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Summary: The Leonardo da Vinci of science writing!
Review: Being disenchanted with religion, I picked up this and other books in search of some other kind of truth. I do feel as though after reading this book I have a much better understanding of what 'truth' is and what it's not. I think those who nit-pick about their claims of little discrepancies in the book are really missing out on the bigger picture. The book is full of interesting little facts and factoids but the interesting thing to me was to see how she's pulled together these common insights that are gained from so many fields of study. I think this was just about my favorite book ever.
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Summary: what is truth exactly
Review: Being disenchanted with religion, I picked up this and other books in search of some other kind of truth. I do feel as though after reading this book I have a much better understanding of what 'truth' is and what it's not. I think those who nit-pick about their claims of little discrepancies in the book are really missing out on the bigger picture. The book is full of interesting little facts and factoids but the interesting thing to me was to see how she's pulled together these common insights that are gained from so many fields of study. I think this was just about my favorite book ever.
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Summary: So many better choices out there.
Review: Chapter two, second paragraph: "The Milky Way galaxy contains 200 billion stars..."
Chapter two, a few pages later: "Fifteen billion is also more or less the number of stars in the galaxy." Obviously, the number of stars in the galaxy is not precisely known, but we do know that 15 billion and 200 billion are two different things. One of the author's "truths" is self-evidently not true. Purveyors of "truth and beauty", whether scientists, gurus, philosophers, spiritual leaders, or journalists, often regard their subject and their audience far too casually. Here we have a case in point. Perhaps most books contain 'typos' and the miscues inherent to humanity, but here it seems that both the author and the editor were asleep at the wheel, something that needs to be addressed if the book achieves a second printing (and I don't see why that would happen).
The subject is truly fascinating; or at least it should be -- the relationship of aesthetics, mathematics, and logic. At the deepest levels of the human intellect's inquiries, the answers are all about a mysterious mathematical beauty. The reality of this escapes most people, which is why the "National Bestseller" heading on the cover of Cole's book intrigued me. Apparently the book has enjoyed a larger readership than most such popularizations. Unfortunately the superficial, disjoined 'newspaper style' of science serves the material poorly. The writing rambles almost aimlessly. The books of many mathematicians and physicists have examined the relationship of reality, reason, mathematics, and aesthetics. Devlin's 'The Language of Mathematics' is very good. Fairly recent works by Penrose, Davies, Rucker, Berlinski, Greene, and others come to mind. Some of these books are far better than others. This volume is one of the others.
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Summary: Mathematics is art!
Review: Cole definitely wrote this book for people with minimal mathematical abilities. The only equation is Fermat's Last Theorem. The Universe and the Teacup explores various themes, foremost being truth. Cole discusses various forms of truths. There are scientific truths, mathematical truths, and social truths. Mathematical truth is the most reliable because it is based on logic. However, twentieth century mathematicians have uncovered limitations of logic-based mathematics. With the development of Chaos Theory and Fuzzy Logic, mathematics have taken into account the ambiguity and uncertainty that is inherent in the world. Besides mathematical truth, there is social truth. This form of truth is prejudiced. Drawing on the work of Kenneth Arrow, Cole provides an account of how voting results can be legally manipulated. Cole's book also explores symmetry in nature. Particle physicists, for example, have discovered that subatomic particles are paired. However, symmetry in nature isn't universal. DNA, unlike other biological molecules, does not have right-handed and left-handed components. Instead, DNA is right-handed. To sum, Cole's book explores the aesthetics of nature, and one role of mathematics is to enable humans to express nature's simplicity and complexity.
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Summary: The Politics of Truth and Beauty
Review: Despite the title, not once in this book is an actual mathematical problem presented coherently. Instead, Cole drones on about the virtues of cooperation, the importance of minorities, and other left-wing philosophical themes. I'm a liberal and would tend to agree with her politically, but that ignores the central problem with this book: Cole's failure to make the distinction between mathematics itself and beliefs that just happen to be justified by statistics or quasi-mathematical reasoning. Perhaps The Universe and the Teacup is best described as a meta-popularization, since virtually all of Cole's sources are themselves popularizations. She hypes such familiar staples of popular science writing as fuzzy logic, chaos and complexity theory ("all the rage these days" -- I thought that's what they said back in the 80's), and Godel's theorem (both "a shattering blow" AND "a staggering blow to our sense of certainty"), without showing that she understands any of these things on more than a superficial level. (I don't claim to be an expert on these topics, either, but then again I didn't write a book about them.) For general readers interested in how mathematics relates to everyday life, I'd recommend John Allen Paulos "Innumeracy"; for a survey of modern mathematics, both "From Here To Infinity" by Ian Stewart and "Archimedes' Revenge" by Paul Hoffman succeed where "The Universe and the Teacup" fails.
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Summary: Stay away
Review: I must admit, I was more disappointed in this book than any other I can remember reading. While Cole is working hard at the arguably noble pursuit of writing about math and science for the layperson, she does so at the cost of any sort of actual relevance to the world of science. By absolutely eliminating ALL mathematical rigor and substance from her writing, Cole leaves the reader with nothing but her own third-rate analogies, sappy philosophical bumblings, and less than shimmering prose. I will admit that I was unable to make my way to the end of the book due to my utter frustration with Cole's destruction of the beautiful world of logic and numbers, and so it is concievable that the book becomes better near the end. Unfortunately, anyone interested in learning or thinking about mathematics will likely be quickly repeled long before. List this book with Gary Zukav's "Dancing Wu Li Masters" as abominations of the world of pop-science.
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Summary: Mathematics Redeemed
Review: If you read this book, you will learn things in a way you will never forget. If you read the chapter on scale, for instance, you'll always know why an ant could never start a fire or write a book, why water is as deadly to a fly as flypaper. If you read about risk assement you will understand always why numbers aren't enough to make sense of risk, that human context counts a lot: "People who don't have enough to eat don't worry about apples contaminated with Alar. People who face daily violence at their front door don't worry about hijackings." Best of all, I found The Universe and the Teacup as consoling as a warm cup of tea. I learned that even the brightest lights in math suffer from number numbness -- they can't cope either with extremly large or small numbers. I also found out that things can do numbers that numbers can't because sometimes numbers just don't add up: If you add hydrogen to oxygen in a 2 to 1 proportion under the right conditions, you do not get three units of gas, you get water. I recommend this book to every math phobe who would like a moment's peace.
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Summary: Neither Math Nor Physics
Review: It is tough even for the most learned to become proficient in both mathematics and physics. Adding the ability to organize thoughts well, and illustrate them clearly by example is a talent reserved for a very few.... Unfortunately, K.C. Cole is not that person. Her book is a random walk through the mysteries of both technologies, much too often poorly stated, if not entirely wrong. From the first page to the last, she seems to be as befudled as the layperson. Richard Feynman in his later years took issue with the misconceptions that are being put into the textbooks for school children. Too bad that this award winning book is no better at getting the facts straight.
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Summary: how to write a book in five minutes
Review: Should it be that easy to write a book? Collect all the bits and pieces from newspapers' weekend-supplements and almost scientific coffeetable-talk and toss in some currently fashionable phrases concerning physics and mathematics, stir until the lumps have disappeared and do not bother with the spices of explanation and insight. If you love math and physics, stay off !
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Summary: With gratitude...
Review: So refreshing to read science and math ideas in an accessible style. My experience, as a person who does not have a particular bent in that direction, is that it is seldom the "lay" person is invited in. In all disciplines ideas grow and are challenged by their exposure to a wide audience. K.C. Cole brings that sensibility to "Universe" using metaphor and similie from a world I can relate to. I thoroughly enjoyed this read and look forward to more from a generous thinker.
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