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"Covers its subject well, provides useful context, and makes lively reading for anyone interested in the history of technology, the social context of electricity and radioactive materials, or the history of alernative medicine."--"Technology and Culture"

"Not only provides a richly detailed and suprising account of long-forgotten artifacts, but also fleshes out the longer history of some still-familiar attitudes toward health and vitality."
--"Journal of Social History"

"De la Pena's fascinating study melds social history with material culture and the history of science and technology to explain Americans' enthusiastic embrace of modern mechanization and emergent industrial culture."
--"CHOICE"

"In this engaging and well-written study Carolyn Thomas de la Pena offers a detailed cultural history of the medical-technological interface in the period 1850-1940, and in so doing tells us a great deal about how the body and its relation to modernity were conceived."
--"American Historical Review"

"Exellent. Carolyn de la Pena's superbly researched project examines how Americans in the period between 1870 and 1935 sought to supplement their physical energy through engagement with a variety of popular health technologies, including muscle-building machines: electrical invigorators, such as belts and collars: and radioactive elixirs."
--"American Quarterly"

"It's an irresistible account of fads and fascinating foibles, including electric belts and radioactive tonics."
--"Christian Science Monitor"

"Transforming archival research into sparkling prose, "The Body Electric" explains how Americans learned to usemachines to seek health, sexual rejuvenation, and physical transformation. This innovative book is both an entertaining history of fads and foibles and a groundbreaking cultural critique of the continuing obsession with achieving physical perfection."
--David E. Nye, author of "Electrifying America and America as Second Creation"

""The Body Electric" is the so-far missing puzzle piece in our nineteenth-twentieth century knowledge of the social history of the human body and technology a richly illustrated study showing two centuries of technologizing the human body against fears of weakness, enervation, sexual depletion."
--Cecelia Tichi, author of "Shifting Gears: Technology, Literature, Culture in Modernist America"

Between the years 1850 and 1950, Americans became the leading energy consumers on the planet, expending tremendous physical resources on energy exploration, mental resources on energy exploitation, and monetary resources on energy acquisition. A unique combination of pseudoscientific theories of health and the public's rudimentary understanding of energy created an age in which sources of industrial power seemed capable of curing the physical limitations and ill health that plagued Victorian bodies. Licensed and "quack" physicians alike promoted machines, electricity, and radium as invigorating cures, veritable "fountains of youth" that would infuse the body with energy and push out disease and death.

The Body Electric is the first book to place changing ideas about fitness and gender in dialogue with the popular culture of technology. Whether through wearing electric belts, drinking radium water, or lifting mechanized weights, many Americans came to believethat by embracing the nation's rapid march to industrialization, electrification, and "radiomania," their bodies would emerge fully powered. Only by uncovering this belief's passions and products, Thomas de la PeAa argues, can we fully understand our culture's twentieth-century energy enthusiasm.

Drawing together insights from media studies, sociology and science and technology studies, this book is one of the first major studies of media coverage, policy debates and public perceptions of nanotechnologies, and makes a fascinating and timely contribution to debates about the public communication of science.

The main purpose of this book is to introduce a broader audience to emergence by illustrating how discoveries in the physical sciences have informed the ways we think about it. In a nutshell, emergence asserts that non-reductive behavior arises at higher levels of organization and complexity. As physicist Philip Anderson put it, "more is different." Along the text's conversational tour through the terrain of quantum physics, phase transitions, nonlinear and statistical physics, networks and complexity, the author highlights the various philosophical nuances that arise in encounters with emergence. The final part of the book zooms out to reflect on some larger lessons that emergence affords us. One of those larger lessons is the realization that the great diversity of theories and models, and the great variety of independent explanatory frameworks, will always be with us in the sciences and beyond. There is no "Theory of Everything" just around the corner waiting to be discovered. One of the main benefits of this book is that it will make a number of exciting scientific concepts that are not normally covered at this level accessible to a broader audience. The overall presentation, including the use of examples, analogies, metaphors, and biographical interludes, is geared for the educated non-specialist.

This book provides information to the state of art of research in nanotechnology and nano medicine and risks of nano technology. It covers an interdisciplinary and very wide scope of the latest fundamental research status and industrial applications of nano technologies ranging from nano physics, nano chemistry to biotechnology and toxicology. It provides information to last legislation of nano usage and potential social impact too. The book contains also a reference list of major European research centers and associated universities offering licences and master of nano matter. For clarity and attractivity, the book has many illustrations and specific inserts to complete the understanding of the scientific texts.

This book presents current research on mobile Internet society. Past research was not able to show a clear analytical framework, thus was unable to close in on the fundamental changes in that society. This book, however, analyzes mobile Internet society by introducing the concept of "doubling of time and place" and the analytical framework of the "second offline." The emergence of the smartphone has made Internet use easier, and now, people are constantly using online information in the midst of their daily lives. Our society is transitioning from the first offline society, a society without being connected to Internet, to the second offline society, where users are connected to the Internet at all times. In this second offline society, our sense of time and place are beginning to change. Broadcast and communication media have made possible the overlapping of different places, which has been called the doubling of place. Furthermore, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies have enabled the overlap of different times, which this book calls the doubling of time. The smartphone makes both possible. With the second offline and the doubling of time and place as keywords, the book takes into consideration research that includes, among other topics, the media usage of young adults, selfies, education, social media usage, mobile games, work stations, and consumer activity in the mobile Internet society.

This book provides a critical assessment of progress towards the Information Society. Drawing upon unique empirical data, this book lays the foundation for more useful theories of the process of change, and more effective strategies and policies for increasing the benefits from the Information Society. The authors provide insights into the social, economic, and political forces that are structuring the pathway to the Information Society-and its consequences for business and individuals in their everyday lives.

The computer is the great technological and scientific innovation of the last half of the twentieth century. It has revolutionized how we organize information, how we communicate with each other, and even the way that we think about the human mind. Computers have eased the drudgery of such tasks as calculating sums and clerical work, making them both more bearable and more efficient. The computer has become ubiquitous in many aspects of business, recreation, and everyday life, and the trend is that they are becoming both more powerful and easier to use. Computers: The Life Story of a Technology provides an accessible overview of this ever changing technology history, giving students and lay readers an understanding of the complete scope of its history from ancient times to the present day. In addition to providing a concise biography of how this technology developed, this book provides insights into how the computer has changed our lives: * Demonstrates how, just as the invention of the steam engine in the 1700s stimulated scientists to think of the laws of nature in terms of machines, the success of the computer in the late 1900s prompted scientists to think of the basic laws of the universe as being similar to the operation of a computer. * Provides a worldwide examination of computing, and how such needs as security and defense during the Cold War drove the development of computing technology. * Shows how the computer has entered almost every aspect of daily life in the 21st century The volume includes a glossary of terms, a timeline of important events, and a selected bibliography of useful resources for further information.

This book discusses novel research on and practices in the field of physics teaching and learning. It gathers selected high-quality studies that were presented at the GIREP-ICPE-EPEC 2017 conference, which was jointly organised by the International Research Group on Physics Teaching (GIREP); European Physical Society - Physics Education Division, and the Physics Education Commission of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics (IUPAP). The respective chapters address a wide variety of topics and approaches, pursued in various contexts and settings, all of which represent valuable contributions to the field of physics education research. Examples include the design of curricula and strategies to develop student competencies-including knowledge, skills, attitudes and values; workshop approaches to teacher education; and pedagogical strategies used to engage and motivate students. This book shares essential insights into current research on physics education and will be of interest to physics teachers, teacher educators and physics education researchers around the world who are working to combine research and practice in physics teaching and learning.

This volume identifies, discusses and addresses the wide array of ethical issues that have emerged for engineers due to the rise of a global economy. To date, there has been no systematic treatment of the particular challenges globalization poses for engineering ethics standards and education. This volume concentrates on precisely this challenge. Scholars and practitioners from diverse national and professional backgrounds discuss the ethical issues emerging from the inherent symbiotic relationship between the engineering profession and globalization. Through their discussions a deeper and more complete understanding of the precise ways in which globalization impacts the formulation and justification of ethical standards in engineering as well as the curriculum and pedagogy of engineering ethics education emerges. The world today is witnessing an unprecedented demand for engineers and other science and technology professionals with advanced degrees due to both the off-shoring of western jobs and the rapid development of non-Western countries. The current flow of technology and professionals is from the West to the rest of the world. Professional practices followed by Western (or Western-trained) engineers are often based on presuppositions which can be in fundamental disagreement with the viewpoints of non-Westerners. A successful engineering solution cannot be simply technically sound, but also must account for cultural, social and religious constraints. For these reasons, existing Western standards cannot simply be exported to other countries. Divided into two parts, Part I of the volume provides an overview of particular dimensions of globalization and the criteria that an adequate engineering ethics framework must satisfy in a globalized world. Part II of the volume considers pedagogical challenges and aims in engineering ethics education that is global in character.

The shift from orality to literacy that began with the invention of the phonetic alphabet, and which went into high-gear with Gutenberg's printing press more than 500 years ago, helped make the modern world. Some commentators have argued that this shift from orality to literacy marked a much broader, cultural shift of cataclysmic proportions. Today, with everything from e-mail to blogs, iPods and podcasts, through Google, Yahoo, eBay, and with cutting-edge smart phones, we find ourselves developing relationships with these newest communication tools that aren't simply allowing us to communicate faster, farther and with more ease than ever before. We aren't just moving around ideas, data, and information at unimaginable speed and scale. Our interminglings and fusions with digital communication technologies are also altering both individual and group consciousness in fundamental ways-how we form and sustain relationships, how we think and perceive, what it means to see and to feel. We are remaking human identity once more, and manufacturing a new kind of culture along the way. The processes bound up in our digination may well be consequential to the trajectory of human evolution. That time-honored trope: the notion that technology is not the problem, rather, it's how people use technology that's the problem is shown to be wanting. Highlighting Marshall McLuhan's "tetrads" or laws of media as a primary tool of analysis, R.C. MacDougall argues in line with other media ecologists that it's not so much how we use certain tools that matters, it's that we use them. More than any other technological form perhaps, communication technologies play particularly powerful and systemic roles in our culture, or any culture for that matter. Late adopters and even abstainers are not exempt from the psychological, social and cultural effects (and side-effects) of modern digital communication technology. While there are certainly varying degrees of immersion-that is to say, while some of us live in the high-rise downtown district, some at the city limits, and still others out in the proverbial "woods"-we all live in Digination today.

This book is the first major work that addressesa core question in biomedical research: the question of acceptable risk. The acceptable level of risks is regulated by the requirement of proportionality in biomedical research law, which state that the risk and burden to the participant must be in proportion to potential benefits to the participant, society or science.

This investigation addresses research on healthy volunteers, children, vulnerable subjects, and includes placebo controlled clinical trials.It represents a major contribution towards clarifying the most central, but also the most controversial and complex issue in biomedical research law and bioethics. The EU Clinical Trial Directive, the Council of Europe's Oviedo Convention (and its Additional Protocol), and national regulation in member states are covered.Itis a relevant work for lawyers andethicists, and thepractical approach makesa valuable tool for researchers and members of research ethics committees supervising biomedical research."

At the macroeconomic level, "innovation" increasingly means the ability of institutions to cope with uncertainty and change. This change can be associated with technological advances, but also with modifications to the regulatory framework of an industry, shifts in consumer preferences, emerging demographic trends, or even major alternations of global geopolitics. The changes brought about by these conditions ripple throughout an economy, affecting national institutions and individual citizens alike. Innovation for All? considers the case of Portugal from the perspective of innovation theory, providing new insights on how knowledge is generated and diffused over time and across space. The lessons from Portugal's experience can be applied more broadly to understand the challenges of developing policies that simultaneously promote scientific and technological innovation, societal creativity, and economic growth.

On March 26th, 1923, in a formal ceremony, construction of the Milan-Alpine Lakes autostrada officially began, the preliminary step toward what would become the first European motorway. That Benito Mussolini himself participated in the festivities indicates just how important the project was to Italian Fascism. Driving Modernity recounts the twisting fortunes of the autostrada, which-alongside railways, aviation, and other forms of mobility-Italian authorities hoped would spread an ideology of technological nationalism. It explains how Italy ultimately failed to realize its mammoth infrastructural vision, addressing the political and social conditions that made a coherent plan of development impossible.

Drawing on such process thinkers as Whitehead, Deleuze and Stengers, Innovation and Biomedicine develops a powerful framework for the analysis of Biomedical Innovation. With its sustained focus on the Pre-Exposure Prophylactic pill (PrEP) for the prevention of HIV infection, the volume explores the ethical, medical and political elements entailed in the pill's testing through offshore randomized control trials (RCTs). To this end, the key concept of 'eventuation' is elaborated and deployed in the scrutiny of the 'gold standard' status of RCTs, the role of ethics in RCTs, and the enactment of the PrEP pill as a singular entity. Further, the authors engage with affective, topological and virtual dimensions to show how PrEP's eventuation also allows for new scientific and ethical questions to be crafted. Innovation and Biomedicine is a major contribution to science and technology studies, medical sociology, and the multi-disciplinary study of HIV.

David Ehrenfeld is a highly esteemed writer on ecology and conservation biology. The founding editor of The Journal of Conservation Biology and author of The Arrogance of Humanism and Beginning Again, his new book is an elegant study of the cost to human dignity and potential, of the shrinking wilderness and the ongoing degredation of the environment. He ruminates on the impacts of short-sighted governmental and economic policies, and of new technologies on human values and communities, tracing the human impacts upon the urban, agricultural and wilderness environments. Ehrenfeld has a unique, unmistakable voice as a major spokesperson for the conservation ethic and the human values implicit in environmentalism and conservation biology. This book should appeal strongly to readers of Ehrenfeld's earlier books and essays, and reach and satisfy a broad constituency on the green end of the political spectrum.

The authors describe how the web is transforming from a one-way information delivery channel to a socially rich communication vehicle, resulting in the humanizing of the web and fulfilling the web's original promise. They explain how the web continues to change businesses, software design, the way we perceive people and the skills required of us. The web's key challenges are defined as six paradoxes and its role as an innovation ecosystem is introduced, emphasizing the consideration of the social web as a software platform, user experience, and business ecosystem. The volume explores the challenges related to the search for Zero-to-One innovations, breakthroughs, and the key strategies for discovering these kinds of innovations for the social web (or through the social web for non-web environments). It also envisions the next generation of the web, including both transformations that are already ongoing and visible as well as new expectations. An important message for companies and organizations is to adopt a set of core business values that will facilitate innovation processes in this future humanized web. These business values are very humane. Finally, the authors discuss key threats and opportunities for this future.

Innovation, science and technology and the wealth gained from them make continuous media copy and yet there is a manifest imbalance in society, a paradox of more prosperity but growing exclusion. This book marks the 25th anniversary of the Six Countries Programme, which pioneered the study of innovation from a policy viewpoint but with a radical ethos. This ethos is continued by the contributors to this book who challenge much of the current thinking on innovation and technology and attempt to provide markers for the way ahead. They propose a systemic approach to the innovation process as the route to a more sustainable future and provide the alternative of a learning society to a knowledge society which seems to be inexorably driven by Schumpetarian dynamics.

Referencing key contemporary debates on issues like surveillance, identity, the global financial crisis, the digital divide and Internet politics, Andrew White provides a critical intervention in discussions on the impact of the proliferation of digital media technologies on politics, the economy and social practices.

Using the concept of innovation capacity, this book, using recent field data from countries in Asia and Africa, competently demonstrates how biotechnology can contribute to sustainable economic development. The approach articulates the imperative for developing countries to build up specific capabilities backed up by policies and institutions.

In one hundred lean and incisive statements, Douglas Rushkoff argues that we are essentially social creatures and that we achieve our greatest aspirations when we work together-not as individuals. Yet today society is threatened by a vast antihuman infrastructure that undermines our ability to connect. Money, once a means of exchange, is now a means of exploitation; education, conceived as a way to elevate the working class, has become another assembly line; and the internet has only further divided us into increasingly atomised and radicalised groups. Team Human delivers a call to arms. If we are to resist and survive these destructive forces, we must recognise that being human is a team sport. In Rushkoff's own words: "Being social may be the whole point". Harnessing wide-ranging research on human evolution, biology and psychology, Rushkoff shows that when we work together we realise greater happiness, productivity and peace. If we can find others who understand this fundamental truth and reassert our humanity-together-we can make the world a better place to be human.

The effect of modern and communication technology on civil procedure first appeared on the agenda of the conference organized by the International Association of Procedural Law in 1999, verifying Lord Woolf's statement from the 90's, that "IT will not only assist in streamlining and improving our existing systems and process; it is also likely, in due course, itself to be catalyst for radical change as well...."

At the conference in Pecs in the autumn of 2010 participants from three continents and twenty-five countries examined all aspects of the impact of modern information technology on civil procedure beginning with the electronic submission of the application, ranging from electronic service of documents and electronic means of proof supported by modern information technology. In addition to the practical issues they discussed the possible impact of electronic procedures on traditional principles of civil procedure. The conference book contains seven main reports and eleven correferates, the foreword was written by Prof. Peter Gottwald, the President of the International Association of Procedural Law.

The revised essays collected here, four of which are published for the first time, continue a longstanding argument made by McCutcheon and others: that the study of religion would benefit from self-conscious scrutiny of its tools, the interests that may drive them, and the effects that might follow their use. The chapters examine a variety of contemporary sites in the modern field where this thesis can be argued, whether involving the anachronistic use of of the category religion when studying the ancient world to current interest in so-called critical religion or critical realist approaches. Moreover - contrary to some past characterizations of such critiques - a constructive way forward for the field is once again recommended and, at several sites, exemplified in detail: redescribing not only religion as something ordinary but also our tendency to create the impression of exceptional and thus set-apart things, places, and people. Aimed at scholars and students alike, the book is an invitation to examine our own scholarly practices and thereby take a more active role in shaping the field in which we carry out our work as scholars of this thing we call religion.

This timely reference takes a rigorous look at the myriad ways technology, from smartphones to dating apps to social media, is affecting family life and opening new areas for study. The book features cross-disciplinary perspectives on current trends in the role of technology in couple and family contexts. It focuses on the roles of parents in monitoring children's screen time, of technology in relationship formation, and of technology in changing family dynamics. Nuanced coverage considers the emerging conflicts and paradoxes associated with digital family life-closeness versus isolation, children versus parents as experts, and privacy versus surveillance. Contributors also identify new research opportunities as family roles and structures continue to evolve and technology becomes a greater lens for family studies. Among the topics covered: How parents manage young children's mobile media use Adolescents as the family technology innovators Online dating: changing intimacy one swipe at a time Technology in relational systems: roles, rules, and boundaries Television "effects" on international family change Interplay between families and technology: future investigations Families and Technology is a valuable resource for researchers and students in the fields of family studies, sociology, marriage and family therapy, social welfare, public health, and psychology. The book also appeals to policymakers and human services personnel dedicated to better understanding the impact of rapidly spreading technologies on families around the globe.