'Kindness and co-operation have played a crucial role in raising humans to the top of the evolutionary tree ... We have thrived on the milk of human kindness.' Observer BY THE AUTHOR OF ARE WE SMART ENOUGH TO KNOW HOW SMART ANIMALS ARE? 'There is a widely-held assumption that humans are hard-wired for relentless and ruthless competition ... Frans de Waal sees nature differently - as a biological legacy in which empathy, not mere self-interest, is shared by humans, bonobos and animals.' Ben Macintyre, The Times Empathy holds us together. That we are hardwired to be altruistic is the result of thousands of years of evolutionary biology which has kept society from slipping into anarchy. But we are not alone: primates, elephants, even rodents are empathetic creatures too. Social behaviours such as the herding instinct, bonding rituals, expressions of consolation and even conflict resolution demonstrate that animals are designed to feel for each other. From chimpanzees caring for mates that have been wounded by leopards, elephants reassuring youngsters in distress and dolphins preventing sick companions from drowning, with a wealth of anecdotes, scientific observations, wry humour and incisive intelligence, The Age of Empathy is essential reading for all who believe in the power of our connections to each other.

In recent decades, scientists have done a lot of research to find ways to make use of solar energy. One of the most direct ways is to use solar cell to transform sunshine into electricity. So what are the current products that use solar energy? And what can humans do with solar energy in the future?This book is a compilation of the series of 'Dialogues With Great Chinese Scientists', where several great scientists in different research files were invited to share their stories and scientific knowledge. It is meant to inspire more students to become great scientists in the future.

A lively and highly readable account of the origins, invention and discovery of just about everything on the planet, the truly global coverage of The First of Everything ranges from the Big Bang to driverless cars.

The First of Everything follows a context-setting introduction with seven stimulating sections: In the Beginning (The Big Bang to Homo Sapiens), At Home (the first glass windows to dentures and bikinis); Health and Medicine (herbs to heart transplants); Getting About (donkeys to double deckers); Science and Engineering (potter's wheel to webcam); Peace and War (the first king to fighter-bombers); and Culture (cave painting to rap). This fascinating book takes in the full sweep of human development and ingenuity over twelve millennia; Africa, for example, gave us the first monarch, algebra and great religions emerged from the Middle East, democracy was born in Europe, and America made the first flying machines. More than just a string of dry lists, the colourful text's intriguing insights and asides make it as enjoyable for the casual browser as the more serious researcher.

This is a popular science book on physics, astronomy and related sciences, designed for a wider audience.It is written as a guide for a tour along the ladder of scales from the Universe as a whole to the microcosm. The main scales are the Universe, Solar System, the Earth, normal human size, atoms, and elementary particles. Exotic objects such as black holes and neutron stars are also considered, as well as the foundations of the scientific method, its connection with philosophy, and a story about how modern science arose. This book contains many useful illustrations.The basic concepts of physics are discussed: forces, fields, quantum phenomena, structure of matter, phase transitions, atoms, molecules, dark matter, and dark energy. And also galaxies, supernova explosions, the Sun, planets, exoplanets, black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, the possibility of space expansion of mankind. The book also discusses phenomena like rainbow, mirages, lightning, climate on Earth, as well as practical applications like nuclear and thermonuclear reactors, superconductivity and helium-3 mining on the Moon. This book has included the latest results.

Evolution of Knowledge Science: Myth to Medicine: Intelligent Internet-Based Humanist Machines explains how to design and build the next generation of intelligent machines that solve social and environmental problems in a systematic, coherent, and optimal fashion. The book brings together principles from computer and communication sciences, electrical engineering, mathematics, physics, social sciences, and more to describe computer systems that deal with knowledge, its representation, and how to deal with knowledge centric objects. Readers will learn new tools and techniques to measure, enhance, and optimize artificial intelligence strategies for efficiently searching through vast knowledge bases, as well as how to ensure the security of information in open, easily accessible, and fast digital networks. Author Syed Ahamed joins the basic concepts from various disciplines to describe a robust and coherent knowledge sciences discipline that provides readers with tools, units, and measures to evaluate the flow of knowledge during course work or their research. He offers a unique academic and industrial perspective of the concurrent dynamic changes in computer and communication industries based upon his research. The author has experience both in industry and in teaching graduate level telecommunications and network architecture courses, particularly those dealing with applications of networks in education.

What are we humans, and how did we become the high technology species? What would be our legacy? What is the ultimate meaning of life? Many of these questions are still waiting for full and complete answers and explanations.For thousands of years humans have pondered the fundamental questions about origin, existence and reality, and also about mind, consciousness, communication and social issues. In this day and age when advancing technology is quickly transforming our societies and our ways of life, these questions are more important than ever, not only in the theoretical sense, but also in practice. We have to understand what has happened, and what is happening.For the first time in the history, technology has given us powerful means to investigate the phenomena behind the ultimate questions. However, technology is only a tool; the thinking human is still required for the understanding of the world.This book explores these curious topics, beginning from the origin of the Universe to the emergence of life; the evolution from cells to brains; the development of cognitive ability from perception and attention to reasoning and thinking; how we interact with other humans by means of love and emotion; to the creation of thinking machines by weird technology.THIS BOOK presents novel views on these questions and provides explanations and possible answers in an easy-to-read style.

One of Britain's foremost astrobiologists offers an accessible and game-changing account of life on Earth. __________________ Why is all life based on carbon rather than silicon? And beyond Earth, would life - if it exists - look like our own? __________________ The puzzles of life astound and confuse us like no other mystery. But in this groundbreaking book, Professor Charles Cockell reveals how nature is far more understandable and predictable than we would think. Breathing new life into Darwin's theory of natural selection, The Equations of Life puts forward an elegant account of why evolution has taken the paths it has. In a captivating journey into the forces that shape living things on Earth, Cockell explains that the fundamental laws of physics constrain nature at every turn. Fusing the latest in scientific research with fascinating accounts of the creatures that surround us, this is a compelling argument about what life can - and can't - be.

Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about 'minds' that are not human? Science now has plenty to say about the properties of mind. In recent decades, the mind - both human and otherwise - has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found - including in plants, aliens, and God - Philip Ball pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured, and to think about the 'space of possible minds'. By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions. What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will? The more we learn about the minds of other creatures, from octopuses to chimpanzees, and to imagine the potential minds of computers and alien intelligences, the greater the perspective we have on if and how our own is different. Ball's thrillingly ambitious The Book of Minds about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

This book is about a famous Hungarian mathematics competition that was founded in 1894, and thus, the oldest mathematics competition for secondary school students organized on a national scale. This book is based on Volumes III and IV of the Hungarian work by Janos Suranyi, covering the years from 1964 to 1997.Hungary, along with Russia, has a well-deserved reputation for proposing important, instructive, and interesting problems. Here, the reader will find a treasure trove of over 100 of them. The solutions are written carefully, giving all the details, and keeping in mind at all times the overall logical structures of the arguments.An outstanding feature of this book is Part II: Discussion. Here, the problems are divided by topics into six groups. It contains a discussion of the topic in general, followed by the basic results, that precedes the discussions of the individual problems. When a student encounters some difficulty in a problem, this part of the book can be consulted without revealing the complete solution. As an alternative, a student can also start with this part to familiarize with the general topic before attempting any problems. Finally, almost 400 additional problems from the legendary KoeMaL (Secondary School Mathematics and Physics Journal) takes the student to mathematical topics beyond competitions.

In China, lots of excellent maths students take an active part in various maths contests and the best six senior high school students will be selected to form the IMO National Team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad. In the past ten years China's IMO Team has achieved outstanding results - they won the first place almost every year.The authors of this book are coaches of the China national team. They are Xiong Bin, Yao Yijun, Qu Zhenhua et al. Those who took part in the translation work are Zhao Wei and Zhou Tianyou.The materials of this book come from a series of two books (in Chinese) on Forward to IMO: A Collection of Mathematical Olympiad Problems (2019-2020). It is a collection of problems and solutions of the major mathematical competitions in China. It provides a glimpse of how the China national team is selected and formed.

In China, lots of excellent maths students take an active part in various maths contests and the best six senior high school students will be selected to form the IMO National Team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad. In the past ten years China's IMO Team has achieved outstanding results - they won the first place almost every year.The authors of this book are coaches of the China national team. They are Xiong Bin, Yao Yijun, Qu Zhenhua, et al. Those who took part in the translation work are Wang Shanping and Chen Haoran.The materials of this book come from a series of two books (in Chinese) on Forward to IMO: A Collection of Mathematical Olympiad Problems (2017-2018). It is a collection of problems and solutions of the major mathematical competitions in China. It provides a glimpse of how the China national team is selected and formed.

In China, lots of excellent maths students take an active part in various maths contests and the best six senior high school students will be selected to form the IMO National Team to compete in the International Mathematical Olympiad. In the past ten years China's IMO Team has achieved outstanding results - they won the first place almost every year.The authors of this book are coaches of the China national team. They are Xiong Bin, Yao Yijun, Qu Zhenhua, et al. Those who took part in the translation work are Wang Shanping and Chen Haoran.The materials of this book come from a series of two books (in Chinese) on Forward to IMO: A Collection of Mathematical Olympiad Problems (2017-2018). It is a collection of problems and solutions of the major mathematical competitions in China. It provides a glimpse of how the China national team is selected and formed.

Sapiens showed us where we came from. In uncertain times, Homo Deus shows us where we’re going.

Yuval Noah Harari envisions a near future in which we face a new set of challenges. Homo Deus explores the projects, dreams and nightmares that will shape the twenty-first century and beyond – from overcoming death to creating artificial life.

It asks the fundamental questions: how can we protect this fragile world from our own destructive power? And what does our future hold?

'Homo Deus will shock you. It will entertain you. It will make you think in ways you had not thought before’ Daniel Kahneman, bestselling author of Thinking, Fast and Slow

This book is about a famous Hungarian mathematics competition that was founded in 1894, and thus, the oldest mathematics competition for secondary school students organized on a national scale. This book is based on Volumes III and IV of the Hungarian work by Janos Suranyi, covering the years from 1964 to 1997.Hungary, along with Russia, has a well-deserved reputation for proposing important, instructive, and interesting problems. Here, the reader will find a treasure trove of over 100 of them. The solutions are written carefully, giving all the details, and keeping in mind at all times the overall logical structures of the arguments.An outstanding feature of this book is Part II: Discussion. Here, the problems are divided by topics into six groups. It contains a discussion of the topic in general, followed by the basic results, that precedes the discussions of the individual problems. When a student encounters some difficulty in a problem, this part of the book can be consulted without revealing the complete solution. As an alternative, a student can also start with this part to familiarize with the general topic before attempting any problems. Finally, almost 400 additional problems from the legendary KoeMaL (Secondary School Mathematics and Physics Journal) takes the student to mathematical topics beyond competitions.

Seduction is not just an end result, but a process - and in mathematics, both the end results and the process by which those end results are achieved are often charming and elegant.This helps to explain why so many people - not just those for whom math plays a key role in their day-to-day lives - have found mathematics so seductive. Math is unique among all subjects in that it contains end results of amazing insight and power, and lines of reasoning that are clever, charming, and elegant. This book is a collection of those results and lines of reasoning that make us say, 'OMG, that's just amazing,' - because that's what mathematics is to those who love it. In addition, some of the stories about mathematical discoveries and the people who discovered them are every bit as fascinating as the discoveries themselves.This book contains material capable of being appreciated by students in elementary school - as well as some material that will probably be new to even the more mathematically sophisticated. Most of the book can be easily understood by those whose only math courses are algebra and geometry, and who may have missed the magic, enchantment, and wonder that is the special province of mathematics.

Making Sense of the Senses provides an easily understandable and engaging overview of the senses. The book allows readers insights into how humans and other animals perceive the world, reflecting a level of knowledge similar to that acquired by studying neuroscience at an undergraduate level. In order to offer an accessible introduction to the science, it uses relatable examples to uncover the history, evolution, and biological principles of the way we see, smell, hear, taste, touch and more.Rather than only focusing on the five primary senses you can see on the cover, Making Sense of the Senses dives deep into the various methods through which life across the planet surveys the world, and guides the reader through the lesser-known methods through which we humans interpret our surroundings. In this way, we come across some amazing abilities that we often forget we possess.Humans are nevertheless rather average creatures compared to many sensory specialists. So when we compare our relatively modest capabilities to those of other species across the animal kingdom, we are forced to yield our anthropocentric sense of supremacy. This book will introduce how biological life developed the capacity to detect magnetic fields, radioactivity, and many more phenomena that until recently were inaccessible to humans.By contextualising and comparing how the senses operate, this book covers the sensory systems in a way no popular science book has previously done. If you are starting your career in neuroscience, or simply want to learn more about the ways our biology guides us through life, Making Sense of the Senses will change the way you think about our perception of the world.

The main task of the initial period of studying physics is inculcating the interest and enthusiasm of children in this subject. The root cause of all interest is surprise, and for children there is almost nothing more surprising than a new and unusual toy. There is a whole class of toys with unusual mechanisms, behaviour, or way of interacting with them. Having explained to the child the not quite ordinary, and often paradoxical, properties of such toys, we can gradually instil in him an interest in physics as one of the most important sciences about the nature of the surrounding world. The main purpose of the book is to arouse interest in the study of physics with the help of toys that everyone has loved since childhood.The book contains descriptions of the toys in which, with the help of explanations of the devices and principles of operation, the basic physical laws are revealed, together with perspectives of phenomena and patterns, practical significance, as well as historical information. The individual descriptions contain the minimum necessary mathematical calculations as well as information of environmental, statistical, and household orientations. All toys are systematized according to 4 chapters: Mechanics, Liquids and Gases, Electricity, and Optics.To a large extent, self-production of simple scientific toys can increase interest and enthusiasm in the process of teaching physics. To this end, the fifth chapter provides step-by-step instructions for making 14 such homemade toys from the most affordable materials using the simplest tools. The participation of teachers or parents in the process of making these toys by young children will undoubtedly provide positive emotions and establish trusting relationships.

Seduction is not just an end result, but a process - and in mathematics, both the end results and the process by which those end results are achieved are often charming and elegant.This helps to explain why so many people - not just those for whom math plays a key role in their day-to-day lives - have found mathematics so seductive. Math is unique among all subjects in that it contains end results of amazing insight and power, and lines of reasoning that are clever, charming, and elegant. This book is a collection of those results and lines of reasoning that make us say, 'OMG, that's just amazing,' - because that's what mathematics is to those who love it. In addition, some of the stories about mathematical discoveries and the people who discovered them are every bit as fascinating as the discoveries themselves.This book contains material capable of being appreciated by students in elementary school - as well as some material that will probably be new to even the more mathematically sophisticated. Most of the book can be easily understood by those whose only math courses are algebra and geometry, and who may have missed the magic, enchantment, and wonder that is the special province of mathematics.

We grow up thinking there are five senses, but we forget about the ten neglected senses of the body that both enable and limit our experience. Embodied explores the psychology of physical sensation in ten chapters: balance, movement, pressure (acting in gravity), breathing, fatigue, pain, itch, temperature, appetite, and expulsion (the senses of physical matter leaving the body). For each sense, two people are interviewed who live with extreme experiences of the sense being investigated; their stories bring to life how far physical sensations matter to us and how much they define what is possible in our life. How physical sensation shapes behavior and how behavior is shaped by sensation are examined. A final chapter presents a theory of what is common across the ten senses: of how we deal with being urged to act, and what happens when extreme sensation is inescapable.

We are a restless, world-changing species. We are the only organism that combines a multitude of abilities to harness the rules of nature, continuously manipulating our environment, its resources and even our own bodies to fit our ever-changing needs and desires. What is it that enables us to share some 99 percent of DNA as well as some basic behaviors with other organisms, yet at the same time be so different and powerful?Coalescing understandings driven from biology, psychology, anthropology, history and more, Ben David addresses the above question using a new paradigm: The Gordian knot between five human traits - imagination, creative making, complex communication, change and intergenerational transfer - evolutionary developed and co-amplified as the ultra-complex system called Homo sapiens. Weaving personal stories with professional experience, Ben David narrates innovative definitions of technology, education, science and their co-dependence; emphasizes their roles in the development of human societies; deliberates their implications on everyday life; discusses the crucial role of science education; and offers a fresh look at who we are as the leading species on this planet.Dr Liat Ben David is the CEO of the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of Israel's acclaimed Weizmann Institute of Science. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and has more than 30 years of experience in the field of STEM education. Ben David teaches regularly in various spheres, including academia and TEDx; she is an accomplished author who has published numerous articles and books.

We are a restless, world-changing species. We are the only organism that combines a multitude of abilities to harness the rules of nature, continuously manipulating our environment, its resources and even our own bodies to fit our ever-changing needs and desires. What is it that enables us to share some 99 percent of DNA as well as some basic behaviors with other organisms, yet at the same time be so different and powerful?Coalescing understandings driven from biology, psychology, anthropology, history and more, Ben David addresses the above question using a new paradigm: The Gordian knot between five human traits - imagination, creative making, complex communication, change and intergenerational transfer - evolutionary developed and co-amplified as the ultra-complex system called Homo sapiens. Weaving personal stories with professional experience, Ben David narrates innovative definitions of technology, education, science and their co-dependence; emphasizes their roles in the development of human societies; deliberates their implications on everyday life; discusses the crucial role of science education; and offers a fresh look at who we are as the leading species on this planet.Dr Liat Ben David is the CEO of the Davidson Institute of Science Education, the educational arm of Israel's acclaimed Weizmann Institute of Science. She holds a PhD in Molecular Biology and has more than 30 years of experience in the field of STEM education. Ben David teaches regularly in various spheres, including academia and TEDx; she is an accomplished author who has published numerous articles and books.

Arthur Conan Doyle's enduringly popular Sherlock Holmes has his own undeniable place in the public eye. Holmes is often seen applying concepts of some branch of science in his work, discussing scientific matters with Watson, or is involved in situations where the applicability of the formal sciences is apparent. The Scientific Sherlock Holmes connects Holmes' vegetable poisons with concepts in botany, his use of fingerprinting with forensic science, and carbon monoxide poisoning and hemoglobin tests with concepts in chemistry, thus integrating the Holmes stories with all branches of science.