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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues
This is an account of the author's investigation, on behalf of the
Canadian government, into the life and ideas of the eccentric
genius Nikola Tesla. This is a completely revised and redesigned
edition, with a new introduction by the former head of the Tesla
Museum, a new chapter and a selection of photographs of Tesla and
his work in search of the holy grail of electricity - the
transmission of power without loss. As a student in Prague in the
1870s, Tesla "saw" the electric induction motor and patented his
discovery, -the first of many inventions whose plans seem to have
come to him fully fledged. He worked for the Edison company in
Paris before emigrating to the US and battling with Thomas Edison
himself to ensure that alternating, rather than direct current,
became the standard. He sold his patent in the induction motor for
$1 million dollars to George Westinghouse, who used this system for
the Niagara Falls Power Project. Moving to Colorado Springs, Tesla
worked on resonance, building enormous oscillating towers in
experiments which still intrigue today. In later life Tesla became
a recluse, bombarding newspapers with eccentric claims, including
energy transmissions to other planets. Though he died alone and
virtually forgotten, rumours gradually grew that Tesla had made
further remarkable discoveries. In an attempt to replicate his
experiments, people still build Tesla towers and puzzle over the
possible link with low-frequency broadcasts which can supposedly
disrupt the weather and affect the human mind.
Throughout history, humans have dreamed of knowing the reason for the existence of the universe. In The Mind of God, physicist Paul Davies explores whether modern science can provide the key that will unlock this last secret. In his quest for an ultimate explanation, Davies reexamines the great questions that have preoccupied humankind for millennia, and in the process explores, among other topics, the origin and evolution of the cosmos, the nature of life and consciousness, and the claim that our universe is a kind of gigantic computer. Charting the ways in which the theories of such scientists as Newton, Einstein, and more recently Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman have altered our conception of the physical universe. Davies puts these scientists' discoveries into context with the writings of philosophers such as Plato. Descartes, Hume, and Kant. His startling conclusion is that the universe is "no minor byproduct of mindless, purposeless forces. We are truly meant to be here." By the means of science, we can truly see into the mind of God.
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Honey Bee Health
(Hardcover)
Giovanni Cilia, Antonio Nanetti
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R1,942
R1,668
Discovery Miles 16 680
Save R274 (14%)
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Elgar Advanced Introductions are stimulating and thoughtful
introductions to major fields in the social sciences and law,
expertly written by the world's leading scholars. Designed to be
accessible yet rigorous, they offer concise and lucid surveys of
the substantive and policy issues associated with discrete subject
areas. This cutting edge book introduces the origins and
consequences of digital platforms, examining how artificial
intelligence-enabled digital platforms collect and process data
from and about users by providing social media and e-commerce
services. Robin Mansell and W. Edward Steinmueller compare and
contrast neoclassical, institutional and critical political economy
approaches. They show how uneven power relationships between
platform operators and their users are analysed in different
economic traditions. Key features include: analysis of economic and
public values provides a foundation for platform regulation
examines the impacts of platforms on the media industry challenges
claims of the inevitability of platform dominance discusses key
challenges, including: artificial intelligence, data sharing and
competition in the digital economy. This concise book will be
indispensable for advanced undergraduate and postgraduate students
of media and communication studies, innovation studies and
economics, particularly those focusing on platform economics.
The Extinction of Experience explores the way a broad range of
technologies, from the microwave to the sophisticated computer
simulator, now influence our everyday choices-what we eat, how we
educate our children, how we get to and from work, and how we spend
our leisure time. It is about one of the defining challenges of our
age: how to live in the real world, with all of its messy physical
realities, unmediated? Daily intimacy with the physical world
recedes, little by little, at the same time that the worlds we
access through the screen grow exponentially. More and more, we
know our world through information about it rather than experience
with it. And it is changing who we are. The Extinction of
Experience is a book about this transformation.
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