510 results for "Science"

Real and complex analysis

Rudin, Walter
This is an advanced text for the one- or two-semester course in analysis taught primarily to math, science, computer science, and electrical engineering majors at the junior, senior or graduate level. The basic techniques and theorems of analysis are presented in such a way that the intimate connections between its various branches are strongly emphasized. The traditionally separate subjects of 'real analysis' and 'complex analysis' are thus united in one volume. Some of the basic ideas from functional analysis are also included. This is the only book to take this unique approach. The third edition includes a new chapter on differentiation. Proofs of theorems presented in the book are concise and complete and many challenging exercises appear at the end of each chapter. The book is arranged so that each chapter builds upon the other, giving students a gradual understanding of the subject. This text is part of the Walter Rudin Student Series in Advanced Mathematics.
McGraw-Hill 1974 452 pages

Monkeyluv

Robert M. Sapolsky
Author and science writer Robert M. Sapolsky offers answers to various questions that are at once intriguing and perhaps seemingly unrelated. How do imperceptibly small differences in the environment change one's behavior? What do the mating rituals of prairie dogs tell us about ourselves? Why don't we try new things as we age? How does stress shrink our brains? How does ecology shape human theology? How is the battle of the sexes conducted at the cellular level? "Monkeluv" has all the answers!
Scribner 2005 209 pages

The Logic of Scientific Discovery

Karl R. Popper
2024 Hardcover Reprint of Original 1959 Edition. Exact facsimile of the original edition, not reproduced with Optical Recognition Software. This book by one of the world's foremost philosophers of science presented a striking new picture of the logical character of scientific discovery--a picture which does full justice to the liberating effect of the Einsteinian revolution in physics and its immense impact upon scientific thought in general. For this new English edition Dr. Popper did his own translation and has written 150 pages of entirely new text. Ernest Nagel considered this work "a first rate contribution to the logic of scientific method. The book contains a very interesting chapter on quantum mechanics, which performs one of the few sensible analyses of the Indeterminacy Principle which I have seen in print... The book is highly stimulating and contains much that is bed-rock for future work."--From the Dusk Jacket.
Martino Fine Books 2024-03-07 482 pages

Cosmos Possible Worlds

Druyan, Ann
This all-new and long-awaited sequel to Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan's international bestseller Cosmos takes readers to worlds only now emerging with the advent of new technologies. With lucid prose that recalls the best-selling and beloved Cosmos, Ann Druyan takes readers on an extraordinary journey through the vast and unexplored realms of Earth and space, past and future, fact and imagination. Written and published in coordination with the sensational international television debut of a second season of National Geographic's Cosmos, Cosmos: Possible Worlds travels through more than 14 billion years of cosmic evolution and into an astonishing future where probes travel by light beams to distant stars, helping us solve enduring mysteries of our origins and dream of an unimaginable time ahead. Along the way, we meet the colorful characters who push beyond the boundaries of knowledge—both the little-known but monumental visionaries of the past and the scientists whose work is shaping our future. Color photographs, art, and diagrams based on graphics created for the television series—plus a foreword by Neil deGrasse Tyson, best-selling author, wildly popular science commentator, and host of Cosmos on the National Geographic Channel—complete this highly anticipated package.
National Geographic 2020-02-25 384 pages

THE EMPEROR'S NEW MIND: Concerning Computers, Minds, and the Laws of Physics

Penrose, Roger
For decades, proponents of artificial intelligence have argued that computers will soon be doing everything that a human mind can do. Admittedly, computers now play chess at the grandmaster level, but do they understand the game as we do? Can a computer eventually do everything a human mind can do? In this absorbing and frequently contentious book, Roger Penrose--eminent physicist and winner, with Stephen Hawking, of the prestigious Wolf prize--puts forward his view that there are some facets of human thinking that can never be emulated by a machine. Penrose examines what physics and mathematics can tell us about how the mind works, what they can't, and what we need to know to understand the physical processes of consciousness. He is among a growing number of physicists who think Einstein wasn't being stubborn when he said his "little finger" told him that quantum mechanics is incomplete, and he concludes that laws even deeper than quantum mechanics are essential for the operation of a mind. To support this contention, Penrose takes the reader on a dazzling tour that covers such topics as complex numbers, Turing machines, complexity theory, quantum mechanics, formal systems, Godel undecidability, phase spaces, Hilbert spaces, black holes, white holes, Hawking radiation, entropy, quasicrystals, the structure of the brain, and scores of other subjects. The Emperor's New Mind will appeal to anyone with a serious interest in modern physics and its relation to philosophical issues, as well as to physicists, mathematicians, philosophers and those on either side of the AI debate.
Oxford University Press 1990 466 pages

The Dance Language and Orientation of Bees

Karl von Frisch
A detailed monograph on the language of bees - their ability to communicate through "dance" as well as bees' methods of orientation by use of landmarks and polarized light. From the Dust Jacket: Bees are unique in the whole animal kingdom in the extent of their ability to communicate with one another. Karl von Frisch, probably the world's most renowned authority on bees, has devoted more than fifty years of his life to research into their language, their methods of orientation, and their sensory faculties. This book describes in detail, in clear, nontechnical prose, what the author and his collaborators have discovered over the years, how he learned to understand the language of the honeybees, and the numerous experiments he conducted to implement his understanding. Through years of patient observation and research, Professor von Frisch learned to understand the communication dances of the bees so well that he could find a food source or new nesting site solely by observing a scout bee's dance int he hives. This book makes fascinating reading for anyone, scientist or layman, interested in these most sophisticated of insects.
Harvard 1967 566 pages

The trouble with testosterone: and other essays on the biology of the human predicament

Sapolsky, Robert M.
Finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize From the man who Oliver Sacks hailed as “one of the best scientist/writers of our time,” a collection of sharply observed, uproariously funny essays on the biology of human culture and behavior. In the tradition of Stephen Jay Gould and Oliver Sacks, Robert Sapolsky offers a sparkling and erudite collection of essays about science, the world, and our relation to both. “The Trouble with Testosterone” explores the influence of that notorious hormone on male aggression. “Curious George’s Pharmacy” reexamines recent exciting claims that wild primates know how to medicate themselves with forest plants. “Junk Food Monkeys” relates the adventures of a troop of baboons who stumble upon a tourist garbage dump. And “Circling the Blanket for God” examines the neurobiological roots underlying religious belief. Drawing on his career as an evolutionary biologist and neurobiologist, Robert Sapolsky writes about the natural world vividly and insightfully. With candor, humor, and rich observations, these essays marry cutting-edge science with humanity, illuminating the interconnectedness of the world’s inhabitants with skill and flair.
Scribner 1997 288 pages

Gödel's proof

Nagel, Ernest
In 1931 Kurt Gödel published his fundamental paper, "On Formally Undecidable Propositions of Principia Mathematica and Related Systems." This revolutionary paper challenged certain basic assumptions underlying much research in mathematics and logic. Gödel received public recognition of his work in 1951 when he was awarded the first Albert Einstein Award for achievement in the natural sciences—perhaps the highest award of its kind in the United States. The award committee described his work in mathematical logic as "one of the greatest contributions to the sciences in recent times." However, few mathematicians of the time were equipped to understand the young scholar's complex proof. Ernest Nagel and James Newman provide a readable and accessible explanation to both scholars and non-specialists of the main ideas and broad implications of Gödel's discovery. It offers every educated person with a taste for logic and philosophy the chance to understand a previously difficult and inaccessible subject. Marking the 50th anniversary of the original publication of Gödel's Proof , New York University Press is proud to publish this special anniversary edition of one of its bestselling and most frequently translated books. With a new introduction by Douglas R. Hofstadter, this book will appeal students, scholars, and professionals in the fields of mathematics, computer science, logic and philosophy, and science.
New York University Press 2001 129 pages

Einstein on Einstein: autobiographical and scientific reflections

Gutfreund, Hanoch,Renn, Jürgen
"Einstein begins his Autobiographical Notes with one problem he never quite solved: "What, precisely, is thinking?" To answer, he turns inward to the very shape of his thoughts, the ongoing struggle to connect local observation, or what he calls the "momentary and personal," to the larger "mental grasp of things." Einstein situates his greatest discoveries amongst the other twentieth-century breakthroughs in the field and closely examines how these discoveries punctuated and propelled his own intellectual development. The autobiography expands what we know about Einstein's childhood education, readings in philosophy, and journey to the theory of general relativity. In this book, Autobiographical Notes is accompanied by introductions, essays, and commentary by Hanoch Gutfreud and Jürgen Renn, who draw on biographical information, written correspondence, and their knowledge of Einstein scholarship to render these difficult texts accessible to readers. They have also collected critical writings by Einstein's contemporaries alongside Einstein's own responses to these interlocutors, as well as Einstein's Autobiographical Sketch, composed just before his death in 1955, which is published for the first time in English"--
Princeton University Press 2020-05-12 197 pages

The Cat Who Came in from the Cold

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson
In this sentimental, didactic fable, Masson imagines how the lone, nonsocial, domesticated animal came to share hearth and home.Billi, an Asian leopard cat, lives in a mango forest in ancient India. He enjoys his independence, but he feels pangs of loneliness and curiosity about the "two-foots." He learns their languages - Hindi, Malayam and Sanskrit - and he can "see the appeal of south India's three major religions."Billi embarks on a quest to learn more about humans by discovering what their animals think of them. A water buffalo mourns being underappreciated; a parrot bemoans his cage; a mongoose tells a chilling story about human ingratitude. Billi reminds a cow that it's worshipped by humans. "Oh, great," the cow says. "That and five rupees will get you a chapati."Nine months of travel and no truly good word for humans leaves Billi undeterred and, back home, he seeks out a young girl he'd often watched. It's not easy proving his good intentions or trying to be "the only animal to have a mutually satisfying relationship with humans," but Billi makes it happen in a story that's heartwarming not only for the passionate cat fan but for all readers.A novelette from the author of Raising the Peaceable Kingdom.
Histria Books 2024-03-04 70 pages

Computability, Complexity, and Languages, Second Edition: Fundamentals of Theoretical Computer Science

Davis, Martin,Sigal, Ron,Weyuker, Elaine J.
This introductory text covers the key areas of computer science, including recursive function theory, formal languages, and automata. It assumes a minimal background in formal mathematics. The book is divided into five parts: Computability, Grammars and Automata, Logic, Complexity, and Unsolvability. * Computability theory is introduced in a manner that makes maximum use of previous programming experience, including a "universal" program that takes up less than a page. * The number of exercises included has more than tripled. * Automata theory, computational logic, and complexity theory are presented in a flexible manner, and can be covered in a variety of different arrangements.
Morgan Kaufmann 1994 609 pages

The human use of human beings: cybernetics and society

Wiener, Norbert
"In 1950, mathematician-philosopher Norbert Wiener ended this classic book on the place of machines in society with a warning: "We shall never receive the right answers to our questions unless we ask the right questions.... The hour is very late, and the choice of good and evil knocks at our door." Wiener, the founder of the science of cybernetics--the study of the relationship between computers and the human nervous system--was widely mislabeled as an advocate for the automation of human life. As The Human Use for Human Beings reveals, his vision was much more complex and interesting, and is more relevant in today's world of AI than anyone could have anticipated. In his new introduction, Brian Christian aptly calls Wiener the "progenitor of contemporary AI-safety discourse." Wiener hoped that machines would release people from relentless and repetitive drudgery to achieve more creative pursuits, yet he anticipated the danger of dehumanizing and displacement. His pioneering views on the human-machine relationship as a "communicative process" are only more crucial now, as we carry in our pockets AI devices that we can literally speak to. His prescient warnings illuminate our contemporary relationships with language, art, and even social media. The Human Use of Human Beings examines the implications of cybernetics for education, law, language, science, technology, as Wiener anticipates the enormous impact--in effect, a third industrial revolution--that the computer has had on our lives."-- Provided by publisher
Mariner Classics 2025-08-12 240 pages

The spirit of green: the economics of collisions and contagions in a crowded world

Nordhaus, William D.
"From a Nobel Prize-winning pioneer in environmental economics, an innovative account of how and why "green thinking" could cure many of the world's most serious problems-from global warming to pandemics Solving the world's biggest problems-from climate catastrophe and pandemics to wildfires and corporate malfeasance-requires, more than anything else, coming up with new ways to manage the powerful interactions that surround us. For carbon emissions and other environmental damage, this means ensuring that those responsible pay their full costs rather than continuing to pass them along to others, including future generations. In The Spirit of Green, Nobel Prize-winning economist William Nordhaus describes a new way of green thinking that would help us overcome our biggest challenges without sacrificing economic prosperity, in large part by accounting for the spillover costs of economic collisions. In a discussion that ranges from the history of the environmental movement to the Green New Deal, Nordhaus explains how the spirit of green thinking provides a compelling and hopeful new perspective on modern life. At the heart of green thinking is a recognition that the globalized world is shaped not by isolated individuals but rather by innumerable interactions inside and outside the economy. He shows how rethinking economic efficiency, sustainability, politics, profits, taxes, individual ethics, corporate social responsibility, finance, and more would improve the effectiveness and equity of our society. And he offers specific solutions-on how to price carbon, how to pursue low-carbon technologies, how to design an efficient tax system, and how to foster international cooperation through climate clubs. The result is a groundbreaking new vision of how we can have our environment and our economy too"--
Princeton University Press 2021-05-18 355 pages