Author: Alan Lightman
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593081323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209
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Book Description
The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
Author: Anna Lowenhaupt Tsing
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452954496
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 709
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Book Description
Living on a damaged planet challenges who we are and where we live. This timely anthology calls on twenty eminent humanists and scientists to revitalize curiosity, observation, and transdisciplinary conversation about life on earth. As human-induced environmental change threatens multispecies livability, Arts of Living on a Damaged Planet puts forward a bold proposal: entangled histories, situated narratives, and thick descriptions offer urgent “arts of living.” Included are essays by scholars in anthropology, ecology, science studies, art, literature, and bioinformatics who posit critical and creative tools for collaborative survival in a more-than-human Anthropocene. The essays are organized around two key figures that also serve as the publication’s two openings: Ghosts, or landscapes haunted by the violences of modernity; and Monsters, or interspecies and intraspecies sociality. Ghosts and Monsters are tentacular, windy, and arboreal arts that invite readers to encounter ants, lichen, rocks, electrons, flying foxes, salmon, chestnut trees, mud volcanoes, border zones, graves, radioactive waste—in short, the wonders and terrors of an unintended epoch. Contributors: Karen Barad, U of California, Santa Cruz; Kate Brown, U of Maryland, Baltimore; Carla Freccero, U of California, Santa Cruz; Peter Funch, Aarhus U; Scott F. Gilbert, Swarthmore College; Deborah M. Gordon, Stanford U; Donna J. Haraway, U of California, Santa Cruz; Andreas Hejnol, U of Bergen, Norway; Ursula K. Le Guin; Marianne Elisabeth Lien, U of Oslo; Andrew Mathews, U of California, Santa Cruz; Margaret McFall-Ngai, U of Hawaii, Manoa; Ingrid M. Parker, U of California, Santa Cruz; Mary Louise Pratt, NYU; Anne Pringle, U of Wisconsin, Madison; Deborah Bird Rose, U of New South Wales, Sydney; Dorion Sagan; Lesley Stern, U of California, San Diego; Jens-Christian Svenning, Aarhus U.
Author: Karel Schrijver
Publisher:
ISBN: 0198727437
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 215
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Book Description
Living with the Stars tells the fascinating story of what truly makes the human body. The body that is with us all our lives is always changing. We are quite literally not who we were years, weeks, or even days ago: our cells die and are replaced by new ones at an astonishing pace. The entire body continually rebuilds itself, time and again, using the food and water that flow through us as fuel and as construction material. What persists over time is not fixed but merely a pattern in flux. We rebuild using elements captured from our surroundings, and are thereby connected to animals and plants around us, and to the bacteria within us that help digest them, and to geological processes such as continental drift and volcanism here on Earth. We are also intimately linked to the Sun's nuclear furnace and to the solar wind, to collisions with asteroids and to the cycles of the birth of stars and their deaths in cataclysmic supernovae, and ultimately to the beginning of the universe. Our bodies are made of the burned out embers of stars that were released into the galaxy in massive explosions billions of years ago, mixed with atoms that formed only recently as ultrafast rays slammed into Earth's atmosphere. All of that is not just remote history but part of us now: our human body is inseparable from nature all around us and intertwined with the history of the universe.
Author: William Linville
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780983475903
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 220
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Book Description
In this book, William shares in his own uniqued way the clarity, simplicity and guidance that will set you free to allow your life to become more expressive, enjoyable and inclusive and for you to exclusively run forth with what is in your life and what is coming forth into your life from all around you on a planet within the Universe and so much more. This book will assist you to access your natural birthrights and use the divine abilities that have been awaiting you. By allowing yourself to walk through these simple steps, you will be reclaiming your life, your health and your world. Relationships, finances and parenting etc. will all begin to grow and evolve. As you find yourself reconnecting with your source, optimum health and well-being, happiness and success and much, much more will be yours. It will forever change the way you look at your life and live your life and as Will so powerfully reveals in these pages, we all have these divine abilities and this work will assist you and guide you to living them and having a blast as you flourish on every level of your being. Chapters and topics in this book include: Introduction Will's Journey Where Did We Come From? Details on the karmic grid system, why it was so strong, what its purpose was and when it was dissolved. Clarity on the mind, the ego, emotion and judgement and why they have had so much power over you. Where Are We Going? Who or what is God? Clarity and guidance on the God/Creator this book refers to, your God/Creator given innate abilities, living beyond the mind level, ego, conflict etc., playing with your innate abilities and experiencing your uniquedness. What Is a True Relationship, and How Can You Have One? Living in a world with out pretense nor repetitive behaviors that do not complement your life. Questioning the mind is a starting point to create on opening to reveal the truth and using the mind as your friend. Rebuilding Your DNA and Raising Your Vibratory Structures Details on letting the body become your friend and letting the body be the body. How emotions and beliefs impact the body and its cells and its vibratory levels and cause rapid aging. How you can regenerate, rebuild and change the body. Playing with Higher States of Consciousness and Your Guidance Realms This book with guide you into your ability to play with higher states of consciousness, communicate directly with your source, what it is to be your presence and the Higher You where you are completely resolved of carrying any emotional baggage and are free from being hijacked by judgment and conflict with yourself and others. We will call your Higher Levels your 'internal/eternal guidance'. Communicating with Angelic and Archangelic Presences and Ascended Host Realms This chapter is about consciously enjoying the assistance and love from Angelic, Archangelic and Ascended Host Realms, we will call these Realms are you 'external guidance'. You can think of these Realms as protectors, advisors and even cheerleaders that encourage, assist and support you. Communicating with All of the Kingdoms You will see that when you are playing with all of your abilities and communicating with All of the Kingdoms, your mind and its evaluations and judgements are out of the way and you will have a greater understanding and knowledge of all things. Living in a Clear State This is your "I Am" presence of neutrality, openness, fluidity, freedom and expression. This is your natural state, one of an "is-ness" and simplicity and clarity within every level of your being. This is the 'real You' living in total bliss and being in the world and not embodying the world and its outside activities and dilemmas. Additionally, with-in each chapter there is a Willcasso and a meditation, or you may call it an exercise, to assist you in embodying all of your gifts and abilities through your mental and physical embodiment.
Author: Ted Anton
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022635394X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 334
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Book Description
This book takes readers into the latest discoveries about early microbial life, where findings from the earth's furthest extremes are seeking to reshape the future of our planet and ourselves. As scientists take the next step in applying the lessons of popular and controversial research, the world's tiniest, and sometimes most dangerous, microorganisms are being tapped as allies in achieving better health and sustainable energy, while revealing fundamental clues to the mystery of where we came from.--Provided by publisher.
Author: Claude C Albritton
Publisher: Legare Street Press
ISBN: 9781019421772
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 0
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Book Description
Claude C. Albritton's fascinating book explores the history and science of geology, from the earliest understandings of the earth's composition to modern theories of plate tectonics and seismic activity. With engaging writing and useful diagrams, this book is a must-read for anyone interested in the field of geology or the history of science. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.
Author: Philippe Bertrand
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030677737
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 573
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Book Description
Earth is, to our knowledge, the only life-bearing body in the Solar System. This extraordinary characteristic dates back almost 4 billion years. How to explain that Earth is teeming with organisms and that this has lasted for so long? What makes Earth different from its sister planets Mars and Venus? The habitability of a planet is its capacity to allow the emergence of organisms. What astronomical and geological conditions concurred to make Earth habitable 4 billion years ago, and how has it remained habitable since? What have been the respective roles of non-biological and biological characteristics in maintaining the habitability of Earth? This unique book answers the above questions by considering the roles of organisms and ecosystems in the Earth System, which is made of the non-living and living components of the planet. Organisms have progressively occupied all the habitats of the planet, diversifying into countless life forms and developing enormous biomasses over the past 3.6 billion years. In this way, organisms and ecosystems "took over" the Earth System, and thus became major agents in its regulation and global evolution. There was co-evolution of the different components of the Earth System, leading to a number of feedback mechanisms that regulated long-term Earth conditions. For millennia, and especially since the Industrial Revolution nearly 300 years ago, humans have gradually transformed the Earth System. Technological developments combined with the large increase in human population have led, in recent decades, to major changes in the Earth's climate, soils, biodiversity and quality of air and water. After some successes in the 20th century at preventing internationally environmental disasters, human societies are now facing major challenges arising from climate change. Some of these challenges are short-term and others concern the thousand-year evolution of the Earth's climate. Humans should become the stewards of Earth.
Author: James Lovelock
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198784880
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 169
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Book Description
Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.
Author: Rudolf Steiner
Publisher: Health Research Books
ISBN: 9780787314095
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 272
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Book Description
Author: Museu de Ciències Naturals in Barcelona
Publisher: Tra Publishing
ISBN: 9781734761870
Category : Juvenile Nonfiction
Languages : en
Pages : 60
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Book Description
Breathtaking illustrations bring billions of years of Earth’s fascinating history to life in this engaging and accessible book created in conjunction with Natural Science Museum of Barcelona. What did Earth look like 300 million years ago? Page through this gorgeous book and travel back in time to discover the days when Earth was a very different place than it is today. In this cleverly designed book, readers can peel back the layers of history by lifting the flaps and vellum pages inside, and compare the plants and animals that lived in prehistoric landscapes with the fossils they left behind. The constantly evolving face of our planet comes to life, while the science behind Earth’s geology and climate is clearly explained. Packed with fascinating illustrations, this is a wonderful introduction to the earliest single-celled life forms to the mighty dinosaurs and onward to the first human beings.
