Neighbour's Garden: Scientists of Liberal Arts Look Across the Science

Author: Tang Ren
Publisher: Shanghai Education Press
Book Description:
"The Neighbor's Garden—Scholars of the Humanities Look at the Other Side of Science" is a collection of essays on science and humanities, as well as philosophical short pieces. The author has recently read a great deal of popular science literature (mostly translated), feeling that Chinese scholars, especially those who have taken liberal arts, are constrained by the examination-oriented education system, leading to underdeveloped minds and inadequate intellectual nourishment, creating a significant gap between them and natural science. Over time, she has recorded some natural science knowledge that liberal arts scholars may not be familiar with or that shares "ontological similarity" with humanities knowledge, as well as insights from natural scientists about life and more about ways of thinking. The goal is to bridge the gap between social life and the way of thinking in the humanities, guiding liberal arts students to pay attention to science and humanities and appreciate the beauty of natural science. It is also hoped that this book will help in developing interdisciplinary thinking and in writing popular science essays and short articles.
"The Neighbor's Garden—Scholars of the Humanities Look at the Other Side of Science" covers disciplines such as astronomy, medicine, biology, physics, chemistry, mathematics, and psychology. It can be divided into five parts based on content: "Thinking About the View of Science," "Methods for Strengthening the Mind," "What You Don't Know," "The Art of Thinking of the Neighbor," and "Science, Literature, and Aesthetics." The author uniquely incorporates her own understanding and uses prose-style writing, imbued with humor and literary flair, making the work highly readable.
Author Biography: Tang Ren, female, born in 1946, is a professor at Guangxi University. She graduated from the Department of Chinese Language and Literature at Beijing Normal University in 1968. During her graduation practice, she worked as a coal washer, a hospital laundress, a cultural center staff member, and a secondary school teacher. Since 1986, she has been with Guangxi University. She has published literary essays and works of various genres in more than 60 provincial and above-level newspapers, totaling over 1.7 million words.
Table of Contents:
Thinking About the View of Science
How Big Is Science?
Excuse Me, Sir, Please Go Directly to the 62nd Floor
By the Fence of Rosemary
The Needham Question and "Watching Ants Climb Trees"
Instinct and Essence: Two Perspectives of Science
The Distance Between Myth and Science
Knowledge Changes Worldviews
Methods for Strengthening the Mind
Long-Lasting Nonsense
The Alternative Columbus
Imagining the Nanotechnology Era
The "Ancestor Return" Research Style
Humanity's Measles
Can Quarks Eat?
The Ugly "Two-Legged" Creature
Civilization Must Also "Push People Inward"
Starting from "Folk Song·Folk Dance"
What You Don't Know
"I Have a Trillion Lives"
"You're Too Academic!"
"Next Class, Natural Science Appreciation!"
You Can't Even Answer the Questions I Had When I Was Six
The Portable Meme Library
The Virtual Hero: High-Tech Entertainment and Its Dangers
Dear, Be My Moon
Ontological Similarity
Protecting the Forest by Starting a Fire
Advising with a Diagnosis
The Danger of Complete Understanding
Emotional Chemistry
Genes Don't Count
UFO for Those Who Think About Hobbies
Strength Has Its Difficulties
The Brain That Secretes "Forgetfulness"
Singularity: The Killer of Life's Vitality
Biological Gene Pool and Conceptual Gene Pool
The Debate Over "Transgenic Athletes"
The Art of Thinking of the Neighbor
Scholars and Quantitative Thinking
Metaphorical Thinking vs. Digital Thinking
We Are Built to Make Mistakes
Sense of Scale
Blood "Fractionation" and Day Laborers
New Darwinist Research Thinking
Reversing Cause and Effect
Finding Grain for an Empty Pot
The "Division" of Rational Analysis
Do You Know Which Cloud Has Rain
If Potatoes Could Speak
Blind Men Touching an Elephant: A Normal Process of Understanding
The "Ant Touching Antennae" Spirit of Academic Platforms
Science, Literature, and Aesthetics
Have You Ever Seen Stars Written This Way?
My Cute Little Sprites
The Path to Hidden Beauty and Genetic Impulse
Fabre and the Nobel Prize in Literature
Eight Selves: A Reasonable Small Number
The Joy of Mathematical and Logical Expressions
Memory and Instinct
Unknown Birds Singing
"Harry Potter" "Seriously Deviates from Modern Science"?
Dawkins' "Meme" and Kundera's "The Unbearable Lightness of Being"
Afterword