Tag Archives: science

The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs (2018) by Steve Brusatte

Posted on August 1, 2022 by Jeroen Admiraal

Before there was fantasy and science fiction, before there was literature, before there were learned gentlemen, before there was agriculture, before there were humans, before there were freaking capuchin monkeys, before there was grass, before there were, in some cases, … Continue reading →

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Contingency and Convergence: Toward a Cosmic Biology of Body and Mind (2020), by Russell Powell

Posted on June 20, 2022 by Jeroen Admiraal

Behind the abstract title and the stuffy academic cover of this book lies a world of deep thought and wonder. Written by one person, Rachell Powell (formerly Russell as it still says on the cover), a book like this is … Continue reading →

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Peter Godfrey-Smith – Other Minds: The Octopus and the Evolution of Intelligent Life (2017) Review

Posted on November 21, 2018 by Jeroen Admiraal

The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. The fact that the octopus shows any kind of intelligence has implications on a cosmic level. First, you have to realize that the octopus is incredibly far … Continue reading →

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Max Tegmark – Life 3.0 (2017) Review

Posted on September 3, 2018 by Jeroen Admiraal

The decades after WW2, the 1950s and 1960s, was a time when many people found themselves rather stunned by the leaps of technological achievement and the rapid changes in society that had taken place. First there was radio, television, automobiles, … Continue reading →

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Daniel C. Dennett – From Bacteria To Bach and Back; The Evolution of Minds (2017) Review

Posted on August 13, 2018 by Jeroen Admiraal

Alright, this is going to be long. Daniel Dennett talks in this work about the things that he has always talked about, namely, about the nature of consciousness. And for him the word nature has a strong meaning. It means … Continue reading →

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Peter Watts – Blindsight (2006) Review

Posted on June 20, 2018 by Jeroen Admiraal

9.5/10 Time for a reread of Peter Watts’ Blindsight. Ever since I discovered this novel a few years ago and rushed through it at a feverish pace within hours, I’ve had a fascination for it. Dense, mind-boggling, cutting-edge, horrifyingly bleak, … Continue reading →

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Steven Pinker – Enlightenment Now (2018) Review

Posted on March 12, 2018 by Jeroen Admiraal

“My attempt is to restate the ideals of the Enlightenment in the language and concepts of the 21st century.” That’s Steven Pinker’s own stated goal for this book, which is sort of a sequel to his highly appreciated book The … Continue reading →

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Tim Birkhead – Bird Sense; What It’s Like to Be a Bird (2012) Review

Posted on April 20, 2017 by Jeroen Admiraal

When I studied biology in the 2000s as an undergraduate at Leiden University, the first course I ever had was about Behavioral Biology. In it, our professor urged us to think about animals as black boxes, with input of the … Continue reading →

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Lo and Behold, Reveries of the Connected World (2016)

Posted on January 5, 2017 by Jeroen Admiraal

7.0/10 The first message ever sent between two computers across a great distance was meant to be: “log”. But after computer A sent the “l” and the “o”, computer B crashed. Thus, the first message ever sent across the internet … Continue reading →

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Blog update: I survived my PhD defense.

Posted on December 5, 2016 by Jeroen Admiraal

Last week I had the privilege to defend my thesis and obtain my PhD degree. I haven’t had any peace of mind to write new book reviews or to concentrate on new movies. But that will come back in the … Continue reading →

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