Sciences

News

• New Scientist


• SciTechDaily


• Quanta Magazine


• Futura Sciences (in French)

Natural sciences

• A New Map of All the Particles and Forces: a succint presentation and visual model of the fundamental particles (of both fermion and boson types) and interactions (electromagnetism, weak and strong nuclear forces, Higgs field) described by the Standard Model

Social sciences

• Influencing


• Decision making


• Metamorphology: a nascent discipline concerned with the science of change (radical-change theory)
  Dr James Wilk, whose work encompasses philosophy, psychology, social science and cybernetics, believes in minimalist interventions, which act as tipping points / nudges, to trigger instant and easy change — no matter how large or complicated the system. It can apply to both organisations or people. "Everybody's had experiences where they've had some big success in their life. They look back and realise it was down to one or two small things that they did. If they'd known to do them early on — one phone call, a dinner with one person — it would have saved a lot of effort. My point is, you can find those things in advance." Interchange Associates


• Time perception


• Beauty is in the eye of the beer-holder...


• People helping animals are at the top of the scale of human needs

Book transcripts / notes

Life on the Edge – The Coming of Age of Quantum Biology
(Jim Al-Khalili and Johnjoe McFadden , 2014)

Presents the main characteristics of quantum physics (wave-particle duality, tunnelling, superposition, entanglement/nonlocality), some related concepts (coherence, measurement, quantum beating, inelastic electron tunnelling, spin states, double potential energy well, density functional theory, quantum Zeno effect), as well as several principles of classical physics & chemistry (transition state theory, kinetic isotope effect, wave interference, respiration, chirality), seen through the prism of particular biological mechanisms involving enzymes, photosynthesis, olfaction, magnetoreception, gene copying & reading, brain activity, and the hypothetical evolution of early life.
Aside from the spectacular breadth and detail of its technical themes, this substantial book is enriched with a precise history of the relevant scientific developments.
see notes

Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman, 2011)

This book explores rationality and its limits, with a view to understanding and improving decisions in situations of uncertainty, such as planning or risk-taking. It exposes two dichotomies in the brain (intuitive versus analytical, and experiencing versus memory self), lists a number of judgement heuristics and cognitive biases to which they lead, presents utility and prospect theories, going as far as dissecting the concept of happiness.
see transcript/notes

The Two-Second Advantage (Vivek Ranadivé & Kevin Maney, 2011)

Dwells on predictive models, both in the human brain and in computer systems, with very good insights into neurosciences and how machines can approach the capabilities of the human brain. The two-second advantage metaphorically refers to the ability of certain people or computer systems to predict what is going to happen a little better and faster than others.
see transcript/notes

Postcapitalism (Paul Mason, 2015)

Very informative book on the different economic theories and the evolution of the modes of production since feodality and the Industrial Revolution. The author also points out the glaring limits of the current model, and explains the transition to the postcapitalist model. The discourse is very factual and uses variable geometry, dwelling for instance on sociology and technology (including IT).
see extensive transcript/notes
see alternative representation of the evolution

The Winner Effect (Ian Robertson, 2012)

This book presents the way power affects the brain, how it drives behaviour, as well as some associated notions and effects such as cognitive dissonance, social threat, and the "winner effect". The phenomena described are relevant in a lot of situations and apply across species, which makes this book very useful as it explains people's behaviour according to this central dimension.
see transcript/notes

The Physics of Finance (James Owen Weatherall, 2013)

More a book about physics-inspired models than finance (fortunately!), it presents a range of concepts and theories ranging from probability distributions to information theory, "sensitive dependence on initial conditions" (chaos theory), self-organised criticality, or gauge theory (used to provide a framework to deal with the index number problem. .).
see transcript/notes

Introducing Sociology (Richard Osborne, 1996)

Sociology was invented as a means of thinking about (modern) society and human behaviour. Positivism, Marxism, functionalism, structuralism, symbolic interactionism, the Chicago and Frankfurt Schools... this book presents the different theories and concepts, following a logical and historial progression from the Great Enlightment to our postmodern, 'hyperreal' era.
see transcript/notes

The Business Brain book (Jan-Willem van den Brandhof, 1998)

On the structure of the brain, the thinking process, intuition/lateral thinking, processing information/learning, stress, goal achievement...
see transcript/notes

Understanding Body Language (Jane Lyle, 1989)

The basic principles of non-verbal communication — or "body language" — should be known and used for better understanding and communication. This book dwells on postures, stress, social interactions, lie detection, orientation and love & attraction.
see transcript/notes

Outliers — The Story of Success (Malcolm Gladwell, 2008)

The main theme of this book is the existence of patterns behind success, which are very weakly acknowledged. A sub-theme is the incidence of culture.
see transcript/notes

The Logic Of Life: The Undercover Economist (Tim Harford, 2008)

In this book, Tim Harford applies rational choice theory (and game theory to a lower extent) to explore the hidden side of the economics/mechanisms in various fields, from gambling to sex, politics, urbanism or economic growth, with the goal to question conventional wisdom and unveil counter-intuitive forces at play.
see transcript/notes

Thinking To Some Purpose (Lizzie Susan Stebbing , 1939)

Described by the author as an argumentative book about arguing, this book presents some of the fallacies, deceptions and syllogisms which one can be confronted with, knowingly or not. Incidentally, it also unveils some curious characteristics of human nature — curious only if we forget that human beings are not for the most part rational.
see transcript/notes

The Long Tail — Why The Future of Business is Selling Less of More (Chris Anderson, 2006)

Our culture and economy are increasingly shifting away from a focus on a relatively small number of hits, star, mainstream products at the head of the demand curve, and moving towards a huge number of niches in the tail.
see transcript/notes