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jasonfurman's reviews
1367 reviews
The Prism and the Pendulum: The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments in Science by Robert P. Crease
5.0
An excellent book, it effectively uses the ten experiments to illustrate a set of broader ideas in the philosophy of science through a series of interludes. In this way it dried to draw a broader set of lessons than George Johnson's "The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments." And to tell less of a human story than Johnson's book.
It is remarkable that two books that share a title/subtitle had so few overlapping experiments. Maybe they both should have dropped the adjective "most," resting only on the unambiguously true claim that they're about beautiful experiments. Or maybe the Crease books should have added the qualifier "physics," the field that essentially all of his experiments are drawn from.
It is remarkable that two books that share a title/subtitle had so few overlapping experiments. Maybe they both should have dropped the adjective "most," resting only on the unambiguously true claim that they're about beautiful experiments. Or maybe the Crease books should have added the qualifier "physics," the field that essentially all of his experiments are drawn from.
Watchmen by Alan Moore
4.0
I can't say I loved every page. Or that I didn't want this to cohere more. But there were lots and lots of good pages with an overall impression that is quite striking.
Persuasion by Jane Austen
5.0
It's a bit presumptuous to rate Jane Austen on the same five point scale one uses for everyone else. But what can you do?
At the risk of seeming low brow, I still prefer Pride and Prejudice and Emma. But I do not begrudge Anne Elliot her much delayed happiness.
At the risk of seeming low brow, I still prefer Pride and Prejudice and Emma. But I do not begrudge Anne Elliot her much delayed happiness.