| Search | About | Preferences | Interact | Help | |
| 150 million books. 1 search engine. | ||
books tagged “popular science”
books tagged “popular science”
›› Find signed collectible books by ''
-
About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolutionby P. C. W. DaviesISBN 0671799649 (0-671-79964-9)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution'Book summary:Examining the consequences of Einstein's relativity theory, an original work explores the mystery of time and considers black holes, time warps, time travel, the existence of God, nature of the universe, and humankind's place in the cosmos. 35,000 first printing. Tour. [via]
More editions of About Time: Einstein's Unfinished Revolution:
-
Absolute Zero Gravity: Science Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotesby Cohen, Joel, E., Betsy DevineISBN 0671740601 (0-671-74060-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Absolute Zero Gravity: Science Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes'Book summary:Paperback: 162 pages Publisher: Fireside (December 1992) Language: English [via]
More editions of Absolute Zero Gravity: Science Jokes, Quotes and Anecdotes:
-
The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligenceby Ray KurzweilISBN 0670882178 (0-670-88217-8)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence'Book summary:How much do we humans enjoy our current status as the most intelligent beings on earth? Enough to try to stop our own inventions from surpassing us in smarts? If so, we'd better pull the plug right now, because if Ray Kurzweil is right we've only got until about 2020 before computers outpace the human brain in computational power. Kurzweil, artificial intelligence expert and author of The Age of Intelligent Machines, shows that technological evolution moves at an exponential pace. Further, he asserts, in a sort of swirling postulate, time speeds up as order increases, and vice versa. He calls this the "Law of Time and Chaos," and it means that although entropy is slowing the stream of time down for the universe overall, and thus vastly increasing the amount of time between major events, in the eddy of technological evolution the exact opposite is happening, and events will soon be coming faster and more furiously. This means that we'd better figure out how to deal with conscious machines as soon as possible--they'll soon not only be able to beat us at chess, but also likely demand civil rights, and might at last realize the very human dream of immortality.
The Age of Spiritual Machines is compelling and accessible, and not necessarily best read from front to back--it's less heavily historical if you jump around (Kurzweil encourages this). Much of the content of the book lays the groundwork to justify Kurzweil's timeline, providing an engaging primer on the philosophical and technological ideas behind the study of consciousness. Instead of being a gee-whiz futurist manifesto, Spiritual Machines reads like a history of the future, without too much science fiction dystopianism. Instead, Kurzweil shows us the logical outgrowths of current trends, with all their attendant possibilities. This is the book we'll turn to when our computers first say "hello." --Therese Littleton [via]
More editions of The Age of Spiritual Machines : When Computers Exceed Human Intelligence:
AIDS in the Modern Worldby I. Edward AlcamoISBN 0632044748 (0-632-04474-8)
Softcover, Blackwell Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'AIDS in the Modern World'More editions of AIDS in the Modern World:
Basic Natureby Andrew ScottISBN 0631173625 (0-631-17362-5)
Hardcover, Blackwell Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Basic Nature'More editions of Basic Nature:
-
The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2004by Tim FolgerISBN 0618246983 (0-618-24698-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2004'Book summary:Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.[via]
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.More editions of The Best American Science And Nature Writing 2004:
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005by Jonathan WeinerISBN 0618273433 (0-618-27343-3)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005'Book summary:The Best American series has been the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction since 1915. Each volume's series editor selects notable works from hundreds of periodicals. A special guest editor, a leading writer in the field, then chooses the very best twenty or so pieces to publish. This unique system has made the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind.[via]
The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005 includes
Natalie Angier " Jared Diamond " Timothy Ferris " Malcolm Gladwell " Jerome Groopman " Bill McKibben " Sherwin B. Nuland " Jeffrey M. O'Brien " Oliver Sacks " Michael J. Sandel " William Speed Weed " and others
Jonathan Weiner, guest editor, has won the Pulitzer Prize, the National Book Critics Circle Award, the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and many other honors. He lives in New York City and teaches science writing at the Columbia School of Journalism.More editions of The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2005:
The Charm of Physicsby Sheldon L. GlashowISBN 067174013X (0-671-74013-X)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Charm of Physics'More editions of The Charm of Physics:
A Choice of Catastrophes: The Disasters That Threatens Our Worldby Isaac AsimovISBN 0671227017 (0-671-22701-7)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Choice of Catastrophes: The Disasters That Threatens Our World'More editions of A Choice of Catastrophes: The Disasters That Threatens Our World:
Conceptual Physicsby Paul HewittISBN 0673398471 (0-673-39847-1)
Hardcover, Scott, Foresman
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Conceptual Physics'Book summary:This text is for students of introductory physics, this text offers an overview of the discipline which focuses on concepts and critical thinking rather than number crunching. It presents physics in a straightforward language, using analogies and mental imagery based on real life situations. Mathematical formulae and calculations appear as a footnote on the page as a reference aid, and to help students see the connections between maths and science. [via]
-
Contactby Carl SaganISBN 0671004107 (0-671-00410-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Contact'Book summary:It is December 1999, the dawn of the millennium, and a team of international scientists is poised for the most fantastic adventure in human history. After years of scanning the galaxy for signs of somebody or something else, this team believes they've found a message from an intelligent source--and they travel deep into space to meet it. Pulitzer Prize winner Carl Sagan injects Contact, his prophetic adventure story, with scientific details that make it utterly believable. It is a Cold War era novel that parlays the nuclear paranoia of the time into exquisitely wrought tension among the various countries involved. Sagan meditates on science, religion, and government--the elements that define society--and looks to their impact on and role in the future. His ability to pack an exciting read with such rich content is an unusual talent that makes Contact a modern sci-fi classic. [via]
The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics As the Language of Natureby Heinz R. PagelsISBN 0671248022 (0-671-24802-2)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics As the Language of Nature'More editions of The Cosmic Code: Quantum Physics As the Language of Nature:
Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Natureby Eric ChaissonISBN 0674009878 (0-674-00987-8)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature'Book summary:We are connected to distant space and time not only by our imaginations but also through a common cosmic heritage. Emerging now from modern science is a unified scenario of the cosmos, including ourselves as sentient beings, based on the time-honored concept of change. From galaxies to snowflakes, from stars and planets to life itself, we are beginning to identify an underlying ubiquitous pattern penetrating the fabric of all the natural sciences--a sweepingly encompassing view of the order and structure of every known class of object in our richly endowed universe.
This is the subject of Eric Chaisson's new book. In Cosmic Evolution Chaisson addresses some of the most basic issues we can contemplate: the origin of matter and the origin of life, and the ways matter, life, and radiation interact and change with time. Guided by notions of beauty and symmetry, by the search for simplicity and elegance, by the ambition to explain the widest range of phenomena with the fewest possible principles, Chaisson designs for us an expansive yet intricate model depicting the origin and evolution of all material structures. He shows us that neither new science nor appeals to nonscience are needed to understand the impressive hierarchy of the cosmic evolutionary story, from quark to quasar, from microbe to mind.
[via]More editions of Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature:
Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competitionby Steve OlsonISBN 0618251413 (0-618-25141-3)
Hardcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition'More editions of Count Down: Six Kids Vie for Glory at the World's Toughest Math Competition:
Creation: Life and How to Make Itby Steve GrandISBN 0674011139 (0-674-01113-9)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Creation: Life and How to Make It'Book summary:Though its title brings to mind the hubris of Frankenstein, Steve Grand's Creation: Life and How to Make It is just humble enough to keep its readers hooked. Best known as the developer of the Creatures series of artificial-life software, Grand has quite a following among devotees of playful complexity.
The book ranges from deep ruminations on the nature of life and mind (artificial and biological) to fairly concrete advice for future creators, and his writing is just as elegant and compelling as his software. Sometimes his cleverness gets the best of him, but for the most part, his wordplay is used to serve his ideas, which are thought-provoking even for readers who have no intention of creating life.
Many will be surprised at the strength of Grand's antireductionism, but he makes his case vigorously and may win a few converts to the emergent-phenomena camp. Creation is essential reading for those of us who want to think through the consequences of our actions before we imitate Frankenstein's mistake. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Creation: Life and How to Make It:
Dancing Naked in the Mind Fieldby Kary B. MullisISBN 0679442553 (0-679-44255-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Dancing Naked in the Mind Field'More editions of Dancing Naked in the Mind Field:
-
The Diversity of Lifeby Edward O. WilsonISBN 0674212983 (0-674-21298-3)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Diversity of Life'Book summary:Humans, the Harvard University entomologist Edward O. Wilson has observed, have an innate--or at least extremely ancient--connection to the natural world, and our continued divorce from it has led to the loss of not only "a vast intellectual legacy born of intimacy" with nature, but also our very sanity. In The Diversity of Life, Wilson takes a sweeping view of our planet's natural richness, remarking on what on the surface seems a paradox: "almost all the species that ever lived are extinct, and yet more are alive today than at any time in the past." (Wilson's elegant explanation is a scientific education in itself.) This great variety of species is, of course, threatened by habitat destruction, global climate change, and a host of other forces, and Wilson revisits his oft-stated call for the protection of wilderness and undeveloped land, noting that "wilderness has virtue unto itself and needs no extraneous justification." We should, he continues, regard every species, "every scrap of biodiversity," as precious and irreplaceable, without attempting to quantify that regard with utilitarian measures such as "bio-economics." In short, Wilson offers with this book a simple, workable environmental ethic that extends the work of Aldo Leopold and other conservationists. A remarkably productive and influential scientist, Wilson is also a fine writer, and his survey of biodiversity makes for welcome and instructive reading. --Gregory McNamee [via]
More editions of The Diversity of Life:
Einstein in Love : A Scientific Romanceby Dennis OverbyeISBN 0670894303 (0-670-89430-3)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Einstein in Love : A Scientific Romance'More editions of Einstein in Love : A Scientific Romance:
Einstein's Dreamsby Alan LightmanISBN 0679416463 (0-679-41646-3)
Hardcover, Random House Inc
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Einstein's Dreams'More editions of Einstein's Dreams:
The Ends of the Earth: The Polar Regions of the Worldby Isaac AsimovISBN 0679401237 (0-679-40123-7)
Hardcover, Weybright and Talley
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Ends of the Earth: The Polar Regions of the World'More editions of The Ends of the Earth: The Polar Regions of the World:
-
The Evolution of Useful Thingsby Henry PetroskiISBN 0679412263 (0-679-41226-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Evolution of Useful Things'Book summary:This surprising book may appear to be about the simple things of life--forks, paper clips, zippers--but in fact it is a far-flung historical adventure on the evolution of common culture. To trace the fork's history, Duke University professor of civil engineering Henry Petroski travels from prehistoric times to Texas barbecue to Cardinal Richelieu to England's Industrial Revolution to the American Civil War--and beyond. Each item described offers a cultural history lesson, plus there's plenty of engineering detail for those so inclined. [via]
More editions of The Evolution of Useful Things:
-
Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversariesby Steven WeinbergISBN 0674011201 (0-674-01120-1)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries'Book summary:Steven Weinberg isn't ashamed of science. Of course, as a Nobel winner in physics, he does have emotional capital invested in the enterprise, but most of his arguments are sound and compelling. Facing Up is a collection of his essays, written over 15 years, celebrating and defending mainstream science. Rising up against the cultural critics who insist that science is essentially politics or even imperialism dressed up in a white coat, he is patient and eloquent as he explains how their misreadings of scientific literature and their own preconceptions guide their reasoning. From mildly wonkish to endearingly passionate, his writing engages the reader's full attention regardless of cultural affiliation. Science lovers will adore Weinberg's unabashed boosterism, while skeptics can try to rise to his challenge. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Facing Up: Science and Its Cultural Adversaries:
Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?by Ian Stewart, Martin GolubitskyISBN 0631182519 (0-631-18251-9)
Hardcover, Blackwell Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?'More editions of Fearful Symmetry: Is God a Geometer?:
Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith and the Search for Orderby George JohnsonISBN 0679411925 (0-679-41192-5)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith and the Search for Order'More editions of Fire in the Mind: Science, Faith and the Search for Order:
-
Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos A New Aesthetic of Art, Science, and Natureby John BriggsISBN 0671742175 (0-671-74217-5)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos A New Aesthetic of Art, Science, and Nature'Book summary:Fractals are unique patterns left behind by the unpredictable movements -- the chaos -- of the world at work. The branching patterns of trees, the veins in a hand, water twisting out of a running tap -- all of these are fractals. Learn to recognize them and you will never again see things in quite the same way.
Fractals permeate our lives, appearing in places as tiny as the surface of a virus and as majestic as the Grand Canyon. From ancient tribal peoples to modern painters to the animators of "Star Wars," artists have been captivated by fractals and have utilized them in their work. Computer buffs are wild about fractals as well, for they can be generated on ordinary home computers.
In "Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos," science writer John Briggs uses over 170 illustrations to clearly explain the significance -- and more importantly, the beauty -- of fractals. He describes how fractals were discovered, how they are formed, and the unique properties different fractals share. "Fractals" is a breathtaking guided tour of a brand new aesthetic of art, science, and nature. It will revolutionize the way you see the world and your place within it.
* Contains a special bibliography listing fractal generating software for desktop computers
More editions of Fractals: The Patterns of Chaos A New Aesthetic of Art, Science, and Nature:
From Eros to Gaiaby Freeman J. DysonISBN 0679413073 (0-679-41307-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'From Eros to Gaia'More editions of From Eros to Gaia:
Game, Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrumsby Ian StewartISBN 0631171142 (0-631-17114-2)
Hardcover, Blackwell Pub
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Game, Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums'More editions of Game, Set and Math: Enigmas and Conundrums:
Genethics: The Clash Between the New Genetics and Human Valuesby David Suzuki, Peter KnudtsonISBN 0674345665 (0-674-34566-5)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Genethics: The Clash Between the New Genetics and Human Values'Book summary:Developments in the field of genetics (including, but not limited to, human genetics) have brought into being (or at least into the realm of plausibility) a "genetic engineering" which is widely perceived to pose a diverse assortment of intricately tangled and in many respects novel ethical problem [via]
More editions of Genethics: The Clash Between the New Genetics and Human Values:
-
Good Benitoby Alan P. LightmanISBN 0679436146 (0-679-43614-6)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Good Benito'Book summary:Throughout his life, Bennett Long pursues a vision that compels him to become a scientist and that transforms the everyday world into one of purity, beauty, and order, whose very allure lies in its unattainable ideal. 100,000 first printing. $100,000 ad/promo. Tour. [via]
More editions of Good Benito:
-
The Handby Frank R. WilsonISBN 0679412492 (0-679-41249-2)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Hand'Book summary:The hand is, among other things, a complex symbol, representing both the creative and the prosaic. This blending of the spiritual and the mundane is what makes the hand unique, as it in turn makes us unique among animals. Neurologist Frank R. Wilson has taken on a heroic task: to explain the hand on both of these levels and to show us how we use these marvelous instruments to find and create meaning in our lives.
Anthropology, neuroscience, music, and puppetry all figure prominently in The Hand, which effortlessly guides the reader through its million-year biography. Brains and thumbs growing and changing to accommodate each other, discovering tools and language together, kicked us out of the monkey house for good. While there is still controversy over whether we are the brainiest animals on the planet, it is abundantly clear that we are the handiest.
This manipulative ability is our greatest strength and our most terrible flaw. Without hands we would have no Louvre but also no nerve gas. But, Wilson says, our situation is more complex. Our access to far greater means to achieve our ends gives us a greater hunger for meaning. We long to use our hands to satisfy our needs--whether spiritual or down-to-earth. This creation of meaning from nothing may be our greatest achievement. In the end, The Hand is brightly optimistic, showing that our reach truly does exceed our grasp. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of The Hand:
-
Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, From Plato To String Theory And Beyondby Lawrence M. KraussISBN 0670033952 (0-670-03395-2)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, From Plato To String Theory And Beyond'Book summary:Beginning well before Platos allegory of the cave and continuing to modern scientific breakthroughs from relativity to quantum mechanics, as well as to pop cultural icons like Twilight Zone and Star Trek, human beings have imagined, even longed for, alternate realities. Lawrence M. Krauss, one of the most gifted and engaging of writer-scientists today, examines why we have often believed that the answers to the great questions about existence lie in the possibility that we live in a universe more complex than we can see or otherwise sense. Drawing on work by scientists, mathematicians, artists, and writersfrom Einstein to Picasso to C. S. LewisHiding in the Mirror explores whether extra dimensions simply represent abstract speculation or hold the key to a deeper understanding of the universe. Krauss examines popular cultures embrace and misunderstandingof topics such as black holes, life in another dimension, string theory, and some of the daring new theories that propose that large extra dimensions exist alongside our own. This is popular science writing at its best and most illuminatingwitty, fascinating, and controversial. [via]
More editions of Hiding in the Mirror: The Mysterious Allure of Extra Dimensions, From Plato To String Theory And Beyond:
Hitler's Scientists : Science, War, and the Devil's Pactby John CornwellISBN 0670030759 (0-670-03075-9)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hitler's Scientists : Science, War, and the Devil's Pact'More editions of Hitler's Scientists : Science, War, and the Devil's Pact:
Hydrogen: The Essential Elementby John S. RigdenISBN 0674012526 (0-674-01252-6)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Hydrogen: The Essential Element'Book summary:Seduced by simplicity, physicists find themselves endlessly fascinated by hydrogen, the simplest of atoms. Hydrogen has shocked, it has surprised, it has embarrassed, it has humbled--and again and again it has guided physicists to the edge of new vistas where the promise of basic understanding and momentous insights beckoned. The allure of hydrogen, crucial to life and critical to scientific discovery, is at the center of this book, which tells a story that begins with the big bang and continues to unfold today.
In this biography of hydrogen, John Rigden shows how this singular atom, the most abundant in the universe, has helped unify our understanding of the material world from the smallest scale, the elementary particles, to the largest, the universe itself. It is a tale of startling discoveries and dazzling practical benefits spanning more than one hundred years--from the first attempt to identify the basic building block of atoms in the mid-nineteenth century to the discovery of the Bose-Einstein condensate only a few years ago. With Rigden as an expert and engaging guide, we see how hydrogen captured the imagination of many great scientists--such as Heisenberg, Pauli, Schrödinger, Dirac, and Rabi--and how their theories and experiments with this simple atom led to such complex technical innovations as magnetic resonance imaging, the maser clock, and global positioning systems. Along the way, we witness the transformation of science from an endeavor of inspired individuals to a monumental enterprise often requiring the cooperation of hundreds of scientists around the world.
Still, any biography of hydrogen has to end with a question: What new surprises await us?
[via]More editions of Hydrogen: The Essential Element:
-
Influenceby Robert B. CialdiniISBN 0673155145 (0-673-15514-5)
Softcover, Scott, Foresman
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Influence'Book summary:Narrative writing is combined with scholarly ideas in this examination of the psychology of compliance (ie uncovering which factors cause one person to say "yes" to another's request). By combining evidence from two relevant, but very different arenas - the realm of controlled research and the working world of influence professionals - this book looks at this issue in terms of six basic principles of psychology (one to a chapter). These principles direct human behaviour, and are therefore extremely powerful: reciprocation, consistency, social validation, liking, authority and scarcity. This text is a supplement for courses in introductor psychology, social psychology, management, sales, marketing and persuasion. [via]
-
Invention by Designby Henry PetroskiISBN 0674463684 (0-674-46368-4)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Invention by Design'Book summary:Henry Petroski's previous bestsellers have delighted readers with intriguing stories about the engineering marvels around us, from the lowly pencil to the soaring suspension bridge. In this book, Petroski delves deeper into the mystery of invention, to explore what everyday artifacts and sophisticated networks can reveal about the way engineers solve problems.
Engineering entails more than knowing the way things work. What do economics and ecology, aesthetics and ethics, have to do with the shape of a paper clip, the tab of a beverage can, the cabin design of a turbojet, or the course of a river? How do the idiosyncrasies of individual engineers, companies, and communities leave their mark on projects from Velcro® to fax machines to waterworks?Invention by Design offers an insider's look at these political and cultural dimensions of design and development, production and construction.
Readers unfamiliar with engineering will find Petroski's enthusiasm contagious, whether the topic is the genesis of the Ziploc baggie or the averted collapse of Manhattan's sleekest skyscraper. And those who inhabit the world of engineering will discover insights to challenge their customary perspective, whether their work involves failure analysis, systems design, or public relations. Written with the flair that readers have come to expect from his books, Invention by Design reaffirms Petroski as the master explicator of the principles and processes that turn thoughts into the many things that define our made world.
[via] 
Lake Wobegon Summer 1956by Garrison KeillorISBN 0670030031 (0-670-03003-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lake Wobegon Summer 1956'More editions of Lake Wobegon Summer 1956:
A Leg to Stand Onby Oliver SacksISBN 0671467808 (0-671-46780-8)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Leg to Stand On'More editions of A Leg to Stand On:
The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensationby Anne Ross, Don RobinsISBN 0671741225 (0-671-74122-5)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensation'More editions of The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensation:
- The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensation: ISBN 0671695363 (0-671-69536-3)
Hardcover, Simon & Schuster - The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensation: ISBN 0671741225 (0-671-74122-5)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
- The Life and Death of a Druid Prince: The Story of Lindow Man, an Archaeological Sensation: ISBN 0671695363 (0-671-69536-3)
-
Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankindby Donald JohansonISBN 0671724991 (0-671-72499-1)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind'Book summary:The story of one of the most important fossil finds in man's search for his ancestors - the 60per cent complete female hominid skeleton nicknamed "Lucy". Confirming beyond doubt the early bipedal nature of human ancestors, she was discovered in 1973 in Ethiopia by a team of scientists led by Johanson. [via]
More editions of Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind:
A Man on the Moon Pt. 1: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronautsby Andrew ChaikinISBN 0670814466 (0-670-81446-6)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'A Man on the Moon Pt. 1: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts'More editions of A Man on the Moon Pt. 1: The Voyages of the Apollo Astronauts:
-
Man's Search for Meaningby Viktor E. FranklISBN 0671023373 (0-671-02337-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Man's Search for Meaning'Book summary:Man's Search for Meaning by Viktor E. Frankl is among the most influential works of psychiatric literature since Freud. The book begins with a lengthy, austere, and deeply moving personal essay about Frankl's imprisonment in Auschwitz and other concentration camps for five years, and his struggle during this time to find reasons to live. The second part of the book, called "Logotherapy in a Nutshell," describes the psychotherapeutic method that Frankl pioneered as a result of his experiences in the concentration camps. Freud believed that sexual instincts and urges were the driving force of humanity's life; Frankl, by contrast, believes that man's deepest desire is to search for meaning and purpose. Frankl's logotherapy, therefore, is much more compatible with Western religions than Freudian psychotherapy. This is a fascinating, sophisticated, and very human book. At times, Frankl's personal and professional discourses merge into a style of tremendous power. "Our generation is realistic, for we have come to know man as he really is," Frankl writes. "After all, man is that being who invented the gas chambers of Auschwitz; however, he is also that being who entered those gas chambers upright, with the Lord's Prayer or the Shema Yisrael on his lips." [via]
More editions of Man's Search for Meaning:
- Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy: ISBN 0671244221 (0-671-24422-1)
Softcover, Simon & Schuster - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 067166736X (0-671-66736-X)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671834657 (0-671-83465-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671646702 (0-671-64670-2)
Hardcover, Pocket Books - Man's Search for Meaning: ISBN 0671023373 (0-671-02337-3)
Softcover, Pocket Books
- Man's Search for Meaning: An Introduction to Logotherapy: ISBN 0671244221 (0-671-24422-1)
The Medical Detectivesby Berton RouecheISBN 0671544497 (0-671-54449-7)
Softcover, Pocket Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Medical Detectives'More editions of The Medical Detectives:
Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extensionby Stephen S. HallISBN 0618492216 (0-618-49221-6)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension'More editions of Merchants of Immortality: Chasing the Dream of Human Life Extension:
-
The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational Worldby Paul DaviesISBN 0671797182 (0-671-79718-2)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World'Book summary:Throughout history, humans have dreamed of knowing the reason for the existence of the universe. In The Mind of God, physicist Paul Davies explores whether modern science can provide the key that will unlock this last secret. In his quest for an ultimate explanation, Davies reexamines the great questions that have preoccupied humankind for millennia, and in the process explores, among other topics, the origin and evolution of the cosmos, the nature of life and consciousness, and the claim that our universe is a kind of gigantic computer. Charting the ways in which the theories of such scientists as Newton, Einstein, and more recently Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman have altered our conception of the physical universe. Davies puts these scientists' discoveries into context with the writings of philosophers such as Plato. Descartes, Hume, and Kant. His startling conclusion is that the universe is "no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here." By the means of science, we can truly see into the mind of God. [via]
More editions of The Mind of God: The Scientific Basis for a Rational World:
-
Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder : Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technologyby Lawrence WeschlerISBN 0679439986 (0-679-43998-6)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder : Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology'Book summary:In the non-Aristotelian, non-Euclidean, non-Newtonian space between the walls of the Museum of Jurassic Technology in Los Angeles exist bats that can fly through lead barriers, spore-ingesting pronged ants, elaborate theories of memory, and a host of other off-kilter scientific oddities that challenge the traditional notions of truth and fiction. Lawrence Weschler's book, expanded from an article for Harper's, is, at turns, a tour of the museum, a profile of its founder and curator, David Wilson, and a meditation on the role of imagination and authority in all museums, in science and in life. Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder is an exquisite piece of "magic realist nonfiction" that will prove utterly captivating. [via]
More editions of Mr. Wilson's Cabinet of Wonder : Pronged Ants, Horned Humans, Mice on Toast, and Other Marvels of Jurassic Technology:
-
Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Bodyby Armand Marie LeroiISBN 0670031100 (0-670-03110-0)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body'Book summary:"Who are the mutants? We are all mutants. But some of us are more mutant than others."
Variety, even deformity, may seem like an unlikely route by which to approach normality, even perfection. Yet much of what we know about the mechanisms of human development, growth, and aging comes from the study of people who are afflicted with congenital diseases, most of which have genetic causes. Congenital abnormalities reveal not only errors within the womb, but also our evolutionary history.
In Mutants, Armand Marie Leroi gives a brilliant narrative account of our genetic grammar and the people whose bodies have revealed it, balancing both the science and the stories behind some of history's most captivating figures-including a French convent girl who found herself changing sex upon puberty; children who, echoing Homer's Cyclops, are born with a single eye in the middle of their foreheads; a village of long-lived Croatian dwarves; a hairy family who was kept at the Burmese royal court for four generations (and from whom Darwin took one of his keenest insights into heredity); and the ostrich-footed Wadoma of the Zambezi River Valley.
Stepping effortlessly from myth to molecular biology, this elegant, humane, and illuminating book is about us all. [via]More editions of Mutants: On Genetic Variety and the Human Body:
The Orion Nebula: Where Stars Are Bornby C. Robert O'DellISBN 067401183X (0-674-01183-X)
Hardcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Orion Nebula: Where Stars Are Born'More editions of The Orion Nebula: Where Stars Are Born:
-
The Periodic Tableby Primo Levi, Raymond Rosenthal, Neal AschersonISBN 0679444637 (0-679-44463-7)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Periodic Table'Book summary:Writer Primo Levi (1919-1987), an Italian Jew, did not come to the wide attention of the English-reading audience until the last years of his life. A survivor of the Holocaust and imprisonment in Auschwitz, Levi is considered to be one of the century's most compelling voices, and The Periodic Table is his most famous book. Springboarding from his training as a chemist, Levi uses the elements as metaphors to create a cycle of linked, somewhat autobiographical tales, including stories of the Piedmontese Jewish community he came from, and of his response to the Holocaust. [via]
More editions of The Periodic Table:
-
The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern Americaby Daniel J. KevlesISBN 0674666569 (0-674-66656-9)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America'Book summary:This magnificent account of the coming of age of physics in America has been heralded as the best introduction to the history of science in the United States. Unsurpassed in its breadth and literary style, Kevles's account portrays the brilliant scientists who became a powerful force in bringing the world into a revolutionary new era.
The book ranges widely as it links these exciting developments to the social, cultural, and political changes that occurred from the post-Civil War years to the present. Throughout, Kevles keeps his eye on the central question of how an avowedly elitist enterprise grew and prospered in a democratic culture.
In this new edition, the author has brought the story up to date by providing an extensive, authoritative, and colorful account of the Superconducting Super Collider, from its origins in the international competition and intellectual needs of high-energy particle physics, through its establishment as a multibillion-dollar project, to its termination, in 1993, as a result of angry opposition within the American physics community and the Congress.
[via]More editions of The Physicists: The History of a Scientific Community in Modern America:
The Planetsby Dava SobelISBN 0670034460 (0-670-03446-0)
Hardcover, Viking Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Planets'More editions of The Planets:
-
Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competitionby Tim BirkheadISBN 0674006666 (0-674-00666-6)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition'Book summary:Males are promiscuous and ferociously competitive. Females--both human and of other species--are naturally monogamous. That at least is what the study of sexual behavior after Darwin assumed, perhaps because it was written by men. Only in recent years has this version of events been challenged. Females, it has become clear, are remarkably promiscuous and have evolved an astonishing array of strategies, employed both before and after copulation, to determine exactly who will father their offspring.
Tim Birkhead reveals a wonderful world in which males and females vie with each other as they strive to maximize their reproductive success. Both sexes have evolved staggeringly sophisticated ways to get what they want--often at the expense of the other. He introduces us to fish whose first encounter locks them together for life in a perpetual sexual embrace; hermaphrodites who "joust" with their reproductive organs, each trying to inseminate the other without being inseminated; and tiny flies whose seminal fluid is so toxic that it not only destroys the sperm of rival males but eventually kills the female. He explores the long and tortuous road leading to our current state of knowledge, from Aristotle's observations on chickens, to the first successful artificial insemination in the seventeenth century, to today's ingenious molecular markers for assigning paternity. And he shows how much human behavior--from the wife-sharing habits of Inuit hunters to Charlie Chaplin's paternity case--is influenced by sperm competition.
Lucidly written and lavishly illustrated, with a wealth of fascinating detail and vivid examples, Promiscuity is the ultimate guide to the battle of the sexes. [via]
More editions of Promiscuity: An Evolutionary History of Sperm Competition:
Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physicsby Tim MaudlinISBN 0631232214 (0-631-23221-4)
Softcover, Blackwell Publishing Limited
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics'More editions of Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics:
- Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics: ISBN 0631232206 (0-631-23220-6)
Hardcover, Blackwell Publishing Limited - Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity: Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics: ISBN 0631186093 (0-631-18609-3)
Hardcover, Blackwell Pub - Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics: ISBN 0631232214 (0-631-23221-4)
Softcover, Blackwell Publishing Limited
- Quantum Non-Locality and Relativity : Metaphysical Intimations of Modern Physics: ISBN 0631232206 (0-631-23220-6)
Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spiritualityby John HorganISBN 061844663X (0-618-44663-X)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality'More editions of Rational Mysticism: Dispatches from the Border Between Science and Spirituality:
Red-Tails in Love : PALE MALE's STORY--A True Wildlife Drama in Central Parkby Marie WinnISBN 0679439978 (0-679-43997-8)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Red-Tails in Love : PALE MALE's STORY--A True Wildlife Drama in Central Park'More editions of Red-Tails in Love : PALE MALE's STORY--A True Wildlife Drama in Central Park:
River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild Westby Rebecca SolnitISBN 0670031763 (0-670-03176-3)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West'More editions of River of Shadows: Eadweard Muybridge and the Technological Wild West:
Satan, Cantor, and Infinity and Other Mind-Boggling Puzzlesby Raymond M. SmullyanISBN 0679406883 (0-679-40688-3)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Satan, Cantor, and Infinity and Other Mind-Boggling Puzzles'More editions of Satan, Cantor, and Infinity and Other Mind-Boggling Puzzles:
Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavensby Richard PanekISBN 0670876283 (0-670-87628-3)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens'More editions of Seeing and Believing: How the Telescope Opened Our Eyes and Minds to the Heavens:
-
Sex on the Brain : The Biological Differences Between Men and Womenby Deborah BlumISBN 0670868884 (0-670-86888-4)
Hardcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Sex on the Brain : The Biological Differences Between Men and Women'Book summary:For centuries, links between biology and behavior have been mined for ammunition in the gender wars. Western science has often tainted the discussion by skewing the norm toward men so that the biological underpinnings of their weaknesses and strengths are applauded while those of women are denigrated. Sex on the Brain is a chatty, fairly evenhanded report on a broad range of animal and human studies intended to provide insight into hot-button issues such as aggression, nurturing behavior, infidelity, homosexuality, hormonal drives, and sexual signals. According to one researcher, "We inherit the behavior essentially of our past." Morning sickness, for example, which steers some women away from strong tastes and smells, may once have protected babes in utero from toxic items. Infidelity is a way for men to ensure genetic immortality. Interestingly, when we deliberately change sex-role behavior--say men become more nurturing or women more aggressive--our hormones and even our brains respond by changing, too. [via]
More editions of Sex on the Brain : The Biological Differences Between Men and Women:
Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genesby Sue Hubbell, Liddy HubbellISBN 0618257489 (0-618-25748-9)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes'More editions of Shrinking the Cat: Genetic Engineering Before We Knew About Genes:
-
The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biologyby Ray KurzweilISBN 0670033847 (0-670-03384-7)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology'Book summary:The great inventor and futurist Ray Kurzweil is one of the best-known and most controversial advocates for the role of machines in the future of humanity. In his latest book, he envisions an eventthe "singularity"in which technological change becomes so rapid and so profound that our bodies and brains will merge with our machines.
The Singularity Is Near portrays what life will be like after this event a human- machine civilization where our experiences shift from real reality to virtual reality and where our intelligence becomes nonbiological and trillions of times more powerful. In practical terms, this means that human aging and pollution will be reversed; world hunger will be solved; our bodies and environment transformed by nanotechnology to overcome the limitations of biology, including death; and virtually any physical product can be created from information alone. The Singularity Is Near also considers the social and philosophical ramifications of these changes, and is certain to be one of the most widely discussed and provocative books of 2005. [via]
More editions of The Singularity Is Near: When Humans Transcend Biology:
-
The Society of Mindby Marvin MinskyISBN 0671657135 (0-671-65713-5)
Softcover, Touchstone Books
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Society of Mind'Book summary:For some artificial intelligence researchers, Minsky's book is too far removed from hard science to be useful. For others, the high-level approach of The Society of Mind makes it a gold mine of ideas waiting to be implemented. The author, one of the undisputed fathers of the discipline of AI, sets out to provide an abstract model of how the human mind really works. His thesis is that our minds consist of a huge aggregation of tiny mini-minds or agents that have evolved to perform highly specific tasks. Most of these agents lack the attributes we think of as intelligence and are severely limited in their ability to intercommunicate. Yet rational thought, feeling, and purposeful action result from the interaction of these basic components. Minsky's theory does not suggest a specific implementation for building intelligent machines. Still, this book may prove to be one of the most influential for the future of AI. [via]
Stars and Planetsby Robin Kerrod, Ron JobsonISBN 0668062630 (0-668-06263-0)
Softcover, Petersons
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Stars and Planets'More editions of Stars and Planets:
-
Strange Beauty : Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physicsby George JohnsonISBN 0679437649 (0-679-43764-9)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Strange Beauty : Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics'Book summary:Murray Gell-Mann is a leading light in 20th-century physics, yet his name rings bells only for those interested in particle physics. Science writer George Johnson was fortunate enough to develop a friendly relationship with the great scientist, and his biography, Strange Beauty, glows with a rare intimacy gained from a notoriously private and irascible man. From his childhood in New York City to his current scientific elder-statesman status in New Mexico, Johnson explores Gell-Mann's life in glorious detail. A passionate, jealous, and brilliant man, he was capable of both profound insight and bitter lifelong rivalries, but Johnson finds there's much more to the man than these two simple poles; Gell-Mann's volatile family life and deft academic maneuvering also find room in this expansive biography.
The reader finds that Johnson's careful attention to detail shows more than it tells through enlightening stories of Gell-Mann's troubled, romantic, or pretentious dealings with peers, family, and even strangers. Explaining his strange surname means investigating old phone books, scientific legend, and family history, as the scientist is unwilling to shed light on the mystery (it turns out that his father hyphenated it, and Murray dreamed up etymologies as needed--giving rise to the tangled web of myths). Johnson is up to the challenge of recording the life story of a man nearly as strange as the quarks he discovered and named, and Strange Beauty lives up to the promise of its title. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Strange Beauty : Murray Gell-Mann and the Revolution in Twentieth-Century Physics:
-
Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Areby Joseph LedouxISBN 0670030287 (0-670-03028-7)
Hardcover, Penguin USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are'Book summary:A middle-aged neuroscientist walking down Bourbon Street spots a T-shirt that reads, "I don't know, so maybe I'm not." This stimulus zooms from eyes to brain, neuron by neuron, via tiny junctions called synapses. The results? An immediate chuckle and (sometime later) a groundbreaking book titled The Synaptic Self. To Joseph LeDoux, the simple question, "What makes us who we are?" represents the driving force behind his 20-plus years of research into the cognitive, emotional, and motivational functions of the brain.
LeDoux believes the answer rests in the synapses, key players in the brain's intricately designed communication system. In other words, the pathways by which a person's "hardwired" responses (nature) mesh with his or her unique life experiences (nurture) determine that person's individuality. Here, LeDoux nimbly compresses centuries of philosophy, psychology, and biology into an amazingly clear picture of humanity's journey toward understanding the self.
Equally readable is his comprehensive science lesson, where detailed circuit speak reads like an absorbing--yet often humorous--mystery novel. Skillfully presenting research studies and findings alongside their various implications, LeDoux makes a solid case for accepting a synaptic explanation of existence and provides to the reader generous helpings of knowledge, amusement, and awe along the way. --Liane Thomas [via]
More editions of Synaptic Self: How Our Brains Become Who We Are:
-
Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Timeby J. Richard GottISBN 0618257357 (0-618-25735-7)
Softcover, Houghton Mifflin
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time'Book summary:In this fascinating book, the renowned astrophysicist J. Richard Gott leads time travel out of the world of H. G. Wells and into the realm of scientific possibility. Building on theories posited by Einstein and advanced by scientists such as Stephen Hawking and Kip Thorne, Gott explains how time travel can actually occur. He describes, with boundless enthusiasm and humor, how travel to the future is not only possible but has already happened, and he contemplates whether travel to the past is also conceivable. Notable not only for its extraordinary subject matter and scientific brilliance, Time Travel in Einsteins Universe is a delightful and captivating exploration of the surprising facts behind the science fiction of time travel.[via]More editions of Time Travel in Einstein's Universe: The Physical Possibilities of Travel Through Time:
-
Time's Arrow/Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Timeby Stephen Jay GouldISBN 0674891996 (0-674-89199-6)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Time's Arrow/Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time'Book summary:Rarely has a scholar attained such popular acclaim merely by doing what he does best and enjoys most. But such is Stephen Jay Gould's command of paleontology and evolutionary theory, and his gift for brilliant explication, that he has brought dust and dead bones to life, and developed an immense following for the seeming arcana of this field.
In Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle his subject is nothing less than geology's signal contribution to human thought--the discovery of "deep time," the vastness of earth's history, a history so ancient that we can comprehend it only as metaphor. He follows a single thread through three documents that mark the transition in our thinking from thousands to billions of years: Thomas Burnet's four-volume Sacred Theory of the Earth (1680-1690), James Hutton's Theory of the Earth (1795), and Charles Lyell's three-volume Principles of Geology (1830-1833).
Gould's major theme is the role of metaphor in the formulation and testing of scientific theories--in this case the insight provided by the oldest traditional dichotomy of Judeo-Christian thought: the directionality of time's arrow or the immanence of time's cycle. Gould follows these metaphors through these three great documents and shows how their influence, more than the empirical observation of rocks in the field, provoked the supposed discovery of deep time by Hutton and Lyell. Gould breaks through the traditional "cardboard" history of geological textbooks (the progressive march to truth inspired by more and better observations) by showing that Burnet, the villain of conventional accounts, was a rationalist (not a theologically driven miracle-monger) whose rich reconstruction of earth history emphasized the need for both time's arrow (narrative history) and time's cycle (immanent laws), while Hutton and Lyell, our traditional heroes, denied the richness of history by their exclusive focus upon time's Arrow.
[via]More editions of Time's Arrow/Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time:
-
The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environmentby Richard LewontinISBN 0674006771 (0-674-00677-1)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment'Book summary:There is the Richard Lewontin non-biologists know, the author of acerbic, thoughtful, witty, unhesitatingly leftist books such as his essays from The New York Review of Books collected in It Ain't Necessarily So. This is the other Lewontin, the hard-core scientist, one of the most insightful evolutionary biologists going.
The Triple Helix is a manifesto for the life sciences: "The time has come when further progress in our understanding of nature requires that we reconsider the relationship between the outside and the inside, between organism and environment". Lewontin is not arguing for what he calls "obscurationist holism", but for a more complex interaction between gene, organism and environment, in which they construct each other:
.... it is the biology, indeed the genes, of an organism that determines its effective environment, by establishing the way in which external physical signals become incorporated into its reactions .... Whatever the autonomous processes of the outer world may be, they cannot be perceived by the organism. Its life is determined by the shadows on the wall, passed through a transforming medium of its own creation.
Lewontin argues for a life science that faces up to reality, that tackles the problems of studying subtle processes in complex systems where three-dimensional shape is crucial. The journal Nature "cannot recommend [it] too highly for the many commentators and headline-writers who think that DNA is the blueprint for the organism"--or for their readers. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]More editions of The Triple Helix: Gene, Organism, and Environment:
Unraveling Piltdown : The Fraud of the Century and Its Solutionby John E. WalshISBN 0679444440 (0-679-44444-0)
Hardcover, Random House Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Unraveling Piltdown : The Fraud of the Century and Its Solution'More editions of Unraveling Piltdown : The Fraud of the Century and Its Solution:
The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Sizeby Tor NrretrandersISBN 0670875791 (0-670-87579-1)
Hardcover, Penguin Group USA
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size'More editions of The User Illusion: Cutting Consciousness Down to Size:
Who Rules in Science: An Opinionated Guide to the Warsby James Robert BrownISBN 0674013646 (0-674-01364-6)
Softcover, Harvard Univ Pr
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Who Rules in Science: An Opinionated Guide to the Wars'More editions of Who Rules in Science: An Opinionated Guide to the Wars:
-
Why Things Bite Back : Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequencesby Edward TennerISBN 0679425632 (0-679-42563-2)
Hardcover, Knopf Publishing Group
Find This Book
› Find signed collectible books: 'Why Things Bite Back : Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences'Book summary:To the Hopi Indians in America's Southwest, our existence will soon become koyaanissqatsi or "a world out of balance." Some doomsday theorists, like historian Edward Tenner, argue we are already there. But unlike many of his colleagues, Tenner doesn't believe technology is causing the world's demise--rather, it is carrying us, as individuals, to our own koyaanissqatsi more quickly. Technological "breakthroughs" such as X-rays and computers have their immediate benefits, but their long-term consequences in terms of health and environmental risks, lost time, and disintegration of traditions set us back further than where we started in the first place. While Tenner doesn't damn technology, he cautions for modest and skeptical acceptance of it. [via]
More editions of Why Things Bite Back : Technology and the Revenge of Unintended Consequences:
![[powered by Muze Inc.]](http://i.bookfinder.com/images/site/muze/powered_by_muze.gif){kind=small}