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Entropy Demystified: The Second Law Reduced To Plain Common Sense
Arieh Ben-Naim - 2007
The author paves the way for readers to discover for themselves what entropy is, how it changes, and most importantly, why it always changes in one direction in a spontaneous process.
Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind
Yuval Noah Harari - 2011
Today there is just one. Us. Homo sapiens. How did our species succeed in the battle for dominance? Why did our foraging ancestors come together to create cities and kingdoms? How did we come to believe in gods, nations and human rights; to trust money, books and laws; and to be enslaved by bureaucracy, timetables and consumerism? And what will our world be like in the millennia to come? In Sapiens, Dr Yuval Noah Harari spans the whole of human history, from the very first humans to walk the earth to the radical – and sometimes devastating – breakthroughs of the Cognitive, Agricultural and Scientific Revolutions. Drawing on insights from biology, anthropology, paleontology and economics, he explores how the currents of history have shaped our human societies, the animals and plants around us, and even our personalities. Have we become happier as history has unfolded? Can we ever free our behaviour from the heritage of our ancestors? And what, if anything, can we do to influence the course of the centuries to come? Bold, wide-ranging and provocative, Sapiens challenges everything we thought we knew about being human: our thoughts, our actions, our power ... and our future.
How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch: In Search of the Recipe for Our Universe
Harry Cliff - 2021
He ventures to the largest underground research facility in the world, deep beneath Italy's Gran Sasso mountains, where scientists gaze into the heart of the Sun using the most elusive of particles, the ghostly neutrino. He visits CERN in Switzerland to explore the Antimatter Factory, where the stuff of science fiction is manufactured daily (and we're close to knowing whether it falls up). And he reveals what the latest data from the Large Hadron Collider may be telling us about the fundamental nature of matter.Along the way, Cliff illuminates the history of physics, chemistry, and astronomy that brought us to our present understanding--and misunderstandings--of the world, while offering readers a front-row seat to one of the most dramatic intellectual journeys human beings have ever embarked on.A transfixing deep dive into origins of our world, How to Make an Apple Pie from Scratch examines not just the makeup of our universe, but the awe-inspiring, improbable fact that it exists at all.
Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams
Kevin L. Michel - 2013
This is most blatantly revealed in the mind shattering 'double-slit' experiment and is at the core of what is called 'the measurement problem,' in quantum physics. The results are startling, but this is what the science is clearly showing. It is human awareness that causes matter to fix into a single position, and reveal a single reality. The science is showing that at every moment we become aware of our reality, the universe splits into unseen parallel dimensions and we become trapped in just one of these many parallel realities. This is all powerful stuff but what does this mean for our lives? What if you could learn how to access these parallel worlds that are being created? What if you could do what many billionaires and great minds in history have done but have only hinted at. What if you could move through parallel realities in order to achieve unfathomable greatness. Abraham Lincoln, Albert Einstein, Michelangelo, Nikola Tesla, Isaac Newton, John D. Rockefeller and many others all used this quantum mind power that is now available to you. This is one of the most powerful books you shall ever read. With research from quantum physics, psychology, biology and behavioral epigenetics, as well as many great spiritual teachings, 'Moving Through Parallel Worlds' will guide you on a path to achieving your grandest ambitions. The title, 'Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams,' is literal - based on the 'Many Worlds Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics,' and it is also a metaphor suggesting positive life transformation. This very night, you shall be reading and then applying the concepts in this book, and that moment will be the starting point of your mastery of wealth, romance, creation, and mastery of all things in the physical world. 'Moving Through Parallel Worlds' draws on science and timeless wisdom, to guide you on a path to unlimited power and enlightenment. 'Moving Through Parallel Worlds To Achieve Your Dreams' will allow you to bridge the discontinuity in your life from the point where you are at right now, to the point where you dream that you can be. This book shall put you into alignment with all that you have imagined possible for yourself and shall show you a path even to that which you may have considered impossible. This book has emerged so that you may be lifted up, and that you may come to realize the power you have to exist in a world that is exactly as you imagine it should be. This is your moment and this book is here, just for you. Enjoy the journey!
Many Worlds in One: The Search for Other Universes
Alex Vilenkin - 2006
His contributions to our current understanding of the universe include a number of novel ideas, two of which—eternal cosmic inflation and the quantum creation of the universe from nothing—have provided a scientific foundation for the possible existence of multiple universes.With this book—his first for the general reader—Vilenkin joins another select group: the handful of first-rank scientists who are equally adept at explaining their work to nonspecialists. With engaging, well-paced storytelling, a droll sense of humor, and a generous sprinkling of helpful cartoons, he conjures up a bizarre and fascinating new worldview that—to paraphrase Niels Bohr—just might be crazy enough to be true.
Life After Loss: Conquering Grief and Finding Hope
Raymond A. Moody Jr. - 2001
A unique approach to understanding and overcoming grief.Bestselling author Raymond Moody and his colleague Dianne Arcangel show how the grieving process can transform our fear and grief into spiritual and emotional growth.
Questions of Truth: Fifty-One Responses to Questions about God, Science, and Belief
John C. Polkinghorne - 2009
In question-and-answer format, Polkinghorne and his collaborator Nicholas Beale offer their highly informed opinions about some of the most frequently asked of these questions. Readers can follow their own paths through the book, selecting questions that interest them and looking at the additional material if they choose. This unique book will help Christians clarify their beliefs regarding difficult issues and better face challenges--from within and from others--to their faith.
Is God a Mathematician?
Mario Livio - 2009
Is God a Mathematician? investigates why mathematics is as powerful as it is. From ancient times to the present, scientists and philosophers have marveled at how such a seemingly abstract discipline could so perfectly explain the natural world. More than that—mathematics has often made predictions, for example, about subatomic particles or cosmic phenomena that were unknown at the time, but later were proven to be true. Is mathematics ultimately invented or discovered? If, as Einstein insisted, mathematics is “a product of human thought that is independent of experience,” how can it so accurately describe and even predict the world around us? Physicist and author Mario Livio brilliantly explores mathematical ideas from Pythagoras to the present day as he shows us how intriguing questions and ingenious answers have led to ever deeper insights into our world. This fascinating book will interest anyone curious about the human mind, the scientific world, and the relationship between them.
Mastery
Robert Greene - 2012
By analyzing the lives of such past masters as Charles Darwin, Benjamin Franklin, Albert Einstein, and Leonard da Vinci, as well as by interviewing nine contemporary masters, including tech guru Paul Graham and animal rights advocate Temple Grandin, Greene debunks our culture’s many myths about genius and distills the wisdom of the ages to reveal the secret to greatness. With this seminal text as a guide, readers will learn how to unlock the passion within and become masters.
The Dyslexic Advantage: Unlocking the Hidden Potential of the Dyslexic Brain
Brock L. Eide - 2011
In this paradigm-shifting book, neurolearning experts Drs. Brock and Fernette Eide describe an exciting new brain science that reveals that dyslexic people have unique brain structure and organization. While the differences are responsible for certain challenges with literacy and reading, the dyslexic brain also gives a predisposition to important skills, and special talents. While dyslexics typically struggle to decode the written word, they often also excel in such areas of reasoning as mechanical (required for architects and surgeons), interconnected (artists and inventors); narrative (novelists and lawyers), and dynamic (scientists and business pioneers). The Dyslexic Advantage provides the first complete portrait of dyslexia.
Warning: Psychiatry Can Be Hazardous to Your Mental Health
William Glasser - 2003
Millions of patients are now routinely being given prescriptions for a wide range of drugs including Ritalin, Prosac, Zoloft and related drugs which can be harmful to the brain. A previous generation of patients would have had a course of psychotherapy without brain–damaging chemicals. Glasser explains the wide implications of this radical change in treatment and what can be done to counter it.
Runaway Husbands: The Abandoned Wife's Guide to Recovery and Renewal
Vikki Stark - 2010
Wife Abandonment Syndrome is a pattern of behavior on the part of a husband who leaves his wife out-of-the-blue from what she believed was a happy marriage. Following his sudden departure, he replaces the caring he'd typically shown her with anger and aggression. He often moves directly in with a girlfriend, leaving his bewildered wife totally devastated. Written by family therapist Vikki Stark who was herself affected by Wife Abandonment Syndrome, Runaway Husbands helps women understand what motivated their loving husbands to turn into uncaring strangers and provides them with the tools they need to move forward and rebuild their lives in new and unexpected ways.
Limitless Mind: Learn, Lead, and Live Without Barriers
Jo Boaler - 2019
This notion follows us into adulthood, where we tend to simply accept these established beliefs about our skillsets (i.e. that we don’t have “a math brain” or that we aren’t “the creative type”). These damaging—and as new science has revealed, false—assumptions have influenced all of us at some time, affecting our confidence and willingness to try new things and limiting our choices, and, ultimately, our futures.Stanford University professor, bestselling author, and acclaimed educator Jo Boaler has spent decades studying the impact of beliefs and bias on education. In
Limitless Mind
, she explodes these myths and reveals the six keys to unlocking our boundless learning potential. Her research proves that those who achieve at the highest levels do not do so because of a genetic inclination toward any one skill but because of the keys that she reveals in the book. Our brains are not “fixed,” but entirely capable of change, growth, adaptability, and rewiring. Want to be fluent in mathematics? Learn a foreign language? Play the guitar? Write a book? The truth is not only that anyone at any age can learn anything, but the act of learning itself fundamentally changes who we are, and as Boaler argues so elegantly in the pages of this book, what we go on to achieve.
Physics in Minutes
Giles Sparrow - 2014
Each idea is explained in clear, accessible language, building from the basics such as mechanics, waves and particles, to more complex topics including neutrinos, string theory and dark matter.
Grit: The Power of Passion and Perseverance
Angela Duckworth - 2016
Rather, other factors can be even more crucial such as identifying our passions and following through on our commitments.Drawing on her own powerful story as the daughter of a scientist who frequently bemoaned her lack of smarts, Duckworth describes her winding path through teaching, business consulting, and neuroscience, which led to the hypothesis that what really drives success is not genius, but a special blend of passion and long-term perseverance. As a professor at the University of Pennsylvania, Duckworth created her own character lab and set out to test her theory.Here, she takes readers into the field to visit teachers working in some of the toughest schools, cadets struggling through their first days at West Point, and young finalists in the National Spelling Bee. She also mines fascinating insights from history and shows what can be gleaned from modern experiments in peak performance. Finally, she shares what she's learned from interviewing dozens of high achievers; from JP Morgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the cartoon editor of The New Yorker to Seattle Seahawks Coach Pete Carroll.Winningly personal, insightful, and even life-changing, Grit is a book about what goes through your head when you fall down, and how that not talent or luck makes all the difference.