Science Semester: Book Reading and Discussion Group
Next session: Tuesday, May 20, 2025 | 1:30pm-3:30pm
Details:
Third Tuesdays of Each Month January-June, 1:30-3:30 pm
The Science Semester led by Steven Skalak, is a participatory reading and discussion group with an active exchange of ideas and reactions to our books on various scientific topics. The group will follow the basic book group format of reading the book followed by a discussion meeting at which participants can share their reactions and own life experience as it relates to the topic. Participants are expected to acquire their own reading materials, list of required material below.
The next group of books will focus on the diverse but nevertheless interrelated topics of human evolution, the mechanics of the oceans, the science involved in modern agriculture, our changing atmosphere and profound mathematical and scientific ideas. Please see below for the scheduled monthly readings:
- May 20th - When Einstein Walked with Godel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt
- June 17th - Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne
A brief overview of each selected book follows below.
When Einstein Walked with Godel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought by Jim Holt - May 20th
From Jim Holt, the New York Times bestselling author of Why Does the World Exist?, comes an entertaining and accessible guide to the most profound scientific and mathematical ideas of recent centuries in When Einstein Walked with Gödel: Excursions to the Edge of Thought.
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. Holt offers a painless and playful introduction to many of our most beautiful but least understood ideas, from Einsteinian relativity to string theory, and also invites us to consider why the greatest logician of the twentieth century believed the U.S. Constitution contained a terrible contradiction―and whether the universe truly has a future.
Why Evolution is True by Jerry Coyne - June 17th
"Coyne's knowledge of evolutionary biology is prodigious, his deployment of it as masterful as his touch is light." -Richard Dawkins
In the current debate about creationism and intelligent design, there is an element of the controversy that is rarely mentioned-the evidence. Yet the proof of evolution by natural selection is vast, varied, and magnificent. In this succinct and accessible summary of the facts supporting the theory of natural selection, Jerry A. Coyne dispels common misunderstandings and fears about evolution and clearly confirms the scientific truth that supports this amazing process of change. Weaving together the many threads of modern work in genetics, paleontology, geology, molecular biology, and anatomy that demonstrate the "indelible stamp" of the processes first proposed by Darwin, Why Evolution Is True does not aim to prove creationism wrong. Rather, by using irrefutable evidence, it sets out to prove evolution right.
Free and open to Center members.
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This program is in partnership with the Charlottesville Newcomers Club.
Members only.
Location:
The Center