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books tagged “popular science”
books tagged “popular science”
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The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorusby John EmsleyISBN 047144149X (0-471-44149-X)
Softcover, Chemical Heritage Foundation
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus'Book summary:The incredible "glowing" history of the "Devil's element "phosphorus
Discovered by alchemists, prescribed by apothecaries, exploited by ninth-century industrialists, and abused by twentieth-century combatants, the chemical element phosphorus has fascinated us for more than three centuries. It may even be the cause of will-o'-the wisps and spontaneous human combustion! Now John Emsley has written an enthralling account of this eerily luminescent element. Shining with wonderful nuggets-from murders-by-phosphorus to a match factory strike; from the firebombing of Hamburg to the deadly compounds derived from phosphorus today-The 13th Element weaves together a rich tableau of brilliant and oddball characters, social upheavals, and bizarre events. [via]More editions of The 13th Element: The Sordid Tale of Murder, Fire, and Phosphorus:
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Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particlesby Craig F. Bohren, Donald R. HuffmanISBN 0471293407 (0-471-29340-7)
Softcover, Wiley-Interscience
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles'Book summary:Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles
Treating absorption and scattering in equal measure, this self-contained, interdisciplinary study examines and illustrates how small particles absorb and scatter light. The authors emphasize that any discussion of the optical behavior of small particles is inseparable from a full understanding of the optical behavior of the parent material-bulk matter. To divorce one concept from the other is to render any study on scattering theory seriously incomplete.
Special features and important topics covered in this book include:
* Classical theories of optical properties based on idealized models
* Measurements for three representative materials: magnesium oxide, aluminum, and water
* An extensive discussion of electromagnetic theory
* Numerous exact and approximate solutions to various scattering problems
* Examples and applications from physics, astrophysics, atmospheric physics, and biophysics
* Some 500 references emphasizing work done since Kerker's 1969 work on scattering theory
* Computer programs for calculating scattering by spheres, coated spheres, and infinite cylinders [via]More editions of Absorption and Scattering of Light by Small Particles:
Another Fine Math You'Ve Got Me intoby Ian StewartISBN 0486431819 (0-486-43181-9)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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The Arrow of Time: A Voyage Through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mysteryby Peter Coveney, Roger HighfieldISBN 0449907236 (0-449-90723-6)
Softcover, Random House Publishing Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Arrow of Time: A Voyage Through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery'Book summary:In our century, the subject of time has become an area of serious inquiry for science. Theories that contain time as a simple quantity form the basis of our understanding of many scientific disciplines, yet the debate rages on: why does there seem to be a direction to time, an arrow of time pointing from past to future?
In The Arrow of Time, a major bestseller in England, Dr. Peter Coveney, a research scientist, and award-winning journalist Dr. Roger Highfield, demonstrate that the commonsense view of time agrees with the most advanced scientific theory. Time does in fact move like an arrow, shooting forward into what is genuinely unknown, leaving the past immutably behind. The authors make their case by exploring three centuries of science, offering bold reinterpretations of Newton's mechanics, Einstein's special and general theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and advancing the insights of James Gleick's Chaos. [via]More editions of The Arrow of Time: A Voyage Through Science to Solve Time's Greatest Mystery:
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Arrow of Timeby Roger Highfield, Peter V. CoveneyISBN 0449906302 (0-449-90630-2)
Hardcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Arrow of Time'Book summary:In this book physical chemist Dr Peter Coveney and award-winning science journalist Dr Roger Highfield have questioned our understanding of science with their humorous reinterpretation of the most profound aspect of time - why it points from the past to the future. The author's challenge to scientific preconceptions about the irreversibility of time is designed to link apparently irreconcilable features of science, from Einstein's obsession with causality to chaos theory, from the cause of jet lag to the Monday morning feeling. [via]
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Asimov's New Guide to Scienceby Isaac AsimovISBN 0465004733 (0-465-00473-3)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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Asimov's Guide to Scienceby Isaac AsimovISBN 0465004725 (0-465-00472-5)
Hardcover, Basic Books
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Beyond Star Trek: Physics from Alien Invasions to the End of Timeby Lawrence M. KraussISBN 046500637X (0-465-00637-X)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Beyond Star Trek: Physics from Alien Invasions to the End of Time'Book summary:Lawrence M. Krauss's publishing record reveals his knowledge of dark matter, cosmic strings, baryon number violations at the electroweak scale -- and the mysterious, sometimes bogus TV "science" that the Star Trek generation cut its teeth on. Krauss's previous book, The Physics of Star Trek, was readable, educational, and clever, never talking down to the layman or trivializing physics.
In this equally amusing companion volume, Krauss analyzes more science in Star Trek and the next generation of sci-fi movies and TV shows. Can telekinesis exist? How about ESP? Like Fox Mulder of The X-Files, we want to believe, and Krauss finesses these issues, allowing, after much discussion of gravity and electromagnetic forces, that "there is little doubt that undiscovered forces...exist at some level." He's a bit harder on the alien spacecraft of the movie Independence Day, arguing that objects so large inside our atmosphere would exert a downward pressure of 450 pounds per square inch, and that the saucers could therefore crush skyscrapers simply by hovering over them. "Of course," quips Krauss, "this wouldn't have made for spectacular previews of coming attractions." Whether you're a Trekkie, an X-phile, or a serious student of physics, you'll like this book. [via]
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The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Informationby Tom SiegfriedISBN 0471399744 (0-471-39974-4)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Information'Book summary:Information, for most of us, is an airy, abstract thing--the stuff of ideas, images, and symbols. But for Tom Siegfried and the scientists he writes about in The Bit and the Pendulum: How the New Physics of Information Is Revolutionizing Science, information has become something much more fundamental to the workings of the world. "Information is real," Siegfried explains. "Information is physical." What that means depends somewhat on the discipline it's applied to (cosmology, particle physics, computer science, cognitive theory, and molecular biology are among the fields examined here), but in general it comes down to the radically simple notion that the universe, at its deepest levels, is made not of matter and energy but of bits. Information is real, yes. But more to the point: reality, in some increasingly meaningful sense, is information.
So goes the argument anyway. And Siegfried, science editor of the Dallas Morning News, does a pretty good job of presenting it. His prose, admittedly, puts the flat in flat-footed, and his explanations of the relevant scientific phenomena (which include cool stuff like teleportation and quantum-mechanical computing) are sometimes murkier than they ought to be. But his knowledge of the last 10 years of theoretical research is sweeping, and he's especially deft with the tricky philosophy-of-science issues that pervade his topic. Have scientists really discovered, in information, the world's true foundation? Or have they simply found a handy new metaphor with which to think about the world? Siegfried wisely comes down on neither side of the question. For him, the power of metaphor is inseparable from the quest for scientific truth. And his book convincingly suggests that information, as a concept, will be generating deep scientific truths for years to come. --Julian Dibbell [via]
More editions of The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Information:
- The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Information: ISBN 0471321745 (0-471-32174-5)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Information: ISBN 0471399744 (0-471-39974-4)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
- The Bit and the Pendulum: From Quantum Computing to m Theory - The New Physics of Information: ISBN 0471321745 (0-471-32174-5)
Black Holes: A Traveler's Guideby Clifford A. PickoverISBN 0471197041 (0-471-19704-1)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Black Holes: A Traveler's Guide'Book summary:Clifford Pickover, an extraordinarily prolific and polymathic research scientist at the IBM T. J. Watson Research Center, has consistently been one of the most creative writers about computer graphics, scientific visualization, and mathematical models of natural and physical systems. This latest offering is classic Pickover in its wealth of information, ideas, bold speculations and and propositions -- including proposed "hands-on" experiments with black holes -- which just may turn out to be plausible. Recommended. [via]
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Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mindby Gerald M. EdelmanISBN 0465007643 (0-465-00764-3)
Softcover, Perseus Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Bright Air, Brilliant Fire: On the Matter of the Mind'Book summary:We are on the verge of a revolution in neuroscience as significant as the Galilean revolution in physics or the Darwinian revolution in biology. Nobel laureate Gerald M. Edelman takes issue with the many current cognitive and behavioral approaches to the brain that leave biology out of the picture, and argues that the workings of the brain more closely resemble the living ecology of a jungle than they do the activities of a computer. Some startling conclusions emerge from these ideas: individuality is necessarily at the very center of what it means to have a mind, no creature is born value-free, and no physical theory of the universe can claim to be a "theory of everything" without including an account of how the brain gives rise to the mind. There is no greater scientific challenge than understanding the brain. Bright Air, Brilliant Fire is a book that provides a window on that understanding. [via]
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The Cartoon History of Time: A Beginner's Guide to Quantum Physics, Relativity and the Beginning of the Universeby John Gribbin, Kate CharlesworthISBN 0452264952 (0-452-26495-2)
Softcover, Penguin USA
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Darwin: A Life in Scienceby Michael James Denham White, John GribbinISBN 0452275520 (0-452-27552-0)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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The Design of Everyday Thingsby Donald A. NormanISBN 0465067107 (0-465-06710-7)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Design of Everyday Things'Book summary:Anyone who designs anything to be used by humans--from physical objects to computer programs to conceptual tools--must read this book, and it is an equally tremendous read for anyone who has to use anything created by another human. It could forever change how you experience and interact with your physical surroundings, open your eyes to the perversity of bad design and the desirability of good design, and raise your expectations about how things should be designed. [via]
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A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Downby Robert B. LaughlinISBN 0465038298 (0-465-03829-8)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down'Book summary:Not since Richard Feynman has a Nobel Prize-winning physicist written with as much panache as Robert Laughlin does in this revelatory and essential book. Laughlin proposes nothing less than a new way of understanding fundamental laws of science. In this age of superstring theories and Big-Bang cosmology, we're used to thinking of the unknown as being impossibly distant from our everyday lives. The edges of science, we're told, lie in the first nanofraction of a second of the Universe's existence, or else in realms so small that they can't be glimpsed even by the most sophisticated experimental techniques. But we haven't reached the end of science, Laughlin argues-only the end of reductionist thinking. If we consider the world of emergent properties instead, suddenly the deepest mysteries are as close as the nearest ice cube or grain of salt. And he goes farther: the most fundamental laws of physics-such as Newton's laws of motion and quantum mechanics -are in fact emergent. They are properties of large assemblages of matter, and when their exactness is examined too closely, it vanishes into nothing.A Different Universe takes us into a universe where the vacuum of space has to be considered a kind of solid matter, where sound has quantized particles just like those of light, where there are many phases of matter, not just three, and where metal resembles a liquid while superfluid helium is more like a solid. It is a universe teeming with natural phenomena still to be discovered. This is a truly mind-altering book that shows readers a surprising, exquisitely beautiful and mysterious new world.[via]More editions of A Different Universe: Reinventing Physics from the Bottom Down:
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The Discoverersby Daniel Joseph Boorstin, Daniel J. Boorstin Collection (Library of Congress)ISBN 0460046624 (0-460-04662-4)
Hardcover, J.M. Dent & Sons
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Discoverers'Book summary:Perhaps the greatest book by one of our greatest historians, The Discoverers is a volume of sweeping range and majestic interpretation. To call it a history of science is an understatement; this is the story of how humankind has come to know the world, however incompletely ("the eternal mystery of the world," Einstein once said, "is its comprehensibility"). Daniel J. Boorstin first describes the liberating concept of time--"the first grand discovery"--and continues through the age of exploration and the advent of the natural and social sciences. The approach is idiosyncratic, with Boorstin lingering over particular figures and accomplishments rather than rushing on to the next set of names and dates. It's also primarily Western, although Boorstin does ask (and answer) several interesting questions: Why didn't the Chinese "discover" Europe and America? Why didn't the Arabs circumnavigate the planet? His thesis about discovery ultimately turns on what he calls "illusions of knowledge." If we think we know something, then we face an obstacle to innovation. The great discoverers, Boorstin shows, dispel the illusions and reveal something new about the world.
Although The Discoverers easily stands on its own, it is technically the first entry in a trilogy that also includes The Creators and The Seekers. An outstanding book--one of the best works of history to be found anywhere. --John J. Miller [via]
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The Evolution of Cooperationby Robert AxelrodISBN 0465005640 (0-465-00564-0)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Evolution of Cooperation'Book summary:This widely praised and much-discussed book explores how cooperation can emerge in a world of self-seeking egoistswhether superpowers, businesses, or individualswhen there is no central authority to police their actions.[via]More editions of The Evolution of Cooperation:
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Extraordinary Mindsby Howard GardnerISBN 0465021255 (0-465-02125-5)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Extraordinary Minds'Book summary:Fifteen years ago, psychologist and educator Howard Gardner introduced the idea of multiple intelligences, challenging the presumption that intelligence consists of verbal or analytic abilities onlythose intelligences that schools tend to measure. He argued for a broader understanding of the intelligent mind, one that embraces creation in the arts and music, spatial reasoning, and the ability to understand ourselves and others.Today, Gardners ideas have become widely acceptedindeed, they have changed how we think about intelligence, genius, creativity, and even leadership, and he is widely regarded as one of the most important voices writing on these subjects.Now, in Extraordinary Minds, a book as riveting as it is new, Gardner poses an important question: Is there a set of traits shared by all truly great achieversthose we deem extraordinaryno matter their field or the time period within which they did their important work?In an attempt to answer this question, Gardner first examines how most of us mature into more or less competent adults. He then examines closely four persons who lived unquestionably extraordinary livesMozart, Freud, Woolf, and Gandhiusing each as an exemplar of a different kind of extraordinariness: Mozart as the master of a discipline, Freud as the innovative founder of a new discipline, Woolf as the great introspector, and Gandhi as the influencer.What can we learn about ourselves from the experiences of the extraordinary? Interestingly, Gardner finds that an excess of raw power is not the most impressive characteristic shared by superachievers; rather, these extraordinary individuals all have had a special talent for identifying their own strengths and weaknesses, for accurately analyzing the events of their own lives, and for converting into future successes those inevitable setbacks that mark every life.Gardner provides answers to a number of provocative questions, among them: How do we explain extraordinary timesAthens in the fifth century B.C., the Tang Dynasty in the eighth century, Islamic Society in the late Middle Ages, and New York at the middle of the century? What is the relation among genius, creativity, fame, success, and moral extraordinariness? Does extraordinariness make for a happier, more fulfilling life, or does it simply create a special onus?[via]More editions of Extraordinary Minds:
Extraordinary Minds: Portraits of Exceptional Individuals and an Examination of Our Extraordinarinessby Howard GardnerISBN 0465045154 (0-465-04515-4)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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Faster Than Light: Superluminal Loopholes in Physicsby Nick HerbertISBN 0452263174 (0-452-26317-4)
Softcover, Penguin Group (USA) Incorporated
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Faster Than Light : Superluminal Loopholes in Physics'Book summary:For those who enjoy science as fact and as fiction, a leading expert on quantum theory imaginatively explains how faster-than-light communication and travel are actually being explored by physicists. [via]
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Fidgeting Fat, Exploding Meat & Gobbling Whirly Birds and Other Delicious Science Momentsby Karl KruszelnickiISBN 0471381187 (0-471-38118-7)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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The Fifth Essence: The Search for Dark Matter in the Universeby Lawrence M. KraussISBN 0465023754 (0-465-02375-4)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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The First Three Minutes: A Modern View of the Origin of the Universeby Steven WeinbergISBN 0465024378 (0-465-02437-8)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematicsby J. L. CastiISBN 0471395285 (0-471-39528-5)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics'Book summary:Bring more joy to your favorite math-head with Five More Golden Rules from science writer and national treasure John L. Casti. Though a quick glance through the book will cause an intense fight-or-flight response in the numerophobic, Casti's writing is lovely and lucid as ever, explaining not just equations and theorems but their significance in our lives. Having discovered in Five Golden Rules that he couldn't restrict himself to just five important 20th-century mathematical theories, this follow-up explores the intricacies of knot theory, functional analysis, control theory, chaotic systems, and information theory. Each of the five lively chapters introduces its subject with a seemingly unrelated anecdote that is (of course) informed by the theory in question. Then it's headlong into the wonderful details of postulation and demonstration that make math so much fun. Unlike a textbook, Five More Golden Rules meanders and breaks away from its proofs to discover relations between the symbols and the real world, from the stock market to the coastline of Norway. Besides giving the reader a break, this makes the abstract, almost ethereal concepts concrete and provides a definite advantage to the interested student. Perhaps textbook publishers should take note of this technique; until they do, we'll have to curl up with Casti's Five More Golden Rules if we want to have fun with our higher math. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics:
- Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics: ISBN 0471322334 (0-471-32233-4)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics: ISBN 0471395285 (0-471-39528-5)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
- Five More Golden Rules: Knots, Codes, Chaos, and Other Great Theories of 20Th-Century Mathematics: ISBN 0471322334 (0-471-32233-4)
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Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thoughtby Douglas HofstadterISBN 0465024750 (0-465-02475-0)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought'Book summary:Douglas Hofstadter, best known for his masterpiece Godel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid, tackles the subject of artificial intelligence and machine learning in his thought-provoking work Fluid Concepts and Creative Analogies, written in conjunction with the Fluid Analogies Research Group at the University of Michigan. Driven to discover whether computers can be made to "think" like humans, Hofstadter and his colleagues created a variety of computer programs that extrapolate sequences, apply pattern-matching strategies, make analogies, and even act "creative." As always, Hofstadter's work requires devotion on the part of the reader, but rewards him with fascinating insights into the nature of both human and machine intelligence. [via]
More editions of Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought:
- Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought: ISBN 0465051545 (0-465-05154-5)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group - Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought: ISBN 0465024750 (0-465-02475-0)
Softcover, Basic Books
- Fluid Concepts & Creative Analogies: Computer Models of the Fundamental Mechanisms of Thought: ISBN 0465051545 (0-465-05154-5)
Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic Worldby Peter Coveney, Roger HighfieldISBN 0449910814 (0-449-91081-4)
Softcover, Ballantine Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Frontiers of Complexity: The Search for Order in a Chaotic World'Book summary:Accessible yet rigorous, this book goes far beyond most popularizations of "chaos" theory and presents the science of complexity, its historical origins, and current applications to cosmology, particle physics, ecology, evolution, and neurobiology. The emphasis on scientific computation and visualization as the microscope and lab bench of this new science is particularly welcome. Very Highly Recommended. [via]
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Gravityby George GamowISBN 0486425630 (0-486-42563-0)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Gravity'Book summary:A distinguished physicist takes an enlightening look at three scientists whose work unlocked many mysteries: Galileo, the first to examine the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.[via]More editions of Gravity:
The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes And the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everythingby Paul HalpernISBN 0471741493 (0-471-74149-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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- The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes, and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything: ISBN 047146595X (0-471-46595-X)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes And the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything: ISBN 0471741493 (0-471-74149-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
- The Great Beyond: Higher Dimensions, Parallel Universes, and the Extraordinary Search for a Theory of Everything: ISBN 047146595X (0-471-46595-X)
Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Everby Hal HellmanISBN 0471350664 (0-471-35066-4)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Great Feuds in Science: Ten of the Liveliest Disputes Ever'Book summary:"The facts, even the theories, are history. It is the process that is the living science; that's what makes the activity exciting to those who practice it," science writer Hal Hellman observes. "Often, however, the process of scientific discovery is charged with emotion.... Holders of an earlier idea may not give it up gladly." Hellman describes some of the most emotional, dramatic, and personal debates in scientific history. He rounds up the usual suspects--Galileo versus the pope, Newton versus Leibniz, Cope versus Marsh, evolution versus Creation--but also includes less well known, but no less interesting, conflicts: Wallis versus Hobbes on squaring the circle, Voltaire versus Needham on embryos. And he boldly includes two conflicts in which (some) of the combatants are still alive: Don Johanson versus the Leakeys on human origins and Derek Freeman versus the ghost of Margaret Mead on Samoa. Never a dull moment. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
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HACKING MATTER: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of PROGRAMMABLE ATOMSby Wil McCarthyISBN 0465044298 (0-465-04429-8)
Softcover, Basic Books
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- Hacking Matter: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of Programmable Atoms: ISBN 046504428X (0-465-04428-X)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group - HACKING MATTER: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of PROGRAMMABLE ATOMS: ISBN 0465044298 (0-465-04429-8)
Softcover, Basic Books
- Hacking Matter: Levitating Chairs, Quantum Mirages, and the Infinite Weirdness of Programmable Atoms: ISBN 046504428X (0-465-04428-X)
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Horizons: Exploring the Universeby Michael A. SeedsISBN 0495010030 (0-495-01003-0)
Softcover, Brooks/Cole Pub Co
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Horizons: Exploring the Universe'Book summary:This newly revised and updated Ninth Edition of HORIZONS shows students their place in the universe ? not just their location, but also their role as planet dwellers in an evolving universe. Fascinating and engaging, the book illustrates how science works, and how scientists depend on evidence to test hypotheses. Students will learn to focus on the scientific method through the strong central questioning themes of "What are we?" and "How do we know?" Students are also provided with an assessment tool, AceAstronomy, to help test their knowledge of the concepts through assessment, tutorials, and post-tests. [via]
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The Human Brain: A Guided Tourby Susan GreenfieldISBN 0465007260 (0-465-00726-0)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicateby Steven A. JohnsonISBN 0465036805 (0-465-03680-5)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Interface Culture: How New Technology Transforms the Way We Create and Communicate'Book summary:Steven Johnson turns the tables on the way we consider our computer interfaces. While many discussions focus on how interfaces help us work by adapting to our ways of thinking and our real-world metaphors, Johnson jumps from there to look at how our thinking and world view are altered by our computer interfaces.
He begins with the simple: The mouse improved the spatial nature of our computers by letting us move, by the proxy of our pointers, within the screen. The windows metaphor made cyberspace a 3-D space. And while we tend to think about the graphical nature of interfaces, Johnson also explores the textual side and how it has changed the way we work with the written word.
Interface Culture then goes on to show how, with each advance in technology, the interface shapes our perceptions in new ways. Where mice and windows turned the computing world into cyberspace, agents have created a perception of software as personality. On the larger scale, Johnson sees these tools, originally built on noncyber metaphors, as creating, in their turn, a new set of metaphors for looking at the rest of the world. And while he finds it exciting, he spends considerable time on such shortcomings in our approach to interfacing: what he considers the excessive emphasis on graphics elements at the cost of anything textual. Johnson, who is the editor of the cerebral Feed Web site and whom Newsweek called one of the most influential people in cyberspace, has written an intelligent book about interface design, its relationship to the real world, and how it affects our perception of worlds both cyber and physical. [via]
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The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safariby Ivars PetersonISBN 0471164496 (0-471-16449-6)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Jungles of Randomness: A Mathematical Safari'Book summary:We use the word random as though we understood what it meant, but, of course, its superficial meaning only betrays our deep ignorance of what is really going on. Random is mostly used to label anything we can't predict, from the roll of a die to our spouse's next major purchase, but what's actually happening to cause the unanticipated results? Ivars Peterson makes this complexity simple in The Jungles of Randomness.
As the mathematics and physics editor of Science News, Peterson knows his topic thoroughly and writes with a flair that stimulates the imagination. Whether telling about snowflake-shaped drums; brilliant, eccentric Paul Erdös's geometrical fantasies; or unbreakable and nearly unbreakable codes, he knows just when and where to open a topic a bit further to provoke greater insights. The eight gorgeous color plates and dozens of illustrations are well chosen and complement the text without overwhelming it.
Inevitably, The Jungles of Randomness touches on subjects as diverse as molecular biology, engineering, and entomology, but it stays rooted in the field from which our understanding of complexity first arose: mathematics. A fascinating and underreported field, math is finally getting the mainstream attention it has always deserved, and it's not hard to understand why with exciting books like this pointing the way. Where this will lead us is anyone's guess, but the die is cast. --Rob Lightner [via]
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Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousnessby Daniel DennettISBN 0465073506 (0-465-07350-6)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kinds of Minds: Toward an Understanding of Consciousness'Book summary:In Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett embarks on the audacious task of explaining human consciousness. He sets his sights even higher for Kinds of Minds, attempting to provide a more general explanation of consciousness. But don't be put off: the book is short, easy to read, and makes a good introduction to Dennett's richly interdisciplinary oeuvre. While beginners will appreciate Dennett's appeals to intuitive moral considerations to emphasize the importance of investigating consciousness, there is much in the book to hold the attention of readers already familiar with his previous work.
At the beginning of Kinds of Minds Dennett asks, "What kinds of minds are there? And how do we know?" These two questions--the first ontological, the second epistemological--set the agenda for the book. Intuitions untutored by theory are not capable of answering these questions, Dennett argues, making it necessary to pursue insight from the evolutionary point of view. Accordingly, subsequent chapters are devoted to phylogenetic speculations about agency and intentionality, sensitivity and sentience, and perception and behavior. Particularly charming is the series of squiggly amoebas--the Darwinian, Skinnerian, Popperian, and Gregorian creatures--that illustrates the hierarchy of cognitive power. In the final chapter, Dennett returns to the original two questions, ending not with their answers, but, he hopes, with "better versions of the questions themselves." --Glenn Branch [via]
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Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousnessby Daniel Clement DennettISBN 0465073514 (0-465-07351-4)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Kinds of Minds: Towards an Understanding of Consciousness'Book summary:In Consciousness Explained, Daniel Dennett embarks on the audacious task of explaining human consciousness. He sets his sights even higher for Kinds of Minds, attempting to provide a more general explanation of consciousness. But don't be put off: the book is short, easy to read, and makes a good introduction to Dennett's richly interdisciplinary oeuvre. While beginners will appreciate Dennett's appeals to intuitive moral considerations to emphasize the importance of investigating consciousness, there is much in the book to hold the attention of readers already familiar with his previous work.
At the beginning of Kinds of Minds Dennett asks, "What kinds of minds are there? And how do we know?" These two questions--the first ontological, the second epistemological--set the agenda for the book. Intuitions untutored by theory are not capable of answering these questions, Dennett argues, making it necessary to pursue insight from the evolutionary point of view. Accordingly, subsequent chapters are devoted to phylogenetic speculations about agency and intentionality, sensitivity and sentience, and perception and behavior. Particularly charming is the series of squiggly amoebas--the Darwinian, Skinnerian, Popperian, and Gregorian creatures--that illustrates the hierarchy of cognitive power. In the final chapter, Dennett returns to the original two questions, ending not with their answers, but, he hopes, with "better versions of the questions themselves." --Glenn Branch [via]
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Laboratory Earth: The Planetary Gamble We Can't Afford to Loseby Stephen H. SchneiderISBN 0465072798 (0-465-07279-8)
Hardcover, Harpercollins
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The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universeby P. C. W. DaviesISBN 0465038514 (0-465-03851-4)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Last Three Minutes: Conjectures About the Ultimate Fate of the Universe'Book summary:A speculative description of the end of time applies scientific theory to imagination, predicting the overtaking of black holes, the end of sunlight, the beginning of stardoom, and the crushing effects of gravity. [via]
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Levitating Trains and Kamikaze Genes: Technological Literacy for the Futureby Richard P. BrennanISBN 0471079022 (0-471-07902-2)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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Life Everywhere: The Maverick Science of Astrobiologyby David DarlingISBN 0465015646 (0-465-01564-6)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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Life's Other Secret: The New Mathematics of the Living Worldby Ian StewartISBN 0471296511 (0-471-29651-1)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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Light Years and Time Travel: An Exploration of Mankind's Enduring Fascination With Lightby Brian CleggISBN 0471211826 (0-471-21182-6)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850by Brian M. FaganISBN 0465022723 (0-465-02272-3)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Little Ice Age: How Climate Made History 1300-1850'Book summary:"Climate change is the ignored player on the historical stage," writes archeologist Brian Fagan. But it shouldn't be, not if we know what's good for us. We can't judge what future climate change will mean unless we know something about its effects in the past: "those who do not learn from history are doomed to repeat it". And Fagan's story of the last thousand years, centered on the "Little Ice Age," reminds us of what we could end up repeating: flood, fire, and famine--acts of God exacerbated by acts of man.
For all that he takes a broad--a very broad--view of European history, Fagan's writing is laced with human faces, fascinating anecdotes, and a gift for the telling detail that makes history live, very much in the style of Barbara Tuchman's A Distant Mirror. When Fagan talks about the voyages of Basque fishermen to American shores (probably landing before Columbus sailed), he puts in the taste of dried cod and the terrifying suddenness of fogs on the Grand Banks. The Great Fire of London, what it was like when the Dutch dikes broke, the Irish Potato Famine, the year without a summer, ice fairs on the Thames, and volcanoes in the South Pacific--Fagan makes history a ripping yarn in which we are all actors, on a stage that has always been changing. --Mary Ellen Curtin [via]
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Mad About Physics: Braintwisters, Paradoxes, and Curiositiesby Frank Potter, Christopher JargodzkiISBN 0471569615 (0-471-56961-5)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalitiesby William DunhamISBN 0471176613 (0-471-17661-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities'Book summary:The Mathematical Universe is a solid collection of short essays, with each addressing a particular mathematical topic. Titles range from "Isoperimetric Problem" to "Where Are the Women?" Author Dunham is unafraid to refer to diagrams, equations, and rigorous arguments throughout the book, yet he manages to maintain a conversational tone. [via]
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- The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities: ISBN 0471536563 (0-471-53656-3)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities: ISBN 0471176613 (0-471-17661-3)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
- The Mathematical Universe: An Alphabetical Journey Through the Great Proofs, Problems, and Personalities: ISBN 0471536563 (0-471-53656-3)
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A Mathematician Reads the Newspaperby John Allen PaulosISBN 0465043623 (0-465-04362-3)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper'Book summary:In this book the author of Innumeracy : Mathematical Illiteracy and Its Consequences reveals the hidden mathematical angles in countless media stories. His real life perspective on the statistics we rely on and how they can mislead is for anyone interested in gaining a more accurate view of their world. The book is written with a humorous and knowledgeable style that makes it great reading. [via]
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The Medical Detectivesby Berton RouecheISBN 0452265886 (0-452-26588-6)
Softcover, Penguin Group USA
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The Microscope and How to Use Itby Georg StehliISBN 0486225755 (0-486-22575-5)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Microscope and How to Use It'Book summary:In nontechnical language and with 119 photographs and drawings, the author clearly explains how a microscope works and what kind to use; how to adjust the instrument; and more. At the same time, Stehli shows how to prepare the objects being examined; how to use chloroform; and much more.[via]More editions of The Microscope and How to Use It:
The Misbehavior of Markets: A Fractal View of Risk, Ruin, and Rewardby Benoit Mandelbrot, Richard L. HudsonISBN 0465043550 (0-465-04355-0)
Hardcover, Perseus Books Group
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The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry And Asymmetry From Mirror Reflections To Superstringsby Martin GardnerISBN 0486442446 (0-486-44244-6)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry And Asymmetry From Mirror Reflections To Superstrings'Book summary:This newly updated edition of a well-known work explores a pair of modern science's most fundamental discoveries: the asymmetric DNA helix and the overthrow of parity (left-right symmetry) in particle physics. Absorbing and thought-provoking, The New Ambidextrous Universe was written by Martin Gardner, one of Dover's most popular authors,.[via]More editions of The New Ambidextrous Universe: Symmetry And Asymmetry From Mirror Reflections To Superstrings:
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Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Natureby Ray JackendoffISBN 0465054625 (0-465-05462-5)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature'Book summary:What is it about the human mind that accounts for the fact that we can speak and understand a language? Why cant other creatures do the same? And what does this tell us about the rest of human abilities? Recent dramatic discoveries in linguistics and psychology provide intriguing answers to these age-old mysteries. In this fascinating book, Ray Jackendoff emphasizes the grammatical commonalities across languages, both spoken and signed, and discusses the implications for our understanding of language acquisition and loss.[via]More editions of Patterns in the Mind: Language and Human Nature:
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Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynmanby Richard P Feynman, Timothy FerrisISBN 0465023711 (0-465-02371-1)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman'Book summary:A Nobel Prize-winning physicist, a loving husband and father, an enthusiastic teacher, a surprisingly accomplished bongo player, and a genius of the highest caliber---Richard P. Feynman was all these and more. Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track--collecting over forty years' worth of Feynman's letters--offers an unprecedented look at the writer and thinker whose scientific mind and lust for life made him a legend in his own time. Containing missives to and from such scientific luminaries as Victor Weisskopf, Stephen Wolfram, James Watson, and Edward Teller, as well as a remarkable selection of letters to and from fans, students, family, and people from around the world eager for Feynman's advice and counsel, Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track not only illuminates the personal relationships that underwrote the key developments in modern science, but also forms the most intimate look at Feynman yet available. Feynman was a man many felt close to but few really knew, and this collection reveals the full wisdom and private passion of a personality that captivated everyone it touched. Perfectly Reasonable Deviations From the Beaten Track is an eloquent testimony to the virtue of approaching the world with an inquiring eye; it demonstrates the full extent of the Feynman legacy like never before. Edited and with additional commentary by his daughter Michelle, it's a must-read for Feynman fans everywhere, and for anyone seeking to better understand one of the towering figures--and defining personalities--of the twentieth century.[via]More editions of Perfectly Reasonable Deviations from the Beaten Track: The Letters of Richard P. Feynman:
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The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elementsby P. W. AtkinsISBN 0465072666 (0-465-07266-6)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Periodic Kingdom: A Journey into the Land of the Chemical Elements'Book summary:The periodic table of the elements is the grand, unified theory of chemistry. In The Periodic Kingdom, P. W. Atkins imagines the table as a landscape, with fields of metals, pools of mercury and bromine, clouds of gases, and the offshore island of rare earths. He describes the history of this metaphoric kingdom and shows how its laws are those of physical chemistry: they are the expression in the visible world of the invisible dance of subatomic particles. The Periodic Kingdom is an excellent book for students at any level who want to see the connections between chemistry, physics, and "real life." [via]
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The Private Life of the Brain: Emotions, Consciousness, and the Secret of the Selfby Susan A. GreenfieldISBN 0471399752 (0-471-39975-2)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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The Psychology of Everyday Thingsby Donald A. NormanISBN 0465067093 (0-465-06709-3)
Hardcover, Perseus Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Psychology of Everyday Things'Book summary:With the many recent advances in technology, it seems, there has followed a diminution of quality. Electronic books have several advantages over their print counterparts, for instance. But for the time being, they're hard to use and unattractive to boot. Computers, which are supposed to make our lives easier, are commonly sources of frustration and wasted time. Movies are wondrously chock-a-block with special effects--but someone forgot the story. And so on.
Donald Norman, a retired professor of cognitive science, is bothered to no end by the fact that grappling with unfriendly objects now takes up so many of our hours. Over the course of several books, of which The Psychology of Everyday Things was the first, he has railed against bad design. He scrutinizes a range of artifacts that are supposed to make our daily living a little easier, and he finds most of them wanting. Why, he asks, does a door need instructions that say "push" or "pull"? A well-designed object, he argues, is self-explanatory. But well-designed objects are increasingly rare, for the present culture places a higher value on aesthetics than utility, even with such items as cordless screwdrivers, dresser drawers, and kitchen cabinets. In their concern for creating "art," many designers don't seem to consider what people actually do with things. Such disregard, Norman suggests, leads to few objects being standardized: think of all the different kinds of unsynchronized clocks that lurk in microwave ovens, VCRs, coffee makers, and the like--and of all the different kinds of batteries needed to drive them. Why, he wonders, must we reset all those clocks whenever the power goes off? Some designer somewhere, he ventures, ought to develop a master clock that communicates with all other electric clocks in a home--one that, when reset, synchronizes its slave units.
You don't need to be especially interested in technological matters to enjoy Norman's arguments. The book's underlying question is aimed at a global audience: will the design of everyday things improve? If this entertaining and, yes, well-designed book changes even a few minds, perhaps it will. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Rapid Math: Tricks and Tips, 30 Days to Number Powerby Edward H. JuliusISBN 0471575631 (0-471-57563-1)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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Relativity and Common Sense: A New Approach to Einsteinby Hermann BondiISBN 0486240215 (0-486-24021-5)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Relativity and Common Sense: A New Approach to Einstein'Book summary:This radically reoriented and popular presentation of Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity derives its concepts from Newtonian ideas rather than by opposing them. It demonstrates that time is relative rather than absolute, that high speeds affect the nature of time, and that acceleration affects speed, time, and mass. Very little mathematics is required, and 60 illustrations augment the text.
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Report on Planet Threeby Arthur C. ClarkeISBN 0451115732 (0-451-11573-2)
Softcover, New Amer Library
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Report on Planet Three'Book summary:In addition to being one of Science Fiction's greatest writers, Sir Arthur C. Clarke was also one of our foremost thinkers and visionaries, producing a number of highly readable and important non-fiction works. Report of Planet Three is a collection of 23 essays on the future of Man and his technology, including essays on space, satellite communications, the internet, alien contact, UFO debunking and relativity. [via]
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Serendipity: Accidental Discoveries in Scienceby Royston M. RobertsISBN 0471602035 (0-471-60203-5)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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Significant Others: The Ape-Human Continuum and the Quest for Human Natureby Craig StanfordISBN 046508172X (0-465-08172-X)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Significant Others: The Ape-Human Continuum and the Quest for Human Nature'Book summary:Engaging, enlightening and eloquent, Significant Others tells of our closest cousins and the scientists who study them. Author Craig B Stanford is co-director of the Jane Goodall Research Centre and knows as much as anyone about great ape field research. His prose combines a vivid, almost poetic descriptive sensibility with a refreshingly deadpan rationality too often missing from writings on endangered or threatened species. Covering a wide range of topics from tool use to evolutionary psychology to the controversy over language in non-humans ("an intellectual turf game, poorly played"), Stanford still sticks unerringly to his thesis that field research of wild apes yields deep insights into human nature. His enthusiasm for the work shines in passages like this:
In a mountain meadow dripping with dew, we're following a group of gorillas on their daily rounds. It's a raw day and the clouds are hanging above and beneath us. The gorillas climb a steep, fern-coated hill to a saddle, and we all tumble over the crest into a huge salad bowl of a valley that is greener than green.
As if to ensure that such words won't provoke a glut of fieldworker wannabes, he is careful to mention the long hours, boredom and physical suffering he and his colleagues must endure to earn such rewards. The inevitable collision of science with politics is especially pronounced in war-ravaged central Africa, where most great ape work is conducted, and Stanford speaks plainly about life during wartime and his subjects' too-real threat of extinction. Significant Others gives the reader a fresh respect for apes as apes--not stunted people, not lab-dwelling curiosities, but uniquely wonderful in their own right... just like us. --Rob Lightner [via]More editions of Significant Others: The Ape-Human Continuum and the Quest for Human Nature:
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Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biologyby Brian C. Goodwin, Ricard V. SoleISBN 0465019285 (0-465-01928-5)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology'Book summary:Deep down, we all know that living things are profoundly weird. Santa Fe Institute scientists Ricard Solé and Brian Goodwin show us the truth in Signs of Life: How Complexity Pervades Biology. Chaos theory and the life sciences are a natural combination, but it's still a wonder how fresh and intuitive the material is in their able hands. Copiously illustrated with drawings, tables, and photographs enriching the text, the book will appeal to all sophisticated readers with an interest in the larger themes of biology--major players such as evolution, development, and inheritance. The authors have carefully segregated the toughest math in sidebars, but the main body of text is still not for the faint-hearted. Chaos and complexity is innately math-heavy, and hard-core mathphobes will have to make do with skimming; still, even the innumerate will find the prose charming and engaging:
The idea that a random event can change history has been a great source of inspiration for both scientists and writers alike. We live in a universe with strong laws and much contingency. In our search for the laws of complexity we often find islands of randomness in an ocean of regularity, like the island of trickery, home of games and gambling, found by the travelers in Gargantua and Pantagruel.
With writing like this interleaved between the tables and formulas, the reader finds it easier to stay on track, and the rewards of improved understanding are exquisite. Solé and Goodwin nimbly present a necessarily complex subject to a wide audience; Signs of Life ought to become a classic among the scientifically literate. --Rob Lightner [via]
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Simplicity and Complexity: Pondering Literature, Science, and Paintingby Floyd MerrellISBN 0472108603 (0-472-10860-3)
Hardcover, Univ of Michigan Pr
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The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusionsby Robert T. CarrollISBN 0471272426 (0-471-27242-6)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions'Book summary:A wealth of evidence for doubters and disbelievers
"Whether it's the latest shark cartilage scam, or some new 'repressed memory' idiocy that besets you, I suggest you carry a copy of this dictionary at all times, or at least have it within reach as first aid for psychic attacks. We need all the help we can get."
-James Randi, President, James Randi Educational Foundation, randi.org
"From alternative medicine, aliens, and psychics to the farthest shores of science and beyond, Robert Carroll presents a fascinating look at some of humanity's most strange and wonderful ideas. Refreshing and witty, both believers and unbelievers will find this compendium complete and captivating. Buy this book and feed your head!"
-Clifford Pickover, author of The Stars of Heaven and Dreaming the Future
"A refreshing compendium of clear thinking, a welcome and potent antidote to the reams of books on the supernatural and pseudoscientific."
-John Allen Paulos, author of Innumeracy and A Mathematician Reads the Newspaper
"This book covers an amazing range of topics and can protect many people from being scammed."
-Stephen Barrett, M.D., quackwatch.org
Featuring close to 400 definitions, arguments, and essays on topics ranging from acupuncture to zombies, The Skeptic's Dictionary is a lively, commonsense trove of detailed information on all things supernatural, occult, paranormal, and pseudoscientific. It covers such categories as alternative medicine; cryptozoology; extraterrestrials and UFOs; frauds and hoaxes; junk science; logic and perception; New Age energy; and the psychic. For the open-minded seeker, the soft or hardened skeptic, and the believing doubter, this book offers a remarkable range of information that puts to the test the best arguments of true believers. [via]More editions of The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions:
Sudden Origins: Fossils, Genes, and the Emergence of Speciesby Jeffrey H. SchwartzISBN 0471329851 (0-471-32985-1)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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Symbolic Logic Game of Logic: Mathematical Recreations of Lewis Carroll 2 Books Bound As 1by Lewis CarrollISBN 0486204928 (0-486-20492-8)
Softcover, Dover Pubns
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Symbolic Logic Game of Logic: Mathematical Recreations of Lewis Carroll 2 Books Bound As 1'Book summary:Yes, this is the Lewis Carroll who wrote Alice in Wonderland, and these two works show the same quirky humor. Here you see Carroll the mathematician at his playful best. Don't let the title of the first work mislead you--this isn't about modern symbolic logic but about ways of expressing classical logic with symbols. It's loaded with amusing problems to delight any mathematical puzzler. In the second work he turns logic into a game played with diagrams and colored counters, giving you hundreds of challenging and witty syllogisms to solve. Great mind-stretching fun. [via]
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What Evolution Isby Ernst MayrISBN 0465044263 (0-465-04426-3)
Softcover, Perseus Books Group
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› Find signed collectible books: 'What Evolution Is'Book summary:Gathering insights from his seven-decade career, the renowned biologist Ernst Mayr argues that evolution is now to be considered not a theory but a fact--and that "there is not a single Why? question in biology that can be answered adequately without a consideration of evolution."
Mayr, emeritus professor of zoology at Harvard University, has long been one of the world's foremost researchers in genetic and evolutionary theory. In this overview of past and current scientific thought, he discusses key concepts and terms, among them the origin of species, the (somewhat metaphorical) "struggle for existence," and agents of micro- and macroevolution. Somewhat against the grain, he argues against reduction and for the study of evolution at the phenotypic, not genetic, level. In his concluding pages, Mayr offers a careful overview of human evolution, adding his view that humankind is indeed unique--though "it has not yet completed the transition from quadrupedal to bipedal life in all of its structures."
Advanced students of the life sciences, as well as readers looking for a survey of current evolutionary theory, will find Mayr's book a useful companion. --Gregory McNamee [via]
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Where Mathematics Comes from: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Beingby George Lakoff, Rafael E. NunezISBN 0465037712 (0-465-03771-2)
Softcover, Basic Books
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Where Mathematics Comes from: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being'Book summary:If Barbie thinks math class is tough, what could she possibly think about math as a class of metaphorical thought? Cognitive scientists George Lakoff and Rafael Nuñez explore that theme in great depth in Where Mathematics Comes From: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being. This book is not for the faint of heart or those with an aversion to heavy abstraction--Lakoff and Nuñez pull no punches in their analysis of mathematical thinking. Their basic premise, that all of mathematics is derived from the metaphors we use to maneuver in the world around us, is easy enough to grasp, but following the reasoning requires a willingness to approach complex mathematical and linguistic concepts--a combination that is sure to alienate a fair number of readers.
Those willing to brave its rigors will find Where Mathematics Comes From rewarding and profoundly thought-provoking. The heart of the book wrestles with the important concept of infinity and tries to explain how our limited experience in a seemingly finite world can lead to such a crazy idea. The authors know their math and their cognitive theory. While those who want their abstractions to reflect the real world rather than merely the insides of their skulls will have trouble reading while rolling their eyes, most readers will take to the new conception of mathematical thinking as a satisfying, if challenging, solution. --Rob Lightner [via]
More editions of Where Mathematics Comes from: How the Embodied Mind Brings Mathematics into Being:
Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Scienceby A. K. DewdneyISBN 0471295868 (0-471-29586-8)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
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› Find signed collectible books: 'Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science'Book summary:"Cold fusion" has become an oft-used synonym for science gone wrong, but as A. K. Dewdney colorfully explains in Yes, We Have No Neutrons, that bad science has a long and (un)distinguished history. Predicating his discussion on Langmuir's "Laws of Bad Science," which describe common characteristics of dubious scientific claims, Dewdney recounts such classic scientific blunders as the "discovery" of N-rays by Rene Blondlot, psychoanalysis as practiced by Sigmund Freud, and even the ill-fated Biosphere 2 experiment. (Yes, cold fusion is there too.) Dewdney's book will sharpen the mental razor of anyone who hopes to separate legitimate claims from bunk. [via]
More editions of Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science:
- Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science: ISBN 0471108065 (0-471-10806-5)
Hardcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc - Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science: ISBN 0471295868 (0-471-29586-8)
Softcover, John Wiley & Sons Inc
- Yes, We Have No Neutrons: An Eye-Opening Tour Through the Twists and Turns of Bad Science: ISBN 0471108065 (0-471-10806-5)
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