The Trouble With Science

Author : Robin Dunbar
Publisher : Faber & Faber
Page : 366 pages
File Size : 45,7 Mb
Release : 2011-04-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780571265190

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The Trouble with Science by Robin Dunbar Pdf

The 'trouble' with science began in 1632, when Galileo demolished the belief that the earth is the centre of the universe. Yet despite the bewildering success of the scientific revolution, many continue to hanker after the cosy certainties of a man-centred universe, and young people increasingly turn away from science. In The Trouble with Science, Professor Robin Dunbar launches a vigorous counter-blast. Drawing on studies of traditional societies and animal behaviour, his argument ranges from Charles Darwin to Nigerian Fulani herdsman, from lab rats to the mathematicians of ancient Babylonia. Along the way, he asks whether science really is unique to western culture - even to mankind - and suggests that our 'trouble with science' may lie in the fact that evolution has left our minds better able to cope with day-to-day social interaction than with the complexities of the external world.

Author : Robin Dunbar
Publisher : Faber Paperbacks
Page : 213 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 1995
Category : Science
ISBN : 0571174477

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The Trouble with Science by Robin Dunbar Pdf

Examining the widespread sense of the difficulty of science, this work considers why many people find it so hard to grasp how science works, why there is so much suspicion of its success, and why many still seek refuge in religion or New Age spirituality. The author draws on anthropological and psychological material, as well as physics, astronomy and chemistry, and provides a wealth of detail and scientific information.

Author : Roger N. Lancaster
Publisher : Univ of California Press
Page : 466 pages
File Size : 41,7 Mb
Release : 2003-05
Category : History
ISBN : 0520236203

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The Trouble with Nature by Roger N. Lancaster Pdf

Lancaster provides the disproof of evolutionary stories about men, women, and the nature of desire of the heterosexual fables that pervade popular culture, from prime-time sitcoms to scientific theories about the so-called gay gene.

Author : Lee Smolin
Publisher : Penguin UK
Page : 416 pages
File Size : 49,7 Mb
Release : 2008-02-28
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780141919638

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The Trouble with Physics by Lee Smolin Pdf

The Trouble with Physics is a groundbreaking account of the state of modern physics: of how we got from Einstein and Relativity through quantum mechanics to the strange and bizarre predictions of string theory, full of unseen dimensions and multiple universes. Lee Smolin not only provides a brilliant layman’s overview of current research as we attempt to build a ‘theory of everything’, but also questions many of the assumptions that lie behind string theory. In doing so, he describes some of the daring, outlandish ideas that will propel research in years to come.

Author : Jennifer Frantz
Publisher : Harper Collins
Page : 35 pages
File Size : 42,8 Mb
Release : 2010-03-23
Category : Juvenile Fiction
ISBN : 9780061852589

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Sid the Science Kid: The Trouble with Germs by Jennifer Frantz Pdf

Sid's dad has a cold. He is sneezing. His nose is runny. But how come Sid has to keep washing his hands, if his dad is the one who's sick?

Author : Andy Weir
Publisher : Ballantine Books
Page : 497 pages
File Size : 47,9 Mb
Release : 2022-10-04
Category : Fiction
ISBN : 9780593135228

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Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir Pdf

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.

Author : Richard Panek
Publisher : Houghton Mifflin
Page : 261 pages
File Size : 54,5 Mb
Release : 2019
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780544526747

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The Trouble with Gravity by Richard Panek Pdf

An award-winning science writer traces our millennia-long effort to understand the phenomenon of gravity--the greatest mystery in physics, and a force that has shaped our universe and our minds in ways we have never fully understood until now.

Author : Paul Steinhardt
Publisher : Simon & Schuster
Page : 400 pages
File Size : 40,8 Mb
Release : 2020-01-07
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781476729930

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The Second Kind of Impossible by Paul Steinhardt Pdf

*Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize* One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last fifty years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. “A riveting tale of derring-do” (Nature), this book reads like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure. When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s thirty-five-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a radically new type of matter—one that raises the possibility of new materials with never before seen properties, but that violates laws set in stone for centuries. Steinhardt dubs this new form of matter “quasicrystal.” The rest of the scientific community calls it simply impossible. The Second Kind of Impossible captures Steinhardt’s scientific odyssey as it unfolds over decades, first to prove viability, and then to pursue his wildest conjecture—that nature made quasicrystals long before humans discovered them. Along the way, his team encounters clandestine collectors, corrupt scientists, secret diaries, international smugglers, and KGB agents. Their quest culminates in a daring expedition to a distant corner of the Earth, in pursuit of tiny fragments of a meteorite forged at the birth of the solar system. Steinhardt’s discoveries chart a new direction in science. They not only change our ideas about patterns and matter, but also reveal new truths about the processes that shaped our solar system. The underlying science is important, simple, and beautiful—and Steinhardt’s firsthand account is “packed with discovery, disappointment, exhilaration, and persistence...This book is a front-row seat to history as it is made” (Nature).

Author : Robert M. Sapolsky
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 288 pages
File Size : 52,6 Mb
Release : 2012-10-16
Category : Science
ISBN : 9781439125052

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The Trouble With Testosterone by Robert M. Sapolsky Pdf

Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize From the man who Oliver Sacks hailed as “one of the best scientist/writers of our time,” a collection of sharply observed, uproariously funny essays on the biology of human culture and behavior. In the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks, Robert Sapolsky offers a sparkling and erudite collection of essays about science, the world, and our relation to both. “The Trouble with Testosterone” explores the influence of that notorious hormone on male aggression. “Curious George’s Pharmacy” reexamines recent exciting claims that wild primates know how to medicate themselves with forest plants. “Junk Food Monkeys” relates the adventures of a troop of baboons who stumble upon a tourist garbage dump. And “Circling the Blanket for God” examines the neurobiological roots underlying religious belief. Drawing on his career as an evolutionary biologist and neurobiologist, Robert Sapolsky writes about the natural world vividly and insightfully. With candor, humor, and rich observations, these essays marry cutting-edge science with humanity, illuminating the interconnectedness of the world’s inhabitants with skill and flair.

Author : Nathan Schreiber
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,5 Mb
Release : 2023-10-13
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 1733559736

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Science Ninjas: Big Trouble with Simple Machines by Nathan Schreiber Pdf

Author : Maarten Boudry,Massimo Pigliucci
Publisher : University of Chicago Press
Page : 315 pages
File Size : 51,5 Mb
Release : 2018-01-12
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780226498287

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Science Unlimited? by Maarten Boudry,Massimo Pigliucci Pdf

All too often in contemporary discourse, we hear about science overstepping its proper limits—about its brazenness, arrogance, and intellectual imperialism. The problem, critics say, is scientism: the privileging of science over all other ways of knowing. Science, they warn, cannot do or explain everything, no matter what some enthusiasts believe. In Science Unlimited?, noted philosophers of science Maarten Boudry and Massimo Pigliucci gather a diverse group of scientists, science communicators, and philosophers of science to explore the limits of science and this alleged threat of scientism. In this wide-ranging collection, contributors ask whether the term scientism in fact (or in belief) captures an interesting and important intellectual stance, and whether it is something that should alarm us. Is scientism a well-developed position about the superiority of science over all other modes of human inquiry? Or is it more a form of excessive confidence, an uncritical attitude of glowing admiration? What, if any, are its dangers? Are fears that science will marginalize the humanities and eradicate the human subject—that it will explain away emotion, free will, consciousness, and the mystery of existence—justified? Does science need to be reined in before it drives out all other disciplines and ways of knowing? Both rigorous and balanced, Science Unlimited? interrogates our use of a term that is now all but ubiquitous in a wide variety of contexts and debates. Bringing together scientists and philosophers, both friends and foes of scientism, it is a conversation long overdue.

Author : Adam Becker
Publisher : Basic Books
Page : 418 pages
File Size : 51,7 Mb
Release : 2018-03-20
Category : Science
ISBN : 9780465096060

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What Is Real? by Adam Becker Pdf

"A thorough, illuminating exploration of the most consequential controversy raging in modern science." --New York Times Book Review An Editor's Choice, New York Times Book Review Longlisted for PEN/E.O. Wilson Prize for Literary Science Writing Longlisted for Goodreads Choice Award Every physicist agrees quantum mechanics is among humanity's finest scientific achievements. But ask what it means, and the result will be a brawl. For a century, most physicists have followed Niels Bohr's solipsistic and poorly reasoned Copenhagen interpretation. Indeed, questioning it has long meant professional ruin, yet some daring physicists, such as John Bell, David Bohm, and Hugh Everett, persisted in seeking the true meaning of quantum mechanics. What Is Real? is the gripping story of this battle of ideas and the courageous scientists who dared to stand up for truth. "An excellent, accessible account." --Wall Street Journal "Splendid. . . . Deeply detailed research, accompanied by charming anecdotes about the scientists." --Washington Post

Author : Matthew Walker
Publisher : Simon and Schuster
Page : 368 pages
File Size : 43,8 Mb
Release : 2017-10-03
Category : Health & Fitness
ISBN : 9781501144318

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Why We Sleep by Matthew Walker Pdf

"Sleep is one of the most important but least understood aspects of our life, wellness, and longevity ... An explosion of scientific discoveries in the last twenty years has shed new light on this fundamental aspect of our lives. Now ... neuroscientist and sleep expert Matthew Walker gives us a new understanding of the vital importance of sleep and dreaming"--Amazon.com.

Author : Stephen H. Schneider
Publisher : National Geographic Books
Page : 308 pages
File Size : 48,8 Mb
Release : 2009
Category : Climatic changes
ISBN : 9781426205408

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Science as a Contact Sport by Stephen H. Schneider Pdf

Schneider's firsthand account of a scientific and political odyssey, in which he navigates both the turbulent waters of the world's power structures and the arcane theater of academic debaters.

Author : Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar
Publisher : Unknown
Page : 0 pages
File Size : 42,7 Mb
Release : 1996
Category : Electronic
ISBN : 0571174485

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The trouble with science by Robin Ian MacDonald Dunbar Pdf