Science and Natural History discussion

October nominations are now open! Choose one of your own books or find inspiration from the group's bookshelf.

- Books must be nonfiction, within our general theme.
- Nominations are open until -th.
- Please add suggestions using add book/author.
- No more than 3 book suggestions pr. person.
- All recommendations will be featured in a subsequent poll. Done by -th.
- Feel free to pitch, especially in the comments at the poll.

by Richard C Francis

I recently read this. The author has some interesting ideas on the self-domestication of humans (last 2 chapters) that would make an interesting discussion topic.


by Carl Safina

by Fred Pearce

I haven't read these, but they look interesting.

While it may just be the two of us first, Elentarri, i believe the more interesting the forum/books are, the more people will join us. Dont worry.

I need some time to find some good books. Hmmm.

Could someone tell me how to send a message to all members? Lol ;).

Andreas wrote: "Could someone tell me how to send a message to all members? Lol ;)."

Settings > broadcast a message to all members

I will try that for the novembers book poll. However, for this one, I think I'll read one of Elentarri's books. The turtle thing and the new wild seem to capture my interest, but a review of the new wild by someone named Ryan here on goodreads made me think twice, what do you think of this Fred Pearce's work, Elentarri? Does the author really "tries to be deliberately controversial and contrarian in his views on these topic" like this Ryan suggested?

Andreas wrote: "what do you think of this Fred Pearce's work"

I have no idea. The topic is controversial, so it might just be that he went too much in one direction? I haven't read the Fred Pearce or the Turtle book - one of the reasons I suggested them. ;) We can do the turtle book if you think the Fred Pearce book might be dodgy? I haven't read any of his other works either.

The Voyage of the Turtle: In Pursuit of the Earth's Last Dinosaur is available in my library, so that's an easy decision maker for me :-)

I'm glad this group has revived!

Okay..... does this mean we are reading the turtle book for October 2015? Sorry to nag, but it's already October. ;)

Also, are we discussing this book one chapter at a time or the whole thing when we get to the end of the book?

Yes, let's read it. Let's discuss the book whenever we find something weird.

Sorry to be a pest, but are we discussing the turtle book in this thread or is there going to be a specific thread for it?

No, its ok to post :). We should make a specific topic. You know thia group better than i do, where do we usually post the topic?

Also, lets start thinking about our next book poll for november. Post the books in this thread. I will broadcast a message on october 10 listing the books, is this ok?

Sorry for the past few week absence, i jost got back from an extremely distant business trip.

Andreas wrote: "No, its ok to post :). We should make a specific topic. You know this group better than i do, where do we usually post the topic?"

Thanks. This is actually the first time for me to do group read things and I'm new to the group too.

I see there is a group reads section with selected books for each month.
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/group...

Maybe we should just put the new topic [October 2015: Voyage of the Turtle by Carl Safina] in that section?

The poll for November sounds good. I hope you enjoyed your business trip out in the middle of nowhere. ;)

Here are my suggestions for November 2015. I hope there aren't too many of them?

by John Gaudet.

by William Stolzenburg

by Tony Juniper

by Callum Roberts

by Anthony Martin

by Penny le Couteur et al.

by Emily Monosson

by Thor Hanson

by Lisa-Ann Gershwin

I have created the topic here:
https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...
It was to the land where time stands still (the US).

The books you mentioned are very interesting, Elentarri. By the way, may I know a bit about you? I couldnt find any info on your page.

Andreas wrote: "The books you mentioned are very interesting, Elentarri. By the way, may I know a bit about you?"

Well, lets see.

Education: I have a Masters degree in the biological and environmental sciences.
Hobbies: Messing around with my plants. Arts and crafty stuff when I have the time and motivation. I love reading, but prefer my science books to have more science and less author anecdotes.
Location: Southern hemisphere between Australia and the Americas.
Politics: I have a firm belief that 99.9% of politicians would provide a more useful service as fertilizer or shark food. ;)

I'm not sure what else you want to know?

A science lady :), so Elentarri, are you a creationist or an evolutionist?

And a remark about politics, I suspect you've observed a few political turmoils in your area?

Btw, i took the liberty of using Kristoffer's word for november's book nomination. Is this ok, kristoffer?
You can see it here, and Elentarry,could you copy paste your book recommendation to the thread?

https://www.goodreads.com/topic/show/...

Andreas wrote: "A science lady :), so Elentarri, are you a creationist or an evolutionist?
Neither. My hypothesis for life on earth is sort of a mish-mash of everything. No reason why only one "theory" has to be the one and only theory. It's like the computer - there are multiple ways to get an end result.

And a remark about politics, I suspect you've observed a few political turmoils in your area?" Some, but just observing the whole world makes me think there are lunatics in charge.

Elentarri wrote: "Andreas wrote: "A science lady :), so Elentarri, are you a creationist or an evolutionist?
Neither. My hypothesis for life on earth is sort of a mish-mash of everything. No reason why only one "th..."

True, politicians sometimes make us think that they are unnecessary figures, a testimony to our inferior intelligence as lesser beings, who can't know better thus are in need of a leader, as animals if you will.

We can argue that they can't be both true because saying that humans were once monkeys suggests that there is no intelligent design involved, life just sprung from one simple unicellular organism to a complex being like human, which is pretty much what evolutionists say, isn't it?

Andreas wrote: "humans were once monkeys "

If you believe "humans were once monkeys" then you need to read up on the theory of evolution again. ;) They have a common ancestor.

BTW - I don't think a human is any more complex than an octopus or starfish. That's just arrogant humans stuffing things into little categorised boxes again.

I have a few problems with evolution theory, but the holes might be filled in better if people studied the matter properly and don't start sounding like religious zealots when defending flawed or incomplete data/results/hypotheses.

People tend to assume that the Earth floats around in a vacuum, when it doesn't. There is cosmic radiation, dust, meteors, comets, bacteria covered boots of exploring space aliens... etc. Who knows if intelligent design was involved or not? Not enough useful data to make a decision.

So, Andreas, how do you think life began and evolved? :)

There is not much evidence, very true. But my reading has come to a conclusion that there is a 'creator' but he/she/it/they has nothing to do with us. So it is up to us to believe what has been, what is, and what will be, while in fact what I'm more concerned with is where we want to go. It is useless to prove the existence of God because they have nothing to do with us, at all. I think science can explore the ideas of evolution and how life formed but let's not do it in order to disprove the concept of intelligent design, let's do it to prolong humans' and all beings' lives, just like what I believe Cark Safina's book aims to do.

Works for me. I'm not sure lives should be prolonged though - then you end up with an overpopulation problem or those that can afford the treatment vs those that can't (ends up in wars and all that stuff).
Unless you want to colonies the galaxy? Then longer life might be useful.
I think quality of life should be better for everyone and there should be enough space for the wildlife to live without having silly humans interfering.

Here is the dearth thing, the second problem we have in the universe.