Science & Nature - Books

Science Education Research and Practice in Asia-Pacific and Beyond

Science & Nature

This book is based on presentations at the International Science Education Conference (ISEC) 2014. It showcases a selection of the best papers by researchers and science teachers from the Asia-Pacific region, North America and the United Kingdom. Centered on the theme of “Pushing the boundaries – Investing in our future”, they pursue new ways of helping learners appreciate the diversity and changes in science that result from a globalised world facing complex and diverse environmental and technological issues. The chapters touch on various themes in science education that explore and investigate issues of scientific literacy, societal challenges and affect, and teacher professional development. Its comprehensive themes make it a valuable textbook for graduate students of master’s and Ph.D. programs. It also appeals to pre-service and in-service teachers as a resource on innovative pedagogical practices and creative methods of professional development. With a selection that emphasises the research-practice nexus in education research, it serves as an introductory handbook for teachers to connect with the current issues facing science education.

Professional Development for Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Learning

Science & Nature

This book examines the implementation of inquiry-based approaches in science teaching and learning. It explores the ways that those approaches could be promoted across various contexts in Europe through initial teacher preparation, induction programmes and professional development activities. It illustrates connections between scientific knowledge deriving from the science education research community, teaching practices deriving from the science teachers’ community, and educational innovation. Inquiry-Based Science Teaching and Learning (IBST/L) has been promoted as a policy response to pressing educational challenges, including disengagement from science learning and the need for citizens to be in a position to evaluate evidence on pressing socio-scientific issues. Effective IBST/L requires well-prepared and skilful teachers, who can act as facilitators of student learning and who are able to adapt inquiry-based activity sequences to their everyday teaching practice. Teachers also need to engage creatively with the process of nurturing student abilities and to acquire new assessment competences. The task of preparing teachers for IBST/L is a challenging one. This book is a resource for the implementation of inquiry-oriented approaches in science education and illustrates ways of promoting IBST/L through initial teacher preparation, induction and professional development programmes.

Damage and Fracture Mechanics

Science & Nature

The proceedings of the AIQ-ICF conference is a collection of papers on recent advances in methods and approaches to Damage Control and Fracture Mechanics.Written by leading international experts in the area, this book presents new ideas in the field at the highest level and will promote technology transfer and be a key reference for researchers in industry and academia. Subjects cover the broad field of materials properties and performance, including computational approaches to engineering and modelling, materials for energy applications, nanomaterials, biomaterials/biomechanics, pipeline materials, stress corrosion cracking and hydrogen embrittlement, design and construction in joininglwelds, high strength steel (XI00 and higher), fracture mechanics, structural reliability, failure analysis, fatigue, environmentally assisted cracking, fracture dynamics, polymers and composites, and reinforced concrete.

Bottled Lightning

Science & Nature

Lithium batteries may hold the key to an environmentally sustainable, oil-independent future. From electric cars to a "smart" power grid that can actually store electricity, letting us harness the powers of the sun and the wind and use them when we need them, lithium—a metal half as dense as water, found primarily in some of the most uninhabitable places on earth—has the potential to set us on a path toward a low-carbon energy economy. In Bottled Lightning, the science reporter Seth Fletcher takes us on a fascinating journey, from the salt flats of Bolivia to the labs of MIT and Stanford, from the turmoil at GM to cutting-edge lithium-ion battery start-ups, introducing us to the key players and ideas in an industry with the power to reshape the world. Lithium is the thread that ties together many key stories of our time: the environmental movement; the American auto industry, staking its revival on the electrification of cars and trucks; the struggle between first-world countries in need of natural resources and the impoverished countries where those resources are found; and the overwhelming popularity of the portable, Internet-connected gadgets that are changing the way we communicate. With nearly limitless possibilities, the promise of lithium offers new hope to a foundering American economy desperately searching for a green-tech boom to revive it.

Alezanes au galop

Science & Nature

Avoir un cheval à soi, pour en user non comme d'un objet qu'on ne ménage guère, mais comme d'une créature pleine de force, de dignité, de grâce et de courage, n'est-ce pas l'espoir secret de tout cavalier ? Encore faut-il mériter cette joie qui s'accompagne de l'ascèse propre à l'équitation véritable. Encore faut-il se rendre digne de la confiance de son cheval. Belle école de maîtrise de soi, de mesure, en un mot d'équilibre physique et psychique. Mais alors, s'opère un échange subtil et comblant, entre cheval et cavalier. Cela peut aller jusqu'à l'amour le plus passionné. Telle est l'histoire ici contée d'une rencontre entre cette cavalière assez médiocre qu'est Simonne Jacquemard, possédée par un désir de communication profonde avec tout animal, et une petite jument alezane, fantasque, fougueuse, extrêmement sensible, qui avait pâti dans un Club Hippique et qui, sans le savoir, était destinée de tous temps à la vie large, et presque sauvage, de ce domaine où Simonne Jacquemard accorde son existence avec celle des bêtes des bois.

The Hidden Half

Science & Nature

Why does one smoker die of lung cancer but another live to 100? The answer is "The Hidden Half"—those random, unknowable variables that mess up our attempts to comprehend the world. We humans are very clever creatures—but we're idiots about how clever we really are. This entertaining and ingenious book reveals how in our quest to make the world more understandable, we lose sight of how unexplainable it often is. The result, from GDP figures to medicine, is that experts know a lot less than they think. Filled with compelling stories from economics, genetics, business, and science, The Hidden Half is a warning that an explanation which works in one arena may not work in another. Entertaining and provocative, it will change how you view the world.

Como o mundo funciona

Science & Nature

Cientista renomado faz análise fundamental sobre o que a ciência e a tecnologia modernas — que tornam possível a vida no século XXI — são ou não capazes de fazer.Nunca tivemos tanta informação na palma da mão, e, ainda assim, a maioria de nós não faz ideia de como as coisas realmente funcionam. Este livro explica sete das realidades fundamentais para nossa sobrevivência e prosperidade. Da produção de energia à de alimentos, passando pelo mundo material e sua globalização, até os riscos que enfrentam o meio ambiente e seu futuro, Como o mundo funciona é um necessário choque de realidade — porque, para que possamos lidar bem com nossos problemas, precisamos estar cientes dos fatos.Neste livro ambicioso e provocante, vemos, por exemplo, que a globalização não é inevitável — em 2020, ficou evidente que era uma ingenuidade permitir que 70% das luvas de borracha do mundo inteiro viessem de uma única fábrica — e que nossas sociedades têm sido cada vez mais dependentes de combustíveis fósseis, a ponto de qualquer promessa de descarbonização até 2050 não passar de um conto de fadas. Por exemplo, cada tomate cultivado em estufa e comprado em supermercado tem o equivalente a cinco colheres de diesel embutidas em sua produção, e ainda não conseguimos fabricar aço, cimento ou plástico em escala sem grandes emissões de carbono.Com base nos mais recentes dados científicos, Smil responde à pergunta mais profunda de nossa época: estamos condenados ou há luz no fim do túnel? Este guia interdisciplinar aponta as falhas nessas duas teorias e, dotado de um olhar quantitativo para o mundo, revela as verdades ocultas que mudam nosso jeito de enxergar o passado, o presente e o futuro incerto.“Um livro acessível que nos oferece as bases necessárias para lidarmos com nossos desafios mais complexos.” — Bill Gates

L'invisibile

Science & Nature

«Verso il 1680 lo scrittore inglese John Aubrey mise per iscritto un incantesimo di invisibilità che sembra tirato fuori da una fiaba, e per giunta una particolarmente macabra. Un mercoledí mattina, prima del sorgere del sole, bisogna sotterrare la testa recisa di un suicida insieme a sette fagioli neri. Dopo aver annaffiato i fagioli per sette giorni con un buon brandy, apparirà uno spirito che baderà a essi e alla testa sepolta. Il giorno successivo i fagioli germoglieranno e bisognerà convincere una bambina a coglierli e a toglierli dai baccelli. Uno di questi fagioli, messo in bocca, renderà invisibili. Aubrey racconta che due mercanti ebrei di Londra, non riuscendo a procurarsi la testa di un suicida, ci provarono con quella di un povero gatto ucciso ritualmente. La sotterrarono insieme ai fagioli nel giardino di un tal Wyld Clark, col suo permesso. Il modo in cui Aubrey assapora senza commento il finale quasi comico ci fa pensare che fin dall'inizio fosse scettico sull'esito, perché ci spiega che il gallo di Clark disseppellí i fagioli e li mangiò senza conseguenze. Nonostante il rischio di questi contrattempi prosaici, i testi magici dal Medioevo fino all'inizio dell'Illuminismo danno mostra di una gran sicurezza di sé, per quanto bizzarre possano essere le loro ricette. Certo che la magia funzionerà, se saremo arditi a sufficienza da correre il rischio. Non era solo una trovata «pubblicitaria»: all'epoca c'era una fiducia universale nell'efficacia della magia. Il popolino la temeva e la bramava, il clero la condannava, gli intellettuali e i filosofi, come anche numerosi ciarlatani e truffatori, davano a intendere di conoscerla. È tra queste ricette fantasiose che inizia la ricerca delle origini dell'invisibilità, sia come possibilità teorica che come tecnologia concreta nel mondo reale. Rendere qualcosa invisibile era un tipo di magia, ma che cosa significava di preciso?»

Top-Down Causation and Emergence

Science & Nature

This book presents the latest research, conducted by leading philosophers and scientists from various fields, on the topic of top-down causation. The chapters combine to form a unique, interdisciplinary perspective, drawing upon George Ellis's extensive research and novel perspectives on topics including downwards causation, weak and strong emergence, mental causation, biological relativity, effective field theory and levels in nature. The collection also serves as a Festschrift in honour of George Ellis' 80th birthday. The extensive and interdisciplinary scope of this book makes it vital reading for anyone interested in the work of George Ellis and current research on the topics of causation and emergence.

Houston, We Have a Narrative

Science & Nature

Communicate more effectively about science—by taking a page from Hollywood and improving your storytelling skills.Ask a scientist about Hollywood, and you’ll probably get eye rolls. But ask someone in Hollywood about science, and they’ll see dollar signs: Moviemakers know that science can be the source of great stories, with all the drama and action that blockbusters require.That’s a huge mistake, says Randy Olson: Hollywood has a lot to teach scientists about how to tell a story—and, ultimately, how to do science better. With Houston, We Have a Narrative, he lays out a stunningly simple method for turning the dull into the dramatic. Drawing on his unique background, which saw him leave his job as a working scientist to launch a career as a filmmaker, Olson first diagnoses the problem: When scientists tell us about their work, they pile one moment and one detail atop another moment and another detail—a stultifying procession of “and, and, and.” What we need instead is an understanding of the basic elements of story, the narrative structures that our brains are all but hardwired to look for—which Olson boils down, brilliantly, to “And, But, Therefore,” or ABT. At a stroke, the ABT approach introduces momentum (“And”), conflict (“But”), and resolution (“Therefore”)—the fundamental building blocks of story. As Olson has shown by leading countless workshops worldwide, when scientists’ eyes are opened to ABT, the effect is staggering: suddenly, they’re not just talking about their work—they’re telling stories about it. And audiences are captivated.Written with an uncommon verve and enthusiasm, and built on principles that are applicable to fields far beyond science, Houston, We Have a Narrative has the power to transform the way science is understood and appreciated, and ultimately how it’s done.

Deep Survival: Who Lives, Who Dies, and Why

Science & Nature

"Unique among survival books…stunning…enthralling. Deep Survival makes compelling, and chilling, reading." —Denver PostLaurence Gonzales’s bestselling Deep Survival has helped save lives from the deepest wildernesses, just as it has improved readers’ everyday lives. Its mix of adventure narrative, survival science, and practical advice has inspired everyone from business leaders to military officers, educators, and psychiatric professionals on how to take control of stress, learn to assess risk, and make better decisions under pressure.

Think like. Pensa da scienziato

Science & Nature

Cosa accomuna biologia, cosmologia, geologia, chimica, fisica...? Partendo dalla domanda "A cosa serve la scienza?" Questo libro tratta di evoluzione, conquista dello spazio (andremo su Marte?), possibilità reale di riportare in vita animali estinti a partire dal DNA, ma anche di disastri ambientali e di intelligenza artificiale. Di cose incredibili e di cose indispensabili da sapere. Scoprire la vastità e la profondità del sapere scientifico, in tante diverse e affascinanti declinazioni, serve a capire come la scienza sia alla base di tutta la tecnologia e influenzi la visione stessa che abbiamo del mondo. Perché conoscenza è libertà.

Liberty's Grid

Science & Nature

The surprising history behind a ubiquitous facet of the United States: the gridded landscape.Seen from an airplane, much of the United States appears to be a gridded land of startling uniformity. Perpendicular streets and rectangular fields, all precisely measured and perfectly aligned, turn both urban and rural America into a checkerboard landscape that stretches from horizon to horizon. In evidence throughout the country, but especially the West, the pattern is a hallmark of American life. One might consider it an administrative convenience—an easy way to divide land and lay down streets—but it is not. The colossal grid carved into the North American continent, argues historian and writer Amir Alexander, is a plan redolent with philosophical and political meaning.In 1784 Thomas Jefferson presented Congress with an audacious scheme to reshape the territory of the young United States. All western lands, he proposed, would be inscribed with a single rectilinear grid, transforming the natural landscape into a mathematical one. Following Isaac Newton and John Locke, he viewed mathematical space as a blank slate on which anything is possible and where new Americans, acting freely, could find liberty. And if the real America, with its diverse landscapes and rich human history, did not match his vision, then it must be made to match it.From the halls of Congress to the open prairies, and from the fight against George III to the Trail of Tears, Liberty’s Grid tells the story of the battle between grid makers and their opponents. When Congress endorsed Jefferson’s plan, it set off a struggle over American space that has not subsided. Transcendentalists, urban reformers, and conservationists saw the grid not as a place of possibility but as an artificial imposition that crushed the human spirit. Today, the ideas Jefferson associated with the grid still echo through political rhetoric about the country’s founding, and competing visions for the nation are visible from Manhattan avenues and Kansan pastures to Yosemite’s cliffs and suburbia’s cul-de-sacs. An engrossing read, Liberty’s Grid offers a powerful look at the ideological conflict written on the landscape.

We Are Our Brains

Science & Nature

A vivid account of what makes us human. Based groundbreaking new research, We Are Our Brains is a sweeping biography of the human brain, from infancy to adulthood to old age. Renowned neuroscientist D. F. Swaab takes us on a guided tour of the intricate inner workings that determine our potential, our limitations, and our desires, with each chapter serving as an eye-opening window on a different stage of brain development: the gender differences that develop in the embryonic brain, what goes on in the heads of adolescents, how parenthood permanently changes the brain. Moving beyond pure biological understanding, Swaab presents a controversial and multilayered ethical argument surrounding the brain. Far from possessing true free will, Swaab argues, we have very little control over our everyday decisions, or who we will become, because our brains predetermine everything about us, long before we are born, from our moral character to our religious leanings to whom we fall in love with. And he challenges many of our prevailing assumptions about what makes us human, decoding the intricate “moral networks” that allow us to experience emotion, revealing maternal instinct to be the result of hormonal changes in the pregnant brain, and exploring the way that religious “imprinting” shapes the brain during childhood. Rife with memorable case studies, We Are Our Brains is already a bestselling international phenomenon. It aims to demystify the chemical and genetic workings of our most mysterious organ, in the process helping us to see who we are through an entirely new lens. Did you know? • The father’s brain is affected in pregnancy as well as the mother’s. • The withdrawal symptoms we experience at the end of a love affair mirror chemical addiction. • Growing up bilingual reduces the likelihood of Alzheimer’s. • Parental religion is imprinted on our brains during early development, much as our native language is.Praise for We Are Our Brains “Swaab’s ‘neurobiography’ is witty, opinionated, passionate, and, above all, cerebral.”—Booklist (starred review) “A fascinating survey . . . Swaab employs both personal and scientific observation in near-equal measure.”—Publishers Weekly (starred review) “A cogent, provocative account of how twenty-first-century ‘neuroculture’ has the potential to effect profound medical and social change.”—Kirkus Reviews

Geneza

Science & Nature

„Einstein se întâlnește cu Ovidiu în lucrarea fascinantă a lui Tonelli despre nașterea universului și evoluția lui." – Booklist„Împletind informațiile științifice cu un stil cuceritor, Tonelli abordează subiecte complexe, precum supersimetria, materia întunecată, nașterea stelelor și a planetelor." - Kirkus Reviews„Un demers științific impresionant." - Corriere della SerraDe la Haosul lui Hesiod, descris în Teogonia, până la teoriile uluitoare de azi ale ultiversului, oamenii au căutat fără încetare răspunsul la o întrebare tulburătoare: Ce s-a întâmplat de fapt în acele momente primordiale?Celebrul fizician Guido Tonelli ne dezvăluie povestea extraordinară a genezei noastre — de la originea universului la apariția vieții pe Pământ și la nașterea limbajului uman — cu uimitoarea sa putere de a descrie lumea. Evocând cele șapte zile ale creației biblice, Tonelli ne poartă într-o călătorie fascinantă prin evoluția cosmosului și analizează provocările incredibile cu care se confruntă oamenii de știință în încercarea de a explora misterele acestuia.Geneza explică legile fundamentale ale fizicii ce guvernează universul nostru, fiind totodată un omagiu adus miracolului vieții.„Geneza este plină de limbajul și lecțiile mitului, ale cărui semnificații abia acum începem să le înțelegem. Într-un fel, la asta servește știința: să demonstreze că poveștile sunt adevărate." – Wired„Perspectiva domnului Tonelli asupra poveștii creației: un rezumat științific a 13,8 miliarde de ani de istorie cosmică. Autorul împarte cele șapte «zile» în trepte de timp foarte inegale, de la Big Bang până la apariția planetelor capabile să susțină viața ." - The Wall Street Journal„Lirismul Genezei lui Tonelli va aprinde cu siguranță imaginația cititorilor." - Publishers Weekly

El placer de descubrir

Science & Nature

El placer de descubrir permite acceder al mundo personal, social y científico de Richard Feynman, por ejemplo, a sus aventuras mientras participó en el Proyecto Manhattan, cuando se divertía —y escandalizaba— descifrando las claves de cajas fuertes, o a cómo se inició, siendo un niño, en el estudio de la naturaleza (en el «placer de descubrir»), que terminaría ocupando toda su vida. Podemos, asimismo, conocer sus pioneras ideas sobre las computadoras del futuro, su opinión acerca del valor de la ciencia o la explicación, tan sencilla como profunda, que dio al desastre de la lanzadera espacial Challenger. Es este, sin duda, un libro tan fascinante como su autor.

While Glaciers Slept

Science & Nature

While Glaciers Slept weaves together the parallel stories of what happens when the climates of a family and a planet change. M Jackson, a noted scientist and National Geographic Expert, reveals how these events are deeply intertwined, and how the deterioration of her parents' health was as devastating as the inexorable changing of Earth's climate. Jackson poses a stark question: if losing one's parents is so devastating, how can we survive the destruction of the planet that sustains us? Jackson draws both literal and metaphorical parallels between the degradation of the climate and her parents' struggles with cancer. Nonetheless, Jackson shows that even in the darkest of times we cannot lose hope.Jackson guides us to solar, wind, and geothermal solutions, bringing us along on her expeditions to research climate change and to educate people about how to stop it. Scientists are continually looking for better ways to translate hard science into human language and that is precisely what this book does. While Glaciers Slept shows us that the story of one family can be the story of one planet, and that climate change has a human face. Climate change, she convinces us, is not just about science—it is also about the audacity of human courage and imagination.

The Water Will Come

Science & Nature

What if Atlantis wasn't a myth, but an early precursor to a new age of great flooding? Across the globe, scientists and civilians alike are noticing rapidly rising sea levels, and higher and higher tides pushing more water directly into the places we live, from our most vibrant, historic cities to our last remaining traditional coastal villages. With each crack in the great ice sheets of the Arctic and Antarctica, and each tick upwards of Earth's thermometer, we are moving closer to the brink of broad disaster. By century's end, hundreds of millions of people will be retreating from the world's shores as our coasts become inundated and our landscapes transformed. From island nations to the world's major cities, coastal regions will disappear. Engineering projects to hold back the water are bold and may buy some time. Yet despite international efforts and tireless research, there is no permanent solution-no barriers to erect or walls to build-that will protect us in the end from the drowning of the world as we know it. The Water Will Come is the definitive account of the coming water, why and how this will happen, and what it will all mean. As he travels across twelve countries and reports from the front lines, acclaimed journalist Jeff Goodell employs fact, science, and first-person, on-the-ground journalism to show vivid scenes from what already is becoming a water world. "An immersive, mildly gonzo and depressingly well-timed book about the drenching effects of global warming, and a powerful reminder that we can bury our heads in the sand about climate change for only so long before the sand itself disappears." (Jennifer Senior, New York Times)

Complex Ophthalmic Dosage Forms: Advances in Biomedical Applications and Future Perspectives

Science & Nature

This book, Complex Ophthalmic Dosage Forms: Advances in Biomedical Applications and Future Perspectives, offers a detailed overview of the latest innovations in ophthalmic drug delivery. Beginning with the fundamentals of ocular drug delivery systems and the anatomy of the eye, this book provides an exploration of drug delivery to both the anterior and posterior segments. A dedicated chapter on the fixed-dose combination approach examines its application in ocular diseases, highlighting both its therapeutic potential and associated challenges. Furthermore, the book delves into key aspects of ophthalmic product development, including reverse engineering, the role of preservatives, and the application of Quality by Design (QbD) principles. It includes discussions on the safety of nanoformulations, as well as an in-depth analysis of emerging nano-assisted platforms in ocular drug delivery, highlighting both opportunities and safety concerns. Recognizing the importance of packaging a dedicated chapter explores the critical role of sterility in ocular products, detailing sterility validation processes to ensure product safety and efficacy. This is followed by a thorough discussion on packaging, including the selection of appropriate containers and closure systems. Given that an optimized packaging system is essential for maintaining the stability, sterility, and overall quality of ophthalmic products, this section highlights key considerations in designing effective packaging solutions. Additionally, the book delves into regulatory considerations, challenges in clinical translation, and potential future developments that may redefine ophthalmic therapeutics.></p>

Les transports en Europe

Science & Nature

L’Europe, dans ses limites « classiques », occupe 10 millions de km2, ce qui est un atout en termes de transports. Après un rappel purement géographique de ses caractéristiques,Jules-Marie Priou dresse l’état des lieux des moyens de la parcourir depuis 3 millénaires.

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