The Sun, the Genome & the Internet

The Sun, the Genome & the Internet PDF Author: Freeman J. Dyson
Publisher: New York : Oxford University Press
ISBN: 9780195129427
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
In this visionary look into the future, Freeman Dyson argues that technological changes fundamentally alter our ethical and social arrangements and that three rapidly advancing new technologies--solar energy, genetic engineering, and world-wide communication--together have the potential to create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth. Dyson begins by rejecting the idea that scientific revolutions are primarily concept driven. He shows rather that new tools are more often the sparks that ignite scientific discovery. Such tool-driven revolutions have profound social consequences--the invention of the telescope turning the Medieval world view upside down, the widespread use of household appliances in the 1950s replacing servants, to cite just two examples. In looking ahead, Dyson suggests that solar energy, genetics, and the Internet will have similarly transformative effects, with the potential to produce a more just and equitable society. Solar power could bring electricity to even the poorest, most remote areas of third world nations, allowing everyone access to the vast stores of information on the Internet and effectively ending the cultural isolation of the poorest countries. Similarly, breakthroughs in genetics may well enable us to give our children healthier lives and grow more efficient crops, thus restoring the economic and human vitality of village cultures devalued and dislocated by the global market. Written with passionate conviction about the ethical uses of science,The Sun, the Genome, and the Internetis both a brilliant reinterpretation of the scientific process and a challenge to use new technologies to close, rather than widen, the gap between rich and poor.

The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet : Tools of Scientific Revolution

The Sun, The Genome, and The Internet : Tools of Scientific Revolution PDF Author: Freeman J. Dyson
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
ISBN: 9780199881468
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 144

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Book Description
In this visionary look into the future, Freeman Dyson argues that technological changes fundamentally alter our ethical and social arrangements and that three rapidly advancing new technologies--solar energy, genetic engineering, and world-wide communication--together have the potential to create a more equal distribution of the world's wealth. Dyson begins by rejecting the idea that scientific revolutions are primarily concept driven. He shows rather that new tools are more often the sparks that ignite scientific discovery. Such tool-driven revolutions have profound social consequences--the invention of the telescope turning the Medieval world view upside down, the widespread use of household appliances in the 1950s replacing servants, to cite just two examples. In looking ahead, Dyson suggests that solar energy, genetics, and the Internet will have similarly transformative effects, with the potential to produce a more just and equitable society. Solar power could bring electricity to even the poorest, most remote areas of third world nations, allowing everyone access to the vast stores of information on the Internet and effectively ending the cultural isolation of the poorest countries. Similarly, breakthroughs in genetics may well enable us to give our children healthier lives and grow more efficient crops, thus restoring the economic and human vitality of village cultures devalued and dislocated by the global market. Written with passionate conviction about the ethical uses of science, The Sun, the Genome, and the Internet is both a brilliant reinterpretation of the scientific process and a challenge to use new technologies to close, rather than widen, the gap between rich and poor.

The Sun, the Genome, the Internet

The Sun, the Genome, the Internet PDF Author: Freeman John Dyson
Publisher:
ISBN: 9780197743447
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
Dyson argues that technological changes alter our ethical and social arrangements. He shows that advancing technologies - solar energy, genetic engineering and communication - have the combined potential to create more equal distribution of wealth.

Applied Minds: How Engineers Think

Applied Minds: How Engineers Think PDF Author: Guru Madhavan
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 0393248003
Category : Technology & Engineering
Languages : en
Pages : 215

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Book Description
“Engineers are titans of real-world problem-solving. . . . In this riveting study of how they think, [Guru Madhavan] puts behind-the-scenes geniuses . . . center stage.”—Nature In this engaging account of innovative triumphs, Guru Madhavan examines the ways in which engineers throughout history created world-changing tools, from ATMs and ZIP codes to the digital camera and the disposable diaper. Equal parts personal, practical, and profound, Applied Minds charts a path to a future where we borrow strategies from engineering to find inspired solutions to our most pressing challenges.

Microarray Technology in Practice

Microarray Technology in Practice PDF Author: Steve Russell
Publisher: Academic Press
ISBN: 0080919766
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 460

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Book Description
Using chips composed of thousands of spots, each with the capability of holding DNA molecules corresponding to a given gene, DNA microarray technology has enabled researchers to measure simultaneously gene expression across the genome. As with other large-scale genomics approaches, microarray technologies are broadly applicable across disciplines of life and biomedical sciences, but remain daunting to many researchers. This guide is designed to demystify the technology and inform more biologists about this critically important experimental technique. Cohesive overview of the technology and available platforms, followed by detailed discussion of experimental design and analysis of microarray experiments Up-to-date description of normalization methods and current methods for sample amplification and labeling Deep focus on oligonucleotide design, printing, labeling and hybridization, data acquisition, normalization, and meta-analysis Additional uses of microarray technology such as ChIP (chromatin immunoprecipitation) with hybridization to DNA arrays, microarray-based comparative genomic hybridization (CGH), and cell and tissue arrays

Science Between Myth and History

Science Between Myth and History PDF Author: José G. Perillán
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0198864965
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 366

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Book Description
Science Between Myth and History explores scientific storytelling and its implications on the teaching, practice, and public perception of science. In communicating their science, scientists tend to use historical narratives for important rhetorical purposes. This text explores the implications of doing this.

The Einsteinian Revolution

The Einsteinian Revolution PDF Author: Jürgen Renn
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 0691256497
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
How the Einsteinian revolution can be understood as the result of a long-term evolution of science The revolution that emerged from Albert Einstein’s work in the early twentieth century transformed our understanding of space, time, motion, gravity, matter, and radiation. Beginning with Einstein’s miracle year of 1905 and continuing through his development of the theory of general relativity, Einstein spurred a revolution that continues to reverberate in modern-day physics. In The Einsteinian Revolution, Hanoch Gutfreund and Jürgen Renn trace the century-long transformation of classical physics and argue that the revolution begun by Einstein was in fact the result of a long-term evolution. Describing the origins and context of Einstein’s innovative research, Gutfreund and Renn work to dispel the popular myth of Einstein as a lone genius who brought about a revolution in physics through the power of his own pure thought. We can only understand the birth of modern physics, they say, if we understand the long history of the evolution of knowledge. Gutfreund and Renn outline the essential structures of the knowledge system of classical physics on which Einstein drew. Examining Einstein’s discoveries from 1905 onward, they describe the process by which new concepts arose and the basis of modern physics emerged. These transformations continued, eventually resulting in the establishment of quantum physics and general relativity as the two major conceptual frameworks of modern physics—and its two unreconciled theoretical approaches. Gutfreund and Renn note that Einstein was dissatisfied with this conceptual dichotomy and began a search for a unified understanding of physics—a quest that continued for the rest of his life.

Food, Genetic Engineering and Philosophy of Technology

Food, Genetic Engineering and Philosophy of Technology PDF Author: N. Dane Scott
Publisher: Springer
ISBN: 331996027X
Category : Philosophy
Languages : en
Pages : 158

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Book Description
This book describes specific, well-know controversies in the genetic modification debate and connects them to deeper philosophical issues in philosophy of technology. It contributes to the current, far-reaching deliberations about the future of food, agriculture and society. Controversies over so-called Genetically Modified Organisms (GMOs) regularly appear in the press. The biotechnology debate has settled into a long-term philosophical dispute. The discussion goes much deeper than the initial empirical questions about whether or not GM food and crops are safe for human consumption or pose environmental harms that dominated news reports. In fact, the implications of this debate extend beyond the sphere of food and agriculture to encompass the general role of science and technology in society. The GM controversy provides an occasion to explore important issues in philosophy of technology. Researchers, teachers and students interested in agricultural biotechnology, philosophy of technology and the future of food and agriculture will find this exploration timely and thought provoking.

TechVenture

TechVenture PDF Author: Mohan Sawhney
Publisher: John Wiley & Sons
ISBN: 0471189553
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 365

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Book Description
Drawn from the popular TechVenture program at the Kellogg School of Management, this book provides a deep understanding of the key finance and business trends in e-commerce Viewing Silicon Valley as a test lab for e-commerce strategies, this book delivers the latest financial and business models shaping the e-commerce industry. TechVenture focuses on the Silicon Valley phenomenon, the new financial strategies, and evolving e-business models. Each chapter draws from field research and interviews with the top minds in business today, and covers the most recent advances in e-finance, including: technology incubators, start-up funds, measuring intellectual capital, valuation techniques for Internet firms, and emerging technologies. In addition, TechVenture features intriguing and informative case studies and examples of major companies, including Idealab, Merrill Lynch, Pfizer, and Amazon.com. General business and finance readers, as well as those fascinated by the Internet economy, will find TechVenture an invaluable read that is on the cutting edge of e-business. Mohanbir Sawhney (Evanston, IL) is the McCormick Tribune Professor of Electronic Commerce and Technology at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, Northwestern University. Mr. Sawhney was recently named one of the twenty-five most influential people in e-business by Business Week magazine. Ranjay Gulati (Chicago, IL) is the Associate Professor of Management and Organizations at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management and the Director of the Center for Resource on E-Business Innovation. Anthony Paoni (Chicago, IL) is Associate Professor at the Kellogg Graduate School of Management.

Ancient Egyptian Wisdom for the Internet

Ancient Egyptian Wisdom for the Internet PDF Author: Anna Mancini
Publisher: University Press of America
ISBN: 9780761823780
Category : Law
Languages : en
Pages : 180

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Book Description
Western law, based on agriculture and industry, cannot deal with the virtual worlds created by the Internet, argues Mancini. The ancient Romans and Egyptians, on the other hand, were adept at virtuality, an intangible world that intersected with the tangible one, and it is to their laws that she turns for new frameworks and practices. Her study was accepted at a doctoral dissertation at the French National Scientific Research Center Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR