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The Age of Dinosaurs: The Rise and Fall of the World's Most Remarkable Animals
by Steve BrusatteThink you know about dinosaurs? Think again! New York Times bestselling and award-winning author Steve Brusatte brings young scientists and readers everywhere into his world of massive herbivores and fearsome predators, daily unexpected discoveries, and all the new science used to learn about some of the world’s oldest beings.Even though the dinosaurs roamed the earth millions of years ago, we’re still piecing together new information about these ancient animals.Did you know that, on average, a new species of dinosaur is discovered every single week? Or that many dinosaurs had feathers? Or that there are even modern-day dinosaurs walking around right now? New York Times bestselling author and acclaimed paleontologist Steve Brusatte writes about all the new discoveries he and his colleagues have made that help us better understand—and marvel at—these remarkable reptiles.This exciting nonfiction book for ages 7 to 12 includes a glossary, pronunciation guide, and index, as well as photos throughout. A strong choice for the classroom and for independent reading, and a great source for reports using information direct from an expert in the field.
Age of Discovery: Navigating the Risks and Rewards of Our New Renaissance
by Ian Goldin Chris KutarnaThe present is a contest between the bright and dark sides of discovery. To avoid being torn apart by its stresses, we need to recognize the fact—and gain courage and wisdom from the past. Age of Discovery shows how.Now is the best moment in history to be alive, but we have never felt more anxious or divided. Human health, aggregate wealth and education are flourishing. Scientific discovery is racing forward. But the same global flows of trade, capital, people and ideas that make gains possible for some people deliver big losses to others—and make us all more vulnerable to one another. Business and science are working giant revolutions upon our societies, but our politics and institutions evolve at a much slower pace. That’s why, in a moment when everyone ought to be celebrating giant global gains, many of us are righteously angry at being left out and stressed about where we’re headed.To make sense of present shocks, we need to step back and recognize: we’ve been here before. The first Renaissance, the time of Columbus, Copernicus, Gutenberg and others, likewise redrew all maps of the world, democratized communication and sparked a flourishing of creative achievement. But their world also grappled with the same dark side of rapid change: social division, political extremism, insecurity, pandemics and other unintended consequences of discovery.Now is the second Renaissance. We can still flourish—if we learn from the first.
The Age of Electroacoustics: Transforming Science and Sound (Transformations: Studies in the History of Science and Technology)
by Roland WittjeThe transformation of acoustics into electro-acoustics, a field at the intersection of science and technology, guided by electrical engineering, industry, and the military.At the end of the nineteenth century, acoustics was a science of musical sounds; the musically trained ear was the ultimate reference. Just a few decades into the twentieth century, acoustics had undergone a transformation from a scientific field based on the understanding of classical music to one guided by electrical engineering, with industrial and military applications. In this book, Roland Wittje traces this transition, from the late nineteenth-century work of Hermann Helmholtz to the militarized research of World War I and media technology in the 1930s. Wittje shows that physics in the early twentieth century was not only about relativity and atomic structure but encompassed a range of experimental, applied, and industrial research fields. The emergence of technical acoustics and electroacoustics illustrates a scientific field at the intersection of science and technology. Wittje starts with Helmholtz's and Rayleigh's work and its intersection with telegraphy and early wireless, and continues with the industrialization of acoustics during World War I, when sound measurement was automated and electrical engineering and radio took over the concept of noise. Researchers no longer appealed to the musically trained ear to understand sound but to the thinking and practices of electrical engineering. Finally, Wittje covers the demilitarization of acoustics during the Weimar Republic and its remilitarization at the beginning of the Third Reich. He shows how technical acoustics fit well with the Nazi dismissal of pure science, representing everything that “German Physics” under National Socialism should be: experimental, applied, and relevant to the military.
The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society
by Frans De WaalAn engrossing, lucid exploration of the origins of human morality that challenges our most basic assumptions, from the world’s leading primatologist Is it really human nature to stab one another in the back in our climb up the corporate ladder? Competitive, selfish behaviour is often explained away as instinctive, thanks to evolution and “survival of the fittest,” but in fact humans are equally hard-wired for empathy. Using research from the fields of anthropology, psychology, animal behaviour, and neuroscience, de Waal brilliantly argues that humans are group animals — highly cooperative, sensitive to injustice, and mostly peace-loving — just like other primates, elephants, and dolphins. This revelation has profound implications for everything from politics to office culture.
The Age of Entanglement: When Quantum Physics Was Reborn
by Louisa GilderAuthor Gilder provides an unusual treatment of a complex topic--quantum physics--by exploring how the passions and personalities of the physicists themselves affected the development of this field of study. The author presents the human aspect of the story by using the physicists own words in imaginary face-to-face dialogues. The varied list of luminaries cited in the book include Bohr, Einstein, Schrödinger, Heisenberg, and Feynman. The result is a readable, conversational book. Most but not all of the illustrations are by the author. Annotation ©2009 Book News, Inc. , Portland, OR (booknews. com)
The Age Of Expert Testimony: Science In The Courtroom
by Science Technology Law PanelThe federal courts are seeking ways to increase the ability of judges to deal with difficult issues of scientific expert testimony. The workshop explored the new environment judges, plaintiffs, defendants, and experts face in light of "Daubert" and "Kumho," when presenting and evaluating scientific, engineering, and medical evidence.
The Age of Genomes: Tales from the Front Lines of Genetic Medicine
by Steven Monroe Lipkin Jon LuomaA leading geneticist explores what promises to be one of the most transformative advances in health and medicine in historyAlmost every week, another exciting headline appears about new advances in the field of genetics. Genetic testing is experiencing the kind of exponential growth once seen with the birth of the Internet, while the plummeting cost of DNA sequencing makes it increasingly accessible for individuals and families.Steven Lipkin and Jon Luoma posit that today's genomics is like the last century's nuclear physics: a powerful tool for good if used correctly, but potentially dangerous nonetheless. DNA testing is likely the most exciting advance in a long time for treating serious disease, but sequencing errors, complex biology, and problems properly interpreting genetic data can also cause life-threatening misdiagnoses of patients with debilitating and fatal genetic diseases. DNA testing can also lead to unnecessary procedures and significantly higher health-care costs. And just around the corner is the ability to cure genetic diseases using powerful gene-editing technologies that are already being used in human embryo research. Welcome to the Age of Genomes!The Age of Genomes immerses readers in true stories of patients on the frontier of genomic medicine and explores both the transformative potential and risks of genetic technology. It will inform anxious parents increasingly bombarded by offers of costly new prenatal testing products, and demonstrate how genetic technology, when deployed properly, can significantly improve the lives of patients who have devastating neurological diseases, cancer, and other maladies. Dr. Lipkin explains the science in depth, but in terms a layperson can follow.
The Age of Living Machines: How Biology Will Build The Next Technology Revolution
by Susan HockfieldFrom the former president of MIT, the story of the next technology revolution, and how it will change our lives. A century ago, discoveries in physics came together with engineering to produce an array of astonishing new technologies: radios, telephones, televisions, aircraft, radar, nuclear power, computers, the Internet, and a host of still-evolving digital tools. These technologies so radically reshaped our world that we can no longer conceive of life without them. Today, the world’s population is projected to rise to well over 9.5 billion by 2050, and we are currently faced with the consequences of producing the energy that fuels, heats, and cools us. With temperatures and sea levels rising, and large portions of the globe plagued with drought, famine, and drug-resistant diseases, we need new technologies to tackle these problems. But we are on the cusp of a new convergence, argues world-renowned neuroscientist Susan Hockfield, with discoveries in biology coming together with engineering to produce another array of almost inconceivable technologies—next-generation products that have the potential to be every bit as paradigm shifting as the twentieth century’s digital wonders. The Age of Living Machines describes some of the most exciting new developments and the scientists and engineers who helped create them. Virus-built batteries. Protein-based water filters. Cancer-detecting nanoparticles. Mind-reading bionic limbs. Computer-engineered crops. Together they highlight the promise of the technology revolution of the twenty-first century to overcome some of the greatest humanitarian, medical, and environmental challenges of our time.
The Age of Radiance: The Epic Rise and Dramatic Fall of the Atomic Era
by Craig Nelson“A thrilling, intense, and disturbing account of the atomic era, from the discovery of X-rays to the tragic meltdown of Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant…Rich with powerful images and fraught with drama” (The Christian Science Monitor).When Marie Curie, Enrico Fermi, and Edward Teller forged the science of radioactivity, they began a revolution that ran from the nineteenth century through the course of World War II and the Cold War to our current confrontation with the dangers of nuclear power and proliferation. While nuclear science improves our lives, radiation’s invisible powers can trigger cancer and cellular mayhem. Writing with a biographer’s passion, New York Times bestselling author Craig Nelson unlocks one of the great mysteries of the universe. In The Age of Radiance, Nelson illuminates a pageant of fascinating historical figures: Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Curtis LeMay, John F. Kennedy, Robert McNamara, Ronald Reagan, and Mikhail Gorbachev, among others. He reveals how Jewish scientists fleeing Hitler transformed America from a nation that created light bulbs into one that split atoms; Alfred Nobel’s dream of global peace; and how, in our time, emergency workers and utility employees fought to contain life-threatening nuclear reactors. By tracing our complicated relationship with the dangerous energy we unleashed, Nelson discusses how atomic power and radiation are indivisible from our everyday lives. Brilliantly told and masterfully crafted, The Age of Radiance provides a new understanding of a misunderstood epoch in history and restores to prominence the forgotten heroes and heroines who have changed all of our lives for better and for worse. “This is the kind of book that doesn’t just inform you but leaves you feeling smarter.” (The Dallas Morning News).
The Age of Scientific Wellness: Why the Future of Medicine Is Personalized, Predictive, Data-Rich, and in Your Hands
by Leroy Hood Nathan PriceTaking us to the cutting edge of the new frontier of medicine, a visionary biotechnologist and a pathbreaking researcher show how we can optimize our health in ways that were previously unimaginable.We are on the cusp of a major transformation in healthcare—yet few people know it. At top hospitals and a few innovative health-tech startups, scientists are working closely with patients to dramatically extend their “healthspan”—the number of healthy years before disease sets in. In The Age of Scientific Wellness, two visionary leaders of this revolution in health take us on a thrilling journey to this new frontier of medicine.Today, most doctors wait for clinical symptoms to appear before they act, and the ten most commonly prescribed medications confer little or no benefit to most people taking them. Leroy Hood and Nathan Price argue that we must move beyond this reactive, hit-or-miss approach to usher in real precision health—a form of highly personalized care they call “scientific wellness.” Using information gleaned from our blood and genes and tapping into the data revolution made possible by AI, doctors can catch the onset of disease years before symptoms arise, revolutionizing prevention. Current applications have shown startling results: diabetes reversed, cancers eliminated, Alzheimer’s avoided, autoimmune conditions kept at bay.This is not a future fantasy: it is already happening, but only for a few patients and at high cost. It’s time to make this gold standard of care more widely available. Inspiring in its possibilities, radical in its conclusions, The Age of Scientific Wellness shares actionable insights to help you chart a course to a longer, healthier, and more fulfilling life.
The Age of Spiritual Machines: When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence
by Ray KurzweilRay Kurzweil is the inventor of the most innovative and compelling technology of our era, an international authority on artificial intelligence, and one of our greatest living visionaries. Now he offers a framework for envisioning the twenty-first century--an age in which the marriage of human sensitivity and artificial intelligence fundamentally alters and improves the way we live. Kurzweil's prophetic blueprint for the future takes us through the advances that inexorably result in computers exceeding the memory capacity and computational ability of the human brain by the year 2020 (with human-level capabilities not far behind); in relationships with automated personalities who will be our teachers, companions, and lovers; and in information fed straight into our brains along direct neural pathways. Optimistic and challenging, thought-provoking and engaging, The Age of Spiritual Machines is the ultimate guide on our road into the next century.
The Age of Subtlety: Nature and Rhetorical Conceits in Early Modern Europe (The Early Modern Exchange)
by Javier Patiño LoiraA craze for intricate metaphors, referred to as conceits, permeated all forms of communication in seventeenth-century Italy and Spain, reshaping reality in highly creative ways. The Age of Subtlety: Nature and Rhetorical Conceits in Early Modern Europe situates itself at the crossroads of rhetoric, poetics, and the history of science, analyzing technical writings on conceits by such scholars as Baltasar Gracián, Matteo Peregrini, and Emanuele Tesauro against the background of debates on telescopic and microscopic vision, the generation of living beings, and the boundaries between the natural and the artificial. It contends that in order to understand conceits, we must locate them within the early modern culture of ingenuity that was also responsible for the engineer’s machines, the juggler’s sleight of hand, the wiles of the statesman, and the discovery of truths about nature.
The Age of Sustainability: Just Transitions in a Complex World (Routledge Studies in Sustainable Development)
by Mark SwillingWith transitions to more sustainable ways of living already underway, this book examines how we understand the underlying dynamics of the transitions that are unfolding. Without this understanding, we enter the future in a state of informed bewilderment. Every day we are bombarded by reports about ecosystem breakdown, social conflict, economic stagnation and a crisis of identity. There is mounting evidence that deeper transitions are underway that suggest we may be entering another period of great transformation equal in significance to the agricultural revolution some 13,000 years ago or the Industrial Revolution 250 years ago. This book helps readers make sense of our global crisis and the dynamics of transition that could result in a shift from the industrial epoch that we live in now to a more sustainable and equitable age. The global renewable energy transition that is already underway holds the key to the wider just transition. However, the evolutionary potential of the present also manifests in the mushrooming of ecocultures, new urban visions, sustainability-oriented developmental states and new ways of learning and researching. Shedding light on the highly complex challenge of a sustainable and just transition, this book is essential reading for anyone concerned with establishing a more sustainable and equitable world. Ultimately, this is a book about hope but without easy answers.
Age of System: Understanding the Development of Modern Social Science
by Hunter HeyckIn the years after World War II, a new generation of scholars redefined the central concepts and practices of social science in America.Before the Second World War, social scientists struggled to define and defend their disciplines. After the war, "high modern" social scientists harnessed new resources in a quest to create a unified understanding of human behavior—and to remake the world in the image of their new model man.In Age of System, Hunter Heyck explains why social scientists—shaped by encounters with the ongoing "organizational revolution" and its revolutionary technologies of communication and control—embraced a new and extremely influential perspective on science and nature, one that conceived of all things in terms of system, structure, function, organization, and process. He also explores how this emerging unified theory of human behavior implied a troubling similarity between humans and machines, with freighted implications for individual liberty and self-direction. These social scientists trained a generation of decision-makers in schools of business and public administration, wrote the basic textbooks from which millions learned how the economy, society, polity, culture, and even the mind worked, and drafted the position papers, books, and articles that helped set the terms of public discourse in a new era of mass media, think tanks, and issue networks. Drawing on close readings of key texts and a broad survey of more than 1,800 journal articles, Heyck follows the dollars—and the dreams—of a generation of scholars that believed in "the system." He maps the broad landscape of changes in the social sciences, focusing especially intently on the ideas and practices associated with modernization theory, rational choice theory, and modeling. A highly accomplished historian, Heyck relays this complicated story with unusual clarity.
The Age of Wind Energy: Progress and Future Directions from a Global Perspective (Innovative Renewable Energy)
by Ali Sayigh David MilborrowThis unique volume on wind energy features contributions from the world’s leading research and development pioneers in the field of renewable energy. It discusses advances in offshore wind technology, grid-connected systems, grid stabilization and wind turbine design and highlights. Written from an international perspective, chapters focus on the status of wind energy in various regions and countries across the globe, outlining the positive impact its implementation has had on delaying the catastrophic effects of climate change.
The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
by Richard HolmesThe Age of Wonder is a colorful and utterly absorbing history of the men and women whose discoveries and inventions at the end of the eighteenth century gave birth to the Romantic Age of Science. When young Joseph Banks stepped onto a Tahitian beach in 1769, he hoped to discover Paradise. Inspired by the scientific ferment sweeping through Britain, the botanist had sailed with Captain Cook in search of new worlds. Other voyages of discovery—astronomical, chemical, poetical, philosophical—swiftly follow in Richard Holmes's thrilling evocation of the second scientific revolution. Through the lives of William Herschel and his sister Caroline, who forever changed the public conception of the solar system; of Humphry Davy, whose near-suicidal gas experiments revolutionized chemistry; and of the great Romantic writers, from Mary Shelley to Coleridge and Keats, who were inspired by the scientific breakthroughs of their day, Holmes brings to life the era in which we first realized both the awe-inspiring and the frightening possibilities of science—an era whose consequences are with us still.BONUS MATERIAL: This ebook edition includes an excerpt from Richard Holmes's Falling Upwards.
The Age of Wood: Our Most Useful Material and the Construction of Civilization
by Roland EnnosA &“smart and surprising&” (Booklist) &“expansive history&” (Publishers Weekly) detailing the role that wood and trees have played in our global ecosystem—including human evolution and the rise and fall of empires—in the bestselling tradition of Yuval Harari&’s Sapiens and Mark Kurlansky&’s Salt.As the dominant species on Earth, humans have made astonishing progress since our ancestors came down from the trees. But how did the descendants of small primates manage to walk upright, become top predators, and populate the world? How were humans able to develop civilizations and produce a globalized economy? Now, in The Age of Wood, Roland Ennos shows for the first time that the key to our success has been our relationship with wood. &“A lively history of biology, mechanics, and culture that stretches back 60 million years&” (Nature) The Age of Wood reinterprets human history and shows how our ability to exploit wood&’s unique properties has profoundly shaped our bodies and minds, societies, and lives. Ennos takes us on a sweeping journey from Southeast Asia and West Africa where great apes swing among the trees, build nests, and fashion tools; to East Africa where hunter gatherers collected their food; to the structural design of wooden temples in China and Japan; and to Northern England, where archaeologists trace how coal enabled humans to build an industrial world. Addressing the effects of industrialization—including the use of fossil fuels and other energy-intensive materials to replace timber—The Age of Wood not only shows the essential role that trees play in the history and evolution of human existence, but also argues that for the benefit of our planet we must return to more traditional ways of growing, using, and understanding trees. A brilliant blend of recent research and existing scientific knowledge, this is an &“excellent, thorough history in an age of our increasingly fraught relationships with natural resources&” (Kirkus Reviews, starred review).
Age Structured Epidemic Modeling (Interdisciplinary Applied Mathematics #52)
by Xue-Zhi Li Junyuan Yang Maia MartchevaThis book introduces advanced mathematical methods and techniques for analysis and simulation of models in mathematical epidemiology. Chronological age and class-age play an important role in the description of infectious diseases and this text provides the tools for the analysis of this type of partial differential equation models. This book presents general theoretical tools as well as large number of specific examples to guide the reader to develop their own tools that they may then apply to study structured models in mathematical epidemiology. The book will be a valuable addition to the arsenal of all researchers interested in developing theory or studying specific models with age structure.
The Ageing Brain (Studies on Neuropsychology, Development, and Cognition)
by Perminder S. SachdevWhen confronted with a neurological or psychiatric disorder in an elderly individual, a clinician or researcher is likely to ask how the processes of ageing have influenced the aetiology and presentation of the disorder, and will impact on its efficient management. There are many urban myths about ageing, and some of these apply to the brain. The r
The Ageing Brain
by Prof Lawrence WhalleyHow and why our brains age, and what we can do to prevent brain ageing and mental deterioration.We joke about growing old. From the viewpoint of youth, old age holds few if any rewards - at best those of increased dignity and wisdom. But as Lawrence Whalley shows in this fascinating overview of the ageing brain, we now have cause to be optimistic about old age.In surveying the prospects of slowing or even preventing the worst effects of brain ageing, Whalley looks at the development of the brain and how this is influenced by environmental factors such as diet and stress; the biological and psychological mechanisms of brain injury and disease, and the range of possible treatments and preventatives; individual differences in brain ageing, and the relative roles of nature and nurture in determining our mental abilities.
Ageing, Neuropsychology and the 'New' Dementias: Definitions, Explanations and Practical Approaches (Routledge Library Editions: Aging)
by Una HoldenUp to the 1990s, the influence of brain function disturbances and causes of dementia in the elderly had mostly been overlooked as a possible explanation for antisocial or unusual behaviour. As a result, these had tended not to be included in assessment and training programmes.
Ageing Well: Nutrition, Health, and Social Interventions (Society for the Study of Human Biology)
by Alan D. Dangour Emily M. D. Grundy Astrid E. FletcherMany current public health actions and policies aimed at older people revolve around the often prevailing view that failing health is a consequence of ageing. It is now clear that it is possible to postpone or even prevent much of the age-related decline in health that was once thought inevitable. Future policies must recognise this changing paradi
Ageism in Job Interviews: A Multimodal Discourse Analytical Perspective
by Dorien Van De Mieroop Federica Previtali Melina De DijnThis book investigates age categorizations and stereotyping in job interviews by drawing on a multimodal discourse analytical approach. While previous research on ageism has focused on what happens before or after the job interview, there is substantial evidence supporting the idea that the job interview is a pivotal moment in this respect as well. This is because the way in which the interaction unfolds significantly influences not only recruiters’ ultimate hiring decisions, but also candidates’ interest in pursuing the job offer further. This phase in the recruitment process is thus deserving of further scrutiny when it comes to ageism. The authors delve into age stereotypes regarding ‘old’ as well as ‘young’ age and tease out how they are ‘talked into being’ during job interviews, both by recruiters and candidates. By shedding light on the discursive dynamics of age-based prejudice, stereotyping and discrimination, this books thus aims to further understanding regarding how ageism actually plays out in in real life job interview interactions. The book will be of interest to academics working in fields including interactional sociolinguistics, pragmatics, diversity studies, human resource management and discursive psychology.
Ageless: The New Science of Getting Older Without Getting Old
by Andrew SteeleA startling chronicle by a brilliant young scientist takes us onto the frontiers of the science of aging, and reveals how close we are to an astonishing extension of our life spans and a vastly improved quality of life in our later years.Aging--not cancer, not heart disease--is the true underlying cause of most human death and suffering. We accept as inevitable that as we advance in years our bodies and minds begin to deteriorate and that we are ever more likely to be felled by dementia or disease. But we never really ask--is aging necessary? Biologists, on the other hand, have been investigating that question for years. After all, there are tortoises and salamanders whose risk of dying is the same no matter how old they are. With the help of science, could humans find a way to become old without getting frail, a phenomenon known as "biological immortality"?In Ageless, Andrew Steele, a computational biologist and science writer, takes us on a journey through the laboratories where scientists are studying every bodily system that declines with age--DNA, mitochondria, stem cells, our immune systems--and developing therapies to reverse the trend. With bell-clear writing and intellectual passion, Steele shines a spotlight on a little-known revolution already underway.
The Ageless Generation: How Advances in Biomedicine Will Transform the Global Economy
by Alex ZhavoronkovOver the past 20 years, the biomedical research community has been delivering hundreds of breakthroughs expected to extend human lifespan beyond thresholds imaginable today. However, much of this research has not yet been adopted into clinical practice, nor has it been widely publicized. Biomedicine will transform our society forever by allowing people to live longer and to continue working and contributing financially to the economy longer, rather than entering into retirement and draining the economy through pensions and senior healthcare. Old age will become a concept of the past, breakthroughs in regenerative medicine will continue, and an unprecedented boom to the global economy, with an influx of older able-bodied workers and consumers, will be a reality. A leading expert in aging research, author Alex Zhavoronkov provides a helicopter view on the progress science has already made, from repairing tissue damage to growing functional organs from a single cell, and illuminates the possibilities that the scientific and medical community will soon make into realities. The Ageless Generation is an engaging work that causes us to rethink our ideas of age and ability in the modern world.