- Table View
- List View
The Extravagant Universe: Exploding Stars, Dark Energy, and the Accelerating Cosmos
by Robert P. KirshnerThe Extravagant Universe tells the story of a remarkable adventure of scientific discovery. One of the world's leading astronomers, Robert Kirshner, takes readers inside a lively research team on the quest that led them to an extraordinary cosmological discovery: the expansion of the universe is accelerating under the influence of a dark energy that makes space itself expand. In addition to sharing the story of this exciting discovery, Kirshner also brings the science up-to-date in a new epilogue. He explains how the idea of an accelerating universe--once a daring interpretation of sketchy data--is now the standard assumption in cosmology today. This measurement of dark energy--a quality of space itself that causes cosmic acceleration--points to a gaping hole in our understanding of fundamental physics. In 1917, Einstein proposed the "cosmological constant" to explain a static universe. When observations proved that the universe was expanding, he cast this early form of dark energy aside. But recent observations described first-hand in this book show that the cosmological constant--or something just like it--dominates the universe's mass and energy budget and determines its fate and shape. Warned by Einstein's blunder, and contradicted by the initial results of a competing research team, Kirshner and his colleagues were reluctant to accept their own result. But, convinced by evidence built on their hard-earned understanding of exploding stars, they announced their conclusion that the universe is accelerating in February 1998. Other lines of inquiry and parallel supernova research now support a new synthesis of a cosmos dominated by dark energy but also containing several forms of dark matter. We live in an extravagant universe with a surprising number of essential ingredients: the real universe we measure is not the simplest one we could imagine.
The Extreme Future
by James CantonA renowned global futurist prepares businesses and individuals for the radical changes on the horizon An advisor to three presidents spanning over thirty years, Dr. James Canton identifies probable outcomes and future trends in business, technology, environment, terrorism, population, and medicine to help companies and individuals prepare for the coming complex and volatile global changes, including: * How climate change and energy trends will reshape the planet* How astounding medicine trends will enhance people's lives* How the rise of China will bring on a new global power struggle In the tradition of Future Shock, Megatrends, and The Tipping Point, Extreme Future is the essential forecasting handbook for navigating the twenty-first century.
The Extreme Life of the Sea
by Anthony R. Palumbi Stephen R. PalumbiA thrilling tour of the sea's most extreme species, written by one of the world's leading marine scientistsThe ocean teems with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes readers to the absolute limits of the ocean world—the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It dives into the icy Arctic and boiling hydrothermal vents—and exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches—to show how marine life thrives against the odds. This thrilling book brings to life the sea's most extreme species, and tells their stories as characters in the drama of the oceans. Coauthored by Stephen Palumbi, one of today’s leading marine scientists, The Extreme Life of the Sea tells the unforgettable tales of some of the most marvelous life forms on Earth, and the challenges they overcome to survive. Modern science and a fluid narrative style give every reader a deep look at the lives of these species.The Extreme Life of the Sea shows you the world’s oldest living species. It describes how flying fish strain to escape their predators, how predatory deep-sea fish use red searchlights only they can see to find and attack food, and how, at the end of her life, a mother octopus dedicates herself to raising her batch of young. This wide-ranging and highly accessible book also shows how ocean adaptations can inspire innovative commercial products—such as fan blades modeled on the flippers of humpback whales—and how future extremes created by human changes to the oceans might push some of these amazing species over the edge.An enhanced edition is also available and includes eleven videos.
The Extreme Life of the Sea (Princeton Science Library #125)
by Anthony R. Palumbi Stephen R. PalumbiA thrilling tour of the sea's most extreme species, coauthored by one of the world's leading marine scientistsThe ocean teems with life that thrives under difficult situations in unusual environments. The Extreme Life of the Sea takes readers to the absolute limits of the ocean world—the fastest and deepest, the hottest and oldest creatures of the oceans. It dives into the icy Arctic and boiling hydrothermal vents—and exposes the eternal darkness of the deepest undersea trenches—to show how marine life thrives against the odds. This thrilling book brings to life the sea's most extreme species, and tells their stories as characters in the drama of the oceans. Coauthored by Stephen Palumbi, one of today’s leading marine scientists, The Extreme Life of the Sea tells the unforgettable tales of some of the most marvelous life forms on Earth, and the challenges they overcome to survive. Modern science and a fluid narrative style give every reader a deep look at the lives of these species.The Extreme Life of the Sea shows you the world’s oldest living species. It describes how flying fish strain to escape their predators, how predatory deep-sea fish use red searchlights only they can see to find and attack food, and how, at the end of her life, a mother octopus dedicates herself to raising her batch of young. This wide-ranging and highly accessible book also shows how ocean adaptations can inspire innovative commercial products—such as fan blades modeled on the flippers of humpback whales—and how future extremes created by human changes to the oceans might push some of these amazing species over the edge.
The Eye of War: Military Perception from the Telescope to the Drone
by Antoine BousquetHow perceptual technologies have shaped the history of war from the Renaissance to the present From ubiquitous surveillance to drone strikes that put &“warheads onto foreheads,&” we live in a world of globalized, individualized targeting. The perils are great. In The Eye of War, Antoine Bousquet provides both a sweeping historical overview of military perception technologies and a disquieting lens on a world that is, increasingly, one in which anything or anyone that can be perceived can be destroyed—in which to see is to destroy. Arguing that modern-day global targeting is dissolving the conventionally bounded spaces of armed conflict, Bousquet shows that over several centuries, a logistical order of militarized perception has come into ascendancy, bringing perception and annihilation into ever-closer alignment. The efforts deployed to evade this deadly visibility have correspondingly intensified, yielding practices of radical concealment that presage a wholesale disappearance of the customary space of the battlefield. Beginning with the Renaissance&’s fateful discovery of linear perspective, The Eye of War discloses the entanglement of the sciences and techniques of perception, representation, and localization in the modern era amid the perpetual quest for military superiority. In a survey that ranges from the telescope, aerial photograph, and gridded map to radar, digital imaging, and the geographic information system, Bousquet shows how successive technological systems have profoundly shaped the history of warfare and the experience of soldiering. A work of grand historical sweep and remarkable analytical power, The Eye of War explores the implications of militarized perception for the character of war in the twenty-first century and the place of human subjects within its increasingly technical armature.
The Eye of the Sandpiper: Stories from the Living World
by Brandon KeimIn The Eye of the Sandpiper, Brandon Keim pairs cutting-edge science with a deep love of nature, conveying his insights in prose that is both accessible and beautiful. In an elegant, thoughtful tour of nature in the twenty-first century, Keim continues in the tradition of Lewis Thomas, Stephen Jay Gould, and David Quammen, reporting from the frontiers of science while celebrating the natural world’s wonders and posing new questions about our relationship to the rest of life on Earth. The stories in The Eye of the Sandpiper are arranged in four thematic sections. Each addresses nature through a different lens. The first is evolutionary and ecological dynamics, from how patterns form on butterfly wings to the ecological importance of oft-reviled lampreys. The second section explores the inner lives of animals, which science has only recently embraced: empathy in rats, emotions in honeybees, spirituality in chimpanzees. The third section contains stories of people acting on insights both ecological and ethological: nourishing blighted rivers, but also caring for injured pigeons at a hospital for wild birds and demanding legal rights for primates. The fourth section unites ecology and ethology in discussions of ethics: how we should think about and behave toward nature, and the place of wildness in a world in which space for wilderness is shrinking. By appreciating the nonhuman world more fully, Keim writes, "I hope people will also act in ways that nourish rather than impoverish its life—which is, ultimately, the problem that needs to be solved at this Anthropocene moment, with a sixth mass extinction looming, once-common animals becoming rare, and Earth straining to support 7.5 billion people. The solution will come from a love of nature rather than chastisement or lamentation."
The Eye of the Whale: A Rescue Story (Tilbury House Nature Book #0)
by Jennifer O'ConnellOn a cool December morning near San Francisco, a distress call was radioed to shore by a local fisherman. He had discovered a humpback whale tangled in hundreds of yards of crab-trap lines, struggling to stay afloat. A team of volunteers answered the call, and four divers risked their lives to rescue the enormous animal. It was the first successful whale disentanglement performed off the West Coast of the United States and prompted a rare and remarkable demonstration of animal behavior. As people found out about the event, questions arose. Did the whale help the divers by staying still and calm as they cut the lines or was she just exhausted? Was the whale full of joy after being freed or did she swim in circles to stretch out her huge body after being tied up for so long? How do we explain the whale nudging all the divers, then looking directly at them? (The divers said that this was one of the most fantastic moments of their lives.) This celebrated story, beautifully depicted in Jennifer O'Connell's mesmerizing paintings, will make you wonder about animal emotions and the unique connections we can have with other animals, even whales. To research The Eye of the Whale, Jennifer traveled to San Francisco where she met Captain Mick Menigoz and rode his rescue boat, Superfish, out into the Pacific Ocean to the area where the events in the book took place. This experience fueled her inspiration as she created the images and words of this extraordinary story.
The Eyeball Alphabet Book (Jerry Pallotta's Alphabet Books)
by Jerry PallottaBest-selling author Jerry Pallotta takes a peek at eyes from across the animal kingdom in this hilarious and fact-packed alphabet book.The eyes have it! Laugh as you learn by staring right into the eyes of familiar animals (A is for alligator eye) and not-so-familiar ones (Z is for zebu eye!). Readers of all ages will be entertained with every page turn. Language learning bonus: each page defines an idiom that includes the word "eye"!
The FLP Microsatellite Platform
by Jens EickhoffThis book represents the Flight Operations Manual for a reusable microsatellite platform - the "Future Low-cost Platform" (FLP), developed at the University of Stuttgart, Germany. It provides a basic insight on the onboard software functions, the core data handling system and on the power, communications, attitude control and thermal subsystem of the platform. Onboard failure detection, isolation and recovery functions are treated in detail. The platform is suited for satellites in the 50-150 kg class and is baseline of the microsatellite "Flying Laptop" from the University. The book covers the essential information for ground operators to controls an FLP-based satellite applying international command and control standards (CCSDS and ECSS PUS). Furthermore it provides an overview on the Flight Control Center in Stuttgart and on the link to the German Space Agency DLR Ground Station which is used for early mission phases. Flight procedure and mission planning chapters complement the book.
The FOS and JUN Families of Transcription Factors (CRC Press Revivals)
by Peter E. Angel Peter HerrlichThis book introduces and analyzes the crucial role of AP-1 in cell growth, proliferation, differentiation, and apoptosis. AP-1 is the endpoint of several pathways of signal transduction, including one that triggers cancerous growth. The control of its activity is an issue of basic science, cancer therapy, and other diseases. The chapters provide multiple viewpoints of the emerging data on AP-1, including its role as a factor regulating genes involved in the metastatic properties of cancer, as a factor that interacts with viral gene products, and as a part of the mechanism by which steroid and retinoic acid receptors function as anti-inflammatory proteins.
The Fabric of Empire: Material and Literary Cultures of the Global Atlantic, 1650-1850 (Studies in Early American Economy and Society from the Library Company of Philadelphia)
by Danielle C. SkeehanRevealing the entangled lives of texts and textiles in the early modern Atlantic world."Textiles are the books that the colony was not able to burn."—Asociación Femenina para el Desarrollo de Sacatepéquez (AFEDES)A history of the book in the Americas, across deep time, would reveal the origins of a literary tradition woven rather than written. It is in what Danielle Skeehan calls material texts that a people's history and culture is preserved, in their embroidery, their needlework, and their woven cloth. In defining textiles as a form of cultural writing, The Fabric of Empire challenges long-held ideas about authorship, textuality, and the making of books. It is impossible to separate text from textiles in the early modern Atlantic: novels, newspapers, broadsides, and pamphlets were printed on paper made from household rags. Yet the untethering of text from textile served a colonial agenda to define authorship as reflected in ink and paper and the pen as an instrument wielded by learned men and women. Skeehan explains that the colonial definition of the book, and what constituted writing and authorship, left colonial regimes blind to nonalphabetic forms of media that preserved cultural knowledge, history, and lived experience. This book shifts how we look at cultural objects such as books and fabric and provides a material and literary history of resistance among the globally dispossessed.Each chapter examines the manufacture and global circulation of a particular type of cloth alongside the complex print networks that ensured the circulation of these textiles, promoted their production, petitioned for or served to curtail the rights of textile workers, facilitated the exchange of textiles for human lives, and were, in turn, printed and written on surfaces manufactured from broken-down linen and cotton fibers. Bringing together methods and materials traditionally belonging to literary studies, book history, and material culture studies, The Fabric of Empire provides a new model for thinking about the different media, languages, literacies, and textualities in the early Atlantic world.
The Fabric of Reality
by David DeutschAn extraordinary and challenging synthesis of ideas uniting Quantum Theory, and the theories of Computation, Knowledge and Evolution, Deutsch's extraordinary book explores the deep connections between these strands which reveal the fabric of realityin which human actions and ideas play essential roles.
The Fabric of Space: Water, Modernity, and the Urban Imagination (The\mit Press Ser.)
by Matthew GandyA study of water at the intersection of landscape and infrastructure in Paris, Berlin, Lagos, Mumbai, Los Angeles, and London.Water lies at the intersection of landscape and infrastructure, crossing between visible and invisible domains of urban space, in the tanks and buckets of the global South and the vast subterranean technological networks of the global North. In this book, Matthew Gandy considers the cultural and material significance of water through the experiences of six cities: Paris, Berlin, Lagos, Mumbai, Los Angeles, and London. Tracing the evolving relationships among modernity, nature, and the urban imagination, from different vantage points and through different periods, Gandy uses water as a lens through which to observe both the ambiguities and the limits of nature as conventionally understood. Gandy begins with the Parisian sewers of the nineteenth century, captured in the photographs of Nadar, and the reconstruction of subterranean Paris. He moves on to Weimar-era Berlin and its protection of public access to lakes for swimming, the culmination of efforts to reconnect the city with nature. He considers the threat of malaria in Lagos, where changing geopolitical circumstances led to large-scale swamp drainage in the 1940s. He shows how the dysfunctional water infrastructure of Mumbai offers a vivid expression of persistent social inequality in a postcolonial city. He explores the incongruous concrete landscapes of the Los Angeles River. Finally, Gandy uses the fictional scenario of a partially submerged London as the starting point for an investigation of the actual hydrological threats facing that city.
The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality (Penguin Press Science Ser.)
by Brian GreeneFrom Brian Greene, one of the world's leading physicists and author the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? Greene has set himself a daunting task: to explain non-intuitive, mathematical concepts like String Theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Inflationary Cosmology with analogies drawn from common experience. From Newton's unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein's fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics' entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Fabry-Perot Interferometer: History, Theory, Practice and Applications
by M VaughanThe Fabry-Perot Interferometer: History, Theory, Practice and Applications presents an invaluable introduction to the Fabry-Perot interferometer, including a brief overview of its history, a look at its applications, and plenty of practical advice on how to use the instrument.
The Face That Demonstrates the Farce of Evolution
by Hank HanegraaffLooking into the face of our alleged ape ancestor, popular Christian apologist Hank Hanegraaff dissects and debunks the astonishingly weak arguments for the evolutionary theory, revealing it as nothing more than a "fairy tale for grown-ups." The author uses his own Memory Dynamics to make it easy for Christians to speak intelligently about evolution and speak persuasively about the Creator.
The Face of Emotion: How Botox Affects Our Moods and Relationships
by Eric FinziWilliam Shakespeare famously wrote that "a face is like a book," and common wisdom has it that our faces reveal our deep-seated emotions. But what if the reverse were also true? What if our facial expressions set our moods instead of revealing them? What if there were actual science to support the exhortation, "smile, be happy?" Dermatologic surgeon Eric Finzi has been studying that question for nearly two decades, and in this ground breaking book he marshals evidence suggesting that our facial expressions are not secondary to, but rather a central driving force of, our emotions. Based on clinical experience and original research, Dr. Finzi shows how changing a person's face not only affects their relationships with others but also with themselves. In his studies using Botox, he has shown how inhibiting the frown of clinically depressed patients leads many to experience relief. This work is a dramatic departure from the neuroscience-based thinking on emotions that tends to view emotions solely as the result of neurotransmitters in the brain. Part absorbing medical narrative, part think piece on the nature of emotion, this is a bold call for us to rethink the causes of unhappiness.
The Factory
by Catherine EganStep inside the Factory in this suspenseful exploration of power, exploitation, and the nature of time that Kirkus calls a "gripping, fast-paced story with a cliffhanger ending," and a "complex beginning to what will surely be a sought-after series"!Thirteen-year-old Asher Doyle is no stranger to misfortune. Bullied at school and struggling with problems at home, he dreams of the day he can leave it all behind him. That's when he receives an unexpected opportunity: an invitation to join the Factory -- a top-secret research facility that's supposedly developing renewable energy -- and Asher will be paid handsomely for his participation. It seems like the answer to all his problems.But not everything is as it seems at the Factory. The other kids in the program are tired and sullen, almost as if they've had the life sucked out of them, and the staff members are clearly hiding something. What's more, Asher discovers he wasn't chosen at random; someone in the program desperately wants him to participate. Asher can't help but feel that whatever the Factory is doing, it's not what he or any of the other kids signed up for.To Asher's horror, it turns out that the Factory isn't developing renewable energy at all. So what is the Factory up to, more important, why? As conditions in the Factory worsen, Asher must team up with the other kids to uncover the sinister truth behind the experiment -- and his personal connection to it -- before someone gets seriously hurt.
The Failed Rotator Cuff: Diagnosis and Management
by Augustus D. Mazzocca Emilio Calvo Felix H. SavoieRotator cuff surgery is currently the most common surgical procedure involving the shoulder. Unfortunately despite major technical advances, there is still a significant rate of failure of primary rotator cuff repair, ranging from 10% to 40%. This book describes the diagnosis, classification, assessment, and management of failed rotator cuff repairs. It also explores the etiology of the failed repairs, presents a series of treatment options, and discusses the complications. In a multidisciplinary format it addresses both how to prevent failure and how to diagnose and manage the failed rotator cuff, including imaging, laboratory testing, nutrition, surgery and rehabilitation. This comprehensive book, published in collaboration with ISAKOS, appeals to all stakeholders in orthopedic medicine and surgery.
The Failures of Mathematical Anti-Evolutionism
by Jason RosenhouseAnti-scientific misinformation has become a serious problem on many fronts, including vaccinations and climate change. One of these fronts is the persistence of anti-evolutionism, which has recently been given a superficially professional gloss in the form of the intelligent design movement. Far from solely being of interest to researchers in biology, anti-evolutionism must be recognized as part of a broader campaign with a conservative religious and political agenda. Much of the rhetorical effectiveness of anti-evolutionism comes from its reliance on seemingly precise mathematical arguments. This book, the first of its kind to be written by a mathematician, discusses and refutes these arguments. Along the way, it also clarifies common misconceptions about both biology and mathematics. Both lay audiences and professionals will find the book to be accessible and informative.
The Fairness Instinct
by L. SunCombining research from the social sciences, hard sciences, and the humanities, this accessible cross-disciplinary book offers fascinating insights into a key component of human nature and society. Biologist L. Sun examines the innate sense of fairness displayed by human beings in all kinds of societies throughout history. He argues persuasively that it is an emotion and behavior rooted in our DNA, rather than a product of ideology or convention. Citing animal studies that show that even monkeys react negatively to patently unfair treatment, Sun delves into the issue of why this instinct may have evolved with a new biological framework. Specifically, he identifies two selective forces behind the evolution of fairness. One is the need for resolving conflicts of interest in social groups, and the other is a bottom-up drive pushing toward equality in resource sharing in the hierarchies of society. Turning to the down side of the fairness instinct, the author shows that when it plays too great a role in leveling inequalities, it can have negative repercussions, such as a society where outstanding achievers arouse envy and only mediocrity is condoned. Even worse is the vicious cycle of spite resulting from an injured sense of fairness, which can easily spill over into violence. Finally, the author considers the role that fairness plays in religion with its promise to ultimately overcome the prejudices and inequality of human society by offering the hope of divine justice.
The Fairy Tale of Nuclear Fusion
by L. J. ReindersThis carefully researched book presents facts and arguments showing, beyond a doubt, that nuclear fusion power will not be technically feasible in time to satisfy the world's urgent need for climate-neutral energy.The author describes the 70-year history of nuclear fusion; the vain attempts to construct an energy-generating nuclear fusion power reactor, and shows that even in the most optimistic scenario nuclear fusion, in spite of the claims of its proponents, will not be able to make a sizable contribution to the energy mix in this century, whatever the outcome of ITER. This implies that fusion power will not be a factor in combating climate change, and that the race to save the climate with carbon-free energy will have been won or lost long before the first nuclear fusion power station comes on line.Aimed at the general public as well as those whose decisions directly affect energy policy, this book will be a valuable resource for informing future debates.
The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: Order, Meaning, and Free Will in Modern Medical Science
by Robert E. PollackAn award-winning biologist presents his moving yet deeply reasoned discussion on the intersection of scientific method and religious faith.
The Faith of Biology and the Biology of Faith: Order, Meaning, and Free Will in Modern Medical Science (Leonard Hastings Schoff Lectures)
by Robert PollackAre there parallels between the "moment of insight" in science and the emergence of the "unknowable" in religious faith? Where does scientific insight come from? Award-winning biologist Robert Pollack argues that an alliance between religious faith and science is not necessarily an argument in favor of irrationality: the two can inform each other's visions of the world.Pollack begins by reflecting on the large questions of meaning and purpose—and the difficulty of finding either in the orderly world described by the data of science. He considers the obligation to find meaning and purpose despite natural selection's claim to be a complete explanation of our presence as a species—a claim that calls upon neither natural intention, nor design, nor Designer. Next, the book focuses on matters of free will, from the choice of a scientist to accept evidence, to the choice of a religious person to accept a revelation, to a patient's loss of free will in medical treatment. Here Pollack addresses questions of ethics and offers a provocative comparison of two difficult texts whose contents remain incompletely understood: the DNA "text" of the human genome and the Hebrew record of Jewish written and oral law. In closing, Pollack considers the promise of genetic medicine in enabling us to glimpse our own future and offers a reconsideration of the possible utility of the so-called placebo effect in curing illness.Whether refuting a DNA-based biological model of Judaism or discussing the Darwinian concept of the species, Pollack, under the banner of free inquiry, presents a genuine, vital, and well-argued assay of the intersection of science and religion.
The Faith of Scientists: In Their Own Words
by Nancy K. FrankenberryThe Faith of Scientists is an anthology of writings by twenty-one legendary scientists, from the dawn of the Scientific Revolution to the frontiers of science today, about their faith, their views about God, and the place religion holds--or doesn't--in their lives in light of their commitment to science. This is the first book to bring together so many world-renowned figures of Western science and present them in their own words, offering an intimate window into their private and public reflections on science and faith. Leading religion scholar Nancy Frankenberry draws from diaries, personal letters, speeches, essays, and interviews, and reveals that the faith of scientists can take many different forms, whether religious or secular, supernatural or naturalistic, conventional or unorthodox. These eloquent writings reflect a spectrum of views from diverse areas of scientific inquiry. Represented here are some of the most influential and colossal personalities in the history of science, from the founders of science such as Galileo, Johannes Kepler, Francis Bacon, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, and Albert Einstein, to modern-day scientists like Carl Sagan, Stephen Jay Gould, Jane Goodall, Freeman Dyson, Stephen Hawking, Edward O. Wilson, and Ursula Goodenough. Frankenberry provides a general introduction as well as concise introductions to each chapter that place these writings in context and suggest further reading from the latest scholarship. As surprising as it is illuminating and inspiring, The Faith of Scientists is indispensable for students, scholars, and anyone seeking to immerse themselves in important questions about God, the universe, and science.