Download or read book William Shockley The Will to Think written by Bo Lojek and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-05-26 with total page 227 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book takes a fresh look at the work, thoughts, and life of 1956 Nobel Prize winner William B. Shockley. It reconstructs Shockley’s upbringing, his patriotic achievements during World War II, his contribution to semiconductor physics – culminating with the epoch-making invention of the transistor – and his views on the social issues of his time. The author’s unparalleled access to Shockley’s personal documents provides insight into a colorful, yet controversial, man, and also sheds light on the attitudes of other prominent scientists of that era. Shockley was not only an outstanding scientist in his own right but also a fiercely independent thinker in perpetual search of the truth. His contributions to the field known today as microelectronics are enormous and unmatched. This book explores the critical facets of Shockley’s life, replete with never-before-published photos and excerpts from his private correspondence and personal notebooks. The book also delves into Shockley’s views on genetics and human intelligence. It tells the story of a man beset by an unrelenting rationality, slandered by the popular media, and ultimately alienated by his peers. It discusses his controversial, although sometimes prescient, ideas regarding human genetics, putting these into the context of modern research findings. Today, William Shockley is perhaps just as enigmatic as his work and accomplishments. The author presents a convincing argument that Shockley still has much to say about the issues of our age, and many of his ideas deserve evaluation in the public forum.
Download or read book Broken Genius written by Joel N. Shurkin and published by Palgrave Macmillan. This book was released on 2006-06-13 with total page 316 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: When William Shockley invented the transistor, the world was changed forever and he was awarded the Nobel Prize. But today Shockley is often remembered only for his incendiary campaigning about race, intelligence, and genetics. His dubious research led him to donate to the Nobel Prize sperm bank and preach his inflammatory ideas widely, making shocking pronouncements on the uselessness of remedial education and the sterilization of individuals with IQs below 100. Ultimately his crusade destroyed his reputation and saw him vilified on national television, yet he died proclaiming his work on race as his greatest accomplishment. Now, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Joel N. Shurkin offers the first biography of this contradictory and controversial man. With unique access to the private Shockley archives, Shurkin gives an unflinching account of how such promise ended in such ignominy.
Download or read book Crystal Fire written by Michael Riordan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1997 with total page 384 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's hard to imagine any device more crucial to modern life than the microchip and the transistor from which it sprang. Every waking hour of every day people benefit from its use in cellular phones, computers, radios, TVs, and ATMs. This eloquent retelling of the story behind the invention of the transistor recounts how pride and jealousy coupled with scientific aspirations ignited the greatest technological explosion in history. Photos & drawings.
Download or read book Katrina s Imprint written by Keith Wailoo and published by Rutgers University Press. This book was released on 2010-06-23 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Katrina's Imprint highlights the power of this sentinel American event and its continuing reverberations in contemporary politics, culture, and public policy. Published on the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina, the multidisciplinary volume reflects on how history, location, access to transportation, health care, and social position feed resilience, recovery, and prospects for the future of New Orleans and the Gulf region. Essays examine the intersecting vulnerabilities that gave rise to the disaster, explore the cultural and psychic legacies of the storm, reveal how the process of rebuilding and starting over replicates past vulnerabilities, and analyze Katrina's imprint alongside American's myths of self-sufficiency. A case study of new weaknesses that have emerged in our era, this book offers an argument for why we cannot wait for the next disaster before we apply the lessons that should be learned from Katrina.
Download or read book The Idea Factory written by Jon Gertner and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-03-15 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The definitive history of America’s greatest incubator of innovation and the birthplace of some of the 20th century’s most influential technologies “Filled with colorful characters and inspiring lessons . . . The Idea Factory explores one of the most critical issues of our time: What causes innovation?” —Walter Isaacson, The New York Times Book Review “Compelling . . . Gertner's book offers fascinating evidence for those seeking to understand how a society should best invest its research resources.” —The Wall Street Journal From its beginnings in the 1920s until its demise in the 1980s, Bell Labs-officially, the research and development wing of AT&T-was the biggest, and arguably the best, laboratory for new ideas in the world. From the transistor to the laser, from digital communications to cellular telephony, it's hard to find an aspect of modern life that hasn't been touched by Bell Labs. In The Idea Factory, Jon Gertner traces the origins of some of the twentieth century's most important inventions and delivers a riveting and heretofore untold chapter of American history. At its heart this is a story about the life and work of a small group of brilliant and eccentric men-Mervin Kelly, Bill Shockley, Claude Shannon, John Pierce, and Bill Baker-who spent their careers at Bell Labs. Today, when the drive to invent has become a mantra, Bell Labs offers us a way to enrich our understanding of the challenges and solutions to technological innovation. Here, after all, was where the foundational ideas on the management of innovation were born.
Download or read book Electrons and Holes in Semiconductors with Applications to Transistor Electronics written by William Shockley and published by . This book was released on 1963 with total page 558 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book William Shockley Note to Richie Faison Dated 30 September 1988 written by William Shockley and published by . This book was released on 1988 with total page 1 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Note to Faison with a hand drawn circuit diagram of a junction transistor "which I invented in January 1948."
Download or read book The Genius Factory written by David Plotz and published by Random House Trade. This book was released on 2006 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the inside, never-before-told story of the Nobel Prize sperm bank, the most radical experiment in human breeding in U.S. history. More than 200 children were born from this sperm bank between 1980-1999. It is also the story of the extraordinary meetings between the children and their donor fathers.
Download or read book True Genius written by Vicki Daitch and published by Joseph Henry Press. This book was released on 2002-10-28 with total page 489 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What is genius? Define it. Now think of scientists who embody the concept of genius. Does the name John Bardeen spring to mind? Indeed, have you ever heard of him? Like so much in modern life, immediate name recognition often rests on a cult of personality. We know Einstein, for example, not just for his tremendous contributions to science, but also because he was a character, who loved to mug for the camera. And our continuing fascination with Richard Feynman is not exclusively based on his body of work; it is in large measure tied to his flamboyant nature and offbeat sense of humor. These men, and their outsize personalities, have come to erroneously symbolize the true nature of genius and creativity. We picture them born brilliant, instantly larger than life. But is that an accurate picture of genius? What of others who are equal in stature to these icons of science, but whom history has awarded only a nod because they did not readily engage the public? Could a person qualify as a bona fide genius if he was a regular Joe? The answer may rest in the story of John Bardeen. John Bardeen was the first person to have been awarded two Nobel Prizes in the same field. He shared one with William Shockley and Walter Brattain for the invention of the transistor. But it was the charismatic Shockley who garnered all the attention, primarily for his Hollywood ways and notorious views on race and intelligence. Bardeen's second Nobel Prize was awarded for the development of a theory of superconductivity, a feat that had eluded the best efforts of leading theorists-including Albert Einstein, Neils Bohr, Werner Heisenberg, and Richard Feynman. Arguably, Bardeen's work changed the world in more ways than that of any other scientific genius of his time. Yet while every school child knows of Einstein, few people have heard of John Bardeen. Why is this the case? Perhaps because Bardeen differs radically from the popular stereotype of genius. He was a modest, mumbling Midwesterner, an ordinary person who worked hard and had a knack for physics and mathematics. He liked to picnic with his family, collaborate quietly with colleagues, or play a round of golf. None of that was newsworthy, so the media, and consequently the public, ignored him. John Bardeen simply fits a new profile of genius. Through an exploration of his science as well as his life, a fresh and thoroughly engaging portrait of genius and the nature of creativity emerges. This perspective will have readers looking anew at what it truly means to be a genius.
Download or read book Implacable Foes written by Waldo Heinrichs and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017-05-01 with total page 640 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: On May 8, 1945, Victory in Europe Day-shortened to "V.E. Day"-brought with it the demise of Nazi Germany. But for the Allies, the war was only half-won. Exhausted but exuberant American soldiers, ready to return home, were sent to join the fighting in the Pacific, which by the spring and summer of 1945 had turned into a gruelling campaign of bloody attrition against an enemy determined to fight to the last man. Germany had surrendered unconditionally. The Japanese would clearly make the conditions of victory extraordinarily high. In the United States, Americans clamored for their troops to come home and for a return to a peacetime economy. Politics intruded upon military policy while a new and untested president struggled to strategize among a military command that was often mired in rivalry. The task of defeating the Japanese seemed nearly unsurmountable, even while plans to invade the home islands were being drawn. Army Chief of Staff General George C. Marshall warned of the toll that "the agony of enduring battle" would likely take. General Douglas MacArthur clashed with Marshall and Admiral Nimitz over the most effective way to defeat the increasingly resilient Japanese combatants. In the midst of this division, the Army began a program of partial demobilization of troops in Europe, which depleted units at a time when they most needed experienced soldiers. In this context of military emergency, the fearsome projections of the human cost of invading the Japanese homeland, and weakening social and political will, victory was salvaged by means of a horrific new weapon. As one Army staff officer admitted, "The capitulation of Hirohito saved our necks." In Implacable Foes, award-winning historians Waldo Heinrichs (a veteran of both theatres of war in World War II) and Marc Gallicchio bring to life the final year of World War Two in the Pacific right up to the dropping of the atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki, evoking not only Japanese policies of desperate defense, but the sometimes rancorous debates on the home front. They deliver a gripping and provocative narrative that challenges the decision-making of U.S. leaders and delineates the consequences of prioritizing the European front. The result is a masterly work of military history that evaluates the nearly insurmountable trials associated with waging global war and the sacrifices necessary to succeed.
Download or read book Ethical Adaptation to Climate Change written by Allen Thompson and published by MIT Press. This book was released on 2012-03-09 with total page 355 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An analytically precise and theoretically probing exploration of the challenge to our values and virtues posed by climate change. Predictions about global climate change have produced both stark scenarios of environmental catastrophe and purportedly pragmatic ideas about adaptation. This book takes a different perspective, exploring the idea that the challenge of adapting to global climate change is fundamentally an ethical one, that it is not simply a matter of adapting our infrastructures and economies to mitigate damage but rather of adapting ourselves to realities of a new global climate. The challenge is to restore our conception of humanity—to understand human flourishing in new ways—in an age in which humanity shapes the basic conditions of the global environment. In the face of what we have unintentionally done to Earth's ecology, who shall we become? The contributors examine ways that new realities will require us to revisit and adjust the practice of ecological restoration; the place of ecology in our conception of justice; the form and substance of traditional virtues and vices; and the organizations, scale, and underlying metaphors of important institutions. Topics discussed include historical fidelity in ecological restoration; the application of capability theory to ecology; the questionable ethics of geoengineering; and the cognitive transformation required if we are to “think like a planet.”
Download or read book Reminiscences of William Bradford Shockley written by William Shockley and published by . This book was released on 1964 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book How Would You Move Mount Fuji written by William Poundstone and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2003-05-01 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Wall Street to Silicon Valley, employers are using tough and tricky questions to gauge job candidates' intelligence, imagination, and problem-solving ability -- qualities needed to survive in today's hypercompetitive global marketplace. For the first time, William Poundstone reveals the toughest questions used at Microsoft and other Fortune 500 companies -- and supplies the answers. He traces the rise and controversial fall of employer-mandated IQ tests, the peculiar obsessions of Bill Gates (who plays jigsaw puzzles as a competitive sport), the sadistic mind games of Wall Street (which reportedly led one job seeker to smash a forty-third-story window), and the bizarre excesses of today's hiring managers (who may start off your interview with a box of Legos or a game of virtual Russian roulette). How Would You Move Mount Fuji? is an indispensable book for anyone in business. Managers seeking the most talented employees will learn to incorporate puzzle interviews in their search for the top candidates. Job seekers will discover how to tackle even the most brain-busting questions, and gain the advantage that could win the job of a lifetime. And anyone who has ever dreamed of going up against the best minds in business may discover that these puzzles are simply a lot of fun. Why are beer cans tapered on the end, anyway?
Download or read book VC written by Tom Nicholas and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2019-06-03 with total page 401 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From nineteenth-century whaling to a multitude of firms pursuing entrepreneurial finance today, venture finance reflects a deep-seated tradition in the deployment of risk capital in the United States. Tom Nicholas’s history of the venture capital industry offers a roller coaster ride through America’s ongoing pursuit of financial gain.
Download or read book Race and Reality written by Carleton Putnam and published by Ostara Publications. This book was released on 2019-05-24 with total page 172 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is a sequel to Carleton Putnam's Race and Reason. Race and Reality brings up-to-date the story begun in the earlier volume. Readers will find summarized here Putnam's essential viewpoint set in a fresh perspective. They will also find added documentation and much that throws new light on the world's deepening racial crisis.
Download or read book The Man Behind the Microchip written by Leslie Berlin and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2006-11-13 with total page 441 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the life of a giant of the high-tech industry - co-founder of Fairchild Semiconductor and Intel - and inventor of the integrated circuit, which is used in every modern computer, microwave, telephone and car.
Download or read book The Age of Ideas written by Alan Philips and published by Zola Books. This book was released on 2018-11-08 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ian Schrager, Marcus Aurelius, Supreme, Kith, Rick Rubin, Kanye West, Soulcycle, Ikea, Sweetgreen, The Wu-Tang Clan, Danny Meyer, Tracy Chapman, Warren Buffett, Walt Disney, Jack's Wife Freda, Starbucks, A24, Picasso, In-N-Out Burger, intel, Tom Brady, Mission Chinese, Nike, Masayoshi Takayama, Oprah, the Baal Shem Tov. What do they all have in common? They have discovered their purpose and unlocked their creative potential. We have been born into a time when all the tools to make our dreams a reality are available and, for the most part, affordable. We have the freedom to manifest our truth, pursue our own path, and along the way discover our best selves. Whether as individuals or as part of a group, we can't be held back by anything except knowledge. The Age of Ideas provides that knowledge. It takes the reader on an incredible journey into a world of self-discovery, personal fulfillment, and modern entrepreneurship. The book starts by explaining how the world has shifted into this new paradigm and then outlines a step-by-step framework to turn your inner purpose and ideas into an empowered existence. Your ideas have more power than ever before, and when you understand how to manifest and share those ideas, you will be on the road to making an impact in ways you never before imagined. Welcome to the Age of Ideas.