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The Chip: How Two Americans Invented the Microchip and Launched a Revolution
T.R. Reid - 1984
The world's brightest engineers were stymied in their quest to make these machines small and affordable until the solution finally came from two ingenious young Americans. Jack Kilby and Robert Noyce hit upon the stunning discovery that would make possible the silicon microchip, a work that would ultimately earn Kilby the Nobel Prize for physics in 2000. In this completely revised and updated edition of The Chip, T.R. Reid tells the gripping adventure story of their invention and of its growth into a global information industry. This is the story of how the digital age began.
The Officially Unofficial Files of Dr. Gordon B. Gray
Darcy Fray - 2014
Gordon B. Gray has it all, a Nobel Prize, tenure at Caltech University and looks that make women swoon. Last night he was tossing frozen pumpkins off the library roof and today -- well -- he's saving the world. When twenty-two of Dust, West Virginia's twenty-three inhabitants disappear into thin air, U.S. Army Lieutenant General John Wilkinson resorts to enlisting the brilliant young professor, who quickly finds himself caught in an international tangle of assassins, truth movements, mad physicists and wild conspiracies. With no clear endgame in sight and the world at stake, Gordon embarks on a perilous journey that takes him from the backwoods trailers of Appalachia, to the desolate wilderness of Siberia's enigmatic Tunguska region, where one man's decisions can impact the course of human history. The Officially Unofficial Files of Dr. Gordon B. Gray is a smart adventure thriller brimming with suspense, international intrigue and mind-bending science that will resonate with readers long after they've turned the last page.
Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea
Charles Seife - 2000
For centuries, the power of zero savored of the demonic; once harnessed, it became the most important tool in mathematics. Zero follows this number from its birth as an Eastern philosophical concept to its struggle for acceptance in Europe and its apotheosis as the mystery of the black hole. Today, zero lies at the heart of one of the biggest scientific controversies of all time, the quest for the theory of everything. Elegant, witty, and enlightening, Zero is a compelling look at the strangest number in the universe and one of the greatest paradoxes of human thought.
Rocket Men: The Daring Odyssey of Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon
Robert Kurson - 2018
A riveting account of three heroic astronauts who took one of the most dangerous space flights ever, from the
New York Times
bestselling author of
Shadow Divers.
In early 1968, the Apollo program was on shaky footing. President Kennedy's end-of-decade deadline to put a man on the Moon was in jeopardy, and the Soviets were threatening to pull ahead in the space race. By August 1968, with its back against the wall, NASA decided to scrap its usual methodical approach and shoot for the heavens. With just four months to prepare--a fraction of the normal time--the agency would send the first men in history to the Moon. In a year of historic violence and discord--the Tet offensive, the assassinations of MLK and RFK, the Chicago DNC riots--the Apollo 8 mission was the boldest test of what America could do. With a focus on astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, and their wives and children, this is a vivid, gripping, you-are-there narrative that shows anew the epic danger involved, and the singular bravery it took, for man to leave Earth for the first time--and to arrive at a new world.
Down The Up Escalator: American Lives in the Great (and Too Long) Recession
Barbara Garson - 2011
The Great Recession has thrown huge economic challenges at almost all Americans save the super-affluent few, and we are only now beginning to reckon up the human toll it is taking. Down the Up Escalator is an urgent dispatch from the front lines of our vast collective struggle to keep our heads above water and maybe even—someday—get ahead. Garson has interviewed an economically and geographically wide variety of Americans to show the painful waste in all this loss and insecurity, and describe how individuals are coping. Her broader historical focus, though, is on the causes and consequences of the long stagnation of wages and how it has resulted in an increasingly desperate reliance on credit and a series of ever-larger bubbles—stocks, technology, real estate. This is no way to run an economy, or a democracy. From the members of the Pink Slip Club in New York, to a California home health-care aide on the eve of eviction, to a subprime mortgage broker who still thinks it could have worked, Down the Up Escalator presents a sobering picture of what happens to a society when it becomes economically organized to benefit only the very rich and the quick-buck speculators. But it also demonstrates the wit and resilience of ordinary Americans—and why they deserve so much better than the hand they’ve been dealt.From the Hardcover edition.
A History of the Universe in 100 Stars
Florian Freistetter - 2021
Some are bright and famous, some shine so feebly you need a huge telescope. There are big stars, small stars, nearby stars and faraway stars. Some died a while ago, others have not even yet come into being. Collectively they tell the story of the whole world, according to Freistetter. There is Algol, for example, the Demon Star, whose strange behaviour has long caused people sleepless nights. And Gamma Draconis, from which we know that the earth rotates around its own axis. There is also the star sequence 61 Cygni, which revealed the size of the cosmos to us.Then there are certain stars used by astronomers to search for extra-terrestrial life, to explore interstellar space travel, or to explain why the dinosaurs became extinct.In 100 short, fascinating and entertaining chapters, Freistetter not only reveals the past and future of the cosmos, but also the story of the people who have tried to understand the world in which we live.
Smart Machines: IBM's Watson and the Era of Cognitive Computing
John E. Kelly III - 2013
The victory of IBM's Watson on the television quiz show Jeopardy! revealed how scientists and engineers at IBM and elsewhere are pushing the boundaries of science and technology to create machines that sense, learn, reason, and interact with people in new ways to provide insight and advice.In Smart Machines, John E. Kelly III, director of IBM Research, and Steve Hamm, a writer at IBM and a former business and technology journalist, introduce the fascinating world of "cognitive systems" to general audiences and provide a window into the future of computing. Cognitive systems promise to penetrate complexity and assist people and organizations in better decision making. They can help doctors evaluate and treat patients, augment the ways we see, anticipate major weather events, and contribute to smarter urban planning. Kelly and Hamm's comprehensive perspective describes this technology inside and out and explains how it will help us conquer the harnessing and understanding of "big data," one of the major computing challenges facing businesses and governments in the coming decades. Absorbing and impassioned, their book will inspire governments, academics, and the global tech industry to work together to power this exciting wave in innovation.
The Travis Club
Mark Louis Rybczyk - 2013
His books receive little notice until he unearths a 100 year old mystery that the powerful had hoped would never have been uncovered. How far will the city's power brokers go to silence Taylor and his band of friend known as The Travis Club? Intrigue and romance bring this mystery alive in a one of a kind city, San Antonio.
A Fierce Radiance
Lauren Belfer - 2010
Set during the uncertain early days of World War II, this suspenseful story from the New York Times bestselling author of City of Light follows the work of photojournalist Claire Shipley as she captures America’s race to develop life-saving antibiotics—an assignment that will involve blackmail, espionage, and murder.
The Mothership
Stephen Renneberg - 2013
Is it a forced landing, or the beginning of an invasion - a technological treasure trove, or an extraterrestrial pandora’s box that spells disaster for life on Earth?Infiltrating the vast tropical wilderness of northern Australia, Beckman’s team encounter strange machines, alien structures and a handful of human survivors struggling to evade capture. When Beckman’s team penetrates to the heart of the Mothership, they discover an answer they never expected and a universe far larger than they had ever imagined.
Lethal Lawyers
Dale E. Manolakas - 2014
With blue-collar idealism and onerous student loans, first-year associate Sophia Christopoulos covets the firm’s money and power. But her new friendships, love, and success come with the devastating price of disillusionment, murder, and betrayal. When Sophia is hurled into a murder investigation, she is torn between ethics and firm politics, as well as love and truth. Fighting to save her career and life, she becomes the star witness—and then a target. [No courtroom trial]☆ THE GUN TRIAL & THE RUSSIAN Second & Third in Series ☆ REVIEWS: “Warning – don’t start reading until you have time!” “Where John Grisham offers one-dimensional cardboard replicas, Author Dale E. Manolakas delivers with fully-realized characters who explode off the page. Visceral. Sensual. Alive.” “Keeps the reader guessing until the end.” “Wow! Powerful look into the law business!” ❦ Go to Amazon Author's Page for more books [Kindle Unlimited]. ❦ Visit Author's Official Website for more books, free book offers, portals to sale channels, and a sign up [No Spam]. ❦Author's YouTube Channel with book trailers and other offers.
Ctrl+Shift+Enter Mastering Excel Array Formulas: Do the Impossible with Excel Formulas Thanks to Array Formula Magic
Mike Girvin - 2013
Beginning with an introduction to array formulas, this manual examines topics such as how they differ from ordinary formulas, the benefits and drawbacks of their use, functions that can and cannot handle array calculations, and array constants and functions. Among the practical applications surveyed include how to extract data from tables and unique lists, how to get results that match any criteria, and how to utilize various methods for unique counts. This book contains 529 screen shots.
The New Colossus
Marshall Goldberg - 2014
Corruption. Murder. New York in 1880 is a hell of a place to make your living.Nellie Bly arrives at age 24 in Manhattan, lacking connections and money, but blessed with an abundance of courage and a skill for reportage. Within ten months she lands two front-page stories on the country’s most widely-read newspaper, Joseph Pulitzer’s New York World. The pugnacious and voluble Pulitzer is so impressed that he assigns her to get to the bottom of a murder that has confounded the police—the untimely death of his friend Emma Lazarus, the controversial poet and activist. Her investigation leads to tense encounters with some of the most powerful and ruthless men of the time, in an era where elected officials are bought and sold, and where greed runs rampant on an unregulated Wall Street. Outgunned and ignoring her contemptuous all-male colleagues, Bly has only two real allies: a doctor who uses scientific techniques to establish criminal behavior, and a theater critic with unlimited access to underground New York. As the pieces fall into place Bly uncovers layer after layer of corruption, getting closer to a dangerous core—and to the truth.
The 34-Ton Bat: The Story of Baseball as Told Through Bobbleheads, Cracker Jacks, Jockstraps, Eye Black, and 375 Other Strange and Unforgettable Objects
Steve Rushin - 2013
No sport embraces its wild history quite like baseball, especially in memorabilia and objects. Sure, there are baseball cards and team pennants. But there are also huge balls, giant bats, peanuts, cracker jacks, eyeblack, and more, each with a backstory you have to read to believe. In The 34-Ton Bat, Sports Illustrated writer Steve Rushin tells the real, unvarnished story of baseball through the lens of all the things that make it the game that it is. Rushin weaves these rich stories -- from ballpark pipe organs played by malevolent organists to backed up toilets at Ebbets Field -- together in their order of importance (from most to least) for an entertaining and compulsive read, glowing with a deep passion for America's Pastime. The perfect holiday gift for casual fans and serious collectors alike, The 34-Ton Bat is a true heavy hitter.
22 Days in May: The Birth of the Lib Dem-Conservative Coalition
David Laws - 2010
This is the first detailed Lib Dem insider account of the negotiations which led to the formation of the Liberal Democrats/Conservative coalition government in May 2010, along with an account of the early days of the government.