Top ten Sunday Times Bestseller 'Engaging, ambitious and creative' Guardian Where are we? Are we alone? Who are we? Why are we here? What is our future? Human Universe tackles some of the greatest questions that humans have asked to try and understand the very nature of ourselves and the Universe in which we live. Through the endless leaps of human minds, it explores the extraordinary depth of our knowledge today and where our curiosity may lead us in the future. With groundbreaking insight it reveals how time, physics and chemistry came together to create a creature that can wonder at its own existence, blessed with an unquenchable thirst to discover not just where it came from, but how it can think, where it is going and if it is alone. Accompanies the acclaimed BBC TV series.

Laws of nature play a central role in Kant's theoretical philosophy and are crucial to understanding his philosophy of science in particular. In this volume of new essays, the first systematic investigation of its kind, a distinguished team of scholars explores Kant's views on the laws of nature in the physical and life sciences. Their essays focus particularly on the laws of physics and biology, and consider topics including the separation in Kant's treatment of the physical and life sciences, the relation between universal and empirical laws of nature, and the role of reason and the understanding in imposing order and lawful unity upon nature. The volume will be of great interest to advanced students and scholars of Kant's philosophy of science, and to historians and philosophers of science more generally.

For years, systems theory has been applied successfully in all fields of technology, but its impact on the world of finance has to date been limited. This book aims to rectify this situation. Readers will no longer be able to assert that money cannot be reliably earned on the financial markets: one might just as well say that man has never set foot on the moon. The potential reader may be frightened by the number of formulas, but can be reassured that almost all of them can be skipped. What makes the miracle of guaranteed trading success possible are the worksheets and the codes for Internet platforms which provide (at a click) functions that once had to be built with great difficulty. These worksheets and codes will be sent free of charge to anyone who requests them from the author ([email protected]) as long as the request is accompanied by proof of purchase of the book, such as a photograph of the receipt taken on a mobile phone.

In 1996, the supposedly uncrackable US federal encryption system was broken. In this captivating and intriguing book, Matt Curtin charts the rise and fall of DES and chronicles the efforts of those who were determined to master it.

When did humans begin to kiss? Why is kissing integral to some cultures and alien to others? Do good kissers make the best lovers? And is that expensive lip-plumping gloss worth it? Sheril Kirshenbaum, a marine biologist and science journalist, tackles these questions and more in THE SCIENCE OF KISSING. It's everything you always wanted to know about kissing but either haven't asked, can't find out, or didn't realize you should understand. Sheril's a serious scientist, and the material here is informed by the results of the latest studies and theories, but she's also got an engaging, delightful voice and offers information with a light, humorous touch. Topics range from the kind of kissing men like to do (as distinct from women), to what animals can teach us about the kiss, to whether or not the true art of kissing was lost sometime in the Dark Ages, to what, really, makes us kiss. Employing an interdisciplinary approach--drawing upon classical history, evolutionary biology, psychology, popular culture, and more--Kirshenbaum's winning book will appeal to romantics and armchair scientists alike.

More than half a billion adults and 40 million children on the planet are obese. Diabetes is a worldwide epidemic. Evidence increasingly shows that these illnesses are linked to the other major Western diseases: hypertension, heart disease, even Alzheimer's and cancer, and that shockingly, sugar is likely the single root cause. Yet the nutritional advice we receive from public health bodies is muddled, out of date, and frequently contradictory, and in many quarters still promotes the unproven hypothesis that fats are the greatest evil.With expert science and compelling storytelling, Gary Taubes investigates the history of nutritional science which, shaped by a handful of charismatic and misguided individuals, has for a hundred years denied the impact of sugar on our health. He exposes the powerful influence of the food industry which has lobbied for sugar's ubiquity - the Sugar Association even today promoting 'sugar's goodness' - and the extent that the industry has corrupted essential scientific research. He delves into the science of sugar, exposes conventional thinking that sugar is 'empty calories' as a myth, and finds that its addictive pleasures are resulting in worldwide consumption as never experienced before, to devastating effect. The Case Against Sugar is a revelatory read, which will fundamentally change the way we eat.

Instead of following the Magna Charta Universitatum, the declaration of the principles of knowledge signed in 1988 in Bologna, the academic approach pursued in Europe and the other continents over the past 30 years has strictly employed a utilitarian model of higher education. This jeopardizes academic freedom, shared governance and tenure, the three pillars of the long-established model of universities. Scientific conformism and fragmentation, educational bias and authoritarianism are the major drawbacks, together with a poor readiness to meet the emerging challenges in the labor market and technology. In this book, Renzo Rosso presents a new model for countering these developments, e.g. by establishing novel democratic rules for university governance. The Slow University paradigm positions culture and education as essential tools for the long-term survival of humankind.

Life is an enduring mystery. Yet, science tells us that living beings are merely sophisticated structures of lifeless molecules. If this view is correct, where do the seemingly purposeful motions of cells and organisms originate? In Life's Ratchet , physicist Peter M. Hoffmann locates the answer to this age-old question at the nanoscale.Below the calm, ordered exterior of a living organism lies microscopic chaos, or what Hoffmann calls the molecular storm,specialized molecules immersed in a whirlwind of colliding water molecules. Our cells are filled with molecular machines, which, like tiny ratchets, transform random motion into ordered activity, and create the purpose" that is the hallmark of life. Tiny electrical motors turn electrical voltage into motion, nanoscale factories custom-build other molecular machines, and mechanical machines twist, untwist, separate and package strands of DNA. The cell is like a city,an unfathomable, complex collection of molecular workers working together to create something greater than themselves.Life, Hoffman argues, emerges from the random motions of atoms filtered through these sophisticated structures of our evolved machinery. We are agglomerations of interacting nanoscale machines more amazing than anything in science fiction. Rather than relying on some mysterious life force" to drive them,as people believed for centuries,life's ratchets harness instead the second law of thermodynamics and the disorder of the molecular storm.Grounded in Hoffmann's own cutting-edge research, Life's Ratchet reveals the incredible findings of modern nanotechnology to tell the story of how the noisy world of atoms gives rise to life itself.

'This brief book offers an interesting, fun, and widely accessible first-person tour of CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. The facilities at CERN include the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a 27-kilometer particle accelerator that straddles the border between Switzerland and France. The LHC was famously used to discover the Higgs boson, a long-sought fundamental particle. Physics historian Depambour (University of Paris) is enthusiastic about all aspects of CERN, especially its role as an agent for peace and international cooperation. The book focuses mainly on the physical layout of the CERN campus and its experimental facilities, but Depambour also includes an introduction to the standard model of particle physics and a history of the search for the Higgs boson. Supporting illustrations and interviews help convey the atmosphere and culture of CERN. The book can be read and enjoyed by virtually anyone interested in modern science, starting with students currently in high school. It will also be welcome as a useful orientation for undergraduates and graduate students whose research interests might eventually take them to CERN. Summing Up: Highly recommended. All readers.'CHOICEWhat lies within CERN's entrails? What is the path followed by the particles that are accelerated before they collide? What does the ATLAS detector look like? Does research at CERN find applications in everyday life?From the accelerator control room to the huge Computing Centre, via the auditorium where the discovery of the Higgs boson was announced in July 2012, I invite you to experience for one day an immersion in the world of research in particle physics! Discovering emblematic installations at CERN, walking through the places where people spend every working day, meeting with researchers in various fields, descending into the ATLAS cavern ... Our visit, whose path will mimic that of the particles during their journey, will be full of anecdotes and surprises.Follow me for a guided tour of CERN, the largest scientific collaboration in the world!

BBC R4 Book of the Week 'Brilliant' Guardian 'Fascinating and often delightful' The Times What if intelligent life on Earth evolved not once, but 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 nature became aware of itself - a story that largely occurs in the ocean, where animals first appeared. Tracking the mind's fitful development from unruly clumps of seaborne cells to the first evolved nervous systems in ancient relatives of jellyfish, he explores the incredible evolutionary journey of the cephalopods, which began as inconspicuous molluscs who would later abandon their shells to rise above the ocean floor, searching for prey and acquiring the greater intelligence needed to do so - a journey completely independent from the route that mammals and birds would later take. But what kind of intelligence do cephalopods possess? 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 'think for themselves'? 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 mind - and on our own.

A fascinating tour of great moments in science

From Newton’s apple to Fleming’s mold, from the structure of carbon molecules to the structure of DNA, Eureka! tells the true stories behind some of the most memorable and revolutionary discoveries in the history of science, and the dedicated, often unconventional scientists who made them.

You’ll meet Philo Farnsworth, who, as a 14-year-old boy, got the idea for the TV screen while plowing the fields of his family’s Idaho farm; Benoit Mandelbrot, who discovered a hidden order of nature in the "trash cans of science," and Charles Townes, who invented an amazing device that no one needed–at the time. Eureka! brings you these and other amazing stories, including:

• Joseph Priestley and the discovery of oxygen
• Albert Einstein and the theory of gravity
• Charles Darwin and the theory of evolution
• Dmitri Mendeleyev and the periodic table
• Alfred Wegener and the theory of continental drift

Simplifying the complex chemical reactions that take place in everyday through the well-stated answers for more than 900 common chemistry questions, this reference is the go-to guide for students and professionals alike. 'The Handy Chemistry Answer Book' covers everything from the history, major personalities and ground-breaking reactions and equations in chemistry to laboratory techniques throughout history and the latest developments in the field. This reference guide breaks down the essentials into an easily understood format.

This book covers thirty years of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, which was, ostensibly, the very first formally organized, open, official city-level mathematical contest in the world. Founded in 1934 by a group of dedicated Soviet mathematicians, it played an outstanding (and often underappreciated) role in creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of mathematics of the 20th century.The book begins with the extensive introduction containing two prefaces (one of them written specifically for this edition), a large historical survey of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, a section describing the logistical side of the contest, and a small chapter dedicated to the very first Mathematical Olympiad held in 1934, whose problems were recently found in the Soviet-era library archives.The main text contains approximately 1,100 highly original questions for students of grades 5 through 10 (ages 11-12 through 17-18) offered at the two concluding rounds of the Leningrad City Mathematics Olympiads in the years of 1961-1991. Full solutions, hints and answers are provided for all questions with very rare exceptions.It also includes 120 additional questions, offered at the various mathematical contests held in Leningrad over the same thirty-year period — on average, their difficulty is somewhat higher than that of the regular Mathematical Olympiad problems.

This book covers thirty years of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, which was, ostensibly, the very first formally organized, open, official city-level mathematical contest in the world. Founded in 1934 by a group of dedicated Soviet mathematicians, it played an outstanding (and often underappreciated) role in creating the Leningrad (St. Petersburg) school of mathematics of the 20th century.The book begins with the extensive introduction containing two prefaces (one of them written specifically for this edition), a large historical survey of the Leningrad Mathematical Olympiad, a section describing the logistical side of the contest, and a small chapter dedicated to the very first Mathematical Olympiad held in 1934, whose problems were recently found in the Soviet-era library archives.The main text contains approximately 1,100 highly original questions for students of grades 5 through 10 (ages 11-12 through 17-18) offered at the two concluding rounds of the Leningrad City Mathematics Olympiads in the years of 1961-1991. Full solutions, hints and answers are provided for all questions with very rare exceptions.It also includes 120 additional questions, offered at the various mathematical contests held in Leningrad over the same thirty-year period — on average, their difficulty is somewhat higher than that of the regular Mathematical Olympiad problems.

The bestselling editor of This Explains Everything brings together 175 of the world's most brilliant minds to tackle Edge.org's 2014 question: What scientific idea has become a relic blocking human progress? Each year, John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org-"The world's smartest website" (The Guardian)-challenges some of the world's greatest scientists, artists, and philosophers to answer a provocative question crucial to our time. In 2014 he asked 175 brilliant minds to ponder: What scientific idea needs to be put aside in order to make room for new ideas to advance? The answers are as surprising as they are illuminating. In : * Steven Pinker dismantles the working theory of human behavior * Richard Dawkins renounces essentialism * Sherry Turkle reevaluates our expectations of artificial intelligence * Geoffrey West challenges the concept of a "Theory of Everything" * Andrei Linde suggests that our universe and its laws may not be as unique as we think * Martin Rees explains why scientific understanding is a limitless goal * Nina Jablonski argues to rid ourselves of the concept of race * Alan Guth rethinks the origins of the universe * Hans Ulrich Obrist warns against glorifying unlimited economic growth * and much more. Profound, engaging, thoughtful, and groundbreaking, This Idea Must Die will change your perceptions and understanding of our world today ...and tomorrow.

The Universal Force conveys the excitement of science and nature's mysteries. It describes gravitation as seen by examining the achievements of those great scientists who have struggled with the seemingly simple facts and managed to extract some truth about the nature of gravity, its origins, and its effects. Gravity is intimately tied up with motion, and therefore with time and space, and is responsible for planetary systems, the evolution of stars and the existence of black holes and the very beginning of the Universe. It is the universal force and to look at gravity is to look at the deepest aspects of nature.
The historical context from Aristotle's teleology through Galileo's conflict with the Church, to Newton's law, and Einstein's curved space, displays the evolution of the science of gravity as one of the greatest and most fascinating human achievements.
Contrary to popular opinion, all important science can be understood by anyone, with or without a scientific background! This book shows that the beauty and mysteries of science can be shared with everyone.

This book highlights mathematical ideas to help explain a number of important aspects of the dynamics of social groups. These ideas are similar to those used to describe the behaviour of Lagrangian mechanical systems, and as such this book appeals to anyone wanting to gain an understanding of the intrinsic unity of natural phenomena.

The Short Story of Science is a new introduction to the complete subject of science. Covering 60 key experiments, from Archimedes' investigations of buoyancy to the discovery of dark matter, and then linking these to the history of science, as well as to the key theories and methods, the book simplifies and explains all the key breakthroughs. Accessible and concise, generously illustrated throughout, and with all the essential information presented without jargon, readers are given all the tools they need to enjoy the fascinating history of scientific knowledge.

What does a mammoth smell like? Do dinosaurs bob their heads as they walk, like today’s birds? Do aurochs moo like cows? You may soon find out.

From the Siberian permafrost to balmy California, scientists across the globe are working to resurrect all kinds of extinct animals, from ones that just left us to those that have been gone for many thousands of years. Their tools in this hunt are both fossils and cutting-edge genetic technologies. Some of these scientists are driven by sheer curiosity; others view the lost species as a powerful weapon in the fight to save rapidly disappearing ecosystems.

Science journalist Torill Kornfeldt travelled the world to meet the men and women working to bring extinct animals back from the dead. Along the way, she saw a mammoth that has been frozen for 20,000 years, and visited the places where these furry giants once walked. It seems certain that they and other lost species will walk the earth again, but what world will that give us? And is any of this a good idea?

Since humans began writing, they have been communicating in code. This obsession with secrecy has had dramatic effects on the outcome of wars, monarchies and individual lives.

With clear mathematical, linguistic and technological demonstrations of many of the codes, as well as illustrations of some of the remarkable personalities behind them – many courageous, some villainous – The Code Book traces the fascinating development of codes and code-breaking from military espionage in Ancient Greece to modern computer ciphers, to reveal how the remarkable science of cryptography has often changed the course of history.

Amongst many extraordinary examples, Simon Singh relates in detail the story of Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code and put to death by Elizabeth I; the strange history of the Beale Ciphers, describing the hidden location of a fortune in gold, buried somewhere in Virginia in the nineteenth century and still not found; and the monumental efforts in code-making and code-breaking that influenced the outcomes of the First and Second World Wars.

Now, with the Information Age bringing the possibility of a truly unbreakable code ever nearer, and cryptography one of the major debates of our times, Singh investigates the challenge that technology has brought to personal privacy today.

Dramatic, compelling and remarkably far-reaching, The Code Book will forever alter your view of history, what drives it and how private your last e-mail really was.

Swearing, it turns out, is an incredibly useful part of our linguistic repertoire. Not only has some form of swearing existed since the earliest humans began to communicate, but it has been shown to reduce physical pain, help stroke victims recover their language, and encourage people to work together as a team.

Swearing Is Good For You is a spirited and hilarious defence of our most cherished dirty words, backed by historical case studies and cutting-edge research. From chimpanzees creating their own curse words to a man who lost half his brain in a mining accident experiencing a new-found compulsion to swear, Dr Emma Byrne outlines the fascinating science behind swearing: how it affects us both physically and emotionally, and how it is more natural and beneficial than we are led to believe.

The first edition of this book, published in German, came into being as the result of lectures which the authors held over a period of several years since 1953 at the Universities of Helsinki and Zurich. The Introduction, which follows, provides information on what moti vated our presentation of an absolute, coordinate- and dimension-free infinitesimal calculus. Little previous knowledge is presumed of the reader. It can be recom mended to students familiar with the usual structure, based on co ordinates, of the elements of analytic geometry, differential and integral calculus and of the theory of differential equations. We are indebted to H. Keller, T. Klemola, T. Nieminen, Ph. Tondeur and K. 1. Virtanen, who read our presentation in our first manuscript, for important critical remarks. The present new English edition deviates at several points from the first edition (d. Introduction). Professor I. S. Louhivaara has from the beginning to the end taken part in the production of the new edition and has advanced our work by suggestions on both content and form. For his important support we wish to express our hearty thanks. We are indebted also to W. Greub and to H. Haahti for various valuable remarks. Our manuscript for this new edition has been translated into English by Doctor P. Emig. We express to him our gratitude for his careful interest and skillful attention during this work."

#10 on Amazon Charts, USA Today Bestseller "This book is my best attempt to tell the truth about my research, the culture in science today which is hostile to new ideas, and what science can really do if allowed to pursue promising areas of inquiries."-Dr. Judy Mikovits, PhD This is a story for anybody interested in the peril and promise of science at the very highest levels in our country. On July 22, 2009, a special meeting was held with twenty-four leading scientists at the National Institutes of Health to discuss early findings that a newly discovered retrovirus was linked to chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), prostate cancer, lymphoma, and eventually neurodevelopmental disorders in children. When Dr. Judy Mikovits finished her presentation, the room was silent for a moment, then one of the scientists said, "Oh my God!" The resulting investigation would be like no other in science. For Dr. Mikovits, a twenty-year veteran of the National Cancer Institute, this was the midpoint of a five-year journey that would start with the founding of the Whittemore-Peterson Institute for Neuro-Immune Disease at the University of Nevada, Reno, and end with her as a witness for the federal government against her former employer, Harvey Whittemore, for illegal campaign contributions to Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. On this journey Dr. Mikovits would face the scientific prejudices against CFS, wander into the minefield that is autism, and through it all struggle to maintain her faith in God and the profession to which she had dedicated her life.

Featuring a foreword by David Brooks, This Will Make You Smarter presents brilliant--but accessible--ideas to expand every mind.

What scientific concept would improve everybody's cognitive toolkit? This is the question John Brockman, publisher of Edge.org, posed to the world's most influential thinkers. Their visionary answers flow from the frontiers of psychology, philosophy, economics, physics, sociology, and more. Surprising and enlightening, these insights will revolutionize the way you think about yourself and the world.

Daniel Kahneman on the "focusing illusion" - Jonah Lehrer on controlling attention - Richard Dawkins on experimentation - Aubrey De Grey on conquering our fear of the unknown - Martin Seligman on the ingredients of well-being - Nicholas Carr on managing "cognitive load" - Steven Pinker on win-win negotiating - Daniel C. Dennett on benefiting from cycles - Jaron Lanier on resisting delusion - Frank Wilczek on the brain's hidden layers - Clay Shirky on the "80/20 rule" - Daniel Goleman on understanding our connection to the natural world - V. S. Ramachandran on paradigm shifts - Matt Ridley on tapping collective intelligence - John McWhorter on path dependence - Lisa Randall on effective theorizing - Brian Eno on "ecological vision" - Richard Thaler on rooting out false concepts - J. Craig Venter on the multiple possible origins of life - Helen Fisher on temperament - Sam Harris on the flow of thought - Lawrence Krauss on living with uncertainty

Freeman Dyson's life experiences made him a wise, kindly grandfather figure to two generations of students enrolled in an undergraduate university course 'Science, Technology, & Society.' Near the end of each semester, the class sent him written questions, on reading Professor Dyson's memoir Disturbing the Universe. The letter exchanges occurred regularly from April 1993 through December 2019.'Yours Ever, Freeman' is devoted to this correspondence between Professor Dyson and the students. His responses went beyond answering questions, as he enlarged the scope of the questions by sharing stories from his experiences. While others have written of Professor Dyson's accomplishments and awards; the class came to know him through his discussions about life, science, and society. Topics ranged from the existential to headlines of the day, from national policies to personal values. Over three thousand students have been blessed to count Freeman Dyson as a mentor and consider him as a friend.'Yours Ever, Freeman' supplements Dear Professor Dyson published earlier. While the 2016 book included in-depth reviews of the STS course contents from which the correspondence emerged, besides including the 2016-2019 correspondence, the present book maintains a tight focus on the correspondence itself, annotated as necessary for context. The book's title comes from the way Professor Dyson signed his letters.