Probable Impossibilities

Probable Impossibilities PDF 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.

Probable Impossibilities

Probable Impossibilities PDF Author: Alan Lightman
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0593081323
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 209

Get Book Here

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.

Earth, Our Living Planet

Earth, Our Living Planet PDF 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.

Living in the World

Living in the World PDF Author: Theodore Ihejieto
Publisher: Dorrance Publishing
ISBN: 1480954683
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 383

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Book Description
Living in the World By: Theodore Ihejieto Living in the World is a book of love and life, called circle of positive energy and energy of sunlight. The book is a book of Planet Earth, because the living planet gave sunlight energy to the author of living in the world. The author is a human being who did not like the way human beings were suffering in the world and thought that he needed to do something in order to improve the standard of living in the world. Author Theodore Ihejieto was born into a Christian family who believed in God and trusted God to protect them from evil and death. Death killed the author’s father, which made him stop trusting God. Death killed the immediate junior brother of the author and made him declare war against God. The author read many religious books and discovered that human beings did not know God, because human beings did not have the intention to know God. Ihejieto wants to know God and succeeds in knowing God because God showed Himself to him when he started questioning the integrity of God. Living in the World is a healing book for human beings to absorb and chase death away, because living in the world destroys the fear of God and the devil of God in human beings.

Life on other Planets

Life on other Planets PDF Author: Dr. Douglas M. Baker
Publisher: Baker eBooks Publishing
ISBN: 1625690150
Category : Body, Mind & Spirit
Languages : en
Pages : 159

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Book Description
Life on other Planets: Is there life, and in particular human life, out there in the universe? Esoteric teachings affirm that life does indeed exist throughout the cosmos - even within our own solar system, on planets other than the Earth. The author's metaphysics investigations, together with his knowledge of the cutting edge of contemporary thought, have uncovered fascinating details of the history of our planetary neighbours. Life on the Moon reached fairly advanced levels of physical expression, and evidence for this contention lies waiting to be discovered, at deep subterranean levels. A greater question mark exists over the possibility of complex life having been present on Mars. The discovery of the remnants of microbial life on an ancient Martian meteorite will do little to resolve this quandary. A few drops do not make a monsoon . . . but they may foreshadow one! This book is not science fiction. There is a body of teaching on our planet, very ancient and frequently tested, termed the Gupta-Vidya in India, the Sibyl in ancient Rome, the Kabbala, Esoteric Buddhism, the Ancient Wisdom of the Gnostics, the Secret Doctrine of Theosophy, etc., which comments on the way in which nature and the cosmos unfolded. Many descriptions of cosmogenesis flow as a common current through these teachings. Because they are so often masked in mysticism, in symbol and glyph, in mythology and legend, they are not easy to unravel. Dr. Baker in a brilliant way, aided by images, charts and tables, presents these complex principles of Life in an easy to understand, yet very detailed fashion. Many scientific and esoteric references are quoted and several appendices are included which will help the reader through some sections of this work for which there are no simple analogies, equivalents or colloquialisms available in the English language. This book will change the way you think about life and the universe. It will provide glimpses of the true destiny of humanity . . . immortality!

Raft

Raft PDF Author: Stephen Baxter
Publisher: Hachette UK
ISBN: 057512797X
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 192

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Book Description
Stephen Baxter's highly acclaimed first novel and the beginning of his stunning Xeelee Sequence finally enters the SF Masterwork series! A spaceship from Earth accidentally crossed through a hole in space-time to a universe where the force of gravity is one billion times as strong as the gravity we know. Somehow the crew survived, aided by the fact that they emerged into a cloud of gas surrounding a black hole, which provided a breathable atmosphere. Five hundred years later, their descendants still struggle for existence, divided into two main groups. The Miners live on the Belt, a ramshackle ring of dwellings orbiting the core of a dead star, which they excavate for raw materials. These can be traded for food from the Raft, a structure built from the wreckage of the ship, on which a small group of scientists preserve the ancient knowledge which makes survival possible. Rees is a Miner whose curiosity about his world makes him stow away on a flying tree - just one of the many strange local lifeforms - carrying trade between the Belt and the Raft. And what he finds will change his world...

Living with a Green Heart

Living with a Green Heart PDF Author: Gay Browne
Publisher: Citadel
ISBN: 0806539003
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 290

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Book Description
“If you want one of the shortest, fastest routes to getting toxic chemicals out of your life, get behind the wheel of Gay Browne’s Living with a Green Heart and you’ll get there in no time flat.” —Ken Cook, President, Environmental Working Group In an increasingly toxic world, the paths to environmental health and personal well-being run parallel. The journey begins with a few small steps. Is the damage we’re doing to our planet literally leaving you sick, sore, and gasping for air? Want to take back our inalienable rights to clean air, clean water, and healthy food? In this quietly revolutionary book, environmental pioneer and founder of Greenopia, Gay Browne, shares a roadmap for making incremental changes that will not only transform your life, but heal the world we share. From the home to the office, from the foods we eat to the clothes we wear, here are actions you can take today that will improve your Personal Environmental Health, and help you stop feeling overwhelmed, reduce illness, improve sleep, mood, and focus, and start making a difference, including: *Make conscious choices when shopping, and support companies with good environmental stewardship and healthy products. *Test your water for harmful chemicals, install an affordable water filtration system, and reduce your water use by utilizing water more efficiently. *Work with your doctor to create a personal plan for detoxing your body. *Use only non-toxic and organic household products, and choose organic, eco-friendly fabrics made by sustainable and fair trade certified companies. *Choose the method of transportation that makes the lightest carbon footprint. With these and many other actions, Gay Browne’s work has taught her that even the smallest change for the better, faithfully practiced, can have an immense positive impact on our minds, bodies, and spirits—not to mention the planet.

Life on Other Planets as Described by Swedenborg

Life on Other Planets as Described by Swedenborg PDF Author: Frank Sewall
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Cosmology
Languages : en
Pages : 32

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Book Description


Planet of Microbes

Planet of Microbes PDF 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.

The Biology of Human Survival

The Biology of Human Survival PDF Author: Claude A. Piantadosi
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0190290021
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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Book Description
The range of environments in which people can survive is extensive, yet most of the natural world cannot support human life. The Biology of Human Survival identifies the key determinants of life or death in extreme environments from a physiologist's perspective, integrating modern concepts of stress, tolerance, and adaptation into explanations of life under Nature's most austere conditions. The book examines how individuals survive when faced with extremes of immersion, heat, cold or altitude, emphasizing the body's recognition of stress and the brain's role in optimizing physiological function in order to provide time to escape or to adapt. In illustrating how human biology adapts to extremes, the book also explains how we learn to cope by blending behavior and biology, first by trial and error, then by rigorous scientific observation, and finally by technological innovation. The book describes life-support technology and how it enables humans to enter once unendurable realm, from the depths of the ocean to the upper reaches of the atmosphere and beyond. Finally, it explores the role that advanced technology might play in special environments of the future, such as long journeys into space.

Gaia

Gaia PDF 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.