Science & Math
Scientific reasoning, quantitative thinking, and discovery.
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Science & Math Books
Mind Children
The Future of Robot and Human Intelligence
Hans Moravec
"A dizzying display of intellect and wild imaginings by Moravec, a world-class roboticist who has himself developed clever beasts . . . Undeniably, Moravec comes across as a highly knowledgeable and creative talent--which is just what the field needs".--Kirkus Reviews.
The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy
Ernst Cassirer
This provocative volume, one of the most important interpretive works on the philosophical thought of the Renaissance, has long been regarded as a classic in its field. Ernst Cassirer here examines the changes brewing in the early stages of the Renaissance, tracing the interdependence of philosophy, language, art, and science; the newfound recognition of individual consciousness; and the great thinkers of the period—from da Vinci and Galileo to Pico della Mirandola and Giordano Bruno. The Individual and the Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy discusses the importance of fifteenth-century philosopher Nicholas Cusanus, the concepts of freedom and necessity, and the subject-object problem in Renaissance thought. “This fluent translation of a scholarly and penetrating original leaves little impression of an attempt to show that a ‘spirit of the age’ or ‘spiritual essence of the time’ unifies and expresses itself in all aspects of society or culture.”—Philosophy
Environmental Oceanography
Tom Beer
The second edition of Environmental Oceanography is the first textbook to link the needs of the coastal oceanographer and the environmental practitioner. The ever-increasing human impact on the environment, and particularly on the coastal zone, has led governments to carefully examine the environmental implications of development proposals. This book provides the background needed to undertake coastal oceanographic investigations and sets them in context by incorporating case studies and sample problems based on the author's experience as an environmental consultant.
The Universe in a Single Atom
The Convergence of Science and Spirituality
Dalai Lama
Galileo, Copernicus, Newton, Niels Bohr, Einstein. Their insights shook our perception of who we are and where we stand in the world, and in their wake have left an uneasy coexistence: science vs. religion, faith vs. empirical inquiry. Which is the keeper of truth? Which is the true path to understanding reality? After forty years of study with some of the greatest scientific minds, as well as a lifetime of meditative, spiritual, and philosophic study, the Dalai Lama presents a brilliant analysis of why all avenues of inquiry—scientific as well as spiritual—must be pursued in order to arrive at a complete picture of the truth. Through an examination of Darwinism and karma, quantum mechanics and philosophical insight into the nature of reality, neurobiology and the study of consciousness, the Dalai Lama draws significant parallels between contemplative and scientific examinations of reality. This breathtakingly personal examination is a tribute to the Dalai Lama’s teachers—both of science and spirituality. The legacy of this book is a vision of the world in which our different approaches to understanding ourselves, our universe, and one another can be brought together in the service of humanity.
Galaxy Morphology and Classification
Sidney Van den Bergh
A concise and up-to-date guide to the shape of galaxies and how they can be classified, by one of the pioneers of the field.
Gay, Straight, and In-between
The Sexology of Erotic Orientation
John Money
Content warning: John Money is generally regarded negatively by the transgender community and was an advocate for surgical 'normalization' of intersex infants -- Wikipedia, viewed June 4, 2024
How We Became Posthuman
Virtual Bodies in Cybernetics, Literature, and Informatics
N. Katherine Hayles
In this age of DNA computers and artificial intelligence, information is becoming disembodied even as the "bodies" that once carried it vanish into virtuality. While some marvel at these changes, envisioning consciousness downloaded into a computer or humans "beamed" Star Trek-style, others view them with horror, seeing monsters brooding in the machines. In How We Became Posthuman, N. Katherine Hayles separates hype from fact, investigating the fate of embodiment in an information age. Hayles relates three interwoven stories: how information lost its body, that is, how it came to be conceptualized as an entity separate from the material forms that carry it; the cultural and technological construction of the cyborg; and the dismantling of the liberal humanist "subject" in cybernetic discourse, along with the emergence of the "posthuman." Ranging widely across the history of technology, cultural studies, and literary criticism, Hayles shows what had to be erased, forgotten, and elided to conceive of information as a disembodied entity. Thus she moves from the post-World War II Macy Conferences on cybernetics to the 1952 novel Limbo by cybernetics aficionado Bernard Wolfe; from the concept of self-making to Philip K. Dick's literary explorations of hallucination and reality; and from artificial life to postmodern novels exploring the implications of seeing humans as cybernetic systems. Although becoming posthuman can be nightmarish, Hayles shows how it can also be liberating. From the birth of cybernetics to artificial life, How We Became Posthuman provides an indispensable account of how we arrived in our virtual age, and of where we might go from here.
Science and Polity in France
The Revolutionary and Napoleonic Years
Charles Coulston Gillispie
By the end of the eighteenth century, the French dominated the world of science. And although science and politics had little to do with each other directly, there were increasingly frequent intersections. This is a study of those transactions between science and state, knowledge and power--on the eve of the French Revolution. Charles Gillispie explores how the links between science and polity in France were related to governmental reform, modernization of the economy, and professionalization of science and engineering.
Embracing Mind
The Common Ground of Science and Spirituality
B. Alan Wallace, Brian Hodel
Both science and spirituality search for ultimate truths. But the human capacity for exploring these sources of truth--the one thing that unites science and spirituality--is often overlooked. "Embracing Mind" presents a viable science of the mind emanating from contemplative spirituality.
Darwin Among The Machines
The Evolution Of Global Intelligence
George Dyson
In this astonishing prediction of the World Wide Web's ultimate challenge to human civilization--a globally networked, electronic, sentient being--Dyson traces the course of the information revolution, illuminating the lives, work, and ideas of visionaries who foresaw the development of artificial intelligence, artificial life, and the global mind.
Ecological Informatics
Understanding Ecology by Biologically-Inspired Computation
Friedrich Recknagel
Ecological Informatics is defined as the design and application of computational techniques for ecological analysis, synthesis, forecasting and management. The book provides an introduction to the scope, concepts and techniques of this newly emerging discipline. It illustrates numerous applications of Ecological Informatics for stream systems, river systems, freshwater lakes and marine systems as well as image recognition at micro and macro scale. Case studies focus on applications of artificial neural networks, genetic algorithms, fuzzy logic and adaptive agents to current ecological management issues such as toxic algal blooms, eutrophication, habitat degradation, conservation of biodiversity and sustainable fishery.
Reinventing The Future
Conversations With The World's Leading Scientists
Thomas A. Bass
The author of The Eudaemonic Pie now reveals the inspiration, motivations, and aspirations of the world's greatest scientists. The scientists interviewed in this collection have changed the rules of the game--altered our perception of reality and the language used to describe it.
Exploring Agrodiversity
H. C. Brookfield
Presenting Agrodiversity; Diversity within land rotational systems; Paths of transformation; The future of Agrodiversity.
QED Coherence in Matter
Giuliano Preparata
Up until now the dominant view of condensed matter physics has been that of an ?electrostatic MECCANO? (erector set, for Americans). This book is the first systematic attempt to consider the full quantum-electrodynamical interaction (QED), thus greatly enriching the possible dynamical mechanisms that operate in the construction of the wonderful variety of condensed matter systems, including life itself.A new paradigm is emerging, replacing the ?electrostatic MECCANO? with an ?electrodynamic NETWORK,? which builds condensed matter through the long range (as opposed to the ?short range? nature of the usual electrostatic forces) electrodynamical interaction; this interaction creates ?coherent configurations? of the elementary systems (atoms and molecules), which oscillate in phase with a coherent macroscopic (and classical) electromagnetic field that, through the strong interaction with matter, remains trapped inside it.
On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres
Nicolaus Copernicus
The Ptolemaic system of the universe, with the earth at the center, had held sway since antiquity as authoritative in philosophy, science, and church teaching. Following his observations of the heavenly bodies, Nicolaus Copernicus (1473-1543) abandoned the geocentric system for a heliocentric model, with the sun at the center. His remarkable work, On the Revolutions of Heavenly Spheres, stands as one of the greatest intellectual revolutions of all time, and profoundly influenced, among others, Galileo and Sir Isaac Newton.
Atmosphere-ocean Interaction
Eric Bradshaw Kraus, Joost Alois Businger
"On balance, this book is excellent and deserves to be in the personal collection of active scientists." --Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society
Louis Pasteur
Patrice Debré
Distinguished French immunologist and physician Patrice Debré offers an extensive, balanced, and detailed account of Louis Pasteur's life, struggles, and contributions. Drawing heavily on Pasteur's own scientific notebooks and writings, Debré presents a complete critical account of his discoveries and the controversies they raised with other scientists and occasionally with his closest associates.
Harlem Crossroads
Black Writers and the Photograph in the Twentieth Century
Sara Blair
"The Harlem riot of 1935 not only signaled the end of the Harlem Renaissance; it made black America's cultural capital an icon for the challenges of American modernity. Luring photographers interested in socially conscious, journalistic and aesthetic representation, post-Renaissance Harlem helped give rise to America's full-blown image culture and its definitive genre, documentary. Arguing for Harlem as a crossroads between writers and the image, Sara Blair explores its power for canonical writers, whose work was responsive to the changing meanings and uses of photographs. She examines literary engagements with photography from the 1930s to the 1970s and beyond." --Book Jacket.