Best of
Information-Science

2015

The Science of Information: From Language to Black Holes


Benjamin Schumacher - 2015
    Never before in history have we been able to acquire, record, communicate, and use information in so many different forms. Never before have we had access to such vast quantities of data of every kind. This revolution goes far beyond the limitless content that fills our lives, because information also underlies our understanding of ourselves, the natural world, and the universe. It is the key that unites fields as different as linguistics, cryptography, neuroscience, genetics, economics, and quantum mechanics. And the fact that information bears no necessary connection to meaning makes it a profound puzzle that people with a passion for philosophy have pondered for centuries.Table of ContentsLECTURE 1The Transformability of Information 4LECTURE 2Computation and Logic Gates 17LECTURE 3Measuring Information 26LECTURE 4Entropy and the Average Surprise 34LECTURE 5Data Compression and Prefix-Free Codes 44LECTURE 6Encoding Images and Sounds 57LECTURE 7Noise and Channel Capacity 69LECTURE 8Error-Correcting Codes 82LECTURE 9Signals and Bandwidth 94LECTURE 10Cryptography and Key Entropy 110LECTURE 11Cryptanalysis and Unraveling the Enigma 119LECTURE 12Unbreakable Codes and Public Keys 130LECTURE 13What Genetic Information Can Do 140LECTURE 14Life’s Origins and DNA Computing 152LECTURE 15Neural Codes in the Brain 169LECTURE 16Entropy and Microstate Information 185LECTURE 17Erasure Cost and Reversible Computing 198LECTURE 18Horse Races and Stock Markets 213LECTURE 19Turing Machines and Algorithmic Information 226LECTURE 20Uncomputable Functions and Incompleteness 239LECTURE 21Qubits and Quantum Information 253LECTURE 22Quantum Cryptography via Entanglement 266LECTURE 23It from Bit: Physics from Information 281LECTURE 24The Meaning of Information 293

Reviewing the Academic Library: A Guide to Self-Study and External Review


Eleanor Mitchell - 2015
    

Organizing Enlightenment: Information Overload and the Invention of the Modern Research University


Chad Wellmon - 2015
    Today its intellectual authority is being challenged on many fronts, above all by radical technological change. Organizing Enlightenment tells the story of how the university emerged in the early nineteenth century at a similarly fraught moment of cultural anxiety about revolutionary technologies and their disruptive effects on established institutions of knowledge.Drawing on the histories of science, the university, and print, as well as media theory and philosophy, Chad Wellmon explains how the research university and the ethic of disciplinarity it created emerged as the final and most lasting technology of the Enlightenment. Organizing Enlightenment reveals higher education's story as one not only of the production of knowledge but also of the formation of a particular type of person: the disciplinary self. In order to survive, the university would have to institutionalize a new order of knowledge, one that was self-organizing, internally coherent, and embodied in the very character of the modern, critical scholar.

Foundation Mathematics for Computer Science: A Visual Approach


John A. Vince - 2015
    Readers will find that the author's visual approachwill greatly improve their understanding as to why certain mathematical structures exist, together with how they are used in real-world applications. Each chapter includes full-colour illustrations to clarify the mathematical descriptions, and in some cases, equations are also coloured to reveal vital algebraic patterns. The numerous worked examples will consolidate comprehension of abstract mathematical concepts.Foundation Mathematics for Computer Science covers number systems, algebra, logic, trigonometry, coordinate systems, determinants, vectors, matrices, geometric matrix transforms, differential and integral calculus, and reveals the names of the mathematicians behind such inventions. During this journey, John Vince touches upon more esoteric topics such as quaternions, octonions, Grassmann algebra, Barycentric coordinates, transfinite sets and prime numbers. Whether you intend to pursue a career in programming, scientific visualisation, systems design, or real-time computing, you should find the author s literary style refreshingly lucid and engaging, and prepare you for more advanced texts."