So I was reading the book while waiting for my
flight. I figured that was the best time to read it since the chairs in the
waiting lounge are not comfy so my sleeping tendencies will lessen and I still
haven’t slept properly and I would really want a good natural sleeping pill
(which was the book and I excuse myself for any offense taken since I
stereotype math books as boring).
This
book by Ian Stewart is pretty loud and wide at first and eventually thins down
to specific ideas and branches of interest. As far for my experience while
reading the book, it is somehow okay (it’s a shocker though) that he placed
very big and broad points on the first few chapters to guide the lay audiences.
However, those very sweet chapters were traps that would make you feel
comfortable with the book. Stewart tackled the simplest theories of biology
that could be learned from your high school days first and then he slowly
morphed the book into something critical and needy in the latter parts. And
there starts the real challenge, would you still want to read it through or
would you like to stop while the coast is clear?
I am
doing a review so I’d be brutally honest and I’d say just stop while it’s
early. Especially if you are looking for no-brainer reads, then this one is not
for you. As calm as Stewart presents the underlying facts, it is inevitable to
even encourage the lay audiences on how interesting a set of viruses are or how
magnificent it is that a flower is beautifully set at a certain angle (I mean
hey, do you really think ordinary people would be all over the bio stuff and be
all “knowy” and “questiony”? They’d probably just stare at you blankly and for
worst cases, maybe they’ll even punch you in the face :D). Now, if you want me
to be an optimistic-jolly-super-duper-ultra-positive, then I’d say you continue
reading the stuff. Trust me, I am a biology student and I never could’ve
enjoyed reading proteins and viruses making angles and forming icosahedral
casings (not sarcastic). Maybe really the book has been very technical unto how
mathematics got involved in biology (which I will point out later), however, if
you enjoy either mathematics or biology or both, then Stewart did a good fruit
salad out of them in this book. And you wouldn’t notice soon enough that you’ve
already finished the whole bowl. J
Stewart’s
style of writing is unique to him and I’d honor him for that. He writes his
points elegantly that you would not notice the mistakes that fast. Oh yes, I am
a newbie at this book reviewing thing and I am pointing out mistakes. I am
awesome like that. But nonetheless, yeah, I’ve found some mistakes which I
guess were totally right and not mistakes and I am just boastfully trying to
ruin the reputation of the book (so I am most probably saying nothing that
makes sense). First thing is that the transitions in the book between facts are
not synchronized. By synchronized, I mean those transitions which you could
probably predict the next thing happening since it was the repetitive manner of
the writer. Yes, those are the ones and in this book, I found groups of them.
By groups, I mean you cannot generalize them as one. Some may say that it would
suck to repeatedly know the pattern because everything else will then become
clichés, however, when you are writing an educational book, then I guess
clichés would be perfect because it acts as maps for the readers.
Next
thing I noticed about the book is that Stewart opens up topics but unconsciously
leaves some of them hanging. And leaving certain facts hanging could often be ambiguous
and confusing and that is a big no-no to the readers. He has this tendency to
associate facts to strengthen his points then suddenly leaves them in the air
while constantly shifting in between pacing. That about the planktonic life and
niches, he opened the topic about ecology and epidemiology then suddenly transitions
to another thing which is the Fibonacci’s model and even though he tried to
construct a valuable bridge in the transition, it is not enough to not mislead the
two concepts being mathematically driven and less scientifically.
The
last pointer for the book is that I noticed Stewart’s tough time on expounding
the biology part of the book. Yes, the mathematics part and how it is becoming
increasingly important in biology is good, maybe even better since that is
Stewart’s field. He wouldn’t have to elaborately explain the things since he
knows which words to pick to make the math sound interesting and cool (which
makes his discussion on mathematics if not superficial, then shallow; another
point to ponder). However, he picked maybe the wrong field to elaborate on
applied mathematics since biology as a whole is a very strong and firm science,
be it the fact that biology is wide and anchors on principles and theories. It
would be hard for him (which actually showed in the book) to grasp the concepts
as a true blood biologist would do and I could not give him credit for
awesomeness when he discusses the biology part sloppily.
Nevertheless, this book is a great read for
those intelligence-seekers. I’d still suggest this book to be read especially
for those who are interested and are taking up applied mathematics. This book
for them would not be hassle considering that they’d be focused more on the
mathematical implications on biology. On the contrary, I would not dare suggest
this book for biology enthusiasts (in fact, those who are very critical) since
they’d only be offended on how biology was presented on bullet forms (that was a
metaphor, uhm, yeah).
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