Download or read book Turing and the Universal Machine Icon Science written by Jon Agar and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2017-09-07 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The history of the computer is entwined with that of the modern world and most famously with the life of one man, Alan Turing. How did this device, which first appeared a mere 50 years ago, come to structure and dominate our lives so totally? An enlightening mini-biography of a brilliant but troubled man.
Download or read book Turing s Cathedral written by George Dyson and published by Pantheon. This book was released on 2012 with total page 466 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Documents the innovations of a group of eccentric geniuses who developed computer code in the mid-20th century as part of mathematician Alan Turin's theoretical universal machine idea, exploring how their ideas led to such developments as digital television, modern genetics and the hydrogen bomb.
Download or read book Frank Whittle Icon Science written by Andrew Nahum and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2017-10-05 with total page 166 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The story of the jet engine has everything: genius, tragedy, heroism, a world war, the individual vs. the state, and an idea that would change the world. Frank Whittle always maintained that he was held back by a lack of government support. At the very moment in 1943 when his invention was unveiled to the world, his company, Power Jets, was forcibly nationalised. Yet Whittle's brilliance, charm and charisma helped him recruit major support from the British government and the RAF, who gave him the green light to build a jet engine at a time when to do so made little sense. Here is a story of what pushing technology to its limits can achieve - and the effect that such achievement can have on those involved.
Download or read book The Comet Sweeper Icon Science written by Claire Brock and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2017-01-05 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Having escaped domestic servitude in Germany by teaching herself to sing, and established a career in England, Caroline Herschel learned astronomy while helping her brother William, then Astronomer Royal. Soon making scientific discoveries in her own right, she swept to international scientific and popular fame. She was awarded a salary by George III in 1787 – the first woman in Britain to make her living from science. But, as a woman in a male-dominated world, Herschel's great success was achieved despite constant frustration of her ambitions. Drawing on original sources – including Herschel's diaries and her fiery letters – Claire Brock tells the story of a woman determined to win independence and satisfy her astronomical ambition.
Download or read book Moving Heaven and Earth Icon Science written by John Henry and published by Icon Books. This book was released on 2017-12-07 with total page 134 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When Nicolaus Copernicus claimed that the Earth was not stationary at the centre of the universe but circled the Sun, he brought about a total revolution in the sciences and consternation in the Church. Copernicus’ theory demanded a new physics to explain motion and force, a new theory of space, and a completely new conception of the nature of our universe. He also showed for the first time that a common-sense view of things isn’t necessarily correct, and that mathematics can and does reveal the true nature of the material world. As John Henry reveals, from his idea of a swiftly moving Earth Copernicus sowed the seed from which science has grown to be a dominant aspect of modern culture, fundamental in shaping our understanding of the workings of the cosmos.
Download or read book Constant Touch written by Jon Agar and published by Icon Books Ltd. This book was released on 2013-02-07 with total page 263 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Mobile phones are a ubiquitous technology with a fascinating history. There are now as many mobile phones in the world as there are people. We carry them around with us wherever we go. And while we used to just speak into them, now mobiles are used to do all kinds of tasks, from talking to twittering, from playing a game to paying a bill. Jon Agar takes the mobile to pieces, tracing what makes it work, and puts it together again, showing how it was shaped in different national contexts in the United States, Europe, the Far East and Africa. He tells the story from the early associations with cars and the privileged, through its immense popular success, to the rise of the smartphone. Few scientific revolutions affect us in such a day-to-day way as the development of the mobile phone. Jon Agar's deft history explains exactly how this revolution has come about - and where it may lead in the future.
Download or read book Turing s Vision written by Chris Bernhardt and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2016-05-13 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1936, when he was just twenty-four years old, Alan Turing wrote a remarkable paper in which he outlined the theory of computation, laying out the ideas that underlie all modern computers. This groundbreaking and powerful theory now forms the basis of computer science. In Turing's Vision, Chris Bernhardt explains the theory, Turing's most important contribution, for the general reader. Bernhardt argues that the strength of Turing's theory is its simplicity, and that, explained in a straightforward manner, it is eminently understandable by the nonspecialist. As Marvin Minsky writes, "The sheer simplicity of the theory's foundation and extraordinary short path from this foundation to its logical and surprising conclusions give the theory a mathematical beauty that alone guarantees it a permanent place in computer theory." Bernhardt begins with the foundation and systematically builds to the surprising conclusions. He also views Turing's theory in the context of mathematical history, other views of computation (including those of Alonzo Church), Turing's later work, and the birth of the modern computer. In the paper, "On Computable Numbers, with an Application to the Entscheidungsproblem," Turing thinks carefully about how humans perform computation, breaking it down into a sequence of steps, and then constructs theoretical machines capable of performing each step. Turing wanted to show that there were problems that were beyond any computer's ability to solve; in particular, he wanted to find a decision problem that he could prove was undecidable. To explain Turing's ideas, Bernhardt examines three well-known decision problems to explore the concept of undecidability; investigates theoretical computing machines, including Turing machines; explains universal machines; and proves that certain problems are undecidable, including Turing's problem concerning computable numbers.
Download or read book Virtual Society written by Steve Woolgar and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This work investigates the precise effects on society of the new and much vaunted electronic technologies (ICTs). Are fundamental shifts already taking place in the way in which we behave, organize, and interact as a direct result of their implementation? Providing a comprehensive set of detailed empirical studies of the genesis and use of these new technologies, the book also presents some surprising counterintuitive results.
Download or read book Science Truth And Meaning From Wonder To Understanding written by Benjamin L J Webb and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2022-04-07 with total page 721 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science, Truth, and Meaning presents a scientific and philosophical examination of our place in the world. It also celebrates how diverse, scientific knowledge is interconnected and reducible to common foundations.The book focuses on aspects of scientific truth that relate to our understanding of reality, and confronts whether truth is absolute or relative to what we are. Hence, it assesses the meaning of the scientific deductions we have made and how they have profoundly influenced our conception of life and existence.The subtitle is 'From Wonder to Understanding', which is a paraphrased quote from Einstein, who said that the search for scientific truth is ' ... a continual flight from wonder to understanding'.In addressing the goal of advancing our understanding of our place in the world, this book also reveals the development and details of diverse sciences, their connections and achievements, and that while perhaps the same fundamental questions exist, they are seen in the light of an ever-refined scientific perspective on reality.Why the book is needed: many popular science books have been written, aimed at different levels of subject expertise, and nearly all treat their specific subject in isolation. Few attempt to link different sciences to their common foundations, and those that do are written by physicists. Since human knowledge is derived by, and relates to, the biological organism that human beings are, then such a book written from a biological perspective represents a novel perspective on the integration of science, and addresses new questions. This is such a book.Impressive aspects: the depth, breadth, consistency, and clarity of the work.
Download or read book The Turing Guide written by Jack Copeland and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-02-16 with total page 563 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alan Turing has long proved a subject of fascination, but following the centenary of his birth in 2012, the code-breaker, computer pioneer, mathematician (and much more) has become even more celebrated with much media coverage, and several meetings, conferences and books raising public awareness of Turing's life and work. This volume will bring together contributions from some of the leading experts on Alan Turing to create a comprehensive guide to Turing that will serve as a useful resource for researchers in the area as well as the increasingly interested general reader. The book will cover aspects of Turing's life and the wide range of his intellectual activities, including mathematics, code-breaking, computer science, logic, artificial intelligence and mathematical biology, as well as his subsequent influence.
Download or read book A History of Science in Society Volume II written by Andrew Ede and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A History of Science in Society, Ede and Cormack trace the history of the changing place of science in society and explore the link between the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to make that knowledge useful. Volume II covers the period from the scientific revolution to the present day. The fourth edition of this bestselling textbook brings the narrative right up into the twenty-first century by incorporating the COVID-19 pandemic. The edition also adds content on Indigenous and non-Western science as well as three new "Connections" case study features. The text is accompanied by over sixty images and maps that illustrate key developments in the history of science. Essay questions, chapter timelines, a further readings section, and an index provide additional support for students.
Download or read book Science written by Patricia Fara and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-02-11 with total page 782 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science: A Four Thousand Year History rewrites science's past. Instead of focussing on difficult experiments and abstract theories, Patricia Fara shows how science has always belonged to the practical world of war, politics, and business. Rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people - men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals in their quest for success. Fara sweeps through the centuries, from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, illuminating the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and publishing enterprises that have made science the powerful global phenomenon that it is today. She also ranges internationally, illustrating the importance of scientific projects based around the world, from China to the Islamic empire, as well as the more familiar tale of science in Europe, from Copernicus to Charles Darwin and beyond. Above all, this four thousand year history challenges scientific supremacy, arguing controversially that science is successful not because it is always right - but because people have said that it is right.
Download or read book Making Modern Science Second Edition written by Peter J. Bowler and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2020-08-17 with total page 602 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this new edition of the top-selling coursebook, seasoned historians Peter J. Bowler and Iwan Rhys Morus expand on their authoritative survey of how the development of science has shaped our world. Exploring both the history of science and its influence on modern thought, the authors chronicle the major developments in scientific thinking, from the revolutionary ideas of the seventeenth century to contemporary issues in genetics, physics, and more. Thoroughly revised and expanded, the second edition draws on the latest research and scholarship. It also contains two entirely new chapters: one that explores the impact of computing on the development of science, and another that shows how the West used science and technology as tools for geopolitical expansion. Designed for entry-level college courses and as a single-volume introduction for the general reader, Making Modern Science presents the history of science not as a series of names and dates, but as an interconnected and complex web of relationships joining science and society.
Download or read book A History of Science in Society written by Andrew Ede and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2022-01-27 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In A History of Science in Society, Ede and Cormack trace the history of the changing place of science in society and explore the link between the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to make that knowledge useful. The fourth edition of this bestselling textbook brings the narrative right up to the present day by incorporating the COVID-19 pandemic. The edition also adds content on Indigenous and non-western science as well as five new "Connections" case study features, including one on the scientist and poet Omar Khayyam. The text is accompanied by 100 images and maps and a colour insert showing off key moments in the history of science. Essay questions, chapter timelines, a further readings section, and an index provide additional support for students.
Download or read book A History of Science in Society written by Lesley Cormack and published by University of Toronto Press. This book was released on 2012-03-12 with total page 763 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A History of Science in Society is a concise overview that introduces complex ideas in a non-technical fashion. Andrew Ede and Lesley B. Cormack trace the history of science through its continually changing place in society and explore the link between the pursuit of knowledge and the desire to make that knowledge useful. In this edition, the authors examine the robust intellectual exchange between East and West and provide new discussions of two women in science: Maria Merian and Maria Winkelmann. A chapter on the relationship between science and war has been added as well as a section on climate change. The further readings section has been updated to reflect recent contributions to the field. Other new features include timelines at the end of each chapter, 70 upgraded illustrations, and new maps of Renaissance Europe, Captain James Cook's voyages, the 2nd voyage of the Beagle, and the main war front during World War I.
Download or read book The First Computers written by Guy De la Bédoyère and published by Evans Brothers. This book was released on 2005 with total page 56 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: One of a series of titles which looks at some key scientific advances of the last century, how they came about, and their repercussions.
Download or read book Machine Dreams written by Philip Mirowski and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 674 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the first cross-over book into the history of science written by an historian of economics. It shows how 'history of technology' can be integrated with the history of economic ideas. The analysis combines Cold War history with the history of postwar economics in America and later elsewhere, revealing that the Pax Americana had much to do with abstruse and formal doctrines such as linear programming and game theory. It links the literature on 'cyborg' to economics, an element missing in literature to date. The treatment further calls into question the idea that economics has been immune to postmodern currents, arguing that neoclassical economics has participated in the deconstruction of the integral 'self'. Finally, it argues for an alliance of computational and institutional themes, and challenges the widespread impression that there is nothing else besides American neoclassical economic theory left standing after the demise of Marxism.
