Reddit mentions: The best funny science books

I applaud your initiative and interest in wanting to learn more about QM. The advice I'll offer is based on your "having no physics background" and only pre-calculus math. That's ok, what matters more is the desire and application to learn more. I suggest that you initially stick with popular, layperson, conceptual materials and study them diligently and then keep going onto more in-depth materials.

I cannot in good faith recommend a single book about QM. I am going to offer a variety of materials (books, articles, videos) etc that I am either familiar with myself or others whose opinions I respect have recommended, and that I believe are at an appropriate level for you. From this and the other recommendations you receive, you'll probably find that you'll develop a feel for materials that are best for you. Also, for other book ideas, I highly suggest that you go to a local library and browse through the physics section and you'll probably find some books that appeal most to you.

The ideas below are in no particular order and you can pick and choose as you see fit:

For a preparatory short Scientific American article with some important to understand history and a lookahead to the future read 100 Years of Quantum Mysteries

Several people on reddit have highly recommended this LookingGlassUniverse video series on QM

For an easily accessible popular-level intro book, I've liked and many others have recommended How to Teach Physics to Your Dog by Chad Orzel.

I highly recommend a chapter from Sean Carroll's book From Eternity to Here on QM that he makes freely available on his website here. The book is not specifically about QM but this chapter is excellent and Sean Carroll is a clear, witty, and highly respected science communicator. This chapter has good material on the quantum wave function, the Schrödinger equation, and quantum indeterminacy.

Many have recommended the book by Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw titled The Quantum Universe. I thought chapters 2 and 3 of this book were very well done but was not as keen on the later chapters. Maybe you could find a copy at a library and see what you think.

There are also some excellent materials online. One series of lecture materials I think is very good is 21st Century Science that is at the University of Oregon website. It's an excellent self-contained series of lectures and does not require math skills. It's includes more than just QM, which I recommend that you include in your study.

A nice article: 10 Quantum Truths About Our Universe

The article What is the Physics of Nothing on the energy of the quantum vacuum or zero-point energy.

Article: How does Quantum Mechanics Allow the Sun to Shine

The following are materials I wouldn't recommend to start with, but they're really good and deserve consideration:

This wouldn't be complete without a reference to the great Richard Feynman's lecture series. Part III is specifically on Quantum Mechanics. This is a classic textbook that has been used in many high schools and colleges over the years. I don't recommend starting with this, but I include it in case it might interest you.

Another reference that I wouldn't start with but feel it's good to include it in this listing is The Quantum Physics Sequence

I like this article by theoretical physicist Matt Strasler: Quantum Fluctuations and Their Energy

If you want a conceptual look at quantum field theory, particle physicist Matthew Buckley has a good article on this that is part of a longer series on particle physics. Knowing about quantum fields is important subject matter.

Alright I hope you get this. Sounds like you are a lot like I was growing up. I would read a book a week and listen to two. haha. these were books i had to grow into a lot of times. so don't get discouraged. some of these are tough but they'll help you in the long run. promise.

anyways.. here's my list.

Foreign Policy

-Dying to Win- Science and strategy behind suicide terrorism

-Imperial Hubris- good book by a CIA vet on what to expect because of US foreign policy

-Blowback- Same type of book as above, but better.

-The Looming Tower- a good history and account for Sept 11






Economics and Money

-Freakonomics- Ever wonder about he economics of drug dealing, including the surprisingly low earnings and abject working conditions of crack cocaine dealers? This book is fantastic.

-Outliers- Gladwell is a master of minute detail. This book helps you focus on the future.

-Blink-Great book on intuitive judgement

-The Age of Uncertainty- the best book I've ever read on the fight between Capitalism and Communism

Biology and Science

-Why Do Men Have Nipples- a general Q&A book. Good for info you can use at a party or to impress somebody. really random stuff.

-A Short History of Nearly Everything- Humorous take on some heavy heavy science. Easier to read than people think.

-The Ancestors Tale- It was hard picking just one Dawkins book, so I gave you two.

-The Greatest Show on Earth- Dawkins is the world-standard for books on biology and evolution in layman's terms.

Good Novels

-1984-Hopefully no explanation needed

-A Brave New World- a different type of dystopian universe compared to 1984. read both back to back.

-The Brothers Karamazov- My favorite piece of Russian Literature. It made me think more than any other book on this list honestly. I can't recommend it enough.

-Catch-22- There are so many layers to this book. So much symbolism, so much allusion. You must pay attention to get the full affect of this book. Great satire. Masterfully written.

-Alas Babylon- Yet another dystopian novel. This time about what would happen after a world wide nuclear war.

-Slaughterhouse-5 Vonnegut is a badass. And that's really all there is to know. I read this book in one day. It was that good. Satire on WW2.

Philosophy

-Sophies World- Good intro to a lot of basic principles of the major philosophers

-Beyond Good and Evil- Nietzche can get REALLY depressing because he is a nihilist but this book is extremely quotable and will give fresh perspective on a lot of things.

-Atlas Shrugged- Ayn Rand's masthead. Its a novel, but its also a commentary on her precious objectivism.


So there you have it. My short list of books to read. I can get deeper into certain subjects if you want me to. Just PM me.

• Watch this Yale introductory course to the old testament. (multiple videos) It's eye-opening, all the actual facts about the old testament they don't tell you about in Sunday school class.
  
  
• The new testament course is interesting too, it's good to know when it was written and by who. Then consider how little is said of Jesus outside of the bible.
  
  
• Watch any debate between an atheist and a religious figure, try to figure out which ones are actually making points you can relate to, and why. Even though Bill Nye vs Ken Ham is fascinating, I'm thinking more of Bill Craig with Sam Harris or Chris Hitchens with Bill Craig.
  
  
• Read "A short history of nearly everything" and you'll see how science, including evolution, has gotten to where it is.
  
  I don't think I ever believed in a god.
  
  Certainly I was there on Sundays and testified to my friends if they asked, I was a pretty decent missionary's kid. I participated when called on, but didn't ever initiate anything religious, just went with the flow.
  
  Going to college was the first big step. Getting out of one bubble, but that got substituted for another containing a Christianity I didn't recognize. I stopped going to church, never liked it, even worse than school ... because I wasn't learning anything. Every sermon, class, lesson I heard over and over. In college, without parents to drag me out of bed, I started appreciating that sweet Sunday morning sleep a lot more instead.
  
  (The singing was fun though)
  
  I started questioning everything about my faith, for 2 years trying to make new information and new personal convictions fit into what I already believed. It became harder and harder to do. At first it was easy, some shifting and everything fit in perfectly. But that wasn't working anymore.
  
  One night, I wanted to let it all go, start from scratch, but too terrified that I would change and wouldn't be the same "good" person I took myself for.
  
  I decided that whatever was true would present itself when approaching it with a clear mind, just practice healthy skepticism, roll every new idea around in my head and see it from every possible angle, I was always good at thinking exercises, decent at deductions, the truth would present itself. I had to trust that.
  
  Years went by and I realized how little religion was a part of my life, how little I cared for it. How little sense it made, especially after being gone for a while and going to a service ... it felt like a cult.
  
  Being a moral person is about making that decision, not something that comes from faith, faith that if you don't do it the destination will be hell...
  
  For a long time it was all I could think about, I took in books, debates, documentaries, anything that stirred the controversy. Now, it's just another (weird) thing on this planet that I get reminded of from time to time.
  

He sounds like a younger version of myself! Technical and adventurous in equal measure. My girlfriend and I tend to organise surprise activities or adventures we can do together as gifts which I love - it doesn't have to be in any way extravegant but having someone put time and thought into something like that it amazing.

You could get something to do with nature and organise a trip or local walk that would suit his natural photography hobby. I love to learn about new things and how stuff works so if he's anything like me, something informative that fits his photography style like a guide to local wildflowers or bug guide. I don't know much about parkour but I do rock climb and a beginners bouldering or climbing session might also be fun and something you can do together.

For a more traditional gift Randall Munroe from the web comic XKCD has a couple of cool books that might be of interest - Thing Explainer and What If. Also the book CODE is a pretty good book for an inquisitive programmer and it isn't tied to any particular language, skillset or programming level.

1. I'd definitely choose to spend my day picking my nose through every single conversation. I work with kids so they'd think it was HILARIOUS! Also, I could preface every single interaction with "It was either this or sand in my underwear and a pebble in my shoe".
   
2. No shoes, because shoes are the worst!
   
3. I don't really care all that much about apps... but I like the FalconPRO app for Twitter. It's pretty HSLD.
   
4. Macaroni and cheese :)
   
5. That when they were wearing shoes/boots and socks and driving, the bottoms of their feet would itch.
   
6. Hawaii. I would like to go because my best friend's hubby is stationed out there, so we would have a place to crash. I imagine it's very sunburn-y out there (I am a pasty, pasty lady). And gloriously warm and sunny. Really, I imagine it is the opposite of where I am now.
   
7. Person who can jam the most rusty nails through their hands (must provide pics for proof!) will win a wishlist item of my choosing <$5!!
   
8. There are number of land reserves that have pretty remote areas. You could build yourself a pretty solid camp and no one would notice. It's happened before here in Maine.
   
9. My dog and I would perform a duet where I bark "Jingle Bells" and she howls at me.
   
10. This is one of the best works of non-fiction I have ever read. My husband just finished this and absolutely loved it. He described it as fantastical historical fiction.
    
11. As a summer camp director, I am a legally bound mandated reporter. What that means is that if I suspect a child has been abused or neglected at home, I have to report that to the state. It is my least favorite part of my job.
    
12. Ah crap, you caught me with Pokemon cards. In my defense - I was bringing them in to give away, since I haven't touched them since 1998. (We don't allow Pokemon cards, or any other trading/gaming cards at after care or camp for a number of reasons. Not just because kids lose them or they make trades they regret, but because we do have kids whose families can't afford them and it makes those kids feel like shit.)
    
13. Did you go to summer camp as a kid? If you did - what's your favorite camp song? If not - what's your favorite silly song from your childhood?
    
14. The sound of someone forcefully dragging a knife across a plate.
    
15. That look my dog gives me that lets me know she loves me unconditionally <3
    
16. "No longer from head to foot than from hip to hip, she is spherical, like a globe, I could find out countries in her". Because COME ON! it is totally the original yo' momma is so fat joke.
    
17. Calamity Jane, Nefertiti, Captain Jack
    
18. In the kitchen at work, preparing snack for the middle schoolers.
    
19. I was a deviled egg. I wore a white t-shirt, taped a yellow construction paper oval to my tummy, and had devils horns/pitchfork/tail.
    
20. I sure did! No one I voted for won, but that wasn't the point.

I highly recommend science oriented books. Science is no "Maybe, perhaps, whatever", it is clear: facts are true when they are proven as such, and wrong when proven as wrong. There are theories everywhere but no one relies on them before they aren't proven right nowadays.


For a good summary of science, I recommend „A Short History of Nearly Everything". It really is about everything that regards progress in science: From Physics and chemistry, over geology and cosmology to anthropology and evolution. It is a pleasure to read, very well written and researched.


For more detailed, yet very accessible physics and explanations of the universe, there is "Big Bang".


Then there are things that - in my eyes - are beyond anything that TRP touches. Medical conditions which impair your sensory organs or rather the areas of your brain that process those sensations: Complete failure of a brain area, malfunctions in processing, illnesses. Those are very interesting stories and will make you think outside of your box. What would you do if this happened to you? How do people build a life around this? What does it feel and look like inside an affected persons head? Oliver Sacks has written a few books about those conditions/cases. He has a very pleasant and personal style of writing down his stories about the patients or even himself.

Quite analogue to that I recommend the series "Dr. House" if you are interested in that topic.


I can only recall those two from the top of my head. Of course, there are other topics which are interesting as well:

Philosophy (see: Arthur Schopenhauer, Friedrich Nietzsche, Platon), ancient poetry (see: Vergil, Homer, Alighieri) [because this indeed is for the most part fictional, you learn a lot about the spirit of the times], psychology, economy, paleontology, anthropology, etc etc.

Also, you shouldn't miss out on reading up about how cars/car engines are built and how they work (there are great animations of this on Youtube), this can come in handy if you want to repair one or get an idea of what features are worth your money. Same goes for computer technologies, household equipment. Basically I recommend to read up on every technical or even economical topic to be up to date.


As well, you can do researches about daily things. The internet is great at getting you those informations. But be sceptical, everyone on the internet can write articles about anything.

Often times it's the things we don't notice that have the most impact: linguistic (the history of bascially all languages is very exciting), where resources come from (nuclear plants - on this topic I found a well researched article/book on reddit regarding
Chernobyl -, coal power stations, wood clearing, purification plants, oil producers, mining, opencast mining, fishing, farming, animal breeding), the many climate zones of the globe and which one you live in, flora and fauna of the globe, the sea and especially the deep sea.


You get the idea. Turn your head around 360° and look under the surface of things. Lift a rock to see what is underneath, there is a lot to discover.

Einstein I would say wait a little bit, he assumes a pretty decent mathematical background in his readers, so it can get a bit tricky.

Hawking, meh. The man's a genius but he's not good at explaining physics to laypeople imo. His books seem to state things without any indication of how physicists arrived at those conclusions, so they're a bit of a head scratcher for newbies.

I would say DeGrasse Tyson, Brian Cox and Michio Kaku are fairly easy jumping off points, but you'll soon get tired of hearing the same analogies. When that happens, move onto the slightly deeper books of Brian Greene and John Gribbin. Leave authors like Leonard Susskind, Roger Penrose and Max Tegmark until later, they're pretty heavy.

All of the above are pop science/astrophysics books that deal in exciting, puzzling things at the frontier of knowledge. If you're just looking for a grounding in more mundane everyday physics then you can do a lot worse than to take the free math and physics courses over at Khan Academy and then follow them up with the more advanced free ones at The Theoretical Minimum site. If you knuckle down through those you'll be at undergrad level physics by the end of it, which is honestly about as far as you can go with self teaching imo.

I found it useful to learn the history of things too. Understanding how conclusions were drawn makes the crazy-sounding theories much easier to comprehend. Bill Bryson's book "A Short History of Nearly Everything" is a great overview, and you can follow it up with books specific to the different eras of discovery... Recentering the Universe was a good one for the earliest eras of Copernicus and Galileo. James Gleick's Isaac Newton covers the classical mechanics era. Faraday, Maxwell and the Electromagnetic Field takes you the next step. Then you can get onto Einstein and relativity, of which there are a million and one choices. Then onto quantum mechanics, of which there are even more choices... :-)

Hope that helps.

If you want to just know buzzwords to throw around, spend a bunch of time clicking around on Wikipedia, and watch stuff like Crash Course on YouTube. It's easy to absorb, and you'll learn stuff, even if it's biased, but at least you'll be learning.

If you want to become SMARTER, one of my biggest pieces of advice is to either carry a notebook with you, or find a good note taking app you like on your phone. When someone makes a statement you don't understand, write it down and parse it up.

So for instance, write down "Social Democracy", and write down "The New Deal", and go look them up on simple.wikipedia.com (Put's all of it in simplest language possible), it's a great starting point for learning about any topic, and provides you a jumping board to look more deeply into it.

If you are really curious about starting an education, and you absolutely aren't a reader, some good books to start on are probably:

"Thing Explainer: Complicated Stuff in Simple Words" by Randall Munroe

"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

"Philosophy 101" by Paul Kleinman, in fact the ____ 101 books are all pretty good "starter" books for people that want an overview of a topic they are unfamiliar with.

"The World's Religions" by Huston Smith

"An Incomplete Education" by Judy Jones and Will Wilson

Those are all good jumping off points, but great books that I think everyone should read... "A History of Western Philosophy" by Bertrand Russell, "Western Canon" by Harold Bloom, "Education For Freedom" by Robert Hutchins, The Norton Anthology of English Literature; The Major Authors, The Bible.

Read anything you find critically, don't just swallow what someone else says, read into it and find out what their sources were, otherwise you'll find yourself quoting from Howard Zinn verbatim and thinking you're clever and original when you're just an asshole.

Haha... OK.

The following post was meant for this thread, but I posted here by mistake. Let me repost it for you below.

> An excellent starting point is Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Almost universally praised, this history of scientific thought covers... well, nearly everything. The basics, like physics, biology, chemistry, and then stuff like cosmology, evolution, quantum mechanics, environmental science... the list goes on and on.

>Very readable, not aimed at technical audience. Highly recommended.

>Once you have finished that (and it is a big book), you can then home in on areas of particular interest. For me, it's evolutionary theory, paleoanthropology, quantum mechanics, primatology and so on. If you have particular interests in those areas, please let me know.

>And I simply can't leave without recommending my favourite book that combines wonderful history and science. You simply must pick up and read a copy of the Pulitzer Prize winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. Not only will you learn about the history of WWII, the amazing feats of the American government in achieving what they did, but also the science of atomic theory and the beginning of quantum mechanics. This is, quite simply, a wonderful book.

Random selection of some of my favorites to help you expand your horizons:

The Demon-Haunted World by Carl Sagan is a great introduction to scientific skepticism.

Letter to a Christian Nation by Sam Harris is a succinct refutation of Christianity as it's generally practiced in the US employing crystal-clear logic.

Augustus: The Life of Rome's First Emperor by Anthony Everitt is the best biography of one of the most interesting men in history, in my personal opinion.

Travels with Herodotus by Ryszard Kapuscinski is a jaw-dropping book on history, journalism, travel, contemporary events, philosophy.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a great tome about... everything. Physics, history, biology, art... Plus he's funny as hell. (Check out his In a Sunburned Country for a side-splitting account of his trip to Australia).

The Annotated Mona Lisa by Carol Strickland is a thorough primer on art history. Get it before going to any major museum (Met, Louvre, Tate Modern, Prado, etc).

Not the Impossible Faith by Richard Carrier is a detailed refutation of the whole 'Christianity could not have survived the early years if it weren't for god's providence' argument.

Six Easy Pieces by Richard Feynman are six of the easier chapters from his '63 Lectures on Physics delivered at CalTech. If you like it and really want to be mind-fucked with science, his QED is a great book on quantum electrodynamics direct from the master.

Lucy's Legacy by Donald Johanson will give you a really great understanding of our family history (homo, australopithecus, ardipithecus, etc). Equally good are Before the Dawn: Recovering the Lost History of Our Ancestors by Nicholas Wade and Mapping Human History by Steve Olson, though I personally enjoyed Before the Dawn slightly more.

Memory and the Mediterranean by Fernand Braudel gives you context for all the Bible stories by detailing contemporaneous events from the Levant, Italy, Greece, Egypt, etc.

After the Prophet by Lesley Hazleton is an awesome read if you don't know much about Islam and its early history.

Happy reading!

edit: Also, check out the Reasonable Doubts podcast.

I've immersed myself in science and history my whole life and quite possibly the best book I've ever come across that condenses everything in a sequential order is "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson.

> In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail—well, most of it. In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand—and, if possible, answer—the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the world’s most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, traveling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.

The book is simply amazing. I learn something new from it everytime I read it and I highly recommend it to everyone from an uneducated teenager to a PhD carrying senior!

While you're at it, I would also recommend the rest of his books. Bryson is an amazing nonfiction writer (I daresay one of the best in the world) and his penmanship will captivate you. Just search for him on Amazon and pick another one of his books up in a category that interests you as he writer about a very broad range of topics.

Edit: Also, I highly recommend "Guns, Germs, and Steel" by Jared M. Diamond. and Freakonomics by Steven D. Levitt

I second the reading idea! Ask your history or science teachers for suggestions of accessible books. I'm going to list some that I found interesting or want to read, and add more as I think of them.

A short history of nearly everything by Bill Bryson. Title explains it all. It is very beginner friendly, and has some very entertaining stories. Bryson is very heavy on the history and it's rather long but you should definitely make every effort to finish it.

Lies my teacher told me

The greatest stories never told (This is a whole series, there are books on Presidents, science, and war as well).

There's a series by Edward Rutherfurd that tells history stories that are loosely based on fact. There are books on London and ancient England, Ireland, Russia, and one on New York

I read this book a while ago and loved it- Autobiography of a Tibetan Monk It's about a monk who was imprisoned for 30 years by the Chinese.

The Grapes of Wrath.

Les Misérables. I linked to the unabridged one on purpose. It's SO WORTH IT. One of my favorite books of all time, and there's a lot of French history in it. It's also the first book that made me bawl at the end.

You'll also want the Adventures of Tom Sawyer, To Kill a Mockingbird, The Great Gatsby, The Federalist Papers.

I'm not sure what you have covered in history, but you'll definitely want to find stuff on all the major wars, slavery, the Bubonic Plague, the French Revolution, & ancient Greek and Roman history.

As for science, find these two if you have any interest in how the brain works (and they're pretty approachable).
Phantoms in the brain
The man who mistook his wife for a hat

Alex and Me The story of a scientist and the incredibly intelligent parrot she studied.

For a background in evolution, you could go with The ancestor's tale

A biography of Marie Curie

The Wild Trees by Richard Preston is a quick and easy read, and very heavy on the adventure. You'll also want to read his other book The Hot Zone about Ebola. Absolutely fascinating, I couldn't put this one down.

The Devil's Teeth About sharks and the scientists who study them. What's not to like?

My reccomendation would be The History of Science. Everything is available on YouTube in decent quality.

As a matter of overview, I would suggest Bill Bryson's a A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's a book, which requires reading, but there's an awesome illustrated version that's a good time. The book is as accessible as they come, and it's entertainingly written.

I would also suggest Cosmos, since you seem to be focused more on space. Both the original and the remake are available on Netflix. The original is my favorite, beucase Carl Sagan, but the remake is also a solid show, and probably more what you're looking for. There's also Through The Wormhole with Morgan Freeman, and a Stephen Hawking on the universe series which you might like. Pretty much everything is available on YouTube, just search "<show name>, long, hd".

It might be helpful if you give us a list of any books you've read that you did enjoy or genres you think you might like.

I have never met a person who didn't love Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy but it may not be your thing if you don't like wacked-out sci-fi so some general idea of your interests could help a ton with suggestions.

A Short History of Nearly Everything is a solid non-fiction

Robot Dreams is a great set of sci-fi short stories

Ender's Game gets a ton of hate but is a pretty great sci-fi

On A Pale Horse is an older series that I'd consider fantasy but with sci-fi elements

Where the Red Fern Grows is well loved fiction

A Zoo in My Luggage is non-fic but about animal collecting trips for a zoo and is hilarious.

Ah, I love non-fictin as well. Though most of my favorites are more science oriented, there should be a few on here that pique your interest.

• Salt: A World History - A fascinating history of humanity's favorite mineral. Wars have been fought over it, it sustained whole economies ... you'll be surprised to learn just how much of human history has been influenced by salt.
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything - One of my favorite books. Bryson tells the story and history of science through amazing discoveries and stories about the quirky people who made them.
  
• Homage to Catalonia - A mostly auto-biographical account of George Orwell's time fighting for the communists in the Spanish Civil War.
  
• Capital: Vol. 1 Marx's seminal work and a logically sound criticism of capitalism. Whether or not you agree with his proposed solutions, his criticism is spot on. Depending on how leftist you are, you may have already read The Communist Manifesto. It's a nice introduction to Marx's ideas, but you should really go straight to the source and just read Capital.
  
• Why We Believe What We Believe - The neurology of belief, what could be more interesting? The authors go into great detail on how belief happens at the neurological level, as well as summing up nicely all sorts of findings from differing fields relating to belief. The most interesting part is the research the authors themselves conducted: fMRI scans of people praying, Buddhist monks meditating, Pentecostals speaking in tongues, and an atheist meditating.

Well, one of the books I read that really got me started in cosmology and physics is Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos. I think it is his best book and talks a lot about the fundamentals of our universe. Brian Greene studies string theory and those bits are interesting, but just know that the theory is far from complete or proven. This one is definitely the most physics heavy suggestion.

Another book that I really enjoy is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It is essentially a history of science, and he covers a lot of topics. Many of which I knew almost nothing about when I read it. It puts into perspective how all the things we know came to be.

The next two recommendations are not books, but they still have a lot of great information in them. This first is a Youtube series called Crash Course Astronomy. The host is Phil Plait, one of the programmers involved with the Hubble Space Telescope. There are a lot of videos, so it would keep you busy and learning for a while.

The last recommendation is as close to the upper level undergraduate astronomy courses that I have taken without actually doing any math. It is a bunch of class lectures from Ohio State University that were recorded and released as a podcast about stellar astronomy and planetary astronomy. I found the lecturer's voice a little whiny at first, but I soon got past that because the content was so good. I kid you not, I listened to this ahead of my ASTRO 346 Stellar Astronomy class at my university, and I felt like the class concepts were almost a review.

All of those recommendations require you to do no math, but you only get a glimpse of the concepts that way. If you want to dive in more, you'll need to take a class or read a textbook on your own.

I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other questions about astronomy as a subject or as a course of study in school :)

A good book that is fun to read and has tons of anecdotes about scientific history is A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

In a similar vein, you can ponder the more mind-bending aspects of our Universe with Stephen Hawkings A Brief History of Time

Other than that you may find some interesting things in the works of Carl Sagan or Richard Dawkins (I personally recommend Dawkins's The Selfish Gene)

If you are sick of scientific titles you can also check out Freakonomics or The Worldly Philosphers

These Books are all written for a general audience so they go down pretty easy.

Deciding which major in College can be tricky - I was lucky since I knew exactly what I wanted to study before I left High School, but maybe some ideas in these books will pique your interest. My parents always told me to go to school to study something I love, and not to train for a job. I'm not so sure this advice carries through in "recovering" economy. You may want to factor in the usefulness of your degree post-college (but don't let that be the only thing you consider!).

Good Luck, and enjoy!

> He also frequently talks about his love of space and his extreme desire to venture out there

There's this book, Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void, that has astronauts talk about how it actually is to be in space, it's filled with stories from engineers, researchers, some history of space flight and a ton of trivia. Your boyfriend might really like it and at $14 you can add other small gifts.

If he's more visual, he might also enjoy Universe by Martin Rees, a visual guide to the Universe - the pages are filled with pictures and interesting facts, everything we know about the Universe, very interesting and stunning to look at. Admittedly more expensive at $35 considering the high quality pictures.

Shameless self promotion coming right up too:

> Walking Dead [...] Comic Con

By any chance, he might like The Walking Dead Boardgame and you could both play together or with friends.

With video games, it all depends on what games he plays. Portal? This Portal 2 Desk Defender is very fun to play with and so is this Wheatley LED Flashlight. I'm not sure what else to suggest from your details, maybe it would give you a few ideas if you checked my SO and mine's website, introduce some details about him and see what gifts come up if they catch your eye.

I hope some things were useful!

Sure.

If evolution is of interest to you (and if you have interest in the intersection between theology and science), Finding Darwin's God by Kenneth Miller explores both sides of the debate and debunks many common misconceptions about evolution. I first read it in a college biology topics course.

If you like the topic of 'creationist attempts to dispute or disrupt the teaching of evolution in the classroom', Summer of the Gods, about the Scopes Monkey Trial, is a great book (although not explicitly about science).

You may find The Selfish Gene by Dawkins worth a read.

Books by Mary Roach can be fun; I've read Stiff and enjoyed it, and Packing for Mars was pretty good as well.

I have heard good things about The Emperor of All Maladies, though I haven't read it myself.

Our Stolen Future, about contamination of the environment by artificially produced estrogen and estrogen analogs, is dated but interesting.

The Discovery of Insulin by Bliss is a great story about how science happens and how scientific discovery occurs, and it lays out what may be the most important discovery in medical science during the 20th century.

Were those types of books what you were looking for?

I've always heard good things about Edgar Rice Burrough's The Land that Time Forgot though I've sadly never read it myself. And, hey, it's free!

As far as science non-fiction, I consider A Short History of Nearly Everything to be absolutely essential since it covers so very much in a tremendously entertaining way. Also, if you are interested in physics but don't have any background in it I recommend any of Michio Kaku's books such as his latest Physics of the Future. He writes in an accessible manner that distills all the things that make the ongoing developments in physics exciting. I credit reading his books many years ago with getting me started in the sciences. Lastly, for learning about the universe, you can never go far wrong with Carl Sagan's Cosmos. It is easy to see from reading it why he is considered one of the greatest of the science popularizers.

Great Question. I was thinking about my own history. I wish there was a good single Codex, like handing out Bibles. I'd say read books broadly, read well, listen to debate, study the free MOOC courses online like edx.org. Always have a consciousness above what you are listening/reading that takes the mental exercise to evaluate: what works and what flaws there are in things, even ideas you love. I think books on Science history are especially helpful, like Byson's A Short History of nearly Everything or Boortin's The Discoverers

I actually see a lot of parallels between your situation and where I found myself at your age. It was 14 or 15 that I really developed an interest in science, because before that I hadn't really been properly exposed before that. Fast forward 6 or 7 years, I'm now a third year university student studying physics and I love it; I'll be applying to PhD programs next fall.

Like you, astronomy (by which I broadly mean astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, etc.) was what really caught my attention. In school, I liked all the sciences and had always been good at math (calculus was by far one of my favorite high school courses because the science can be pretty watered down).

If you're interested in learning more about astrophysics, I would recommend any one of a number of books. The first book on the topic that I read was Simon Singh's Big Bang; I read a couple Brian Greene books, namely The Elegant Universe and Fabric of the Cosmos; I read Roger Penrose's Cycles of Time, and finally Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. Also, I bought a book by Hawking and one by Michio Kaku that, to this day, sit on a shelf at my parents' house unread. I would recommend Singh's book as a nice book that should be at your level, and in fact it was the one recommended to me by some professors who I bugged with questions about the universe when I was around your age. Also, Bryson's book is a good survey look at a lot of different scientific topics, not just astrophysics/cosmology specific; I enjoyed it quite a lot.

As far as reaching out to people, I would recommend trying to connect with some scientists via email. That's what I did, and they were more responsive than I expected (realize that some of the people will simply not respond, probably because your email will get buried in their inbox, not out of any ill-will towards you).

At this point, I'll just stop writing because you've more than likely stopped reading, but if you are still reading this, I'd be more than happy to talk with you about science, what parts interest(ed) me, etc.

I don't have the book to hand to check for the exact quote (and his references) but the excellent pop-sci A Short History of Nearly Everything mentions this in a similar context, but notes that a certain amount of time has to pass to ensure complete dispersal of the atoms in question.

So while it might be true of things some thousand years ago, the probability of this being true for this a maximum of ~3-4 decades is significantly decreased.

Obviously the type of element is going to matter a lot - solids migrate slower than liquids, and much slower than gases, but I'm not even sure how you'd put a proper number on it.

This seems like something of a Fermi Problem to me. It's quite possible that Avogadro wins, and 10^23 * $really_small_probability has in fact happened.

I'm doing the same thing. At the beginning of my story, the young protagonist from an old earth colony "runs away" from the planet by stowing onto a departing spaceship. Why would he have to run away to have a chance at a life in space if the planet's colonized?

Whenever I explain the premise, everyone's immediately enchanted and captivated. It's immensely compelling. And it's throwaway background for the setting of the book. It would only be mentioned in passing as exposition.

It's probably a sign that I'm writing the wrong book.

The best thing to do is to get in the habit of thinking of things logically. Look at Star Trek? Massive computer cores and printed digital readouts with data tapes. Black stars (the term "black hole" was finalized a year after the episode). Half of everything makes logical if sometimes dated sense for 1967, and the other half became real in the intervening 45 years because it inspired engineers.

So decide if you're doing hard sci-fi (technology-based, hard science), soft sci-fi (person- or situation-based, lesser or no focus on science) or space opera (pew pew lol space adventure!) and work from there. watch 2001: A Space Odyssey. Read about the NASA moon programs Gemini, Mercury, and Apollo, read about Skylab, and read about the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project. Know that in Russian that last one's called Экспериментальный полёт «Союз» — «Аполлон»: "Experimental flight Soyuz-Apollo".

Real life will teach you quite a lot about how humans get along, much less aliens. And history can often come alive. I mean, just look what I found in the absolute best book at the library about life in space?

You can also look at various resources. Probably the far more comprehensive (and second-most fun) was Packing for Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.

Just give an intriguing premise with a consistent setting and compelling human characters and the rest will fall into place.

• Naked Statistics by Charles Wheelan is a great overview of the science of statistics, without being too much like a lecture. After reading it, you'll have a better understanding of what statistics are just silly (like in ads or clickbait news) and what are actually important (like in scientific studies).
  
  
• You on a Diet by Roizen and Oz is touted as a diet book, and it kind of is. I recommend it because it's a great resource for basic understanding the science behind the gastrointestinal system, and how it links to the brain.
  
  
• All of Mary Roach's books are excellent overviews of science currently being done, I've read Stiff (the science of human bodies, post-mortem), Spook ("science tackles the afterlife"), Packing for Mars (the science of humans in space), and Bonk (sex), and they are all very easy to understand, but scientifically appropriate. I'm sure "Gulp" is good too, although I haven't read that one yet.
  
  
• "How I Killed Pluto and Why It Had It Coming" by Mike Brown is a great, accessible overview of exactly why Pluto was demoted to dwarf planet, told by the man who started the controversy.
  
  
• "A Brief History of Time" by Stephen Hawking is a little denser, material-wise, but still easy to understand (as far as theoretical physics goes, at least!). Hawking explains the history of physics and the universe, as well as the future of the discipline. While there is a bit more jargon than some pop-science books, I think an entry-level scientist can still read and understand this book.
  

You jest, but it turns out that selecting for these missions, along with stuff like selecting for astronauts, is mostly about stuff like how you get along with people. Researchers now believe that mixed gender teams are best precisely because you end up with pair bonding and stabler psychologies.

I strongly recommend the brilliant and readable PACKING FOR MARS which is all about this stuff. She talks to a lot of antarctic scientists.

http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life-ebook/dp/B003YJEXUM/

Don't know your budget and I don't know if he's into jewelry (necklaces, watches, earrings, etc.), but here are a couple of ideas centered around space/astronomy.

6$ (shipping not included)- Night Sky Playing cards. They are playing cards but designed with different constellations on the front of the cards.

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1591932424
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17.90$ (shipping and design choices not included)- Tiny Moon Necklace. Hard to describe but it looks really cool.

http://www.etsy.com/listing/218077949/tiny-moon-necklace-pendant-solar-system?
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145$ (shipping not included)- A constellation styled watch.

https://www.amazon.com/ASTRO-Constellation-Watch-Planisphere-Astronomy/dp/B00N63UADA
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11.80$ (shipping not included)- A book titled "What's It Like In Space?". It's a bunch of stories from Astronauts that have actually been in space.

https://www.amazon.com/dp/1452144761
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You could also go here and look at a list of space themed gifts. A couple of my gift ideas came from this site and stuff

https://www.geekwrapped.com/astronomy
------

Hope this helps.

Have a lovely day/night!

I love the Mental Floss History of the World and Mental Floss History of the United States. Those two may be exactly what you're looking for. Also, check out Sarah Vowell. Assasination Vacation is great. Bill Bryson's work is excellent. A Short History of Nearly Everything is mind-blowing and I've heard great things about At Home which is next on my reading list. :)

a really good starting book is

A short history of nearly everything

author Bill Bryson (born in Des Moines, Iowa, living in the UK most of his life) discovered he knew next to nothing about how stuff works. How we know things. Not because of a religious upbringing, but just because he was a hardcore linguist and had never studied science subjects. So he did what he does best, research and ask tons of people about everything and then he wrote a book.

And what a book! To quote the first 5 star reviewer in view on amazon: (almost everybody gives it 5 stars)
>" I cannot think of any other single-volume book I have ever read that was as informative, entertaining, and broad in scope as this classic. Not having excelled in science, nor been much interested in it when I was younger, this gem is a massive refresher course on everything I ever learned about science, and then some."

This book is an excellent introduction in every scientific subject you can think of and dozens others you never heard of. After reading it you can select those fields of study that interest you most and find books by scientists in that field that go deeper.

There are many editions of this book, including a fully illustrated one.

I find that science history and biography gives a good understanding of scientific methods, and when written for the lay-person, doesn't get so bogged down in technical jargon.

Here are a few of my favorites:

• A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
  
• Chaos: Making a New Science - James Gleick
  (Also check out his biographies of Isaac Newton and Richard Feynman)
  
• Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers - Mary Roach
  
  And here are a few on my to read list:
  
  
• Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society - Bill Bryson
  
• Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind - Yuval Noah Harari
  
• The Butchering Art: Joseph Lister's Quest to Transform the Grisly World of Victorian Medicine - Lindsey Fitzharris
  
• Rabid: A Cultural History of the World's Most Diabolical Virus - Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy
  
• The Wild Trees: A Story of Passion and Daring - Richard Preston
  
• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science - Richard Holmes
  
• The Invention of Science: A New History of the Scientific Revolution - David Wootton
  
  I hope that helps.

Most of the comments here are viable solutions and are probably the simplest way to explain those powers.
Coming to your character, there are few out there with super powers that make no sense, and this ruins the story arc as their powers aren't properly defined. This ends up with the writer resorting to a deus ex machina when his character is in a bind, and the writer bends the laws of nature to get him out of it.
I suggest you learn a little bit more about electricity. These comments have clearly described how your hero's powers work. But knowing more about the subject will allow you to write better and more creatively.
I know that it can be a hard subject to learn. I suggest reading There are no electrons - Electricity for earthlings by Ken Amdahl. This book is written as a story. You don't need to have any prior knowledge of Electronics or math and this book clearly helps you understand the basics of electricity. You can finish it in a day its pretty small.
https://www.amazon.com/There-Are-Electrons-Electronics-Earthlings/dp/0962781592

Hope this helped. Good luck!

I'm telling you there are a great many things that are indeed either illusion or delusional. There are also real phenomena we don't understand, and may never!

My take on all that is, you see it, you admire it--experience awe and wonder, file it away mentally, and press on, because this world (let alone this universe) is chock FULL of things nobody has seen yet, but are discoverable, and plenty of things we can fully document and are repeatable, but can't fully understand (if at all).

We don't have to borrow explanations from a bag of woo-woo to explain anything. If it can't be explained by current knowledge, then we know what it is--a mystery!

If you have the knowledge and capacity to apply scientific method to it, and learn its secrets, and feel so inclined, then by all means go for it! But if you don't, then file it away in things to talk about at cocktail parties, or things to tell the grandkids. or around the campfire.

OTOH, it might VERY WELL be that some things like UFOs and encounters like yours are completely known, but kept secret. Possibly that will change soon, but also possibly not.

I wouldn't want to suggest that all the unknown things will soon be made known. Frankly, there are more things we don't understand than those we do.

I highly recommend a book I read recently called We Have No Idea: A Guide to the Unknown Universe.

What I did was I started looking at short story collections. A short story lets you see how an author writes without needing to read an entire book of theirs. I have two favorite short story collection "series".

Dark Beyond the Stars, which is a Sci-fi, space opera collection. There are other Beyond the Stars books as well if you liked the first.

And Samuel Peralta's The Future Chronicles. The Future chronicles typically does some sort of sci-fi, but there are others as well. The great part about The Future Chronicles, is that you get to pick your flavor. In the mood for alternate history? Pick Alt. History 101, in the mood for spaceships and star ships? Pick The Galaxy Chronicles. In the mood for time travel? Pick the Time Travel Chronicles, ect.

Also, The Martian is a fantastic book. As well as xkcd's What if? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions.

Going through a similar thing right now, while I'm no where near where I want to be, I've made some good improvements. Best tip I can give you from what I've learned is

Focus on one aspect first.

I've found whenever I start to feel like all these things are wrong with me (I'm not smart, I'm not funny, I'm not attractive), I tend to try and change things immediately. My next day will consist of a completely new minute-by-minute routine, new diet, new attitude, new me. However, the "perfect me" starts to cheat a little here and a little there, "I know it's time to exercise, but another 10 minutes on Reddit won't hurt..." Then in no time at all I'm back to just plain old me. The point is, a lot of change at once can be overwhelming.


If you start to feel that things need to be done right now and you feel like making drastic changes, more often that not, the thrill will quickly pass and you'll be left right where you started. Choose one thing you want to improve first and work on making that a routine.



Think of a stream of water pounding against a rock. It takes time before the rock begins to shape and feel the full force of the water, but it does feel it.

As for the learning to do things, I recently asked /r/suggestmeabook/ for recommendations on a book to increase my general intelligence and these were the recommendations. Currently reading through A Short History of Nearly Everything and loving it.

I know this isn't an all inclusive answer to all your problems, but I hope it helps. :)



TLDR: Focusing on changing too many things at once can be discouraging and leave you worse off than when you started. Read A Short History of Nearly Everything for brain power.

Edit:formatting

Surprised I didn't see this:

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything

It's not as academically oriented as I think the OP would like, but it's a great read and surprisingly encompasses a lot. Bryson, if memory serves me, got his name in travel writing and he makes Short History very interesting and a good read.

Here's an idea I think you'd be good at based on your interests: I'm reading a book now called A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's about how we came to understand the things we know about our planet and our universe. It's absolutely fascinating but it's super long. Condense some of that information down into a format more accessible for high school students. The universe is unfathomably incredible...like pants-wettingly amazing. But high school textbooks are the most boring possible medium ever for conveying that wonder. Turn it into some captivating format that blows kids' minds and makes them fall in love with science. Start a YouTube channel or something.

It depends on what you're interested in.

Great War for Civilisation is full of fascinating stories from a war correspondent covering the middle east; he interviewed Bin Laden several times before 9/11 among other things. The book is long, but it brings the conflicts to your doorstep and takes you behind the scenes where the media is often restricted from going. Be warned of the size and content though. It is gruesome in most places, and provides a very realistic account of what goes on daily over there.

1776 tells the story of the American revolution, concentrating on the battles and the men who fought them. It is written extremely well. If you have any interest whatsoever in the founding fathers, the characters behind the revolution, or even just a good story, read it and you shouldn't be disappointed.

Short History of Nearly Everything basically takes everything you're interested in that is science related, condenses it all into discrete explanations, and combines the whole to present a great reading experience. It's a bit like doing for science what "A People's History of the United States" did for history. It all feels genuine.

Those are a few I have particularly enjoyed.

Read. Make sure they are good books. If you want a leg-up on your classmates, make sure they cover topics you will be studying next year. Probably the best books for this off the top of my head are Lies My Teacher Told Me and A Short History of Nearly Everything. The first covers American history (including Columbus), the second covers many of the natural sciences.

For someone who is looking at public school as a failing educational tool, these two books will do a wonderful job of explaining topics in a way that will make them interesting and living subjects, not just a useless series of facts to be memorized.

As far as literature goes, try to read some heavy-hitting classics instead of whatever fantasy/Twilight crap someone your age might be reading. Again, try to keep ahead of the curve, both with what you are going to study and what is intellectually beyond what you are going to study. Something with more than 300 pages, if you need a measuring stick. If you really want to go above and beyond, email teachers and ask for book suggestions that AREN'T on the suggested summer reading list.

I'll stick to recommending science communication books (those that don't require a deep background on biological concepts):

• On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection - Charles Darwin, bonus points if you can get a 1st edition reprint (before his colleagues made him change a lot of important things); it is a must-read but it might need quite some time to truly understand it, it is a heavy read.
  
  
• A lot of people recommend the Selfish Gene by Richard Dawkins but that one is one of his most controversial books and if you decide to read it, you should take everything with a pinch of salt; for Dawkins I prefer to recommend the Greatest Show on Earth: The Evidence for Evolution and the Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe without Design. Just beware of Dawkins, he's a little dogmatic in his approach.
  
  
• The Dialectical Biologist - Richard Levins & Richard Lewontin.
  
  
• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn, this one will change forever your conception of science as a whole.
  
  
• The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature - Matt Ridley.
  
  
• Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History, and the Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History - Stephen J. Gould.
  
  
• The Ghosts of Evolution: Non-sensical Fruit, Missing Partners, and Other Ecological Anachronisms - Connie Barlow.
  
  
• Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? - Frans de Waal, this one is about animal cognition but has an incredible underline of all the deficiencies and prejudges on science.
  
  
• Microbe Hunters - Paul de Kruif.
  
  
• Symbiotic Planet: A New Look at Evolution, and What is Life? - Lynn Margulis.
  
  
• The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark - Carl Sagan & Ann Druyan.
  
  
• A Short Story of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson.
  
  ---
  
  For books that everyone studying biology ends up reading, my candidate would be Lehninger's Principles of Biochemistry, by Nelson & Cox but that's a textbook.

These are a little obvious, but if you haven't read them, you're definitely missing out:

Connections by James Burke

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Not really original, but great fun, great stories and exactly what you seem to be looking for.

I am confident because this is my field of expertise, and I'll do my best to explain what we know about humans, lions, and other species.

Humans are able to constantly be ready to breed, unlike other animals. Lions go into heat to be ready for breeding. If a female has a cub, she will not cycle. When a new male enters the area, he will often commit infanticide to START the cycling for her. She was in a suspended state - not already cycling.

It appears that in some cases, the presence of the new male will start the cycling even without the infanticide - perhaps as a measure that has evolved over time through natural selection. If the female is ready to mate, then the male might not bother killing her young, and will let those genes of hers pass on. Thus promoting lions that can go into heat with pheromonal stimulation through the vomeronasal organ (your secondary olfactory sense, or jacobson's organ).

Humans do not go into heat. Once they are cycling, there are a few ways to alter the cycle:

FROM
http://humrep.oxfordjournals.org/content/14/3/579.full

"In addition to pregnancy loss, other factors that influence the length and regularity of the menstrual cycle include: energy balance (Ellison, 1990), lactation (Howie and McNeilly, 1982), and stress (Wasser and Barash, 1983). The menstrual cycle also changes as a function of age (Treloar et al., 1967). In the largest study to date, the median cycle length was 27.8 days at age 20 years (close to the mean age for the women in the dormitory studies) and the difference between the 10th and 90th percentiles for person–year SD was 6.3 days (Treloar et al., 1967). At 36 years, the age when cycle length variability reaches a minimum, the median cycle length was 26.6 days and the difference between the two percentiles was 3.6 days."

If you've seen the idea that women sync their cycles? Human women? based on bad stats from poor research which didn't take into account this natural variability of human women's cycles.

SO! In conclusion, while you have some anecdotal evidence that sex is causing menses in your ladies - it's not true, and lots of people have studied this to see if it happens because

it happens in other animals which are NOT constant breeders. In mice, there are a few things related to cycling and male scent - the first we call it the 'Bruce Effect'. You can introduce just the scent of a new male mouse in early pregnancy and she will spontaneously abort (to prevent infanticide). The second is the 'Lee Boot Effect' where female mice WILL synchronize their cycles when housed together without a male. and the third is the Whitten effect where you can induce estrus in mice with the scent of a male.

https://embryology.med.unsw.edu.au/embryology/index.php/Mouse_Estrous_Cycle

Now you know so much about humans! and Lions! and Mice! I'm happy to talk more about science if you want, if you're looking to learn more about mating and science, I found This book to be very informative and entertaining.

http://www.amazon.com/Ready-Player-One-Ernest-Cline/dp/030788743X
The first time in a long time I have been so sucked in that after finishing int in 3 days, I wanted to go right back to it. Every child of the 80s I have shared it with, especially those who were extra-nerdy, loved this book.

http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X/ref=tmm_pap_title_0?ie=UTF8&qid=1347860128&sr=1-1
If you want non-fiction, I finished this recently and it is hands down the best non-fiction book I have ever read. History filled with compelling narratives rather than dry dates and facts, Bryson brings the past to life - the story of how Halley convinced Newton to write the Principia even though Newton would rather have been searching for King Solomon's tomb for the dates of Christ's second coming or practicing alchemy is just one example of the wonderful narratives that fill this book.

I'd recommend you read A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's a pretty good survey of natural science and very accessible to the layman. I think I've read it twice and each time come away with that "everything in the universe is awesome" feeling. It's probably my favorite non-fiction overall.

Right, I know about terminal velocity, but I don't mean the downward vector. I mean one's lateral speed. Issues of oxygen aside, a jumbo jet moves pretty fast, like close to 500mph, right? So, when you jump out, you're not only going down, but you're also going forwards, very very fast. And, according to this book:
> At 350 mph, the cartilage of the nose deforms and the skin of the face starts to flutter... At faster speeds, this Q force causes deformations that can, as the Aviation Medicine paper gingerly phrases it, 'exceed the strength of tissue.'

Furthermore,

> Cruising speed for a transcontinental jet is between 500 and 600mph. Do not bail out. 'Fatality,' to quote Dan Fulgham, 'is pretty much indicated.' At 400mph, windblast will remove your helmet... At 500 mph, 'ram air' blasts down your windpipe with enough force to rupture various elements of your pulmonary system.

If you pick up that book, it's chapter 13, in case you were wondering.

edit: some formatting

1. I didn't read the article until after I posted.
   
   
2. Actually I read about sex leading to attachment maybe 12 years ago.
   
   Here is a fun book to introduce you to the sex aspect of evo-devo: Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation. It explains human behavior by talking about other forms of life (plants, fungi, bacteria, other animals, and so on). It also has some funny quotes that I really hope are real (one is supposedly Churchill giving sex advice to his sons). My bio teacher lent me it to read in high school.
   
   Seriously though, if two people meet, talk for a few hours, then have sex and aren't interested in trying to date after, they probably wouldn't have worked out anyway if they waited until date 5 to get into bed.
   
   Edit: I wonder if there is interest in an r/OkC book club, Dr. Tatiana would be a good one, and I could use the excuse to buy the kindle edition to re-read it.

Its from this book.

Basically, the author, Kenn Amdahl, creates his own analogy where there are Male Greenies (Electrons), and Female Greenies (Protons). Greenies are these tiny little green dudes that live inside electronics. The male greenies are always looking to go party with the female greenies, and the female greenies are always hosting parties with music blasting, beer, and what not. Voltage is the male greenies' need to party, the current is how many are traveling along the roads (wires, etc.), and resistance is obstacles and conditions of the road.

With this Amdahl is able to create an analogy for most of the properties of electricity without it falling apart like the water analogy. He inter-weaves all this with a fictional story of how one of the little greenies is charged with the task of teaching him the "truth" of how electronics work, a wizard who makes Amdahl teach him electronics so he can repair a time machine, and other interesting pieces. It is a great read.

When I read A Short History Of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson it struck me that almost all of the scientists and innovators mentioned in the book came from upper middle class or wealthy families. It appears that having the free time and resources to invest in an interest is a huge requirement to success.

I have come to the conclusion that the first society that figures out that by having a populace that does not have to worry about food, clothing, and shelter while also being provided with the resources to persue their interests, that society is going to blow past the rest of humanity by creating 20 Einsteins.

Okay your first two links are to blogs that only publish work by Austrian economists. Hardly objective analyses. Even if SO did drop the cost of gas, that says nothing of who bore the brunt of the cost. It says nothing of the enivronmental costs of their business practices. It says nothing of how they treated their workers. And still sidesteps the point of how the monopoly was formed by business practices that are anti-competitive and would completely overcome any advantages of a strictly free-market system. As I mentioned before, costs aren't the only metric we should use in judging a civilization.

> This is how high profits counter-intuitively accelerate the trend towards lower price and higher quality (witness computer and cellphone progression).

It isn't the fact that profits were high that drove this trend. It's the incredible volume of demand that drove prices down. Again, see the history of Bell Labs for this as far as computers and cell phones go. It was a government-sanctioned monopoloy that made these possible.

Your DC link was unfortunate, but was just a case of idiots in government. This isn't something inherent in governments. There are more than enough idiots in management. Luckily we live in a democracy that can be changed with an informed electorate.

> Insurance companies profit only because of the fact that it costs MORE to have health insurance for most people than it costs to NOT have it. It's risky to not have health insurance, but if you are of normal health, you come out ahead financially by not having it. Also, [5] many hospitals, doctors give discount for paying cash

I'm not sure what the point is you're trying to make. This is all obvious. The point is that you never know your future health states. The fact that doctors give discounts for paying cash is analogous to people not paying interest rates when they pay off their credit cards on time. But in the real world, most people can't afford to do this. As I mentioned before, the number one cause of individual bankruptcy in the US is due to medical bills.

> Consumer Reports is a private regulatory agency. Amazon ratings are a consumer-driven regulatory agency. Yelp too. Ebay feedback, etc. Your social network is a regulatory agency.

Okay so you never actually meant regulatory agency. Consumer Reports is a consumer advocacy magazine. Amazon, Yelp, and Ebay are a sort of word-of-mouth that only exist due to technology developed by the government and public-private parternships. And Yelp has recently been accused of removing negative reviews if the businesses pay up. None of these can do anything about abuse of workers or pollution or anything else industry has a history of doing.

>We can take risks for discounts, or be conservative and pay a premium for a trusted brand, and when that trusted brand starts overcharging, people like me step in and offer a new solution at a better price.

This really depends on what you're talking about. We shouldn't have to risk that discounted item being unsafe or dangerous or snake oil. Not everyone can afford items that are too expensive. And sometimes the profits just don't exist for goods and services at the price point that people can afford them at.

>Let's say there's a mafia. They steal from everyone, but they use the money to fund research projects. They steal half of what everyone earns (total cost of govt taxation over what things would cost without it, includes regulatory costs), but they take credit for everything that is done by the researchers they pay with the stolen money. Some people defend it, and say "without the mafia stealing from everyone and paying some of the people to research things, it would be impossible to get humans to create amazing things!" That is absurd, that human society requires guns to our heads to make us innovate.

Or let's say there's a charity that everyone chips into. They build roads so we can transport goods. They organize police forces so thieves don't rob us. They have fire departments so our homes don't burn down. They fund a military to protect us from foreign threats. They fund scientific research so that our children don't die of diseases that we suffer from or so that energy costs go down in the future from new and cheaper sources of energy.

Do you think ideas just pop into people's heads? You really really need to read up on some science history. I really hate to repeat myself, but you are incredibly ignorant and should educate yourself if you really want to argue that your magical free market could have built the world we live in. Private industry has no financial incentive to fund basic science research. Without basic science research, there can't be future applied science research. Without applied science research, there can't be future engineering in that field. Humans don't need guns to their heads to innovate. That's why we got together and use our tax dollars to fund basic science. But private industry sure as hell needs a gun to its head or else they risk pissing of their shareholders for throwing away profit on research they won't see an ROI for decades or centuries.

> Venture capitalists are the exact opposite of govt research, and they have funded every major advance in the past 20 years.

Buuuulllllllsssshhhiiiiiiiittt. Holy crap don't even try to act like you know what you're talking about. Are you gonna tell me that it was a VC who funded the Human Genome Project? It was a VC who funded CERN? It was a VC who put Rovers on Mars? You are completely divorced from reality.

NASA ended shuttle launches because America doesn't give a damn anymore. And those private enterprises you claim have no government funding . . . they get their grant money through NASA. It's called contracting. And in case you were unaware, contracting is done using tax dollars. Those engineering firms don't do it out of charity. They have to get paid like anyone else.

Learn some fucking history.

It depends a lot on what you are interested in and how deep you want to go, and it also matters a lot whether you want to learn to do physics, or you just want to learn about physics.

If you want to do physics, there's really no substitute for an actual university. However, if you just want to learn about physics, and follow along as an informed spectator, then there are heaps of resources for free online and it really depends on how deep you want to go.

If you have an interest in quantum physics, but no maths/physics background (and you don't mind paying for a book) then I like to recommend How to Teach Quantum Physics to your Dog. It's a cute and easy to follow book written in the form of a dialogue between a physicist and his dog. I mostly recommend this one because it contains a chapter on how to recognise and avoid quantum nonsense (as opposed to quantum physics), which I think is a very important skill to develop.

If you want to go deeper than pop-sci books and Youtube videos, you will need to learn maths. It's a bit useless for me to recommend anything in particular without knowing what your background knowledge is and what your goals are in learning physics.

I strongly recommend A Short History of Nearly Everything. The guy does excellent job to go through a lot of stuff, including life.

I will drill on the "to develop" part of your question.

Basically, life as it exists now (and including us) had astonishingly "lucky" brakes. Even global disasters were needed to progress thus far. Having in mind that, I think it is very hard to define what would be better (e.g. there were stages when Earth's atmosphere would be deadly for most modern organisms, but life was present even there and probably in huge amount). Maybe some compounds/conditions would be more beneficial to life but in a lab environment. Our planet was far from that.

Another good point is that life's primary goal seems just "to be". Nothing more, nothing less. In this sense all those coincidences were neither "astonishingly", nor "lucky".

just some of my standard answers.


The Disappearing Spoon- yes, it's chemistry but I found it very interesting.


Abraham Lincoln's DNA- if you have a good background in genetics you might already know many of these stories. Read the table of contents first.


New Guinea Tapeworms and Jewish Grandmothers- disease based biology. There is a follow up book if it turns out you like it.


Stiff- more than you wanted to know about dead bodies.


And by the same author but space based... Packing for Mars.

I hope these help... Cheers.

Have you read A Short History Of Nearly Everything? It's an awesome read about, well a short history of nearly everything. From the beginning of time. It's great and Bill Bryson really does a great job of making light of topics that are usually "too dense" for non-science people.

If I might recommend a book, Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything sounds like something you'd be interested in.

It's mostly about the origins and stories behind major scientific discoveries and theories that have shaped our view of the world and universe today. He starts at the Big Bang and goes from there. The book is quite accessible to those without formal scientific education (like myself). Bryson dumbs things down just enough so you can understand it while feeling enriched afterwards at the same time. I can definitely say that the book changed me for the better when I read it for the first time back as a teenager. It also has an awesome illustrated edition.

Mary Roach! Mary Roach Mary Roach!

Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers

Bonk: The Curious Coupling of Science and Sex

Packing of Mars: The Curious Science of Life in the Void

I can't recommend these highly enough. Mary Roach is the most engaging, funny science writer I've read.

Also [A Natural History of the Senses by Diane Ackerman]http://www.amazon.com/Natural-History-Senses-Diane-Ackerman/dp/0679735666/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1323874194&sr=1-1

This is an excellent book that covers most major scientific subjects. More than that, it's a great read.

If you're looking for more physics related stuff, this is a pretty easy read and even has a NOVA series that accompanies it.

Definitely not the biggest, but very impressive is Robert Evans, amateur astronomer, found a record number (42) of supernovae...with his 10” home telescope...in his backyard.

In Bill Bryson’s book, A Brief History of Nearly Everything, he discribes how incredibly hard this feat actually is. “To understand what a feat this is, imagine a standard dining room table covered in a black tablecloth and someone throwing a handful of salt across it. The scattered grains can be thought of as a galaxy. Now imagine fifteen hundred more tables like the first one — enough to fill a Wal-Mart parking lot, say, or to make a single line two miles long — each with a random array of salt across it. Now add one grain of salt to any table and let Bob Evans walk among them. At a glance he will spot it. That grain of salt is the supernova.”

Evans has also been quoted as saying "There's something satisfying, I think, about the idea of light travelling for millions of years through space and just at the right moment as it reaches Earth someone looks at the right bit of sky and sees it. It just seems right that an event of that magnitude should be witnessed."

I strongly recommend reading Made in America by Bill Bryson. In theory it is about the history of American English but in practise it is also American history and as with all Bill Bryson books is very funny in addition to being informative. It covers this whole naming situation, including amusing efforts at regulating spelling. The post office did (eventually!) manage to enforce that there couldn't be duplicate names within a state.

A short history of nearly everything is also a rollicking good read.

1. Let's face it, school gets boring an stressful sometimes. When I have some downtime, I like to laugh and Party Down is one of the funniest shows ever. Party Down: Season 1 DVD ~ Adam Scott http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0033WH6MW/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_i6dXtb168JW2D
   
   
2. If we're to battle evil, we must study it. That's why I need this figure of Scarecrow, to learn about his weaknesses and strengths. Batman: The Animated Series > Scarecrow Action Figure by DC Comics http://www.amazon.com/dp/B000GDUC7M/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_q-dXtb1P06QME
   
   
3. In the same vein, a book of essays on villains can come in very handy. I Wear the Black Hat: Grappling with Villains (Real and Imagined) by Chuck Klosterman http://www.amazon.com/dp/143918450X/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_7.dXtb1KZTTFZ
   
   
4. If I'm going to be a resourceful wizard, knowledge is power. What better knowledge is there than knowledge of everything?! A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson http://www.amazon.com/dp/076790818X/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_3eeXtb07YKZA1
   
   
5. Since it's my first time going to school in a long time, I thought it would be a good idea to bone up on how to be a student and get along with others. Who better to learn from than Veronica Mars? Veronica Mars: Season 1 DVD ~ Kristen Bell http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00A8KJN8M/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_8teXtb03PRWYR
   
   Bonus: learning to think critically an solve problems is an important skill for any student. Who better to teach us those lessons than the good people at Lego and the Dark Knight himself? LEGO Super Heroes The Batcave 6860 by LEGO http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005VPRF8O/ref=cm_sw_r_udp_awd_gxeXtb04TRGF3
   
   Mischief managed!

Check out "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson. It's right up your alley. It's a history of science and scientific thought. It discussess almost all of the major scientific thought processes and when, how, and who was involved in their discoveries, the rival thoughts at the time, how it changed our world, and also covers scientists lost to time or scientists whose theories were taken by others. It's also really, really entertaining to read. It's like a really entertaining history book but about science and scientific thought. It's pretty dang accurate and specific, but not so precise as to wear you down or confuse you. Really approachable, REALLY informative, and perfect for someone who feels that their science AND history knowledge is lacking.

Well there's the sequel of course: Superfreakonomics. And everything by Malcom Gladwell kind of falls into the same genre: The Tipping Point, Outliers, Blink... Then there's The Long Tail by Chris Anderson of Wired and Bad Science by The Guardian's Ben Goldacre....

A Short History of Nearly Everything is also absolutely brilliant 'popular science' but not as 'generation now' as the ones above.

That's just top of my head. All of these books are a few years old but still a great read. I'd say they're all typical Redditor reading if that makes sense.

One of my all time favorites is Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air, about a climbing season on Mount Everest where a lot of things went wrong.

I also enjoy Mary Roach - she has a great gift of being able to convey information while being really entertaining in the process. Stiff is my favorite of hers, but I also really enjoyed Packing For Mars.

I usually recommend going after the soft underbelly and moving up from there...

1. Something on the history of the bible and religion itself. Bring out the skeletons they don't discuss in bible study.
   
2. Something on the contradictions, and different interpretations of the bible. Add to the pile of bones.
   
3. Scientific theories... a good one is this book. It's not anti-religious, but goes into good detail about how we know what we know in science.
   
4. If you want something to make her feel better... if she's not scientific in nature I doubt that just "reality" will help, in which case I recommend Buddhism (without the reincarnation). It's religiousy enough for those that need it, but without a lot of the BS.
   
   Other interesting books...:
   
   (abridged) http://books.google.com/books?id=VNgBZR4bxG0C&printsec=frontcover&dq=Golden+Bough&source=gbs_similarbooks_s&cad=1#v=onepage&q=&f=false
   
   http://www.amazon.com/Influence-Psychology-Persuasion-Robert-Cialdini/dp/0688128165 (you'll want to read this too actually).
   
   

^^ This reminds me of A Short History of Nearly Everything. A good read btw.

I too sometimes worry about dying just when things are getting really good with all the awesome VR stuff that's surely coming. And I'm 50 years old, so I have a valid concern. If I was 21, I'd be feeling pretty good about getting to experience all the really good stuff.

I also somethings feel the "be careful and don't die" thing. In addition to that, I worry about going blind in one or both eyes. That would really suck too!

What do you care what other people think? and The pleasure of finding things out by Richard Feynman. Some really good philosophical lessons about how to be a better scientist. Also some really outdated opinions about women so maybe gloss over that.

These:

How to Read the Solar System: A Guide to the Stars and Planets by Christ North and Paul Abel.


A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson.


A Universe from Nothing: Why There is Something Rather than Nothing by Lawrence Krauss.


Cosmos by Carl Sagan.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space by Carl Sagan.


Foundations of Astrophysics by Barbara Ryden and Bradley Peterson.


Final Countdown: NASA and the End of the Space Shuttle Program by Pat Duggins.


An Astronaut's Guide to Life on Earth: What Going to Space Taught Me About Ingenuity, Determination, and Being Prepared for Anything by Chris Hadfield.


You Are Here: Around the World in 92 Minutes: Photographs from the International Space Station by Chris Hadfield.


Space Shuttle: The History of Developing the Space Transportation System by Dennis Jenkins.


Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010 by Chapline, Hale, Lane, and Lula.


No Downlink: A Dramatic Narrative About the Challenger Accident and Our Time by Claus Jensen.


Voices from the Moon: Apollo Astronauts Describe Their Lunar Experiences by Andrew Chaikin.


A Man on the Moon: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts by Andrew Chaikin.


Breaking the Chains of Gravity: The Story of Spaceflight before NASA by Amy Teitel.


Moon Lander: How We Developed the Apollo Lunar Module by Thomas Kelly.


The Scientific Exploration of Venus by Fredric Taylor.


The Right Stuff by Tom Wolfe.


Into the Black: The Extraordinary Untold Story of the First Flight of the Space Shuttle Columbia and the Astronauts Who Flew Her by Rowland White and Richard Truly.


An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics by Bradley Carroll and Dale Ostlie.


Rockets, Missiles, and Men in Space by Willy Ley.


Ignition!: An Informal History of Liquid Rocket Propellants by John Clark.


A Brief History of Time by Stephen Hawking.


Russia in Space by Anatoly Zak.


Rain Of Iron And Ice: The Very Real Threat Of Comet And Asteroid Bombardment by John Lewis.


Mining the Sky: Untold Riches From The Asteroids, Comets, And Planets by John Lewis.


Asteroid Mining: Wealth for the New Space Economy by John Lewis.


Coming of Age in the Milky Way by Timothy Ferris.


The Whole Shebang: A State of the Universe Report by Timothy Ferris.


Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandries by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Origins: Fourteen Billion Years of Cosmic Evolution by Neil deGrasse Tyson.


Rocket Men: The Epic Story of the First Men on the Moon by Craig Nelson.


The Martian by Andy Weir.


Packing for Mars:The Curious Science of Life in the Void by Mary Roach.


The Overview Effect: Space Exploration and Human Evolution by Frank White.


Gravitation by Misner, Thorne, and Wheeler.


The Science of Interstellar by Kip Thorne.


Entering Space: An Astronaut’s Oddyssey by Joseph Allen.


International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems by Hopkins, Hopkins, and Isakowitz.


The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality by Brian Greene.


How the Universe Got Its Spots: Diary of a Finite Time in a Finite Space by Janna Levin.


This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age by William Burrows.


The Last Man on the Moon by Eugene Cernan.


Failure is Not an Option: Mission Control from Mercury to Apollo 13 and Beyond by Gene Kranz.


Apollo 13 by Jim Lovell and Jeffrey Kluger.

The end

If you want to read a fictionalized electronics course I would recommend There Are No Electrons. I am almost finished with it after a couple days because I can't seem to put it down! Engrossing, entertaining, and educational. You truly won't be sorry.
(Full disclosure: I have nothing to do with this book. It's just amazing and has made electronics an accessible hobby to me, whereas before it just seemed like black magic)

For books, I really appreciate:

1. Voyage of the Beagle, Darwin. http://www.amazon.com/Voyage-Beagle-Charles-Researches-Classics/dp/014043268X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374455951&sr=1-1&keywords=beagel%2C+darwin
   
   
2. Dr. Tatiana's Sex Advice to All Creation: The Definitive Guide to the Evolutionary Biology of Sex http://www.amazon.com/Dr-Tatianas-Sex-Advice-Creation/dp/0805063323 A great and informative read for bedtime or bathroom
   
   
3. Big questions in Ecology and Evolution http://www.amazon.com/Questions-Ecology-Evolution-Oxford-Biology/dp/0199548617/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374456046&sr=1-1&keywords=Big+questions+in+ecology+and+evolution
   
   
4. Experimental design and data analysis for biologists http://www.amazon.com/Experimental-Design-Data-Analysis-Biologists/dp/0521009766/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1374456103&sr=1-1&keywords=experimental+design+and+data+analysis+for+biologists
   OR a similar Biostatistics book. Note the above book is on one of the author's course webpages for free.
   

This story is covered in Bill Bryson's book: http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

I highly recommend you all read it! It is a very informative but fun to read book! READ IT! And lots of other Bryson books are pretty good...

Question: does Bill Bryson get credit for having written a book that quite nearly approximates the title of this little screed?

Answer: to my mind, yes. Bryson published said book several years before this bit was made and while he doesn't pretend to be a scientist, he does interview many of the world's leading thinkers and writes lucidly and intelligently and humorously about how a variety of complex concepts can be understood by lay-people.

Edit: oh yeah, here's the link to Bryson's book.

Some of it isn't exactly correct but it is easy and fun to read and you'll definitely learn something:

A Short History of Nearly Everything

Hello!!!!!!

Happy Pi Day!!!

I totally have something on my wishlist for EXACTLY $3.14 but A) it's an add-on, and B) I just got some! But it was fun to see it, nonetheless. :D

Sciency Thing!

Thanks for the contest!

If you're looking for a fun, but enriching read, I highly recommend Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything". It's tough to put down and you're guaranteed to learn some amazing things.

Similarly, Bryson's "A Walk in the Woods" comes to mind, although I haven't read it in some time. Seems fitting for the gaybros since it's about hiking the Appalachian Trail - a dream of mine some day.

A Short History Of Nearly Everything*
Science & history & personal anecdotes mixed to make for fascinating
Reading.

H2G2
Learn to laugh.

The Giving Tree
Taught me more about being a kind, friendly person that anything else.

In terms of free your local library probably has almost everything ... great resource to use that a lot of people forget about albeit you have to wait sometimes to get your book. I am currently reading Chad Orzel "How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog" and it is doing a pretty good job of laying everything out for you to understand... makes you want to dig deeper if that makes any sense..

https://www.amazon.com/How-Teach-Quantum-Physics-Your/dp/1416572295

This is also an excellent book http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X

Can't recommend enough. I got the audio book version and the performance is awesome, I can listen to it while doing other stuff and still follow along, which I love in audio books.

i'm not sure if you wanted a book but this is always a fun and interesting read! and if you're not feeling bookish i also recommend his webcomic!

This might be better suited to be asked in /r/books

I would recommend Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything for it's very clear writing and great breadth of science/science history.

> There would be no schools or colleges without Christianity. Read your history, then tell me these men evaded thinking. Without Christianity, we would all be uneducated barbarians. Christianity brought brilliance like Bach and Beethoven and created Western Civilization as we know it. Without Christianity, we would be blue-painted barbarians.

This right here tells me your friend has zero knowledge of actual history. The stupid fuck probably thinks that thanksgiving really happened and that Columbus wanted to prove the earth was round. Basically, your friend doesn't have the necessary foundation to even argue with. Your best bet is to ignore the topic of religion, and buy him books like this and this as birthday presents or maybe do a book trade and you both read each other's... and then moved into books like this.

Second, you shouldn't use quotes with people like this, or if you do just plagiarize and say it's your own. Giving quotes gives them something to attack without personally attacking your words, it makes it too easy for them to go on the offensive without thinking about what you're saying.

Personally, I think it's more difficult to not believe in God. I could give several reasons why though my own personal examples, but that'd be a fairly lengthy post.

One of the biggest things to me is looking at the earth, the universe and creation itself. Personally, when I was reading 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson, I found it as a affirmation of my faith. To me, the thought that the creation of the universe, the laws of physics and chemistry and all of our sciences that hold everything together is just a series of random luck seems laughable.

A Short History of Nearly Everything

From the introduction:

> I grew up convinced that science was supremely dull, but suspecting that it needn't
be, and not really thinking about it at all if I could help it. This, too, became my position for a
long time.

> Then much later-about four or five years ago-I was on a long flight across the Pacific,
staring idly out the window at moonlit ocean, when it occurred to me with a certain
uncomfortable forcefulness that I didn't know the first thing about the only planet I was ever
going to live on. I had no idea, for example, why the oceans were salty but the Great Lakes
weren't. Didn't have the faintest idea. I didn't know if the oceans were growing more salty
with time or less, and whether ocean salinity levels was something I should be concerned
about or not. ...


> And ocean salinity of course represented only the merest sliver of my ignorance. I didn't
know what a proton was, or a protein, didn't know a quark from a quasar, didn't understand
how geologists could look at a layer of rock on a canyon wall and tell you how old it was,
didn't know anything really. I became gripped by a quiet, unwonted urge to know a little
about these matters and to understand how people figured them out. ...


> So I decided that I would devote a portion of my life-three years, as it now turns out-to
reading books and journals and finding saintly, patient experts prepared to answer a lot of
outstandingly dumb questions. The idea was to see if it isn't possible to understand and
appreciate-marvel at, enjoy even-the wonder and accomplishments of science at a level that
isn't too technical or demanding, but isn't entirely superficial either. That was my idea and my hope, and that is what the book that follows is intended to be.

I've been on a non-fiction kick myself.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is good. Very funny, very informative.

Packing for Mars and Stiff: The Curious Lives of Cadavers both by Mary Roach were also fun to read.

Not at all. What has been proven, has been proven. It exists as a base for progress until it is proven otherwise. It is funny that you mention 2+2 because math is axiomatic and can only be proven within a system. Even the most basic math is subject to scrutiny under different circumstances.

Here are a few books you might enjoy:

Hyperspace

A Short History of Nearly Everything


They explore some ideas I think you might like. I'm not an idiot, even though it is clear you think so. I just don't like rational. It is boring.

> ....when the creator/owner of /r/xkcd (among others) finally went inactive for six months, allowing a better group of folks to take over.

begin irrelevancy/

I just read the book by the creator of that sub, ["What If?"] (http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1420590797&sr=1-1&keywords=what+if+serious+scientific+answers+to+absurd+hypothetical+questions).

It was quite funny, and the stick figures are great!

/end irrelevancy.

Haha, good point. I'm only in my second semester, so we haven't gotten there yet. I did just read a sort of beginner's book on it, and I really enjoyed it. But I'm sure it barely scratched the surface.

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is an extremely readable tour through natural history and scientefic proccess from the very beginning of the planet. Probably my favoruite 'overview' non-fiction book.

If you want to read fiction that will make you more knowledgeable, read anything by Umberto Eco. The research he does on any time period his work is set in is outstanding and it really shows. I finished Prague Cemetery today by him, which is focuses on 19th century conspiracy theories, where every event and character that appears in the book apart from the main character is historically accurate. It's amazing how he blends a fascinating plot with historical accuracy.

Randall Monroe's What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions is a fun read. It's not a narrative, but it follows scientific thinking and if very entertaining. Or, Homer Hickam's October Sky is a good narrative.

I would start off with Stiff and then Bonk. I liked Spook but on amazon it doesn't have as good of reviews as the others so I'd read that one later if you aren't as interested in it. I've yet to read packing for mars but if it's anything like her other books, it's wonderful.

Came here to post this. Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great way for the layman to become scientifically literate, and it's entertaining. I like all of Krakauer's works, but would particularly recommend Where Men Win Glory for a perspective on the war in Afghanistan as well as a portrait of Pat Tillman, a complicated man.

Some great history books:

1. A Short History of Nearly Everything
   
   
2. Stalingrad
   
   
3. The Interrogators
   
   
4. On Roads
   
   The first and last are not military history but are quite a good and different reads for someone interested in history and facts.

Easy one. A Short History of Nearly Everything.

It's largely a history of science. It was amazing finding out how long we've known certain things and how recently we found others. If I get wound up this'll turn into a novel. Just read it.

Yep. I'm in the middle of A Short History of Nearly Everything, and it's pretty astounding reading about it. I just assumed we had known about it forever.

Even more amazing are the intra-plate quakes. They happen all the time almost everywhere and we have literally no idea what causes them.

Any of Bill Bryson's books are very good, but in a similar vein try:

Notes From a Small Island, an account of his time in the UK while traveling the length of the country.

In a Sunburned Country his travels in Austrailia.

Neither Here nor There his travels in Europe.

And though it is not a travel book, my personal favorite by Bryson is a A Short History of Nearly Everything, a history of science along the lines of the the Edmund Burke TV show "Connections" that is how every science textbook should be written. Spring for the Illustrated edition as long as you don't want to carry it everywhere you read, it's too big and heavy to be a good coffee shop read.

I love Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

Funny, interesting and educating.

If you're interested there is a great book called Packing for Mars, that goes through the history of space travel and includes a good section on astronaut diets and excrement amongst many other things.

http://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life/dp/0393339912/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1342447493&sr=8-1&keywords=packing+for+mars

I just picked up this guy's book, it's fantastic. It's always fun to see really random stuff like this explained in semi lay-man terms.

What If by Randal Munroe. assuming that he does not have it already, this book is absolutely perfect. I own a hardcover copy my mum got me and it is one of my prized possessions. I can absolutely guarantee he will love this. https://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994

A Short History of Nearly Everything with the errata as annotations.

Also, The Hitchhiker's Guide series is awesome, so that's on the list, too.

Plenty more recommendations, of course, but those two are my go-to books.

Edit. To continue:

• 1984 and Animal Farm
  
• The A Song of Ice and Fire series
  
• Thoreau's "Essay on Civil Disobedience" (even though it's not a book (and I am very disappointed that I can't find my copy)).
  
• The Art of War
  
• Ender's Game is good
  
• Lord of the Rings, I guess. I rather enjoy the Silmarillion, as well. It doesn't matter, though; both have prose as thick as a dwarf's beard.
  
• Any Vonnegut, though especially Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat's Cradle
  
• I need to read Machiavelli's The Prince
  
• And probably a bunch more, too, but I can't think of many more.
  
  Thanks for storing my reading list.

What If? Serious Scientific Answers to Absurd Hypothetical Questions by Randall Monroe.

This is the author of the popular webcomic XKCD. As the name suggests, incredibly well researched and well thought out answers to ridiculous questions like: What if the earth suddenly stopped spinning? or What would happen if someone pitched a light speed fastball? A really fun read, and you dont have to read it all in one shot.

This thread.

I'll see myself out.

I just finished Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes. Interesting look at how the muslim world sees itself.

Now I'm reading A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's pretty fun for us Lib Arts peasants.

I am sure you have heard a thousand things.
A Short History of Nearly Everything is a great read. It covers everything from our solar system/universe to geology. It's written in a easy to understand way and if there are sections that you don't find interesting (I didn't care for the geology section) you can easily skip them.

Give her Bill Bryson's a Short History of Nearly Everything. It's extremely interesting and well written...and mentions evolution in a thought out way that leads to the conclusion that its pretty much the only way it could have logically happened...not in a smug way...in an explanatory way that just describes how the whole thing works so that its not a vague idea that can be readily dismissed.

Also: Pokemon.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

> © Bill Bryson, Reprinted with love.

Love me some Bill Bryson.

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

I'm not going on vacation! This summer, but I've been treating myself to some extra reading this year.
Thanks for the contest!


if I win, I'm totally fine with used books

The way that they are reacting is actually statistically demonstrated by social scientists to be the most effective way for religious parents to influence their wayward children to eventually return to religious practice as they age: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/august-web-only/religion-runs-in-family.html

Also keep in mind the the statistical factor that is most likely to lead to a resuscitation of religious practice for a young adult who has strayed is marriage and children. The younger and less financially and socially stable you are when you have children, the more statistically likely you are to be hooked back into a religious community: http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2013/july-web-only/is-family-decline-behind-religious-decline.html

Just make sure that you don't become a young parent, that you seek out secular communities like the Sunday Assembly etc., and that you do your research on miracles and revelation and philosophy, critical thinking, and science in general

The author put out a great book, too.

I love this one.

I found How to Teach Physics to your Dog by Chad Orzel to be good. It's framed as a series of dialogues between the author and his talking dog Emmy (hence the title) where Emmy tries to creatively interpret quantum mechanics in her hunt for the neighborhood squirrels and the author has to straighten her out. It's strictly a "science for the interested layman" book though, it doesn't go too deeply into the mathematics. I found the central concept to be annoying at times, but it's usually entertaining and comprehensible, and it covers the history and experiments that led to modern understanding as well.

There's also a sequel that covers relativity.

I really wish this comment was closer to the top!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bill Bryson encompasses most of the works of many of the entities Neil just mentioned in ONE book! PM me for the audiobook link. It's absolutely amazing.

This

Wiki

What physics do you plan on taking, like what's the name of the class? If I had to guess I'd say they probably won't touch on this, seeing as GR is a graduate level course :P However, if you really are curious about it then I'd suggest checking out the book "How To Teach Relativity To Your Dog". It's a great basic introduction to relativity and modern physics and doesn't go too deep into all the math.

• The Disappearing Spoon
  
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything
  
  These are two I've read and suggest. The first is about the history and events surrounding discovery of the elements. The second is just a nice history of various science topics.
  
  Enjoy, and have a nice couple weeks off.
  
  -- C

I just finished Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. The book explains the important scientific discoveries about life, geology, and astronomy; but also the stories of the scientists who came up with these discoveries.

I got the audiobook, and it made my commute seem much shorter. It's a little dry in a few bits (especially the parts about geology), but overall it's a good, entertaining read.

There's a lot of great stuff about what would happen if you assembled a periodic table out of real elements, but I recommend a passage from Randall Munroe's 'What If'-- "Periodic Wall", or something like that.

Edit: Unofficial Wordpress Version

Double Edit: The Book Itself

Triple Edit: The What If Blog

I would also throw in that if she IS interested in our planet and science then Bill Bryson has a lovely book that, while not purely about evolution, is about how science has discovered many many facts about our planet and so in many ways it provides the reader with the scientific history to make sense of things like the age of the earth and the discoveries related to evolution: http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

• The song of the dodo (if I were to recommend a single book that nobody else would recommend you, it would be this one)
  
• Collapse
  
• Guns, germs and steel
  
• Too big to fail
  
• Freakonomics
  
• Surely you're joking, mr. Feynman
  
• Gödel, Escher, Bach - an eternal golden braid
  
• A walk in the woods
  
• A brief history of time
  
  You will notice the absence of A short history of nearly everything, which is a good book, but frankly it didn't speak very much to me. Bryson is almost only interested in geography.

[Packing for Mars] (https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0393339912/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1497231768&sr=8-1&pi=AC_SX236_SY340_FMwebp_QL65&keywords=packing+for+mars) is a great accessible read on a lot of the practical challenges of getting humans to Mars. I really enjoyed it.

Yesterday actually came really close to hitting the nail on the head. I got up, went for a long run, had coffee with my mom, then wandered around town with my really good (female) friend/housemate. We hung out at the bookstore for a couple hours reading "What If?", ate chinese food, went on a short hike, then picked up cider and came home and played Scrabble while drinking and snacking. Sounds boring but it was just about the best day I've had in recent memory.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. Not so much antitheist, but I found it a good place to start in terms of "big history." Some of the language is tempered--it won't be as hard hitting as any Dawkins book--but it does a good job of covering the basics, and gives a general overview of how cumulative scientific knowledge got us where we are now.

• The Structure of Scientific Revolutions - Thomas Kuhn
  
• How to Win Friends and Influence People - Dale Carnegie
  
• Masquerade - Kit Williams
  
• A Short History of Nearly Everything - Bill Bryson
  
• Objectivity - Lorraine Daston & Peter Galison

I think A Short History of Nearly Everything might be what you are looking for.

Not sure it will 100% meet your needs but a great book nonetheless and worth a read.

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything is very good and a bit more up-to-date (it's a book not a TV series), and I speak as someone who has read the book of Cosmos several times.

Brian Green's The Elegant Universe is worth reading, even if you think String Theory is "Not Even Wrong" (Greene is not one of the die-hards).

For a serious suggestion that isn't subversive per se but would be good prep material for more subversive stuff, XKCD's What If book is great. It blends science with the absurd in a way that captures the imagination.

If you're up for an fun, easy read I'd suggest you start with 'A Short History of Nearly Everything' by Bill Bryson and see when you feel like exploring when you're done. - http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X

> Doing projects around the house

This isn't math directly, but if learning electricity is on your to-do list, then I'd recommend There Are No Electrons: Electronics for Earthlings. It uses a bunch of analogies to explain electricity and how common electronic appliances and components work layered over top of a funny story that makes it not so dry and a lot more memorable.

By the end, you should know enough to be able to troubleshoot and fix simple electronics in your house including rewiring sockets/appliances, not because you got some guide specifically for rewiring sockets, but because you can reason about it and how it works.

I'd recommend A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. This book is great because it covers so many of the most scientifically important events throughout history, rather than just being a layman's introduction to a specific branch of science.

If you're at all interested in statistics and how misleading they can be, check out The Drunkard's Walk.

He's excellent. Just published a book of What If? thats worth the price.
I got mine signed :)

The new book by the Xkcd guy. And it's pretty great!

This is a little big, but What if by Randall Munroe is a pretty good choice. It's by the same guy that makes the XKCD webcomic, and it's hilarious and informative. Nonfiction absurd scenarios and the application of math/science to the weirdest questions. It's not exactly inconspicuous though, and it is a big book.

https://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1394474740&sr=1-1&keywords=what+if%3F%2C+munroe

<Sry no idea how to format links>

If you haven't already, buy the book. It has all the best what ifs and a few new ones that are fun, I highly suggest it.

Read this, trust me you'll love it and everything about simple electricity will finally make sense...

All these comments are great, but the absolute beginning is here!

Next read the book suggested by ryzic. If you have the money, id buy the companion kits that Make sells for the book.

After reading those two books and doing all the projects, look into some "project kits." Check out sparkfun, The Evil Genius series of books, or my favorite the Nuts and Volts store.

After three or four "project kits" just find schematics and figure out how to buy all the parts yourself. Really the world is your oyester and with enough struggling you can build anything. Some ideas that always get people excited: a Tesla coil, cell phone jammers, tasers, ultrasonic range finders, a robotic arm, mechanized nerf gun, anything you think is cool and can find a schematic for.

From there you a going to find yourself really interested in microcontrollers. And well.. Thats a different comment lol!

I just read the chapter on this in "What If?" (http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1425600998&sr=8-1&keywords=what+if)

Turns out, you don't want to treat elements like Pokemon. Good luck!

Not sure why I'm having such a hard time wrapping my head around this :)

I think I read somewhere (possibly this book) that we're still able to detect some of the very first microwave radiation (?) that was caused by the Big Bang eons ago, and I think that's what's confusing me: this really old "light" that was created shortly after whatever started the observable universe that's been happily traveling along rather quickly, occasionally bumping into stuff like planets and monitoring equipment where it can be observed...

So if the Big Bang happened way over THERE and everything we know including microwave radiation and what ultimately became us had to travel outwards away from that point until we ended up way over HERE a really long time later on (i.e. now), then why does this old microwave radiation only reach us now? Did it take a pit stop somewhere?

If that still doesn't make any sense I really don't blame you! Makes my head spin, lol.

Handbanna84 has good recommendations.

It's an easy read, but gives a lot of insight into 3rd-world countries. The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind

A Short History of Nearly Everything - Then what you do is keep a note of things you want to dig into deeper, and you can start to get more granular with your requests and searches.

EDIT: - Just thought, Malcolm - Blink - this book isn't about religion/cults, but gives an interesting insight into how we think and why we do the (stupid) things we do.

The Psychopath Test by Jon Ronson- Fascinating book about psychology and neuroscience about how psychopathic tendencies are pretty common among us humans. Very readable and entertaining.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson- Incredibly wide-ranging look at the developments of the universe and natural sciences from the big bang to today. It's an informative read but also contains Bryson's usual wit. Not my favorite book by Bryson but you will likely learn a lot and it's a worthwhile read.

It's a commonly studied strategy for long-term space voyages, including potential Mars missions. Married couples reduce the likelihood of new romances blossoming between people in very close quarters- preventing loads of potential drama while increasing cooperation. Also, married people tend to trust other married people over single people. There are many others reasons that make it a good plan.

[Source: Packing For Mars by Mary Roach.]

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

This is super entertaining and interesting. It covers so many topics, that it's almost impossible to get bored with it

A short history of nearly everything

While it might not change the way he sees the world it'll definitely help him see it more clearly.

If it's readable nonfiction in general that you like (as opposed to an economics bent), definitely check out Mary Roach, a science writer. She writes about oddball topics like cadavers in Stiff, sex studies in Bonk, or space travel in Packing for Mars.

Science Made Stupid by Tom Weller

It was my favorite book when I was a 8 but had completely forgot the title and author and I just about jumped for joy when I serendipitously spotted the cover at used book store when I was 25.

> The original claim is that anyone can be great at anything. It's wishy-washy feel-good bullshit.

keep believing this and you are guaranteed to never be great at anything.

> Just because you paint, doesn't mean you are a great painter.

you think anybody thought jackson pollock would be famous? he threw random paint all over a canvas

> Just because you play guitar, doesn't mean a stadium-full of people will pay to hear you play.

nickelback. creed. limp bizkit. billy ray cyrus.

> You can't get up tomorrow and decide to run 100m faster than Usain Bolt - no matter how hard you try, you'll never get there

have you tried? michael johnson ran every day for 4 hours or more.

> Practice all you want, you'll never play in a Superbowl-winning team

kurt warner was a grocery stocker and busted his ass in the arena football league to get his start

> ever make scientific contributions on a par with Hawking.

read this book. its filled to the brim with scientists who started out of their garage or workshop and did amazing things that changed the world

> The fact that you think the number of notches on your bedpost is in any way the mark of a great man

great men are made by trying, failing, trying, failing, and trying some more, and none of them had the ridiculous attitude that being great at anything for anyone is wishy washy bullshit. if that is really what you believe, then you have guaranteed you will never be great at anything

This book is used in college biology classes. Most of it is about invertebrate reproduction, but told in an engaging and funny way. Chock full of ideas for how aliens might do it, I'd think.

https://www.amazon.com/Dr-Tatianas-Sex-Advice-Creation/dp/0805063323

As per http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171 there was a significant decrease in anti-microbial activity of clothes washing with the advent of detergents which clean at cold or warm temperatures. As the author describes (if I remember correctly) at the scale of the germs in the fibers, it would be like an adult human wrapped in cargo nets. You simply need to kill/injure the organisms with heat.

Bill Bryson has some answers. I found this on reddit from people recommending books. This book is awesome and will help with all questions regarding that and then some http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

If she is interested in science than Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything would be great for a summer read.

It was a thread like this on Reddit where someone recommended this book. Lemme pay it back.

A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson

Loved every page of this book.

One of my favorite non-fiction authors is Mary Roach. She picks a topic and gathers all kinds of detailed and odd information about it, often covering the kinds of details that the genuinely curious find fascinating.

Stiff is about what humans do with the dead remains of other humans, including her visit to the body farms where scientists figure out the cascade of beetles, bugs and grubs invade the remains.
https://www.amazon.com/Stiff-Curious-Lives-Human-Cadavers/dp/0393324826/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1502060523&sr=8-4&keywords=Mary+Roach

Gulp is all about the human digestive tract
https://www.amazon.com/Gulp-Adventures-Alimentary-Mary-Roach-ebook/dp/B00AN86JZ4/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1502060523&sr=8-1&keywords=Mary+Roach

Bonk is about sex, including the author convincing her husband to have sex in an MRI for science
https://www.amazon.com/Bonk-Curious-Coupling-Science-Sex-ebook/dp/B003M5IGE2/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1502060523&sr=8-9&keywords=Mary+Roach

Packing for Mars is all about the details of putting people into space
https://www.amazon.com/Packing-Mars-Curious-Science-Life-ebook/dp/B003YJEXUM/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1502060523&sr=8-5&keywords=Mary+Roach

Basically, I think everything she writes is worth reading if you write fiction.

In Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything" he makes a pretty good case that it is actually the exact opposite: that South America was settled by the Polynesians.


Obviously the Polynesians are incredible boaters, but what makes the most sense is that they initially sailed into the wind knowing that if they didn't find whatever it was they were looking for, the trip back home downwind would be much easier.

If you like xkcd, you might also want to check out his book "What If?"

Not very long, but a very fun read. It's a longform format of the other half of his site: https://what-if.xkcd.com/

"A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson is a perfect introduction into science. Its very accessible and very interesting.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/076790818X?pc_redir=1405945594&robot_redir=1

It's not JUST about Geology, but still...
I'm currently reading A Short History of Nearly Everything, which is really about science and history of science in general. Not very in-depth or technical about any particular subject, but a great read.

I have the perfect non-fiction book for you that is great history AND science/number-y to an insane degree!

​

Bill Bryson's "A Short History of Nearly Everything." The book is about what we know about our planet/reality and how we came to know it. Fucking fascinating. It can get a little dry in the middle with all the earth-measuring stuff but you might actually like that part.

​

You will be instantly drawn in with the beginning astronomy stuff and relative size/scale analogies.

​

​

​

I agree read a lot of great non-fiction books.

You can start with the series and related books of this:
http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X

http://www.amazon.com/Book-General-Ignorance-John-Mitchinson/dp/0307394913#immersive-view_1457311562058

Check out A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson. It's a good start and a humorous read as well.

Hmm, I don't have any suggestions in the mythology vein at the moment, but for generally accessible nonfiction, I cannot recommend Mary Roach enough. Stiff and Packing For Mars are probably the best ones to start with.

New to /r/EDC, here's my start:

1. Notebook, puzzles, & book I'm currently reading (A Short History of Nearly Everything)
   
   
2. Gloves
   
   
3. Beanie
   
   
4. Nalgene
   
   
5. Firefox-branded Ogio backpack
   
   
6. Meds
   
   
7. mini-USB cable
   
   
8. Gerber multi-tool + Leatherman Freestyle CX
   
   
9. Kobalt flashlight
   
   
10. Belkin mini-surge + USB
    
    
11. Klipsch Image S4 headphones
    
    
12. Case for business cards
    
    
13. Spare earbuds
    
    
14. Contacts + glasses
    
    
15. Zune HD (yes, a Zune)
    
    
16. Spare 8GB flash drive
    
    
17. Nike sunglasses
    
    Items 18-24 are always in my pockets (+/- a few extras occassionally)
    
    
18. Chapstick
    
    
19. Keys
    
    
20. Gerber pocketknife
    
    
21. Gum (always always always)
    
    
22. 8GB flash drive
    
    
23. Money clip (credit/debit cards, license, a few business cards)
    
    
24. Fob for office
    
    
25. (Not pictured) HTC Inspire 4G
    
    Very open to suggestions/critiques. I really enjoy seeing all the different EDC collections, from minimalist to zombie apocalypse-ready.
    I'm thinking about putting together a car/bug-out bag, but that'll come later.
    
    EDIT: formatting

Two good introductions to physics and science in general:

Bill Bryson (popular and quite funny): A Short History of Nearly Everything

Brian Cox (slightly more serious, but still a fairly easy read): Why Does E=mc2?: (And Why Should We Care?)

Dude, for a newbie, I thought Bill Bryson's "A Short History of nearly Everything" was Awesome.

Of course that's a lot simpler than Godel or Douglas Hofstadter.

Have you read "The Selfish Gene", by Richard Dawkins? Awesome read.

A really nice, much prettier, redrawing of this, by the same illustrator, from the inside of the dust jacket of his new book (it's really good):

http://i.kinja-img.com/gawker-media/image/upload/t_original/875328566035019154.jpg

The book: http://www.amazon.com/What-If-Scientific-Hypothetical-Questions/dp/0544272994

I recommend Lies My Teacher Told Me or Bryson's Short History of Nearly Everything. If you are looking for something a little more scholarly and drier then I suggest A History of Knowledge by Van Doren. As a world history teacher myself, I loved all of these books.

If you like this then you'll really like a book by Bill Bryson, A Short History of Nearly Everything, highly recommended. Anything by Bryson, really.

Bill Bryson is the man. I don't know if he is a "Super Dad" I'm making him out to be, but I hope so. I've only read the one book though..

http://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

I'll recommend Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything. It's a relatively easy read but packed with all sorts of interesting bits of history and science.

This is a fun read and gives a good insight into the typical way history unfolds.
http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X

"How to Teach Quantum Physics to Your Dog" was good fun

https://www.amazon.com/How-Teach-Quantum-Physics-Your/dp/1416572295

Even though it's not exclusively about geology, A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson is a fantastic read.

Although it covers everything from the Big Bang to early humans, about 7 of it's 30 chapters are on geologic topics such as paleontology, tectonics, asteroid impacts, ice ages, etc. as well as the history of the development of those fields. It's one of those rare books that is very readable and informative without being too dumbed down.

You misunderstand quantum mechanics. I recommend checking to see if your library has a copy of this book, as it provides a pretty good explanation.

Thanks! A good place to start might be Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything.

Have you read Bill Bryson's A Short History Of Nearly Everything? Bill's a writer who pondered the same questions you've been pondering, and set out to learn exactly how he, and all people, came to be, beginning with the start of the universe and running through to the scientific discoveries and pioneers which enabled the modern age. It's a book I'd recommend to anyone, and one I especially think you would relate to, learn from, and enjoy.

[A Short History of Nearly Everything] (https://www.amazon.com/Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/076790818X) by Bill Bryson. Fun, interesting, and informative.

Ooooh, just one? Just a mention that I am atheist, though none of these are really directly in favor of atheism :)

http://www.amazon.com/The-Demon-Haunted-World-Science-Candle/dp/0345409469

http://www.amazon.com/Genome-The-Autobiography-Species-Chapters/dp/0060932902

http://www.amazon.com/A-Short-History-Nearly-Everything/dp/0767908171

http://www.amazon.com/Lies-My-Teacher-Told-Everything/dp/0684818868

http://www.amazon.com/Fahrenheit-451-Ray-Bradbury/dp/0345342968

http://www.amazon.com/Brave-New-World-Aldous-Huxley/dp/0060929871

A Short History of Nearly Everything. Essentially, Bryson describes the evolution of man through it's scientific advances. I think it will be a little less militarily focused than you want, but it seems pretty close.

Could you elaborate a little bit?

Are we talking about the rate of expansion of the universe? I don't know if we scientifically have enough evidence to confidently answer that question, and answers are at this point not totally verifiable.

Great book on ideas like this.

Finished reading Asura: Tale of the Vanquished last week. For anyone interested in anti-hero tales, this is a must-read. Or if you have had questions which you couldn't dare or weren't allowed to ask when reading/hearing/watching Ramayana, this can quench your thirst. I'd love to see a movie adaptation of this book (sigh).

Currently reading What If by Randall Munroe, creator of xkcd. Its one of those not-to-read-just-to-surf kind of books, although very difficult not to categorize it as a serious book. Well, you know xkcd.

Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly everything. Really, really fucking awesome.