Looking for high school appropriate high interest science books - Page 2

Dirus · 03-09-2007, 08:06 AM

Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

dolaan · 03-09-2007, 10:51 AM

Anything by Steven Jay Gould, great author talks about Evolutionary Biology mainly. I have read all his books and I am trying to think what was the best especially for high school. Maybe "Dinosaur in a Haystack" I will try to remember to check when I get home tonight. He is a Harvard Professor and the director of the Natural History Museum in NYC. He also makes his research interesting and easily understood. He loves Baseball. Although he is kind of blacklisted my many Biologists as being to mainstream. I will let you decide for your self.

2 books by Richard Feynman "Surely your joking, Mr. Feynman" and "The pleasure of finding things out". This guy was amazing. Whenever I need inspiration for my research I reread one of these. He was a Nobel Prize winning physist and worked on the atomic bomb and eventually set up in Cal Poly. Plus you will laugh out loud reading them. He will become one of the people you would want to have dinner with if you could.

"A short History of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. I know he is the guys that wrote walk in the Woods and other travel books but he must have done his Homework cause this is a great read and very informative. As a Biochemist and physiologist he is correct on a bunch of very new discoveries. I don’t know I remember being surprised that he could know that ))

I would say these books are all easily understandable by the layman with the Gould stuff being the heaviest. I taught High school Biology, Chemistry and Physics before quitting and going to Grad school and I think all of them would be appropriate.

Hope these help and feel free to send me a Private message if you need any additional information.

Dirus · 03-09-2007, 11:02 AM

Thanks Dolaan,

I really enjoy Gould but havent read the others. I really appreciate the time you all are taking here.

kegkilla · 03-09-2007, 05:34 PM

how bout your forget this nerd crap and spend your senior year like you're supposed to by getting drunk, doing drugs, banging freshmen and cutting school

Rune · 03-09-2007, 09:59 PM

Better yet take a vote at the beginning of the year about what they want to learn about then go from there.

Lenardo · 03-13-2007, 10:45 AM

HOW About this one

An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion (Paperback)

It's gotten the attention of some very high level people in the pentagon --and one author just did an interview with AP about it:

first author listed:
Travis Shane Taylor is a born and bred southerner and resides just outside Huntsville, Alabama. He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master’s degree in Physics, a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the Univ. of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Alabama. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He is currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space based beamed energy systems, future combat technologies and systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He is also involved with multiple MASINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT concept studies. He has published over 25 papers and the appendix on solar sailing in the 2nd edition of Deep Space Probes by Greg Matloff.

stehle · 03-15-2007, 09:52 AM

Sagan is a good choice.

If you want to diverge a bit from your current list:

"Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell: science of perception and thought. absolutely phenomenal book. Easy read too--would be great for high schoolers.

"Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt Stephen J. Dubner: this really brings the science of economics into the realm of society and social policy.

Dildo Faggins · 03-15-2007, 10:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lenardo

HOW About this one

An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion (Paperback)

It's gotten the attention of some very high level people in the pentagon --and one author just did an interview with AP about it:

first author listed:
Travis Shane Taylor is a born and bred southerner and resides just outside Huntsville, Alabama. He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master’s degree in Physics, a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the Univ. of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Alabama. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He is currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space based beamed energy systems, future combat technologies and systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He is also involved with multiple MASINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT concept studies. He has published over 25 papers and the appendix on solar sailing in the 2nd edition of Deep Space Probes by Greg Matloff.

Except, he fails to go into the fact that if aliens attack, we wont know it until earth is blowing up under us. Here's how it works.

Gather your shit a few hundred lightyears from earth. Build "The big motherfucking laser beam". Now you hook up a few gajillion computers to calculate out exactly where earth is and will go, then you fire that shit at where earth will be when the laser gets there, then you just wait however far you are from earth in light years. Guess what, you cant see shit coming when it goes the speed of light.

Martians arent ever gonna fucking land in ufos and hop out with beam guns and shit. If they want war with us, they'll blow us up from 100s of lightyears away, and probably fire a few hundred more shots while their waiting to see if they hit just to make sure. Thinking we'd have a chance to stop it is just idiocy.

Eomer · 03-16-2007, 07:16 AM

More than likely it wouldn't be a laser, but a giant asteroid or even a mini-black hole that they hurl at us. But yeah, if ET's can travel a couple dozen or hundred light years to get to us while we can't even currently get a man on the moon, I'd say it's fairly pointless considering "planetary defenses" against them. I'd say it's a lot more worthwhile to be spending time thinking about how we'd communicate with ET's if they made contact, that sort of thing.

Aulirophile · 03-16-2007, 07:58 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Eomer

More than likely it wouldn't be a laser, but a giant asteroid or even a mini-black hole that they hurl at us. But yeah, if ET's can travel a couple dozen or hundred light years to get to us while we can't even currently get a man on the moon, I'd say it's fairly pointless considering "planetary defenses" against them. I'd say it's a lot more worthwhile to be spending time thinking about how we'd communicate with ET's if they made contact, that sort of thing.

They are probably rusted to shit at this point, but there are still a bunch of Apollo rockets around. If we had some overbearing reason it'd only take a few months to put a guy on the Moon by cannibalizing them all.

Unless you believe in the conspiracy that we never landed on the Moon... Speaking of, that would be a good topic. Irrational conspiracies dredged up against the accomplishments of science. Just yesterday a pair of wholesome, blonde Christian girls came to my door and informed me that since Man had not yet cured the "common cold" that clearly science was not answer enough for all Man's ills. Since the common cold is a virus I wasn't too impressed, considering the huge leaps and bounds anti-viral research has taken in the last ten years.

Stuff like that. There is a Bullshit episode that did a debunking of the Moon conspiracy, even though you couldn't play that in class it'd give you some pointers on discussion and references.

TOOL · 03-19-2007, 08:31 PM

Are We Unique?: A Scientist Explores the Unparalleled Intelligence of the Human Mind by James Trefil -- The author tries draw a line between complicated instinctual behavior observed in animals, and learned (i.e. intelligent) human behaviors, and discusses the grey area on both sides of the line. Then he tries to draw another line between what humans are capable of and what computers will never be capable of, and more gray area is discussed. In my opinion, he fell a bit short (by not giving humans the credit we're due) when he was talking about things like creativity and initiative; but he's a physicist, not a biologist or a computer scientist or psychologist, and I don't expect anyone to be an expert in all fields. It's not the most scientific book out there, but the discussions it can cause might just be what you're looking for.

On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee -- Jeff Hawkins is a computer scientist (he helped create the palm pilot) whose focus is somewhere along the lines of recreating the human brain in silicon. More importantly though, we still need to figure out exactly how the brain processes and stores information, and this book explains what's known so far. By his own claims, it's the first book that's been written that attempts to fully detail the mechanics of thought. In my opinion, the book seemed a bit unpolished or incomplete at times, but he's still researching and developing and refining his ideas as we speak. If he ever writes another book I'll drop whatever I'm reading at the time to read his first. (And if anyone else knows of any books similar to this one, please let me know.)

Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis -- Kary Mullis is a Nobel Prize winning bio-chemist, a surfer, a womanizer, and like all good chemists, he's made and ingested psychadelic drugs of his own design. Oh, and did I mention that he's an incredibly entertaining author with somewhat contriversial and/or surprising ideas? He touches on Science vs. Pseudoscience more than once, and his opinions aren't always on the side of the Scientific Status Quo. The OP would probably like this one even if they didn't think it would be tame enough to cover in a high school class.

03-15-2007, 09:52 AM	#22 (permalink)
stehle Got crazy neighbor? Join Date: Feb 2005 Location: boston Posts: 321 -1 Internets	Sagan is a good choice. If you want to diverge a bit from your current list: "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell: science of perception and thought. absolutely phenomenal book. Easy read too--would be great for high schoolers. "Freakonomics" by Steven D. Levitt Stephen J. Dubner: this really brings the science of economics into the realm of society and social policy. __________________ Making sane neighbors crazy since 2004.

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03-09-2007, 08:06 AM	#16 (permalink)
Dirus Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 124 +0 Internets	Thanks for the ideas. Keep them coming.

03-09-2007, 10:51 AM	#17 (permalink)
dolaan Registered User Join Date: Jul 2006 Posts: 32 +0 Internets	Anything by Steven Jay Gould, great author talks about Evolutionary Biology mainly. I have read all his books and I am trying to think what was the best especially for high school. Maybe "Dinosaur in a Haystack" I will try to remember to check when I get home tonight. He is a Harvard Professor and the director of the Natural History Museum in NYC. He also makes his research interesting and easily understood. He loves Baseball. Although he is kind of blacklisted my many Biologists as being to mainstream. I will let you decide for your self. 2 books by Richard Feynman "Surely your joking, Mr. Feynman" and "The pleasure of finding things out". This guy was amazing. Whenever I need inspiration for my research I reread one of these. He was a Nobel Prize winning physist and worked on the atomic bomb and eventually set up in Cal Poly. Plus you will laugh out loud reading them. He will become one of the people you would want to have dinner with if you could. "A short History of nearly everything" by Bill Bryson. I know he is the guys that wrote walk in the Woods and other travel books but he must have done his Homework cause this is a great read and very informative. As a Biochemist and physiologist he is correct on a bunch of very new discoveries. I don’t know I remember being surprised that he could know that )) I would say these books are all easily understandable by the layman with the Gould stuff being the heaviest. I taught High school Biology, Chemistry and Physics before quitting and going to Grad school and I think all of them would be appropriate. Hope these help and feel free to send me a Private message if you need any additional information.

03-09-2007, 11:02 AM	#18 (permalink)
Dirus Registered User Join Date: Mar 2003 Posts: 124 +0 Internets	Thanks Dolaan, I really enjoy Gould but havent read the others. I really appreciate the time you all are taking here.

03-09-2007, 05:34 PM	#19 (permalink)
kegkilla Sultan of Swingin on niggaz Join Date: Jul 2005 Location: killadelphia Posts: 1,577 -137 Internets	how bout your forget this nerd crap and spend your senior year like you're supposed to by getting drunk, doing drugs, banging freshmen and cutting school

03-09-2007, 09:59 PM	#20 (permalink)
Rune Bonafied Misanthrope Join Date: Oct 2004 Location: ATX Posts: 901 -2 Internets	Better yet take a vote at the beginning of the year about what they want to learn about then go from there.

03-13-2007, 10:45 AM	#21 (permalink)
Lenardo Registered User Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 2,235 -6 Internets	HOW About this one An Introduction to Planetary Defense: A Study of Modern Warfare Applied to Extra-Terrestrial Invasion (Paperback) It's gotten the attention of some very high level people in the pentagon --and one author just did an interview with AP about it: first author listed: Travis Shane Taylor is a born and bred southerner and resides just outside Huntsville, Alabama. He has a Doctorate in Optical Science and Engineering, a Master’s degree in Physics, a Master’s degree in Aerospace Engineering, all from the University of Alabama in Huntsville; a Master’s degree in Astronomy from the Univ. of Western Sydney, and a Bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from Auburn University. He is a licensed Professional Engineer in the state of Alabama. Dr. Taylor has worked on various programs for the Department of Defense and NASA for the past sixteen years. He is currently working on several advanced propulsion concepts, very large space telescopes, space based beamed energy systems, future combat technologies and systems, and next generation space launch concepts. He is also involved with multiple MASINT, SIGINT, IMINT, and HUMINT concept studies. He has published over 25 papers and the appendix on solar sailing in the 2nd edition of Deep Space Probes by Greg Matloff.

03-16-2007, 07:16 AM	#24 (permalink)
Eomer Registered User Join Date: Feb 2002 Posts: 9,518 +25 Internets	More than likely it wouldn't be a laser, but a giant asteroid or even a mini-black hole that they hurl at us. But yeah, if ET's can travel a couple dozen or hundred light years to get to us while we can't even currently get a man on the moon, I'd say it's fairly pointless considering "planetary defenses" against them. I'd say it's a lot more worthwhile to be spending time thinking about how we'd communicate with ET's if they made contact, that sort of thing.

03-19-2007, 08:31 PM	#26 (permalink)
TOOL Yes. Oui. Si. Join Date: Aug 2002 Location: Anonymity is a virtue. Posts: 536 -7 Internets	Are We Unique?: A Scientist Explores the Unparalleled Intelligence of the Human Mind by James Trefil -- The author tries draw a line between complicated instinctual behavior observed in animals, and learned (i.e. intelligent) human behaviors, and discusses the grey area on both sides of the line. Then he tries to draw another line between what humans are capable of and what computers will never be capable of, and more gray area is discussed. In my opinion, he fell a bit short (by not giving humans the credit we're due) when he was talking about things like creativity and initiative; but he's a physicist, not a biologist or a computer scientist or psychologist, and I don't expect anyone to be an expert in all fields. It's not the most scientific book out there, but the discussions it can cause might just be what you're looking for. On Intelligence by Jeff Hawkins and Sandra Blakeslee -- Jeff Hawkins is a computer scientist (he helped create the palm pilot) whose focus is somewhere along the lines of recreating the human brain in silicon. More importantly though, we still need to figure out exactly how the brain processes and stores information, and this book explains what's known so far. By his own claims, it's the first book that's been written that attempts to fully detail the mechanics of thought. In my opinion, the book seemed a bit unpolished or incomplete at times, but he's still researching and developing and refining his ideas as we speak. If he ever writes another book I'll drop whatever I'm reading at the time to read his first. (And if anyone else knows of any books similar to this one, please let me know.) Dancing Naked in the Mind Field by Kary Mullis -- Kary Mullis is a Nobel Prize winning bio-chemist, a surfer, a womanizer, and like all good chemists, he's made and ingested psychadelic drugs of his own design. Oh, and did I mention that he's an incredibly entertaining author with somewhat contriversial and/or surprising ideas? He touches on Science vs. Pseudoscience more than once, and his opinions aren't always on the side of the Scientific Status Quo. The OP would probably like this one even if they didn't think it would be tame enough to cover in a high school class.