Science

Early success is not enough: many years to finally arrive

Biography, Science Comments Off

Aug 182020

This is the story of James Dyson, the inventor and designer of the revolutionary Dyson Cyclone, the vacuum cleaner (and an assortment of other useful inventions) that beat the multinationals in their own game, as told by himself. This new book, released in September 2021, together with his autobiography (Against the Odds: An Autobiography, New York, Texere, 1998, 2003) will always give would-be entrepreneurs, designers and whoever strives to succeed, inspiration and hope. [NOTE: The rest of this review comes directly from the publisher’s].

In Invention: A Life, Dyson reveals how he came to set up his own company and led it to become one of the most inventive technology companies in the world. It is a compelling and dramatic tale, with many obstacles overcome. Dyson has always looked to the future, even setting up his own university to help provide the next generation of engineers and designers. For, as he says, “everything changes all the time, so experience is of little use.”

Invention : A Life. James Dyson. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2021.

Human intelligence, imperfect, whimsical, is always there

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Apr 062019

Behind all technology feats in the intricate and infinite world of information technology that engulfs every human activity or endeavor in the world, there is always way back behind the scene, within a digital realm, a primal bricklayer, a blue collar worker putting together the structures, the wiring and the circuits to make it all work. Speaking of bricks, think of millions, even billions of lines of code, assembled together in such a way that they become a functional skyscraper, that is, a program, better yet, an “application” (or app) like a Web application. That character, that builder, is called a coder (aka, previously, computer programmer) and this book is sort of an anthropological and psychological portrait of the members of this new tribe of digital laborers (yes, there are digital sweatshops out there). This journalistic work reads like a brief history, though well documented, of programming or rather coding, the very human nature of its heroes and heroines (yes, there has always been women thriving behind well known digital enterprises, though many a time, in the midst of a brogrammer culture) and how humongous and successful creations, like Facebook, came to be. Just the section dedicated to the corresponding footnotes of each of the 11 chapters of the book is a very useful bibliographic compilation of famous quotes, happenings, eureka moments and milestones. “[…] unlike in every other type of engineering—mechanical, industrial, civil—the machines we make with software are woven from words. Code is speech; speech a human utters to silicon, which makes the machine come to life and do our will.”, explains the author referring to how coding is a special kind of engineering, one that indeed is remaking the world.

Coders : the making of a new tribe and the remaking of the world. Ryder Carroll. New York: Penguin Press, 2019.

Revolution or simply evolution: Big Data is here to stay

Information, Science No Responses »

Dec 162016

In the beginnings of the information era, “data” was simply a collection of facts organized and represented in a suitable form for processing by a computer. Along came the “relational database management systems” or RDMS that since the 1980s constitute the database model, i.e. rows and columns neatly organized in tables and then these tables interrelated to each other, which is the predominant form of storage, even today, of any type of information. The revolution, or rather, evolution, that big data encompasses has to do with the power of connecting and associating disparate pieces of information in a vast sea of data such as the Internet. “The real revolution is not in the machines that calculate data but in data itself and how we use it” but most importantly how scientists, companies and ordinary people will make decisions and try to interpret reality in ways that no longer are subject to a predetermined worldview. Social media, like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and their astronomical number of “interactions” among users all over the world, every single second of the day, produces, generates, begets, in fact, “big data.” On a side note, we should say that this book would have benefited of an introduction explaining the title of each one of its 10 chapters or simply the editorial orientation intended: Now, More, Messy, Correlation, Datafication, Value, Implications, Risks, Control, Next.

Big data : a revolution that will transform how we live, work, and think. Viktor Mayer-Schönberger and Kenneth Cukier. New York City: An Eamon Dolan Book. Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013.

Math, common sense and daily life

Mathematics, Science No Responses »

Jun 072016

It is almost a universal principle to all students around the world that mathematics is boring or at least not the favorite subject for a sizable majority. The problem, as we have witnessed ourselves in our high school years, is not that math is boring, math teachers are. I may be overgeneralizing but the point is that mathematical thinking is something that paradoxically we don’t learn in math classes. “Math is a science of not being wrong about things, its techniques and habits hammered out by centuries of hard work and argument” argues the author. Learn in this book, a delightful reading, about the amazing facts and insights provided by math and how it encompasses and affects every realm of human endeavors when it is done the right way.

A personal anecdote: I always remember the disapproving gaze and eerie silence of my math teacher precisely when I asked him “When am I going to use this?”, the preface title of the book, after a series of lessons on mathematical logic. Only many years later, as a student of computer programming I clearly saw, by myself, the usefulness of that interesting subfield of mathematics. My math teacher had the opportunity to enlighten me about the power of mathematical thinking but he certainly did not do it, or simply did not know it himself.

How not to be wrong : The power of mathematical thinking. Jordan Ellenberg. New York: The Penguin Press, 2014.

It’s never too late to pursue your dreams: Happy New 2016!

Personal Growth, Science No Responses »

Dec 292015

This book is more than the story of a dedicated linguist, expert in Russian and Slavic culture, who “by chance”, while in the U.S. Army, was assigned to “become an expert” in radio, cable and telephone switching systems and then electronics training and similar activities apparently unrelated to the art and craft of languages. However, the author tells us how she decided to “retrain” her brain, from math-fobe to math lover. In the same way she learned languages, that is, the better she became at also learning math and science, the more she enjoyed what she was doing to the point she earned a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering, then a master’s in electrical and computer engineering and finally a doctorate in systems engineering. This “change of heart” (and brain) for the author made her interested in the inner workings of the brain as well, so this book explores how you, as someone who may think that numbers or science is “not your thing” may start thinking and behaving differently. Our habits, our “zombies”, may make us masters of procrastination and conquering this tendency to overconfidence, by being more effective and creative, a better learner, will help you succeed no only in math and sciences. As we approach a new year, 2016, this is perhaps my best recommended reading to start a new year in which, after many attempts to success and to the discovery of your true calling, you could see the light at the end of the tunnel, at that moment in time when you realize you are destined to be great perhaps in a new city, in a new career. Happy New Year to You!

(On the other hand, I always thought that whoever has good linguistic skills can also have good math and science skills, and the reverse is also always true).

A mind for numbers : how to excel at math and science (even if you flunked Algebra). Barbara Oakley, Ph.D.. New York: Penguin Group, 2014.

It is more than just ‘low-cal, low-fat’

Information, Science, Sociology No Responses »

Apr 302015

There is a great number of people in the US, and even in other nations, those emulating everything American, who sincerely believe that low-fat or no fat, low cal or zero calories, and no-sugar-added food is healthy. This not so hard to corrobate fact may have to do with The Gospel of Food, where, on the one hand, consummers, either unknowingly or actually convinced by the daily barrage of commercial and experts appearing in TV morning shows, make sure that their grocery shopping meet the conditions stated above, even going to the other extreme, sometimes influenced, on the other hand, by the diet orthodoxy. The author doesn’t want to fall into the trap of “food perfectionism” neither the readers, in which an opposite stance, that of “nutritional imperialism”, pretends to be the solution to everything, from obesity to feeding the hungry, but according to certain official guidelines. This is not a simple black and white issue as pointing the finger to the fast-food industry. Chapter 7, for instance, asks what made America fat, and hints that it’s not just the fast food…

The gospel of food : everything you think you know about food is wrong. Barry Glassner. New York : Ecco/HarperCollins Publishers, 2006.

Related Website: Barry Glassner

The wealth of a nation is also its knowledge

Information, Science No Responses »

Apr 242015

In a globalized economy, where nations are vying for science and innovation supremacy, the US can’t afford to think backwards courtesy of religious zealots and opportunist politicians. There is a chapter in this book with the title “The bloggers cannot save us” in which the author begins his reflection about the unsubstantiated information that circulates on the Internet, with a story about some “weblog awards” in different categories, among them, one for the “Best Science Blog”, a few years ago (this book was published back in 2009). In such popularity contest, the “winners” were an atheist and a former TV meteorologist, a skeptic of human-caused global warming. Apparently, blogs that discuss science in a more accurate and informed fashion have zero chance of winning popularity contests. This is but a sample of the state of scientific literacy in America, tainted with political and religious discourse, at the beginning of the second decade of the 21st century.

Unscientific America : how scientific illiteracy threatens our future. Chris Mooney, Sheril Kirshenbaum. New York : Basic Books, 2009.

Related Website: Unscientific America.