From the author of The History of the World in 100 Animals, a BBC Radio Four Book of the Week, comes an inspirational new book that looks at the 100 plants that have had the greatest impact on humanity, stunningly illustrated throughout. As humans, we hold the planet in the palms of ours hands. But we still consume the energy of the sun in the form of food. The sun is available for consumption because of plants. Plants make food from the sun by the process of photosynthesis; nothing else in the world can do this. We eat plants, or we do so at second hand, by eating the eaters of plants. Plants give us food. Plants take in carbon dioxide and push out oxygen: they give us the air we breathe, direct the rain that falls and moderate the climate. Plants also give us shelter, beauty, comfort, meaning, buildings, boats, containers, musical instruments, medicines and religious symbols. We use flowers for love, we use flowers for death. The fossils of plants power our industries and our transport. Across history we have used plants to store knowledge, to kill, to fuel wars, to change our state of consciousness, to indicate our status. The first gun was a plant, we got fire from plants, we have enslaved people for the sake of plants. We humans like to see ourselves as a species that has risen above the animal kingdom, doing what we will with the world. But we couldn't live for a day without plants. Our past is all about plants, our present is all tied up with plants; and without plants there is no future. From the mighty oak to algae, from cotton to coca here are a hundred reasons why.

A pioneer in forensic anthropology, Dr. Bill Bass created the world's first laboratory dedicated to the study of human decomposition--three acres on a hillside in Tennessee where human bodies are left to the elements. His research has revolutionized forensic science, but during a career that has spanned half a century, Bass and his work have ranged far beyond the gates of the "Body Farm."

In this riveting book, the renowned bone sleuth explores the rise of modern forensic science and takes readers deep into the real world of crime scene investigation. Beyond the Body Farm is an extraordinary journey through some of the most fascinating investigations of Dr. Bass's career--and a remarkable look at the high-tech science used to crack the most perplexing cases.

In the visionary tradition of Rachel Carson's "Silent Spring, One Square Inch of Silence "alerts us to beauty that we take for granted and sounds an urgent environmental alarm. Natural silence is our nation's fastest-disappearing resource, warns Emmy-winning acoustic ecologist Gordon Hempton, who has made it his mission to record and preserve it in all its variety--before these soul-soothing terrestrial soundscapes vanish completely in the ever-rising din of man-made noise. Recalling the great works on nature written by John Muir, John McPhee, and Peter Matthiessen, this beautifully written narrative, co-authored with John Grossmann, is also a quintessentially American story--a road trip across the continent from west to east in a 1964 VW bus. But no one has crossed America like this. Armed with his recording equipment and a decibel-measuring sound-level meter, Hempton bends an inquisitive and loving ear to the varied natural voices of the American landscape--bugling elk, trilling thrushes, and drumming, endangered prairie chickens. He is an equally patient and perceptive listener when talking with people he meets on his journey about the importance of quiet in their lives. By the time he reaches his destination, Washington, D.C., where he meets with federal officials to press his case for natural silence preservation, Hempton has produced a historic and unforgettable sonic record of America. With the incisiveness of Jack Kerouac's observations on the road and the stirring wisdom of Robert Pirsig repairing an aging vehicle and his life, "One Square Inch of Silence "provides a moving call to action. More than simply a book, it is an actual place, too, located in one of America's last naturally quiet places, in Olympic National Park in Washington State.

Seed magazine brings together a unique gathering of prominent scientists, artists, novelists, philosophers + other thinkers who are tearing down the wall between science + culture.

We are on the cusp of a twenty-first-century scientific renaissance. Science is driving our culture and conversation unlike ever before, transforming the social, political, economic, aesthetic, and intellectual landscape of our time. Today, science is culture. As global issues--like energy and health--become increasingly interconnected, and as our curiosities--like how the mind works or why the universe is expanding--become more complex, we need a new way of looking at the world that blurs the lines between scientific disciplines and the borders between the sciences and the arts and humanities. In this spirit, the award-winning science magazine Seed has paired scientists with nonscientists to explore ideas of common interest to us all. This book is the result of these illuminating Seed Salon conversations, edited and with an introduction by Seedfounder and editor in chief Adam Bly. Science Is Culture includes:

E. O. Wilson + Daniel C. Dennet

Steven Pinker + Rebecca Goldstein

Noam Chomsky + Robert Trivers

David Byrne + Daniel Levitin

Jonathan Lethem + Janna Levin

Benoit Mandelbrot + Paola Antonelli

Lisa Randall + Chuck Hoberman

Michel Gondry + Robert Stickgold

Alan Lightman + Richard Colton

Laurie David + Stephen Schneider

Tom Wolfe + Michael Gazzaniga

Marc Hauser + Errol Morris

Highly praised for its exceptional clarity, conversational style and useful examples, Introductory Business Statistics, 7e, International Edition was written specifically for you. This proven, popular text cuts through the jargon to help you understand fundamental statistical concepts and why they are important to you, your world, and your career. The text's outstanding illustrations, friendly language, non-technical terminology, and current, real-world examples will capture your interest and prepare you for success right from the start.

"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.

‘Steve Brusatte, the author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs, brings mammals out from the shadow of their more showy predecessors in a beautifully written book that . . . makes the case for them as creatures who are just as engaging as dinosaurs.’ – The Sunday Times, ‘Best Books For Summer’ 'In this terrific new book, Steve Brusatte . . . brings well-known extinct species, the sabre-toothed tigers and the woolly mammoths, thrillingly back to life' – The Times The passing of the age of the dinosaurs allowed mammals to become ascendant. But mammals have a much deeper history. They – or, more precisely, we – originated around the same time as the dinosaurs, over 200 million years ago; mammal roots lie even further back, some 325 million years. Over these immense stretches of geological time, mammals developed their trademark features: hair, keen senses of smell and hearing, big brains and sharp intelligence, fast growth and warm-blooded metabolism, a distinctive line-up of teeth (canines, incisors, premolars, molars), mammary glands that mothers use to nourish their babies with milk, qualities that have underlain their success story. Out of this long and rich evolutionary history came the mammals of today, including our own species and our closest cousins. But today’s 6,000 mammal species - the egg-laying monotremes including the platypus, marsupials such as kangaroos and koalas that raise their tiny babies in pouches, and placentals like us, who give birth to well-developed young – are simply the few survivors of a once verdant family tree, which has been pruned both by time and mass extinctions. In The Rise and Reign of the Mammals, palaeontologist Steve Brusatte weaves together the history and evolution of our mammal forebears with stories of the scientists whose fieldwork and discoveries underlie our knowledge, both of iconic mammals like the mammoths and sabre-toothed tigers of which we have all heard, and of fascinating species that few of us are aware of. For what we see today is but a very limited range of the mammals that have existed; in this fascinating and ground-breaking book, Steve Brusatte tells their – and our – story.

THE PERFECT GIFT FOR ALL BIBLIOMANIACS A BOOK OF THE YEAR IN THE TIMES, FINANCIAL TIMES, SPECTATOR AND DAILY MAIL A WATERSTONES BEST POPULAR SCIENCE BOOK 2022 Plunge into this rich and surprising A-Z compendium to discover how our fixations have taken shape, from the Middle Ages to the present day, as bestselling author Kate Summerscale deftly traces the threads between the past and present, the psychological and social, the personal and the political. 'Fascinating ... Phobias and manias create a magical space between us and the world' Malcolm Gaskill, author of the No. 1 bestseller The Ruin of All Witches 'Fascinating' Observer 'An endlessly intriguing book ... All the bibliomanes (book nutters) I know will love it' Daily Mail

Searching for paid tasks via digital labour platforms, such as Uber, Deliveroo and Fiverr, has become a global phenomenon and the regular source of income for millions of people. In the advent of digital labour platforms, this insightful book sheds new light on familiar questions about tensions between competition and cooperation, short-term gains and long-term success, and private benefits and public costs. Drawing on a wealth of knowledge from a range of disciplines, including law, management, psychology, economics, sociology and geography, it pieces together a nuanced picture of the societal challenges posed by the platform economy. Chapters present a comprehensive, multidisciplinary overview of the rise of gig work, reflecting on long-term developments in the gig economy and incorporating contemporary developments into the rich theoretical and empirical literature on the topic. Charting new research territory, the book addresses key academic and policy challenges, arming readers with relevant analytical tools and practical solutions to face common problems. This book comprises a key reference for future research on the topic as well as critical policy measures for addressing challenges relating to gig work. Offering an integrated outline of the latest insights, this book is crucial reading for scholars and researchers of the platform economy and gig work, outlining academic insights and empirical research, and illustrating a research agenda for future scholarship. The book's comprehensive approach will also benefit policy-makers, managers and workers as they confront the platform economy's wide variety of legal, economic and management challenges.

STATISTICS AT SQUARE ONE The new edition of the popular introduction to the world of statistics for health care professionals and medical students First published nearly three decades ago, Statistics at Square One remains one of the most popular introductions to medical statistics. Now in its twelfth edition, this international bestseller continues to be a must-have resource for anyone in need of a thorough introduction to statistics in the health sciences. Clear and accessible chapters help students with no previous background in the subject understand fundamental topics including summary statistics for quantitative and binary data, diagnostic and screening tests, populations and samples, survival analysis, correlation and regression, study design, computer modeling, and more. This edition reflects contemporary understanding of medical statistics and emphasizes the importance of statistics in public health, including extensively updated coverage of diagnostic tests and new COVID-related examples. All figures and examples now include code to reproduce them in the R statistical software. New chapters cover the basics for understanding numbers and introduce the use of models in medical statistical analysis. Based on the author's many years of experience teaching medical and health science students, the latest edition of this classic textbook: Highlights the connections between different medical statistics methods Emphasizes the proper use of p-values in testing Features practical examples from recent literature Contains end-of-chapter exercises with answers, some of which are based on the Royal College of General Practitioners (RCGP) Advanced Knowledge Test Statistics at Square One is required reading for all medical and health care practitioners and students wanting to understand the use and value of statistical analysis in the health sciences.

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.

Munson, Young, and Okiishi's Fundamentals of Fluid Mechanics is intended for undergraduate engineering students for use in a first course on fluid mechanics. Building on the well-established principles of fluid mechanics, the book offers improved and evolved academic treatment of the subject. Each important concept or notion is considered in terms of simple and easy-to-understand circumstances before more complicated features are introduced. The presentation of material allows for the gradual development of student confidence in fluid mechanics problem solving. This International Adaptation of the book comes with some new topics and updates on concepts that clarify, enhance, and expand certain ideas and concepts. The new examples and problems build upon the understanding of engineering applications of fluid mechanics and the edition has been completely updated to use SI units.

Armed with extraordinary new discoveries about our genes, acclaimed science writer Matt Ridley turns his attention to the nature-versus-nurture debate in a thoughtful book about the roots of human behavior.

Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature and nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature, the human being, can be simultaneously free-willed and motivated by instinct and culture. With the decoding of the human genome, we now know that genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain, they also absorb formative experiences, react to social cues, and even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will.

'This book is not just about life, but about discovery itself. It is about error and hubris, but also about wonder and the reach of science. And it is bookended with the ultimate question: How do we define the thing that defines us?' - Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Gene We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the living world - from protocells to brains, from zygotes to pandemic viruses - the harder they find it to locate the edges of life, where it begins and ends. What exactly does it mean to be alive? Is a virus alive? Is a foetus? Carl Zimmer investigates one of the biggest questions of all: What is life? The answer seems obvious until you try to seriously answer it. Is the apple sitting on your kitchen counter alive, or is only the apple tree it came from deserving of the word? If we can't answer that question here on earth, how will we know when and if we discover alien life on other worlds? The question hangs over some of society's most charged conflicts - whether a fertilized egg is a living person, for example, and when we ought to declare a person legally dead. Life's Edge is an utterly fascinating investigation by one of the most celebrated science writers of our time. Zimmer journeys through the strange experiments that have attempted to recreate life. Literally hundreds of definitions of what that should look like now exist, but none has yet emerged as an obvious winner. Lists of what living things have in common do not add up to a theory of life. It's never clear why some items on the list are essential and others not. Coronaviruses have altered the course of history, and yet many scientists maintain they are not alive. Chemists are creating droplets that can swarm, sense their environment, and multiply - have they made life in the lab? Whether he is handling pythons in Alabama or searching for hibernating bats in the Adirondacks, Zimmer revels in astounding examples of life at its most bizarre. He tries his own hand at evolving life in a test tube with unnerving results. Charting the obsession with Dr Frankenstein's monster and how Coleridge came to believe the whole universe was alive, Zimmer leads us all the way into the labs and minds of researchers working on engineering life from the ground up.

Macrofungi Associated with Oaks of Eastern North America, which was written as a companion to Field Guide to Oak Species of Eastern North America, represents the first major publication devoted exclusively to the macrofungi that occur in association with oak trees in the forests of eastern North America. The macrofungi covered in this volume include many of the more common examples of the three groups - mycorrhizal fungi, decomposers, and pathogens - that are ecologically important to the forest ecosystems in which oaks occur. More than 200 species of macrofungi are described and illustrated via vibrantly colored photographs. Information is given on edibility, medicinal properties, and other novel uses as well. This publication reflects the combined expertise of six mycologists on the macrofungi anyone would be likely to encounter in an oak forest.