After a busy day of zoom calls and team meetings, somewhere between wondering if you’ll ever be able to get back into a lab again and graphing the latest news updates on your own log graph, you might decide to sit down and read a book. To educate yourself on the world around you, or perhaps try and escape it completely. These are some I’ve found good for our current times.
1. Ghost in the Wires: My Adventures as the World's Most Wanted Hacker by Kevin D. Mitnick, William L. Simon, Steve Wozniak
The story is a cross between Catch Me If You Can (without the sex) and The Wolf of Wall Street (without the drugs and money). You can’t help thinking while reading that “this would make a good movie”, but then again there have been several attempts. It's interesting to hear how one of the worlds most prolific hackers made all his hacks, the vast majority relying on his ability to manipulate people (through social engineering). Kevin Mitnicks bravado drips from the pages. His survival of gaol time is also interesting. A fun read as an electronic engineer.
2. American Prometheus: The Triumph and Tragedy of J. Robert Oppenheimer by Kai Bird and Martin J. Sherwin
I enjoyed thoroughly. Great sense of what it was like inside the Manhattan project and I feel it is the closest one can get to being a fly on the wall of the most influential project of the 20th century. J. R. Oppenheimer played a central role in the Manhattan project and the “Red Scare” that followed. The book is meticulously researched and provides interesting details on many aspects of Oppenheimers life. For instance in the early planning stages of the lab it was estimated that it would take approximately $300,000 (and 6 scientists) to check the feasibility of the atomic bomb. Within a year they had spent $7.5 million and after 2 years over 3,000 people were working on the project. Also interesting how the FBI bugged people back then and how there was no due process during his trial during the “red scare”. Oppenheimer himself might not have been the best scientist but very competent with an aura around him. After reading the book you feel Oppenheimer himself was acutely aware of his abilities and likely cultivated his own mythos.
3. Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain by John J. Ratey, Eric Hagerman
If you are spending more hours than normal indoors, or in front of a screen, then this is essential reading! Very easy read with a great description of what stress is and how it works on the brain. I also liked the description of how depression is the brain going into hibernation. If your body isn't moving the whole system shuts down. It is easily accessible and really emphasises that mental and physical strength are two sides of the same coin. However, the technical readers out there be warned, I found the bibliography lacking for a book that grounds itself so firmly on the latest in science.
4. Seveneves by Neal Stephenson
Excellent read about what would happen if the moon exploded. The book is in three major parts. 1. Moon explodes and the world has two years before fire engulfs the earth. I won’t go into part 2 and 3 as I want to avoid spoilers. Parts 1 and 2 are excellent. Part 3 is a bit weaker but overall thoroughly entertaining. Perfect science fiction escape read. It is firmly lodged in science with everything from orbital mechanics to chemistry covered in cathartic detail. Some very powerful imagery and action packed scenarios. Though a book about the world ending might be a touch “on-the-nose” for the current time it does an excellent job of keeping the reader hopeful that human ingenuity will prevail.
5. Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!: Adventures of a Curious Character by Richard P. Feynman
A fun read. Feynman was one of the most prolific physicist of the 20th Century and was nothing like how you imagine a career academic. This book covers his time as a child playing with radios (he could have been pulled over to electronic engineering!) to how he ended up on the Manhattan project, on to teaching, the Nobel prize, painting, writing, politics, music, strip clubs, drug taking in isolation chambers… This book has so many stories! His curiosity is well articulated through his crazy stories. Also, the fact that one man has so many crazy stories speaks volumes to how he put himself out there. He would hang around near people he wanted to talk to for weeks (be it office corridors or pubs!). This dedication, to the pursuit of his whimsy, played no small part into the cumulative success of Feynman. Of course, by writing the book himself he controls his own narrative, no doubt part of his thinking!
6. The Wizard and the Prophet: Two Remarkable Scientists and Their Dueling Visions to Shape Tomorrow's World by Charles C. Mann
Though COVID is the crisis of the day (or month or year) it is important to keep an eye on another, slower treat that is just as exponential in its consequences. This book takes on a large scope and does a good job of looking at the damage we're doing to our planet. The big question is how do we feed 10 billion people. It follows the ideology of William Vogt (“The Prophet” from the title, predicting doom and telling us to reduce) and Norman Borlaug (“The Wizard” who used science to improve crop yields, producing more with less). There was loads in this book and a great, balanced intro to the topic. Main drawback is that it meanders due to the scale of its scope and I felt it lacked a good conclusion, partly because it is still an open question as to who is right… the Wizard, or the Prophet?
So that’s it for my first blog post. Please let me know what you think. If you would like more content in a similar vein? Perhaps the post is lacking in places, let me know and I’ll try and take it on board for next time. Of course I do realise I’ve made a science and engineering reading list without any proper popular physics book so as an honorable mention let me recommend The Universe in a Nutshell by Stephen Hawking. It’s been years since I read it as a teenager, but it really is one of the best. Get in touch, comment, like, subscribe (is this youtube?) and happy reading!