The Accidental Universe by Alan Lightman

This book was a collection of lectures on cosmology.  I thought I’d make the gist of my comments about further readings, sometimes podcasts, that each “chapter” of his brought to mind for me.

This was a new format for me to use in writing about a book.  So I asked my muse (ex-wife Gisela, if it would work).  She wrote:
All the links work if you pay attention and use Ctrl Click. It will ask you to do that..  For the Scientific American podcast it will ask you to subscribe to Apple iTunes RSS, but it works without it.  For YouTube it opens the webpages, but if you don't pay attention you don't see them, because they open behind the browser page, This might be idiosyncratic to my computer, but then, maybe not.  What I am trying to say is: every link works if you take your time and pay attention. None of them work with just a mouse click.  GISELA

1. The Accidental Universe
The lead-off lecture is on the mind-bending theory of the Multiverse.  I’ve picked up on the article, 5 Reasons We May Live in a Multiverse[1] (click below), written by Clara Moskowitz, SPACE.com December 07, 2012.
But there was also the introduction of the idea of Dark things: matter & energy.
I liked the current National Geographic issue, February 2016 article, “Hidden Cosmos”.
I got to it through, http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/01/hidden-cosmos/ferris-text but I don’t think that’s going to work from my Word document.

2. The Temporary Universe

A conversation between Steve Minsky and George Musser on Sept 21^st, 2010 titled, “Could Time End[2] - Scientific American”.  I still remember this article blowing my Sci-Fi mind, as it describes time winding down.
I found it at http://www.scientificamerican.com/podcast/episode/could-time-end-10-09-21/#

3. The Spiritual Universe
I can think of nothing more on point about science and religion than the movie “Contact” two decades ago.  That was clearly the theme of the book and the movie, from start to finish.  I’ll try and include a URL from uTube to remind us all about the movie version.
But first read Roger Ebert’s 2011 reprise of his thoughts on Contact.
http://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/great-movie-contact-1997
Trailer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SRoj3jK37Vc
Sorry about the 10-second advertisement.

4. The Symmetrical Universe

  Alan waxes poetic about symmetry in art and nature, but the scientific symmetry he talks about is at the Quantum level.  I thought I’d introduce http://smc-quantum-physics.com/blog.php a current Canadian blog.  If you go to this, click on the navigational tab, “Theses”.  I though the one labelled “Time asymmetric extensions of general relativity” was a perfect way to take a reality check from all the “layman’s articles” we’re reading. All the guys like Alan Lightman and Carl Sagan are real physicists that can read this stuff like we read poetry.  They think in mathematics.
I’ve added this one for Padma & Robin:
 http://www.rroij.com/open-access/finding-bilateral-symmetry-of-the-human-brain-from-mri-33-37.pdf

5. The Gargantuan Universe – I will be passing out 8 X 10 glossy prints of parts of our infinitely large universe as party favors, courtesy of NASA’s Hubble Deep Space telescope.  [It’s our annual Valentine’s Day party].

6. The Lawful Universe – The reason I loved Science Fiction so much growing up was that it flaunted the known laws of nature.  People traveled at “warp” speed, had time machines, had robots smarter than humans, met alien cultures.  I guess these books didn’t flaunt the Laws as much as they discovered ways around the Laws of Nature.  Here’s a list of books that should go to that little 10-12 year old grandchild or cousin with an inquisitive mind.  We readers always like series, so Foundation, Lensman, Dune, and Gateway are great starters.  http://flavorwire.com/347374/awesome-infographic-the-best-selling-sci-fi-books-of-all-time

7. The Disembodied Universe --   I was just ten year’s old when my family moved to San Jose after World War II.  I was discovering libraries and book stores at that age.  Someone -- teacher, Cub Scout leader, church leader – took me/us to the Rosicrucian Museum and I became hooked on Astronomy and later Cosmology.  The planetarium show had the birth of the universe and of our solar system and all the stars in the sky. Awesome.  They’re still doing it.  Take someone.

http://egyptianmuseumscribe.blogspot.com/2009/02/dream-of-stars-brief-look-at-historic.html

 

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[1] 5 Reasons

[2] Sci Amer 2010 Sept 21

In the Unlikely Event by Judy Bloome 2016

This is a great fictional memoir: lots of little vignettes and remembrances, woven into short stories

It’s a large book ? 500 pages).  I didn’t have time to finish it before it was called back in.  I’ve been swamped of late and did maybe 15-20 pages a day, which wasn’t enough.

The writing style was pleasant, lightweight, which was good for me at this time.  The time period was the early 50’s which was very comfortable for me.  Many people don’t like to admit they were even alive at that time.

This was a new book and a best seller.  The library has multiple copies, but I’m sure each copy will be gobbled up quickly. 

 

Life Without Parole by Clare O'Donohue 2012

So, the author did some research on prisoners on “Death Row”.  The protagonist is many talented so she has wrangled a short term TV gig as the Director/Reporter for a show on the inside scoop of Life on Death Row.  Interviews and filming are spread over a six weeks, so she has time for accepting another TV gig on remodeling and opening a new restaurant.

Then one of the restaurateurs gets murdered.  And by this time she has bonded favorably with one and unfavorably with another murderer on Death Row. 

So of course she enlists the Death Row guys as expert “consultants” to help her solve the murder.  In the end the Death penalty is cancelled, at least for a while.

This was a Central library book club read that I thought I’d attend, but didn’t.  It was decent enough writing but the plot stories were thinly developed.