Entropy and the Magic Flute

Entropy and the Magic Flute PDF Author: Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195081994
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Essays of humorous comments about issues of science, technology, society, philosophy, and the arts.

Entropy and the Magic Flute

Entropy and the Magic Flute PDF Author: Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 0195081994
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 239

Get Book Here

Book Description
Essays of humorous comments about issues of science, technology, society, philosophy, and the arts.

Entropy and the Magic Flute

Entropy and the Magic Flute PDF Author: Harold J. Morowitz
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195359666
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 239

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Book Description
Harold Morowitz has long been regarded highly both as an eminent scientist and as an accomplished science writer. The essays in The Wine of Life, his first collection, were hailed by C.P. Snow as "some of the wisest, wittiest and best informed that I have read," and Carl Sagan called them "a delight to read." In later volumes such as Mayonnaise and the Origin of Life and The Thermodynamics of Pizza, he has established a reputation for a wide-ranging intellect, an ability to see unexpected connections and draw striking parallels, and a talent for communicating scientific ideas with optimism and wit. Kirkus Reviews praised Mayonnaise as "wonderfully diverting and very wise." Nature wrote of Thermodynamics, "his chocolate-coated nuggets of science will continue to entertain and do surreptitious good." With Entropy and the Magic Flute, Morowitz once again offers an appealing mix of brief reflections on everything from litmus paper to the hippopotamus to the sociology of Palo Alto coffee shops. Many of these pieces are appreciations of scientists that Morowitz holds in high regard. In the title piece, for instance, Morowitz tells of his pilgrimage to the grave of Ludwig Boltzmann, buried in the same cemetery--Vienna's Central Cemetery--as Beethoven, Schubert, and Brahms. He also writes of J. Willard Gibbs ("thought by many to be the greatest scientist yet produced by the United States"), Jean Perrin (author of Les Atomes, a now-forgotten classic that convinced virtually everyone in science of the validity of the atomic hypothesis), Einstein, Newton (on the occasion of the 300th anniversary of his Principia, a date that passed virtually unnoticed except by Morowitz), Murray Gell-Mann, and Aristotle. Of Aristotle, Morowitz observes that "most people whose information comes from academic philosophy fail to appreciate that--among his many fields of expertise--first and foremost, Aristotle was a biologist." Indeed, fully a third of Aristotle's writings are on the life sciences, almost all of which has been left out of standard editions of his work. Many other pieces focus on health issues--such as America's obsession with cheese toppings, the addiction to smoking of otherwise intelligent people, questionable obstetric practices--and several touch upon ethics, whistle-blowing, and scientific research. There is also a fascinating piece on the American Type Culture Collection, a zoo or warehouse for microbes that houses some 11,800 strains of bacteria, and over 3,000 specimens of protozoa, algae, plasmids, and oncogenes. Here then are over forty light, graceful essays in which one of our wisest experimental biologists comments on issues of science, technology, society, philosophy, and the arts.

Entropy and the Magic Flute

Entropy and the Magic Flute PDF Author: Harold Joseph Morowitz
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197700877
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
One of America's foremost experimental biologists comments on issues of science, technology, society, philosophy and the arts in a series of light essays aimed at the general reader.

Encyclopedia of Science and Technology

Encyclopedia of Science and Technology PDF Author: James Trefil
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
ISBN: 9780415937245
Category : Reference
Languages : en
Pages : 566

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Book Description
Destined to be a leader in the field, this Encyclopedia is a full-colour, A to Z guide that sets a new standard for science reference. It contains 1000 entries, combining in-depth coverage with a vivid graphic format.

Modern Thermodynamics for Chemists and Biochemists

Modern Thermodynamics for Chemists and Biochemists PDF Author: Dennis Sherwood
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0191085820
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 928

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Book Description
Thermodynamics is fundamental to university and college curricula in chemistry, physics, engineering and many life sciences around the world. It is also notoriously difficult for students to understand, learn and apply. What makes this book different, and special, is the clarity of the text. The writing style is fluid, natural and lucid, and everything is explained in a logical and transparent manner. Thermodynamics is a deep, and important, branch of science, and this book does not make it "easy". But it does make it intelligible. This book introduces a new, 'Fourth Law' of Thermodynamics' based on the notion of Gibbs free energy, which underpins almost every application of thermodynamics and which the authors claim is worthy of recognition as a 'law'. The last four chapters bring thermodynamics into the twenty-first century, dealing with bioenergetics (how living systems capture and use free energy), macromolecule assembly (how proteins fold), and macromolecular aggregation (how, for example, virus capsids assemble). This is of great current relevance to students of biochemistry, biochemical engineering and pharmacy, and is covered in very few other texts on thermodynamics. The book also contains many novel and effective examples, such as the explanation of why friction is irreversible, the proof of the depression of the freezing point, and the explanation of the biochemical standard state.

The Magic Flute

The Magic Flute PDF Author: Goldsworthy Lowes Dickinson
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Allegories
Languages : en
Pages : 136

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Book Description


Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science

Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science PDF Author: B.E. Babich
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9401724288
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 382

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Book Description
Nietzsche, Epistemology, and Philosophy of Science, is the second volume of a collection on Nietzsche and the Sciences, featuring essays addressing truth, epistemology, and the philosophy of science, with a substantial representation of analytically schooled Nietzsche scholars. This collection offers a dynamic articulation of the differing strengths of Anglo-American analytic and contemporary European approaches to philosophy, with translations from European specialists, notably Carl Friedrich von Weizsäcker, Paul Valadier, and Walther Ch. Zimmerli. This broad collection also features a preface by Alasdair MacIntyre. Contributions explore Nietzsche's contributions to the philosophy of language and epistemology, and include essays on the social history of truth and the historical and cultural analyses of Serres and Baudrillard, as well as new contributions to the philosophy of science, including theological and hermeneutical approaches, history of science, the philosophy of medicine, cognitive science, and technology.

Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things

Everyday Survival: Why Smart People Do Stupid Things PDF Author: Laurence Gonzales
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393069656
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 288

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Book Description
“Well-written and fascinating . . . this is the kind of book you want everyone to read.”—Cleveland Plain Dealer “Curiosity, awareness, attention,” Laurence Gonzales writes. “Those are the tools of our everyday survival. . . . We all must be scientists at heart or be victims of forces that we don’t understand.” In this fascinating account, Gonzales turns his talent for gripping narrative, knowledge of the way our minds and bodies work, and bottomless curiosity about the world to the topic of how we can best use the blessings of evolution to overcome the hazards of everyday life. Everyday Survival will teach you to make the right choices for our complex, dangerous, and quickly changing world—whether you are climbing a mountain or the corporate ladder.

The Sciences

The Sciences PDF Author: James Trefil
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 1119049687
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 640

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Book Description
This text is an unbound, three hole punched version. The Sciences: An Integrated Approach, Binder Ready Version, 8th Edition by James Trefil and Robert Hazen uses an approach that recognizes that science forms a seamless web of knowledge about the universe. This text fully integrates physics, chemistry, astronomy, earth sciences, and biology and emphasizes general principles and their application to real- world situations. The goal of the text is to help students achieve scientific literacy. Applauded by students and instructors for its easy-to-read style and detail appropriate for non-science majors, the eighth edition has been updated to bring the most up-to-date coverage to the students in all areas of science.

Infrastructure and the Complexity of Economic Development

Infrastructure and the Complexity of Economic Development PDF Author: David F. Batten
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 3642802664
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 296

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Book Description
The book examines the complex relationships between infrastructure and the rest of the economy. In particular, it focuses on the contentious issue of whether infrastructure investments stimulate productivity growth, issues of pricing and ownership, and also development problems such as environmental damage. Methods range from traditional production function models and compensating variation approaches to nonlinear methods of dynamic analysis. There is a unique emphasis on the ability of these different methods to allow for the complex interdependencies involved. Six of the fifteen papers deal with these methodological aspects, whereas the remainder addresses specific cases or examples in a variety of countries (Europe, USA and developing countries).