Science & Nature - Books

TIME The Science of Creativity

Science & Nature

From ancient drawings to the genius of Leonardo and Einstein to the imagination that colors our everyday life: the drive to create, innovate and make something new is a big part of what makes us human. Explore this and more in this new special edition from TIME, The Science of Creativity.

Learning Environment and Design

Science & Nature

This special edition of the Educational Communications and Technology Yearbook Series bears a title of “Learning Environment and Design: Current and Future Impact”. It provides a timely forum to share theoretical and practical insights in both the local and international contexts in response to the fact that new media and technologies have infiltrated and shaped the learning environments from mere physical spaces into multifaceted possibilities, impacting the ways individuals teach and learn. Designs of learning environments to harness technologies appropriately to engage learners better, as well as the roles of learners and educators play in this changing learning environment, are examples of important global issues in the discourse of the contemporary educational developments. Having gathered a diverse collection of research papers written by scholars and practitioners in the fields of education, communication and humanities across Asia, Australasia, Europe and the United States, this book gives readers a cross-cultural background on the developments of technological designs and educational practices, investigating areas in redefining of quality education; online learning and blended learning; new media in education; gamification, AI, and innovative learning technologies. Aimed to catalyze knowledge exchanges and provide fresh views on interdisciplinary research, the book sheds light on how emerging technologies can be adapted in the fields of education and communication, so as to facilitate the current and future designs of learning environments to improve learners’ performances.

Methods in Rhizosphere Biology Research

Science & Nature

This book compiles various methodologies used in understanding interactions within the rhizosphere. An in-depth understanding of the rhizosphere is essential to developing successful strategies for future sustainable agriculture. The book summarizes methods and techniques used to study the mechanisms involved in mutualistic symbioses and pathogenic interactions of plants with various microbial organisms including fungi, bacteria, and oomycetes. Each chapter discusses different methodologies used in rhizosphere biology, while also providing real-world experimental data and trouble-shooting tips. Interested researchers will also find a wealth of literature references for further research. As the first comprehensive manual and compilation of methods and techniques used in rhizosphere biology, the book represents an essential resource for all researchers who are newcomers to soil microbiology experimentation.

Predictive Analytics using MATLAB(R) for Biomedical Applications

Science & Nature

Predictive Analytics using MATLAB(R) for Biomedical Applications is a comprehensive and practical guide for biomedical engineers, data scientists, and researchers on how to use predictive analytics techniques in MATLAB(R) for solving real-world biomedical problems. The book offers a technical overview of various predictive analytics methods and covers the utilization of MATLAB(R) for implementing these techniques. It includes several case studies that demonstrate how predictive analytics can be applied to real-world biomedical problems, such as predicting disease progression, analyzing medical imaging data, and optimizing treatment outcomes.With a plethora of examples and exercises, this book is the ultimate tool for reinforcing one's knowledge and skills. - Covers various predictive analytics methods, including regression analysis, time series analysis, and machine learning algorithms, providing readers with a comprehensive understanding of the field - Provides a hands-on approach to learning predictive analytics, with a focus on practical applications in biomedical engineering - Includes several case studies that demonstrate the practical application of predictive analytics in real-world biomedical problems, such as disease progression prediction, medical imaging analysis, and treatment optimization

Bioreactors

Science & Nature

Bioreactors: Sustainable Design and Industrial Applications in Mitigation of GHG Emissions presents and compares the foundational concepts, state-of-the-art design and fabrication of bioreactors. Solidly based on theoretical fundamentals, the book examines various aspects of the commercially available bioreactors, such as construction and fabrication, design, modeling and simulation, development, operation, maintenance, management and target applications for biofuels production and bio-waste management. Emerging issues in commercial feasibility are explored, constraints and pathways for upscaling, and techno-economic assessment are also covered. This book provides researchers and engineers in the biofuels and waste management sectors a clear, at-a-glance understanding of the actual potential of different advanced bioreactors for their requirements. It is a must-have reference for better-informed decisions when selecting the appropriate technology models for sustainable systems development and commercialization. - Focuses on sustainable bioreactor processes and applications in bioenergy and bio-waste management - Explores techno-economic and sustainability assessment aspects through a comparative approach, catering to diverse arrays and applications - Offers comprehensive coverage of the most recent technology, from fundamentals to applications

Biopolymers for Biomedical Applications

Science & Nature

Biopolymers for Biomedical Applications The twenty chapters written by experts in the field of biopolymers and biomedical engineering, provide a complete resource that systematically discusses the most widely used biopolymers and their biomedical applications, and presents all the important research and developments that have occurred in the field. In recent decades, significant progress has been made in polymer science for biomedical applications. The use of biopolymers specifically attracted the focus on the development of therapeutic polymeric systems. The exclusive features of biopolymers, such as biodegradability and biocompatibility make them highly sought after, and major research conducted with them has resulted in various therapeutic systems. However, until now only a few showed a potential to be appropriate for human use. Each chapter covers a single biopolymer, its properties, and biomedical applications. The chapters are arranged systematically, with the most common biopolymers discussed early in the book to give more insight into the field. Further, a specific chapter is dedicated to the application of biopolymers for wound healing. Later, specific chapters are dedicated to the application of bioplastics and biopolymers for the development of medical devices and biosensors, respectively. Additionally, a chapter is dedicated to the application of biopolymers in the field of dentistry, with a special focus on their risk to human health. Keeping in mind recent advanced technologies, a chapter is dedicated solely to the latest progress of biopolymers in 3D and 4D printing for biomedical applications. The final chapter comprehensively explains the future perspectives of biopolymers in the biomedical field. Audience The book is a reference source for scientists, research scholars, chemical and polymer engineers, biologists, biotechnologists, polymer technologists, industrialists, health experts, and policymakers.

Agujeros negros y tiempo curvo

Science & Nature

"Durante treinta años –nos dice Kip S. Thorne, profesor del California Institute of Tecnology- he participado en una gran búsqueda para comprender el legado dejado por Albert Einstein a las generaciones futuras. Esta búsqueda me ha llevado por laberintos de objetos exóticos: agujeros negros, enanas blancas, estrellas de neutrotes, singularidades, ondas gravitatorias, distorsiones del tiempo, agujeros de gusano y máquinas del tiempo." Muchos investigadores, comenzando por el propio Einstein, se negaban a aceptar algunas de las fantásticas consecuencias que podían deducirse de la teoría de la relatividad. Han sido científicos de una nueva generación, y en especial Roger Penrose y Kip S. Thorne, quienes han llevado esta búsqueda a sus últimas consecuencias. Si los libros de los dos primeros –Historia del tiempo y La nueva mente del emperador- descubrieron al lector medio la nueva imagen del universo, Agujeros negros y tiempo curvo le conducirá adentro y más allá.Thorne comienza llevándonos a un viaje a los agujeros negros y, desde allí, nos hace seguir el descubrimiento de las nuevas concepciones, desde Einstein hasta nuestros días, en una especie de relato histórico sazonado de anécdotas vividas, a lo largo del cual vamos aprendiendo los conceptos básicos hasta llegar al punto en que agujeros de gusano y máquinas del tiempo nos parecen posibilidades lógicas y comprensibles. Si Stephen Hawking ha calificado este libro como "un relato fascinante", otro de los protagonistas de esta historia, el gran astrofísico ruso Igor Novikov ha dicho: "es uno de los mejores libros de divulgación científica que he leído: todos cuantos aman los misterios científicos disfrutarán con él".

NanoAgroceuticals & NanoPhytoChemicals

Science & Nature

This book volume encompasses the recent trends made in the applications of nanoscale tools for diverse constituents of plants and agriculture, particularly in addressing the critical issues related to their safety, efficacy, and efficient and cost-efficient development and production.

Siła czasu

Science & Nature

W bestsellerze Paradoks czasu, światowej sławy psycholog Philip Zimbardo pokazał, że możemy zmienić sposób, w jaki myślimy o naszej przeszłości, teraźniejszości i przyszłości, by osiągać sukcesy w pracy i życiu osobistym. Książka Siła czasu pokazuje natomiast przełomowe podejście, które pozwala ludziom cierpiącym na zaburzenie po stresie traumatycznym zmienić ich perspektywę czasową i przejść od traumatycznej przeszłości do jaśniejszej przyszłości.Terapia, którą proponują autorzy, przenosi punkt ciężkości z przeszłości na teraźniejszość, z aspektów negatywnych na pozytywne, torując drogę ku lepszej przyszłości. Pomaga cierpiącym na zaburzenie po stresie traumatycznym wyjść poza dawne zranienia i stanąć na pewnym gruncie teraźniejszości, a także zrobić krok ku jaśniejszej przyszłości. Autorzy nie patrzą na PTSD jak na psychiczne zaburzenie, ale raczej jak na psychiczne zranienie – naturalną reakcję na traumatyczne zdarzenia – i oferują cierpiącym na nie ludziom kojący balsam nadziei.Książka omawia krok po kroku proces terapii, z której z powodzeniem skorzystało wiele osób: od weteranów wojennych do ofiar napastowania, wypadków, napaści i zaniedbań. Książka nie tylko sięga do badań psychologicznych. Zawiera także bogactwo prawdziwych, inspirujących historii z życia osób cierpiących na zaburzenie po stresie traumatycznym. Jest to wspaniała lektura dla osób szukających pomocy, a także terapeutów i osób zajmujących się poradnictwem psychologicznym oraz dla każdego, kto chce zrobić krok ku lepszej przyszłości.

Molecules: A Very Short Introduction

Science & Nature

Molecules are the building blocks of matter. Using the molecules of life as a springboard, Philip Ball provides a new perspective on modern chemistry. He shows how molecular scientists are capturing the dynamism of biological molecules in synthetic systems, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the new century.

Visions Of Technology

Science & Nature

Technology was the blessing and the bane of the twentieth century. Human life span nearly doubled in the West, but in no century were more human beings killed by new technologies of war. Improvements in agriculture now feed increasing billions, but pesticides and chemicals threaten to poison the earth. Does technology improve us or diminish us? Enslave us or make us free? With this first-ever collection of the essential twentieth-century writings on technology, Pulitzer Prize-winning historian Richard Rhodes explores the optimism, ambivalence, and wrongheaded judgments with which Americans have faced an ever-shifting world.Visions of Technology collects writings on events from the Great Exposition of 1900 and the invention of the telegraph to the advent of genetic counseling and the defeat of Garry Kasparov by IBM's chess-playing computer, Deep Blue. Its gems of opinion and history include Henry Ford on the horseless carriage, Robert Caro on the transformation of New York City, J. Robert Oppenheimer on science and war, Loretta Lynn on the Pill and much more. Together, they chronicle an unprecedented century of change.

Monkey Trouble

Science & Nature

According to scholars of the nonhuman turn, the scandal of theory lies in its failure to decenter the human. The real scandal, however, is that we keep trying.The human has become a conspicuous blind spot for many theorists seeking to extend hospitality to animals, plants, and even insentient things. The displacement of the human is essential and urgent, yet given the humanist presumption that animals lack a number of allegedly unique human capacities, such as language, reason, and awareness of mortality, we ought to remain cautious about laying claim to any power to eradicate anthropocentrism altogether. Such a power risks becoming yet another self-accredited capacity thanks to which the human reaffirms its sovereignty through its supposed erasure.Monkey Trouble argues that the turn toward immanence in contemporary posthumanism promotes a cosmocracy that absolves one from engaging in those discriminatory decisions that condition hospitality as such. Engaging with recent theoretical developments in speculative realism and object-oriented ontology, as well as ape and parrot language studies, the book offers close readings of literary works by J.M. Coetzee, Charles Chesnutt, and Walt Whitman and films by Alfonso Cuarón and Lars von Trier.Anthropocentrism, Peterson argues, cannot be displaced through a logic of reversal that elevates immanence above transcendence, horizontality over verticality. This decentering must cultivate instead a human/nonhuman relationality that affirms the immanent transcendency spawned by our phantasmatic humanness.

Spice In Science

Science & Nature

Spice in Science is an unusual book replete with interesting incidents, funny situations, memorable events and little known facts from the lives of scientists, researchers, inventors and mathematicians. Herein you will find no pungent formulae or esoteric ideas, simply a colourful embroidery of humorous stories and amusing anecdotes laced with unforgettable incidents from the fascinating lives of these great geniuses. This book does not contain the serious science from cloistered laboratories. Instead, it transmits the crackles of laughter that cracked up these labs - sometimes in wonder, sometimes in mirth and sometimes in mysticism. From CV Raman to Srinivas Ramanujan, Isaac Newton to Albert Einstein, Michael Faraday to Thomas Edison and Marie Curie to Guglielmo Marconi, Spice in Science has funnies and anecdotes on one and all. So, whether you are interested in science or only dig pure fun, Spice in Science is just the right book for you.

Introduction to Safety Science

Science & Nature

The book is designed as an accessible and readable introduction to a rapidly expanding area that is in demand worldwide. A variety of professionals from different backgrounds are being tasked with managing health and safety risks in a wide variety of settings. Many lack current and up-to-date knowledge of the key developments that have taken place in Safety Science in recent decades, as well as a sense of how these developments fit in with previous approaches. This book takes readers on a ‘journey’ across three broad developments in safety science. It covers topics that focus on the individual including human error, risk and the role of cognition in human performance. It then shifts to research in safety science that uses organizations as the basic unit of analysis, questions about organizational decision making and the characteristics that dispose towards or against organizational failure and it introduces perspectives based on systems science that address issues that arise out of complexity and interdependence. Those who will purchase this book are students taking courses in human factors, ergonomics, applied psychology, occupational health and safety management. Professionals working in safety management in any field from agriculture, construction, shipping, aviation, power generation, oil exploration, manufacturing to healthcare will find this book useful, as well as general readers interested in why systems fail.

Cómo evitar un desastre climático

Science & Nature

En este libro urgente y necesario Bill Gates propone un plan amplio, práctico —y comprensible— para conseguir que el mundo llegue a cero emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero para así evitar una catástrofe climática.Bill Gates ha pasado una década investigando las causas y efectos del cambio climático. Con la ayuda de expertos en los campos de la física, la química, la biología, la ingeniería, las ciencias políticas y las finanzas, se ha centrado en investigar exactamente qué se debe hacer para detener la deriva del planeta hacia un desastre ambiental. En este libro, además de explicar por qué debemos esforzarnos en lograr emisiones netas cero de gases de efecto invernadero, también detalla lo que debemos hacer para lograr este objetivo tan importante.Gates nos presenta una descripción clara de los desafíos que enfrentamos. A partir de su conocimiento sobre innovación y lo que se requiere para introducir nuevas ideas en el mercado, describe las áreas en las que la tecnología ya está ayudando a reducir las emisiones, dónde y cómo la tecnología actual puede funcionar de manera más eficaz, dónde es necesario desarrollar tecnologías de punta, y quién está trabajando en estas innovaciones esenciales. Finalmente, presenta un plan concreto y práctico para lograr el objetivo de cero emisiones, sugiriendo no solo las políticas que los gobiernos deberían adoptar, sino lo que nosotros, como individuos, podemos hacer para que nuestro gobierno, nuestros empleadores y nosotros mismos nos responsabilicemos esta crucial iniciativa. Como deja claro Bill Gates, llegar a cero emisiones no será sencillo ni fácil, pero si seguimos el plan que aquí propone, es una meta que se encuentra decididamente a nuestro alcance."Para detener el calentamiento global y evitar los peores efectos del cambio climático, los humanos deben dejar de agregar gases de efecto invernadero a la atmósfera. Si nada cambia, el mundo seguirá produciendo gases de efecto invernadero, el cambio climático seguirá empeorando y el impacto en los seres humanos con toda probabilidad será catastrófico.Pero las cosas pueden cambiar. Este libro trata sobre lo que se necesitará para lograrlo y por qué estoy convencido de que podemos hacerlo." -- Bill Gates

The Global Warming Reader

Science & Nature

Van Jones, Al Gore, Elizabeth Kolbert, Naomi Klein, and other essential voices on global warming, from its 19th-century discovery to the present, in a volume edited by Bill McKibben, our most widely respected environmental writerWith the rise of extreme weather events worldwide--witness the devastation wrought by Hurricanes Sandy, Irene, and Katrina, and the sustained drought across the American West--global warming has become increasingly difficult to deny.What is happening to our planet? And what can we do about it? The Global Warming Reader provides more than thirty-five answers to these burning questions, from more than one hundred years of engagement with the topic. Here is Elizabeth Kolbert's groundbreaking essay "The Darkening Sea," Michael Crichton's skeptical view of climate change, George Monbiot's biting indictment of those who are really using up the planet's resources, NASA scientist James Hansen's testimony before the U.S. Congress, and clarion calls for action by Al Gore, Arundhati Roy, Naomi Klein, Van Jones, and many others. The Global Warming Reader is a comprehensive resource, expertly edited by someone who lives and breathes this defining issue of our time.

Perspectives on String Phenomenology

Science & Nature

The remarkable recent discovery of the Higgs boson at the CERN Large Hadron Collider completed the Standard Model of particle physics and has paved the way for understanding the physics which may lie beyond it. String/M theory has emerged as a broad framework for describing a plethora of diverse physical systems, which includes condensed matter systems, gravitational systems as well as elementary particle physics interactions. If string/M theory is to be considered as a candidate theory of Nature, it must contain an effectively four-dimensional universe among its solutions that is indistinguishable from our own. In these solutions, the extra dimensions of string/M theory are “compactified” on tiny scales which are often comparable to the Planck length. String phenomenology is the branch of string/M theory that studies such solutions, relates their properties to data, and aims to answer many of the outstanding questions of particle physics beyond the Standard Model. This book contains perspectives on string phenomenology from some of the leading experts in the field. Contributions will range from pedagogical general overviews and perspectives to more technical reviews. We hope that the reader will get a sense of the significant progress that has been made in the field in recent years (e.g. in the topic of moduli stabilization) as well as the topics currently being researched, outstanding problems and some perspectives for the future.Contents: Preface Acknowledgments What is an Electroon? (M J Perry) The What and Why of Moduli (J Conlon) Perspective on the Weakly Coupled Heterotic String (M K Gaillard) Geography of Fields in Extra Dimensions: String Theory Lessons for Particle Physics (H P Nilles & P K S Vaudrevange) The String Landscape: A Personal Perspective (K R Dienes) Mathematics for String Phenomenology (M R Douglas) The String Theory Landscape (A N Schellekens) Local String Models and Moduli Stabilization (F Quevedo) F-Theory: From Geometry to Phenomenology (S Schaefer-Nameki) Compactified String Theories — Generic Predictions for Particle Physics (P Kumar) How Could (Should) We Make Contact Between String/M Theory and Our Four-Dimensional World? (G Kane) String Cosmology — Large-Field Inflation in String Theory (A Westphal) Dark Energy in String Theory (B Greene & G Shiu) Cosmological SUSY Breaking and the Pyramid Scheme (T Banks) Physicists and graduates interested in string theory.

Dangerous Years

Science & Nature

A leading environmental thinker takes a hard look at the obstacles and possibilities on the long road to sustainability This gripping, deeply thoughtful book considers future of civilization in the light of what we know about climate change and related threats. David Orr, an award-winning, internationally recognized leader in the field of sustainability and environmental education, pulls no punches: even with the Paris Agreement of 2015, Earth systems will not reach a new equilibrium for centuries. Earth is becoming a different planet—more threadbare and less biologically diverse, with more acidic oceans and a hotter, more capricious climate. Furthermore, technology will not solve complex problems of sustainability. Yet we are not fated to destroy the Earth, Orr insists. He imagines sustainability as a quest and a transition built upon robust and durable democratic and economic institutions, as well as changes in heart and mindset. The transition, he writes, is beginning from the bottom up in communities and neighborhoods. He lays out specific principles and priorities to guide us toward enduring harmony between human and natural systems.

Il était sept fois la révolution. Albert Einstein et les autres…

Science & Nature

Certaines révolutions sont lentes et ne font pas couler de sang. Entre 1925 et 1935, la physique connaît un tel bouleversement : les atomes, petits grains de matière découverts quelques années plus tôt, n’obéissent plus aux lois de la physique classique. Il faut en inventer de nouvelles. C’est ce que firent, avec d’autres, les sept physiciens hors du commun auxquels Étienne Klein rend ici hommage : George Gamow, Albert Einstein, Paul Dirac, Ettore Majorana, Wolfgang Pauli, Paul Ehrenfest et Erwin Schrödinger. Formant l’avant-garde de la science européenne du début du XXe siècle, ces hommes, qui ont en commun d’avoir été, chacun à sa façon, des génies, sont parvenus, par des travaux d’une audace extraordinaire, à comprendre les lois étranges qui régissent le comportement de la matière. À travers eux se dessine l’histoire d’une époque et d’un bouillonnement intellectuel intense, qui demeure unique dans l’histoire de la physique.

Malicorne. Réflexions d'un observateur de la nature

Science & Nature

" Malicorne est un petit village de Puisaye, le pays de Colette, situé au nord de la Bourgogne. Dans cette campagne grasse, verdoyante, légèrement vallonnée, on peut enlever sa montre et s'insérer dans le rythme de la nature. Ce livre est né de mes promenades dans cette campagne. Il s'est fait un peu tout seul. J'en ai été plus le spectateur que l'auteur. Je le dois aux trainées de lumière dorée sur le tapis luisant des pervenches dans la pénombre du sous-bois. Là, une grande paix m'envahit. Attentif aux sons et aux odeurs, je m'éveille à la présence tranquille du monde végétal. Je me sens vivant, à la surface de la planète Terre, à l'instant présent de l'évolution de l'univers. " Hubert Reeves s'interroge ici sur les rapports entre science et culture, " entre ce qu'on sait et ce qu'on fait " : en quoi les nouvelles connaissances scientifiques modifient-elles le regard que nous portons sur notre activité d'humains ? Des réflexions qui prennent valeur de témoignage et d'inspiration.

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