Here's a review of two books I've read.
Paul J. Zak - The Moral Molecule - 2/5
He intended to draw a correlation between trust, happiness and morality; citing all could be increased with a single hormone - oxytocin. The first experiment called the 'Trust Game' involved using money to test morality - but alas this itself may fail because someone (or their parents) who is filthy rich may not play the game right, ignoring the limitations of money and screw people over for the fun of it (taking into account that a number of volunteers were students of an ivy league alma mater).
It is highly doubtful though that a moral person can be a happy person, as a psychopath who gets a kick (happiness) from killing but is certainly not moral in the eyes of the society. A person who thinks twice about helping a stranger (trust) is not necessarily a bad person (immoral), he just wants to ensure the safety of himself as well taking measures from becoming a victim of fraud. However, high trust did correspond to high happiness (which was common in religious people, according to his rounds of experimentation) but it can be argued that this happiness (or high) is an illusion, as the spike increase in oxytocin can also be observed by those who have taken euphoric drugs like ecstasy.
A lukewarm attempt to simplify the morality in humans but alas contains many contradictions and gaping questions to the actual relationship between the hormone and morality per se - analogies and experiments seem to be too simplistic and appears to lack sound scientific principles.
Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow - The Grand Design - 4.5/5
The author deals with one of the biggest questions ever asked in three areas making cross-references between religious, philosophical as well as scientific methods; What is the meaning of life? Beginning with the the existence of free-will, the author traverses into the realm of realities, alternate histories, Young's double slit experiment, particle physics, early-universe physics, apparent miracles (among other things) and last but not least, the Grand Design.
Whether or not THE answer is M-Theory or not, the author seemed to advocate and glossed over M-Theory and String Theory very much towards the middle of the book but did not give it a proper treatment that it deserves, given how the parameters were set up leading to this, at the end of the book.
The book is generally an easy read, partly because it uses everyday examples to explain convoluted scientific principles, and partly due to (rather) simple language. You'll also learn a lot from this book whether your field of expertise is quantum physics or not (though for the former, this would more likely be basics refresher - a 101 of sorts).
