Download or read book Chasing the Sun written by Linda Geddes and published by Profile Books. This book was released on 2019-01-10 with total page 242 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The full story of how our relationship with light shapes our health, productivity and mood. 'A sparkling and illuminating study, one of those rare books that could genuinely improve your life' Sunday Times 'Life changing' Daily Mail 'Fascinating and readable ... Geddes's lovely book will fill you with longing!' The Times Since the dawn of time, humans have worshipped the sun. And with good reason. Our biology is set up to work in partnership with it. From our sleep cycles to our immune systems and our mental health, access to sunlight is crucial for living a happy and fulfilling life. New research suggests that our sun exposure over a lifetime - even before we were born - may shape our risk of developing a range of different illnesses, from depression to diabetes. Bursting with cutting-edge science and eye-opening advice, Chasing the Sun explores the extraordinary significance of sunlight, from ancient solstice celebrations to modern sleep labs, and from the unexpected health benefits of sun exposure to what the Amish know about sleep that the rest of us don't. As more of us move into light-polluted cities, spending our days in dim offices and our evenings watching brightly lit screens, we are in danger of losing something vital: our connection to the star that gave us life. It's a loss that could have far-reaching consequences that we're only just beginning to grasp.
Download or read book Seize the Daylight written by David Prerau and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2009-04-28 with total page 273 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Benjamin Franklin conceived of it. Sir Arthur Conan Doyle endorsed it. Winston Churchill campaigned for it. Kaiser Wilhelm first employed it. Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt went to war with it, and more recently the United States fought an energy crisis with it. For several months every year, for better or worse, daylight savings time affects vast numbers of people throughout the world. And from Ben Franklin's era to today, its story has been an intriguing and sometimes-bizarre amalgam of colorful personalities and serious technical issues, purported costs and perceived benefits, conflicts between interest groups and government policymakers. It impacts diverse and unexpected areas, including agricultural practices, street crime, the reporting of sports scores, traffic accidents, the inheritance rights of twins, and voter turnout. Illustrated with a popular look at science and history, Seize the Daylight presents an intriguing and surprisingly entertaining story of our attempt to regulate the sunlight hours.
Download or read book Spring Forward written by Michael Downing and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2009-02-17 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Michael Downing is obsessed with Daylight Saving, the loopy idea that became the most persistent political controversy in American history. Almost one hundred years after Congressmen and lawmakers in every state first debated, ridiculed, and then passionately embraced the possibility of saving an hour of daylight, no one can say for sure why we are required by law to change our clocks twice a year. Who first proposed the scheme? The most authoritative sources agree it was a Pittsburgh industrialist, Woodrow Wilson, a man on a horse in London, a Manhattan socialite, Benjamin Franklin, one of the Caesars, or the anonymous makers of ancient Chinese and Japanese water clocks. Spring Forward is a portrait of public policy in the 20th century, a perennially boiling cauldron of unsubstantiated science, profiteering masked as piety, and mysteriously shifting time–zone boundaries. It is a true–to–life social comedy with Congress in the leading role, surrounded by a supporting cast of opportunistic ministers, movie moguls, stockbrokers, labor leaders, sports fanatics, and railroad execs.
Download or read book The Science of Daylight written by John William Tudor Walsh and published by . This book was released on 1961 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Daylight Science and Daylighting Technology written by Richard Kittler and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2011-10-22 with total page 359 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sunlight profoundly influences the Earth's atmosphere and biosphere. Nature fuels the evolution of all living things, their visual systems, and the manner in which they adapt, accommodate, and habituate. Sun luminance measurements serve as data to calculate typical changes in the daily, monthly, and annual variability characteristics of daylight. Climate-based sky luminance patterns are used as models in predicting daylighting calculation and computer programs applied in architecture and building design. Historically, daylight science and daylighting technology has prioritized photometric methods of measurements, calculation, and graphical tools aimed at predicting or evaluating the daylighting of architectural design alternatives. However, due to a heightened awareness of general health and well-being, sunlight exposure and freedom from visual discomfort while undertaking visual tasks are now equally prioritized. Therefore, in order to assure optimal environmental quality, daylighting technology must be based on sound science. Daylight Science and Daylighting Technology, by Richard Kittler, Miroslav Kocifaj, and Stanislav Darula, sketches the entire evolution of daylight science from atmospheric science through apt visual workplace psychophysics.
Download or read book What Makes Day and Night written by Franklyn M. Branley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1986-03-26 with total page 37 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘Accompanied by NASA photographs and Dorros’s colorful, lively drawings, the text explains the Earth’s rotation in clear and simple terms. An experiment using a lamp as the ‘sun’ further clarifies the principles introduced.’ —BL.
Download or read book Photobiology written by Lars Olof Björn and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2012-12-06 with total page 452 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Photobiology - the science of light and life - begins with basic principles and the physics of light and continues with general photobiological research methods, such as generation of light, measurement of light, and action spectroscopy. In an interdisciplinary way, it then treats how organisms tune their pigments and structures to the wavelength components of light, and how light is registered by organisms. Then follow various examples of photobiological phenomena: the design of the compound eye in relation to the properties of light, phototoxicity, photobiology of the human skin and of vitamin D, photomorphogenesis, photoperiodism, the setting of the biological clock by light, and bioluminescence. A final chapter is devoted to teaching experiments and demonstrations in photobiology. This book encompasses topics from a diverse array of traditional disciplines: physics, biochemistry, medicine, zoology, botany, microbiology, etc., and makes different aspects of photobiology accessible to experts in all these areas as well as to the novice.
Download or read book Internal Time written by Till Roenneberg and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2012-04-30 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of a British Medical Association Book Award A Brain Pickings Best Science Book of the Year Early birds and night owls are born, not made. Sleep patterns may be the most obvious manifestation of the highly individualized biological clocks we inherit, but these clocks also regulate bodily functions from digestion to hormone levels to cognition. Living at odds with our internal timepieces, Till Roenneberg shows, can make us chronically sleep deprived and more likely to smoke, gain weight, feel depressed, fall ill, and fail geometry. By understanding and respecting our internal time, we can live better. “Internal Time is a cautionary tale—actually a series of 24 tales, not coincidentally. Roenneberg ranges widely from the inner workings of biological rhythms to their social implications, illuminating each scientific tutorial with an anecdote inspired by clinical research...Written with grace and good humor, Internal Time is a serious work of science incorporating the latest research in chronobiology...[A] compelling volume.” —A. Roger Ekirch, Wall Street Journal “This is a fascinating introduction to an important topic, which will appeal to anyone who wishes to delve deep into the world of chronobiology, or simply wonders why they struggle to get a good night’s sleep.” —Richard Wiseman, New Scientist
Download or read book From Light to Dark written by Tim Edensor and published by U of Minnesota Press. This book was released on 2017-03-21 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Light pervades the world, and when it is not light, darkness emerges and is combated by electric illumination. Despite this globally shared human experience in which spaces appear radically different depending on time, season, and weather, social science investigation on the subject is meager. From Light to Dark fills this gap, focusing on our interaction with daylight, illumination, and darkness. Tim Edensor begins by examining the effects of daylight on our perception of landscape, drawing on artworks, particular landscapes, and architectural practice. He then considers the ways in which illumination is often contested and can be used to express power, looking at how capitalist, class, ethnic, military, and state power use lighting to reinforce their authority over space. Edensor also considers light artists such as Olafur Eliasson and festivals of illumination before turning a critical eye to the supposedly dangerous, sinister associations of darkness. In examining the modern city as a space of fantasy through electric illumination, he studies how we are seeking—and should seek—new forms of darkness in reaction to the perpetual glow of urban lighting. Highly original and absorbingly written, From Light to Dark analyzes a vast array of artistic interventions, diverse spaces, and lighting technologies to explore these most basic human experiences.
Download or read book Annual Dynamics of Daylight Variability and Contrast written by Siobhan Rockcastle and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2013-06-25 with total page 89 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Daylight is a dynamic source of illumination in architectural space, creating diverse and ephemeral configurations of light and shadow within the built environment. Perceptual qualities of daylight, such as contrast and temporal variability, are essential to our understanding of both material and visual effects in architecture. Although spatial contrast and light variability are fundamental to the visual experience of architecture, architects still rely primarily on intuition to evaluate their designs because there are few metrics that address these factors. Through an analysis of contemporary architecture, this work develops a new typological language that categorizes architectural space in terms of contrast and temporal variation. This research proposes a new family of metrics that quantify the magnitude of contrast-based visual effects and time-based variation within daylit space through the use of time-segmented daylight renderings to provide a more holistic analysis of daylight performance.
Download or read book The Circadian Code written by Satchin Panda, PhD and published by Rodale Books. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When we eat may be as important as what we eat. Like most people, you probably wake up, get hungry for meals and doze off in bed around the same time every day. If you’ve ever experienced jet lag or pulled an all-nighter, you know that this schedule can easily be thrown off kilter. But for some people, that imbalance—difficulty sleeping at night, hunger at odd times, or sudden fatigue at noon—is a constant. If you're one of those people, Dr. Satchin Panda, one of the leading researchers on circadian rhythms, has a plan to reset your body clock. Beginning with an in-depth explanation of the circadian clock—why it’s important, how it works, and how to know it isn’t working—The Circadian Code outlines lifestyle changes to make to get back on track. It's a concrete plan to enhance weight loss, improve sleep, optimize exercise, and manage technology so that it doesn’t interfere with your body’s natural rhythm. Dr. Panda’s life-changing methods show you how to prevent and reverse ailments like diabetes, cancer, and dementia, as well as microbiome conditions like acid reflux, heartburn, and irritable bowel disease.
Download or read book Day Light Night Light written by Franklyn M. Branley and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 1998-01-03 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moonlight is really sunlight! Did you know that the moon doesn't make its own light? Instead, it receives light from the sun and reflects it to us on the Earth. Read and find out about how the sun, the stars and light bulbs make light so we can see.Did you know that moonlight is really sunlight? The moon can't make its own light, so it receives light from the sun and then sends it to us here on the Earth. Any child who's ever wondered about the fascinating properties of light will want to read this classic science title. Readers will even learn how fast light can travel: from the moon to the Earth in less than three seconds! Veteran science author Franklyn M. Branley's lively text and Stacey Schuett's new illustrations combine fun facts and hands-on activities in this accessible introduction to the science of light. Did you know that moonlight is really sunlight? The moon can't make its own light, so it receives light from the sun and then sends it to us here on the Earth. Any child who's ever wondered about the fascinating properties of light will want to read this classic science title. Readers will even learn how fast light can travel: from the moon to the Earth in less than three seconds! Veteran science author Franklyn M. Branley's lively text and Stacey Schuett's new illustrations combine fun facts and hands-on activities in this accessible introduction to the science of light.
Download or read book Good Habits Bad Habits written by Wendy Wood and published by Farrar, Straus and Giroux. This book was released on 2019-10-01 with total page 199 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A landmark book about how we form habits, and what we can do with this knowledge to make positive change We spend a shocking 43 percent of our day doing things without thinking about them. That means that almost half of our actions aren’t conscious choices but the result of our non-conscious mind nudging our body to act along learned behaviors. How we respond to the people around us; the way we conduct ourselves in a meeting; what we buy; when and how we exercise, eat, and drink—a truly remarkable number of things we do every day, regardless of their complexity, operate outside of our awareness. We do them automatically. We do them by habit. And yet, whenever we want to change something about ourselves, we rely on willpower. We keep turning to our conscious selves, hoping that our determination and intention will be enough to effect positive change. And that is why almost all of us fail. But what if you could harness the extraordinary power of your unconscious mind, which already determines so much of what you do, to truly reach your goals? Wendy Wood draws on three decades of original research to explain the fascinating science of how we form habits, and offers the key to unlocking our habitual mind in order to make the changes we seek. A potent mix of neuroscience, case studies, and experiments conducted in her lab, Good Habits, Bad Habits is a comprehensive, accessible, and above all deeply practical book that will change the way you think about almost every aspect of your life. By explaining how our brains are wired to respond to rewards, receive cues from our surroundings, and shut down when faced with too much friction, Wood skillfully dissects habit formation, demonstrating how we can take advantage of this knowledge to form better habits. Her clear and incisive work shows why willpower alone is woefully inadequate when we’re working toward building the life we truly want, and offers real hope for those who want to make positive change.
Download or read book The Sun in Time written by Charles Philip Sonett and published by University of Arizona Press. This book was released on 1991 with total page 1040 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An interdisciplinary approach to solar physics, as eighty-nine contributors trace the evolution of the Sun and provide a review of our current understanding of both its structure and its role in the origin and evolution of the solar system.
Download or read book The Shortest Day written by Wendy Pfeffer and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2003 with total page 42 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes how and why daylight grows shorter as winter approaches, the effect of shorter days on animals and people, and how the winter solstice has been celebrated throughout history. Includes activities.
Download or read book The Science of Shakespeare written by Dan Falk and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-04-22 with total page 383 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Exploring the connections between the bard and the Scientific Revolution, this look into the minds of such Renaissance thinkers as Thomas Digges and Tycho Brahe shows how their theories were used in the works of Shakespeare.
Download or read book The Science of Plants written by DK and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2022-06-07 with total page 442 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Combining graceful design and beautiful imagery, this ebook provides an elegant introduction to the plant kingdom. Discover the extraordinary diversity of the plant world-and how plants work-with this photographic celebration of the trees, flowers, and foliage plants that share our planet. From tiny mosses and delicate ferns to vibrant blooms and stately palms, Botany invites you to explore the plant kingdom from the ground up, and from root to leaf tip. DK's elegant introduction to botany is packed with sumptuous photos and crystal-clear artworks that explain the mechanics of photosynthesis, why leaves change color, how cacti store water, and how seeds know when to grow. Filled with fascinating stories of how plants protect themselves from predators, and how flowers use color and scent to interact with-and manipulate-the creatures around them, Botany is a fresh and engaging introduction to the mysterious inner workings of the plant world.
