Martin GardnerRessenyes

What a disappointment.

I've adored Martin Gardner since I first picked up "The Annotated Alice", and he was a one-of-a-kind historian, raconteur, critic, and general pioneer of common sense and rational thinking. I was also amazed, given he was very old at the time of writing this book, to think that he had it in him.

Instead, what I soon learned was that this book was clearly put together from essays, reviews, articles, and other miscellanea previously written. Which is fine, in and of itself. Malcolm Gladwell does the same thing. However in this case, most of these articles just don't work in this context.

Take, for instance, his chapter on the possibilities of extinction by meteor -- it falls off into a film critique of two Hollywood blockbusters! And not even a critique of the science, just of his dislike for the films in general! These may have worked in a weekly newspaper column or some such, but don't have the coherence and sting to be a major chapter in a book. By a similar notion, some of the articles that debunk or analyse heavy physics do so without providing enough information to the layman. Evidently they were first written for scientific magazines that catered to a more niche crowd.

Some chapters, even worse, don't "debunk" at all, as the title claims. Gardner just explains the issue at heart, and then maybe gives a brief precis of why people do it. His chapter on cult suicides is admittedly a tough example, since explaining that kind of situation is a complex debate. However, Gardner neither explains nor debunks. He effectively just recounts what happens, without looking at the science or psychology of cult worship and leadership, nor really debunking (beyond the obvious "it's ridiculous) the theories those people held.

I won't hold this against the memory of the late Mr. Gardner, since he was a remarkable man. But this book shouldn't have seen the light of day.

Gardner was always interesting for the way he explained concepts.

Il libro di Gardner come molti libri dedicati ai giochi matematici ha il peccato di fondo di essere poco leggibile. E probabilmente questo tipo di libri andrebbero affrontati a capitoli, spezzati, letti ad intermittenza, enigma per enigma, paradosso per paradosso. E così la lettura diventa ostica e non riesco a portarla a fondo, mi blocco, mi sospendo, e alla fine mi arrendo. Ma il giudizio di fondo non è negativo, le pagine lette sono interessanti ed intriganti, se un giorno avrò il tempo di approfondire questi temi, il libro va bene, benissimo. Ma non è un libro da lettura e, quindi, va contro le mie abitudini di leggere i libri in ordine.

¿Se pueden curar las enfermedades bebiendo la propia orina? Cuestiones risibles como éstas parecen ocupar las mentes de millones de personas día tras día, como si la gente estuviera hambrienta de cualquier migaja de conocimiento que se dé aires de ciencia y quisiera adoptar teorías que sólo provocan miedo y asombro. Sin embargo, estas ideas, por ridículas que parezcan, encuentran acogida en las tribunas de comunicación pública y muchas veces se convierten en temas de información respetables que no tardan en considerarse verdades. Eso dice Martin Gardner en este divertido y provocativo libro. Gardner, posiblemente el más ingenioso desenmascarador de fraudes científicos de nuestra época, hace uso de sus décadas de experiencia para desbaratar las proclamaciones de la Nueva Era y las investigaciones dudosas de eminentes científicos. Afrontando las máximas de la seudociencia con una mirada aguda y escéptica, ¿Tenían ombligo Adán y Eva? desenmascara afirmaciones engañosas en toda clase de campos, y reflexiona sobre cuestiones tan diversas como los suicidios de la secta Puerta del Cielo y el interés de algún senador norteamericano por lo paranormal.

Un extraordinario estudio dentro de la divulgación científica, ya clásico en el tema. Gardner reconoce que fue motivado por cuanto lo que se estimaba un principio apodíctico, la total simetría de la naturaleza, quedó caduco al descubrirse la violación del principio de paridad con la comprobación de alguna asimetría fundamental. Pero luego de publicado el libro, también hubo de variar algún concepto que Gardner consideraba inmodificable, como la invariancia de la simetría temporal, la que también resultó violada. El análisis de la simetría (espejos, cuerpos humanos, cristales, moléculas y muchos ejemplos más) lleva a cuestiones que más que científicas son cuasifilosóficas, como las flechas del tiempo,la cuarta dimensión o los mundos crono-retrógrados. Imprescindible para quienes quieren conocer algunos de los principios fundamentales del universo.

Es imprescindible tener una "visión ecológica" de la prehistoria de la humanidad para poder demostrar que la evolución del hombre es dirigida por su entorno. El libro explica este proceso de adaptación cultural y biológica del hombre desde la prehistoria pasando por la aparición de la agricultura hasta la civilización moderna. ¿Es posible continuar explotando irreflexivamente los recursos de la Tierra?. El autor responde puntualmente a esta pregunta a la vez que describe con rigor científico y sin falsos alarmismos el endeudamiento del hombre con la naturaleza y sus recursos imitados. La solución al problema parece que es más política que técnica. Bernard Campbell es licenciado en zoología, botánica y química por la Universidad de Cambridge. Se especializó en antropología, y es catedrático de esta especialidad en la Universidad de California. Autor de muchos libros de antropología, entre los que destacan Humankind Emerging (la aparición de la humanidad) y Human Evolution (Evolución humana).

Biblioteca Científica Salvat

7/9/22

7/9/22

I never in my wildest dreams thought I would ever abort a Martin Gardner book. This book, however, proved untenable for me. It was rambling and boring. I could not get engaged with a subject that should be engaging. Perhaps he should have hired a ghost writer; he was very close to his death when he finished this, and perhaps he wasn't everything he used to be.½

Dated, but I enjoyed thinking about the puzzles as I read them. Each chapter was originally published as a column in a magazine, and the author added a few paragraphs describing the responses he received, as well as the answers to the puzzles.

A bit drier than Gardner’s other writings, this is more of a recount of Carroll’s books, letters and notes focusing on games and mathematical recreations than Gardner’s usual, insightful analyses, but it is one I had not read yet.

Gardner said of his Annotated Alice: “It occurred to me some 35 years ago that it was impossible for an American reader today, so far removed from Victorian England in both time and space, to appreciate fully the hundreds of hidden jokes in the Alice books without the aid of footnotes.”

And predating Douglas Adam’s and the 42 tropeAs we shall see, 42 had for Carroll some sort of special significance. […] Carroll was […] of Tuesdays, and of the number 42. When the Baker (Fit 1) comes aboard the ship, he leaves on the beach 42 carefully packed boxes with his name "painted clearly on each." According to the third Fit, stanza five, the Baker is in his early forties. It has been suggested that the Baker represents Carroll himself, who was 42 when he began writing the ballad. The 42 boxes are the 42 years he left behind when his imagination joined the ship's crew. A Rule 42 is cited in the book's Preface. In the first Alice book, during the farcical trial of the Knave of Hearts, the King invokes Rule 42. The number enters Carroll's writing in many other places, but no one knows just why.

Gardner always amazed me with his access to so much material that was not generally available (especially pre-Internet)… I thought one share interesting: “How does a doll know that a hand which came off was her right hand? Because the other hand was left. (I failed to note in which letter I came across this.)” A admission of a rare non-documentation on the part of Gardner.

First read this as a library book in the late 60s as a child. Lucid and exciting.

Indeholder "Indledning", "1. De fem platoniske legemer"; "2. Tetraflexagoner", "3. Henry Ernest Dudeney, Englands problemkonge"; "4. Talrødder", "5. Ni problemer"; "6. Soma-kuben", "7. Topologisk afslapning", "8. Phi: Det gyldne snit", "9. Aben og kokosnødderne", "10. Labyrinter", "11. Underholdende logik", "12. Magiske kvadrater", "13. Det tossede Tivoli", "14. Endnu ni problemer", "15. Eleusis: Et induktions-spil", "16. Origami"; "17. Kvadratets kvadrering", "18. Mekaniske puslerier", "19. Sandsynlighed og flertydighed"; "20. Mystiske Mr. Matrix", "Litteraturfortegnelse".

Glimrende og inspirerende samling af artikler fra Scientific American.

In occasione del centesimo anniversario della nascita di Martin Gardner ho scoperto che c'era ancora un suo libretto che non avevo mai visto, e che era stato ristampato qualche anno fa da quei benemeriti della Dover. Inutile dire che me lo sono preso subito.
Il libro raccoglie un'ottantina di trucchi "magici" che in realtà sfruttano principi scientifici, di solito fisici. Forse alcuni di essi sono un po' datati (dove troviamo oggi delle scatole di cerini, per esempio?) ma il loro bello è che sono tutti molto semplici da eseguire, e probabilmente sarebbero un ottimo complemento per gli insegnanti di scienze delle medie, che potranno stupire i loro studenti con effetti speciali. Poi il prezzo del libro è davvero irrisorio, e vorreste forse perdere un libro di Martin Gardner?

essays from Skeptical Inquirer

kind of boring mostly. of course I'm not really into science.

Bonkers, of course. What a wonderful book. Just browse the massive index, and you'll see what I'm talking about.

Setrata de un libro antiguo pero a pesar de todo imprescindible. Trata de la pelea de todos los dias de ciencia contra pseudociencia o peor aún contra la intransigencia. Hoy nos rebelamos contra creacionismos, negacionismos, terraplanismos, homeópatas, ... y nos escandaliza que estas corrientes puedan tener la más mínimatrascendencia cultural. En este libro veremos como en los setenta la pelea eran los dobla-cucharas de Uri Geller, mediums, clarividentes, percepción extrasensorial, ovnis, ... Puede causarnos risa, pero en su momento tenían el poderío de nuestros demonios actuales. Sinceramente, un libro de obligada lectura, de los que el tiempo no envejece, ...½

Do other users have this problem? You pick up a book to enter it into Library Thing, and then just take a peek inside. An hour later you finally tear yourself away and finish the entry. That happens with a lot of my books, and this is one of them.

Colección de ensayos y recensiones de libros que versan sobre los más diversos temas, desde la simetría izquierda-derecha hasta la creatividad de los genios, pasando por las paradojas lógicas. Martin Gardner es un filósofo, nadie lo duda, y comparto con él todas sus aficiones intelectuales. En el libro encontramos además, acertijos, juegos matemáticos, e incluso disquisiciones sobre la Relatividad. Gran libro.

Maravilloso libro. Recuerdo haber devorado este libro a los 14 años. Recuerdo mi asombro al aprender sobre el hotel de Hilbert, que con sus infinitas habitaciones llenas de huéspedes era capaz de admitir a un huésped más (cada huésped en la habitación n pasa a la habitación n 1 y el huésped nuevo se queda con la habitación 1) e incluso admitía a infinitos huéspedes cuando las infinitas habitaciones estaban llenas (cada huésped de la habitacion n pasa a la 2n y quedan libres las infinitas habitaciones impares). Fue un descubrimiento, lo leí entero en la casa de la cultura de mi pueblo un día que me colé en la biblioteca porque me aburría. Grandísima introduccción a las matemáticas y al pensamiento abstracto.

Compendio de juegos, artículos, pasatiempos, curiosidades y chistes relacionados con las matemáticas. Totalmente adictivo, excepto un capítulo sobre variaciones y otro sobre Cantor que son bastante abstrusos. EN general muy bien, y es para todo el mundo. Me ha gustado.

I stumbled across a reference to this book in a thread somewhere about teaching digital logic. I teach a digital systems class and my students struggle with the laws and theorems of Boolean algebra, so I borrowed a copy of this book from my library in search of some inspiration.

The contents of this book are all about how people have built logic machines in the past (and, I suppose, if it were still 40 years ago, in the present as well). As I am not a philosopher or a mathematician but an engineer, I did not realize the extent to which people attempted to solve non-binary-type problems using logic. Apparently Boole was not taken very seriously because he attempted to form logic laws for binary-type problems and attempted to systematize the rules into algebraic concepts. I suppose he gets the last laugh, considering that's how all of modern computing works.

I can't say that this book gave me any advice or inspiration for how to teach digital logic to a bunch of 18-year-olds, but it was certainly an interesting look into the past and how people attempted to find truth.

This was really unsuitable for me. I thought it might be more interesting than its length would indicate, because of the author. But really, it wasn't worth the interlibrary loan. There is a brief appendix that tries to explain Archimedes principle (of buoyancy). Better than you would find in a typical biography of this length.