Download or read book The Blind Spot written by William Byers and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2011-03-28 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why absolute certainty is impossible in science In today's unpredictable and chaotic world, we look to science to provide certainty and answers—and often blame it when things go wrong. The Blind Spot reveals why our faith in scientific certainty is a dangerous illusion, and how only by embracing science's inherent ambiguities and paradoxes can we truly appreciate its beauty and harness its potential. Crackling with insights into our most perplexing contemporary dilemmas, from climate change to the global financial meltdown, this book challenges our most sacredly held beliefs about science, technology, and progress. At the same time, it shows how the secret to better science can be found where we least expect it—in the uncertain, the ambiguous, and the inevitably unpredictable. William Byers explains why the subjective element in scientific inquiry is in fact what makes it so dynamic, and deftly balances the need for certainty and rigor in science with the equally important need for creativity, freedom, and downright wonder. Drawing on an array of fascinating examples—from Wall Street's overreliance on algorithms to provide certainty in uncertain markets, to undecidable problems in mathematics and computer science, to Georg Cantor's paradoxical but true assertion about infinity—Byers demonstrates how we can and must learn from the existence of blind spots in our scientific and mathematical understanding. The Blind Spot offers an entirely new way of thinking about science, one that highlights its strengths and limitations, its unrealized promise, and, above all, its unavoidable ambiguity. It also points to a more sophisticated approach to the most intractable problems of our time.
Download or read book The Blind Scientist written by Alexander J. Bonitto and published by Wipf and Stock Publishers. This book was released on 2024-03-05 with total page 103 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book investigates potential neo-Darwinian fallacies, specifically regarding a priori assumptions, that may have led to weak scientific methodology and praxis. It was proposed that five concepts must be true for neo-Darwinism to be true. These are gradualism, the tree of life hypothesis, the evidence of microevolutionary change accounting for macroevolutionary change, time and chance, and methodological naturalism. Prima facie, these concepts have tremendous explanatory power. Yet, with an attempt to carefully examine these concepts, all five seem to be assumed a priori so as to dictate the outcome of neo-Darwinism rather than letting the evidence speak for itself. The evidence left by the Cambrian explosion, genomic potential, genetic entropy, irreducible complexity, genetic limits, cyclical change, probability theory, the epistemology of information, and the law of causality seems to pose a dilemma for neo-Darwinian assumptions.
Download or read book Seven Tenths written by David Fisichella and published by ReadHowYouWant.com. This book was released on 2010-09 with total page 318 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1995, a mechanical engineer whose career and heart are adrift meets a blind oceanographer who spends much of her life at sea. Sailing the Arabian Sea as Amy's eyes, David Fisichella watches her adapt to progressive vision loss while he finds his own bearings, confronts the mysteries of ocean currents, survives an armed pirate attack, and learns what it means to be working for, and dating, the chief scientist. Fisichella describes the Woods Hole crew's research in clear, straightforward language, and enlivens his account of their shipboard lives with gritty details, humor, and a refreshing sense of wonder about our oceans. When Fisichella meets Amy, an oceanographer with rapidly deteriorating vision, he is trapped in a crumbling marriage, stuck in an unhappy career with a defense contractor, and looking for a way out of both. He finds it when Amy invites him to take a research cruise with her at sea. Wondrous observations about the world's oceans, encounters with Somali pirates, and most of all, the story of one woman's devotion to her scientific career despite enormous obstacles are woven together with skill and empathy. A memoir that will entrance anyone looking for a second chance at life and love.
Download or read book Scienceblind written by Andrew Shtulman and published by Basic Books. This book was released on 2017-04-25 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Humans are born to create theories about the world--unfortunately, they're usually wrong, and keep us from understanding the world as it really is Why do we catch colds? What causes seasons to change? And if you fire a bullet from a gun and drop one from your hand, which bullet hits the ground first? In a pinch we almost always get these questions wrong. Worse, we regularly misconstrue fundamental qualities of the world around us. In Scienceblind, cognitive and developmental psychologist Andrew Shtulman shows that the root of our misconceptions lies in the theories about the world we develop as children. They're not only wrong, they close our minds to ideas inconsistent with them, making us unable to learn science later in life. So how do we get the world right? We must dismantle our intuitive theories and rebuild our knowledge from its foundations. The reward won't just be a truer picture of the world, but clearer solutions to many controversies-around vaccines, climate change, or evolution-that plague our politics today.
Download or read book Blind Spots written by Kimberly Nix Berens and published by The Collective Book Studio. This book was released on 2020-10-27 with total page 149 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the United States, a majority of students graduate below proficiency in all academic subjects. Parents of struggling students feel overwhelmed and confused about how to help their children simply survive school, let alone succeed. Various school reform efforts have been tried and all have failed. But all hope is not lost. A science exists that allows children to learn as individuals even though at school they are educated in groups. One that avoids senseless labels that sentence children to lifetimes of failure and mediocrity. Dr. Kimberly Berens and a team of scientists have spent the last 20 years perfecting a powerful system of instruction based on the learning, behavioral, and cognitive sciences that they call Fit Learning. This method of teaching has been proven to markedly improve how students understand and achieve, even for children who have been told they have learning disabilities or other disorders that interfere with their ability to learn. Blind Spots reveals the history of our broken education system and shows that by using this teaching system in the classroom, we can unlock the vast potential hidden within every child.
Download or read book Richard Dawkins written by Alan Grafen and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2007 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Published to coincide with the 30th anniversary of 'The Selfish Gene', this collection explores the impact of Richard Dawkins as scientist, rationalist, and one of the most important thinkers alive today.
Download or read book Blinded by Science written by Matthew Silverstone and published by . This book was released on 2011 with total page 356 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Has science really explained the world we live in? This book takes you through a journey of discovery. It offers up a very simple alternative explanation to our understanding of science. By the end of the book your eyes will be truly opened." -- Back cover.
Download or read book The Country of the Blind and 32 Other Stories The original unabridged edition written by H. G. Wells and published by DigiCat. This book was released on 2023-12-29 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This carefully crafted ebook: "The Country of the Blind, and 32 Other Stories (The original unabridged edition)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. "The Country of the Blind" is a short story written by H. G. Wells. It was first published in the April 1904 issue of The Strand Magazine and included in a 1911 collection of Wells's short stories, The Country of the Blind and Other Stories. It is one of Wells's best known short stories and features prominently in literature dealing with blindness. Table of contents: The jilting of Jane -- The cone -- The stolen bacillus -- The flowering of the strange orchid -- In the Avu Observatory -- Aepyornis Island -- The remarkable case of Davidson's eyes -- The Lord of the Dynamos -- The moth -- The treasure in the forest -- The story of the late Mr. Elvesham -- Under the knife -- The sea raiders -- The obliterated man -- The Plattner story -- The red room -- The purple Pileus -- A slip under the microscope -- The crystal egg -- The star -- The man who could work miracles -- A vision of judgment -- Jimmy Goggles the God -- Miss Winchelsea's heart -- A dream of Armageddon -- The valley of spiders -- The new accelerator -- The truth about Pyecraft -- The magic shop -- The empire of the ants -- The door in the wall -- The country of the blind -- The beautiful suit. Herbert George "H. G." Wells (1866 – 1946) was an English writer, now best known for his work in the science fiction genre. He was also a prolific writer in many other genres, including contemporary novels, history, politics and social commentary, even writing textbooks and rules for war games.
Download or read book There Plant Eyes written by M. Leona Godin and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2022-08-30 with total page 353 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Homer to Helen Keller, from Dune to Stevie Wonder, from the invention of braille to the science of echolocation, M. Leona Godin explores the fascinating history of blindness, interweaving it with her own story of gradually losing her sight. “[A] thought-provoking mixture of criticism, memoir, and advocacy." —The New Yorker There Plant Eyes probes the ways in which blindness has shaped our ocularcentric culture, challenging deeply ingrained ideas about what it means to be “blind.” For millennia, blindness has been used to signify such things as thoughtlessness (“blind faith”), irrationality (“blind rage”), and unconsciousness (“blind evolution”). But at the same time, blind people have been othered as the recipients of special powers as compensation for lost sight (from the poetic gifts of John Milton to the heightened senses of the comic book hero Daredevil). Godin—who began losing her vision at age ten—illuminates the often-surprising history of both the condition of blindness and the myths and ideas that have grown up around it over the course of generations. She combines an analysis of blindness in art and culture (from King Lear to Star Wars) with a study of the science of blindness and key developments in accessibility (the white cane, embossed printing, digital technology) to paint a vivid personal and cultural history. A genre-defying work, There Plant Eyes reveals just how essential blindness and vision are to humanity’s understanding of itself and the world.
Download or read book Not a Scientist How Politicians Mistake Misrepresent and Utterly Mangle Science written by Dave Levitan and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2017-01-17 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An eye-opening tour of the political tricks that subvert scientific progress. The Butter-Up and Undercut. The Certain Uncertainty. The Straight-Up Fabrication. Dave Levitan dismantles all of these deceptive arguments, and many more, in this probing and hilarious examination of the ways our elected officials attack scientific findings that conflict with their political agendas. The next time you hear a politician say, "Well, I’m not a scientist, but…," you’ll be ready.
Download or read book Vision Science written by Stephen E. Palmer and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 1999-04-14 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book revolutionizes how vision can be taught to undergraduate and graduate students in cognitive science, psychology, and optometry. It is the first comprehensive textbook on vision to reflect the integrated computational approach of modern research scientists. This new interdisciplinary approach, called "vision science," integrates psychological, computational, and neuroscientific perspectives. The book covers all major topics related to vision, from early neural processing of image structure in the retina to high-level visual attention, memory, imagery, and awareness. The presentation throughout is theoretically sophisticated yet requires minimal knowledge of mathematics. There is also an extensive glossary, as well as appendices on psychophysical methods, connectionist modeling, and color technology. The book will serve not only as a comprehensive textbook on vision, but also as a valuable reference for researchers in cognitive science, psychology, neuroscience, computer science, optometry, and philosophy.
Download or read book Project Hail Mary written by Andy Weir and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2021-05-04 with total page 497 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the author of The Martian, a lone astronaut must save the earth from disaster in this “propulsive” (Entertainment Weekly), cinematic thriller full of suspense, humor, and fascinating science—in development as a major motion picture starring Ryan Gosling. HUGO AWARD FINALIST • ONE OF THE YEAR’S BEST BOOKS: Bill Gates, GatesNotes, New York Public Library, Parade, Newsweek, Polygon, Shelf Awareness, She Reads, Kirkus Reviews, Library Journal • “An epic story of redemption, discovery and cool speculative sci-fi.”—USA Today “If you loved The Martian, you’ll go crazy for Weir’s latest.”—The Washington Post Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission—and if he fails, humanity and the earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn’t know that. He can’t even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he’s been asleep for a very, very long time. And he’s just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company. His crewmates dead, his memories fuzzily returning, Ryland realizes that an impossible task now confronts him. Hurtling through space on this tiny ship, it’s up to him to puzzle out an impossible scientific mystery—and conquer an extinction-level threat to our species. And with the clock ticking down and the nearest human being light-years away, he’s got to do it all alone. Or does he? An irresistible interstellar adventure as only Andy Weir could deliver, Project Hail Mary is a tale of discovery, speculation, and survival to rival The Martian—while taking us to places it never dreamed of going.
Download or read book Meteorological Observations and Essays written by John Dalton and published by . This book was released on 1834 with total page 276 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Light of the Stars Alien Worlds and the Fate of the Earth written by Adam Frank and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2018-06-12 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Winner of the 2019 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science "A valuable perspective on the most important problem of our time." —Adam Becker, NPR Light of the Stars tells the story of humanity’s coming of age as we realize we might not be alone in this universe. Astrophysicist Adam Frank traces the question of alien life from the ancient Greeks to modern thinkers, and he demonstrates that recognizing the possibility of its existence might be the key to save us from climate change. With clarity and conviction, Light of the Stars asks the consequential question: What can the likely presence of life on other planets tell us about our own fate?
Download or read book Why Trust Science written by Naomi Oreskes and published by Princeton University Press. This book was released on 2021-04-06 with total page 386 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.
Download or read book Scientist written by Richard Rhodes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2023-10-17 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A masterful, timely, fully authorized biography of the great and hugely influential biologist and naturalist E. O. Wilson, one of the most ground-breaking and controversial scientists of our time—from the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb “An impressive account of one of the 20th century’s most prominent biologists, for whom the natural world is ‘a sanctuary and a realm of boundless adventure; the fewer the people in it, the better.’” —The New York Times Book Review Few biologists in the long history of that science have been as productive, as ground-breaking and as controversial as the Alabama-born Edward Osborne Wilson. At 91 years of age he may be the most eminent American scientist in any field. Fascinated from an early age by the natural world in general and ants in particular, his field work on them and on all social insects has vastly expanded our knowledge of their many species and fascinating ways of being. This work led to his 1975 book Sociobiology, which created an intellectual firestorm from his contention that all animal behavior, including that of humans, is governed by the laws of evolution and genetics. Subsequently Wilson has become a leading voice on the crucial importance to all life of biodiversity and has worked tirelessly to synthesize the fields of science and the humanities in a fruitful way. Richard Rhodes is himself a towering figure in the field of science writing and he has had complete and unfettered access to Wilson, his associates, and his papers in writing this book. The result is one of the most accomplished and anticipated and urgently needed scientific biographies in years.
Download or read book The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing written by Richard Dawkins and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2009 with total page 439 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Selected and introduced by Richard Dawkins, The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing is a celebration of the finest writing by scientists for a wider audience - revealing that many of the best scientists have displayed as much imagination and skill with the pen as they have in the laboratory.This is a rich and vibrant collection that captures the poetry and excitement of communicating scientific understanding and scientific effort from 1900 to the present day. Professor Dawkins has included writing from a diverse range of scientists, some of whom need no introduction, and some of whoseworks have become modern classics, while others may be less familiar - but all convey the passion of great scientists writing about their science.
