Tag Archives: science & nature
The Greatest Story Ever Told–So Far – Lawrence M. Krauss

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Algorithms to Live By – Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths

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The Computer Science of Human Decisions
Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $9.99
Publish Date: April 19, 2016
Publisher: Henry Holt and Co.
Seller: Macmillan / Holtzbrinck Publishers, LLC
A fascinating exploration of how computer algorithms can be applied to our everyday lives, helping to solve common decision-making problems and illuminate the workings of the human mind All our lives are constrained by limited space and time, limits that give rise to a particular set of problems. What should we do, or leave undone, in a day or a lifetime? How much messiness should we accept? What balance of new activities and familiar favorites is the most fulfilling? These may seem like uniquely human quandaries, but they are not: computers, too, face the same constraints, so computer scientists have been grappling with their version of such problems for decades. And the solutions they've found have much to teach us. In a dazzlingly interdisciplinary work, acclaimed author Brian Christian (who holds degrees in computer science, philosophy, and poetry, and works at the intersection of all three) and Tom Griffiths (a UC Berkeley professor of cognitive science and psychology) show how the simple, precise algorithms used by computers can also untangle very human questions. They explain how to have better hunches and when to leave things to chance, how to deal with overwhelming choices and how best to connect with others. From finding a spouse to finding a parking spot, from organizing one's inbox to understanding the workings of human memory, Algorithms to Live By transforms the wisdom of computer science into strategies for human living.
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Long for This World – Jonathan Weiner

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The Strange Science of Immortality
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: June 22, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins e-books
Seller: HarperCollins
“[A] searching and surprisingly witty look at the scientific odds against tomorrow.” —Timothy Ferris Jonathan Weiner—winner of the  Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and one of the most distinguished popular science writers in America—examines “the strange science of immortality” in Long for This World. A fast-paced, sure-to-astonish scientific adventure from “one of our finest science journalists” (Jonah Lehrer), Weiner’s Long for This World addresses the ageless question, “Is there a secret to eternal youth?” And has it, at long last, been found?
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Whole Earth Discipline – Stewart Brand

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Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: October 15, 2009
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Seller: Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
An icon of the environmental movement outlines a provocative approach for reclaiming our planet According to Stewart Brand, a lifelong environmentalist who sees everything in terms of solvable design problems, three profound transformations are under way on Earth right now. Climate change is real and is pushing us toward managing the planet as a whole. Urbanization?half the world?s population now lives in cities, and eighty percent will by midcentury?is altering humanity?s land impact and wealth. And biotechnology is becoming the world?s dominant engineering tool. In light of these changes, Brand suggests that environmentalists are going to have to reverse some longheld opinions and embrace tools that they have traditionally distrusted. Only a radical rethinking of traditional green pieties will allow us to forestall the cataclysmic deterioration of the earth?s resources. Whole Earth Discipline shatters a number of myths and presents counterintuitive observations on why cities are actually greener than countryside, how nuclear power is the future of energy, and why genetic engineering is the key to crop and land management. With a combination of scientific rigor and passionate advocacy, Brand shows us exactly where the sources of our dilemmas lie and offers a bold and inventive set of policies and solutions for creating a more sustainable society. In the end, says Brand, the environmental movement must become newly responsive to fast-moving science and take up the tools and discipline of engineering. We have to learn how to manage the planet?s global-scale natural infrastructure with as light a touch as possible and as much intervention as necessary.
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Please Explain – Karl Kruszelnicki

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Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: May 1, 2010
Publisher: HarperCollins
Seller: HarperCollins
Australia's favourite scientist's twenty-sixth book! 'What are the facts? Again and again and again – what are the facts? Shun wishful thinking … avoid opinion … facts are your single clue. Get the facts!' – time Enough for Love, Robert Heinlein Does eating celery make you lighter? Do you have to be dying to have a near-death experience? Is a yawn a silent, natural scream for air; and if a little oxygen is good for you is more oxygen better? Can the humble spud kill? Did Galileo drop his balls from the Leaning tower of Pisa? Did a NASA computer really prove a miracle in the Bible actually happened? Is there any substance harder than diamond, and do diamonds really last forever? And exactly how many Eskimo words for 'snow' are there? Wherever he goes, people always ask Dr Karl to explain stuff, and in this his 26th book (26 is the only number directly between a square and a cube), he explains more myths and curly questions. Visit Dr Karl at www.drkarl.com
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Geekspeak – Graham Tattersall

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Why Life + Mathematics = Happiness
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: October 15, 2007
Publisher: Fourth Estate
Seller: HarperCollins
The quirky offspring of ‘QI’ and ‘Freakonomics’, ‘Geekspeak’ melds ingenious statistical analysis with edifying trivia to explain away some curious facts of life. Curiosity is our human birthright, and destiny. As a species we are to prone to think, ruminate, reflect, cogitate, deliberate and philosophise. We do all these things, and why? To explain away the world around us, to find solace in knowledge, to answer all those seeming unanswerables: why are we here? Is there a God? Is there life after death? How many slaves on treadmills does it take to power my kettle? Yes, forget the Bible, ‘Geekspeak’ is the new oracle for 21st century living. Graham Tattersall, a confirmed and superior geek, has rescued maths from the prison of the classroom, imbued it with fresh new life, and put it to use in novel and unexpected ways. His ingenious, deceptively simple formula melds statistical analysis with personal experience and enlightening trivia to explain away some curious and oft-pondered mysteries of the world: how big is your vocabulary, how heavy is your house, do the dead outnumber the living, how powerful is a fly, how fast is a fart. With its recipe of sophisticated mathematical techniques, witty anecdotes and startling amount of learning, ‘Geekspeak’ is an essential tool for impressing friends, sounding intelligent and better understanding the fascinating world in which we live. Maths has a new champion, and the Geeks a new King. Reviews ‘It will give you the means of finding out all sorts of information that you don't actually need to know. Curiously, I found it all quite interesting. Does that mean that I am a geek?’ Church Review About the author Dr Graham Tattersall is a freelance engineer working on projects as diverse as computer aided shoe fitting, fault analysis systems for trains, and enhancement of ultrasound images. He enjoys building houses, boats and working on engines, and lives in Suffolk with his (long suffering) wife.
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This Idea Must Die – Mr. John Brockman

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This Idea Must Die
Scientific Theories That Are Blocking Progress
Mr. John Brockman
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: February 17, 2015
Publisher: Harper Perennial
Seller: HarperCollins
The bestselling editor of This Explains Everything brings together 175 of the world’s most brilliant minds to tackle Edge.org’s 2014 question: What scientific idea has become a relic blocking human progress? Each year, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org—”The world’s smartest website” (The Guardian)—challenges some of the world’s greatest scientists, artists, and philosophers to answer a provocative question crucial to our time. In 2014 he asked 175 brilliant minds to ponder: What scientific idea needs to be put aside in order to make room for new ideas to advance? The answers are as surprising as they are illuminating. In : Steven Pinker dismantles the working theory of human behavior Richard Dawkins renounces essentialism Sherry Turkle reevaluates our expectations of artificial intelligence Geoffrey West challenges the concept of a “Theory of Everything” Andrei Linde suggests that our universe and its laws may not be as unique as we think Martin Rees explains why scientific understanding is a limitless goal Nina Jablonski argues to rid ourselves of the concept of race Alan Guth rethinks the origins of the universe Hans Ulrich Obrist warns against glorifying unlimited economic growth and much more. Profound, engaging, thoughtful, and groundbreaking, This Idea Must Die will change your perceptions and understanding of our world today . . . and tomorrow.
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The Science of Liberty – Timothy Ferris
Chaos – James Gleick

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Making a New Science (Enhanced Edition)
Genre: Science & Nature
Price: $1.99
Publish Date: March 22, 2011
Publisher: Open Road Media
Seller: OpenRoad Integrated Media, LLC
The blockbuster modern science classic that, two decades ago, introduced the butterfly effect to the world and became an international sensation—now updated with video and modern graphics In the 1960s, a small group of radical thinkers upset the rigid foundation of modern scientific thinking by placing new importance on the tiny experimental irregularities that scientists had long learned to ignore. Miniscule differences in data, they said, would eventually produce massive ones—and complex systems like the weather, economics, and human behavior suddenly became clearer and more beautiful than they had ever been before. In this updated version of his seminal work, James Gleick lays out that new vision of a chaotic universe. Interviews with leading theoreticians, a video introduction from the author, and motion graphics depicting concepts such as the famous Lorenz attractor—the concept that birthed chaos theory—complement Gleick’s elegant prose. Never before has chaos been so easy to grasp. “Beautifully lucid . . . Gleick has a novelist’s touch for describing his scientists and their settings, an eye for the apt analogy, and a sense of the dramatic and the poetic.”— San Francisco Chronicle   “There is a teleological grandeur about this new math that gives the imagination wings.”— Vogue   “Gleick's Chaos is not only enthralling and precise, but full of beautifully strange and strangely beautiful ideas.”—Douglas Hofstadter, author of Gödel, Escher, Bach  Born in New York City in 1954, James Gleick is one of the nation’s preeminent science writers. Upon graduating from Harvard in 1976, he founded Metropolis , a weekly Minneapolis newspaper, and spent the next decade working at the New York Times . Gleick’s prominent works include Genius: The Life and Science of Richard Feynman , Isaac Newton , and Chaos: Making a New Science , all of which were shortlisted for the Pulitzer Prize. His latest book, The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood ,was published in March 2011. He lives and works in New York.
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