Science

Modern science is under the greatest and most successful attack in recent history. An industry of denial, abetted by news media and "info-tainment" broadcasters more interested in selling controversy than presenting facts, has duped half the American public into rejecting the facts of climate science--an overwhelming body of rigorously vetted scientific evidence showing that human-caused, carbon-based emissions are linked to warming the Earth. The industry of climate science denial is succeeding: public acceptance has declined even as the scientific evidence for global warming has increased. It is vital that the public understand how anti-science ideologues, pseudo-scientists, and non-scientists have bamboozled them. We cannot afford to get global warming wrong--yet we are, thanks to deniers and their methods.

The Inquisition of Climate Science is the first book to comprehensively take on the climate science denial movement and the deniers themselves, exposing their lack of credentials, their extensive industry funding, and their failure to provide any alternative theory to explain the observed evidence of warming. In this book, readers meet the most prominent deniers while dissecting their credentials, arguments, and lack of objectivity. James Lawrence Powell shows that the deniers use a wide variety of deceptive rhetorical techniques, many stretching back to ancient Greece. Carefully researched, fully referenced, and compellingly written, his book clearly reveals that the evidence of global warming is real and that an industry of denial has deceived the American public, putting them and their grandchildren at risk.

This is the first book to offer a comprehensive exploration of new methods in inverse problems in electromagnetics. The book provides systematic descriptions of the most important practical inverse problems, and details new methods to solve them. Also included are descriptions of the properties of inverse problems and known solutions, as well as reviews of the practical implementation of these methods in electric circuit theory and electromagnetic fields theory. This comprehensive collection of modern theoretical ideas and methods to solve inverse problems will be of value to both students and working professionals.

This fully illustrated comprehensive 12-book series provides the reader with detailed information on each of the 12 natural cures presented. Sections in each book such as, Conditions and Doses, Re-Thinking Medication, Treatment Know-How, Science Talk and Grow-It-Yourself, offer a complete introduction to the values, practices and benefits of alternative medicine.

Presented here is a new and rapidly developing branch of kinetics - the kinetics of processes in structured systems. The book describes dynamic processes that occur in network-forming polymerization systems, in percolation, in the spread of a disease, and in the growth of a cancer. The dynamic processes in photoconductors are examined along with membrane-mimetic systems of micelles and vesicles, monolayers and membranes, polymer welding, and in chemical reactions that oscillate in space or time. It also develops systems in chemistry, biology, physics and materials science from the teaching level to that of the most recent research.

This book deals with a particular class of approximation methods in the context of light scattering by small particles. Soft particles occur in ocean optics, biomedical optics, atmospheric optics and in many industrial applications.

This class of approximations has been termed as eikonal or soft particle approximations. The study of these approximations is very important because soft particles occur abundantly in nature.

A visual exploration of the power and behavior of light, across the electromagnetic spectrum, and how it affects life on earth and everything in the Universe.

Light allows us to see everything around us, but humans can only see a sliver of all light, known as the electromagnetic spectrum. Here, Kim Arcand and Megan Watzke present the subject of light as never before. Organized along the order of the electromagnetic spectrum, each chapter focuses on a different type of light. From radio waves, harnessed for telecommunications, to X-rays, which let us peer inside the human body and view areas around black holes in deep space, Arcand and Watzke show us all the important ways light impacts us. An introductory chapter describes what light is and how it behaves, while hundreds of full-color photographs and illustrations demonstrate concepts and make for a stunning book that's a joy to read and browse.

As the world waits once again to see if the latest virus will decimate the population, The Little Black of Pandemics looks at the greatest natural killers of all time. This concise and intelligent look at the most deadly viral and bacterial diseases includes expert opinion on likely future outbreaks, method of contagion, identification of systems, and likelihood of survival. Includes influenza, smallpox, West Nile virus, AIDS, Ebola, SARS, plague, typhus, cholera, tuberculosis, Rocky Mountain spotted fever, leprosy, meningitis, vCJD, hepatitis, yellow fever, Lassa fever, and many more.

Lives of the Planets describes a scientific field in the midst of a revolution. Planetary science has mainly been a descriptive science, but it is becoming increasingly experimental. The space probes that went up between the 1960s and 1990s were primarily generalists-they collected massive amounts of information so that scientists could learn what questions to pursue. But recent missions have become more focused: Scientists know better what information they want and how to collect it. Even now probes are on their way to Mercury, Venus, Mars, and Pluto, with Europa-one of Jupiter's moons-on the agenda. In a sweeping look into the manifold objects inhabiting the depths of space, Lives of the Planets delves into the mythology and the knowledge humanity has built over the ages. Placing our current understanding in historical context, Richard Corfield explores the seismic shifts in planetary astronomy and probes why we must change our perspective of our place in the universe. In our era of extraordinary discovery, this is the first comprehensive survey of this new understanding and the history of how we got here.

During the great ages of exploration "the longitude problem" was the greatest of scientific challenges. Lacking the ability to determine their longitude, sailors were literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Ships ran aground on rocky shores; those traveling welt-known routes were easy prey to pirates.

In 1714, England's Parliament offered a huge reward to anyone whose method of measuring longitude could be proven successful. The scientific establishment -- from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton -- had mapped the heavens in its certainty of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution -- a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had been able to do on land. And the race was on.

Written by a sociologist, a graph theorist, and a statistician, this title provides social network analysts and students with a solid statistical foundation from which to analyze network data. Clearly demonstrates how graph-theoretic and statistical techniques can be employed to study some important parameters of global social networks. The authors uses real life village-level social networks to illustrate the practicalities, potentials, and constraints of social network analysis ("SNA"). They also offer relevant sampling and inferential aspects of the techniques while dealing with potentially large networks.

Intended Audience

This supplemental text is ideal for a variety of graduate and doctoral level courses in social network analysis in the social, behavioral, and health sciences

Intended for use by advanced undergraduate, graduate, and medical students, The Neuron: Cell and Molecular Biology is an intriguing study of the unique biochemical and physiological properties of neurons, which emphasizes the molecular mechanisms that generate and regulate their activity. Keeping abreast of the enormous advances in neuroscience in the five years since the first edition was published, the authors have revised all their chapters in the second edition. What was formerly the first chapter has been expanded substantially and divided into two separate chapters to emphasize the cell biology of neurons and glia, and their commonalities with other kinds of cells. The section on intracellular communication has also been expanded and reorganized.
Levitan and Kaczmarek introduce the concept of ion channels as specialized membrane proteins at an early stage, making the idea of selective membrane permeability more accessible in terms of the properties of specific ion channel proteins. In addition, they emphasize the astonishing diversity of voltage-dependent ion channels that has become evident in recent years, and discuss the implications of this diversity for neuronal physiology.
In the section on intercellular communication, the chapter on neurotransmitter secretion has also been rewritten to reflect the new level of understanding of secretion that has resulted from the identification of many of the molecular players in vesicle fusion and exocytosis. The other chapters in this section have also been fully revised to incorporate new information resulting from the cloning and characterization of the multitude of glutamate receptors as well as to describe novel elements of intracellular signaling pathways in neurons and other cells. Finally, the last section has been substantially updated to reflect the recent successes of molecular studies of development and plasticity. As more and more of the molecular entities that are essential for neuronal development and adult plasticity are identified and characterized, phenomena that previously could be studied only at the descriptive level can now be explained in greater depth.

This thought-provoking book ponders the far-reaching connections of organ transplantation to human experience. A collaboration among an exceptional group of scholars and physicians, it explores matters of life and death, body and mind, psyche and soul, self and other. Sponsored by the Chicago-based Park Ridge Center for the Study of Health, Faith, and Ethics, the volume is the result of discussions among a group encompassing many religious and cultural traditions and many fields of expertise: philosophy, art, religion, folklore, psychiatry, anthropology, literature, history, social psychology, and surgery. Whether considering scientific advances in organ transplantation and their implications for medical morality, ambiguous images of organ transplantation in centuries of art and literature, and practices of organ procurement, or the complex bonds that are forged between donors, recipients, and their families, these essays carry our understanding beyond the typical scientific and pragmatic issues raised in discussions of bioethics and public policy.

This volume provides an overview of polymer characterization test methods. The methods and instrumentation described represent modern analytical techniques useful to researchers, product development specialists, and quality control experts in polymer synthesis and manufacturing. Engineers, polymer scientists and technicians will find this volume useful in selecting approaches and techniques applicable to characterizing molecular, compositional, rheological, and thermodynamic properties of elastomers and plastics.

Is the universe actually a giant quantum computer? According to Seth Lloyd--Professor of Quantum-Mechanical Engineering at MIT and originator of the first technologically feasible design for a working quantum computer--the answer is yes. This wonderfully accessible book illuminates the professional and personal paths that led him to this remarkable conclusion.
All interactions between particles in the universe, Lloyd explains, convey not only energy but also information--in other words, particles not only collide, they compute. And what is the entire universe computing, ultimately? "Its own dynamical evolution," he says. "As the computation proceeds, reality unfolds."
To elucidate his theory, Lloyd examines the history of the cosmos, posing questions that in other hands might seem unfathomably complex: How much information is there in the universe? What information existed at the moment of the Big Bang and what happened to it? How do quantum mechanics and chaos theory interact to create our world? Could we attempt to re-create it on a giant quantum computer?
"Programming the Universe" presents an original and compelling vision of reality, revealing our world in an entirely new light.

Once in a century an overview shakes the mold of preconception and makes a world model fall into shape. This is such a book--absorbing, provocative, original, skeptical, and often very funny in spite of formidable scholarship. The focus of the book is on the change in self-perception which physics might bring about if it were made in some way empathically real to non-physicists. The common man's "existential" attitude is a product now of nineteenth-century, mechanistic models. But in pursuing this, the author lays out a comprehensive survey of impending changes in the philosophy of science, and ranges through physics, biology, mathematics, Jungian psychology, and evolutionary theory, turning also to look at other, non-Western-scientific, world models.

"In the task of reshaping the world model of scientists and others, only commitment to the discipline of science will do. It can be combined with enough controlled lunacy to bring conventionally self-evident ideas of reality into question (in mathematics this has always been a winning mixture), but it has to produce testable predictions."

"What we are now looking at is the prospect of 'Jungian physics' a physics model which also addresses the image-forming mechanism and possibly even the non-locality of mind."

"The hard-hat model of an objective reality has had to yield to a growing perception that the objective is, in form at least, a construct: what we appear to see is a function of the manner of seeing (hardly a new idea to Greek philosophy), but with the awkward complication that the cogitating I arises from the structures which it sees and orders."

This book plunges the reader into the heart of the sea. It is an elegantly-written account of one photojournalist's experience studying marine natural history and ecology. Illustrated with classic black and white photography, and annotated with references to classic marine literature, this book takes the reader from California to New Guinea, Fiji, Palau, and Tonga, to the Caribbean, to Alaska, and back again. Along the way, a quest to shed light on marine limits, symbiosis, and biogeography ties the adventures together. It will appeal to anyone who snokels, swims, scuba dives, surfs, studies marine biology, or loves the sea.

A leading science writer examines how our brains improve in middle age.

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Barbara Strauch explores the latest findings that demonstrate how the middle-aged brain is more flexible and capable than previously thought. In fact, new research from neuroscientists and psychologists suggests that the brain reorganizes, improves in important functions, and even helps us adopt a more optimistic outlook in middle age. We recognize patterns faster, make better judgments, and find unique solutions to problems. Part scientific survey, part how-to guide, The Secret Life of the Grown- up Brain is a fascinating glimpse at our surprisingly talented middle-aged minds.

Rotello, an award-winning journalist and long-time AIDS activist, has done in this book something no writer has done before. Weaving together the strands of ecology theory, epidemiology, and sexual politics, he shows how the AIDS epidemic, like other epidemics from influenza and bubonic plague to today's rapidly emerging viruses - result as much from human behaviors as from specific microbes. He argues convincingly that AIDS was probably an old and rare disease syndrome in humans that erupted into an epidemic only when cultural changes - including the gay male sexual revolution of the seventies - created ideal conditions for its evolution and spread. For the first time ever, Rotello describes in detail the surprising scientific consensus about why, precisely, AIDS hit gay men so hard. Rebutting both the left's position that AIDS was merely an accident, and simplistic right-wing theories that blame promiscuity alone, Rotello presents the compelling but troubling verdict embraced by epidemiologists: AIDS was spread by a fusion of factors built right into the fabric of urban gay life after Stonewall. Turning to current research, Rotello explains how and why researchers believe a "second wave" of the epidemic is saturating gay men despite widespread AIDS awareness and condom use. And he provides compelling evidence that if the current lack of ecological awareness continues, our best chance of containing the epidemic with newly available drug therapies could be squandered.

Who is the devil you know?

Is it your lying, cheating ex-husband?
Your sadistic high school gym teacher?
Your boss who loves to humiliate people in meetings?
The colleague who stole your idea and passed it off as her own?

In the pages of The Sociopath Next Door, you will realize that your ex was not just misunderstood. He's a sociopath. And your boss, teacher, and colleague? They may be sociopaths too.

We are accustomed to think of sociopaths as violent criminals, but in The Sociopath Next Door, Harvard psychologist Martha Stout reveals that a shocking 4 percent of ordinary people--one in twenty-five--has an often undetected mental disorder, the chief symptom of which is that that person possesses no conscience. He or she has no ability whatsoever to feel shame, guilt, or remorse. One in twenty-five everyday Americans, therefore, is secretly a sociopath. They could be your colleague, your neighbor, even family. And they can do literally anything at all and feel absolutely no guilt.

How do we recognize the remorseless? One of their chief characteristics is a kind of glow or charisma that makes sociopaths more charming or interesting than the other people around them. They're more spontaneous, more intense, more complex, or even sexier than everyone else, making them tricky to identify and leaving us easily seduced. Fundamentally, sociopaths are different because they cannot love. Sociopaths learn early on to show sham emotion, but underneath they are indifferent to others' suffering. They live to dominate and thrill to win.

The fact is, we all almost certainly know at least one or more sociopaths already. Part of the urgency in reading The Sociopath Next Door is the moment when we suddenly recognize that someone we know--someone we worked for, or were involved with, or voted for--is a sociopath. But what do we do with that knowledge? To arm us against the sociopath, Dr. Stout teaches us to question authority, suspect flattery, and beware the pity play. Above all, she writes, when a sociopath is beckoning, do not join the game.

It is the ruthless versus the rest of us, and The Sociopath Next Door will show you how to recognize and defeat the devil you know.