Science & Nature - Books

Complex Systems and Networks

Science & Nature

This elementary book provides some state-of-the-art research results on broad disciplinary sciences on complex networks. It presents an in-depth study with detailed description of dynamics, controls and applications of complex networks. The contents of this book can be summarized as follows. First, the dynamics of complex networks, for example, the cluster dynamic analysis by using kernel spectral methods, community detection algorithms in bipartite networks, epidemiological modeling with demographics and epidemic spreading on multi-layer networks, are studied. Second, the controls of complex networks are investigated including topics like distributed finite-time cooperative control of multi-agent systems by applying homogenous-degree and Lyapunov methods, composite finite-time containment control for disturbed second-order multi-agent systems, fractional-order observer design of multi-agent systems, chaos control and anticontrol of complex systems via Parrondos game and many more. Third, the applications of complex networks provide some applicable carriers, which show the importance of theories developed in complex networks. In particular, a general model for studying time evolution of transition networks, deflection routing in complex networks, recommender systems for social networks analysis and mining, strategy selection in networked evolutionary games, integration and methods in computational biology, are discussed in detail.

Sulle origini della vita, del significato e dell'universo

Science & Nature

Attraverso brevi capitoli, ricchi di sorprendenti aneddoti storici, episodi personali e rigorose spiegazioni, scopriamo le differenze e le relazioni tra diversi mondi: quantistico, cosmico e umano. Quella di Carroll è una visione scientifica dell'universo senza precedenti, dove la meccanica quantistica e la relatività generale incrociano filosofia ed esperienze quotidiane e che, muovendosi dal big bang al significato dell'esistenza, ambisce a restituire una spiegazione complessiva della realtà. Un tour de force da affiancare alle opere di Stephen Hawking, Carl Sagan, Daniel Dennett ed Edward O. Wilson. «Un libro che tutti dovrebbero leggere». Carlo Rovelli Dove siamo? E perché siamo proprio qui? Le nostre credenze, speranze e sogni hanno qualche significato là fuori nel vuoto? Il pensiero e le intenzioni degli uomini potranno mai accordarsi con una visione scientifica del mondo? Sean Carroll è considerato uno dei piú importanti fisici teorici della sua generazione, in grado di affrontare la questione del bosone di Higgs e delle dimensioni alternative dell'universo insieme ai problemi fondamentali dell'esistenza dell'uomo. In questo libro mette a frutto i suoi studi scientifici per confrontarsi con il mondo della conoscenza, le leggi della natura e le domande piú profonde sulla vita, la morte e il nostro posto all'interno del tutto.

Amusing Ourselves to Death

Science & Nature

Television has conditioned us to tolerate visually entertaining material measured out in spoonfuls of time, to the detriment of rational public discourse and reasoned public affairs. In this eloquent, persuasive book, Neil Postman alerts us to the real and present dangers of this state of affairs, and offers compelling suggestions as to how to withstand the media onslaught. Before we hand over politics, education, religion, and journalism to the show business demands of the television age, we must recognize the ways in which the media shape our lives and the ways we can, in turn, shape them to serve out highest goals.

Parametric Array Loudspeakers

Science & Nature

This book highlights a comprehensive overview of research and technical advances related to parametric array loudspeakers (PALs), covering modeling and simulation, measurements, signal processing, beamsteering, and their implementations and applications. PALs that can achieve directional sound reproduction have received widespread attention from global researchers due to their advantages of narrow beam, highly directivity, and very small sidelobes. PALs have developed rapidly in theory and application and have been used in various commercial products. At present, PALs have become a research hotspot in the field of audio engineering. The book is a must-have guiding reference for researchers, professionals and graduate students who seek to conduct further research on PALs.

La nature est un champ de bataille

Science & Nature

Face à la catastrophe annoncée, les bonnes âmes appellent l'humanité à " dépasser ses divisions " pour s'unir dans un " pacte écologique ". Cet essai polémique s'attaque à cette idée reçue. Il n'y aura pas de consensus environnemental. L'unanimisme ne saurait en la matière être que de façade. Loin d'effacer les antagonismes existants, la crise écologique se greffe au contraire à eux pour les porter à incandescence. La nature devient un champ de bataille.Face à la catastrophe écologique annoncée, les bonnes âmes appellent l'humanité à " dépasser ses divisions " pour s'unir dans un " pacte écologique ". Cet essai s'attaque à cette idée reçue. Il n'y aura pas de consensus environnemental. Loin d'effacer les antagonismes existants, la crise écologique se greffe au contraire à eux pour les porter à incandescence. Soit la localisation des décharges toxiques aux États-Unis : si vous voulez savoir où un stock de déchets donné a le plus de chances d'être enfoui, demandez-vous où vivent les Noirs, les Hispaniques, les Amérindiens et autres minorités raciales. Interrogez-vous par la même occasion sur le lieu où se trouvent les quartiers pauvres... Ce " racisme environnemental " qui joue à l'échelle d'un pays vaut aussi à celle du monde." Marchés carbone ", " droits à polluer ", " dérivés climatiques ", " obligations catastrophe " : on assiste à une prolifération des produits financiers " branchés " sur la nature. Faute de s'attaquer à la racine du problème, la stratégie néolibérale choisit de financiariser l'assurance des risques climatiques. C'est l'essor de la " finance environnementale " comme réponse capitaliste à la crise.Surcroît de catastrophes naturelles, raréfaction de certaines ressources, crises alimentaires, déstabilisation des pôles et des océans, " réfugiés climatiques " par dizaine de millions à l'horizon 2050... Autant de facteurs qui annoncent des conflits armés d'un nouveau genre, auxquels se préparent aujourd'hui les militaires occidentaux. Fini la guerre froide, bienvenue aux " guerres vertes ". De La Nouvelle-Orléans au glacier Siachen en passant par la banquise de l'Arctique, l'auteur explore les lieux marquants de cette nouvelle " géostratégie du climat ".Cet essai novateur de théorie politique fournit une grille de lecture originale et critique, indispensable pour saisir les enjeux de la crise écologique actuelle. À travers l'exposition édifiante des scénarios capitalistes face au désastre environnemental, il fait œuvre – salutaire – de futurologie critique.

Our Posthuman Future

Science & Nature

In 1989, Francis Fukuyama made his now-famous pronouncement that because "the major alternatives to liberal democracy had exhausted themselves," history as we knew it had reached its end. Ten years later, he revised his argument: we hadn't reached the end of history, he wrote, because we hadn't yet reached the end of science. Arguing that our greatest advances still to come will be in the life sciences, Fukuyama now asks how the ability to modify human behavior will affect liberal democracy. To re-orient contemporary debate, Fukuyama underlines man's changing understanding of human nature through history: from Plato and Aristotle's belief that man had "natural ends," to the ideals of utopians and dictators of the modern age who sought to remake mankind for ideological ends. Fukuyama persuasively argues that the ultimate prize of the biotechnology revolution-intervention in the "germ-line," the ability to manipulate the DNA of all of one person's descendents-will have profound, and potentially terrible, consequences for our political order, even if undertaken by ordinary parents seeking to "improve" their children. In Our Posthuman Future, our greatest social philosopher begins to describe the potential effects of exploration on the foundation of liberal democracy: the belief that human beings are equal by nature.

The Darwinian Revolution

Science & Nature

What is the Darwinian revolution and why is it important for philosophers? These are the questions tackled in this Element. In four sections, the topics covered are the story of the revolution, the question of whether it really was a revolution, the nature of the revolution, and the implications for philosophy, both epistemology and ethics.

Fuzz

Science & Nature

An Instant New York Times Bestseller #1 Los Angeles Times Bestseller #1 Indie Hardcover Nonfiction Bestseller A Publishers Weekly Best Nonfiction Book of 2021 Longlisted for the 2022 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Join "America’s funniest science writer" (Peter Carlson, Washington Post), Mary Roach, on an irresistible investigation into the unpredictable world where wildlife and humans meet.What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as New York Times best-selling author Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology.Roach tags along with animal-attack forensics investigators, human-elephant conflict specialists, bear managers, and "danger tree" faller blasters. Intrepid as ever, she travels from leopard-terrorized hamlets in the Indian Himalaya to St. Peter’s Square in the early hours before the pope arrives for Easter Mass, when vandal gulls swoop in to destroy the elaborate floral display. She taste-tests rat bait, learns how to install a vulture effigy, and gets mugged by a macaque.Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators, and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers. When it comes to "problem" wildlife, she finds, humans are more often the problem—and the solution. Fascinating, witty, and humane, Fuzz offers hope for compassionate coexistence in our ever-expanding human habitat.

Pana la sfarsitul timpului

Science & Nature

Traducere de Walter Fotescu „Până la sfârșitul timpului e o carte enciclopedică și erudită, adesea tulburătoare. O scrisoare de dragoste adresată momentului cosmic efemer când totul e cu putință.“ — The New York Times Book Review „Brian Greene e un maestru în lămurirea legilor fizicii.“ — Journal Inquirer Cum au apărut universul, materia, viața și mintea noastră? Ce destin vor avea toate acestea la scara timpului cosmic? Avem liber-arbitru? Care e raportul dintre conștiință și lumea neînsuflețită guvernată de legile fizicii? Și ce sens putem da existenței noastre? Acestea sunt problemele pe care Brian Greene le abordează în Până la sfârșitul timpului pornind de la cunoștințe ferm ancorate, cum e principiul al doilea al termodinamicii, sau urmărind ipoteze plauzibile de la granițele științei actuale. Rezultatul e descrierea fascinantă și copleșitoare a unor evenimente care se pot produce la scări imense ale timpului și care pun în discuție esența condiției umane. Atât știința, cât și filozofia, credința sau artele sunt invocate de Brian Greene pentru a defini locul și rostul nostru în univers. „Știința e un instrument splendid și puternic pentru a înțelege realitatea exterioară. Dar în acea cunoașter tot restul e specia umană care se contemplă pe sine, învățând ce are nevoie pentru a se perpetua și spunând o poveste care reverberează în întuneric, o poveste sculptată din sunet și gravată în tăcere, o poveste care, în ce are ea mai bun, emoționează sufletul.“ — BRIAN GREENE

A Miscellany of Medicinal Herbs In Verse: Short Poems About Valuable Herbs

Science & Nature

NEW! Born out of a smaller series of Facebook postings, this book contains poems about 100 medicinal plants. While fun, this collection is also educational and of medicinal value. Some of the original poems have been polished up a bit and many more added, making it a worthwhile collection.

Radiology-Physics

Science & Nature

Includes: 1. FlashCard Style questions. 2. Teaching Points to help you quickly master specialty content.The mission of StatPearls Publishing is to help you evaluate and improve your knowledge base. We do this by providing high quality, peer-reviewed, educationally sound questions written by leading educators.

Know This

Science & Nature

Today's most visionary thinkers reveal the cutting-edge scientific ideas and breakthroughs you must understand.Scientific developments radically change and enlighten our understanding of the world -- whether it's advances in technology and medical research or the latest revelations of neuroscience, psychology, physics, economics, anthropology, climatology, or genetics. And yet amid the flood of information today, it's often difficult to recognize the truly revolutionary ideas that will have lasting impact. In the spirit of identifying the most significant new theories and discoveries, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org ("The world's smartest website" -- The Guardian), asked 198 of the finest minds What do you consider the most interesting recent scientific news? What makes it important?Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel Jared Diamond on the best way to understand complex problems * author of Seven Brief Lessons on Physics Carlo Rovelli on the mystery of black holes * Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker on the quantification of human progress * TED Talks curator Chris J. Anderson on the growth of the global brain * Harvard cosmologist Lisa Randall on the true measure of breakthrough discoveries * Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek on why the twenty-first century will be shaped by our mastery of the laws of matter * philosopher Rebecca Newberger Goldstein on the underestimation of female genius * music legend Peter Gabriel on tearing down the barriers between imagination and reality * Princeton physicist Freeman Dyson on the surprising ability of small (and cheap) upstarts to compete with billion-dollar projects. Plus Nobel laureate John C. Mather, Sun Microsystems cofounder Bill Joy, Wired founding editor Kevin Kelly, psychologist Alison Gopnik, Genome author Matt Ridley, Harvard geneticist George Church, Why Does the World Exist? author Jim Holt, anthropologist Helen Fisher, and more.

Nanoelectronics Devices: Design, Materials, and Applications (Part II)

Science & Nature

Nanoelectronics Devices: Design, Materials, and Applications provides information about the progress of nanomaterial and nanoelectronic devices and their applications in diverse fields (including semiconductor electronics, biomedical engineering, energy production and agriculture). The book is divided into two parts. The editors have included a blend of basic and advanced information with references to current research. The book is intended as an update for researchers and industry professionals in the field of electronics and nanotechnology. It can also serve as a reference book for students taking advanced courses in electronics and technology. The editors have included MCQs for evaluating the readers’ understanding of the topics covered in the book. Topics Covered in Part 2 include applications of nanoelectronics for different devices and materials. - Photonic crystal waveguide geometry - 8kW to 80kW power grids with simple energy storage systems - Two-dimensional material and based heterojunctions like MoS2 /graphene, MoS2 /CNT, and MoS2 /WS2, - 5G communication material - Wearable devices like electronic skin, intelligent wound bandages, tattoo-based electrochemical sensors - PEDOT: PSS-based EEG - New materials for medicine Audience Researchers and industry professionals in the field of electronics and nanotechnology; students taking advanced courses in electronics and technology.

Prehistoric Mammals

Science & Nature

In 1909 a rich accumulation of many thousands of bones was excavated from Mammoth Cave in Australia’s south-west. Many of the bones far exceeded in size any modern-day native mammal, evidence that in prehistoric times giant mammals had roamed the Australian bush. They included a marsupial the size of a buffalo, kangaroos more than two metres tall, wallabies much bigger than any living species, a marsupial ‘lion’ about the size of a leopard, giant echidnas and wombats, plus the thylacine (Tasmanian tiger). What did these animals look like and how did they live? And how did they become extinct in a relatively short period of time?

One Planet, Many Worlds

Science & Nature

A historian offers a unique look at the pandemic, climate change, and the human versus nonhuman.Climate change represents a deep conundrum for humans. It is difficult for humans to give up the unequal and yet accelerating pursuit of a good life based on an insatiable appetite for energy sourced mainly from fossil fuel. But the same pursuit, scientists insist, damages the geobiological system that supports the existence of interrelated forms of life, including ours, on this planet. The planet, seen thus, is one. The global sway of financial and extractive capital connects humans technologically, but they remain divided along multiple axes of inequality. Their worlds are many and their politics still global rather than planetary. In the narrative presented here, Chakrabarty continues to explore the temporal and intellectual fault lines that mark the collapse of the global and the planetary in human history.

CHARGE

Science & Nature

Frank Close explores the deep, and as yet unresolved, puzzle of why matter is electrically neutral.

Que cherchons-nous dans nos origines ?

Science & Nature

La question des origines interroge les ressorts les plus profonds de l’être humain. Il faut s’avoir d’où l’on vient pour savoir qui l’on est. D’où le besoin individuel de s’ancrer dans une lignée ; d’où le besoin collectif de se créer un mythe fondateur ; et d’où le besoin universel d’expliquer l’origine du monde. Les réponses à ces questions de la psychologie, avec Sophie Marinopoulos (1re partie), de la sociologie, avec Michel Wieviorka (2e partie) et de la cosmologie, avec Étienne Klein (3e partie). En guise d’épilogue, tous trois confrontent leurs points de vue dans une dernière partie.

Les #Gueux

Science & Nature

Ce hashtag unit les colères des maires et des citoyens méprisés. Depuis le 1er janvier 2025, si votre véhicule est trop ancien, il vous est impossible de circuler dans les " zones à faibles émissions " des grandes agglomérations. Et tant pis si vous n'avez pas les moyens de changer de voiture !Mais quand 40 % de la population vit en milieu rural, ce sont plus de 20 millions de Français qui sont bannis des villes. Traités comme des #gueux, on dit NON à cette rupture d'égalité qui nous écrase. Ce hashtag unit les colères des maires et des citoyens méprisés. Jamais la ségrégation sociale n'est allée aussi loin.Et si les #gueux devenaient la voie de la reconnexion ? Une vague non partisane et républicaine, pour une écologie non violente et un retour à l'humanisme.

Erneuerbare Energien

Science & Nature

Dieses Standardwerk stellt die physikalisch-technischen Grundlagen und die Systemtechnik für Anlagen zur Nutzung regenerativer Energien zur Strom- und Wärmebereitstellung dar. Es bietet auch einen umfassenden Überblick über die Charakteristik des regenerativen Energieangebots. Zusätzlich werden Kennzahlen für eine ökonomische und ökologische Bewertung zugänglich gemacht und die Potenziale der regenerativen Energien und deren derzeitige Nutzung in Deutschland umfassend diskutiert. Im Einzelnen sind dies die- passive Solarenergienutzung, - solarthermische Wärmebereitstellung und photovoltaische Stromerzeugung, - Stromerzeugung aus Windenergie und Wasserkraft, - Wärmebereitstellung aus Umgebungsluft und oberflächennaher Erdwärme, - Strom- und Wärmebereitstellung aus der Energie des tiefen Untergrunds.Zusätzlich werden kursorisch die Möglichkeiten einer Nutzung der Meeresenergien und der solarthermischen Stromerzeugung dargestellt. Für die 4. Auflage wurde u. a. die photovoltaische Stromerzeugung vollständig aktualisiert, die passive und aktive Sonnenenergienutzung überarbeitet und der Stand der Nutzung des regenerativen Energieangebots an die jüngsten Entwicklungen angepasst. Neben seiner Eignung für die Lehre bietet das Buch Entscheidungsträgern in Energiewirtschaft, Politik und Verwaltung sowie Wissenschaftlern und Beratern eine fundierte und verlässliche Wissensbasis.

The Moral Landscape

Science & Nature

New York Times bestselling author Sam Harris’s first book, The End of Faith, ignited a worldwide debate about the validity of religion. In the aftermath, Harris discovered that most people—from religious fundamentalists to non-believing scientists—agree on one point: science has nothing to say on the subject of human values. Indeed, our failure to address questions of meaning and morality through science has now become the primary justification for religious faith.In this highly controversial book, Sam Harris seeks to link morality to the rest of human knowledge. Defining morality in terms of human and animal well-being, Harris argues that science can do more than tell how we are; it can, in principle, tell us how we ought to be. In his view, moral relativism is simply false—and comes at an increasing cost to humanity. And the intrusions of religion into the sphere of human values can be finally repelled: for just as there is no such thing as Christian physics or Muslim algebra, there can be no Christian or Muslim morality. Using his expertise in philosophy and neuroscience, along with his experience on the front lines of our “culture wars,” Harris delivers a game-changing book about the future of science and about the real basis of human cooperation.

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