Order from a Major Online Bookstore
Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine
Save Your Time And Money
| AnyBook4Less.com | Order from a Major Online Bookstore |
|
| Home | Store List | FAQ | Contact Us | | ||
| Ultimate Book Price Comparison Engine Save Your Time And Money |
||
 |
Title: The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet: Tools of Scientific Revolutions (Nypl/Oup Lectures) by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0-19-513922-4 Publisher: Oxford Press Pub. Date: September, 2000 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $10.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.38 (13 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Low-key, mostly closer-to-home essays
Comment: Adapted from a lecture series hosted by the New York Public Library, the essays in this slender volume cover traditional Dyson subjects (ethics and technology, the politics and "sociology" of scientific research, the settlement of the solar system) plus something new; speculation on how the three titular entities might be used to bring prosperity and dynamism back to village life in the Third World.
In addition to being an awfully short book, with great wide margins, there's disappointingly little meat on these bones. The chapters in past collections, like the incomparable _Disturbing the Universe_, started out as essays and articles; these transcribed lectures don't quite compare.
If you haven't read anything by Dyson, you might want to start here. Otherwise, my recommendation is to buy it, and loan it to people who need beach reading or an airline book.
Rating: 5
Summary: Reaching the web from the Congo! Prebuilt homes on Mars!
Comment: Dyson focuses on how scientific revolutions are made and suggests the best strategies, considering cost and politics, of making important progress. He spells out ways that technologies can improve our quality of life and, not incidentally, reduce the gap between rich and poor.
Looking ahead to the next 100 years he gives us a feel for the kind of thing humankind might expect when we begin to apply new technologies to the poor, underpopulated parts of the world and we begin to populate the other bodies in the universe. He sees the power of the sun directly harnessed to providing access to the internet for everyone in the world through revolutions in the understanding of genes.
Dyson, emeritus professor of physics at the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, is a legendary figure in the sciences. He writes with passionate conviction, style and a profound knowledge of the people and the work, and a deep understanding of how scientific things get done.
Even though I'm not specially interested in the sun or the genome, I found this book riveting. It will appeal to any curious person. There is no science prerequisite beyond knowing the difference between a telescope and a gene.
Rating: 3
Summary: Accessible, Thought-Provoking
Comment: The title is misleading - the essay that addresses "the Sun, the Genome and the Interent" is only a small part of this short book. I found it the most interesting, though, which is probably why it is thus titled. Dyson paints a future world in which villages are repopulated through solar power processed by bio-engineered trees (which will provide the fuel), and the Interent (which will provide the connection to the larger world). A very simple, elegant idea. He addresses other issues here, too - the role of ethics in science, how to get into space cheaply, and the coming changes due to biotech. The biotech portion was very compelling, with speculation that we will soon be re-enigneering the human race. I have read such predictions before but Dyson does a good, thoughtful job here, and examines the implications.
All in all, a good, economical book of lectures which you will finish quickly.
 |
Title: Disturbing the Universe by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0465016774 Publisher: HarperCollins Pub. Date: 08 May, 2001 List Price(USD): $19.00 |
 |
Title: Origins of Life by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0521626684 Publisher: Cambridge University Press Pub. Date: October, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
 |
Title: Imagined Worlds (Jerusalem-Harvard Lectures) by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0674539095 Publisher: Harvard Univ Pr Pub. Date: September, 1998 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
 |
Title: Infinite in All Directions by Freeman J. Dyson ISBN: 0060915692 Publisher: HarperCollins (paper) Pub. Date: February, 1989 List Price(USD): $12.00 |
 |
Title: Out of the Blue by John L. Petersen ISBN: 1568331355 Publisher: Madison Books Pub. Date: January, 2000 List Price(USD): $16.95 |
Thank you for visiting www.AnyBook4Less.com and enjoy your savings!
Copyright� 2001-2021 Send your comments
