A Crack in Creation: Gene Editing and the Unthinkable Power to Control Evolution is a powerful book on advances in gene editing research and history by Jennifer A. Doudna and Samuel H. Sternberg. It puts forward the timeline of a genome-editing tool known as CRISPR, or “Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats.” The book starts with examples where natural changes in the genome lead to randomly cure patients of genetic diseases. 2013 was the year of medical mystery at the National Institutes of Health, when the scientists were dealing with…
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Book Review: Homo Deus by Yuval Noah Harari
Dataism is the new religion! – is the motif running across Harari’s Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. As with its predecessor, Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind, the book deals with evolution and the abilities that humans acquire as we move along the evolutionary scale. And how we process these capabilities only to fabricate a world where there is no place for us.
Read MoreBook Review: The God Equation by Dr. Michio Kaku
Dr. Michio Kaku is a well-known figure in science academia. He is a master story teller. His super power is, he can make science graspable for non-science people like myself. In The God Equation: The Quest for a Theory of Everything, Dr. Kaku talks about three things: physics from creation to present, the effort put behind in unifying all known physical forces and the theory of dimensions, string theory.
Read MoreBook Review: In His Own Words by Nelson Mandela
In His Own Words: From Freedom To The Future: Tributes And Speeches by Nelson Mandela is one of those books, which everyone must read once in their life time. Nelson Mandela was, indeed, a prolific writer as well as a gifted speaker. He became an epitome of freedom around the world after his South African history in 1994. I have always looked up to him for his patience, diligence and integrity.
Read MoreBook Review: Brief Candle in the Dark by Richard Dawkins
Brief Candle in the Dark: My Life in Science is the second volume of Richard Dawkins’ memoirs, first being An Appetite for Wonder: The Making of a Scientist. As expected, the autobiographical memoir is not a chronological tale, rather it is a series of anecdotes. In fact, Dawkins writes, “If you don’t like digressive anecdotes, you might find you’re reading the wrong book.”
Read MoreBook Review: The Nature Fix by Florence Williams
The Nature Fix – Why Nature Makes Us Happier, Healthier, and More Creative by Florence Williams is a beautiful effort to investigate into nature’s restorative benefits on human brain.
Read MoreBook Review: A World Beyond Physics by Stuart A. Kauffman
Stuart Alan Kauffman is not only a complex-systems researcher but he is also a polymath, with a degree in medicine and training in biochemistry, genetics, physics, philosophy and other fields. Very deftly he roams across disciplinary boundaries looking for answers to the riddles that obsess him. In, A World Beyond Physics, he takes up the conundrum of life’s origin.
Read MoreBook Review: Parallel Worlds by Michio Kaku
Parallel Worlds: The Science of Alternative Universes and Our Future in the Cosmos by Michio Kaku is a pandora’s box of parallel worlds hovering around us all the time. This is my third read after Physics of The Future and The Future of Humanity from the same author.
Read MoreBook Review: The Emergent Multiverse by David Wallace
The Emergent Multiverse: Quantum Theory According to the Everett Interpretation is an effort on the part of David Wallace to vindicate Hugh Everett’s idea of many worlds. The concept of multiverse was initially taken seriously in philosophy than in physics. May be because in physics the idea came much later, that is, with the emergence of quantum mechanics.
Read MoreBook Review: The Structure of Scientific Revolutions by Thomas Kuhn
The Structure of Scientific Revolutions is one book that talks about how science progresses. In addition, it also lays stress on the structure of its history.
Read MoreBook Review: Contact by Carl Sagan
Last year I saw the movie, Contact. And I found the plot very propulsive, so decided to read the book written by Carl Sagan. Like a teenager, I’m equally fascinated with the idea of space exploration and extra-terrestrial life/intelligence. And reading Contact was surely a treat.
Read MoreBook Review: Sapiens, A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari
Homosapiens a.k.a we humans are the dominant specie today because we can create mythologies and tell stories. Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind by Yuval Noah Harari is an interesting read, where the author interweaves science and the humanities together to make us see where we have reached today from once being the hunter gatherers.
Read MoreBook Review: The Moon is a Harsh Mistress by Robert A. Heinlein
The Moon is a Harsh Mistress happens to be my first peek into Heinlein’s work. The book is embedded with wonderful interstellar imagination – artificial intelligence, extra-terrestrial colonization, and interplanetary warfare.
Read MoreBook Review: The God Delusion by Richard Dawkins
This is the second time I read The God Delusion, in fact this book is much easier to understand after reading The Selfish Gene from the same author, Richard Dawkins.
Read MoreBook Review: Physics of The Future by Dr Michio Kaku
Physics of The Future is my second read from Dr. Michio Kaku, first being The Future of Humanity. For the current book, Dr. Kaku interviewed more than 300 scientists along with their research that would lead humanity to the next level in computers, medicine, nanotechnology, space exploration and energy production.
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