THE SUNDAY TIMES AND NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER A SPECTATOR AND FINANCIAL TIMES BEST BOOK OF 2022 'If you read just one book about how the modern world is driving us crazy, read this one' TELEGRAPH 'This book is exactly what the world needs right now' OPRAH WINFREY 'A beautifully researched and argued exploration of the breakdown of humankind's ability to pay attention' STEPHEN FRY 'A really important book . . . Everyone should read it' PHILIPPA PERRY Why have we lost our ability to focus? What are the causes? And, most importantly, how do we get it back? For Stolen Focus, internationally bestselling author Johann Hari went on a three-year journey to uncover the reasons behind our shortening attention spans. He interviewed the leading experts in the world on attention, and learned that everything we think about this subject is wrong. We think our inability to focus is a personal failing - a flaw in each one of us. It is not. This has been done to all of us by powerful external forces. Our focus has been stolen. Johann discovered there are twelve deep causes of this crisis, all of which have robbed some of our attention. He shows us how in a thrilling journey that ranges from Silicon Valley dissidents, to a favela in Rio where attention vanished, to an office in New Zealand that found a remarkable way to restore our attention. Crucially, he learned how - as individuals, and as a society - we can get our focus back, if we are determined to fight for it.

"More than anything else technology creates our world. It creates our wealth, our economy, our very way of being," says W. Brian Arthur. Yet despite technology's irrefutable importance in our daily lives, until now its major questions have gone unanswered. Where do new technologies come from? What constitutes innovation, and how is it achieved? Does technology, like biological life, evolve? In this groundbreaking work, pioneering technology thinker and economist W. Brian Arthur answers these questions and more, setting forth a boldly original way of thinking about technology.
"The Nature of Technology "is an elegant and powerful theory of technology's origins and evolution. Achieving for the development of technology what Thomas Kuhn's "The Structure of Scientific Revolutions "did for scientific progress, Arthur explains how transformative new technologies arise and how innovation really works. Drawing on a wealth of examples, from historical inventions to the high-tech wonders of today, Arthur takes us on a mind-opening journey that will change the way we think about technology and how it structures our lives. "The Nature of Technology "is a classic for our times.

While much has been written about the U.S. Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program from both an institutional and a policy perspective, there remains a conspicuous void of general information about firms and research projects that are funded through the program. Providing a multi-dimensional picture of such firms and their projects, this incisive book is designed to help the reader understand in more depth the social benefits associated with the SBIR program. Albert N. Link and Martijn van Hasselt discuss the U.S. SBIR program from an institutional, empirical, and policy perspective, examining the policy transfer of the program to other countries, the transfer of technical knowledge through patents and scientific publications, and the technology transfer of commercialised research outputs. Exploring new program and project relationships, the book could serve as a springboard for future in-depth analyses about the SBIR program and its impact on economic and social matters. Forward-thinking in approach, Small Firms and U.S. Technology Policy provides a roadmap for future academic and policy research into the SBIR program, making it a valuable read for scholars and students of business and management studies. U.S. and international policymakers and business owners will also benefit from its discerning look into the SBIR program.

WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2022 'Exhilaratingly whizzes through billions of years . . . Gee is a marvellously engaging writer, juggling humour, precision, polemic and poetry to enrich his impossibly telescoped account . . . [making] clear sense out of very complex narratives' - The Times 'Henry Gee makes the kaleidoscopically changing canvas of life understandable and exciting. Who will enjoy reading this book? - Everybody!' Jared Diamond, author of Guns, Germs, and Steel For billions of years, Earth was an inhospitably alien place - covered with churning seas, slowly crafting its landscape by way of incessant volcanic eruptions, the atmosphere in a constant state of chemical flux. And yet, despite facing literally every conceivable setback that living organisms could encounter, life has been extinguished and picked itself up to evolve again. Life has learned and adapted and continued through the billions of years that followed. It has weathered fire and ice. Slimes begat sponges, who through billions of years of complex evolution and adaptation grew a backbone, braved the unknown of pitiless shores, and sought an existence beyond the sea. From that first foray to the spread of early hominids who later became Homo sapiens, life has persisted, undaunted. A (Very) Short History of Life is an enlightening story of survival, of persistence, illuminating the delicate balance within which life has always existed, and continues to exist today. It is our planet like you've never seen it before. Life teems through Henry Gee's words - colossal supercontinents drift, collide, and coalesce, fashioning the face of the planet as we know it today. Creatures are engagingly personified, from 'gregarious' bacteria populating the seas to duelling dinosaurs in the Triassic period to magnificent mammals with the future in their (newly evolved) grasp. Those long extinct, almost alien early life forms are resurrected in evocative detail. Life's evolutionary steps - from the development of a digestive system to the awe of creatures taking to the skies in flight - are conveyed with an alluring, up-close intimacy.

Tons of ACT Science practice in an easy-to-use format-updated to match the latest exam requirements, and now featuring a 20-question Diagnostic Quiz Practice makes perfect, and with 500 ACT Science Questions to Know by Test Day, Third Edition, you'll get a ton of practice-with hundreds of questions, smart test-taking tips, and a 20-question Diagnostic Quiz to help you track your progress. It's the perfect way to sharpen your skills and build your confidence for test day. Organized by subject with detailed answers to every question, 500 ACT Science Questions to Know by Test Day, Third Edition provides excellent practice to help you make the most of your review time. With small bits of information presented for quick and easy reference and smart strategies for test day, this essential study guide is helpful for all types of students, whether you're looking for a thorough refresh of topics or need extra help understanding specific question types. Features: 500 ACT Science questions and answers organized by subject, refreshed to match the latest exam requirements NEW! 20 Question Diagnostic Quiz to test your knowledge Written to parallel the topic and format of the science section of the ACT, accompanied by answers with comprehensive explanations Ideal and effective practice to help build the skills you need

Digital transformation continues to accelerate change in all aspects of modern life. This book examines when, where, how, and why artificial intelligence and digital change can boost innovation and transform the economy, society and democracy. It provides a holistic approach to the promotion of the knowledge economy, knowledge society and knowledge democracy. The book is developed based on the Cyber-D4 nexus, which is a conceptual framework of Cyber-Defense, Cyber-Development, Cyber-Democracy, and Cyber-Diplomacy, and it adopts a Quadruple/Quintuple Innovation Helix (Q2IH) approach. This nexus ties new national and industrial cyber strategies, including business strategies for smart cities and the Internet of Things, with the local, national, regional, and global security and economic objectives. Academics, policy makers, practitioners, researchers and students in combined fields of science, technology, innovation and entrepreneurship, digital transformation, artificial intelligence and the future of industry will appreciate the lens through which the chapter authors explore both the minutiae and expansive influence of digital transformation.

In his many previous books John Haught established a reputation as the leading Catholic theological voice in the study of science and religion. In this work he offers his most systematic theological reflections on the relation between Christian revelation and the unfolding story of the universe. In the face of recent discoveries some maintain their faith by clinging to a pre-scientific worldview; others conclude that perhaps "the universe has outgrown the biblical God who is said to be its creator." For Haught, however, exploration of the "three infinities" - the immense, the infinitesimal, and the complex - serves as invitation to an unprecedented appreciation for the grandeur of God, creation, Christ, and redemption.

This insightful Handbook scrutinizes alternative concepts and approaches to the dominant economic or industrial theories of innovation. Providing an assessment of these approaches, it questions the absence of these neglected types of innovation and suggests diverse theories. International contributors provide a historical and critical analysis of all aspects of innovation, answering important questions such as 'are we just reinventing the wheel?'. Examining concepts that have existed for over a decade, chapters provide clarity on answering this question and investigate whether progress is actually being made. Split into seven parts, starting with the visions of innovation and reviewing multiple approaches and types of innovation, as well as utilising case studies to illustrate theories, this timely book provides an excellent update to this field. This Handbook will be an invaluable resource for scholars and researchers of business management and public policy as well as policy makers and stakeholders.

This cutting-edge Handbook offers fresh perspectives on the key topics related to the unequal use of digital technologies. Considering the ways in which technologies are employed, variations in conditions under which people use digital media and differences in their digital skills, it unpacks the implications of digital inequality on life outcomes. International contributors assess a variety of key contexts that impact access to digital technologies, including contextual variations related to geography and infrastructure, as well as individual differences related to age, income, health and disability status. Chapters explore how variations emerge across the life course, illustrating the effects of digital disparities on personal wellbeing. Intervening in critical debates relating to the digital divide, this Handbook offers key insights into privacy and trust issues that affect technological usage. Employing both quantitative and qualitative investigations into the relationship between social inequality and the Internet, this Handbook is crucial reading for scholars and researchers in both communication and sociology, particularly those focusing on digital inequalities and human-computer interaction. It will also benefit policymakers in need of innovative approaches to understanding, challenging and addressing the digital divide.

The book gives an overview of the current state-of-the-art concerning the activation and dissolution of cellulose in a broad variety of solvents. Research on this topic can lead to new pathways for the utilization of the most abundant terrestrial biomolecule and may therefore be the basis for new green strategies towards advanced materials. Leading scientists in the field show different conceptions for the solubilization of cellulose. The long history and groundbreaking developments in the field of polymer chemistry, which are related to this subject, have lead to timely alternatives to already established methods. In addition to discussing attempts for the optimization of known dissolving procedures, this book also details new solvent systems. New solvents include inorganic and organic salt melts (ionic liquids), new aqueous media, multi-component organic solvents and the dissolution under partial derivatization of the polysaccharide. The opportunities and the limitations of the solvents are demonstrated, with a particular emphasis on the stability of the solutions and a possible recycling of the solvent components.
This book illustrates that the new procedures for cellulose dissolution can lead to a huge number of unconventional superstructures of regenerated cellulose material, such as fibers and polymer layers with a thickness in the nanometer range or aerogels, i.e. regenerates with a highly porous character and a large surface. Moreover, cellulose blends can be generated via solutions. The book also contains chapters that show the amazing potential of solvents for defined modification reactions on the cellulose backbone. On one hand, it is possible to synthesize known cellulose derivatives with new substitution patterns both on the basis of the repeating unit and along the polymer chain. On the other hand, completely new derivatives are presented which are hardly accessible via heterogeneous reactions. Consequently, the book is intended to give a comprehensive overview of procedures for dissolution of cellulose. It is of interest for scientists new in the field but is also a timely summary of trends for experts who are looking for new approaches for problems related to cellulose shaping or chemical modification.

Breakthroughs in science and technology increasingly happen outside of firms in informal interorganizational communities of innovators. The effort of a group on a specific topic across firms, expertise, and geography can function as an emergent organizational form, capable of great productivity. Using data from computer science, basic research, and management strategy to identify and study these intense clusters of innovators, or 'knowledge communities,' this book illuminates the new organizational logics that govern such collective success. The interplay between organizational boundaries and interorganizational collaboration reveals interesting and counterintuitive lessons about how science and technology work in practice. These insights fundamentally challenge the centrality of both firm boundaries and geographic clusters for innovation in favor of a decentralized network perspective. Academics seeking to understand innovation in science and technology, allocators of grants and research support, corporate R&D departments, policy makers and NGOs, venture capitalists, and management consultants will all benefit from this original and challenging work.

When Oliver Sacks was twelve years old, a perceptive schoolmaster wrote in his report: 'Sacks will go far, if he does not go too far'. It is now abundantly clear that Sacks has never stopped going . . . From its opening pages on his youthful obsession with motorcycles and speed, On the Move is infused with his restless energy. As he recounts his experiences as a young neurologist in the early 1960s, first in California and then in New York, where he discovered a long-forgotten illness in the back wards of a chronic hospital, as well as with a group of patients who would define his life, it becomes clear that Sacks's earnest desire for engagement has occasioned unexpected encounters and travels - sending him through bars and alleys, over oceans, and across continents. With unbridled honesty and humour, Sacks shows us that the same energy that drives his physical passions -bodybuilding, weightlifting, and swimming - also drives his cerebral passions. He writes about his love affairs, both romantic and intellectual, his guilt over leaving his family to come to America, his bond with his schizophrenic brother, and the writers and scientists - Thom Gunn, A. R. Luria, W. H. Auden, Gerald M. Edelman, Francis Crick - who influenced him. On the Move is the story of a brilliantly unconventional physician and writer - and of the man who has illuminated the many ways that the brain makes us human.

THE NO.1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'A beautiful little book by a brilliant mind' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'Effortlessly instructive, absorbing, up to the minute and - where it matters - witty' GUARDIAN The world-famous cosmologist and #1 bestselling author of A Brief History of Time leaves us with his final thoughts on the universe's biggest questions in this brilliant posthumous work. Is there a God? How did it all begin? Can we predict the future? What is inside a black hole? Is there other intelligent life in the universe? Will artificial intelligence outsmart us? How do we shape the future? Will we survive on Earth? Should we colonise space? Is time travel possible? Throughout his extraordinary career, Stephen Hawking expanded our understanding of the universe and unravelled some of its greatest mysteries. But even as his theoretical work on black holes, imaginary time and multiple histories took his mind to the furthest reaches of space, Hawking always believed that science could also be used to fix the problems on our planet. And now, as we face potentially catastrophic changes here on Earth - from climate change to dwindling natural resources to the threat of artificial super-intelligence - Stephen Hawking turns his attention to the most urgent issues for humankind. Wide-ranging, intellectually stimulating, passionately argued, and infused with his characteristic humour, Brief Answers to the Big Questions, the final book from one of the greatest minds in history, is a personal view on the challenges we face as a human race, and where we, as a planet, are heading next. A percentage of all royalties will go to charity.

In this insightful book, Peter Edlund takes a status-based approach to theorizing the development of the European Research Council (ERC). Drawing upon rich empirical material, the author vividly details how the ERC was transformed from a funding organization into an authoritative status intermediary in European science. Edlund's innovative approach illustrates the ERC's path toward pre-eminence, building on a theoretical framework that the author uses to analyze evidence from Swedish and European contexts in an intriguing exploration of research funding allocated under the flagship Starting Grant scheme. Offering a field perspective on the multi-layered interactions between candidates and audiences within which the ERC was constructed as a status intermediary, this book redirects attention toward key antecedents that allow us to understand many of the extensive consequences generated by the ERC's funding. Blending theoretical models and empirical findings, Edlund's book will appeal to academics seeking advances in status theory. Practitioners and policymakers working with research funding will also benefit from its account of the historic development of the ERC and the consequences of its funding across Europe.

This innovative book explores the foundations of the smart city and, through a critique of its challenges and concerns, showcases how to redefine the concept for increased sustainability, liveability and resilience in urban areas. It undertakes a review of the smart city concept, providing a new perspective on how technology-based urban solutions must be centred around human dimensions to render more liveable urban fabrics. Chapters highlight how existing digital infrastructures can be coupled with emerging ones, so that they can provide increased efficiency and performance, with an ultimate objective of rendering safer, more sustainable, resilient and inclusive cities, aligning with the needs of the SDGs. The book also covers emerging technologies and concepts, such as 6G and the '15-minute city', underlining how these can develop within smart city frameworks. This is an invigorating look into the concept of the smart city and how it can be improved and rethought, making it useful for urban studies and human geography academics and researchers. It also offers helpful insights for policy makers and planners on how to increase the quality of life in modern cities.

Recent events have vividly underscored the societal importance of science, yet the majority of the public are unaware that a large proportion of published scientific results are simply wrong. The Problem with Science is an exploration of the manifestations and causes of this scientific crisis, accompanied by a description of the very promising corrective initiatives largely developed over the past decade to stem the spate of irreproducible results that have come to characterize many of our sciences. More importantly, Dr. R. Barker Bausell has designed it to provide guidance to practicing and aspiring scientists regarding how (a) to change the way in which science has come to be both conducted and reported in order to avoid producing false positive, irreproducible results in their own work and (b) to change those institutional practices (primarily but not exclusively involving the traditional journal publishing process and the academic reward system) that have unwittingly contributed to the present crisis. There is a need for change in the scientific culture itself. A culture which prioritizes conducting research correctly in order to get things right rather than simply getting it published.

Providing an insightful analysis of the key issues and significant trends relating to labour within the platform economy, this Modern Guide considers the existing comparative evidence covering all world regions. It also provides an in-depth look at digital labour platforms in their historical, economic and geographical contexts. Highlighting the diversity of experience of platform work, case studies illustrate how general trends play out, both in online and location-based labour platforms, across the globe. Chapters illustrate a need for a post-pandemic regulatory requirement of digital labour platforms at different policy levels, whilst providing a general overview of key topics. Interlinking contributions with a global scope and coverage identify the challenges faced and offer thoughtful regulatory solutions. This engaging book will be an invaluable resource for academics of labour economics, legal and business studies and sociology. It will also benefit policy makers in social and political geography and political science looking for a deeper understanding of the topic.

This collection sheds new light on the nature, role and practice of philosophy and science in the renewed Berlin Academy from the mid-1740s to the 1770s, and in so doing provides a robust new instalment of materials for the broader task of constructing a historiography of philosophy at this important Enlightenment institution. The collection ranges from discussions of the roles of philosophy and natural philosophy in the formation of the reinvigorated Academy in the mid-1740s, to conceptions of the correct philosophical methodology to be deployed by the Academy. It provides the first ever study of the nature and arrangement of the new classes of the Academy, and a fresh appraisal of the Academy's methodological eclecticism. One recurring theme is the status of metaphysics: there are studies of both special metaphysics, including the study of the soul; general metaphysics, that is, the study of being in general; and foundational metaphysical principles and concepts, such as Maupertuis's Principle of least action, Euler's concept of space and Lambert's notion of an experimental metaphysics. The collection also takes the study of the Academy in new directions through focused studies of important figures whose writings deserve to be better understood, such as Jean Bernard Merian, Louis de Beausobre, Jean Henri Samuel Formey and Johann Georg Sulzer.

In Women After All, anthropologist Melvin Konner traces the arc of evolution to explain the relationships between women and men. Drawing on colorful examples from the natural world the octopus, the black widow spider, and coral reef fish, which can switch from male to female in a single reproductive career he sheds light on our biologically different human identities and the poignant exceptions that challenge the male/female divide. We meet hunter-gatherers in Botswana whose culture gave women a prominent place, inventing the working mother and respecting women s voices around the fire. History upset this balance as a dense world of war fostered extreme male dominance. But our species has been recovering over the past two centuries, and an unstoppable move toward equality is afoot. It will not be the end of men, but it will be the end of male supremacy and a better, wiser world for women and men alike."

Data Ethics of Power takes a reflective and fresh look at the ethical implications of transforming everyday life and the world through the effortless, costless, and seamless accumulation of extra layers of data. By shedding light on the constant tensions that exist between ethical principles and the interests invested in this socio-technical transformation, the book bridges the theory and practice divide in the study of the power dynamics that underpin these processes of the digitalization of the world. Gry Hasselbalch expertly draws on nearly two decades of experience in the field, and key literature, to advance a better understanding of the challenges faced by big data and AI developers. She provides an innovative ethical framework for studying and governing Big-Data and Artificial Intelligence. Offering both a historical account and a theoretical analysis of power dynamics and their ethical implications, as well as incisive ideas to guide future research and governance practices, the book makes a significant contribution to the establishment of an emerging data and AI ethics discipline. This timely book is a must-read for scholars studying AI, data, and technology ethics. Policymakers in the regulatory, governance, public administration, and management sectors will find the practical proposals for a human-centric approach to big data and AI to be a valuable resource for revising and developing future policies.

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.

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.