea and technology still offers a lot of promise ...but it seems to be doing best where it's being employed by the existing financial services network ...with it's time-tested systems of experience and trust in-built. But there is a huge amount of work going on to use the block chain technology for all sorts of other applications ...such as exchange of contracts, or health records, or local networks for trading solar energy. Probably where the systems are small everything will be fine but with huge numbers involved and the potential for slip ups...either in programming, or human errors ..if something can go wrong (Murphy's law)....it WILL go wrong.
I must say that I come away from this book slightly bewildered by the plethora of activity that is taking place across the spectrum of block chain technology. But have we seen the end of money? ...well probably not because, as the authors point out "the creation of money through credit, the lynchpin of financial technology since the Renaissance period, is impossible with cryptocurrency. So, cryptocurrencies are unlikely to replace the role of money and credit any time soon.

A brilliant and eclectic collection of alternative realities concerned with all sorts of scenarios from dinosaurs to the final heat death of the universe. This sand box is a great place to start doing some research on alternative realities and is very thought provoking. Very good.

THE TROUBLE WITH REALITY: INSIDE THE DISTURBING WORLD OF QUANTUM THEORY by New Scientist magazine, is a book that will move you. Either it will move you to try to understand the concepts surrounding subatomic particles, their interactions and how this is leading to a greater understanding of the world, or it will move you to cuss a blue streak, hurl the book at the wall and storm off to get several strong drinks.
Or both.
I will admit that I didn't understand this book on the first read. I got a little more warm to the concepts after the third or fourth go through, but I still don't understand it all. I suppose I'm too grounded in the reality of family and work and trying to enjoy a summer day than wondering how the universe works in such minute ways.
This is a very good introduction to the field of quantum mechanics, although the part of the book cover that says "Instant Expert" is misleading. Instant expert? Really guys? No one is an instant expert in this field. In fact it feels as if the only experts are those who have given up trying to understand it and have accepted the strange and seemingly arbitrary rules associated with this alien world within.
Take the multiple universe concept. Every action you take causes multiple other universes to form, some in which you have taken the action, others where you did not, other where the situation was avoided, etc., etc., etc.
Do you cut the blue wire or the red? Universes arise.
Did you notice the yellow wire? More universes.
Did you let the drop of sweat drip off your nose, shake your head to free it into space, use the back of your hand to wipe it away, or notice it at all. Multiple, multiple, multiple.
Every decision you make, or don't make, or should have made but didn't think of, leads to multiple pathways in multiple universes. Utopias are created and hells are unleashed, all though your decision.
But it is not just your decisions, it is everyone's decisions.
And with the concept of the multiverse, you never know what you have unleashed in all the rest of the universes.
And you don't know if you are a part of the original or merely some bizarro offshoot from what was meant to be reality. Come to think of it, that might help explain the state of American politics in 2017.
And it is not just humans, but all living things, all contributing to the ongoing creation of trillions and trillions and trillions of other universes. The concept is overwhelming.
Which leads us back to one of the first tools in the logisticians box of tricks. Occam's Razor.
The theory of multiple universes makes us all into gods creating no one knows what out there (or in here or around the dimensional corner) and with or without the rules we come to recognize here.
If there really is a here.
So perhaps we could lay off the multiple realities for a bit and start working on quantum teleportation because that is something I can get behind.
At least I can here in this dimension.
This is not the easiest book I have ever read, but then the thoughts are so contrary to what we and see and sense that it must be extremely difficult to grasp, even for a talented physicist.
Don't feel bad if you don't understand everything, or anything, that is talked about here, because I don't. The authors have done their best is bring a mind-boggling series of thoughts into an everyday world and, to a great extent, they have succeeded. But even Einstein didn't understand this stuff.

De lo que realmente sucedió en el Big Bang a la invención casual del post-it, la ciencia está llena de descubrimientos sorprendentes. ¿Sabías, por ejemplo, por qué si te acercas demasiado a un agujero negro te succionará como a un fideo (por cierto, se llama «espaguetización»)? New Scientist lo sabe, y te lo explica de manera clara y amena, a través de fotos, infografías y símbolos para informar y entretener al mismo tiempo. Graham Lawton, editor jefe de New Scientist, y la ilustradora Jennifer Daniel emprenden un asombroso viaje lleno de información y revelaciones, desde los orígenes de nuestro Universo (la historia de las estrellas, las galaxias, los meteoritos, la Luna y la energía oscura), haciendo parada en nuestro planeta (los secretos de los océanos, el clima y el petróleo), donde conocerás las claves de la vida (los organismos, las emociones y el sexo), el surgimiento de la civilización (con sus ciudades, la cocina y la destilación), del conocimiento (desde los alfabetos a la alquimia) y de la tecnología (de las herramientas primitivas a la ciencia espacial).

And 114 other questions

A very nice collection of longer articles from New Scientist on the theme of Nothing in various forms. I particularly like the cosmology (of course), and all there pieces are interesting in informative, although I have issues with the several that centre on the placebo (and nocebo) effects. These do highlight what can sometimes be a weakness of this type of article, that while explaining an apparent phenomenon it is presented in far too uncritical a fashion, which can lead the less informed reader to place too great a weight on the effect., a particular problem when it is picked up by the general media and further amplified or warped.

This book provides answers to 191 questions submitted by readers and editors of New Scientist magazine.
The format is question followed by answer- around 1-2 pages for each. The answers are attributed, however some would appear to have been submitted by people with an interest in the subject rather than any particular experience or qualifications. I'm left wondering the level of academic rigor the answers are subjected to. On occasions the answers provide a range of possibilities instead of a definitive answer.
In any case, I found the book to be an interesting read and I learned a number of things from the questions and answers.

Indeholder "Introduction", "1. Our bodies", " Contusion confusion", " Congener congeniality", " Poison pen", " High brow", " Life in a glass", " Blubber bullets", " Fossil record", " Delayed reaction", " The sandman cometh", " Growth areas", " Waxing lyrical", " Dead end", " Head trauma", " Raising an army", " Does my bum...?", " Mr Blobby", " Skin creep", " What goes in...", " Natal knots", " Thunk!", " Bodily breeding", " Google-eyed", "2. Plants and animals", " Chorus line", " Fly, fly away", " Living bath", " Siren screams", " Shell shock", " Living on stone", " Toxic tatties", " Mole holes", " Walking tall", " Who needs nine lives?", " Don't bee home late", " Vicious fruit", " Flying V", " Dem bones", " In the dock", " A sting in the mouth", "3. Domestic science", " Bluto strikes back", " Beer orders", " Spectral images", " Whisking disaster", " Concerned consumer", " Pickled poser", " Dunking dumplings", " Spice attack", " Rubber horror", " Citric secret", " The black stuff?", " Light bite", " Cream on", " Honey monster", " Gurgle time", " Changing tastes", " Curious cuppa", " Indestructible wine", " A long drink", " Shock value", " Honey, I'm bendy", " Grey matter", " Heated hop", "4. Our universe", " Planet pinball", " Which way to turn?", " Turn left at Mars", " No more moon", " Low-gravity lager", " Gnab gib", "5. Our planet", " Dump it in the mantle", " Water, water...", " Hidden depths", " Concrete jungle", " Seasonal shift", " Lava wave", " Coast to coast", " Pingu's pleasure", " Shrinking world", " Balance of power", " Wave goodbye", "6. Weird weather", " No-ball snow", " Which way, Captain?", " Ice art", " Heavy weather", " Heavy or light", " Forest of fear", " Knowing your dews", "7. Troublesome transport", " Wrap up well", " Lighting up", " Pre-inventing the wheel", " Sea legs", " Titanic explosions", " Hail the ale", " Tread mills", " Ship shifting", " Pane barrier", " Fasten seatbelts", "8. Best of the rest", " Family line", " Cold surface", " Killer chemical", " Pipe dreams", " Received pronunciation", " War nuts", "Index".

En masse spørgsmål om ting, man kan undre sig over. Fx hvad første verdenskrig havde at gøre med hestekastanjer og hvor mange grønne kartofler man kan spise før man dør af det.

I am fascinated by nothing, and this is a fine collection of articles all about different nothings. Well written for the lay-person (for which I'm grateful).

This volume is a collection of the highest-rated questions and answers from the New Scientist magazine's Last Word column. The column, which is almost like a moderated forum for New Scientist's highly knowledgeable readership, is available freely online at:
http://www.newscientist.com/topic/lastword/

The goal is to provide answers to daily science questions which are not easily 'google-able.'

This does beg the question: if all of this material (and more) is already online to be read, why the book?
I think it's a valid question, however, if not for the existence of this book, I more-than-likely would still be unaware of the magazine's existence, and I undoubtedly would not yet have read all the fascinating tidbits of information here, which are nicely arranged (roughly) by topic.
As it is, I did read the whole book, and I'm considering becoming a subscriber to the magazine, which looks a lot more reliable and informative than say, 'Popular Science.'

Many thanks to NetGalley for providing me with a review copy of this book and also for thus introducing me to New Scientist! As always, my opinions are my own.