The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III

For my science class, I had to read a biography of a scientist or philosopher of science. At first I thought I'd read up on Kant or Descartes (the former so I might be able to actually understand what he's talking about if I ever read his stuff again, and the latter because I think he's kinda cool). However, when thinking about some more I could do, in case those two were taken, it hit me: Hugh Everett III! I have been a big fan of the Eels for a few years now, and I've also been into the many worlds interpretation of quantum mechanics. So it blew my mind to realize that the two were connected. Mark Oliver Everett, the man behind Eels, is the son of Hugh Everett III, the man who put forth the idea that quantum mechanics actually provides a basis for the belief in parallel universes.

So I picked up the book The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III: Multiple Universes, Mutual Assured Destruction, and the Meltdown of a Nuclear Family, by Peter Byrne. This book was put together from numerous sources, the biggest of which was the collection of papers, letters, manuscripts, notes, etc. in Mark Everett's basement--a collection he never really looked into until 2007. As such, there are tons of great facts in the book, and a lot of nice insights into Hugh's life.

But...there are quite a few problems I have with this book. First off, there is far too much physics jargon. I would be fine with that normally, but I was supposed to write a paper about his life, not solely about the science he worked with. There was far too much detail about that, and practically only a tenth of it was devoted to his family life. The other big issue was that he didn't give dates all the time. His footnotes are replete with dates for his sources, but I had a huge problem finding out when Hugh's daughter, Elizabeth, was born. I had to find it in Mark's book, Things the Grandchildren Should Know. It's 1957, by the way. Now that I think about it, I could have just used the line later when Byrne says she committed suicide in 1996, after her 39th birthday, and did the math. But I really think it's ridiculous that he didn't explicitly say that, when he gave the exact date of birth for Mark.

And he jumps around. A lot. He basically traces each idea he has through Hugh's life, usually starting around 1957. And this makes it really hard to grasp which things happened before other things, because then you're thinking about things that happened later in his life when you're going back to his early life, and then he brings you back to later, and then he won't tell you when something happened and you have to guess... I guess what I'm saying overall is that this book has really good information in it, but it's all in the wrong order.

Rating: 5/10

Galileo Goes to Jail and Other Myths about Science and Religion

Another book for school, but this time it's one for my science class. This book, like the title suggests, is about numerous myths surrounding the link between science and religion. Some of them are pretty broad, such as ones concerning the effect of Christianity on the birth of science, how Islam reacted to the influence of science, and how science hasn't necessarily secularized Western culture. But there are also some really interesting ones, such as the one it mentions on its cover (it is very likely that Galileo never spent a night in an actual jail because of that trial--and there is no evidence suggesting that he was ever tortured).

A lot of the myths are simply cases where the media or certain people have exaggerated things, and so the myth is loosely true. And that did annoy me sometimes. But overall, it did open my eyes to some cool facts about the history of science. I would definitely recommend this book to anyone and everyone, if only so these myths could finally die.

Rating: 7.4/10