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The Pluto Files
- The Rise and Fall of America's Favorite Planet
- Narrated by: Mirron Willis
- Length: 4 hrs and 22 mins
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Publisher's summary
The year of Pluto's discovery, Disney created an irresistible pup by the same name, and, as one NASA scientist put it, Pluto was "discovered by an American for America." Pluto is entrenched in our cultural, patriotic view of the cosmos, and Neil deGrasse Tyson is on a quest to discover why.
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Through Euclid's Window Leonard Mlodinow brilliantly and delightfully leads us on a journey through five revolutions in geometry, from the Greek concept of parallel lines to the latest notions of hyperspace. Here is an altogether new, refreshing, alternative history of math revealing how simple questions anyone might ask about space -- in the living room or in some other galaxy -- have been the hidden engine of the highest achievements in science and technology.
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Wow!
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By: Leonard Mlodinow
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What Is Real?
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- Narrated by: Greg Tremblay
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Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's Copenhagen interpretation and dismissed questions about the reality underlying quantum physics as meaningless. A mishmash of solipsism and poor reasoning, Copenhagen endured, as Bohr's students vigorously protected his legacy, and the physics community favored practical experiments over philosophical arguments.
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Good, "light" "read"... potential caveat below...
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By: Adam Becker
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Robert Oppenheimer
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Robert Oppenheimer was among the most brilliant and divisive of men. As head of the Los Alamos Laboratory, he oversaw the successful effort to beat the Nazis in the race to develop the first atomic bomb – a breakthrough that was to have eternal ramifications for mankind and that made Oppenheimer the “Father of the Atomic Bomb.” But with his actions leading up to that great achievement, he also set himself on a dangerous collision course with Senator Joseph McCarthy and his witch-hunters. In Robert Oppenheimer: A Life Inside the Center, Ray Monk, author of peerless biographies of Ludwig Wittgenstein and Bertrand Russell, goes deeper than any previous biographer in the quest to solve the enigma of Oppenheimer’s motivations and his complex personality.
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A comprehensive biography
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When Einstein Walked with Gödel
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Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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A good overview of scientific theory
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A Mind at Play
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Claude Shannon was a tinkerer, a playful wunderkind, a groundbreaking polymath, and a digital pioneer whose insights made the Information Age possible. He constructed fire-breathing trumpets and customized unicycles, outfoxed Vegas casinos, and built juggling robots, but he also wrote the seminal text of the Digital Revolution. That work allowed scientists to measure and manipulate information as objectively as any physical object. His work gave mathematicians and engineers the tools to bring that world to pass.
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I wanted more information about Information Theory
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American Sketches
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In this collection of essays, Walter Isaacson reflects on the lessons to be learned from Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, Bill Gates, Henry Kissinger, Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, Hillary Clinton and Bill Clinton, and various other interesting characters he has chronicled as a biographer and journalist. The people he writes about have an awesome intelligence, in most cases, but that is not the secret of their success.
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Not Really Sketches
- By DAVID on 11-04-11
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A Most Elegant Equation
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Bertrand Russell wrote that mathematics can exalt "as surely as poetry". This is especially true of one equation: ei(pi) + 1 = 0, the brainchild of Leonhard Euler, the Mozart of mathematics. More than two centuries after Euler's death, it is still regarded as a conceptual diamond of unsurpassed beauty. Called Euler's identity, or God's equation, it includes just five numbers but represents an astonishing revelation of hidden connections.
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Good treatment of the subject
- By Kindle Customer on 04-09-18
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The Hockey Stick and the Climate Wars
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In its 2001 report on global climate, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change of the United Nations prominently featured the "Hockey Stick", a chart showing global temperature data over the past 1,000 years. The Hockey Stick demonstrated that temperature had risen with the increase in industrialization and use of fossil fuels. The inescapable conclusion was that worldwide human activity since the industrial age had raised CO2 levels, trapping greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and warming the planet.
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Speaking truth to power
- By Anonymous User on 06-06-24
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What listeners say about The Pluto Files
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Ross
- 02-14-11
We love you Neil!
Neil brings fun to the history of Pluto. As a fan of Pluto who was originally very upset about the demotion, I was angry with Neil. But after this book, I forgive you Neil.
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4 people found this helpful
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Entertaining Educational Read even for Pluto Lover
Like many, I was disappointed when I learned Pluto was demoted to Dwarf Planet. Though this was based on sentiment, not science. And I had NO IDEA what drama went on behind the scenes. I LOVED this book and it's entertaining, lighthearted approach to this controversial decision. I learned so much about Pluto and other planets in the process. No matter what side of the "Is Pluto a Planet" debate you find yourself, I recommend this book, especially the Audible version. I'm glad Dr. Tyson does not narrate because his voice is sometimes too deep for me to hear clearly with headphones.
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- TheProjectFox
- 01-18-21
Are you smarter than a fifth grader
A book that sounds defensive by a human who should know better. I’m a huge fan of the man, but this is not his greatest work. Listen to some of his other books first.
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- Bryan
- 08-05-16
It's Not a Planet - Get Over It
NdGT really comes through on this one. He makes a fantastic case for Pluto's downgrading in 2006 (which he was a very large part of). He also makes it clear that he did not make the decision lightly, and he also shows us how much flak he caught for it - both from scientists and the general public. He does this deftly, with brilliance and humor throughout. High recommendations.
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- Sam Motes
- 09-10-14
Pluto's fall from grace
An interesting read on how educated people can get wrapped up in nostalgia and labeling things. The exposure over the Pluto declassification as a plant certainly stocked the discussion on scientific topics.
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- Lauren
- 06-04-24
Very self aggrandizing, not enough about Pluto
I was really hoping to learn more about Pluto. While learning when and why it was demoted to dwarf planet was interesting enough as a part of the story, I didn’t feel like I learned as much as I’d hoped about actual Pluto. It felt like A LOT of justification for Neil DeGrasse Tyson, and not enough education of the subject.
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Overall
- Lauffeuer
- 02-01-09
A Great Value
If you are looking for a science textbook (as some reviewers of Dr. Tyson's other book seem to be) this is not for you.
However, if you are looking for something enjoyable you can't wrong for the price Audible is offering this book for. It really is a steal at around, 5 dollars . . . I mean, Unabridged for less than 10? It is (as of this writing) more expensive to buy the real book!
There is little "advanced" science in this book (most of it you will likely know from middle school), so if you are looking for something to make you "Mr. Smart Pants" in front of your friends, again, not the book for you.
What you will find in it is a lot of history of science, comments on how we present science to the public, and observations on how the public views science. Dr. Tyson writes it all with wit and charm, which the narrator brings off with a degree of skill.
If you are looking to be entertained this audiobook is a good choice, and as a bonus you might even take away some new ideas on how information is presented.
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35 people found this helpful
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- Simone
- 08-27-14
Just as Expected
I only bought it because it was on sale for 2$ and I got my money’s worth. If you like pop-astronomy you’ll be interested; if you don’t, you won’t.
Over all it was dry, but because it was short it wasn’t so bad. Some boring parts, some interesting factoids….
I don’t have a whole lot to say on this one!
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2 people found this helpful
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- Amazon Customer
- 11-14-21
Highly informative & Compelling
I had no idea how interesting the current 90 years of awareness of Pluto: Celestial Body or Planet; could be. 4 hours of totally interesting information!
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- Tim
- 08-31-14
Blog on Pluto
I recently read Neil deGrasse Tyson's other book on Audible and found it fascinating. When I got the chance to buy "The Pluto Files" on sale, I was in joy. I find Dr. Tyson to be a genius. This book is more like a 4 hour lecture on why Pluto is not a planet. There is a lot of commentary from Tyson.and snippets of Pluto. If you are into astronomy, "The Pluto Files" is more like a personal blog from an astrophysicist.
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