Patrick Murtha
Reader
Science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine! Again, not one of my stronger reading areas, except for aviation and space travel, which I’ll do a separate thread on.
I got into a big tussle on Twitter once with someone who didn’t understand why contemporary scientists would want to read Darwin, Newton, Copernicus, and I am afraid I was not nice. I categorically reject the notion that older classics are “superseded” and have little now to offer. That’s just not my experience, dozens of times over.
To follow the thought processes of great thinkers to their conclusions is a true privilege. I taught philosophy, and I assure you, none of the greats ever leaves the room.
One needs to know where one is coming from in every discipline. And every discipline IS philosophical.
Kevin Barry, ed, Traces of Peter Rice (Festschrift for the late structural engineer)
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (still compelling!)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (amazing)
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
Lawrence M. Krauss, The Physics of Star Trek (fun)
Tom Lewis, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (loved it)
Brian Winston, Media Technology and Society (changed my thinking)
Tom Zoellner, Uranium (excellent history)
I got into a big tussle on Twitter once with someone who didn’t understand why contemporary scientists would want to read Darwin, Newton, Copernicus, and I am afraid I was not nice. I categorically reject the notion that older classics are “superseded” and have little now to offer. That’s just not my experience, dozens of times over.
To follow the thought processes of great thinkers to their conclusions is a true privilege. I taught philosophy, and I assure you, none of the greats ever leaves the room.
One needs to know where one is coming from in every discipline. And every discipline IS philosophical.
Kevin Barry, ed, Traces of Peter Rice (Festschrift for the late structural engineer)
Rachel Carson, Silent Spring (still compelling!)
Charles Darwin, On the Origin of Species (amazing)
Stephen Hawking, A Brief History of Time
Lawrence M. Krauss, The Physics of Star Trek (fun)
Tom Lewis, Empire of the Air: The Men Who Made Radio (loved it)
Brian Winston, Media Technology and Society (changed my thinking)
Tom Zoellner, Uranium (excellent history)