Nothing About The Bakken -- Beach Books This Summer, Including John Hands CosmoSapiens -- May 20, 2016

Don't look for any new posts for several hours.

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My Book To Take To The Beach This Summer

Cosmosapiens. Or Cosmos Sapiens. It is written both ways on the jacket -- front and spine. Author: John Hands. Copyright 2015 by John Hands, but first published in hardcover in 2016.

A must-read for any high school graduate on her way to a major in chemistry, biology, anthropology, pre-med, or philosophy this next year. 

Wow. Six hundred pages.

Great, great summary of where we stand with regard to:

• the origin of the universe 
• the formation of 95 naturally occurring elements
• the emergency of life on earth
• understanding the fossil record
• the taxonomy of all living organisms on earth
• the evolution of humans
• behavioral evolution
• evolution of human consciousness

The author states at the outset, at the end of chapter 1, which could have been prologue, or introduction:

Any investigation is heavily influenced by prior beliefs. I was born and educated a Catholic, became an atheist, and am now an agnostic. I have no prior beliefs in theism, deism, or materialism. I genuinely do not know. And that is part of the excitement of embarking on this question to discover from scientific evidence just what we are and may become. I invite readers with an open mind to join me on this quest.

That was on page four.

On page 582, the first of 39 conclusions:

It is almost certain that the empirical discipline of science will never be able to explain the origin of the matter and energy of which we consist.

If there is any "hole" in the book, it appears to be with regard to "energy," ATP, redox -- and any reference to Nick Lane.  

It appears the author gets as close to metaphysics as possible without crossing over. Is "metaphysics" in the index? Yes, "metaphysical questions," 91 - 3, 579; and, "metaphysics," 498, 503, 544.
 
Then follows "Notes," from page 588 to 616.

Then follows "Bibliography," from pages 617 to 627.

Then follows a glossary, pages 628 to 645.

Illustrative credits are provided in the next two pages.

The index extends from page 648 to 674.

Authors in the bibliography that give me particular "joy" (again, with 20 entries on each of 11 pages, there are about 200 authors cited):

• Karen Armstrong, The Great Transformation: The World in the Time of Buddha, Socrates, Confucius and Jeremiah, 2006
• Michael J Behe, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution, 1996
• A G Cairns-Smith, Seven Clues to the Origin of Life: A Scientific Detective Story, 1985
• Stephen Jay Gould, multiple publications
• John R Gribbin, Deep Simplicity: Chaos, Complexity and the Emergence of Life, c. 2004
• Desmond Morris, The Illustrated Naked Ape: A Zoologist's Study of the Human Animal, c. 1986
• Simon Singh, Big Bang: The Most Important Scientific Discovery of All Time and Why You Need To Know About It, c. 2004
• James D Watson and Gunter S Stent, The Double Helix: A Personal Account of the Discovery of the Structure of DNA, c. 1980