Book picks similar to
The Ascent of Jacob Bronowski: The Life and Ideas of a Popular Science Icon by Timothy Sandefur
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health-science-and-nature
intellectual-history-europe
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The Wild Life of the Fox
John Lewis-Stempel - 2020
To love and loathe the fox is a British condition."The fox is our apex predator, our most beautiful and clever killer. We have witnessed its wild touch, watched it slink by bins at night and been chilled by its high-pitched scream. And yet we long to stroke the tumbling cubs outside their tunnel homes and watch the vixen stalk the cornfield.There is something about foxes. They captivate us like no other species.Exploring a long and sometimes complicated relationship, The Wild Life of the Fox captures our love – and sometimes loathing – of this magnificent creature in vivid detail and lyrical prose.
The Electric Life of Michael Faraday
Alan W. Hirshfeld - 2006
He manned the barricades against superstition and pseudoscience, and pressed for a scientifically literate populace years before science had been deemed worthy of common study. A friend of Charles Dickens and an inspiration to Thomas Edison, the deeply religious Faraday sought no financial gain from his discoveries, content to reveal God's presence through the design of nature. Faraday speaks to us today through the prose of his letters and journals. In The Electric Life of Michael Faraday, Alan Hirshfeld presents an intimate and memorable portrait of an icon of science, making Faraday's most significant discoveries about electricity and magnetism readily understandable, and immortalizing his momentous contributions to the modern world.
The Measure of Reality: Quantification in Western Europe, 1250-1600
Alfred W. Crosby - 1988
More people in Western Europe thought quantitatively in the sixteenth century than in any other part of the world, enabling them to become the world's leaders. With amusing detail and historical anecdote, Alfred Crosby discusses the shift from qualitative to quantitative perception that occurred during the late Middle Ages and Renaissance. Alfred W. Crosby is the author of five books, including the award-winning Ecological Imperialism: The Biological Expansion of Europe, 900-1900 (Cambridge, 1986)
The Math of Life and Death: 7 Mathematical Principles That Shape Our Lives
Kit Yates - 2019
But for those of us who left math behind in high school, the numbers and figures hurled at us as we go about our days can sometimes leave us scratching our heads and feeling as if we’re fumbling through a mathematical minefield. In this eye-opening and extraordinarily accessible book, mathematician Kit Yates illuminates hidden principles that can help us understand and navigate the chaotic and often opaque surfaces of our world. In The Math of Life and Death, Yates takes us on a fascinating tour of everyday situations and grand-scale applications of mathematical concepts, including exponential growth and decay, optimization, statistics and probability, and number systems. Along the way he reveals the mathematical undersides of controversies over DNA testing, medical screening results, and historical events such as the Chernobyl disaster and the Amanda Knox trial. Readers will finish this book with an enlightened perspective on the news, the law, medicine, and history, and will be better equipped to make personal decisions and solve problems with math in mind, whether it’s choosing the shortest checkout line at the grocery store or halting the spread of a deadly disease.
The Neanderthals: The History of the Extinct Humans Who Were Contemporaries of Homo Sapiens in Europe
Charles River Editors - 2018
This seems to have been the case even from the first recognition of the Neanderthals as a species. The first Neanderthal fossil discovery was that of a child’s skull in Belgium in 1829, but it was badly damaged. Another would be discovered in 1856 in a limestone mine of the Neanderthal region of what is present-day Germany, and a skull with differing distinct traits (indicating a different species than the Neanderthals) would be discovered just over a decade later in southwestern France. The latter specimen would come to be recognized as an example of the species Homo Sapiens, and these anatomically modern humans arrived in Europe between 45,000 and 43,000 years ago, around the time the Neanderthals are believed to started going extinct. The Neanderthals are a member of the genus Homo just like Homo sapiens and share roughly 99.7% of their DNA with modern humans (Reynolds and Gallagher 2012). Both species even lived briefly during the same time in Eurasia. However, the Neanderthals evolved separately in Europe, away from modern humans, who evolved in Africa. Physically, the Neanderthal skeleton was much more robust, suggesting that there was more room for muscle attachment. However, while Neanderthals were stronger than modern humans, the average height of the Neanderthal male was shorter, standing at only about 5’5 tall. Other physical characteristics that set the Neanderthals apart from modern humans were certain skull traits. The skull in general was low and elongated, featuring a sloping forehead with an occipital bun (a bone projection at the back of the skull), whereas modern humans have a more vertical forehead with no occipital bun. The cranial capacity of the Neanderthal skull was also greater than the modern human at 1,500–1,740 cc, and it lacked a chin and had more circular eye orbits, in contrast to Homo sapiens, which have a chin and tend to feature more rectangular eye orbits (Wolpoff 1999). Despite these differences, the Neanderthals may have been recognizable enough to interact with Homo sapiens or even blend in with Homo sapiens for the thousands of years they lived together in Europe. The Neanderthals lived in Europe and Asia for nearly 200,000 years and thrived in these regions, but they went extinct between 40,000 and 30,000 years ago, around the same time that modern humans began arriving in Europe. This has prompted much speculation as to the nature of the interactions between Neanderthals and Homo sapiens, especially since some researchers believe they interacted with each other for over 5,000 years before the Neanderthals began going extinct at different times across Europe. One hypothesis is that Homo sapiens displaced the Neanderthals and were better suited for the environment, and it is obviously possible if not likely that these two groups had become competitors for food and other resources, with Homo sapiens being more successful in the end. If such close interactions were taking place, there is also a possibility that the relatively new-to-Europe Homo sapiens brought pathogens from Africa with them that were unknown to the Neanderthal’s immune system. A more recent example of this type of resulting interaction is the European expansion into the Americas, which brought diseases like smallpox that the natives of America had never experienced before, especially diseases resulting from the domestication of animals. It is possible that the domestication of the dog by Homo sapiens may have contributed in spreading foreign diseases among the Neanderthals.
The Little Guide To Greater Glory And A Happier Life
Sri M. - 2013
His uniqueness lies not only in the fact that at the young age of 19 and a half, he travelled to snow clad Himalayas from Kerala, and there he met and lived for several years with a ‘real-time’ yogi, Babaji, but also that he should undertake such an unusual and adventurous exploration, given his non-Hindu birth and antecedents.The metamorphosis of Mumtaz Ali Khan into Sri ‘M’, a yogi with profound knowledge of the Upanishads and deep personal insights, born of first hand experiences with higher levels of consciousness is indeed a fascinating story.The bonus for those interested in the secrets of yoga, meditation and sankhyan metaphysics is that Sri ‘M’ is still living and easily reachable. He leads a normal life, married with two children, wears no special robes and conducts himself without pomp or paraphernalia.Someone who met him recently said, “I expected a flashy godman and instead I saw a jean clad gentleman with a smile of his face, ready to discuss my problems. In five minutes flat, I said to myself, this is no ordinary man. The peace and tranquility that enters your system is tangible”.
My Catholic Faith!
My Catholic Life! - 2015
We want to know! We want to know the purpose of our life, why we are here on earth, where we came from, whether there is a God, who this God is, whether there is an afterlife, and so much more! These most basic and fundamental questions are hopefully in the forefront of our minds. And if they are not, it's never too late to start! This book offers some of the answers to these questions. It offers the answers found is our Creed. At first, the Creed can seem dry and unimpressive. It can even seem confusing and overly academic. But when properly understood, the Creed holds the answer to the questions we so deeply seek.
Bringing Up Children
Osho - 2012
Osho responds to a question about the right way to help children to grow without interfering in their natural potentiality.
Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie
Andrew P. Sykes - 2014
and a bike called Reggie. Secondary school teacher Andrew Sykes moves out of the classroom, climbs onto his bicycle and sets off along the route of the EuroVelo 8, from the southern tip of Greece to the Atlantic coast of Portugal.However, this is more than just a cycling tale of border crossings and big hills, as our would-be adventurer perspires his way through a hot and sticky mix of Mediterranean landscapes, life and culture.Join Andrew as he travels Along The Med on a Bike Called Reggie: an inspirational and light-hearted travelogue for cyclists and non-cyclists alike.
The Brain: The Story of You
David Eagleman - 2015
Join renowned neuroscientist David Eagleman for a journey into the questions at the mysterious heart of our existence. What is reality? Who are “you”? How do you make decisions? Why does your brain need other people? How is technology poised to change what it means to be human? In the course of his investigations, Eagleman guides us through the world of extreme sports, criminal justice, facial expressions, genocide, brain surgery, gut feelings, robotics, and the search for immortality. Strap in for a whistle-stop tour into the inner cosmos. In the infinitely dense tangle of billions of brain cells and their trillions of connections, something emerges that you might not have expected to see in there: you.
Black Holes & Time Warps: Einstein's Outrageous Legacy
Kip S. Thorne - 1994
In this masterfully written and brilliantly informed work of scientific history and explanation, Dr. Thorne, the Feynman Professor of Theoretical Physics at Caltech, leads his readers through an elegant, always human, tapestry of interlocking themes, coming finally to a uniquely informed answer to the great question: what principles control our universe and why do physicists think they know the things they think they know? Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time has been one of the greatest best-sellers in publishing history. Anyone who struggled with that book will find here a more slowly paced but equally mind-stretching experience, with the added fascination of a rich historical and human component.
The Reason Revolution: Atheism, Secular Humanism, and the Collapse of Religion
Dan Dana - 2014
It focuses squarely on the inherent irrationality of religion, and reveals its utter irreconcilability with science. Offering several "reconciliation theories" to people of faith, it forces every reader to make a choice.Contents The Reason Revolution in historical context Questioning belief Reasons for skepticism Secular humanism as an alternative worldview Political implications of atheism The collapse of religion Hopeful predictions Reconciliation theories Comments by clergyCall to action
Google Hacking: An Ethical Hacking Guide To Google
Ankit Fadia - 2007
Google Hacking teaches people how to get the most out of this revolutionary search engine. Not only will this book teach readers how Google works, but it will also empower them with the necessary skills to make their everyday searches easier, more efficient, and more productive. Google Hacking also demonstrates how Google can be used for negative means. It's immense searching power, means that everyone, including cyber criminals, can feasibly access confidential data, such as company presentations, budgets, blueprints, even credit card numbers, with just the click of a mouse. Using numerous examples, case studies, and screenshots, this book explains the art of ethical Google Hacking -- it not only teaches readers how Google works, but it provides them with the knowledge they need to protect their data and systems from getting Google Hacked. This is the only book you need to maximize (and protect yourself) from Google searches!
Journey through Genius: The Great Theorems of Mathematics
William Dunham - 1990
Now William Dunham gives them the attention they deserve.Dunham places each theorem within its historical context and explores the very human and often turbulent life of the creator — from Archimedes, the absentminded theoretician whose absorption in his work often precluded eating or bathing, to Gerolamo Cardano, the sixteenth-century mathematician whose accomplishments flourished despite a bizarre array of misadventures, to the paranoid genius of modern times, Georg Cantor. He also provides step-by-step proofs for the theorems, each easily accessible to readers with no more than a knowledge of high school mathematics.A rare combination of the historical, biographical, and mathematical, Journey Through Genius is a fascinating introduction to a neglected field of human creativity.