"If you liked Chaos, you'll love Complexity. Waldrop creates the most exciting intellectual adventure story of the year" ( The Washington Post).In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing. Its activists are not anarchists, but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. They have formed an iconoclastic think-tank a...

The story of the man who instigated the work that led to the internet—and shifted our understanding of what computers could be.Behind every great revolution is a vision, and behind perhaps the greatest revolution of our time is the vision of J.C.R. Licklider. He did not design the first personal computers or write the software that ran on them, nor was he involved in the legendary early companies that brought them to the forefront of our everyday experience. He was...

Cosmic Origins tells the story of how physicists and astronomers have struggled for more than a century to understand the beginnings of our universe, from its origins in the Big Bang to the modern day. The book will introduce the science as a narrative, by telling the story of the scientists who made each major discovery. It will also address and explain aspects of our theories that some cosmologists are still hesitant to accept, as well as gaps in our knowledge and even apparent inconsist...

"A breath of intellectual fresh air . . . [an] amusing look at how to dispel endemic pseudoscience and conspiracy theories through rational thinking." — Publishers WeeklyAliens. Ley lines. Water dowsing. Conspiracies and myths captivate imaginations and promise mystery and magic. Whether it's arguing about the moon landing hoax or a Frisbee-like Earth drifting through space, when held up to science and critical thinking, these ideas fall flat.In ...

A scientist integrates evolutionary biology, genetics, psychology, economics, and more to explore the development and workings of human societies."There is no good reason why human societies should not be described and explained with the same precision and success as the rest of nature." Thus argues evolutionary psychologist Pascal Boyer in this uniquely innovative book.Integrating recent insights from evolutionary biology, genetics, psychol...

This sweeping history reveals how the use of chemicals has saved lives, destroyed species, and radically changed our planet: "Remarkable . . . highly recommended." — ChoiceIn The Chemical Age, ecologist Frank A. von Hippel explores humanity's long and uneasy coexistence with pests, and how the battles to exterminate them have shaped our modern world. He also tells the captivating story of the scientists who waged war on famine and disease with chem...

What History’s Greatest Science and Technology Breakthroughs Teach Us About Future Technology"Dagogo has the uncanny ability to take fascinating topics and somehow make them even more interesting.” –Adam Sinicki, author and founder of The Bioneer#1 Best Seller in Cold Fusion Programming, General Technology & Reference, and Business & Management Technology HistoryEmbark on an exhilarating journey t...

The work of explorers, surveyors and spies in the race to conquer Southern Asia is vividly recounted in this history of British imperial cartography.In the 19th century, the British and Russian empires were engaged in bitter rivalry for the acquisition of Southern Asian. Although India was the ultimate prize, most of the intrigue and action took place along its northern frontier in Afghanistan, Turkestan and Tibet. Mapping the region and gaining knowledge of the ene...

A thought-provoking argument that consciousness—more widespread than previously assumed—is the feeling of being alive, not a type of computation or a clever hackIn The Feeling of Life Itself, Christof Koch offers a straightforward definition of consciousness as any subjective experience, from the most mundane to the most exalted—the feeling of being alive. Psychologists study which cognitive operations underpin a given conscious perception. Neuroscientists...

The legendary Silicon Valley entrepreneur examines how both business and government organizations can harness the power of disruptive technologies.Tom Siebel, the billionaire technologist and founder of Siebel Systems, discusses how four technologies—elastic cloud computing, big data, artificial intelligence, and the internet of things—are fundamentally changing how business and government will operate in the 21st century. While this profound and fast-moving transf...

Start seeing things you never saw before—in yourself and in others.Why do people think, feel, and behave the way they do? Why do even intelligent people sabotage themselves, repeat the same mistakes, and cling to comforting illusions? And how can you know when you are deceiving yourself?Above all, don't lie to yourself. The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to a point that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him,...

"This crash course in critical thinking . . . includes handy rules for evaluating the confused public discourse on climate change, evolution, and even UFOs." — DiscoverRecent polls suggest that fewer than forty percent of Americans believe in Darwin's theory of evolution, despite it being one of science's best-established findings. Parents still refuse to vaccinate their children for fear it causes autism, though this link has been consistently disproved. A...