Solar Energy: The physics and engineering of photovoltaic conversion, technologies and systems


Arno Smets - 2016
    The book is also ideal for university and third-level physics or engineering courses on solar photovoltaics, with exercises to check students' understanding and reinforce learning. It is the perfect companion to the Massive Open Online Course (MOOC) on Solar Energy (DelftX, ET.3034TU) presented by co-author Arno Smets. The course is available in English on the nonprofit open source edX.org platform, and in Arabic on edraak.org. Over 100,000 students have already registered for these MOOCs.

Calculus: The Classic Edition


Earl W. Swokowski - 1991
    Groundbreaking in every way when first published, this book is a simple, straightforward, direct calculus text. It's popularity is directly due to its broad use of applications, the easy-to-understand writing style, and the wealth of examples and exercises which reinforce conceptualization of the subject matter. The author wrote this text with three objectives in mind. The first was to make the book more student-oriented by expanding discussions and providing more examples and figures to help clarify concepts. To further aid students, guidelines for solving problems were added in many sections of the text. The second objective was to stress the usefulness of calculus by means of modern applications of derivatives and integrals. The third objective, to make the text as accurate and error-free as possible, was accomplished by a careful examination of the exposition, combined with a thorough checking of each example and exercise.

The Forsaken Children


Naomi Finley - 2021
    Fifteen-year-old Hazel Winters and her six-year-old brother, William, are placed on a ship by an organization that relocates British orphans and children of poverty to new homes in Canada. Arrivals in the new land are exported to distributing houses, where devastation and heartache greet the youngsters as headmistresses govern their fate.The assurance of a better life across the ocean is far from what Hazel experiences. Through hardships and loneliness, she is determined to survive. Finding refuge in memories of the past, she clings to the dream of returning to her homeland while preserving a reunion in her heart.In 1890, orphaned Charlotte Appleton and her sister Ellie were scooped up from Londonโ€™s streets and sent to new homes across the ocean. Although mere miles kept them apart, Charlotte never knew her sisterโ€™s whereabouts until a chance interaction reunites them. Together the siblings vow to make a difference for the families and home children of an institution in Toronto, Ontario.Can an unexpected guardian give Hazel renewed strength and resolve for a future of promise?Based on the child emigration movement that occurred from 1869 through the late1930s, this poignant tale follows the lives of siblings who were burdensome byproducts of Britain's poverty.

Inferior: How Science Got Women Wrongโ€”and the New Research That's Rewriting the Story


Angela Saini - 2017
    But this is not the whole story.Shedding light on controversial research and investigating the ferocious gender wars in biology, psychology and anthropology, Angela Saini takes readers on an eye-opening journey to uncover how women are being rediscovered. She explores what these revelations mean for us as individuals and as a society, revealing an alternative view of science in which women are included, rather than excluded.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time


Dava Sobel - 1995
    Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.The scientific establishment of Europeโ€”from Galileo to Sir Issac Newtonโ€”had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solutionโ€”a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is a dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clock-making, and opens a new window on our world.On its 10th anniversary, a gift edition of this classic book, with a forward by one of history's greatest explorers, and eight pages of color illustrations.

Counting Sheep: A Celebration of the Pastoral Heritage of Britain


Philip Walling - 2014
    Our fortunes were once founded on sheep, and this book tells a story of wool and money and history, of merchants and farmers and shepherds, of English yeomen and how they got their freedom, and above all, of the soil. Sheep have helped define our culture and topography, impacting on everything from accent and idiom, architecture, roads and waterways, to social progression and wealth. With his eye for the idiosyncratic, Philip meets the native breeds that thrive in this country; he tells stories about each breed, meets their shepherds and owners, learns about their past - and confronts the present realities of sheep farming. Along the way, Philip meets the people of the countryside and their many professions: the mole-catchers, the stick-makers, the tobacco-twisters and clog-wrights. He explores this artisan heritage as he re-discovers the countryside, and finds a lifestyle parallel to modern existence, struggling to remain unchanged - and at its heart, always sheep.

The Shorebird Guide


Michael O'Brien - 2006
    Experienced birders use the most easily observed characteristics โ€” size, structure, behavior, and general color patterns โ€” to identify birds even before looking carefully at plumage details. Now birders at all levels can learn how to identify shorebirds quickly and simply. This guide includes more than 870 stunning color photographs, starting with a general impression of the species and progressing to more detailed images of the bird throughout its life cycle. Quiz questions in the captions will engage and challenge all birders and help them benefit from this simplified, commonsense approach to identification.

Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space


Carl Sagan - 1994
    This stirring book reveals how scientific discovery has altered our perception of who we are and where we stand, and challenges us to weigh what we will do with that knowledge. Photos, many in color.

Other Minds: The Octopus, the Sea, and the Deep Origins of Consciousness


Peter Godfrey-Smith - 2016
    In captivity, octopuses have been known to identify individual human keepers, raid neighboring tanks for food, turn off lightbulbs by spouting jets of water, plug drains, and make daring escapes. How is it that a creature with such gifts evolved through an evolutionary lineage so radically distant from our own? What does it mean that evolution built minds not once but at least twice? The octopus is the closest we will come to meeting an intelligent alien. What can we learn from the encounter?In Other Minds, Peter Godfrey-Smith, a distinguished philosopher of science and a skilled scuba diver, tells a bold new story of how subjective experience crept into beingโ€”how nature became aware of itself. As Godfrey-Smith stresses, it is a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mindโ€™s fitful development, Godfrey-Smith shows how unruly clumps of seaborne cells began living together and became capable of sensing, acting, and signaling. As these primitive organisms became more entangled with others, they grew more complicated. The first nervous systems evolved, probably in ancient relatives of jellyfish; later on, the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous mollusks, abandoned their shells and rose above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so. Taking an independent route, mammals and birds later began their own evolutionary journeys.But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? Drawing on the latest scientific research and his own scuba-diving adventures, Godfrey-Smith probes the many mysteries that surround the lineage. How did the octopus, a solitary creature with little social life, become so smart? What is it like to have eight tentacles that are so packed with neurons that they virtually โ€œthink for themselvesโ€? What happens when some octopuses abandon their hermit-like ways and congregate, as they do in a unique location off the coast of Australia?By tracing the question of inner life back to its roots and comparing human beings with our most remarkable animal relatives, Godfrey-Smith casts crucial new light on the octopus mindโ€”and on our own.

The Perception Trilogy Boxed Set


Lee Strauss - 2013
    He's taken up his deadfather's cause, speaking out and protesting against unfair GAP policies that areresponsible for the massive social divide between wealthy GAPs and poorernaturals.If only he could keep hismind off of perfect Zoe Vanderveen, daughter of the GAP family his mother worksfor.And can he really fillhis father's shoes?PerceptionSeventeen year old ZoeVanderveen is a GAP--a genetically altered person. She lives in the security ofa walled city on prime waterfront property along side other equally beautifulpeople with extended life spans.Her brother Liam ismissing.Noah Brody is a naturalwho lives on the outside. He leads protests against the GAPs and detests thewidening chasm they've created between those who have and those who don't. Hedoesn't like girls like Zoe and he has good reason not to like herspecifically.Zoe's carefree lifetakes a traumatic turn. She's in trouble and it turns out that Noah, the lastguy on earth she should trust, is the only one who can help her.VolitionZoe Vanderveen is on therun with her captor turned rescuer, Noah Brody.They're in love.Or at least that's whathe tells her. Her memories have returned but her feelings are dreamlike--thinand fleeting. Her heart can't be trusted. Just look at what happenedwith Taylor Blake.Senator Vanderveen's newteam of cyborg agents are in hot pursuit, and a reward for their capture isbroadcast nationwide. Record breaking cold and snow hinder their escape. Someonedies helping them.And their fight forsurvival has only begun.ContritionZoe, Noah and the other plane crash survivors are stranded in the Arizona desert.They all have secrets,and reasons to hide.But they're not alone.Cyborg soldiers.War.Humans and humanoids.Who can be trusted?Zoe's life is in danger.Noah must make an impossible choice.Will their love survive their brokenness?Will the world as they know it end before they can find out?

Seeing Further: Ideas, Endeavours, Discoveries and Disputes โ€” The Story of Science Through 350 Years of the Royal Society


Bill BrysonJohn D. Barrow - 2010
    A twenty-eight year old โ€” and not widely famous โ€” Christopher Wren was giving a lecture on astronomy. As his audience listened to him speak, they decided that it would be a good idea to create a Society to promote the accumulation of useful knowledge.With that, the Royal Society was born. Since its birth, the Royal Society has pioneered scientific exploration and discovery. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, John Locke, Alexander Fleming โ€” all were fellows.Bill Brysonโ€™s favourite fellow was Reverend Thomas Bayes, a brilliant mathematician who devised Bayesโ€™ theorem. Its complexity meant that it had little practical use in Bayesโ€™ own lifetime, but today his theorem is used for weather forecasting, astrophysics and stock market analysis. A milestone in mathematical history, it only exists because the Royal Society decided to preserve it โ€” just in case. The Royal Society continues to do today what it set out to do all those years ago. Its members have split the atom, discovered the double helix, the electron, the computer and the World Wide Web. Truly international in its outlook, it has created modern science.Seeing Further celebrates its momentous history and achievements, bringing together the very best of science writing. Filled with illustrations of treasures from the Societyโ€™s archives, this is a unique, ground-breaking and beautiful volume, and a suitable reflection of the immense achievements of science.

Bringing Columbia Home: The Untold Story of a Lost Space Shuttle and Her Crew


Michael D. Leinbach - 2018
    And it would be Mike Leinbach who would be a key leader in the search and recovery effort as NASA, FEMA, the FBI, the US Forest Service, and dozens more federal, state, and local agencies combed an area of rural east Texas the size of Rhode Island for every piece of the shuttle and her crew they could find. Assisted by hundreds of volunteers, it would become the largest ground search operation in US history. For the first time, here is the definitive inside story of the Columbia disaster and recovery and the inspiring message it ultimately holds. In the aftermath of tragedy, people and communities came together to help bring home the remains of the crew and nearly 40 percent of shuttle, an effort that was instrumental in piecing together what happened so the shuttle program could return to flight and complete the International Space Station. Bringing Columbia Home shares the deeply personal stories that emerged as NASA employees looked for lost colleagues and searchers overcame immense physical, logistical, and emotional challenges and worked together to accomplish the impossible. Featuring a foreword and epilogue by astronauts Robert Crippen and Eileen Collins, this is an incredible narrative about best of humanity in the darkest of times and about how a failure at the pinnacle of human achievement became a story of cooperation and hope.

In Pursuit of the Unknown: 17 Equations That Changed the World


Ian Stewart - 2012
    We often overlook the historical link between mathematics and technological advances, says Stewartโ€”but this connection is integral to any complete understanding of human history.Equations are modeled on the patterns we find in the world around us, says Stewart, and it is through equations that we are able to make sense of, and in turn influence, our world. Stewart locates the origins of each equation he presentsโ€”from Pythagoras's Theorem to Newton's Law of Gravity to Einstein's Theory of Relativityโ€”within a particular historical moment, elucidating the development of mathematical and philosophical thought necessary for each equation's discovery. None of these equations emerged in a vacuum, Stewart shows; each drew, in some way, on past equations and the thinking of the day. In turn, all of these equations paved the way for major developments in mathematics, science, philosophy, and technology. Without logarithms (invented in the early 17th century by John Napier and improved by Henry Briggs), scientists would not have been able to calculate the movement of the planets, and mathematicians would not have been able to develop fractal geometry. The Wave Equation is one of the most important equations in physics, and is crucial for engineers studying the vibrations in vehicles and the response of buildings to earthquakes. And the equation at the heart of Information Theory, devised by Claude Shannon, is the basis of digital communication today.An approachable and informative guide to the equations upon which nearly every aspect of scientific and mathematical understanding depends, In Pursuit of the Unknown is also a reminder that equations have profoundly influenced our thinking and continue to make possible many of the advances that we take for granted.

How To: Absurd Scientific Advice for Common Real-World Problems


Randall Munroe - 2019
    How To is a guide to the third kind of approach. It's full of highly impractical advice for everything from landing a plane to digging a hole.Bestselling author and cartoonist Randall Munroe explains how to predict the weather by analyzing the pixels of your Facebook photos. He teaches you how to tell if you're a baby boomer or a 90's kid by measuring the radioactivity of your teeth. He offers tips for taking a selfie with a telescope, crossing a river by boiling it, and powering your house by destroying the fabric of space-time. And if you want to get rid of the book once you're done with it, he walks you through your options for proper disposal, including dissolving it in the ocean, converting it to a vapor, using tectonic plates to subduct it into the Earth's mantle, or launching it into the Sun.By exploring the most complicated ways to do simple tasks, Munroe doesn't just make things difficult for himself and his readers. As he did so brilliantly in What If?, Munroe invites us to explore the most absurd reaches of the possible. Full of clever infographics and amusing illustrations, How To is a delightfully mind-bending way to better understand the science and technology underlying the things we do every day.

The Piano Teacher: The True Story of a Psychotic Killer


Robert K. Tanenbaum - 1989
    For aspiring actress Suzanne Reynolds, her dream ended in a gruesome encounter with eccentric New York artist Charles Yukl. Fooled by his choirboy looks, Reynolds had no idea the man who taught her the piano was a woman-hating recluse who spent his days lost in fantasies of perversion. As a result of the plea bargain for SuzanneAs brutal murder, Yukl soon gained his freedom due to a shocking series of legal errors -- and killed again.A riveting dramatization of two horrific crimes and their aftermath, The Piano Teacher brilliantly portrays a madman set on fulfilling his own sadistic and homicidal dreams...and the flawed justice system that gave him the opportunities to do so.