Programming the Universe: A Quantum Computer Scientist Takes on the Cosmos34 reviews Seth Lloyd Vintage, 2007 Top Quantum Computers Book for 2008 + An "informational? perspective of the universe + Living and Computing in Lloyd's Universe + Caught in the middle - too simplistic if you know, too complicated if you don't             Darwin Among The Machines: The Evolution Of Global Intelligence (Helix Books)23 reviews George B. Dyson Basic Books, 1998 Maybe not scientific, but that's not the point anyway... + Computer biology? + EDVAC, Turing, Von Newmann, IAS. + Not entirely satisfying             The Murderer Next Door: Why the Mind Is Designed to Kill21 reviews David M. Buss Penguin (Non-Classics), 2006 Book Review + 4 stars because 3.5 wasn't an option + The Murderer Next Door The Murderer Next Door by David Buss not only opens a new way to look at evolutionary psychology, but also explains with reasonable details, how the human mind branches out in different categories through its evolutionary state. He explains the modules that suppress us to kill and to not kill and ...             The Riemann Hypothesis: The Greatest Unsolved Problem in Mathematics20 reviews Karl Sabbagh Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2003 Others deserve learning about complexity too Karl Sabbagh has done his job well. He never pretended to be a master at this topic. He pretended to give the layman as myself access to the intricate and complex mind of a genius. This is what divulgation is about. I do not understand those hard ratings or much less comments like "which I could ...             Stumbling on Happiness218 reviews Daniel Gilbert Vintage, 2007 Makes me glad to be human + A valuable and important book that needs to truly deal with the results of unhappiness to make even more sense. + Interesting pop-psychology This book is fabulous. As much as the content informs on the human condition, the frolicking experience of reading it reinforces it. Makes me glad to be human. Highly recommended! - kara             Plutonium: A History of the World's Most Dangerous Element11 reviews Jeremy Bernstein Joseph Henry Press, 2007 Excellent read + Very good! + More History than Science + fun to read, but lots of commas in writing style             Why We Love: The Nature and Chemistry of Romantic Love34 reviews Helen Fisher Holt Paperbacks, 2005 speculative, but a brilliant attempt. + Summer Reading for Scientists! + Memorable This book suceeds on two levels. First, it is scientifically rigorous, though speculative. (those who accuse Fisher of being a popularizer obviously have never read her technical journal articles, nor other articles on this subject by researchers. She is no more speculative than they.) Second, it ...             Are We Alone?: Philosophical Implications Of The Discovery Of Extraterrestrial Life18 reviews Paul Davies Basic Books, 1996 We are not Alone + We'll never be alone with food for thought like this. + Raising ultimate questions Although this book came out a while ago I have re-read it many times. It is an absorbing book that combines the history of the evolution of the idea of extraterrestrial life, with the scientific hypotheses that show the universe is geared towards complexity [hence an implication it is geared ...             Our Final Century1 review Martin Rees Arrow Books Ltd, 2004 future catastrophe scenarios Martin Rees is a professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics and Matter at the University of Cambridge and holds the honorary title of Astronomer Royal. He is the author and co-author of more than 500 research articles and seven books on astrophysics and cosmology. According to [...] he is "arguably ...             The Evolution of Communication (Bradford Books)1 review Marc D. Hauser The MIT Press, 1997 EOC -- Brings Animal Cognition to the forefront. The Evolution of Communication gives a distintive opinion of evolutionary psychology, animal cognition, and cognitive neuroscience. Easy to read and understand, many of the hypotheses and comments of Marc Hauser are now being applied to larger academic issues, such as the "concept acquisition" ...             Mapping Mars: Science, Imagination, and the Birth of a World12 reviews Oliver Morton Picador, 2002 A splendid book , a major achievement. + Mapping Mars by Morton + Magnificent! Magnifies your sense of wonder. + Some of the best science journalism I've seen + Great read             The Trouble With Physics: The Rise of String Theory, The Fall of a Science, and What Comes Next104 reviews Lee Smolin Mariner Books, 2007 This is a VERY good book + Food for thought + Finding the Wrong Assumptions: How to Fix Physics + A priesthood under attack? + The Trouble with Physics             Descartes' Baby: How the Science of Child Development Explains What Makes Us Human13 reviews Paul Bloom Basic Books, 2005 Dualism is for Babies + Child psychologists + Babies and the Intentional Stance + Non-existence of the soul             The Alex Studies: Cognitive and Communicative Abilities of Grey Parrots12 reviews Irene Maxine Pepperberg Harvard University Press, 2002 Schooling psittacines + Alex the african grey! The Alex Studies by Dr Irene Pepperberg + Brilliant work + Thanks! + Excellent information, but ridiculously tough to read             Emotional Intelligence: Why It Can Matter More Than IQ245 reviews Daniel Goleman Bantam Books, 2005 Why Don't They Teach This Stuff in School? + Emotional intelligence + One of the most insightful "leadership" books out there... If you happened to be raised in an especially well-adjusted home, you may already understand this stuff in a way that a lot of other people don't. But how many people were raised this beautifully? The nuclear family is no longer a "given". I mentored challenged youth for five years in Big ...             Better than Prozac: Creating the Next Generation of Psychiatric Drugs3 reviews Samuel H. Barondes Oxford University Press, USA, 2005 If you ever were curious about psychoactive drugs... + Better Read Than I Thought + history and glimpse of the future of psychopharmacology This book leads the reader through both the pharmacology and the history of a whole host of drugs that are used to treat disorders such as anxiety, depression, and Alzheimer's. He also addresses some of the early studies that were conducted to try to elucidate the effects of these drugs on ...             Planetary Dreams: The Quest to Discover Life Beyond Earth10 reviews Robert Shapiro Wiley, 2001 A Rather Good Book + Very nice. + Dr No denounces defeatism I had this book on my shelf for over a year before I took it down for a read. I thought I might be bored by it, since it is a popular treatment of a subject I know pretty well. But Shapiro brought the subject to life in a rather interesting way, dealing not only with the particular issues asociated ...             The Parallel Brain: The Cognitive Neuroscience of the Corpus Callosum (Issues in Clinical and Cognitive ... The MIT Press, 2002 Hemispheric specialization is involved in every aspect of sensory, cognitive, and motor systems integration. Study of the corpus callosum, the bands of tissue uniting the brain's two hemispheres, is central to understanding neuroanatomy, neurophysiology, and behavior. It also brings the tools of hemispheric specialization to a fundamental problem of cognitive neuroscience: modularity and ...             Thought and Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical Thinking (Thought & Knowledge: An Introduction to Critical ...4 reviews Diane F. Halpern Lawrence Erlbaum, 2002 Comprehensive yet readable + excellent textbook + excellent textbook I have collected a library of books on critical thinking, but this is by far the best. It is comprehensive and intellectually honest, yet very readable. I bought it, started looking through it, and wound up reading it completely in that one sitting. It's rare to find such a scholarly book so ...             Seeing Red: A Study in Consciousness (Mind/Brain/Behavior Initiative)10 reviews Nicholas Humphrey Belknap Press, 2006 Glimpses of a Major Revolution in Perception and Consciousness + Refreshingly Clear + About qualia + Book in great condition