www.chronon.org A selection of scientific applets, articles and book reviews, in particular questioning some of the claims that are often made in popular science books, but which aren't supported by the science en-gb Stephen Lee Wed, 18 Aug 2010 08:51:49 GMT Future Proof: The Greatest Gadgets and Gizmos Ever Imagined Nick Sagan ,Mark Frary and Andy Walker look at the gadgets we have and some of those that didn't quite make it.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Future_Proof.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Tue, 17 Aug 2010 06:15:04 GMT The Black Hole War: My Battle with Stephen Hawking to Make the World Safe for Quantum Mechanics Leonard Susskind explains his arguments why information is never lost even if it falls into a black hole, and how he persuaded the rest of the physics community to agree with him.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/The_Black_Hole_War.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Mon, 16 Aug 2010 09:36:48 GMT We Need to Talk about Kelvin: What everyday things tell us about the universe Marcus Chown links some of the important discoveries of modern science to things which are directly observable in the world around us.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/We_Need_to_Talk_about_Kelvin.html reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Fri, 13 Aug 2010 18:32:41 GMT A User's Guide to the Brain by John Ratey, however, shows that there's more to thinking than you may think.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/A_User's_Guide_to_the_Brain.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Sat, 7 Aug 2010 09:22:59 GMT James Hansen has been warning us about Global Warming since the 1980's. InStorms of my Grandchildren:The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity he argues why we need to do much more than at present to avoid disaster.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Storms_of_my_Grandchildren.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Thu, 5 Aug 2010 09:52:50 GMT John Gribbin's recent book In search of the Multiverse takes a look at some of the science behind this idea, and where it may lead us.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/In_Search_of_the_Multiverse.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Wed, 7 Jul 2010 12:34:11 GMT The Origin of the Species. But he also did a lot of other things as well, and he spent most of his life in England. In Darwin's Island: The Galapagos in the Garden of England Steve Jones looks at Darwin's less known works.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Darwin's_island.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Tue, 6 Jul 2010 19:08:51 GMT Microtrends: The Small Forces Behind Today's Big Changes, Mark Penn and E. Kinney Zalesne take a different approach. They look at trends which are happening now, which involve a small proportion of the population, which nevertheless adds up to a considerable number of people.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Microtrends.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:54:49 GMT Stealing the Mona Lisa: What Art Stops Us from Seeing Darian Leader examines what this tells us about the the place of art in our lives.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Stealing_the_Mona_Lisa.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:54:49 GMT 2 is one of the most famous equations, but not many people know where it comes from. In Why Does E=mc²?: (and why should we care?) Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw give a gentle explanation of what is behind this equation.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/why_does_E=mc_squared.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Sat, 19 Jun 2010 07:54:49 GMT The Shape of Space by Jeffrey Weeks is an introduction to the topology and geometry of surfaces and higher dimensional spaces.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/The_Shape_of_Space.html reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Tue, 15 Jun 2010 16:15:10 GMT Donald Michie on machine intelligence, biology and more, Ashwin Srinivasan has compiled a collection of articles by Michie ranging from his work with Alan Turing at Bletchley Park to his comments on the invasion of Iraq in 2003.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Donald_Michie_on_machine_intelligence,_biology_and_more.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Wed, 9 Jun 2010 17:51:29 GMT Built by Animals: The natural history of animal architecture Mike Hansell argues that we should be more impressed with what animals can build.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Built_by_Animals.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Wed, 2 Jun 2010 14:07:17 GMT 3 and Ω₆. If you find all of this confusing then you're not the only one. In The Queen of Fats: Why Omega-3s Were Removed from the Western Diet and What We Can Do to Replace Them Susan Allport helps to sort things out.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/The_queen_of_fats.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Mon, 17 May 2010 12:41:50 GMT Fun Inc.: Why Play is the 21st Century's Most Serious Business Tom Chatfield to find out the real nature of video games.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Fun_Inc.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Thu, 13 May 2010 10:58:04 GMT Planet Narnia: The Seven Heavens in the Imagination of C. S. Lewis Michael Ward argues for a previously unrecognised link of each book to one of the medieval planets.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Planet_Narnia.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Wed, 12 May 2010 10:35:12 GMT Death in Venice and Other Stories is a coolection of short stories by Thomas Mann - the title story has been made into a well known film.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Death_in_Venice.html reviews@chronon.org Book Review Mon, 10 May 2010 11:12:24 GMT Life Ascending: The Ten Great Inventions of Evolution, Nick Lane tells the reader how ten of the most important steps in the development of life on Earth are thought to have come about. These steps are the origin of life, DNA, photosynthesis, the complex cell, sex, movement, sight, hot blood, consciousness and death.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Life_Ascending.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Sat, 8 May 2010 10:36:43 GMT The Duck That Won the Lottery: and 99 Other Bad Arguments Julian Baggini tells you ways of identifying dubious arguments.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/The_Duck_that_Won_the_Lottery.html reviews@chronon.org Book Review Sat, 24 Apr 2010 15:19:13 GMT James Hannam doesn't buy this. In God's philosophers: how the medieval world laid the foundations of modern science he argues that this period was in fact a one of considerable advancement.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/God's_philosophers.php reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Tue, 20 Apr 2010 16:22:42 GMT The Light Fantastic is the second in the series of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. In it we hear more of the adventures of Twoflower the tourist and the wizard Rincewind.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/The_Light_Fantastic.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Wed, 14 Apr 2010 15:28:17 GMT Leo Tolstoy's short stories, the main one being the title story Family Happiness. If you want to get into reading Tolstoy's work, but find War and Peace somewhat intimidating then this seems like a good place to start.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/Family_Happiness.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review Tue, 13 Apr 2010 12:31:31 GMT The Story of English by Robert McCrum ,Robert MacNeil and William Cran.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/The_Story_of_English.html reviews@chronon.org Book Review Mon, 29 Mar 2010 11:49:51 GMT Quantum Theory at the Crossroads: Reconsidering the 1927 Solvay Conference Guido Bacciagaluppi and Antony Valentini put the conference into context as well as including the papers given there.]]> http://www.chronon.org/Science/Quantum_theory_at_the_crossroads.html reviews@chronon.org Science Book Review Fri, 26 Mar 2010 13:34:59 GMT The Stories of Facebook, Youtube and Myspace: The People, the Hype and the Deals Behind the Giants of Web 2.0 Sarah Lacy tells a different story, of how a new generation of successful internet enterpreneur has arisen.]]> http://www.CriticalPoints.org/The_Stories_of_Facebook,_Youtube_and_Myspace.php reviews@chronon.org Book Review