Popular science Definition and 28 Threads

I am reading a popular-science book Reality Is Not What It Seems by Carlo Rovelli, one of the founders of loop quantum gravity. He writes: and and So basically, space (spacetime) is just another quantum field like all the others, and the quanta of this field is the nod. Nods have volume...

Few things are disparaged so militantly on this forum as popsci: scientific literature written for a general audience. "It's entertainment, not real science." "They won't teach you any actual physics." Such remarks are all too common - and, in my opinion, they are utterly misguided. I won't...

I am currently reading some introductory physics. I am following resnik and Halliday. Can anyone suggest me some good general books on physics which would go comfortably with my resnik book. I need to read some general material not something technical. If possible on classical mechanics and...

Everyone likes to shout "Bernoulli!"

Hey, This is more of a discussion rather than a question. A lot of movies (e.g. interstellar, Event Horizon), have a go at trying to explain how the Warp/Alcubierre drive could work, and usually, the argument goes like this: They take a point A and a point B, connect them with a line on the...

I'm aiming to make a list of popular science books to read along the year. Can you recommend some?

Hi all, I am a physics student taking his last year of Msc. Some friends of mine and I are thinking to make an evening of popular science. We were thinking to organize the event in a pub, inviting people that haven't a scientific training. Divide the people between the tables where each one of...

I was born and raised in Czechoslovakia (currently the Czech Republic) where I completed my Masters degree in Physics and Philosophy. I recently completed my PhD in science education and I am looking for "my place" in academia. In my dissertation I focused on a problem of students' understanding...

Physics major in my country is often regarded worthless. Here we have exams before university people who get higher places mostly study medicine, engineering, law etc. I am someone who loves learning stuff and who wants to make a difference so I am studying physics this year (hopefully with a...

So, I've been inspired by shows like Fringe, games like Deus Ex and Halo, and movies like Robo Cop, The Machine, Eva, and Blade Runner. My interests would fall into the categories of things like neuroscience, biological engineering, nanotechnology, bionics, AI, body-computer interfaces, etc.--...

Could anybody suggest good popular science books based on quantum mechanics ? It would be great if the book contained a lot of theory rather than its history. As a side note, has anybody read the book titled "Quantum" by Manjit Kumar ?

I went through someone's thread asking regarding a popular science book, a considerable time ago. I got the impression that the more knowledgeable members in the discussion did not approve of most popular science books (if my memory serves me right the point mainly was that it gave people the...

Hello, I am looking to read up on some popular science kind of books on Materials Science and Engineering. Something on the lines of "future of materials" or "materials of the future". Does anyone have any recommendations? Thanks

If such a thing exists, what is a good popular science book for quantum mechanics? Multiple book choices would be accepted. Not looking for textbooks, more something you can lend to people who don't have science degrees but who are keenly interested in the subject. In an ideal world it...

Hey tried to post this in the learning materials section but it wouldn't let me for some reason. Anyways, does anyone know if anyone's every written a popular science book (or a documentary) on condensed matter or semiconductors physics or transistors or exotic phases or what have you?

I've noticed this forum negatively views down up on popular science. Would many of you guys think that popular science is basically pseudoscience.

I don't know - but all sorts of famous physicists seem to give high reviews to many of the newest popular physics books - such as Stephen Hawking's most recent book. They all say that they enjoyed reading them. Maybe it's just that many of them have also taken steps to become educators and...

Contributers to this forum are no lovers of popular science magazines or TV. programs, but this is from where most 'lay' people get their information. From such sources we are given to understand that the background radiation is thought to be light, (of whatever original wave-length), from the...

Hello everyone. I never had the chance to take a class on particle or nuclear physics during my undergrad, so I want to know what everyone's favorite popular science book on particle/nuclear physics is. I'm not looking for a textbook or something overly mathematical (there's a reason I decided...

In a move designed to prevent any of us ever doing any productive work at our computers ever again - Popular science has scans of all of it's past issues online for free. http://www.popsci.com/archives

I enjoy science magazines, but some of them seem a little "iffy" sometimes! (New Scientist, I'm looking at you!)

What do you think about this blog post? http://www.physicallyincorrect.com/2008/07/popular-science-has-been-replaced-by-spiritualism/ I basically agree with what he says, especially this: It's a shame that most pop-sci books these days focus on phenomena that are unobservable on a day-to-day...

Hi all, I read "The New World of Mr Tompkins" by George Gamov and Russell Stannard and "Flatland/Sphereland" by Edwin Abbott and Dionys Burger. Would any of you have some more very good and interactive vulgarization science books, mainly on physics? (I have a Master in Elec Eng and did a few...

In my work, I sometimes try to explain what a plasma is, and how it behaves, to people not knowing much about physics. Now and then I start to think about what I am saying. I talk about electrons and ions as balls which collide and feel the elctric field, and so on. But all this is just a...

I think we've all noticed this on this forum and I swear I'm noticing this in real life! I'm finding these people who have read all these popular science books where equations are not at all used and try to act like they really understand or know or like physics. For example, this one girl I use...

[SOLVED] biology popular science books I just finished reading Behe's Darwin's Black Box and what I really dug about the book was how it went in depth into the biological functions of things and was a really technical book(for the layman anyways). What I'm looking for now is the other side of...

I've come to realize that some of dogmatic science posts sometimes posted in this forum is from non-mathematically based comments based from books like 'The elegant universe' etc. While these books do help enlighten the public of 'recent' theories, it also makes the overall audience think...

I am thinking about a subscription to Popular Science, since it is a pretty interesting magazine. From what I've read, it has pretty good content. What are you opinions about the magazine? Is it worth subscribing to?