A Pop Science Starter Kit!

[@vesch5083]

I love starter kits

[@ReadBecca]

Several of these I haven't heard of before and definitely need to get on my tbr, as my science literacy/education is sorely lacking. Thanks for putting this together.

[@michaelbaki]

Some further reading. The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Birth of Modern Geology by Simon Winchester. The Hunt for Planet X: New Worlds and the Fate of Pluto by Govert Schilling.

[@mdavidmullins]

Great video! I like these starter kits.

[@diamonddavewonfor]

I'd really like to hear more regarding your closing comments about biology books being religious.

[@skjoldursvarturskikkjan7860]

He's talking about two things I think: either ultra-left gender ideology distorting biology, like saying there's no biological difference between men and women when it comes to upper body strength, or neuroscientists who say they are atheists but when writing about the mind end up talking about ghosts, they don't call it "soul" instead the use fancy philosophical words, but the concept is the same at its core. This is nothing new, in the past the ultra-right used biology to justify religious views, and before we acquired a complete chemical explanation of life you could see many writers bringing up ghosts when talking about life (Darwin himself mentions a "divine breath" in The Origin of Species). We still don't have a complete chemical model of the mind, so it you can see many people ending up talking about ghosts when the subject is brought up, even atheist scientists.

[@kevlee57]

I would like to hear about the religious biology books too. Come on Mr. Donoghue, open up that can of worms!

[@skjoldursvarturskikkjan7860]

You know what would be great? A Landmark Edition of Darwin.

[@saintdonoghue]

That's a fantastic idea! Not all of Darwin (he spent the last 40 years of his life going between the same easy chair and the same garden, after all), but a Landmark "Voyage of the Beagle" with tons of pictures and other illustrations would be wonderful.

[@readwritecollage]

This is a great starter kit. I found that I was interested in reading all of them. It was especially nice to see a good starting point for Dawkins. It also served to remind me that I still haven’t read The Origin of Species in it’s entirety, and that should be corrected. I’m thinking maybe during Victober.

[@saintdonoghue]

Origin of Species for Victober is an INSPIRED choice!

[@geocraftsman]

There were multiple references to Venus in this video. I feel like you mention Venus a lot more than other planets, like Mars or Saturn or Jupiter... that's very Interesting to me, because I think about Venus a lot myself. Why is that planet so interesting? It's been many decades since it was thought to possibly contain life, and it's hardly more habitable than a gas giant.

[@saintdonoghue]

I think there are three main reasons Venus is so interesting: it's very close, it's very similar in size and therefore gravity to Earth, and the upper decks of its atmosphere could easily support vast floating human cities! One extra reason for me are the strong indications that it was once a lush Earth-style water world.

[@geocraftsman]

@@saintdonoghue that makes sense, though I suppose Mars could also have been a water world once as well. I have not heard about the floating cities concept, though. I should look that up.

[@saintdonoghue]

@@geocraftsman The floating cities would entirely work! They could be shielded from the planet's corrosive clouds, and ordinary human-breathable air would keep them afloat - and far away from the planet's hellish surface!

[@geocraftsman]

@@saintdonoghue That would be a fantastical thing. We'll see if humanity can survive long enough to do something like that.