The Big Thirst
Praised as "an entertaining and torrential flow of a book" by Nature magazine, The Big Thirst is a startling examination of the passing of the golden age of water and the shocking facts about how water scarcity will s
The Tell-Tale Brain
In this landmark work, V. S. Ramachandran investigates strange, unforgettable cases--from patients who believe they are dead to sufferers of phantom limb syndrome. With a storyteller's eye for compelling case studies and a researcher's flair for new approaches to age-old questions, Ramachandran tackles the most exciting and controversial topics in brain science, including language, creativity, and consciousness.
Neurogastronomy
Leading neuroscientist Gordon M. Shepherd embarks on a paradigm-shifting trip through the "human brain flavor system," laying the foundations for a new scientific field: neurogastronomy. Challenging the belief that the sense of smell diminished during human evolution, Shepherd argues that this sense, which constitutes the main component of flavor, is far more powerful and essential than previously believed.Shepherd begins Neurogastronomy with the mechanics of smell, particularly the way it stimulates the nose from the back of the mouth. As we eat, the brain conceptualizes smells as spatial patterns, and from these and the other senses it constructs the perception of flavor. Shepherd then considers the impact of the flavor system on contemporary social, behavioral, and medical issues. He analyzes flavor's engagement with the brain regions that control emotion, food preferences, and cravings, and he even devotes a section to food's role in drug addiction and, building on Marcel Proust's iconic tale of the madeleine, its ability to evoke deep memories.Shepherd connects his research to trends in nutrition, dieting, and obesity, especially the challenges that many face in eating healthily. He concludes with human perceptions of smell and flavor and their relationship to the neural basis of consciousness. Everyone from casual diners and ardent foodies to wine critics, chefs, scholars, and researchers will delight in Shepherd's fascinating, scientific-gastronomic adventures.
Mini Weapons of Mass Destruction
If you're a budding spy, what better way to conceal your clandestine activities than to miniaturize your secret agent arsenal? MiniWeapons of Mass Destruction 2 provides fully illustrated step-by-step instructions for building 30 different spy weapons and surveillance tools, including: * Paper Dart Watch * Pen Blowgun* Rubber Band Derringer * Mint Tin Catapult* Pushpin Dart * Cotton Swab .38 Special* Toothpaste Periscope * Paper Throwing Star* Bionic Ear * And more!Once you've assembled your weaponry, the author provides a number of ideas on how to hide your stash--inside a deck of cards, a false-bottom soda bottle, or a cereal box briefcase--and targets for practicing your spycraft, including a flip-down firing range, a fake security camera, and sharks with laser beams.
Essential Skills for Science and Technology
The essential guide for any student embarking on their studies in the sciences or technology, this book introduces the core academic skills students need to learn effectively in this area and to prepare them for success in their (science) university science studies. It focuses on three key skills areas: research, argumentation and critical analysis; quantitative methods; and the conventions of written and oral communication. It explains how to read scientific literature and understand its different language style, terminology, data and argument analysis, and conflicting interpretations. The book also explains how to take data from a range of sources to help student's construct-or arrive at-their own perspective on a scientific issue and how to present and communicate it in both written and oral forms. It also explains in great detail the basic laws of mathematics for the basis to learning in any branch of science and can be used as a reference tool and source. Key topics include an introduction to tertiary study, e-learning and assessment; reading scientific literature, thinking and arguing critically; writing, researching and presenting and quantitative methods including fundamental mathematics, calculus, problem solving and statistics. Focused on step-by-step skills development, this book aims to help readers become better students who are more likely to succeed in their science studies.
Wednesday Is Indigo Blue
How the extraordinary multisensory phenomenon of synesthesia has changed our traditional view of the brain.A person with synesthesia might feel the flavor of food on her fingertips, sense the letter "J" as shimmering magenta or the number "5" as emerald green, hear and taste her husband's voice as buttery golden brown. Synesthetes rarely talk about their peculiar sensory gift--believing either that everyone else senses the world exactly as they do, or that no one else does. Yet synesthesia occurs in one in twenty people, and is even more common among artists. One famous synesthete was novelist Vladimir Nabokov, who insisted as a toddler that the colors on his wooden alphabet blocks were "all wrong." His mother understood exactly what he meant because she, too, had synesthesia. Nabokov's son Dmitri, who recounts this tale in the afterword to this book, is also a synesthete--further illustrating how synesthesia runs in families. In Wednesday Is Indigo Blue, pioneering researcher Richard Cytowic and distinguished neuroscientist David Eagleman explain the neuroscience and genetics behind synesthesia's multisensory experiences. Because synesthesia contradicted existing theory, Cytowic spent twenty years persuading colleagues that it was a real--and important--brain phenomenon rather than a mere curiosity. Today scientists in fifteen countries are exploring synesthesia and how it is changing the traditional view of how the brain works. Cytowic and Eagleman argue that perception is already multisensory, though for most of us its multiple dimensions exist beyond the reach of consciousness. Reality, they point out, is more subjective than most people realize. No mere curiosity, synesthesia is a window on the mind and brain, highlighting the amazing differences in the way people see the world.
The Moral Landscape
New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris's first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people--from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists--agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith. In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false--and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our "culture wars," Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.
The Neurotourist
Discover the true heart of humanity: the brain Acclaimed journalist and intrepid brain "explorer" Lone Frank embarks on an incredible adventure to the frontiers of neuroscience to reveal how today's top scientists are reinventing human nature, morality, happiness, health, and reality itself. Interlacing bizarre experiments, cutting-edge science, and irreverent interviews, The Neurotourist is an odyssey through the mind-bending revolution underway in the new age of the brain.
The Primary Source
Tropical forests form the most diverse and complex ecosystem on earth--a virtual powerhouse of evolution--containing 40 percent of all living species. They provide us with food, medicines, germplasm stocks to replenish our crops, and new types of energy sources. It is clear we cannot afford to lose our tropical forests. But we are losing them--to the overexploitation of multinational corporations, to the severe economic needs of the Third World, and to the consumerist appetites of the developed nations. Where is this happening and why? The answers to these critical questions are set forth eloquently by Norman Myers, one of the world's leading experts on the environment and the author of The Long African Day, The Sinking Ark, and A Wealth of Species. Dr. Myers delineates the scope of the problem and offers a blueprint for its solution.
Mama Poc
Every day some species of plant or animal on our planet becomes extinct. In Mama Poc, the bestselling author of Woodswoman and Beyond Black Bear Lake relates her own attempts to halt the decline of a single species of bird found only in Guatemala. The giant grebe, a flightless bird living on mile-deep Lake Atitlan, came to LaBastille's attention in 1964. Her population count revealed that a mere eighty-two birds remained. Over the course of twenty-five years, Anne LaBastille made the cause of the giant grebe her own. This is the story of her life in Guatemala, observing the birds and working to reclaim their habitat and--against odds that turned out to be overwhelming--give them a future.
Theo Gray's Mad Science
Author of the best-selling book The Elements Theodore Gray demonstrates essential scientific principles through thrilling daredevil experiments. In Mad Science, Theodore Gray launches a toy rocket using the energy released from an Oreo cookie, ignites a phosphorus sun by suspending half a gram of white phosphorus in a globe filled with pure oxygen and creates a homemade hot tub by adding 500 pounds of quicklime to water. These are just a few of the 54 experiments included in this astonishing book that demonstrates essential scientific principles in ways you were likely never exposed to in school. Every experiment in Mad Science is accompanied by full-color photographs that provide a front-row seat to rarely seen chemical reactions and glorious subatomic activity. To further enhance the hands-on experience, Gray includes step-by-step instructions for nearly every experiment. Following all of the safety guidelines, readers can even re-create some of the experiments in the book. Mad Science is the perfect book for anyone fascinated by all things chemical, electrical, or explosive, and who loves a vicarious thrill.
The Nature of New Hampshire
This illuminating and instructive book explores New Hampshire's stunning mosaic of natural communities. In photos, drawings, and accessible text, The Nature of New Hampshire takes you on a tour of landscapes as varied as alpine meadows, tidal marshes, riverbanks, forests, ponds, dunes, and cliffs. Readers will gain a new understanding and appreciation for the state's exceptional natural heritage. Natural communities are recurring associations of plants and animals found in particular physical environments. They are the dynamic habitats in which native species live. Based on more than twenty years of ecological research, the New Hampshire Natural Heritage Bureau developed the classification of the nearly 200 natural community types presented in this essential guide. The communities are organized into eight categories: alpine and subalpine, rocky ground, forests, peatlands, swamps, marshes, river channels and floodplains, and seacoast. With gorgeous photographs, informative text, and recommended places to visit, The Nature of New Hampshire provides an important common language for conservation planning and informed land stewardship. Whether used as a field guide or an at-home resource, this book will help readers reconnect with their surroundings, and understand the places they value.
The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun
The wildly popular DIY dad follows up his instant New York Times bestseller with a fresh batch of geeky weekend science projects for the whole family to enjoy. Ken Denmead struck a chord with parents and kids across America with his GeekDad blog on Wired.com, which receives more than one million page views per month. His debut book, Geek Dad, was on bestseller lists and in its seventh printing just two months after hitting store shelves. With The Geek Dad's Guide to Weekend Fun, he keeps the nerdtastic novelties coming, with projects that teach readers how to: -Build homemade robots from scratch -Write and direct simple stop-motion movies -Hack into mechanical toys to add cool electronic twists, and more United by the premise that to really understand science and how something works you must design and build it yourself or remake it better, Geek Parents everywhere will celebrate this latest installment of weekend workshop wonders. Watch a Video
The Fall and Rise of the Wetlands of California’s Great Central Valley
This is the first comprehensive environmental history of California's Great Central Valley, where extensive freshwater and tidal wetlands once provided critical habitat for tens of millions of migratory waterfowl. Weaving together ecology, grassroots politics, and public policy, Philip Garone tells how California's wetlands were nearly obliterated by vast irrigation and reclamation projects, but have been brought back from the brink of total destruction by the organized efforts of duck hunters, whistle-blowing scientists, and a broad coalition of conservationists. Garone examines the many demands that have been made on the Valley's natural resources, especially by large-scale agriculture, and traces the unforeseen ecological consequences of our unrestrained manipulation of nature. He also investigates changing public and scientific attitudes that are now ushering in an era of unprecedented protection for wildlife and wetlands in California and the nation.
The Archetypal Cosmos
A new understanding of the role of myth and archetypal principles in our lives, based on the insights of a new cosmology. The modern world is passing through a time of critical change on many levels: cultural, political, ecological and spiritual. We are witnessing the decline and dissolution of the old order, the tumult and uncertainty of a new birth. Against this background, there is an urgent need for a coherent framework of meaning to lead us beyond the growing fragmentation of culture, belief and personal identity. Keiron Le Grice argues that the developing insights of a new cosmology could provide this framework, helping us to discover an underlying order shaping our life experiences. In a compelling synthesis of the ideas of seminal thinkers from depth psychology and the new paradigm sciences, Le Grice positions the new discipline of archetypal astrology at the center of an emerging world view that reunifies psyche and cosmos, spirituality and science, mythology and metaphysics, and enables us to see mythic gods, heroes and themes in a fresh light. He draws especially on the work of C. G. Jung, Joseph Campbell, Richard Tarnas, Fritjof Capra, David Bohm and Brian Swimme. Heralding a 'rediscovery of the gods' and the passage into a new spiritual era, The Archetypal Cosmos presents a new understanding of the role of myth and archetypal principles in our lives, one that could give a cosmic perspective and deeper meaning to our personal experiences.
The Art of Invention
In this entertaining and insightful exploration of the process of invention, an experienced inventor vividly illustrates how great inventions embody three crucial characteristics--simplicity, elegance, and robustness. Whether you're an aspiring inventor or an experienced designer, the author's expertise, personal examples, and case studies offer detailed guidance on conceptualizing your ideas and turning them into reality. The author shows how ideas can come from a variety of sources such as the natural world, basic physical principles, life experience, or even chance observations. He examines how intuition and the harnessing of subconscious information are key ingredients for the inventive process. He concludes with an in-depth look at the business of invention and the typical inventor's toolkit. He addresses the real-world challenges of turning a good idea into a practical, marketable application, including patents, marketing, and entrepreneurship. He is candid about the realities of hard work and the need to learn from the inevitable mistakes along the way. Full of insights and practical guidance from a successful inventor and entrepreneur, this book will open new avenues of creativity for budding and accomplished inventors alike.
Tahoe Beneath the Surface
In Tahoe Beneath the Surface, human history and natural history combine in a most engaging way, one that will both inform and inspire all who would keep Tahoe blue.Lake Tahoe transformed America, and not just once but many times over-from the earliest Ice Age civilizations to the mysterious death of Marilyn Monroe. It even played a hidden role in the American conquest of California, the launch of the Republican Party, and the birth of John Steinbeck's first novel. Along the way, Lake Tahoe found the time to invent the ski industry, spark the sexual revolution, and win countless Academy Awards. Tahoe Beneath the Surface brings this hidden history of America's largest mountain lake to life through the stories of its most celebrated residents and visitors over the last ten thousand years. It mixes local Washoe Indian legends with tales of murderous Mafia dons, and Rat Pack tunes with Steinbeck novels. It establishes Tahoe as one of America's literary hot spots by tracing the steps of more than a dozen authors including Bertrand Russell, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Michael Ondaatje. Tahoe Beneath the Surface reveals how the lake transformed the lives of conservationists like John Muir, humorists like Mark Twain, and Hollywood icons like Frank Sinatra. It even touches upon some of the darker aspects of American history, including anti-Chinese racism and the Kennedy assassination.Despite the impact Lake Tahoe has had on America, environmental threats loom large, and Tahoe Blue--a term that Lankford uses to encompass the whole range of life, beauty, and meaning the lake represents--grows increasingly vulnerable.
The Tao of Physics
A special edition of the "brilliant" best-selling classic on the paradoxes of modern physics and their relationship to concepts of Eastern mysticism (New York Magazine) The Tao of Physics brought the mystical implications of subatomic physics to popular consciousness for the very first time. Many books have been written in the ensuing years about the connections between quantum theory and the ideas of Buddhism, Hinduism, and Taoism, but Fritjof Capra's text serves as the foundation on which the others have been built--and its wisdom has stood the test of time. Its publication in more than twenty-three languages stands as testimony to its universal applicability and its enduring significance. This special edition celebrates the thirty-fifth anniversary of this early Shambhala best seller that has gone on to become a true classic. It includes a fresh cover design and a new preface by the author reflecting on further discoveries and developments in the years since the book's original publication. "Physicists do not need mysticism," Dr. Capra says, "and mystics do not need physics, but humanity needs both." It is a message of timeless importance.
Against Method
Paul Feyerabend's globally acclaimed work, which sparked and continues to stimulate fierce debate, examines the deficiencies of many widespread ideas about scientific progress and the nature of knowledge. Feyerabend argues that scientific advances can only be understood in a historical context. He looks at the way the philosophy of science has consistently overemphasized practice over method, and considers the possibility that anarchism could replace rationalism in the theory of knowledge. This updated edition of the classic text includes a new introduction by Ian Hacking, one of the most important contemporary philosophers of science. Hacking reflects on both Feyerabend's life and personality as well as the broader significance of the book for current discussions.
Science and Spirituality
In Science and Spirituality: Making Room for Faith in the Age of Science, Michael Ruse offers a new analysis of the often troubled relationship between science and religion. Arguing against both extremes - in one corner, the New Atheists; in the other, the Creationists and their offspring the Intelligent Designers - he asserts that science is undoubtedly the highest and most fruitful source of human inquiry. Yet, by its very nature and its deep reliance on metaphor, science restricts itself and is unable to answer basic, significant, and potent questions about the meaning of the universe and humankind's place within it: Why is there something rather than nothing? What is the ultimate source and foundation of morality? What is the nature of consciousness? What is the meaning of it all? Ruse shows that one can legitimately be a skeptic about all of these questions, and yet why it is open for a Christian, or member of any faith, to offer answers. Scientists, he concludes, should be proud of their achievements but modest about their scope. Christians should be confident of their mission but respectful of the successes of science.
Information
We live in a society that is awash with information, but few of us really understand what information is. In this Very Short Introduction, one of the world's leading authorities on the philosophy of information and on information ethics, Luciano Floridi, offers an illuminating exploration of information as it relates to both philosophy and science. He discusses the roots of the concept of information in mathematics and science, and considers the role of information in several fields, including biology. Floridi also discusses concepts such as "Infoglut" (too much information to process) and the emergence of an information society, and he addresses the nature of information as a communication process and its place as a physical phenomenon. Perhaps more important, he explores information's meaning and value, and ends by considering the broader social and ethical issues relating to information, including problems surrounding accessibility, privacy, ownership, copyright, and open source. This book helps us understand the true meaning of the concept and how it can be used to understand our world. About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
Research on Scientific Research
This book sets out to explain how scientific research is conducted. Editors Mauro Maldonato and Ricardo Pietrobon and contributors focus on the emerging inter/transdisciplinary dimensions of research. They use an approach grounded in the sciences of complexity to counteract the disciplinary fragmentation and decontextualisation created by a reductionist approach. The underlying theme throughout all the chapters is a practical focus on improving the way practitioners conduct and educate for scientific research. By rejecting the reductionistic approach to science, the authors propose research platforms that offer a broader perspective on the nature and practice of research, and the implications thereof for more complex and productive research environments. This volume combines leading-edge essays that focus on the inter/transdisciplinary study of research systems, from a group of international researchers from Italy, the UK and the United States. While the book is essential reading for all those involved in planning scientific research projects, the arguments put forward for the conduct of research have broader implications and applications for the social sciences and education.
The Philosophy of Science
So the world didn't end on 10 September 2008: but maybe it got you thinking... The world didn't end on 10 September 2008, but the possibility may have got you thinking: was it worth the risk? What is the point of science actually? Geoffrey Gorham considers these questions and explores the social and ethical implications of science by linking them to issues facing scientists today: human extinction, extraterrestrial intelligence, space colonization, and more.
The Advancement of Learning
Francis Bacon, lawyer, statesman, and philosopher, remains one of the most effectual thinkers in European intellectual history. We can trace his influence from Kant in the 1700s to Darwin a century later. The Advancement of Learning, first published in 1605, contains an unprecedented and thorough systematization of the whole range of human knowledge. Bacon's argument that the sciences should move away from divine philosophy and embrace empirical observation would forever change the way philosophers and natural scientists interpret their world.
The Body Toxic
We are running a collective chemical fever that we cannot break. Everyone everywhere now carries a dizzying array of chemical contaminants, the by-products of modern industry and innovation, that contribute to a host of developmental deficits and health problems in ways just now being understood. These toxic substances, unknown to our grandparents, accumulate in our fat, bones, blood, and organs as a consequence of womb-to-tomb exposure to industrial substances as common as the products that contain them. Almost everything we encounter--from soap to soup cans, computers to clothing--contributes to a chemical load unique to each of us. Scientists studying the phenomenon refer to it as "chemical body burden," and in The Body Toxic, the investigative journalist Nena Baker explores the many factors that have given rise to this condition.
The Speed of Light
The puzzle at the heart of this book-light speed constancy-is a bit hard to wrap your mind around, but that is part of the fun. Light-our experience of light, our measurement of light, and the notion that light speed is constant-can be understood to mark the very interface of us with the cosmos. David Grandy's book moves from the scientific to the existential, from Einstein to Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, from light as a phenomenon to light as that which is constitutive of reality. To measure the speed of light is to measure something about the way we are measured or blended into the cosmos, and that universal blending pre-decides our measurement of light speed in favor of a universal or constant value. It's quite a trip, one aimed at scientists who have pondered light speed constancy, philosophers inclined to question the idea that mind and world are distinct, and for scientifically or philosophically inclined persons who enjoy stretching themselves in new ways.
Blue Covenant
A cautionary account of climate change and the global water supply. "You will not turn on the tap in the same way after reading this book." -Robert Redford In a book hailed by Publishers Weekly as a "passionate plea for access-to-water activism," Blue Covenant addresses an environmental crisis that-together with global warming-poses one of the gravest threats to our survival. How did the world's most vital resource become imperiled? And what must we do to pull back from the brink? In "stark and nearly devastating prose", world-renowned activist and bestselling author Maude Barlow-who is featured in the acclaimed documentary Flow-discusses the state of the world's water. Barlow examines how water companies are reaping vast profits from declining supplies, and how ordinary people from around the world have banded together to reclaim the public's right to clean water, creating a grassroots global water justice movement. While tracing the history of international battles for the right to water, she documents the life-and-death stakes involved in the fight and lays out the actions that we as global citizens must take to secure a water-just world for all (Booklist). "Sounds the water alarm with conviction and authority." -Kirkus Reviews "This book proves that water deserves another destiny." -Eduardo Galeano "Blue Covenant will inspire civil society movements around the world." -Vandana Shiva
Living With Darwin
Charles Darwin has been at the center of white-hot public debate for more than a century. In Living With Darwin, Philip Kitcher stokes the flames swirling around Darwin's theory, sifting through the scientific evidence for evolution, Creation Science, and Intelligent Design, and revealing why evolution has been the object of such vehement attack. Kitcher first provides valuable perspective on the present controversy, describing the many puzzles that blocked evolution's acceptance in the early years, and explaining how scientific research eventually found the answers to these conundrums. Interestingly, Kitcher shows that many of these early questions have been resurrected in recent years by proponents of Intelligent Design. In fact, Darwin himself considered the issue of intelligent design, and amassed a mountain of evidence that effectively refuted the idea. Kitcher argues that the problem with Intelligent Design isn't that it's "not science," as many critics say, but that it's "dead science," raising questions long resolved by scientists. But Kitcher points out that it is also important to recognize the cost of Darwin's success--the price of "life with Darwin." Darwinism has a profound effect on our understanding of our place in the universe, on our religious beliefs and aspirations. It is in truth the focal point of a larger clash between religious faith and modern science. Unless we can resolve this larger issue, the war over evolution will go on.
The Telephone Gambit
Throughout his career, Alexander Graham Bell, one of the world's most famous inventors, was plagued by a secret: he stole the key idea behind the invention of the telephone. While researching at MIT, science journalist Seth Shulman scrutinized Bell's journals and within them found the smoking gun: a hint of deeply buried historical deception. Delving further into Bell's life, Shulman unearthed the surprising story behind the telephone, a tale of romance, corruption, and unchecked ambition.
The Cambridge Companion to the ”Origin of Species”
The Origin of Species by Charles Darwin is universally recognized as one of the most important science books ever written. Published in 1859, it was here that Darwin argued for both the fact of evolution and the mechanism of natural section. The Origin of Species is also a work of great cultural and religious significance, in that Darwin maintained that all organisms, including humans, are part of a natural process of growth from simple forms. This Companion commemorates the 150th anniversary of the publication of the Origin of Species and examines its main arguments. Drawing on the expertise of leading authorities in the field, it also provides the contexts - religious, social, political, literary, and philosophical - in which the Origin was composed. Written in a clear and friendly yet authoritative manner, this volume will be essential reading for both scholars and students More broadly, it will appeal to general readers who want to learn more about one of the most important and controversial books of modern times.
Unmasking Europa
Jupiter's ice moon Europa is widely regarded as the most likely place to find accessible extraterrestrial life. This book tells the engaging story of Europa, the oceanic moon. It features a large number of stunning images of the ocean moon's surface, clearly displaying the spectacular crack patterns, extensive rifts and ridges, and refrozen pools of exposed water filled with rafts of displaced ice. Coverage also features firsthand accounts of Galileo's mission to Jupiter and its moons. The book tells the rough and tumble inside story of a very human enterprise in science that lead to the discovery of a fantastic new world that might well harbor life.
Causal Asymmetries
Causation is asymmetrical in many different ways. Causes precede effects; explanations cite causes not effects. Agents use causes to manipulate their effects; they don't use effects to manipulate their causes. Effects of a common cause are correlated; causes of a common effect are not. This book by one of the preeminent philosophers of science writing today offers the most comprehensive account available of causal asymmetries. It is a major book for philosophers of science that will also prove insightful to economists and statisticians.
The Global Brain
We've seen the power of the internet to connect people around the world in ways never before known. This remarkable book argues that the billions of messages and pieces of information flying back and forth are linking the minds of humanity together into a single, global brain: a brain with astonishing potential for the Earth. Peter Russell, an acclaimed author and speaker, weaves together modern technology and ancient mysticism to present a startling vision of the world to come, where humanity is a fully conscious superorganism in an awakening universe. The human potential movement, he shows, is growing fast and influencing business, politics and medicine. This new edition is fully updated for the challenges we face in the twenty-first century.
Simple Prosperity
In his bestseller Affluenza, David Wann and his co-authors diagnosed the debilitating disease of over-consumption. In Simple Prosperity he shows readers how we can overcome this disease by investing in a variety of real wealth sources. To recapture a more abundant and sustainable lifestyle, try: - Creating a richer life story through personal growth incentives - Forming higher-yield friendships and stronger bonds through social capital - Taking preventive healthcare measures to build up wellness reserves - Balancing the biological budget through "greener" currency - Caring for people, not just cars, to improve your neighborhood wealth index - Resolving that pesky carbon conundrum through energy savings - Celebrating instead of desecrating! Cultural prosperity futures value the earth as a sacred place In our age of hedge fund hysteria, Simple Prosperity is a new way of investing that will save our sanity and the planet.
Stochastic Processes and Filtering Theory
This unified treatment of linear and nonlinear filtering theory presents material previously available only in journals, and in terms accessible to engineering students. Its sole prerequisites are advanced calculus, the theory of ordinary differential equations, and matrix analysis. Although theory is emphasized, the text discusses numerous practical applications as well.Taking the state-space approach to filtering, this text models dynamical systems by finite-dimensional Markov processes, outputs of stochastic difference, and differential equations. Starting with background material on probability theory and stochastic processes, the author introduces and defines the problems of filtering, prediction, and smoothing. He presents the mathematical solutions to nonlinear filtering problems, and he specializes the nonlinear theory to linear problems. The final chapters deal with applications, addressing the development of approximate nonlinear filters, and presenting a critical analysis of their performance.
Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things
For folks who wonder why they keep tossing odds and ends in that junk drawer in the kitchen, Sneakiest Uses for Everyday Things offers evidence that technology doesn't always have to come from Best Buy, Amazon.com, or Microsoft." --U.S. News and World Report * Putterers, would-be inventers, and science-fair parents rejoice as Cy Tymony offers fifty new projects to bring out your inner MacGyver.In the third book in Cy Tymony's Sneaky Uses series you will learn how to turn a piece of paper into a Frisbee, a business card into a boomerang, a TV tray into a robot, and more.* Beginning with a complete list of materials and continuing through easy-to-follow step-by-step instructions paired with helpful illustrations, most projects will be completed in just minutes using common items found around the house.* Teachers, parents, scout leaders, and enterprising youngsters will use their ingenuity to turn ordinary, everyday objects into something extraordinary, like a pencil into a microphone, Walkman ear buds into an intercom, or a telephone cord into a motor. The book also includes bonus alternative-energy projects and a foreword by NPR's Science Friday host Ira Flatow.
The Secret of Scent
"A rich sensory trip . . . this indispensable guide to all things smelly is as good as it gets."--Sunday TelegraphOne man's passion for perfume leads him to explore one of the most intriguing scientific mysteries: What makes one molecule smell of garlic while another smells of rose?In this witty, engrossing, and wildly original volume, author Luca Turin explores the two competing theories of smell. Is scent determined by molecular shape or molecular vibrations? Turin describes in fascinating detail the science, the evidence, and the often contentious debate--from the beginnings of organic chemistry to the present day--and pays homage to the scientists who went before. With its uniquely accessible and captivating approach to science via art, The Secret of Scent will appeal to anyone who has ever wondered about the most mysterious of the five senses.
The Cambridge Companion to the Philosophy of Biology
The philosophy of biology is one of the most exciting new areas in the field of philosophy and one that is attracting much attention from working scientists. This Companion, edited by two of the founders of the field, includes newly commissioned essays by senior scholars and up-and-coming younger scholars who collectively examine the main areas of the subject - the nature of evolutionary theory, classification, teleology and function, ecology, and the problematic relationship between biology and religion, among other topics. Up-to-date and comprehensive in its coverage, this unique volume will be of interest not only to professional philosophers but also to students in the humanities and researchers in the life sciences and related areas of inquiry.
Social Empiricism
For the last forty years, two claims have been at the core of disputes about scientific change: that scientists reason rationally and that science is progressive. For most of this time discussions were polarized between philosophers, who defended traditional Enlightenment ideas about rationality and progress, and sociologists, who espoused relativism and constructivism. Recently, creative new ideas going beyond the polarized positions have come from the history of science, feminist criticism of science, psychology of science, and anthropology of science. Addressing the traditional arguments as well as building on these new ideas, Miriam Solomon constructs a new epistemology of science. After discussions of the nature of empirical success and its relation to truth, Solomon offers a new, social account of scientific rationality. She shows that the pursuit of empirical success and truth can be consistent with both dissent and consensus, and that the distinction between dissent and consensus is of little epistemic significance. In building this social epistemology of science, she shows that scientific communities are not merely the locus of distributed expert knowledge and a resource for criticism but also the site of distributed decision making. Throughout, she illustrates her ideas with case studies from late-nineteenth- and twentieth-century physical and life sciences. Replacing the traditional focus on methods and heuristics to be applied by individual scientists, Solomon emphasizes science funding, administration, and policy. One of her goals is to have a positive influence on scientific decision making through practical social recommendations.
Defending Science - within Reason
Sweeping in scope, penetrating in analysis, and generously illustrated with examples from the history of science, this new and original approach to familiar questions about scientific evidence and method tackles vital questions about science and its place in society. Avoiding the twin pitfalls of scientism and cynicism, noted philosopher Susan Haack argues that, fallible and flawed as they are, the natural sciences have been among the most successful of human enterprises-valuable not only for the vast, interlocking body of knowledge they have discovered, and not only for the technological advances that have improved our lives, but as a manifestation of the human talent for inquiry at its imperfect but sometimes remarkable best.This wide-ranging, trenchant, and illuminating book explores the complexities of scientific evidence, and the multifarious ways in which the sciences have refined and amplified the methods of everyday empirical inquiry; articulates the ways in which the social sciences are like the natural sciences, and the ways in which they are different; disentangles the confusions of radical rhetoricians and cynical sociologists of science; exposes the evasions of apologists for religious resistance to scientific advances; weighs the benefits and the dangers of technology; tracks the efforts of the legal system to make the best use of scientific testimony; and tackles predictions of the eventual culmination, or annihilation, of the scientific enterprise.Writing with verve and wry humor, in a witty, direct, and accessible style, Haack takes readers beyond the "Science Wars" to a balanced understanding of the value, and the limitations, of the scientific enterprise.
Engaging the Cosmos
Written by an experienced author with a strong background in both History and Earth Sciences, this text explores the philosophic implications of the dramatic developments now under way in astrophysics and astrobiology. How close may this progress, empirical and theoretical, bring us to a definitive understanding of ultimate realities? What could it connote for the future of the great religious obediences? What might it mean for the evolution of a planetary consciousness that could be the key to the survival of our overburdened world? Are there not alarming possibilities, yet also very positive ones? Discussion takes full account of hard science in a manner accessible to lay people, where the arguments and observations presented are set firmly in a deep historical perspective. A fundamental conclusion and imperative for the coming century is that there are some shaky but tangible grounds for believing we are poised to enter an era in which relations much improve within and between the great religious obediences; between them and philosophical agnosticism -- to the many who subscribe to no established faith but who would lay claim to a broad ethical concern and spiritual aspiration; and between all of these and the natural sciences. Throughout, the author provides compelling examples of cosmic norms -- rooted in Earth Science, Astronomy/Astrophysics and Historical Example -- to demonstrate the issues Mankind faces in coming to terms with the Universe, of which we are but a small part.
Bubbles, Drops, And Particles
This volume offers a critical review of the literature concerning the fluid dynamics, heat transfer, and mass transfer of single bubbles, drops, and particles. Upper-level undergraduates and graduate students, as well as professionals in the fields of engineering, physics, chemistry, geophysics, and applied mathematics, will find it a unified treatment of solid particles, liquid drops, and gas bubbles.Starting with a summary of the fundamental principles and equations governing the behavior of bubbles, drops, and solid particles in Newtonian fluids, the text proceeds to a survey of the parameters used to characterize the shape of rigid particles, and of the factors that determine the shape of bubbles and drops. Succeeding chapters examine the behavior of solid and fluid particles under steady incompressible flow in an extended external phase. The text concludes with an exploration of effects that complicate the relatively simple case of a particle moving steadily through an unbounded fluid.
The Left Stuff
This book demystifies the place left-handness has held in society, shedding new light on this controversial discussion.
Flow-induced Vibrations
Despite their variety, the vibration phenomena from many different engineering fields can be classified into a relatively few basic excitation mechanisms. The classification enables engineers to identify all possible sources of excitation in a given system and to assess potential dangers. This graduate-level text presents a synthesis of research results and practical experience from disparate fields in the form of engineering guidelines. It is particularly geared toward assessing the possible sources of excitation in a flow system, in identifying the actual danger spots, and in finding appropriate remedial measures or cures.Flow-induced vibrations are presented in terms of their basic elements: body oscillators, fluid oscillators, and sources of excitation. By stressing these basic elements, the authors provide a basis for the transfer of knowledge from one system to another, as well as from one engineering field to another. In this manner, well-known theories on cylinders in cross-flow or well-executed solutions from the field of wind engineering--to name just two examples--may be useful in other systems or fields on which information is scarce. The unified approach is broad enough to permit treatment of the major excitation mechanism, yet simple enough to be of practical use.
An Introduction To Random Vibrations, Spectral & Wavelet Analysis
One of the first engineering books to cover wavelet analysis, this classic text describes and illustrates basic theory, with a detailed explanation of the workings of discrete wavelet transforms. Computer algorithms are explained and supported by examples and a set of problems, and an appendix lists ten computer programs for calculating and displaying wavelet transforms.Starting with an introduction to probability distributions and averages, the text examines joint probability distributions, ensemble averages, and correlation; Fourier analysis; spectral density and excitation response relations for linear systems; transmission of random vibration; statistics of narrow band processes; and accuracy of measurements. Discussions of digital spectral analysis cover discrete Fourier transforms as well as windows and smoothing. Additional topics include the fast Fourier transform; pseudo-random processes; multidimensional spectral analysis; response of continuous linear systems to stationary random excitation; and discrete wavelet analysis.Numerous diagrams and graphs clarify the text, and complicated mathematics are simplified whenever possible. This volume is suitable for upper-level undergraduates and graduate students in engineering and the applied sciences; it is also an important resource for professionals.
McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Engineering
Hundreds of well-illustrated articles explore the most important fields of science. Based on content from the McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science & Technooogy, Fifth Edition, the most widely used and respected science reference of its kind in print, each of these subject-specific quick-reference guides features: * Detailed, well-illustrated explanations, not just definitions * Hundreds of concise yet authoritative articles in each volume * An easy-to-understand presentation, accessible and interesting to non-specialists * A portable, convenient format * Bibliographies, appendices, and other information supplement the articles
Microhydrodynamics
"This book is well organized and comprehensive . . . an eloquent and enduring statement of significant hydrodynamic principles." -- AIChE JournalMicrohydrodynamics concerns the flow and related phenomena pertinent to the motion of small particles suspended in viscous fluids. This text focuses on determining the motion of a particle or particles through a viscous fluid in bounded and unbounded flow. Its central theme is the mobility relation between particle motion and forces.Microhydrodynamics: Principles and Selected Applications functions as a manual that explains methods for solving particulate flows at low-Reynolds number, from analytical to computational methods. The ever-increasing growth in computational power has resulted in a similar growth in the range of solvable problems in microhydrodynamics. Suitable for graduate students in engineering and applied mathematics, this text treats the mathematical foundations and highlights the interplay of both mathematical and physical insights, guiding readers through single particle theory and problems related to multiparticle analyses.
