The Science Class You Wish You Had (Revised Edition)

The Science Class You Wish You Had (Revised Edition) PDF Author: David Eliot Brody
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399160329
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

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Book Description
What does E=mc2 really mean? What is DNA? What was the big bang? These scientific concepts have changed our perception of the world…but for many of us they remain mysteries, bits and pieces of information retained from classroom lectures but never truly understood. Now we can finally grasp the grandeur and complexity of these ideas, and their significance in our lives. Revised and updated to include the latest discoveries that are changing the way we view the world and the universe, this new edition of The Science Class You Wish You Had will take you on a journey through space and time—from the subatomic to the universal. It explains in a lively, accessible way what these milestones of scientific discovery mean and what direct impact they have on our lives today and will have in the future. For everyone interested in science, history, and biographies of extraordinary people—or anyone who wants to understand the workings of the physical world—this thorough and authoritative book is a perfect introduction to science’s most profound discoveries, and a testament to the triumph of human knowledge. Newton: Gravity and the Basic Laws of Physics Rutherford and Bohr: The Structure of the Atom Einstein: The Principle of Relativity Hubble: The Big Bang and the Formation of the Universe Darwin: Evolution and the Principle of Natural Selection Flemming and Mendel: The Cell and Genetics Watson and Crick: The Structure of the DNA Molecule

The Science Class You Wish You Had (Revised Edition)

The Science Class You Wish You Had (Revised Edition) PDF Author: David Eliot Brody
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 0399160329
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 417

Get Book Here

Book Description
What does E=mc2 really mean? What is DNA? What was the big bang? These scientific concepts have changed our perception of the world…but for many of us they remain mysteries, bits and pieces of information retained from classroom lectures but never truly understood. Now we can finally grasp the grandeur and complexity of these ideas, and their significance in our lives. Revised and updated to include the latest discoveries that are changing the way we view the world and the universe, this new edition of The Science Class You Wish You Had will take you on a journey through space and time—from the subatomic to the universal. It explains in a lively, accessible way what these milestones of scientific discovery mean and what direct impact they have on our lives today and will have in the future. For everyone interested in science, history, and biographies of extraordinary people—or anyone who wants to understand the workings of the physical world—this thorough and authoritative book is a perfect introduction to science’s most profound discoveries, and a testament to the triumph of human knowledge. Newton: Gravity and the Basic Laws of Physics Rutherford and Bohr: The Structure of the Atom Einstein: The Principle of Relativity Hubble: The Big Bang and the Formation of the Universe Darwin: Evolution and the Principle of Natural Selection Flemming and Mendel: The Cell and Genetics Watson and Crick: The Structure of the DNA Molecule

Science in Action

Science in Action PDF Author: Bruno Latour
Publisher: Harvard University Press
ISBN: 9780674792913
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
From weaker to stronger rhetoric : literature - Laboratories - From weak points to strongholds : machines - Insiders out - From short to longer networks : tribunals of reason - Centres of calculation.

When Brains Dream: Understanding the Science and Mystery of Our Dreaming Minds

When Brains Dream: Understanding the Science and Mystery of Our Dreaming Minds PDF Author: Antonio Zadra
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
ISBN: 1324002840
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 336

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Book Description
"A truly comprehensive, scientifically rigorous and utterly fascinating account of when, how, and why we dream. Put simply, When Brains Dream is the essential guide to dreaming." —Matthew Walker, author of Why We Sleep Questions on the origins and meaning of dreams are as old as humankind, and as confounding and exciting today as when nineteenth-century scientists first attempted to unravel them. Why do we dream? Do dreams hold psychological meaning or are they merely the reflection of random brain activity? What purpose do dreams serve? When Brains Dream addresses these core questions about dreams while illuminating the most up-to-date science in the field. Written by two world-renowned sleep and dream researchers, it debunks common myths that we only dream in REM sleep, for example—while acknowledging the mysteries that persist around both the science and experience of dreaming. Antonio Zadra and Robert Stickgold bring together state-of-the-art neuroscientific ideas and findings to propose a new and innovative model of dream function called NEXTUP—Network Exploration to Understand Possibilities. By detailing this model’s workings, they help readers understand key features of several types of dreams, from prophetic dreams to nightmares and lucid dreams. When Brains Dream reveals recent discoveries about the sleeping brain and the many ways in which dreams are psychologically, and neurologically, meaningful experiences; explores a host of dream-related disorders; and explains how dreams can facilitate creativity and be a source of personal insight. Making an eloquent and engaging case for why the human brain needs to dream, When Brains Dream offers compelling answers to age-old questions about the mysteries of sleep.

Life Ascending

Life Ascending PDF Author: Nick Lane
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847652220
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 353

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Book Description
Winner of the 2010 Royal Society Prize for science books Powerful new research methods are providing fresh and vivid insights into the makeup of life. Comparing gene sequences, examining the atomic structure of proteins and looking into the geochemistry of rocks have all helped to explain creation and evolution in more detail than ever before. Nick Lane uses the full extent of this new knowledge to describe the ten greatest inventions of life, based on their historical impact, role in living organisms today and relevance to current controversies. DNA, sex, sight and consciousnesses are just four examples. Lane also explains how these findings have come about, and the extent to which they can be relied upon. The result is a gripping and lucid account of the ingenuity of nature, and a book which is essential reading for anyone who has ever questioned the science behind the glories of everyday life.

New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics

New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics PDF Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
ISBN: 0309157994
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 324

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Book Description
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.

The Science of Science

The Science of Science PDF Author: Dashun Wang
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
ISBN: 1108492665
Category : Computers
Languages : en
Pages : 315

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Book Description
This is the first comprehensive overview of the exciting field of the 'science of science'. With anecdotes and detailed, easy-to-follow explanations of the research, this book is accessible to all scientists, policy makers, and administrators with an interest in the wider scientific enterprise.

Science, the Endless Frontier

Science, the Endless Frontier PDF Author: Vannevar Bush
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 069120165X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 186

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Book Description
The classic case for why government must support science—with a new essay by physicist and former congressman Rush Holt on what democracy needs from science today Science, the Endless Frontier is recognized as the landmark argument for the essential role of science in society and government’s responsibility to support scientific endeavors. First issued when Vannevar Bush was the director of the US Office of Scientific Research and Development during the Second World War, this classic remains vital in making the case that scientific progress is necessary to a nation’s health, security, and prosperity. Bush’s vision set the course for US science policy for more than half a century, building the world’s most productive scientific enterprise. Today, amid a changing funding landscape and challenges to science’s very credibility, Science, the Endless Frontier resonates as a powerful reminder that scientific progress and public well-being alike depend on the successful symbiosis between science and government. This timely new edition presents this iconic text alongside a new companion essay from scientist and former congressman Rush Holt, who offers a brief introduction and consideration of what society needs most from science now. Reflecting on the report’s legacy and relevance along with its limitations, Holt contends that the public’s ability to cope with today’s issues—such as public health, the changing climate and environment, and challenging technologies in modern society—requires a more capacious understanding of what science can contribute. Holt considers how scientists should think of their obligation to society and what the public should demand from science, and he calls for a renewed understanding of science’s value for democracy and society at large. A touchstone for concerned citizens, scientists, and policymakers, Science, the Endless Frontier endures as a passionate articulation of the power and potential of science.

Discoveries in the Human Brain

Discoveries in the Human Brain PDF Author: Louise H. Marshall
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 147574997X
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 330

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Book Description
170u can climb back up a stream of radiance to the sky, and back through history up the stream of time. 1 -Robert Frost topics that he judged to be important in brain his From the last years of the second millennium, tory leading into the end of the century, and was we can look back on antecedent events in neuro undertaken in response to the enthusiasm gener science with amazement that so much of modern ated by exhibition at several national and interna biomedical science was anticipated, or even said or done, in an earlier time. That surprise can be tional meetings of a series oflarge posters for which matched by appreciation for what the pioneer Magoun wrote a 27-page brochure. The posters investigators, with no inkling that they were creat were viewed by a multitude of young neuroscien ing a discipline, contributed to its emergence as a tists who wanted more, as well as by mature inves productive force in human progress. In today's tigators who were warmly pleased to see familiar names and faces from the past. The acclaim was reductionist atmosphere, in which research at the molecular level is producing breathtaking new accompanied by a veritable deluge of requests for knowledge throughout biology, the student may an illustrated, expanded publication.

The Science of James Smithson

The Science of James Smithson PDF Author: Steven Turner
Publisher: Smithsonian Institution
ISBN: 1588346900
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 305

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Book Description
"A quirky, oddly touching book that allows us to step, for a few moments, inside the world of a practicing Enlightenment scientist, to sit beside him as he fans the flames of a candle with his little blowpipe, waiting for that small mineral in front of him to melt and yield its secrets." —Wall Street Journal An accessible exploration of the noteworthy scientific career of James Smithson, who left his fortune to establish the Smithsonian Institution. James Smithson is best known as the founder of the Smithsonian Institution, but few people know his full and fascinating story. He was a widely respected chemist and mineralogist and a member of the Royal Society, but in 1865, his letters, collection of 10,000 minerals, and more than 200 unpublished papers were lost to a fire in the Smithsonian Castle. His scientific legacy was further written off as insignificant in an 1879 essay published through the Smithsonian fifty years after his death--a claim that author Steven Turner demonstrates is far from the truth. By providing scientific and intellectual context to his work, The Science of James Smithson is a comprehensive tribute to Smithson's contributions to his fields, including chemistry, mineralogy, and more. This detailed narrative illuminates Smithson and his quest for knowledge at a time when chemists still debated thing as basic as the nature of fire, and struggled to maintain their networks amid the ever-changing conditions of the French Revolution and the Napoleonic Wars.

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate

The Hidden Life of Trees: What They Feel, How They Communicate PDF Author: Peter Wohlleben
Publisher: HarperCollins UK
ISBN: 0008218447
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 263

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Book Description
Sunday Times Bestseller‘A paradigm-smashing chronicle of joyous entanglement’ Charles Foster Waterstones Non-Fiction Book of the Month (September) Are trees social beings? How do trees live? Do they feel pain or have awareness of their surroundings?