| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
books tagged “pop science”
books tagged “pop science”
›› Find signed collectible books by ''
English
-
The Blind Watchmakerby Richard DawkinsISBN 0393022161 (0-393-02216-1)
Hardcover, Norton
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Blind Watchmaker'Book summary:Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:
I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."
Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC. [via]
More editions of The Blind Watchmaker:
Blind Watchmaker 1.2: An Evolution Simulation/Mac Versionby Richard DawkinsISBN 0393993418 (0-393-99341-8)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Blind Watchmaker 1.2: An Evolution Simulation/Mac Version'More editions of Blind Watchmaker 1.2: An Evolution Simulation/Mac Version:
-
Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Designby Richard DawkinsISBN 0393315703 (0-393-31570-3)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design'Book summary:Richard Dawkins is not a shy man. Edward Larson's research shows that most scientists today are not formally religious, but Dawkins is an in-your-face atheist in the witty British style:
I want to persuade the reader, not just that the Darwinian world-view happens to be true, but that it is the only known theory that could, in principle, solve the mystery of our existence.
The title of this 1986 work, Dawkins's second book, refers to the Rev. William Paley's 1802 work, Natural Theology, which argued that just as finding a watch would lead you to conclude that a watchmaker must exist, the complexity of living organisms proves that a Creator exists. Not so, says Dawkins: "All appearances to the contrary, the only watchmaker in nature is the blind forces of physics, albeit deployed in a very special way... it is the blind watchmaker."
Dawkins is a hard-core scientist: he doesn't just tell you what is so, he shows you how to find out for yourself. For this book, he wrote Biomorph, one of the first artificial life programs. You can check Dawkins's results on your own Mac or PC. [via]
More editions of Blind Watchmaker: Why the Evidence of Evolution Reveals a Universe Without Design:
-
Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinkingby Malcolm GladwellISBN 0316010669 (0-316-01066-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking'Book summary:Blink is about the first two seconds of looking--the decisive glance that knows in an instant. Gladwell, the best-selling author of The Tipping Point, campaigns for snap judgments and mind reading with a gift for translating research into splendid storytelling. Building his case with scenes from a marriage, heart attack triage, speed dating, choking on the golf course, selling cars, and military maneuvers, he persuades readers to think small and focus on the meaning of "thin slices" of behavior. The key is to rely on our "adaptive unconscious"--a 24/7 mental valet--that provides us with instant and sophisticated information to warn of danger, read a stranger, or react to a new idea.
Gladwell includes caveats about leaping to conclusions: marketers can manipulate our first impressions, high arousal moments make us "mind blind," focusing on the wrong cue leaves us vulnerable to "the Warren Harding Effect" (i.e., voting for a handsome but hapless president). In a provocative chapter that exposes the "dark side of blink," he illuminates the failure of rapid cognition in the tragic stakeout and murder of Amadou Diallo in the Bronx. He underlines studies about autism, facial reading and cardio uptick to urge training that enhances high-stakes decision-making. In this brilliant, cage-rattling book, one can only wish for a thicker slice of Gladwell's ideas about what Blink Camp might look like. --Barbara Mackoff [via]
More editions of Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking:
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking: ISBN 0316011789 (0-316-01178-9)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Company - Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking: ISBN 0316172324 (0-316-17232-4)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Company - Blink: The Power Of Thinking Without Thinking: ISBN 0316010669 (0-316-01066-9)
Softcover, Little Brown & Co
- Blink: The Power of Thinking Without Thinking: ISBN 0316011789 (0-316-01178-9)
-
Brief History of Timeby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 0553380168 (0-553-38016-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brief History of Time'Book summary:Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Brief History of Time:
- Brief History of Time: ISBN 0553109537 (0-553-10953-7)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group - Brief History of Time: ISBN 0613074041 (0-613-07404-1)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Brief History of Time: ISBN 0553052438 (0-553-05243-8)
Hardcover, Bantam Books - Brief History of Time: ISBN 0553380168 (0-553-38016-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
- Brief History of Time: ISBN 0553109537 (0-553-10953-7)
Brief History of Timeby Ron Miller, Carl Sagan, Stephen W. HawkingISBN 0816147736 (0-8161-4773-6)
Hardcover, G K Hall & Co
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brief History of Time'More editions of Brief History of Time:
-
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holesby Carl Sagan, Stephen W. Hawking, Ron MillerISBN 055305340X (0-553-05340-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes'Book summary:Stephen Hawking has earned a reputation as the most brilliant theoretical physicist since Einstein. In this landmark volume, Professor Hawking shares his blazing intellect with nonscientists everywhere, guiding us expertly to confront the supreme questions of the nature of time and the universe. Was there a beginning of time? Will there be an end? Is the universe infinite or does it have boundaries? From Galileo and Newton to modern astrophysics, from the breathtakingly cast to the extraordinarily tiny, Professor Hawking leads us on an exhilarating journey to distant galaxies, black holes, alternate dimensions--as close as man has ever ventured to the mind of God. From the vantage point of the wheelchair from which he has spent more than twenty years trapped by Lou Gehrig's disease, Stephen Hawking has transformed our view of the universe. Cogently explained, passionately revealed, A Brief History of Time is the story of the ultimate quest for knowledge: the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space. [via]
More editions of A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes:
-
A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holesby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 0553346148 (0-553-34614-8)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes'Book summary:Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of A Brief History of Time: From the Big Bang to Black Holes:
-
Brief History of Time/International Edby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 0553173251 (0-553-17325-1)
Softcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brief History of Time/International Ed'Book summary:Stephen Hawking, one of the most brilliant theoretical physicists in history, wrote the modern classic A Brief History of Time to help nonscientists understand the questions being asked by scientists today: Where did the universe come from? How and why did it begin? Will it come to an end, and if so, how? Hawking attempts to reveal these questions (and where we're looking for answers) using a minimum of technical jargon. Among the topics gracefully covered are gravity, black holes, the Big Bang, the nature of time, and physicists' search for a grand unifying theory. This is deep science; these concepts are so vast (or so tiny) as to cause vertigo while reading, and one can't help but marvel at Hawking's ability to synthesize this difficult subject for people not used to thinking about things like alternate dimensions. The journey is certainly worth taking, for, as Hawking says, the reward of understanding the universe may be a glimpse of "the mind of God." --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Brief History of Time/International Ed:
-
Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural Historyby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 039330857X (0-393-30857-X)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History'Book summary:Stephen Jay Gould has a wide range of interests, and for many years he has shared his enthusiasms in the pages of Natural History and the New York Review of Books, among other journals. His passions include baseball, the puzzles of evolutionary theory, and the game of scholarly detection as it applies to questions such as, "What became of dinosaurs, anyway?". He answers entertainingly, but never talks down to his readers. Gould is one of modern natural science's great popularizers, but he shuns the temptation to make the giant reptiles of prehistory the Smurfs of the 1990s, in the manner of a certain purple dinosaur. The 35 pieces gathered here make for fine browsing, full of sideways glances and digressions that eventually make sense. [via]
More editions of Bully for Brontosaurus: Reflections in Natural History:
-
Chaosby James GleickISBN 0140092501 (0-14-009250-1)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Chaos'Book summary:Few writers distinguish themselves by their ability to write about complicated, even obscure topics clearly and engagingly. James Gleick, a former science writer for the New York Times, resides in this exclusive category. In Chaos, he takes on the job of depicting the first years of the study of chaos--the seemingly random patterns that characterize many natural phenomena.
This is not a purely technical book. Instead, it focuses as much on the scientists studying chaos as on the chaos itself. In the pages of Gleick's book, the reader meets dozens of extraordinary and eccentric people. For instance, Mitchell Feigenbaum, who constructed and regulated his life by a 26-hour clock and watched his waking hours come in and out of phase with those of his coworkers at Los Alamos National Laboratory.
As for chaos itself, Gleick does an outstanding job of explaining the thought processes and investigative techniques that researchers bring to bear on chaos problems. Rather than attempt to explain Julia sets, Lorenz attractors, and the Mandelbrot Set with gigantically complicated equations, Chaos relies on sketches, photographs, and Gleick's wonderful descriptive prose. [via]
-
The Code Book for Young Peopleby Simon SinghISBN 0385730624 (0-385-73062-4)
Softcover, Random House Children's Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Code Book for Young People'Book summary:Calling upon accounts of political intrigue and tales of life and death, author Simon Singh tells history's most fascinating story of deception and cunning: the science of cryptography--the encoding and decoding of private information. Based on The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography, this version has been abridged and slightly simplified for a younger audience. None of the appeal for curious problem-solving minds has been lost, though. From Julius Caesar to the 10th-century Arabs; from Mary Queen of Scots to "Alice and Bob"; from the Germans' Enigma machine to the Navajo code talkers in World War II, Singh traces the use of code to protect--and betray--secrecy. Moving right into the present, he describes how the Information Age has provided a whole new set of challenges for cryptographers. How private are your e-mail communications? How secure is sending your credit card information over the Internet? And how much secrecy will the government tolerate? Complex but highly accessible, The Code Book will make readers see the past--and the future--in a whole new light. (Ages 14 and older) [via]
More editions of The Code Book for Young People:
-
The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptographyby Simon SinghISBN 0385495315 (0-385-49531-5)
Hardcover, Doubleday Publishing
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography'Book summary:People love secrets, and ever since the first word was written, humans have written coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to either side's success.
Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking.
In the information age, the fear that drives cryptographic improvements is both capitalistic and libertarian--corporations need encryption to ensure that their secrets don't fall into the hands of competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to keep their everyday communications private in a free society. Similarly, the battles for greater decryption power come from said competitors and governments wary of insurrection. The Code Book is an excellent primer for those wishing to understand how the human need for privacy has manifested itself through cryptography. Singh's accessible style and clear explanations of complex algorithms cut through the arcane mathematical details without oversimplifying. Can't get enough crypto? Try solving the Cipher Challenge in the back of the book--$15,000 goes to the first person to crack the code! --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Code Book : The Evolution of Secrecy from Mary, Queen of Scots to Quantum Cryptography:
-
The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptographyby Simon SinghISBN 0385495323 (0-385-49532-3)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography'Book summary:People love secrets. Ever since the first word was written, humans have sent coded messages to each other. In The Code Book, Simon Singh, author of the bestselling Fermat's Enigma, offers a peek into the world of cryptography and codes, from ancient texts through computer encryption. Singh's compelling history is woven through with stories of how codes and ciphers have played a vital role in warfare, politics, and royal intrigue. The major theme of The Code Book is what Singh calls "the ongoing evolutionary battle between codemakers and codebreakers," never more clear than in the chapters devoted to World War II. Cryptography came of age during that conflict, as secret communications became critical to both sides' success.
Confronted with the prospect of defeat, the Allied cryptanalysts had worked night and day to penetrate German ciphers. It would appear that fear was the main driving force, and that adversity is one of the foundations of successful codebreaking.
In the information age, the fear that drives cryptographic improvements is both capitalistic and libertarian--corporations need encryption to ensure that their secrets don't fall into the hands of competitors and regulators, and ordinary people need encryption to keep their everyday communications private in a free society. Similarly, the battles for greater decryption power come from said competitors and governments wary of insurrection.
The Code Book is an excellent primer for those wishing to understand how the human need for privacy has manifested itself through cryptography. Singh's accessible style and clear explanations of complex algorithms cut through the arcane mathematical details without oversimplifying. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Code Book: The Science of Secrecy from Ancient Egypt to Quantum Cryptography:
-
Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural Historyby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0517888246 (0-517-88824-6)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History'Book summary:Award-winning, bestselling author, evolutionary biologist, and paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould takes the art of the essay to an unprecedented height of excellence in this vibrant new collection of writings on science and natural history. From fads to fungus, baseball to beeswax, Gould always circles back to the great themes of time, change, and history, carrying readers home to the centering theme of evolution. Illustrations. [via]
More editions of Dinosaur in a Haystack: Reflections in Natural History:
-
Fermat's Enigmaby Simon SinghISBN 0385493622 (0-385-49362-2)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fermat's Enigma'Book summary:When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993 it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste for the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians. [via]
-
Fermat's Enigma: The Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problemby Simon SinghISBN 0802713319 (0-8027-1331-9)
Hardcover, Walker & Company
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fermat's Enigma: The Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem'Book summary:When Andrew Wiles of Princeton University announced a solution of Fermat's last theorem in 1993 it electrified the world of mathematics. After a flaw was discovered in the proof, Wiles had to work for another year--he had already labored in solitude for seven years--to establish that he had solved the 350-year-old problem. Simon Singh's book is a lively, comprehensible explanation of Wiles's work and of the star-, trauma-, and wacko-studded history of Fermat's last theorem. Fermat's Enigma contains some problems that offer a taste for the math, but it also includes limericks to give a feeling for the goofy side of mathematicians. [via]
More editions of Fermat's Enigma: The Quest to Solve the World's Greatest Mathematical Problem:
-
Fermat's Last Theorem: The Story of a Riddle That Confounded the World's Greatest Minds for 358 Yearsby Simon SinghISBN 1857026691 (1-85702-669-1)
Hardcover, Fourth Estate
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fermat's Last Theorem: The Story of a Riddle That Confounded the World's Greatest Minds for 358 Years'Book summary:In 1963, a schoolboy browsing in his local library stumbled across a great mathematical problem: Fermat's Last Theorem, a puzzle that every child can now understand, but which has baffled mathematicians for over 300 years. Aged just ten, Andrew Wiles dreamed he would crack it. Many people had tried before Wiles and failed, including an 18th-century philanderer who was killed in a duel. An 18th-century Frenchwoman made a major breakthrough in solving the riddle, but she had to attend maths lectures at the Ecole Polytechnique disguised as a man. This is the story of the puzzle that has confounded mathematicians since the 17th century. The solution of the Theorem is one of the most important mathematical developments of the 20th century. [via]
More editions of Fermat's Last Theorem: The Story of a Riddle That Confounded the World's Greatest Minds for 358 Years:
-
Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everythingby Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. LevittISBN 0061245135 (0-06-124513-5)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'Book summary:Economics is not widely considered to be one of the sexier sciences. The annual Nobel Prize winner in that field never receives as much publicity as his or her compatriots in peace, literature, or physics. But if such slights are based on the notion that economics is dull, or that economists are concerned only with finance itself, Steven D. Levitt will change some minds. In Freakonomics (written with Stephen J. Dubner), Levitt argues that many apparent mysteries of everyday life don't need to be so mysterious: They could be illuminated and made even more fascinating by asking the right questions and drawing connections. For example, Levitt traces the drop in violent crime rates to a drop in violent criminals and, digging further, to the Roe v. Wade decision that preempted the existence of some people who would be born to poverty and hardship. Elsewhere, by analyzing data gathered from innercity Chicago drug-dealing gangs, Levitt outlines a corporate structure much like McDonald's, where the top bosses make great money while scores of underlings make something below minimum wage. And in a section that may alarm or relieve worried parents, Levitt argues that parenting methods don't really matter much and that a backyard swimming pool is much more dangerous than a gun. These enlightening chapters are separated by effusive passages from Dubner's 2003 profile of Levitt in The New York Times Magazine, which led to the book being written. In a book filled with bold logic, such back-patting veers Freakonomics, however briefly, away from what Levitt actually has to say. Although maybe there's a good economic reason for that too, and we're just not getting it yet. --John Moe
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner Answer The Amazon.com Significant Seven
Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner, author and co-author of this season's bestselling quirky hit, Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything, graciously answered the Amazon.com Significant Seven questions that we like to run by every author.
Levitt and Dubner answer the Amazon.com Significant Seven questionsMore editions of Freakonomics: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
-
Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everythingby Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. LevittISBN 0061131326 (0-06-113132-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything'More editions of Freakonomics Intl Pb: A Rogue Economist Explores the Hidden Side of Everything:
-
Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chaptersby Matt RidleyISBN 0060894083 (0-06-089408-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters'Book summary:Science writer Matt Ridley has found a way to tell someone else's story without being accused of plagiarism. Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters delves deep within your body (and, to be fair, Ridley's too) looking for dirt dug up by the Human Genome Project. Each chapter pries one gene out of its chromosome and focuses on its role in our development and adult life, but also goes further, exploring the implications of genetic research and our quickly changing social attitudes toward this information. Genome shies away from the "tedious biochemical middle managers" that only a nerd could love and instead goes for the A-material: genes associated with cancer, intelligence, sex (of course), and more.
Readers unfamiliar with the jargon of genetic research needn't fear; Ridley provides a quick, clear guide to the few words and concepts he must use to translate hard science into English. His writing is informal, relaxed, and playful, guiding the reader so effortlessly through our 23 chromosomes that by the end we wish we had more. He believes that the Human Genome Project will be as world-changing as the splitting of the atom; if so, he is helping us prepare for exciting times--the hope of a cure for cancer contrasts starkly with the horrors of newly empowered eugenicists. Anyone interested in the future of the body should get a head start with the clever, engrossing Genome. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters:
- Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters: ISBN 0060194979 (0-06-019497-9)
Hardcover, HarperCollins Canada, Limited - Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters: ISBN 0060932902 (0-06-093290-2)
Softcover, Harpercollins - Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters: ISBN 0060894083 (0-06-089408-3)
Softcover, Harpercollins
- Genome: The Autobiography of a Species in 23 Chapters: ISBN 0060194979 (0-06-019497-9)
-
Guided Meditation: Creative Visualization for Generating Energy and Managing Stressby Gary Michael Smith, Robert Edward FussellISBN 0965838048 (0-9658380-4-8)
Hardcover, Chatgris Press
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Guided Meditation: Creative Visualization for Generating Energy and Managing Stress'Book summary:1997 W.W Norton & Company jumbo trade paperback, 7th printing. ISBN:9780965838047. Explains why we feel the way we do-control of emotions, thoughts and limbs in the control center also called the brain. [via]
More editions of Guided Meditation: Creative Visualization for Generating Energy and Managing Stress:
-
Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societiesby Jared DiamondISBN 0393317552 (0-393-31755-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies'Book summary:With a new chapter. The phenomenal bestseller; over 1.5 million copies sold; is now a major PBS special.Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, Guns, Germs, and Steel is a brilliant work answering the question of why the peoples of certain continents succeeded in invading other continents and conquering or displacing their peoples. This edition includes a new chapter on Japan and all-new illustrations drawn from the television series. Until around 11,000 BC, all peoples were still Stone Age hunter/gatherers. At that point, a great divide occurred in the rates that human societies evolved. In Eurasia, parts of the Americas, and Africa, farming became the prevailing mode of existence when indigenous wild plants and animals were domesticated by prehistoric planters and herders. As Jared Diamond vividly reveals, the very people who gained a head start in producing food would collide with preliterate cultures, shaping the modern world through conquest, displacement, and genocide.The paths that lead from scattered centers of food to broad bands of settlement had a great deal to do with climate and geography. But how did differences in societies arise? Why weren't native Australians, Americans, or Africans the ones to colonize Europe? Diamond dismantles pernicious racial theories tracing societal differences to biological differences. He assembles convincing evidence linking germs to domestication of animals, germs that Eurasians then spread in epidemic proportions in their voyages of discovery. In its sweep, Guns, Germs and Steel encompasses the rise of agriculture, technology, writing, government, and religion, providing a unifying theory of human history as intriguing as the histories of dinosaurs and glaciers. 32 illustrations [via]
More editions of Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies:
- Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393061310 (0-393-06131-0)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 061318114X (0-613-18114-X)
Hardcover, Bt Bound - Guns, Germs, and Steel : The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393038912 (0-393-03891-2)
Hardcover, Norton & Company, Incorporated, W. W. - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393973867 (0-393-97386-7)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc - Guns, Germs & Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393317552 (0-393-31755-2)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
- Guns, Germs, And Steel: The Fates of Human Societies: ISBN 0393061310 (0-393-06131-0)
-
Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companionby Jared DiamondISBN 1586638637 (1-58663-863-7)
Softcover, Sterling Pub Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companion'Book summary:Scholar and professor Jared Diamond made a huge splash with this fascinating but controversial book, which argues that geography and environment have almost singlehandedly determined the course of human history. Dig deeper into his contentions with the information inside this invaluable reader's handbook:- Why did Europe colonize Africa and Asia rather than the other way around?
- Why is geography the most important factor in human history?
- How has the rest of the scientific community received Diamond's theory?
More editions of Guns, Germs, and Steel Reader's Companion:
-
How the Mind Worksby Steven PinkerISBN 0393318486 (0-393-31848-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'How the Mind Works'Book summary:Why do fools fall in love? Why does a man's annual salary, on average, increase $600 with each inch of his height? When a crack dealer guns down a rival, how is he just like Alexander Hamilton, whose face is on the ten-dollar bill? How do optical illusions function as windows on the human soul? Cheerful, cheeky, occasionally outrageous MIT psychologist Steven Pinker answers all of the above and more in his marvelously fun, awesomely informative survey of modern brain science. Pinker argues that Darwin plus canny computer programs are the key to understanding ourselves--but he also throws in apt references to Star Trek, Star Wars, The Far Side, history, literature, W. C. Fields, Mozart, Marilyn Monroe, surrealism, experimental psychology, and Moulay Ismail the Bloodthirsty and his 888 children. If How the Mind Works were a rock show, tickets would be scalped for $100. This book deserved its spot as Number One on bestseller lists. It belongs on a short shelf alongside such classics as Darwin's Dangerous Idea: Evolution and the Meanings of Life, by Daniel C. Dennett, and The Moral Animal: Why We Are the Way We Are: The New Science of Evolutionary Psychology, by Robert Wright. Pinker's startling ideas pop out as dramatically as those hidden pictures in a Magic Eye 3D stereogram poster, which he also explains in brilliantly lucid prose. [via]
-
I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural Historyby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 1400048044 (1-4000-4804-4)
Softcover, Three Rivers Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History'Book summary:Here is bestselling scientist Stephen Jay Goulds tenth and final collection based on his remarkable series for Natural History magazineexactly 300 consecutive essays, with never a month missed, published from 1974 to 2001. Both an intellectually thrilling journey into the nature of scientific discovery and the most personal book he has ever published, I Have Landed marks the end of a significant chapter in the career of one of the most acclaimed and widely read scientists of our time.
Gould writes about the themes that have defined his career, which his readers have come to expect and celebrate, casting new light upon them and conveying the ideas that science professionals exchange among themselves (minus the technical jargon). Here, of course, is Charles Darwin, from his centrality to any sound scientific education to little-known facts about his life. Gould touches on subjects as far-reaching and disparate as feathered dinosaurs, the scourge of syphilis and the frustration of the man who identified it, and Freuds evolutionary fantasy. He writes brilliantly of Nabokovs delicately crafted drawings of butterflies and the true meaning of biological diversity. And in the poignant title essay, he details his grandfathers journey from Hungary to America, where he arrived on September 11, 1901. It is from his grandfathers journal entry of that day, stating simply I have landed, that the books title was drawn. This landing occurred 100 years to the day before our greatest recent tragedy, also explored, but with optimism, in the concluding section of the book.
Presented in eight parts, I Have Landed begins with a remembrance of a moment of wonder from childhood. In Part II, Gould explains that humanistic disciplines are not antithetical to theoretical or applied sciences. Rather, they often share a commonality of method and motivation, with great potential to enhance the achievements of each other, an assertion perfectly supported by essays on such notables as Nabokov and Frederic Church.
Part III contains what no Gould collection would be complete without: his always compelling mini intellectual biographies, which render each subject and his work deserving of reevaluation and renewed significance. In this collection of figures compelling and strange, Gould exercises one of his greatest strengths, the ability to reveal a significant scientific concept through a finely crafted and sympathetic portrait of the person behind the science. Turning his pen to three key figuresSigmund Freud, Isabelle Duncan, and E. Ray Lankester, the latter an unlikely attendee of the funeral of Karl Marxhe highlights the effect of the Darwinian revolution and its resonance on their lives and work.
Part IV encourages the readerthrough what Gould calls intellectual paleontology to consider scientific theories of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in a new light and to recognize the limitations our own place in history may impose on our understanding of those ideas. Part V explores the op-ed genre and includes two essays with differing linguistic formats, which address the continual tug-of-war between the study of evolution and creationism.
In subsequent essays, in true Gould fashion, we are treated to moments of good humor, especially when he leads us to topics that bring him obvious delight, such as Dorothy Sayers novels and his enduring love of baseball and all its dramas. There is an ardent admiration of the topsy-turvy world of Gilbert and Sullivan (wonderfully demonstrated in the jacket illustration), who are not above inclusion in all things evolutionary.
This is truly Goulds most personal work to date. How fitting that this final collection should be his most revealing and, in content, the one that reflects most clearly the complexity, breadth of knowledge, and optimism that characterize Gould himself. I Have Landed succeeds in reinforcing Goulds underlying and constant theme from the series commencement thirty years agothe study of our own scientific, intellectual, and emotional evolutionbringing reader and author alike to what can only be described as a brilliantly written and very natural conclusion. [via]More editions of I Have Landed: The End of a Beginning in Natural History:
-
The Illustrated a Brief History of Timeby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 0553103741 (0-553-10374-1)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illustrated a Brief History of Time'Book summary:In the years since its publication in 1988, Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has established itself as a landmark volume in scientific
writing. It has also become an international publishing phenomenon, translated into forty languages and selling over nine million copies.The book was on the cutting edge of what was then known about the nature of the universe, but since then there have been extraordinary advances in the
technology of observing both the micro- and the macrocosmic world. These observations have confirmed many of Professor Hawking's theoretical predictions
in the first edition of his book, including the recent discoveries of the Cosmic Background Explorer satellite (COBE), which probed back in time to within 300,000 years of the universe's beginning and revealed the wrinkles in the fabric of space-time that he had projected.Eager to bring to his original text the new knowledge revealed by these many observations, as well as his most recent research, for this revised and expanded edition Hawking has prepared a new introduction to the book, revised and updated the original chapters throughout, and written an entirely new chapter on the fascinating subject of wormholes and time travel.
In addition, to heighten understanding of complex concepts that readers may have found difficult to grasp despite the clarity and wit of Hawking's writing, this edition is magnificently enhanced throughout with more than 240 full-color illustrations, including satellite images, photographs made possible by spectacular new technological advances such as the Hubble telescope, and computer- generated images of three- and four-dimensional realities. Detailed captions clarify these illustrations, enabling readers to experience the vastness of intergalactic space, the nature of black holes, and the microcosmic world of
particle physics in which matter and antimatter collide.A classic work that now brings to the reader the latest understanding of cosmology, The Illustrated A Brief History of Time is the story of the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space. [via]
More editions of The Illustrated a Brief History of Time:
-
The Illustrated Longitudeby Dava Sobel, William J. H. AndrewesISBN 0802713440 (0-8027-1344-0)
Hardcover, Walker & Company
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Illustrated Longitude'Book summary:Dava Sobel's Longitude tells the story of how 18th-century scientist and clockmaker William Harrison solved one of the most perplexing problems of history--determining east-west location at sea. This lush, colorfully illustrated edition adds lots of pictures to the story, giving readers a more satisfying sense of the times, the players, and the puzzle. This was no obscure, curious difficulty--without longitude, ships often found themselves so far off course that sailors would starve or die of scurvy before they could reach port. When a nationally-sponsored contest offered a hefty cash prize to the person who could develop a method to accurately determine longitude, the race was on. In the end, the battle of accuracy--and wills--fought between Harrison and arch-rival Maskelyne was ruthless and dramatic, worthy of a Hollywood feature film. Longitude's story is surprising and fascinating, offering a window into the past, before Global Positioning Satellites made it look easy. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Illustrated Longitude:
The Island of the Colorblindby Oliver SacksISBN 0679451145 (0-679-45114-5)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Island of the Colorblind'-
The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island: And, Cycad Islandby Oliver W. SacksISBN 0375700730 (0-375-70073-0)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island: And, Cycad Island'Book summary:In his books An Anthropologist on Mars and The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, Oliver Sacks details the lives of patients isolated by neurological disorders, shedding light on our common humanity and the ways in which we perceive the world around us. Now he looks at the effects of physical isolation in The Island of the Colorblind. On this journey, he carried with him the intellectual curiousity, kind understanding, and unique vision he has so consistently demonstrated.
Drawn to the Micronesian island of Pingelap by reports of a community of people born totally colorblind, Dr. Sacks set up a clinic in a one-room dispensary. There he listened to patients describe their colorless world in terms rich with pattern and tone, luminance and shadow. Then, in Guam, he investigated a puzzling neurodegenerative paralysis, making housecalls amid crowing cockerels, cycad jungles, and the remains of a colonial culture. The experience affords Sacks an opportunity to elaborate on such personal passions as botany and history and to explore the meaning of islands, the dissemination of species, the birth of disease, and the nature of deep geologic time. [via]
More editions of The Island of the Colorblind and Cycad Island: And, Cycad Island:
-
Longitudeby Dava SobelISBN 0140258795 (0-14-025879-5)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Longitude'Book summary:Dava Sobel's Longitude tells the story of how 18th-century scientist and clockmaker William Harrison solved one of the most perplexing problems of history--determining east-west location at sea. This lush, colorfully illustrated edition adds lots of pictures to the story, giving readers a more satisfying sense of the times, the players, and the puzzle. This was no obscure, curious difficulty--without longitude, ships often found themselves so far off course that sailors would starve or die of scurvy before they could reach port. When a nationally-sponsored contest offered a hefty cash prize to the person who could develop a method to accurately determine longitude, the race was on. In the end, the battle of accuracy--and wills--fought between Harrison and arch-rival Maskelyne was ruthless and dramatic, worthy of a Hollywood feature film. Longitude's story is surprising and fascinating, offering a window into the past, before Global Positioning Satellites made it look easy. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Longitude:
-
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Timeby Dava SobelISBN 0802713122 (0-8027-1312-2)
Hardcover, Walker & Company
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time'Book summary:Dava Sobel's Longitude tells the story of how 18th-century scientist and clockmaker William Harrison solved one of the most perplexing problems of history--determining east-west location at sea. This lush, colorfully illustrated edition adds lots of pictures to the story, giving readers a more satisfying sense of the times, the players, and the puzzle. This was no obscure, curious difficulty--without longitude, ships often found themselves so far off course that sailors would starve or die of scurvy before they could reach port. When a nationally-sponsored contest offered a hefty cash prize to the person who could develop a method to accurately determine longitude, the race was on. In the end, the battle of accuracy--and wills--fought between Harrison and arch-rival Maskelyne was ruthless and dramatic, worthy of a Hollywood feature film. Longitude's story is surprising and fascinating, offering a window into the past, before Global Positioning Satellites made it look easy. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time:
- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time: ISBN 0802714625 (0-8027-1462-5)
Hardcover, Walker & Company - Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time: ISBN 0802713122 (0-8027-1312-2)
Hardcover, Walker & Company
- Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time: ISBN 0802714625 (0-8027-1462-5)
-
The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural Historyby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0609807552 (0-609-80755-2)
Softcover, Three Rivers Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History'Book summary:Celebrated paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould has honed and matured his voice over almost 30 years of writing for Natural History. His tenure at that magazine closes with the end of the century, so The Lying Stones of Marrakech is his next-to-last collection of essays from this era. As ever, his works are clever, thoughtful, and inspiring; however, the longtime reader will detect a deeper reflection and a longer view taken by Gould in latter days, perhaps inevitable outcomes of experience and growth. The title essay refers to false fossils carved by Moroccans intent on making a few bucks off of hapless tourists, discusses the case of Beringer's 18th-century fossil hoax, and ends with a plea for a stricter separation between commercial and scientific interests--showing the breadth and scope of his paleontological interests and thinking.
Of course, he also has much to say beyond the confines of his profession: Joe DiMaggio and Dolly the sheep each get respectful treatment from the Gould pen, and he discusses the competing Christian groups sharing the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Though his attitudes may have mellowed over time--he's far from the crotchety oldster some feared he'd become--his passion for knowledge and scientific freedom is still radiant. Whether you're an old-school fan of Gould's writings or a newcomer to his delightfully brainy essays, you'll find The Lying Stones of Marrakech a joy to behold. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of The Lying Stones of Marrakech: Penultimate Reflections in Natural History:
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hatby Oliver SacksISBN 1555042651 (1-55504-265-1)
Softcover, Chivers North Amer
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat'More editions of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat:
-
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Talesby Oliver SacksISBN 0684853949 (0-684-85394-9)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales'Book summary:A major bestseller and already acclaimed as a science classic, this collection of 20 true tales of individuals stricken with astonishing neurological disorders has sold over 70,000 copies. (Pscyhology) [via]
More editions of The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales:
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales: ISBN 0060970790 (0-06-097079-0)
Softcover, Harpercollins - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales: ISBN 0671554719 (0-671-55471-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales: ISBN 0684853949 (0-684-85394-9)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
- The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat: And Other Clinical Tales: ISBN 0060970790 (0-06-097079-0)
-
Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destinyby Robert WrightISBN 0679758941 (0-679-75894-1)
Softcover, Vintage Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny'Book summary:Nonzero, from New Republic writer Robert Wright, is a difficult and important book--well worth reading--addressing the controversial question of purpose in evolution. Using language suggesting that natural selection is a designer's tool, Wright inevitably draws the conclusion that evolution is goal-oriented (or at least moves toward inevitable ends independently of environmental or contingent variables).
The underlying reason that non-zero-sum games wind up being played well is the same in biological evolution as in cultural evolution. Whether you are a bunch of genes or a bunch of memes, if you're all in the same boat you'll tend to perish unless you are conducive to productive coordination.... Genetic evolution thus tends to create smoothly integrated organisms, and cultural evolution tends to create smoothly integrated groups of organisms.
Admittedly, it's as hard to think clearly about natural selection as it is to think about God, but that makes it just as important to acknowledge our biases and try to exclude them from our conclusions. It is this that makes Nonzero potentially unsatisfying to the scientifically literate. Time after time we've seen thinkers try to find in biological evolution a "drive toward complexity" that might explain all sorts of other phenomena from economics to spirituality. Some authors, like Teilhard de Chardin, have much to offer the careful reader who takes pains to read metaphorically. Others--legions of cranks--provide nothing but opaque diatribes culminating in often-bizarre assertions proven to nobody but the author. Wright is much closer to de Chardin along this axis; his anthropological scholarship is particularly noteworthy, and his grasp of world history is excellent. Unfortunately, he has the advocate's willingness to blind himself to disagreeable facts and to muddle over concepts whose clarity would be poisonous to his positions: try to pin him down on what he means by complexity, for example. Still, his thesis that human cultures are historically striving for cooperative, nonzero-sum situations is heartening and compelling; even though it's not supported by biology, it's not knocked down, either. If the reader can work around the undefined assumptions, Wright's charm and obvious interest in planetary survival make Nonzero a worthy read. If the first chapter's title--"The Ladder of Cultural Evolution"--makes you cringe, the last one--"You Call This a God?"--will make you smile. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny:
-
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural Historyby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0393308197 (0-393-30819-7)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History'Book summary:"Gould is a natural writer; he has something to say and the inclination and skill with which to say it."P. B. Medawar, New York Review of Books
With sales of well over one million copies in North America alone, the commercial success of Gould's books now matches their critical acclaim. Reissued in a larger format, with a handsome new cover, The Panda's Thumb will introduce a new generation of readers to this unique writer, who has taken the art of the scientific essay to new heights. [via]More editions of The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History:
-
The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Natureby Matt RidleyISBN 0140245480 (0-14-024548-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature'Book summary:Two fascinating questions lie at the heart of The Red Queen: Why is Homo sapiens a sexual species, and what implications does this have for human nature? That man is sexual may seem unremarkable, yet in fact not all plants and animals need to have sex to reproduce; simple cloning is practiced by many animals with much greater efficiency. To understand how life evolves, and what benefit sex provides for humans, we must think like the Red Queen in Lewis Carroll's Through the Looking-Glass, who had to keep running just to stay in place. According to a controversial yet persuasive new theory, evolution is not about progress, but about changing in order to survive. Because humans are in a perpetual battle with the parasites lurking within our bodies, we need to be able to change molecular locks as fast as parasites invent new keys. Sex enables us to alter genetic combinations every generation. Sex, then, is a vital weapon in disease resistance. It enables us to change, not so we progress ahead, but so we avoid falling behind. But what does all this mean for human nature? From a lucid overview of the Red Queen theory, Matt Ridley follows the logic of its argument into the heart of human behavior. For just as the human eye is a product of evolution, so is human nature. Evolutionary theory provides the clues to help us understand fundamental facts about human beings, from our fashion consciousness to our "system of monogamy plagued by adultery." Ridley's probing mind asks a series of provocative questions. Is mankind naturally polygamous like most of our ape relatives? Are men and women mentally different as well as physically, and if so why? Why do people share so many sexual habits withswallows? Are our notions of human beauty arbitrary, or is there method in them? Jumping into the middle of the debate over the definition of "human nature, " The Red Queen offers an extraordinary new way of interpreting the human condition and how it has evolved. It throws fresh light [via]
More editions of The Red Queen: Sex and the Evolution of Human Nature:
-
The Selfish Geneby Richard DawkinsISBN 0199291152 (0-19-929115-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Selfish Gene'Book summary:Inheriting the mantle of revolutionary biologist from Darwin, Watson, and Crick, Richard Dawkins forced an enormous change in the way we see ourselves and the world with the publication of The Selfish Gene. Suppose, instead of thinking about organisms using genes to reproduce themselves, as we had since Mendel's work was rediscovered, we turn it around and imagine that "our" genes build and maintain us in order to make more genes. That simple reversal seems to answer many puzzlers which had stumped scientists for years, and we haven't thought of evolution in the same way since.
Why are there miles and miles of "unused" DNA within each of our bodies? Why should a bee give up its own chance to reproduce to help raise her sisters and brothers? With a prophet's clarity, Dawkins told us the answers from the perspective of molecules competing for limited space and resources to produce more of their own kind. Drawing fascinating examples from every field of biology, he paved the way for a serious re-evaluation of evolution. He also introduced the concept of self-reproducing ideas, or memes, which (seemingly) use humans exclusively for their propagation. If we are puppets, he says, at least we can try to understand our strings. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of The Selfish Gene:
- The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192860925 (0-19-286092-5)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192177737 (0-19-217773-7)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0195200004 (0-19-520000-4)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 019857519X (0-19-857519-X)
Hardcover, Oxford University Press - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0199291144 (0-19-929114-4)
Hardcover, Oxford Univ Pr - The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0199291152 (0-19-929115-2)
Softcover, Oxford Univ Pr
- The Selfish Gene: ISBN 0192860925 (0-19-286092-5)
-
The Seven Daughters of Eveby Bryan SykesISBN 1417625929 (1-4176-2592-9)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Seven Daughters of Eve'Book summary:The national bestseller that reveals how we are descended from seven prehistoric women.
One of the most dramatic stories of genetic discovery since James Watson's The Double Helix, The Seven Daughters of Eve reveals the remarkable story behind a groundbreaking scientific discovery. After being summoned in 1997 to an archaeological site to examine the remains of a five-thousand-year-old man, Bryan Sykes ultimately was able to prove not only that the man was a European but also that he has living relatives in England today. In this lucid, absorbing account, Sykes reveals how the identification of a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line allows scientists to trace our genetic makeup all the way back to prehistoric times, to seven primeval women, the Seven Daughters of Eve. illustrated and includes a map [via]More editions of The Seven Daughters of Eve:
-
The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestryby Bryan SykesISBN 0393020185 (0-393-02018-5)
Hardcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry'Book summary:The Seven Daughters of Eve is a thrilling work of science that reveals how biological research can enrich our tangled lives. It is a book that chronicles many of the most exciting developments in genetics over the past decade by a man who is not only a brilliant scientist but also a gifted and thoroughly engaging writer. It ultimately demonstrates how much more we still have to discover about the absorbing story of human evolution.
One of the most dramatic stories of genetic discovery since James Watson's The Double Helixa work whose scientific and cultural reverberations will be discussed for years to come. In 1994 Professor Bryan Sykes, a leading world authority on DNA and human evolution, was called in to examine the frozen remains of a man trapped in glacial ice in northern Italy. News of both the Ice Man's discovery and his age, which was put at over five thousand years, fascinated scientists and newspapers throughout the world. But what made Sykes's story particularly revelatory was his successful identification of a genetic descendant of the Ice Man, a woman living in Great Britain today. How was Sykes able to locate a living relative of a man who died thousands of years ago? In The Seven Daughters of Eve, he gives us a firsthand account of his research into a remarkable gene, which passes undiluted from generation to generation through the maternal line. After plotting thousands of DNA sequences from all over the world, Sykes found that they clustered around a handful of distinct groups. Among Europeans and North American Caucasians, there are, in fact, only seven. This conclusion was staggering: almost everyone of native European descent, wherever they may live throughout the world, can trace their ancestry back to one of seven women, the Seven Daughters of Eve. Naming them Ursula, Xenia, Helena, Velda, Tara, Katrine, and Jasmine, Sykes has created portraits of their disparate worlds by mapping the migratory patterns followed by millions of their ancestors. In reading the stories of these seven women, we learn exactly how our origins can be traced, how and where our ancient genetic ancestors lived, and how we are each living proof of the almost indestructible strands of DNA, which have survived over so many thousands of years. Indeed, The Seven Daughters of Eve is filled with dramatic stories: from Sykes's identification, using DNA samples from two living relatives, of the remains of Tsar Nicholas and Tsaress Alexandra, to the Caribbean woman whose family had been sold into slavery centuries before and whose ancestry Sykes was able to trace back to the Eastern coast of central Africa. Ultimately, Sykes's investigation reveals that, as a race, what humans have in common is more deeply embedded than what separates us.
[via]More editions of The Seven Daughters of Eve: The Science That Reveals Our Genetic Ancestry:
A Short History of Nearly Everythingby Bill BrysonISBN 1417665483 (1-4176-6548-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Short History of Nearly Everything'Book summary:One of the worlds most beloved and bestselling writers takes his ultimate journey -- into the most intriguing and intractable questions that science seeks to answer.
In A Walk in the Woods, Bill Bryson trekked the Appalachian Trail -- well, most of it. In In A Sunburned Country, he confronted some of the most lethal wildlife Australia has to offer. Now, in his biggest book, he confronts his greatest challenge: to understand -- and, if possible, answer -- the oldest, biggest questions we have posed about the universe and ourselves. Taking as territory everything from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization, Bryson seeks to understand how we got from there being nothing at all to there being us. To that end, he has attached himself to a host of the worlds most advanced (and often obsessed) archaeologists, anthropologists, and mathematicians, travelling to their offices, laboratories, and field camps. He has read (or tried to read) their books, pestered them with questions, apprenticed himself to their powerful minds. A Short History of Nearly Everything is the record of this quest, and it is a sometimes profound, sometimes funny, and always supremely clear and entertaining adventure in the realms of human knowledge, as only Bill Bryson can render it. Science has never been more involving or entertaining.
From the Hardcover edition. [via]More editions of A Short History of Nearly Everything:
- A Short History of Nearly Everything: ISBN 076790818X (0-7679-0818-X)
Softcover, Broadway Books - A Short History of Nearly Everything: ISBN 0375432000 (0-375-43200-0)
Hardcover, Random House Large Print - A Short History of Nearly Everything: ISBN 0767908171 (0-7679-0817-1)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group - A Short History of Nearly Everything: Special Illustrated Edition: ISBN 0767923227 (0-7679-2322-7)
Hardcover, Broadway Books - A Short History of Nearly Everything: ISBN 1417665483 (1-4176-6548-3)
Hardcover, Bt Bound
- A Short History of Nearly Everything: ISBN 076790818X (0-7679-0818-X)
Stumbling on Happinessby Daniel GilbertISBN 1400077427 (1-4000-7742-7)
Softcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Stumbling on Happiness'Book summary:Do you know what makes you happy? Daniel Gilbert would bet that you think you do, but you are most likely wrong. In his witty and engaging new book, Harvard professor Gilbert reveals his take on how our minds work, and how the limitations of our imaginations may be getting in the way of our ability to know what happiness is. Sound quirky and interesting? It is! But just to be sure, we asked bestselling author (and master of the quirky and interesting) Malcolm Gladwell to read Stumbling on Happiness, and give us his take. Check out his review below. --Daphne Durham
Guest Reviewer: Malcolm Gladwell
Malcolm Gladwell is the author of bestselling books Blink and The Tipping Point, and is a staff writer for The New Yorker.
Several years ago, on a flight from New York to California, I had the good fortune to sit next to a psychologist named Dan Gilbert. He had a shiny bald head, an irrepressible good humor, and we talked (or, more accurately, he talked) from at least the Hudson to the Rockies--and I was completely charmed. He had the wonderful quality many academics have--which is that he was interested in the kinds of questions that all of us care about but never have the time or opportunity to explore. He had also had a quality that is rare among academics. He had the ability to translate his work for people who were outside his world.Now Gilbert has written a book about his psychological research. It is called Stumbling on Happiness, and reading it reminded me of that plane ride long ago. It is a delight to read. Gilbert is charming and funny and has a rare gift for making very complicated ideas come alive.
Stumbling on Happiness is a book about a very simple but powerful idea. What distinguishes us as human beings from other animals is our ability to predict the future--or rather, our interest in predicting the future. We spend a great deal of our waking life imagining what it would be like to be this way or that way, or to do this or that, or taste or buy or experience some state or feeling or thing. We do that for good reasons: it is what allows us to shape our life. And it is by trying to exert some control over our futures that we attempt to be happy. But by any objective measure, we are really bad at that predictive function. We're terrible at knowing how we will feel a day or a month or year from now, and even worse at knowing what will and will not bring us that cherished happiness. Gilbert sets out to figure what that's so: why we are so terrible at something that would seem to be so extraordinarily important?
In making his case, Gilbert walks us through a series of fascinating--and in some ways troubling--facts about the way our minds work. In particular, Gilbert is interested in delineating the shortcomings of imagination. We're far too accepting of the conclusions of our imaginations. Our imaginations aren't particularly imaginative. Our imaginations are really bad at telling us how we will think when the future finally comes. And our personal experiences aren't nearly as good at correcting these errors as we might think.
I suppose that I really should go on at this point, and talk in more detail about what Gilbert means by that--and how his argument unfolds. But I feel like that might ruin the experience of reading Stumbling on Happiness. This is a psychological detective story about one of the great mysteries of our lives. If you have even the slightest curiosity about the human condition, you ought to read it. Trust me. --Malcolm Gladwell
More editions of Stumbling on Happiness:
The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animalby Jared M. DiamondISBN 0060984031 (0-06-098403-1)
Softcover, Harpercollins
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal'Book summary:Jared Diamond states the theme of his book up-front: "How the human species changed, within a short time, from just another species of big mammal to a world conqueror; and how we acquired the capacity to reverse all that progress overnight." The Third Chimpanzee is, in many ways, a prequel to Diamond's prize-winning Guns, Germs, and Steel. While Guns examines "the fates of human societies," this work surveys the longer sweep of human evolution, from our origin as just another chimpanzee a few million years ago. Diamond writes:
It's obvious that humans are unlike all animals. It's also obvious that we're a species of big mammal down to the minutest details of our anatomy and our molecules. That contradiction is the most fascinating feature of the human species.
The chapters in The Third Chimpanzee on the oddities of human reproductive biology were later expanded in Why Is Sex Fun? Here, they're linked to Diamond's views of human psychology and history.
Diamond is officially a physiologist at UCLA medical school, but he's also one of the best birdwatchers in the world. The current scientific consensus that "primitive" humans created ecological catastrophes in the Pacific islands, Australia, and the New World owes a great deal to his fieldwork and insight. In Diamond's view, the current global ecological crisis isn't due to modern technology per se, but to basic weaknesses in human nature. But, he says, "I'm cautiously optimistic. If we will learn from our past that I have traced, our own future may yet prove brighter than that of the other two chimpanzees." --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
More editions of The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal:
The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Differenceby Malcolm GladwellISBN 0316346624 (0-316-34662-4)
Softcover, Back Bay Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference'Book summary:"The best way to understand the dramatic transformation of unknown books into bestsellers, or the rise of teenage smoking, or the phenomena of word of mouth or any number of the other mysterious changes that mark everyday life," writes Malcolm Gladwell, "is to think of them as epidemics. Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread just like viruses do." Although anyone familiar with the theory of memetics will recognize this concept, Gladwell's The Tipping Point has quite a few interesting twists on the subject.
For example, Paul Revere was able to galvanize the forces of resistance so effectively in part because he was what Gladwell calls a "Connector": he knew just about everybody, particularly the revolutionary leaders in each of the towns that he rode through. But Revere "wasn't just the man with the biggest Rolodex in colonial Boston," he was also a "Maven" who gathered extensive information about the British. He knew what was going on and he knew exactly whom to tell. The phenomenon continues to this day--think of how often you've received information in an e-mail message that had been forwarded at least half a dozen times before reaching you.
Gladwell develops these and other concepts (such as the "stickiness" of ideas or the effect of population size on information dispersal) through simple, clear explanations and entertainingly illustrative anecdotes, such as comparing the pedagogical methods of Sesame Street and Blue's Clues, or explaining why it would be even easier to play Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon with the actor Rod Steiger. Although some readers may find the transitional passages between chapters hold their hands a little too tightly, and Gladwell's closing invocation of the possibilities of social engineering sketchy, even chilling, The Tipping Point is one of the most effective books on science for a general audience in ages. It seems inevitable that "tipping point," like "future shock" or "chaos theory," will soon become one of those ideas that everybody knows--or at least knows by name. --Ron Hogan [via]
More editions of The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference:
- The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: ISBN 0316316962 (0-316-31696-2)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: ISBN 0316679070 (0-316-67907-0)
Softcover, Warner Books Inc - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: ISBN 0316648523 (0-316-64852-3)
Hardcover, Little Brown & Co - The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference: ISBN 0316346624 (0-316-34662-4)
Softcover, Back Bay Books
The Universe in a Nutshellby S. W. HawkingISBN 055380202X (0-553-80202-X)
Hardcover, Bantam Dell Pub Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Universe in a Nutshell'Book summary:Stephen Hawking, science's first real rock star, may be the least-read bestselling author in history--it's no secret that many people who own A Brief History of Time have never finished it. Hawking's The Universe in a Nutshell aims to remedy the situation, with a plethora of friendly illustrations to help readers grok some of the most brain-bending ideas ever conceived.
Does it succeed? Yes and no. While Hawking offers genuinely accessible context for such complexities as string theory and the nature of time, it's when he must translate equations to sentences that the limits of language get in the way. But Hawking has simplified the origin of the universe, the nature of space and time, and what holds it all together to an unprecedented degree, inviting nonscientists to share his obvious awe and love of the unseen forces that shape it all.
Yes, it's difficult reading, but it's worth it. Hawking is one of the great geniuses of our time, a man whose life has been devoted to thinking in the abstract about the universe. With his help, and pictures--lots of pictures--we can seek to understand a bit more of the cosmos. --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Universe in a Nutshell:
Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideasby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0393305376 (0-393-30537-6)
Softcover, W W Norton & Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas'Book summary:"What pleasure to see the dishonest, the inept, and the misguided deftly given their due, while praise is lavished on the deservingfor reasons well and truly stated."Kirkus Reviews
Ranging as far as the fox and as deep as the hedgehog (the urchin of his title), Stephen Jay Gould expands on geology, biological determinism, "cardboard Darwinism," and evolutionary theory in this sparkling collection. [via]More editions of Urchin in the Storm: Essays About Books and Ideas:
Spanish
Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steelby Jared DiamondISBN 848306667X (84-8306-667-X)
Hardcover, Debate Editorial
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steel'More editions of Armas, germenes y acero/ Guns, Germs and Steel:
-
Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinkingby Malcolm GladwellISBN 1598200879 (1-59820-087-9)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking'Book summary:In Blink, bestselling author Malcolm Gladwell revolutionizes the way we understand the world within. Blink is a book about how we think without thinking, about choices that seem to be made in an instant ¯in the blink of an eye¯ that actually aren't as simple as they seem. Why are some people brilliant decision makers, while others are consistently inept? How do our brains really work - in the office, in the classroom, in the kitchen, and in the bedroom? And why are the best decisions often those that are impossible to explain to others? [via]
More editions of Blink Inteligencia Intuitiva?/blink.: Por Que Sabemos La Verdad En Dos Segundos/ the Power of Thinking Without Thinking:
-
Brevisima Historia Del Tiempo/a Brief History of Timeby Stephen Hawking, Leonard MlodinowISBN 8484326373 (84-8432-637-3)
Hardcover, Planeta Pub Corp
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Brevisima Historia Del Tiempo/a Brief History of Time'Book summary:En 1988 aparecio un libro que iba a cambiar de arriba abajo nuestra concepcion del universo y que se convirtio en uno de los mayores best-sellers cientificos: "Historia del tiempo", de Stephen Hawking, el mayor genio del siglo xx despues de Einstein. Pese a su exito colosal, aquel libro presentaba algunas dificultades de comprension para el publico menos familiarizado con los principios de la fisica teorica. Ahora, diecisiete años despues, el profesor Hawking ha escrito este libro maravilloso y sencillo que pone al alcance del comun de los mortales los grandes misterios del mundo y de la vida. [via]
More editions of Brevisima Historia Del Tiempo/a Brief History of Time:
-
Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afectaby Stephen J. Dubner, Steven D. LevittISBN 8466625127 (84-666-2512-7)
Softcover, Ediciones B
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta'Book summary:[via]Presenting economics as the underlying connection between seemingly unrelated events or phenomena, this international bestseller establishes a new way of looking at the world. The authors explain the hidden side of everything, from violent crime, parenting, and baby names to the Ku Klux Klan and real estate, demonstrating how economics isn't just about numbers, but a study of incentiveshow people get what they need and want when others need and want the same thing.Comprobando que el estudio de la economía puede explicar como se relacionan fenómenos distintos, este bestseller internacional establece una nueva manera de ver al mundo. Los autores explican el lado escondido de todo, desde crímenes violentos y nombres de bebes hasta el Ku Klux Klan y bienes raíces, demostrando que el estudio de la economía es un estudio de los incentivos: el modo en que las personas obtienen lo que desean o necesitan, especialmente cuando otras personas desean o necesitan lo mismo.More editions of Freakonomics: Un Economista Polfticamente Incorrecto Explora El Lado Oculta De Lo Que Nos Afecta:
-
Genoma: La Autobiografia De Una Especie En 23 Capitulosby Matt RidleyISBN 8430604146 (84-306-0414-6)
Softcover, Santillana USA Pub Co Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Genoma: La Autobiografia De Una Especie En 23 Capitulos'More editions of Genoma: La Autobiografia De Una Especie En 23 Capitulos:
-
Historia Del Tiempoby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 8420639710 (84-206-3971-0)
Softcover, Grupo Anaya Comercial
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Historia Del Tiempo'Book summary:HISTORIA DEL TIEMPO es un libro de divulgación sobre el espacio y el tiempo escrito por uno de los físicos teóricos más prestigiosos de la actualidad. En él STEPHEN W. HAWKING presenta de forma clara y concisa los conceptos fundamentales de la mecánica newtoniana, la teoría de la relatividad, la mecánica cuántica y la cosmología contemporánea, temas todos ellos que, junto a su interés intrínseco, permiten enmarcar el problema de fondo tratado en el libro: el origen del universo y la creación del espacio-tiempo, llegando a asomarse a campos más amplios y aventurados, como la metafísica e incluso la teología, al plantearse la naturaleza de Dios creador, o más bien garante del sentido del universo.(*CR*) [via]
More editions of Historia Del Tiempo:
-
Historia del tiempo / A Brief History of Time: del big bang a los agujeros negros / From Big Bangs to the Black Holesby Stephen W. HawkingISBN 9879317114 (987-9317-11-4)
Softcover, Distal S R L
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Historia del tiempo / A Brief History of Time: del big bang a los agujeros negros / From Big Bangs to the Black Holes'More editions of Historia del tiempo / A Brief History of Time: del big bang a los agujeros negros / From Big Bangs to the Black Holes:
-
Una Breve Historia De Casi Todo/a Short History of Nearly Everythingby Bryson BillISBN 8478713808 (84-7871-380-8)
Softcover, Rba Publicaciones Editores revistas
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Una Breve Historia De Casi Todo/a Short History of Nearly Everything'Book summary:One of the worlds best-selling writers takes his ultimate journey into the most intriguing and consequential questions that science seeks to answer. Its a dazzling quest, to understand what that has transpired from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization. Or, as the author puts it, &how we went from there being nothing at all to there being something, and then how a little of that something turned into us, and also what happened in between and since. Description in Spanish: Bill Bryson se describe como un viajero renuente, pero ni siquiera cuando está en su casa, en la seguridad de su estudio, puede contener esa curiosidad que siente por el mundo que le rodea. En Una breve historia de casi todo intenta entender qué ocurrió entre la Gran Explosión y el surgimiento de la civilización, cómo pasamos de la nada a lo ahora somos. [via]
More editions of Una Breve Historia De Casi Todo/a Short History of Nearly Everything:
Portuguese
Dom Oba II D'Africa, O Principe Do Povo: Vida, Tempo E Pensamento De Um Homem Livre De Corby Eduardo da SilvaISBN 8571647232 (85-7164-723-2)
Hardcover, Companhia das Letras
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dom Oba II D'Africa, O Principe Do Povo: Vida, Tempo E Pensamento De Um Homem Livre De Cor'More editions of Dom Oba II D'Africa, O Principe Do Povo: Vida, Tempo E Pensamento De Um Homem Livre De Cor:
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}