Reddit mentions: The best scientific reference books

All of this is just my opinion:


As of now, working in private practice or a group practice tends to be the best way to get a good interaction with the patient, good pay, and good life balance. I think if you want to go into family practice or obgyn, consider being a nurse practitioner. However since you're almost done with undergrad, perhaps that wouldn't make sense for you. Hospitalists tend to do well financially and have good hours (7 days on, 7 days off, 12 hour days, shift work). Personally, I'm going into psychiatry private practice in an area of the country where there's a lot of demand and patients with insurance. I think psychiatry is the hidden gem that many people are missing but if you look at the numbers, it is a very good option, particularly if you know how to run a business. Many clinics don't accept medicare/medicaid patients since the clinics can barely make money off of them. Actually a lot of hospitals lose money on medicaid medicare patients and try to compensate through their surgery department or something.


I think if you're a girl or a guy makes a big difference too. guys can date in their 30s more easily than girls can date in their 30s.


I think if you go into med school or residency with a spouse or someone you can talk to, it's much better, so you're not celibate which was hard for me haha.


As for the hours, I would suggest looking at some medical texts and seeing if you can imagine yourself spending 12 hours a day studying this stuff. 1st year of school you'll be learning basic sciences. try to find a pdf of First Aid http://medicalbooksfree.com/first-aid-for-the-usmle-step-1-2012-first-aid-usmle and medessentials http://www.amazon.com/medEssentials-USMLE-Step-Prep/dp/1609780264. These are basically the two books you are expected to memorize in your first two years. You could try on amazon rapid review pathology, or BRS Master the boards step 2. Actually, almost all the main materials I needed to get through school can be procured for free online somewhere.


Since I wanted good life balance from the start, I chose a path that facilitated that. first year med school was circa 100 hour weeks but some people were smart and could get by with maybe only 80 hours. I don't think many people studied less than that. At our school, mostly everyone, even the smart ones, were always studying. 2nd year is the same, 80-100 hours, but there is less stress in second year than first year. 3rd year for me was 60-80 hours mostly because you have about 40-50 hours in the hospital, and in the evenings you have readings and exams that you need to pass. 4th year was a breeze but you are flying around for interviews which is very expensive.


All residencies tend to be 60 hours first year when you are in the hospital getting a little exposure to everything. After that, the residencies diverge. family medicine is 3 years total and years 2 and 3 are like 50-60 hours I think. surgery is 70-80 from most people I hear. pediatrics is like, 50. the hard ones are definitely surgery, obgyn, pathology, radiology. The easier ones are family medicine, pediatrics. then you got psychiatry which at my program is 35-40 hours a week, which was a key factor for me choosing to be here haha.


So if you make smart decisions, there is a wide range of experiences that you can have through medical education. Then after you finish residency, there is so much variation in how you can practice too. in hospitals suck, and I would never want to work there. Private practice or group practice with other physicians in your specialty is the best I think. Hopefully obamacare doesn't do away with the possibility of doing that.

If you're really smart, you could get into radiology or derm which I think have posh residencies too and you definitely benefit off the back end, and in derm, you get to hang out with the patients more and enjoy your work. I'm just rambling now because I drank too much soda and can't sleep.

oh ya, and try www.studentdoctor.net and reddit has some med student subs like /r/medicalschool I think? I forgot the name.

This is, quite simply, a wonderful book and a great suggestion.

May I also suggest Quantum by Manjit Kumar. A great introduction to the emergence of quantum mechanics. The Canon is also quite popular, though some people find it a bit too "folksy". Another perennial favourite is the Pulitzer Prize winning The Making of the Atomic Bomb by Richard Rhodes. This combines history, science and wonderful writing.

I can offer up many more suggestions if you want. Do you have any particular areas of interest?

• The Canon by Natalie Angier.
  
  This is a fast-paced, beautifully written, introduction to the sciences- there's a chapter each devoted to scientific theory, probability, measurement, physics, chemistry, evolutionary and molecular biology, geology, and astronomy. It's written entirely for laymen in an engaging way, and from 2007, so the information is quite current.
  
  For instance, from the evolutionary bio chapter:
  > Evolution is neither organized nor farsighted, and you wouldn't want to put it in charge of planning your company's annual board meeting, or even your kid's birthday party at Chuck E. Cheese. As biologists like to point out, evolution is a tinkerer, an ad-hocker, and a jury-rigger. It works with what it has on hand, not with what it has in mind. Some of its inventions prove elegant, while in others you can see the seams and dried glue.
  
  
• I don't have The Drunkard's Walk by Leonard Mlodinow in front of me, but it's a good introduction to probability, with a bunch of real-world examples, and also good explanations of the theory. It changed the way I think about statistics.

It's an older article, but very good. Natalie Angier is an excellent writer and very sharp.

I recently picked up her newest The Canon. It's very good so far.

Sometimes all it takes is Carl's big hearty grin to bring a tear to my eye. I wish I could have met him. Rest in Peace, my friend.

Edit: I will be buying this ASAP.

I'm sure that their book supply is limited, but maybe there's a way to look into supplying prisons with random number books, like this one: https://www.amazon.com/Small-Book-Random-Numbers/dp/1452818363

For a D20, just take two digits at a time and 01-05=1, 06-10=2, and so on, with 96-00=20. Stuff like D6 and D12 would be more annoying, but you could always approximate or just go through digits until you get one that's between 1 and 6. Would work well for stuff like D&D, but probably harder for stuff like gambling since all the numbers are there ahead of time.

The Amazing Randi is always a good introduction to skepticism. There's also Carl Sagan's Baloney Detection Kit from his book The Demon-Haunted World: Science As A Candle In The Dark. skeptic.com has a lot of videos you can play.

It's a big web, and Google is your friend.

That looks like the Kaplan review book. Its basically FA but by Kaplan
https://www.amazon.com/medEssentials-USMLE-Step-Prep/dp/1609780264

I'd start with a beginner guide to the scientific method:

http://www.amazon.com/A-Beginners-Guide-Scientific-Method/dp/0534528430

Once you're done with that I'd find a book on the basics of quantum mechanics, although I'm in a class right now and we're reading Principles of Quantum Mechanics, that may be a bit over your head, you may need something a little less tough, I'm not sure though. I don't think a universe from nothing or the grand design give you teh basics you may need to fully involve yourself in QM.

Those would be two areas to begin your reading, and once you've done that I'll read whatever literature you want me to.

I'm going to go with one of my favorite explanations from one of my favorite science books of all time: "No one paid anyone to do this." Example: Crookes radiometer. It's not going to be very difficult to explain, it's just that no one who has the means, has the will to verify the problem.

I'm talking about: http://www.amazon.com/What-Einstein-Didnt-Know-Scientific/dp/1452659419 (I left it as a bare link so you know I didn't try and apply a sales code to it)

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-Whirligig-Beautiful-Basics-Science/dp/0547053460/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1239744372&sr=1-1

I remember NPR mentioning this book on science friday a couple months ago. I took a cursory glance at it when i happened upon it at barnes and noble one day but neglected to purchase it.