[Kenna]

Ever start a good, sciencey book or TV show and want to share it with everyone you know? Now you can spare your parents an ear ache by sharing it here. Input a title and short description of the magical medium below. Book, DVD, audio cassette, Youtube video, we don’t care. We’ll check it out. 😉

[Kenna]

Cosmos by Carl Sagan: A classic among classics, Cosmos is one of the most highly recognized works since the start of modern science. It remarks on the history of mankind, what we are (“We are made of star stuff”), how we came to be, and our place in the cosmos. The book was co-developed with a 13 episode series, Cosmos: A Personal Voyage (1980), a series which has recently been followed up with Cosmos: A Spacetime Odyssey (2014). I recommend it for anyone with even a passing interest in science.

[Kenna]

Feynman by Jim Ottaviani & Leland Myrick: This is a graphic novel detailing the life of physicist and Nobel Prize winner, Richard Feynman. Part comedy, part social commentary, this novel covers everything from Feynman’s work on the atomic bomb that would go on to decimate populations to his strong and lasting ties to his high school sweetheart. There is some hard science between its covers, but don’t expect a lecture. The art style has received some complaint due to its simplicity but the dialogue of the piece more than carries its weight in entertainment value.

[Kenna]

Stephen Hawking Sings Monty Python’s Galaxy Song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfcC6FYyL4U

Enough said.

[Dee]

ok, there’s a few i want to throw out there (though how do you follow up something with Stephen Hawking and Monty Python???):

I’m big on podcasts, and there’s several wonderful science-related ones –
Brain Science is hosted by Dr. Ginger Campbell and is a great source for learning about new, groundbreaking research that’s underway in the field of neuroscience. Some topics I’ve enjoyed range widely from neuralplasticity to conscious mind and cognitive functions to consequences of brain damage. It’s presented in a transparent way and can be enjoyed by anyone with a passing interest to the brain as well as professionals.

Physicscentral I don’t think is as popular, which is unfortunate because it’s really, really cool. It deals with physics in the context of basically any and all topics. There’s a lot on cosmology, but also physics of pop culture and historical influences. As with Brain science, it’s presented in layman’s terms, so it’s easily accessible to casual listeners.

As for books, I recently finished Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind by V.S. Ramachandran and I loved it. Both this and its successor (The Tell-Tale Brain) are well-written explorations of the mysteries of the mind. Ramachandran takes a very experimental approach; he utilizes tons of clinical case studies and incorporates current understanding and his own theories for how and why our brain attempts to make head or tail of deviations from the norm, such as phantom limb syndrome. The book is a bit heavier in subject matter and there are some parts that may be difficult, but overall it’s laid out in classic sign-symptoms-effects-treatment pattern. Ramachandran is funny and his writing comes across in a charming way.

(this got really long, whoops)

• This reply was modified 8 years, 12 months ago by Dee.

[Anonymous]

Linden, David J Compass of Pleasure audiobook: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ruh71QSOAfk

Simple neuroscientific explanation of pleasure. Nicely narrates ground-breaking research conducted on the matter, interesting and easy to understand to scientists as well as amateurs.

[Kenna]

Walking with Dinosaurs by the BBC (1999-2000): This show was my Jurassic Park. I have imprinted on it. Ehrm, moving on.

The show is a fantastic six-part miniseries shot in the style of a nature documentary, meaning zero talking heads or “world-breaking” references to our modern world. The stories the show writers tell are simultaneously brutal and beautiful despite the fact that they had little more than a few dusty fossils for inspiration. The landscapes are as alien as the worlds of Hoth and Tatooine. The CGI was top of the line for its day. And with all the effort they put into practical effects, they managed to create a “dinosaur documentary” that still hasn’t been surpassed in 15 years. Watch it. Love it.

[Kenna]

Element Song by Tom Lehrer: Good for getting stuck in your head while taking your chemistry finals. And if you can memorize it…bragging rights.

Click me!

[Kenna]

The Transcension Hypothesis by John M. Smart: How will technology progress? The answer, says Smart, is not outward but inward. Forget space travel. Let’s femto travel!

This vidya sums up the hypothesis in 2.5 minutes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQOyJUDTKdM

And if that was enough to spark your interest, here’s an amalgamation of in-depth related sources: http://accelerating.org/articles/transcensionhypothesis.html

[Author]

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