General Knowledge

Books-general fun to read and have useful knowledge

 

 

Genome

Matt Ridley

• This book defines the 23 pairs of chromosomes in humans and the breakdown on what they are. It goes into the history of them, how they were found and what many of them do. Its an understandable read by most people if you try. A few times I needed to look at reference material to understand what the writers was trying to describe. But over all very interesting.

 

The Elegant Universe: Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage

Brian Green

(Also it had a video addition)

• This book provides a introduction to strings and super-string theory written by professor at Columbia University, theoretical physicist, mathematician, and string theorist. It covers classical physics and the conflicts of physics when relating to string theory. The books covers the definition of the standard model of General Relativity and Quantum Mechanics in a fun and understandable way. This book was adapted to a PBS special called “The Elegant Universe”, it was hosted by Brian Green as well, so if you see the show, you will get a general outline of what is in the book. But I would also recommended reading the book for a deeper understanding of what he is trying to define. Many of the thought experiments have real world connections and use easy to understand tools, it’s easy for the layman to understand the complicated ideas.

 

Cyberspies: The Secret History of Surveillance, Hacking, and Digital Espionage

Gordon Corera

• This book covers the history of the black arts of spies in the digital age. Much of what Corera covers can be documented in real world events, this is parts that I liked about the book. Some sections of the book would be hard to understand if you do not have knowledge in technology, but if you did a bit of research you would be able to grasp the fundamentals. It starts in the Second World War and finished in the present era of our current surveillance and hacking state. Much of what is defined in the book is done in a balanced and low biased thought processes, which is what I like about this book, it gives you the information and you make the final decision. Some of the information covered included Stuxnet, NSA spying of US citizens, UK GCHS as well and their spying on people. The book is a nice collection if you need to gather reference material or if you need to write up a security policy.