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13 Things That Don't Make Sense
- The Most Baffling Scientific Mysteries of Our Time
- Narrated by: James Adams
- Length: 8 hrs and 58 mins
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Publisher's summary
Science's best-kept secret is that there are experimental results and reliable data that the most brilliant scientists can neither explain nor dismiss. In the past, similar "anomalies" have revolutionized our world, as in the 16th century, when a set of celestial anomalies led Copernicus to realize that the Earth revolves around the Sun and not the reverse, and in the 1770s, when two chemists discovered oxygen because of experimental results that defied the theories of the day. If history is any precedent, we should look to today's inexplicable results to forecast the future of science.
In 13 Things That Don't Make Sense, Michael Brooks heads to the scientific frontier to meet 13 modern-day anomalies and discover tomorrow's breakthroughs.
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Already internationally acclaimed for his elegant, lucid writing on the most challenging notions in modern physics, Sean Carroll is emerging as one of the greatest humanist thinkers of his generation as he brings his extraordinary intellect to bear not only on the Higgs boson and extra dimensions but now also on our deepest personal questions. Where are we? Who are we? Are our emotions, our beliefs, and our hopes and dreams ultimately meaningless out there in the void?
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ABSOLUTE MUST READ!
- By serine on 05-12-16
By: Sean Carroll
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Exoplanets
- Diamond Worlds, Super Earths, Pulsar Planets, and the New Search for Life Beyond Our Solar System
- By: Michael Summers
- Narrated by: Jon Bennett
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Since its 2009 launch, the Kepler satellite has discovered more than 2,000 exoplanets, or planets outside our solar system. More exoplanets are being discovered all the time, remarkable in their variety. Astronomer Michael Summers and physicist James Trefil explore these remarkable recent discoveries: planets revolving around pulsars, planets made of diamond, planets that are mostly water, and numerous rogue planets wandering through the emptiness of space.
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FINALLY, an Attention-Grabbing Planet Book!
- By aaron on 05-11-17
By: Michael Summers
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The Upright Thinkers
- The Human Journey From Living in Trees to Understanding the Cosmos
- By: Leonard Mlodinow
- Narrated by: Leonard Mlodinow
- Length: 12 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions - why? how? - bravely asked.
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10/10 Got What I Wanted.
- By Austin on 09-22-15
By: Leonard Mlodinow
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Sync
- How Order Emerges from Chaos in the Universe, Nature, and Daily Life
- By: Steven Strogatz
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 13 hrs and 58 mins
- Unabridged
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At once elegant and riveting, Sync tells the story of the dawn of a new science. Steven Strogatz, a leading mathematician in the fields of chaos and complexity theory, explains how enormous systems can synchronize themselves, from the electrons in a superconductor to the pacemaker cells in our hearts. He shows that although these phenomena might seem unrelated on the surface, at a deeper level there is a connection, forged by the unifying power of mathematics.
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Engaging, but maybe better suited for non-audio
- By Ryan on 05-26-12
By: Steven Strogatz
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The Story of Western Science
- From the Writings of Aristotle to the Big Bang Theory
- By: Susan Wise Bauer
- Narrated by: Julian Elfer
- Length: 8 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
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Far too often, public discussion of science is carried out by journalists, voters, and politicians who have received their science secondhand. The Story of Western Science shows us the joy and importance of reading groundbreaking science writing for ourselves and guides us back to the masterpieces that have changed the way we think about our world, our cosmos, and ourselves.
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Good text, tedious book structure
- By Diane K. on 10-07-15
By: Susan Wise Bauer
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Paradox
- The Nine Greatest Enigmas in Physics
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Matthew Waterson
- Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins
- Unabridged
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Throughout history, scientists have come up with theories and ideas that just don't seem to make sense. These we call paradoxes. The paradoxes Al-Khalili offers are drawn chiefly from physics and astronomy and represent those that have stumped some of the finest minds. With elegant explanations that bring the listener inside the mind of those who've developed them, Al-Khalili helps us to see that, in fact, paradoxes can be solved if seen from the right angle.
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Almost Useless
- By Michael on 06-19-19
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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A Short History of Nearly Everything
- By: Bill Bryson
- Narrated by: Richard Matthews
- Length: 18 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Bill Bryson has been an enormously popular author both for his travel books and for his books on the English language. Now, this beloved comic genius turns his attention to science. Although he doesn't know anything about the subject (at first), he is eager to learn, and takes information that he gets from the world's leading experts and explains it to us in a way that makes it exciting and relevant.
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
- By Andrew on 11-09-09
By: Bill Bryson
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Science and the Akashic Field
- An Integral Theory of Everything
- By: Ervin Laszlo
- Narrated by: Tom Pile
- Length: 6 hrs and 52 mins
- Unabridged
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Mystics and sages have long maintained that there exists an interconnecting cosmic field at the roots of reality that conserves and conveys information, a field known as the Akashic record. Recent discoveries in vacuum physics show that this Akashic field is real and has its equivalent in science's zero-point field that underlies space itself. This field consists of a subtle sea of fluctuating energies from which all things arise: atoms and galaxies, stars and planets, living beings, and even consciousness.
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A must-read about ultimate nature of reality
- By Alexandra Hopkins on 04-15-18
By: Ervin Laszlo
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How to Speak Science
- Gravity, Relativity, and Other Ideas That Were Crazy Until Proven Brilliant
- By: Bruce Benamran, Stephanie Delozier Strobel
- Narrated by: Braden Wright
- Length: 13 hrs and 11 mins
- Unabridged
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As smartphones, supercomputers, supercolliders, and AI propel us into an ever more unfamiliar future, How to Speak Science takes us on a rollicking historical tour of the greatest discoveries and ideas that make today's cutting-edge technologies possible. Wanting everyone to be able to "speak" science, YouTube science guru Bruce Benamran explains - as accessibly and wittily as in his acclaimed videos - the fundamental ideas of the physical world: matter, life, the solar system, light, electromagnetism, thermodynamics, special and general relativity, and much more.
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Wowzers!
- By Ralph Temblador on 02-15-21
By: Bruce Benamran, and others
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Contains tons of information about money
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The Only Book I reread imediatley after reading
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What listeners say about 13 Things That Don't Make Sense
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall
- Mark Patterson
- 11-19-08
Loses Steam
Mr. Brooks starts well but seems to be stretching for some of his "13 Things." I was particularly thrown off by his flat assertion that men do not have "free will" because a couple studies showed that humans are not fully aware of all aspects of their volitional decisionmaking (at least I think that's what he's saying). This assertion seems patently ridiculous; I don't completely understand how an internal combustion engine transfers power to my automobile wheels yet I would be a fool to assert I am not driving the vehicle when I turn the key and move forward.
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4 people found this helpful
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Overall
- Amazon Customer
- 04-12-10
for the discovery magazine crowd
if you are familiar with string theory and grasp the uncertainty principle, then you will enjoy this book. i felt the overall point of this book is to highlight sciences biggest flaw, the scientist themselves. here we have 13 things that have data to back them up, but are unexplained and not well understood. but science (like any human endevor) has it's pecking order. currently the people who matter in science seem not to want to study these anomalies. going against them can stunt a career (homeopathy may be quackery, but there are documented cases aplenty where it has worked - it dosen't make sense). but thankfully data dosent care what people think. if you want to look at some of the biggest head scratchers in modern science, this is for you.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall
- manny
- 09-09-09
This book showed how littler science knows
This book has been a great learning experience for me. It has concisely and clearly put some very complex concepts in prospective, and tide them together. It has shown me how little we know, and how far science has to go. It is not for the novice, you need to have some background in Physics in order to follow it well and understand the dilemmas and contradictions he tries to point out.
I enjoyed the book thoroughly but I love physics and astronomy.
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1 person found this helpful
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- Ryan
- 10-29-11
Contains some interesting topics, but muddled
A decent overview of some the unsolved questions that modern science is currently puzzling over (how to explain all the "missing" matter in the universe) or lacks the data to answer conclusively any time soon (is there life on other planets? do we really have free will?). Then there are a few chapters concerning what might be described as fringe science (e.g. cold fusion, the placebo effect, homeopathic medicine). While I appreciate the spirit of inquiry, I suspect that homeopathic medicine is probably not one of the great mysteries occupying scientific minds today.
Unfortunately, the author's style is a bit fragmentary -- he drops a lot of names and technical information, but doesn't make the core controversies quite as clear as they could be, or provide the satisfying overview one might get from a book focused solely on astrophysics, space exploration, or biology. Regarding the "fringe science", the author's discussion of the side making the incredible claim is extremely lightweight. Sure, maybe the cold fusion people are somehow right, and the mainstream scientific community will be proven wrong, but this writer hasn't elucidated anything compelling about that particular mystery -- if it even is a mystery -- for me.
Still, the book expressed an interesting theme: the scientific community has always had trouble accepting anomalous data that suggests that current theories on something might be flawed -- those who have staked their careers on an existing model aren't eager to see it overturned, and those who might try to explain the data using a new framework must put their own reputations on the line. Thus, it takes a while for "hey, the galaxy isn't expanding the way Einstein's theory predicts" to become an issue scientists are willing to talk about. For this somewhat disquieting revelation and the fact it'll probably whet your appetite for other science reading, this book's certainly worth a library check-out.
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- Steve Clements
- 02-06-17
Great book
This book does a great job of explaining so much about the Big Issues of science, while illustrating that we ultomately know so little. intriguingly written, perfect for a non academic to jump right into.
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- Gonzalo
- 06-04-15
Introduction to some Interesting Science
If you're into science and the questions that scientists are confronting today, this should be an enjoyable book for you. It is rather dry sometimes but the narrator does a good job in carrying you through. Perfect voice for the text. I've read and listened to many popular books on cutting edge science and am familiar with many of the subjects covered here but prior knowledge is not necessary. The author introduces each concept well. Even if you yourself question some of the author's conclusions (and you might) it is still a great primer into the cutting edge of science. The book is called 13 things that don't make sense and it is structured so that one "thing" leads to another. Sometimes so well that you don't realize you have changed chapters. Obviously this is a bigger issue in the audiobook than in the written text where everything is clearly and visually delineated. Still, l I've listened to it twice now and in many ways the second reading rather than being boring was more enjoyable because it helped me clarify some chapters that had "run together" in the first reading.
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- HRK
- 04-11-24
Fun & Instructive!
This book is a great combination of history & technology explaining the scope of effects through the ages. I thoroughly enjoyed it!
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Overall
- Kindle Customer
- 01-28-09
Good, Fair Assessment
The author plays a very fair hand, dealing with the current mysteries of science. The insights assume some level of knowledge, but sufficient background is given for a high-schooler to gain some appreciation of the quandaries.
The narrator is very easy to listen to. I have listened to the entire book twice because I have enjoyed the material.
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13 people found this helpful
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Overall
- David Andrews
- 03-08-09
I loved this book!
Some topics are more fascinating then others but overall a great book. It left me wanting more information on all 13 topics! I hope his next book is, "More About 13 Things That Don't Make Sense".
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11 people found this helpful
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Overall
- S. Olsen
- 12-18-08
Only ok
There were some great ideas presented with some interesting clues into where the next great break throughs in science might come. The reader was competent.
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2 people found this helpful