What are you reading now? (STEM only)

[Auto-Didact]

Lost in Math: How Beauty Leads Physics Astray, by Sabine Hossenfelder (2018)

Come to think of it, does she have an account on here?

 

[Demystifier]

Come to think of it, does she have an account on here?

Yes she has (her nickname is hossi), but she is not active here. She is very active on her blog and on facebook.

 

[pinball1970]

The man is much larger than the woman. Am I the only one who finds this cover a bit odd?

Sexual dimorphism. Not quite extreme as our primate cousins but its nice to be reminded of our evolutionary history.

 

[OJ Bernander]

Carter's Visual Group Theory. If you are just reviewing Group Theory, it may be a bit slow, but it gave me several new visuals, so worth the time, in my case. The focus are almost all on small, finite groups, but you get to know those groups inside and out.

 

[Andy Resnick]

"Quantum Field Theory and Condensed Matter: An introduction" by Shankar. This book is somewhat different from most others covering the topic, Shankar really digs into the Renormalization Group. If you like his quantum mechanics book, you'll like this one as well.

 

[analogdesign]

I'm reading a first edition of "Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors" by William Shockley. It is the Ur-text for the field of semiconductor electronics. Even in a book published today many of the figures can be traced back to this book. I found it in a used bookshop in the college town where I went to school. It was 99 cents. They had no idea what they had.

 

[diogenesNY]

Currently reading _Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science_ by Martin Gardner

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fads_and_Fallacies_in_the_Name_of_Science
http://www.worldcat.org/title/fads-...-science/oclc/868271815&referer=brief_results
http://www.worldcat.org/title/fads-fallacies-in-name-of-science/oclc/500284056&referer=brief_results
https://books.google.com/books/about/Fads_and_Fallacies_in_the_Name_of_Scienc.html?id=TwP3SGAUsnkChttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_Gardner

First published in 1952, then revised and updated in 1957. This is Martin Gardner's classic critical examination of a range of cranks and pseudo-sciences generally spanning the century previous to publication. All the usual suspects are covered from bizarre medical notions to Atlantis, as well as a (pre-Scientology, pre-Miscavige) Dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard.

Lots of fun, highly recommended for those interested in this curious niche of the history of science that seems to have managed to take a wrong turn at Albuquerque.

A brief excerpt from the preface to the Second Edition:

"The first edition of this book prompted many curious letters from irate readers. The most violent letters came from Reichians, furious because the book considered Orgonomy alongside such (to them) outlandish cults as dianetics. Dianeticians, of course, felt the same about orgonomy. I heard from homeopaths who were insulted to find themselves in company with such frauds as osteopathy and chiropractic, and one chiropractor in Kentucky "pitied" me because I had turned my spine on God's greatest gift to suffering humanity. Several admirers of Dr. Bates favored me with letters so badly typed that I suspect the writers were in urgent need of strong spectacles. Oddly enough, most of these correspondents objected to one chapter only, thinking all the others excellent." -Martin GardnerdiogenesNY

 

[opus]

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter

Coolest book I have ever read. Definitely heavy material so it takes a lot of time to dissect, but I can see myself reading it many times.

 

[Demystifier]

Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid by Douglas Hofstadter
Coolest book I have ever read. Definitely heavy material so it takes a lot of time to dissect, but I can see myself reading it many times.

If you want to see what Hofstadter really wanted to say in this metaphorical book, see his next not-so-metaphorical book "I Am a Strange Loop"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465030793/?tag=pfamazon01-20

 

[opus]

If you want to see what Hofstadter really wanted to say in this metaphorical book, see his next not-so-metaphorical book "I Am a Strange Loop"
https://www.amazon.com/dp/0465030793/?tag=pfamazon01-20

Just bought on Amazon! Cant wait to get ahold
of it.

 

[gleem]

Just picked up LIFE 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence. by Max Tegmark

 

[Dr. Courtney]

Physics Forums

 

[Demystifier]

Physics Forums

Books only!

 

[e-pie]

Ahlfors Complex Analysis first time
Rudin Mathematical Analysis again
Artin Algebra again

 

[vanhees71]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198539487/?tag=pfamazon01-20

The best biography of R. P. Feynman, I've seen so far.

 

[pinball1970]

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0198539487/?tag=pfamazon01-20

The best biography of R. P. Feynman, I've seen so far.

That is one for my list - thanks

 

[e-pie]

Read it! @vanhees71 Nice book. But I like Feynman's own words much better.

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/5544.Surely_You_re_Joking_Mr_Feynman_

And

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35167718-what-do-you-care-what-other-people-think

 

[vanhees71]

These are nice books about Feynman's private jokes, but much more interesting is Feynman's science and his thoughts on how to teach physics.

 

[e-pie]

@vanhees71

Right.

Mehra does bring some analysis of Feynman's work like path integral, Atomic bomb etc. I never expected it from the title. It sounded like a biographical sketch of his life that would follow the format of many popular science books : The less equations the better.

But if you are not to judge a book by its cover then you shouldn't judge it by its title.

Lesson learned.

 

[e-pie]

A similar book about Euclid and his geometry is by Leonard Mlodinow.
Forgot the title.

It mostly discusses development of Geometry from practically nothing to the most important branch of Mathematics.

Wouldn't be possible if Euclid wasn't there.

 

[diogenesNY]

Just finished _Fakes and Forgeries_ by Suzanne Bell.

http://www.worldcat.org/title/fakes-and-forgeries/oclc/920296556&referer=brief_results
https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/9746899-fakes-and-forgeries
https://forensics.wvu.edu/faculty-and-staff/faculty/suzanne-bell

This is one of seven volumes of the _Essentials of Forensic Science_ series, itself part of Infobase Publishing's Facts on File Science Library.

This is a slim but fact laden volume describing many of the particulars of the latest scientific methods (as well as a few classics) used to determine that such things as documents, signatures, artwork, and particularly currency have been forged, counterfitted or dishonestly manufactured. There is some discussion of terminology and investigative procedures as well as the history of the development of forensic science.

Especially interesting sections on ink chemistry, microspectrophotometry and advanced microscopy.

If you are interested in forensic science, fraud or even materials deception, this is a very enjoyable short book.

Suzanne Bell is the author of quite a few very interesting looking books. I suspect I will be hunting down more than a few of them in the near future.

diogenesNY

 

[George Jones]

I am reading "Mathematical Gauge Theory With Applications to the Standard Model of Particle" by Mark Hamilton,

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319684388/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I am finding it to be tremendously interesting and also very slow going. I am going to busy with work in September, so I will probably have to put it down.

Thanks, @vanhees71 .

I'ver recently found

https://www.amazon.com/dp/3319684388/?tag=pfamazon01-20

I've not read much in the book yet. So I can't say, whether it's good or not, but it seems to cover a lot of the mathematical foundations, usually not found in standard QFT textbooks for physicists, and it's written in the Mathematicians' dry style ;-)).

I just wish that you had told abut this book 25 years ago!

 

[Auto-Didact]

"What is time? What is space?" by Carlo Rovelli.

Magnificent short biography of Rovelli's time studying and working in the foundations of physics, from beginning to the late 2000s.

 

[Auto-Didact]

"Foundations of Quantum Theory: From Classical Concepts to Operator Algebras" by Klaas Landsman, 2017.

Available for free in pdf format from Springer Open Access here.

 

[Nguyen Son]

I'm reading these 4 books for my thesis

 

[Nguyen Son]

I've just received an email from PF, that someone replied my post and said "Huang is rubbish"? Well, i know a lot of people on Amazon said that, but at least this book is helping me about Ising Model, my thesis topic

 

[Demystifier]

I've just received an email from PF, that someone replied my post and said "Huang is rubbish"? Well, i know a lot of people on Amazon said that, but at least this book is helping me about Ising Model, my thesis topic

Huang is not an easy read for a first book on statistical mechanics, but it doesn't make it a rubbish. I found in it some great insights that I couldn't find elsewhere.

 

[member 587159]

I'm currently reading parts of Rudin's "Principles of mathematical analysis", Apostol's "Mathematical analysis" and Munkres' "Analysis on manifolds". In particular, I am reading the parts about multivariable calculus (Currently the parts about differentiation of functions $\mathbb{R}^n \to \mathbb{R}^m$). I heard that the integration stuff in Apostol and Rudin isn't that great, but the other book is famous for it.

 

[Auto-Didact]

"Quantum Theory from a Nonlinear Perspective: Riccati Equations in Fundamental Physics" by Dieter Schuh, 2018.

Link here, but too bad there is no open access.

 

[SchroedingersLion]

"Thermodynamics and Statistical Mechanics" by W. Greiner.

It is an undergraduate book I started to work through in order to repeat the topics and refresh my knowledge. The first sections were pretty good even though they raised one or two questions when trying to understand them rigorously (see my latest thread). I hope it gets better as I keep reading.

 

[lomidrevo]

I just recently finished "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (2nd Edition)" by Carroll&Ostlie, and I found the last two chapters just wonderful.. what a huge amount of information can be deduced about the early universe "just by" exploring the observable universe, analyzing CMB and putting everything together using the verified physical theories. Maybe I am too much enthusiastic, but I consider it breathtaking, so I want to immerse myself in study of cosmology in more details.

I realize that without proper understanding of general relativity I couldn't get too far, so my next step is to go through "Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell" by Zee. I read lot of positive reviews on this textbook everywhere, including here on PF. So it is on the way already

 

[haushofer]

I just recently finished "An Introduction to Modern Astrophysics (2nd Edition)" by Carroll&Ostlie, and I found the last two chapters just wonderful.. what a huge amount of information can be deduced about the early universe "just by" exploring the observable universe, analyzing CMB and putting everything together using the verified physical theories. Maybe I am too much enthusiastic, but I consider it breathtaking, so I want to immerse myself in study of cosmology in more details.

I realize that without proper understanding of general relativity I couldn't get too far, so my next step is to go through "Einstein Gravity in a Nutshell" by Zee. I read lot of positive reviews on this textbook everywhere, including here on PF. So it is on the way already

I highly recommend Zee's book. Some may say it's not thorough, but I think it is solid enough, a lot of fun, and loaded with insights and modern topics which are not found elsewhere.

My read is "Effective Computation in Physics" and "A gentle introduction to numerical simulations in Python" because I'd like to improve my programming skills and because Python is applied in a lot of different fields nowadays, from actuary sciences to data sciences and engineering. The first book is quite formal and lacks useful exercises and sometimes examples, so I supplement it with the second book.

 

[Borg]

I've been studying machine language for the last few months. I'm in the middle of each of these.

Neural Networks and Deep Learning
Think Complexity
Deep Learning

This YouTube video series has been very helpful in understanding how neural networks function - Neural Networks.

 

[vanhees71]

I just started

David Kaiser, Drawing theories apart

It's about the spread of Feynman diagrams as a methodological tool from their creation at the end of the 1940ies on.

 

[CJ2116]

I have been making slow progress on Andrew Zangwill's Modern Electrodynamics these past few weeks. This is such a well written book. Of the 9 EM texts that I own this is by far the clearest and most enjoyable to work through. His proof of the Helmholtz Theorem is the best I have come across.