- Table View
- List View
Enhancing Hubble's Vision
by David J. Shayler David M. HarlandThis book tells the story of the four missions to maintain Hubble's successful operation. Between 1997 and 2009 these repaired, serviced and upgraded the instruments on the telescope to maintain its state-of-the-art capabilities. It draws on first hand interviews with those closely involved in the project. The spacewalking skills and experiences gained from maintaining and upgrading Hubble had direct application to the construction of the International Space Station and help with its maintenance. These skills can be applied to future human and robotic satellite servicing and maintenance activities as well, not only in Earth orbit but at locations deeper in space. A companion to this book, The Hubble Space Telescope: From Concept to Success, relates the events of the Telescope's launch in 1990 and its rough start, after a 20-year struggle to place a large optical telescope in orbit. Originally intended to operate for fifteen years, Hubble has just passed its 25th anniversary, and there is every expectation that it will survive for thirty years. Despite its early problems, the Hubble Space Telescope has become a lasting legacy of the Space Shuttle program, and indeed is a national treasure.
Enhancing Hydrogen Storage Properties of Metal Hybrides
by Jacques HuotThis book shows how severe plastic deformation techniques could be used to enhance the hydrogen storage properties of metal hybrides. The mechanochemical techniques of ball-milling (BM), Cold Rolling (CR), Equal Chanel Angular Pressing (ECAP) and High Pressure Torsion (HPT) are covered. Each technique is described and critically assessed with respect to its usefulness to process metal hybrides at an industrial scale.
Enhancing Performance and Reducing Stress in Sports: Technological Advances
by Tijana Ivancevic Helen Greenberg Ronald GreenbergThis book is designed to help athletes and individuals interested in high sports performance in their journey towards the perfection of human sports abilities and achievements. It has two main goals: accelerating the acquisition of motor skills and preparing and vigilantly reducing the recovery time after training and competition. The Diamond Sports Protocol (DSP) presents state-of-the-art techniques for current sport and health technologies, particularly neuromuscular electrical stimulation (Sports Wave), oxygen infusion (Oxy Sports), infrared (Sports Infrared Dome) and lactic acid cleaning (Turbo Sports). The book suggest DSP as an essential part of every future athlete's training, competition and health maintenance. The book is for everyone interested in superior sports performance, fast and effective rehabilitation from training and competition and sports injury prevention.
Enhancing Photocatalytic Water Decontamination: Exploring the Efficacy of ZnO Nanorods in Advanced Treatment Processes (SpringerBriefs in Materials)
by Pierre Ramos Luis Sánchez Juan RodríguezThe book reviews the fundamentals of advanced oxidation processes (AOPs) technologies to degrade hazardous organics via photocatalysis of 1-dimensional zinc-oxide (ZnO). One-dimensional ZnO nanorods (ZnO-NRs) have been of utmost interest due to their high surface area, efficient charge transport, and superior photosensitivity. These features make ZnO-based nanorods exciting candidates for applications in photocatalysis. Even though photocatalysis using bare ZnO nanorods is useful in pollutant remediation, several drawbacks such as high recombination of photo−excited charge carriers and ineffective operation of sunlight make it less effective. This book thus presents a review of the current modification strategies carried out to increase the ZnO nanorods photoactivity, such as enhancing the photocatalytic activity of ZnO through modification of its electronic and optical properties, doping metal/nonmetal atoms, depositing noble metals, constructing heterojunctions, and coupling carbon materials. This book provides invaluable insights for researchers, engineers, and policymakers seeking sustainable solutions for pollutant degradation. Furthermore, the discussion on future directions illuminates the potential of ZnO nanorods as a promising photoactive material, fostering continued innovation and progress in the field.
Enhancing Resilience of Dryland Agriculture Under Changing Climate: Interdisciplinary and Convergence Approaches
by Anandkumar Naorem Deepesh MachiwalThis contributed volume describes management practices based on interdisciplinary and convergence science approaches from different disciplines of agricultural science to enhance the resilience of dryland agriculture. The main focus of this book is to address the current issues and trends along with future prospects and challenges in adopting salient agricultural management practices in drylands globally under a climate-change scenario. Climate change and global warming have profound repercussions on increasing frequency, severity, and duration of droughts and/or floods, which may have implications for future productivity of dryland agriculture, e.g., more water shortages or abundances and high or low runoff rates, diminished crop yields, and reduced water productivity. In past few years, many technological advancements and management strategies have been evolved to tackle the climate-induced risks of dryland agriculture considering interdisciplinary and convergence approaches that integrate knowledge from multi-disciplines. This book is an attempt to bridge the gap in literature by unraveling controversies and characteristics of dryland ecosystems under the changing climate and dealing with detailed procedures of applying the advanced practices adapted to climate change for management of dryland agriculture. This edited book is of interest to ecologists, economists, environmentalists, geologists, horticulturalists, hydrologists, soil scientists, social scientists, natural resource conservationists and policy makers dealing with dryland agriculture. This book offers a broad understanding of dryland agriculture and assists the reader to identify both the current as well as the probable future state of dryland agriculture in a global context.
Enhancing Smallholder Farmers' Access to Seed of Improved Legume Varieties Through Multi-stakeholder Platforms: Learning from the TLIII project Experiences in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia
by Essegbemon Akpo Chris O. Ojiewo Issoufou Kapran Lucky O. Omoigui Agathe Diama Rajeev K. VarshneyThis open access book shares the experiences of Tropical Legumes III (TLIII) project in facilitating access to seed of improved legume varieties to smallholder farmers through innovation platforms. It highlights practices and guiding principles implemented in eight developing countries of sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. This book details key processes that respective teams employed to create an innovation space that delivers seed, other inputs, knowledge and financial services to agricultural communities and most importantly, the underserved farmers in remote areas of the drylands. It offers valuable insights into the pathway to establishing, promoting and operating innovation platforms to enhance the performance and competitiveness of legume crops’ value chains, and addresses critical issues that must be considered to make innovation platforms more sustainable and attractive to beneficiaries. The book offers a wealth of practical insights for development workers, technical staff, and project managers. This publication is all about TLIII community of practice. It will definitely inspire other development workers and scientists to share their own experiences for others to learn from.
Enhancing the Light Output of Solid-State Emitters (Springer Theses)
by Christopher WoodheadThe significance of the development of solid-state lighting was underscored by the award of a Nobel Prize in 2014. It is important to build upon this work and to produce practical and versatile sources of quantum light, because these are essential components for the advancement of quantum photonic devices. These devices, in turn, promise new technologies that have the potential to revolutionize society. This book explores various ways of coupling quantum light into, and out of, solid-state emitters. The research presented here has led to important discoveries that will help overcome major challenges in this field.
Enhancing the Postdoctoral Experience for Scientists and Engineers: A Guide for Postdoctoral Scholars, Advisers, Institutions, Funding Organizations, and Disciplinary Societies
by Committee on Science Public PolicyThe concept of postdoctoral training came to science and engineering about a century ago. Since the 1960s, the performance of research in the United States has increasingly relied on these recent PhDs who work on a full-time, but on a temporary basis, to gain additional research experience in preparation for a professional research career. Such experiences are increasingly seen as central to careers in research, but for many, the postdoctoral experience falls short of expectations. Some postdocs indicate that they have not received the recognition, standing or compensation that is commensurate with their experience and skills. Is this the case? If so, how can the postdoctoral experience be enhanced for the over 40,000 individuals who hold these positions at university, government, and industry laboratories?This new book offers its assessment of the postdoctoral experience and provides principles, action points, and recommendations for enhancing that experience.
Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century
by Education Committee on Value Sustainability of Biological Field Stations Marine Laboratories Nature Reserves in the 21st Century Science Public OutreachFor over a century, field stations have been important entryways for scientists to study and make important discoveries about the natural world. They are centers of research, conservation, education, and public outreach, often embedded in natural environments that range from remote to densely populated urban locations. Because they lack traditional university departmental boundaries, researchers at field stations have the opportunity to converge their science disciplines in ways that can change careers and entire fields of inquiry. Field stations provide physical space for immersive research, hands-on learning, and new collaborations that are otherwise hard to achieve in the everyday bustle of research and teaching lives on campus. But the separation from university campuses that allows creativity to flourish also creates challenges. Sometimes, field stations are viewed as remote outposts and are overlooked because they tend to be away from population centers and their home institutions. This view is exacerbated by the lack of empirical evidence that can be used to demonstrate their value to science and society. "Enhancing the Value and Sustainability of Field Stations and Marine Laboratories in the 21st Century" summarizes field stations' value to science, education, and outreach and evaluates their contributions to research, innovation, and education. This report suggests strategies to meet future research, education, outreach, infrastructure, funding, and logistical needs of field stations. Today's technologies - such as streaming data, remote sensing, robot-driven monitoring, automated DNA sequencing, and nanoparticle environmental sensors - provide means for field stations to retain their special connection to nature and still interact with the rest of the world in ways that can fuel breakthroughs in the environmental, physical, natural, and social sciences. The intellectual and natural capital of today's field stations present a solid platform, but many need enhancements of infrastructure and dynamic leadership if they are to meet the challenges of the complex problems facing the world. This report focuses on the capability of field stations to address societal needs today and in the future.
Enhancing Water and Food Security Through Improved Agricultural Water Productivity: New Knowledge, Innovations and Applications
by Tafadzwanashe Mabhaudhi Vimbayi G. P. Chimonyo Aidan Senzanje Pauline P. ChivengeThis open-access edited book provides a synthesis of knowledge on Water Productivity (WP) and its role in addressing global challenges related to water and food insecurity, as well as climate change. It explores how increasing WP can contribute to achieving several Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the global South, with a focus on SDG 2, 6, and 12. The volume connects WP with emerging approaches such as the water-energy-food nexus, sustainable food systems, and the circular economy. It features case studies, critical analyses, and meta-analyses that bridge the science-policy-practice interface. The book also delves into WP's relation to global priorities, policies, and the empowerment of vulnerable communities, highlighting the non-negotiable rights to water and food. Governance, policies, and institutions are discussed in the context of enhancing WP in farmer-led irrigation and scaling WP technologies. The book also covers emerging methods for determining WP, assessing linkages to nutrition, health, and well-being, and integrating climate change adaptation and mitigation strategies. This is a guide for regional and international experts, professionals, and scholars interested in agricultural water management in the global south. The book has the potential to inform multi-regional and sectoral policies, particularly in Africa, and contribute to sustainable development through better resource management.
El enigma de los cielos: Una breve historia de la cosmología
by Juan Carlos SanabriaUn libro que nos habla del desarrollo de la cosmología a través de la historia. Arriba, en el cielo oscuro, están esos puntos de luz. Son miles. Unos brillan más que otros. Con algo de tiempo y atención veremos que se mueven y forman grupos. ¿Por qué son luminosos? ¿Por qué no caen encima nuestro? ¿Por qué se desplazan y regresan? ¿Cuál es su origen?, ¿cuál su destino?... La fascinación que despiertan el cielo y sus estrellas es tan antigua como el despertar mismo de la conciencia en nuestra especie. Con la aparición de las primeras civilizaciones este asombro tomó la forma de una ciencia que, junto a los astrónomos del mundo antiguo y sus sucesores, permitió reunir la evidencia que revela la sorprendente estructura y evolución de nuestro universo. Desde hace veinte años Juan Carlos Sanabria es profesor de Física de la Universidad de los Andes. Inspirado por las ideas, preguntas y emociones de sus alumnos -muchos de ellos sin formación científica- Sanabria decidió escribir un libro de divulgación que presentara el desarrollo de la cosmología a través de la historia. En El enigma de los cielos se unen la claridad en los conceptos, la presentación de temas científicos en su contexto histórico y un uso mínimo del lenguaje matemático sin sacrificar la profundidad de las discusiones que aborda. La historia de la cosmología es también la historia de una forma de comprender el mundo y lo que está fuera de él. Narra los puentes entre épocas y culturas, las vicisitudes y conquistas de mentes brillantes cuya tradición y conocimiento nos mueven hacia los confines del cosmos.
The Enigma of Reason
by Hugo MercierIf reason is so useful and reliable, why didn’t it evolve in other animals and why do humans produce so much thoroughly reasoned nonsense? Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber argue that reason is not geared to solitary use. It evolved to help justify our beliefs to others, evaluate their arguments, and better exploit our uniquely rich social environment.
The Enigma of the Aerofoil
by David BloorWhy do aircraft fly? How do their wings support them? In the early years of aviation, there was an intense dispute between British and German experts over the question of why and how an aircraft wing provides lift. The British, under the leadership of the great Cambridge mathematical physicist Lord Rayleigh, produced highly elaborate investigations of the nature of discontinuous flow, while the Germans, following Ludwig Prandtl in Göttingen, relied on the tradition called "technical mechanics" to explain the flow of air around a wing. Much of the basis of modern aerodynamics emerged from this remarkable episode, yet it has never been subject to a detailed historical and sociological analysis. In The Enigma of the Aerofoil, David Bloor probes a neglected aspect of this important period in the history of aviation. Bloor draws upon papers by the participants--their restricted technical reports, meeting minutes, and personal correspondence, much of which has never before been published--and reveals the impact that the divergent mathematical traditions of Cambridge and Göttingen had on this great debate. Bloor also addresses why the British, even after discovering the failings of their own theory, remained resistant to the German circulation theory for more than a decade. The result is essential reading for anyone studying the history, philosophy, or sociology of science or technology--and for all those intrigued by flight.
Enigmas (Darwin College Lectures)
by Emily Joan Ward Robin ReuversArising from the 2020 Darwin College Lectures, this book presents eight essays from prominent public intellectuals on the theme of Enigmas. Each author examines this theme through the lens of their own particular area of expertise, together constituting an illuminating and diverse interdisciplinary volume. Enigmas features contributions by professor of physics Sean M. Carroll, author Jo Marchant, writer and broadcaster Adam Rutherford, professor of earth sciences Tamsin A. Mather, professor of the history of the book Erik Kwakkel, reader in cultural history Tiffany Watt Smith, mathematician and public speaker James Grime, assistant professor of positive AI J. Derek Lomas, and explorer Albert Y.- M. Lin. This volume will appeal to anyone fascinated by puzzles and mysteries, solved and unsolved.
El enjambre humano: Cómo nuestras sociedades surgen, prosperan y caen
by Mark W. MoffettUn libro lleno de sorpresas que fascinará a los lectores de Harari y Diamond. Uno de los rasgos que distinguen a una comunidad de chimpancés de una comunidad humana es que, mientras que un neoyorquino puede volar hasta Borneo sin temer por su vida, un chimpancé que se aventure en territorio ajeno corre un peligro mortal. Los psicólogos no han ayudado mucho a explicar esta diferencia fundamental: durante décadas han defendido que el límite de un grupo social está en los ciento cincuenta miembros. Sin embargo, en la sociedad humana conviven muchísimos más individuos. ¿Cómo es posible esta convivencia? Mark W. Moffett rompe nuestros esquemas mentales a partir de hallazgos en los campos de la psicología, la sociología y la antropología y nos ofrece una brillante explicación de las adaptaciones sociales que unen las comunidades modernas. En la línea de grandes fenómenos editoriales como Sapiens y Armas, gérmenes y acero, El enjambre humano es una reveladora investigación sobre cómo el ser humano ha llegado a desarrollar complejísimas civilizaciones. La crítica ha dicho...«Moffett lleva a cabo una intrigante presentación de nuestra sociedad en el contexto del reino animal. Es una obra genial que debería despertar el interés de cualquier lector que sienta la más mínima curiosidad por las sociedades humanas, lo cual nos implica (o debería implicarnos) prácticamente a todos.»Publishers Weekly «Este libro, de agradable lectura, es ambicioso en su amplitud interdisciplinaria, riguroso en su ciencia y profundamente estimulante en sus implicaciones.»Robert Sapolsky, autor de Compórtate «Moffett tiene el alma de un explorador del siglo XIX, un naturalista errante en la estela de Darwin y Wallace.»Edward O. Wilson, premio Pulitzer «Un relato bien documentado y detallado sobre por qué las sociedades han sido parte fundamental de la experiencia humana desde nuestros más antiguos antepasados. Muy recomendable para los fans de Colapso, de Jared Diamond, y los de Sapiens, de Yuval Noah Harari.»Library Journal, crítica destacada «Un tour-de-force.»Donald Johanson, paleontólogo, descubridor de Lucy y fundador del Instituto de los Orígenes Humanos «Un fascinante recorrido por las estructuras de las sociedades y sus patrones de comportamiento.»Nature «Maravilloso.»The Financial Times «Asombroso... una serie de lecciones sobre los humanos y nuestras sociedades deliciosamente accesibles e ingeniosas.»Kirkus Reviews, crítica destacada
Enjeux contemporains de l'éducation scientifique et technologique (Collection Questions en éducation)
by Hasni, Abdelkrim; Lebeaume, JoëlAu cours de la dernière décennie, l’enseignement scolaire au Québec et en France a été profondément renouvelé et reconfiguré par des actions publiques en matière d’éducation et par les missions affectées à l’enseignement obligatoire. Les auteurs de cet ouvrage considèrent cette problématique en éducation scientifique et technologique. Ils montrent à la fois la diversité et la complémentarité des reconfigurations contemporaines de l’éducation scientifique et technologique dans la scolarité, touchant des sujets tels que l’enseignement général, l’enseignement agricole, la formation des enseignants, la formation citoyenne et l’éducation à l’environnement et au développement durable. Par les thématiques abordées, ils questionnent autant les curriculums dans leurs relations aux pratiques d’enseignement en classe que les impacts sur les objets et les questions de recherche en didactique. Avec des articles rédigés par Pierre Degret, Marc Boutet, André Giordan, Jean-Louis Martinand, Ghislain Samson et Laurence Simonneaux.
Enjoy Time: Stop Rushing. Get More Done. (Build + Become)
by Catherine BlythGain a better understanding of the nature of time and learn how to manage your time and improve your life.We are living longer than ever and, thanks to technology, we are able to accomplish so much more. So why do we feel time poor? In twenty eye-opening lessons, Catherine Blyth combines cutting-edge science and psychology to show why time runs away from you, then provides the tools to get it back.Learn why the clock speeds up just when you wish it would go slow, how your tempo can be manipulated and why we all misuse and miscalculate time. But you can beat the time thieves. Reset your body clock, refurbish your routine, harness momentum and slow down. Not only will time be more enjoyable, but you really will get more done.
Enlightened Environmentalism: How We Got Here and How to Rescue Our Future
by Anand M SaxenaA continuous search for comforts, conveniences, and novel objects has brought humanity to a state where a continuation of this process endangers the welfare, perhaps even survival of humanity. The present lifestyle of profligate consumption, aided by deve
The Enlightened Joseph Priestley: A Study of His Life and Work from 1733 to 1773
by Robert SchofieldJoseph Priestley (1733–1804) is one of the major figures of the English Enlightenment. A contemporary and friend of Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson, he exceeded even these polymaths in the breadth of his curiosity and learning. Yet no one has attempted an all-inclusive biography of Priestley, probably because he was simply too many persons for anyone easily to comprehend in a single study. Robert Schofield has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to this task. The result is a magisterial book, covering the life and works of Priestley during the critical first forty years of his life. <P><P>Although Priestley is best known as a chemist, this book is considerably more than a study in the history of science. As any good biographer must, Schofield has thoroughly studied the many activities in which Priestley was engaged. Among them are theology, electricity, chemistry, politics, English grammar, rhetoric, and educational philosophy. Schofield situates Priestley, the provincial dissenter, within the social, political, and intellectual contexts of his day and examines all the works Priestley wrote and published during this period. <P><P>Schofield singles out the first forty years of Priestley's life because these were the years of preparation and trial during which Priestley qualified for the achievements that were to make him famous. The discovery of oxygen, the defenses of Unitarianism, and the political liberalism that characterize the mature Priestley—all are foreshadowed in the young Priestley. A brief epilogue looks ahead to the next thirty years when Priestley was forced out of England and settled in Pennsylvania, the subject of Schofield's next book. But this volume stands alone as the definitive study of the making of Joseph Priestley.
The Enlightened Mr. Parkinson: The Pioneering Life Of A Forgotten Surgeon
by Cherry LewisA colorful and absorbing portrait of James Parkinson and the turbulent, intellectually vibrant world of Georgian London. Parkinson’s disease is one of the most common forms of dementia, with 60,000 new cases each year in the United States alone, yet few know anything about the man the disease is named after. In 1817—two hundred years years ago—James Parkinson (1755–1824) defined this mysterious ailment so precisely that we still diagnose Parkinson's Disease today by recognizing the symptoms he identified. The story of this remarkable man’s contributions to the Age of the Enlightenment is told through his three seemingly disparate passions: medicine, politics and fossils. As a political radical, Parkinson was interrogated over a plot to kill King George III and was in danger of exile. But simultaneously, he was helping Edward Jenner set up smallpox vaccination stations across London and writing the first scientific study of fossils in English, jump-starting a national craze. He is one of the intellectual pioneers of "the age of wonder," forgotten to history, but Cherry Lewis restores this amazing man to his rightful place in history with her evocative portrait of the man and his era.
Enlightenment Now: The Case for Reason, Science, Humanism, and Progress
by Steven Pinker<P> If you think the world is coming to an end, think again. Steven Pinker presents the big picture of human progress: people are living longer, healthier, freer, and happier lives, and while our problems are formidable, the solutions lie in the Enlightenment ideal of using reason and science.Is the world really falling apart? Is the ideal of progress obsolete? <P> In this elegant assessment of the human condition in the third millennium, cognitive scientist and public intellectual Steven Pinker urges us to step back from the gory headlines and prophecies of doom, which play to our psychological biases. <P>Instead, follow the data: In seventy-five jaw-dropping graphs, Pinker shows that life, health, prosperity, safety, peace, knowledge, and happiness are on the rise, not just in the West, but worldwide. This progress is not the result of some cosmic force. It is a gift of the Enlightenment: the conviction that reason and science can enhance human flourishing.Far from being a naïve hope, the Enlightenment, we now know, has worked. But more than ever, it needs a vigorous defense. <P>The Enlightenment project swims against currents of human nature--tribalism, authoritarianism, demonization, magical thinking--which demagogues are all too willing to exploit. Many commentators, committed to political, religious, or romantic ideologies, fight a rearguard action against it. The result is a corrosive fatalism and a willingness to wreck the precious institutions of liberal democracy and global cooperation. With intellectual depth and literary flair, Enlightenment Now makes the case for reason, science, and humanism: the ideals we need to confront our problems and continue our progress. <P><b>A New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden: Empire, Science, and Intellectual Culture in British New York
by John M. DixonWas there a conservative Enlightenment? Could a self-proclaimed man of learning and progressive science also have been an agent of monarchy and reaction? Cadwallader Colden (1688-1776), an educated Scottish emigrant and powerful colonial politician, was at the forefront of American intellectual culture in the mid-eighteenth century. While living in rural New York, he recruited family, friends, servants, and slaves into multiple scientific ventures and built a transatlantic network of contacts and correspondents that included Benjamin Franklin and Carl Linnaeus. Over several decades, Colden pioneered colonial botany, produced new theories of animal and human physiology, authored an influential history of the Iroquois, and developed bold new principles of physics and an engaging explanation of the cause of gravity. The Enlightenment of Cadwallader Colden traces the life and ideas of this fascinating and controversial "gentleman-scholar." John M. Dixon's lively and accessible account explores the overlapping ideological, social, and political worlds of this earliest of New York intellectuals. Colden and other learned colonials used intellectual practices to assert their gentility and establish their social and political superiority, but their elitist claims to cultural authority remained flimsy and open to widespread local derision. Although Colden, who governed New York as an unpopular Crown loyalist during the imperial crises of the 1760s and 1770s, was brutally lampooned by the New York press, his scientific work, which was published in Europe, raised the international profile of American intellectualism.
The Enlightenment of Thomas Beddoes: Science, medicine, and reform (Science, Technology and Culture, 1700-1945)
by Trevor Levere Larry Stewart Hugh Torrens Joseph WachelderThomas Beddoes (1760-1808) lived in ‘decidedly interesting times’ in which established orders in politics and science were challenged by revolutionary new ideas. Enthusiastically participating in the heady atmosphere of Enlightenment debate, Beddoes' career suffered from his radical views on politics and science. Denied a professorship at Oxford, he set up a medical practice in Bristol in 1793. Six years later - with support from a range of leading industrialists and scientists including the Wedgwoods, Erasmus Darwin, James Watt, James Keir and others associated with the Lunar Society - he established a Pneumatic Institution for investigating the therapeutic effects of breathing different kinds of ‘air’ on a wide spectrum of diseases. The treatment of the poor, gratis, was an important part of the Pneumatic Institution and Beddoes, who had long concerned himself with their moral and material well-being, published numerous pamphlets and small books about their education, wretched material circumstances, proper nutrition, and the importance of affordable medical facilities. Beddoes’ democratic political concerns reinforced his belief that chemistry and medicine should co-operate to ameliorate the conditions of the poor. But those concerns also polarized the medical profession and the wider community of academic chemists and physicians, many of whom became mistrustful of Beddoes’ projects due to his radical politics. Highlighting the breadth of Beddoes’ concerns in politics, chemistry, medicine, geology, and education (including the use of toys and models), this book reveals how his reforming and radical zeal were exemplified in every aspect of his public and professional life, and made for a remarkably coherent program of change. He was frequently a contrarian, but not without cause, as becomes apparent once he is viewed in the round, as part of the response to the politics and social pressures of the late Enlightenment.
The Enlightenment Vision
by Stuart JordanIn the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, a major cultural shift took place in western Europe. Leading thinkers began to emphasize the use of reason to tackle the challenges of material and social life, and they questioned the tenets of Christianity concerning the existence of God, the purpose of life, and the needs of the individual. Instead of religion, intellectuals put their faith in science and humanistic ethics in the hope of improving the secular lives of people everywhere. Today we call this development the Enlightenment. Contemporary society is the principal beneficiary of Enlightenment discoveries. This thought-provoking analysis evaluates the progress that global society has made since the Enlightenment. The author begins by pointing out features of present-day society that are the direct descendants of the Enlightenment's discoveries and advances: our technology, modern medicine, science-based worldview, democratic political institutions, and concepts of human rights are all an outgrowth of the pioneering efforts of Enlightenment reformers. But along with these benefits, the author notes that we are also the inheritors of some significant problems produced in the wake of these advances; overpopulation, nuclear proliferation, and global climate change are just some of the recent developments that seem to threaten the whole Enlightenment project. Other great concerns include the continuing economic disparity between prosperous and impoverished nations, the persistence of widespread ignorance, and destructive reactionary forces bent on provoking new conflicts. Despite these and other daunting challenges of the twenty-first century, the author concludes on a cautiously optimistic note, predicting that the Enlightenment vision of prosperity, security, justice, and good health for all will eventually be achieved.
Enough: Staying Human in an Engineered Age
by Bill MckibbenWe are on the verge of crossing the line from born to made, from created to built. Sometime in the next few years, a scientist will reprogram a human egg or sperm cell, spawning a genetic change that could be passed down into eternity. We are sleepwalking toward the future, argues Bill McKibben, and it's time to open our eyes. In "The End of Nature", nearly fifteen years ago, McKibben demonstrated that humanity had begun to irrevocably alter--and endanger--our environment on a global scale. Now he turns his eye to an array of technologies that could change our relationship not with the rest of nature but with ourselves. He explores the frontiers of genetic engineering, robotics, and nanotechnology--all of which we are approaching with astonishing speed--and shows that each threatens to take us past a point of no return. We now stand at a critical threshold, poised between the human past and a post-human future. Ultimately, McKibben offers a celebration of what it means to be human, and a warning that we risk the loss of all meaning if we step across the threshold. His wise and eloquent book argues that we cannot forever grow in reach and power--that we must at last learn how to say, 'Enough.'