Zoom: From Atoms and Galaxies to Blizzards and Bees: How Everything Moves
From the speed of light to moving mountains–and everything in between–ZOOM explores how the universe and its objects move.If you sit as still as you can in a quiet room, you might be able to convince yourself that nothing is moving. But air currents are still wafting around you. Blood rushes through your veins. The atoms in your …
Ten Years To the Singularity If We Really Really Try: … and other Essays on AGI and its Implications
Ray Kurzweil has projected the date for a Technological Singularity as 2045. AI researcher Ben Goertzel believes it could potentially happen much sooner, if appropriate attention and resources are focused on the right R&D projects. What current technologies are most likely to lead to the rapid advent of powerful Artificial General Intelligence systems? What impact …
“In 1611, Kepler wrote an essay wondering why snowflakes always had perfect, sixfold symmetry. It’s a simple enough question, but one that no one had ever asked before and one that couldn’t actually be answered for another three centuries. Still, in trying to work out an answer, Kepler raised some fascinating questions about physics, math, and biology, and …
Every Other Thursday: Stories and Strategies from Successful Women Scientists
This book tells the story of a professional problem-solving group that for more than 25 years has empowered its members by providing practical and emotional support. The objective of Group,” as Ellen Daniell and six other members call their bimonthly gatherings, is cooperation in a competitive world. And the objective of Every Other Thursday is to encourage those …
With contributions from Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking, João Magueijo, Steven Weinberg, Philip Anderson, Robert Schulmann, Philip Glass, Max Jammer, Sir Joseph Rotblat, I. Bernard Cohen, and Sir Arthur C. ClarkeThis definitive illustrated study of one of the foremost icons of the 20th century commemorates the centenary of Albert Einstein’s annus mirabilis of 1905, the same year when …
Colliding Worlds: How Cutting-Edge Science Is Redefining Contemporary Art
A dazzling look at the artists working on the frontiers of science. In recent decades, an exciting new art movement has emerged in which artists utilize and illuminate the latest advances in science. Some of their provocative creations―a live rabbit implanted with the fluorescent gene of a jellyfish, a gigantic glass-and-chrome sculpture of the Big Bang (pictured on …
How do imperceptibly small differences in the environment change one’s behavior? What is the anatomy of a bad mood? Does stress shrink our brains? What does People magazine’s list of America’s “50 Most Beautiful People” teach us about nature and nurture? What makes one organism sexy to another? What makes one orgasm different from another? Who will be …
Using such models as Joseph Cornell’s box constructions, crazy quilts, and specimen displays, Joni Tevis places fragments in relationship to each other in order to puzzle out lost histories, particularly those of women. Navigating the peril and excitement of outward journeys complicated by an inward longing for home, The Wet Collection follows Tevis through several adventures that coalesce …
Seventy-five percent of processed foods on supermarket shelves—from soda to soup, crackers to condiments—contain genetically engineered ingredients. The long-term effects of these foods on human health and ecology are still unknown, and public concern has been steadily intensifying.This new book from the Council for Responsible Genetics gathers the best, most thought-provoking essays by the leading scientists, science writers, …
Long recognized as the most readable textbook on vertebrate biology, this comprehensive volume covers subjects ranging from the biology of the smallest shrew to the migration of the largest whales. Thoroughly updated with the latest research, this new edition discusses taxa and topics such as• systematics and evolution• zoogeography, ecology, morphology, and reproduction• early chordates• fish, amphibians, reptiles …