How Singular? How singular is the Singularity? Will it happen in an instant? Lets consider again the derivation of the word. In mathematics a singularity is a value that is beyond any limit - in essence, infinity. The Singularity as we have discussed it in this book, does not achieve infinite levels of computation, memory, as any other other measurable attribute. But it certainly achieves vast levels of all these qualities, including intelligence. With the reverse engineering of the human brain we will be able to apply the parallel, self-organizing, chaotic, algorithms of human intelligence to enormously powerful computational substrates. This intelligence will then be in a position to improve its own design, both hardware and software, in a rapidly accelerating iterative process.

BOUGHT NEW, READ THROUGH ONE TIME CAREFULLY

Worms, protozoa, and other terrifying parasites, capable even of mind control. Author calls them the real drivers of evolution.

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!

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.

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.

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.

From the bestselling author of The Clockwork Universe and The Writing of the Gods , an “utterly delightful…hugely entertaining” ( Air Mail ) book about the eccentric Victorians who discovered dinosaur bones, leading to a whole new understanding of human history. In the early 1800s the natural world was a safe and cozy place, or so people believed. But then a twelve-year-old farm boy in Massachusetts stumbled on a row of fossilized three-toed footprints the size of dinner plates—the first dinosaur tracks ever found. Soon, in England, scientists unearthed enormous bones that reached as high as a man’s head. Outside of myths and fairy tales, no one had even imagined that creatures like three-toed giants had once lumbered across the land—nor dreamed that they could all have vanished, hundreds of millions years ago. In Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party , celebrated storyteller and historian Edward Dolnick leads us through a compelling true adventure as the paleontologists of the early 19th century puzzled their way through the fossil record to create the story of dinosaurs we know today. The tale begins with Mary Anning, a poor, uneducated woman who had a sixth sense for finding fossils buried deep inside cliffs; moves to William Buckland, an eccentric geologist who filled his home with specimens and famously pieced together a prehistoric scene from the fossil record inside a cave; and then on to the controversial Richard Owen, the era’s best-known scientist, and the one who coined the term “dinosaur.” “Exuberant” ( Kirkus Reviews ), entertaining, erudite, and featuring an unconventional cast of characters, Dinosaurs at the Dinner Party tells the story of how the accidental discovery of prehistoric creatures upended humanity’s understanding of the world and its own place within it.

Inspired by the wonder of his own parental experiences, former psychoanalyst and New York Times best-selling author Jeffrey Masson offers a remarkable look at one of the most fulfilling roles in the animal world: fatherhood. In The Evolution of Fatherhood , he explores the extraordinary dedication and behavior of nature's most outstanding dads. Discover the male emperor penguin incubating his egg through Antarctic blizzards, prairie dog dads teaching their pups vital life skills through play, and the South American tamarin monkey who actively "coaches" his mate through labor. Learn why wolves make devoted fathers, while their close relatives, dogs, often don't display the same level of paternal care. With captivating writing and impeccable research, Masson celebrates the unique and often surprising role males play in the lives of their young. He contrasts these heroes with nature's less involved fathers--like lions, langurs, and bears--and challenges the notion that paternal care is purely biological. Masson passionately demonstrates that for many animals, fatherhood is a profound, all-encompassing emotional experience. Compelling and inspirational, The Evolution of Fatherhood is a book that will forever change how you perceive parenthood, family bonds, and the rich emotional lives of the animals who share our world.

Based on the thirteen-part BBC-TV series, this illustrated overview of modern biology and modern medicine examines the unprecedented advances that have been made in the past twenty-five years.

How do we understand the world? While some look to the heavens for intelligent design, others argue that it is determined by information encoded in DNA. Science serves as an important activity for uncovering the processes and operations of nature, but it is also immersed in a social context where ideology influences the questions we ask and how we approach the material world. Biology Under the Influence: Dialectical Essays on the Coevolution of Nature and Society breaks from the confirms of determinism, offering a dialectical analysis for comprehending a dynamic social and natural world. In Biology Under the Influence , Richard Lewontin and Richard Levins provide a devastating critique of genetic determinism and reductionism within science while exploring a broad range of issues including the nature of science, biology, evolution, the environment, pubic health, and dialectics, They dismantle the ideology that attempts to naturalize social inequalities, unveil the alienation of science and nature, and illustrate how a dialectical position serves as a basis for grappling with historical developments and a world characterized by change. Biology Under the Influence brings together the illuminating essays of two prominent scientists who work to demystify and empower the public's understanding of science and nature.

Lehrbuch

Methods in Neuronal Modeling is the first technical handbook on computational neuroscience. Written for researchers and theoreticians alike, it outlines methods and techniques used for simulating on digital computers the functional properties of single neurons from synapses, dendrites, single cells; and small invertebrate networks to large scale neural networks in the mammalian nervous system. The use of new experimental tools such as selective staining methods, membrane patch electrodes, voltage and calcium-dependent dyes, and multielectrode recordings, together with the, advent of universally available powerful computing, makes it possible to construct detailed and realistic models of neuronal systems. Methods in Neuronal Modeling addresses such questions as what can and should be simulated and what techniques should be used; what experimental parameters are crucial for such simulations, and whether these models may be verified experimentally. Chapters cover simulation of passive dendritic trees, compartmental models of single cells including neurons with a number of different ionic channels, calcium current dynamics, simulations of small invertebrate networks, simulations of the mammalian cortex, connectionists' models, and the use of parallel computers in modeling neural networks. Although the chapters were written by several authors, they are uniform in structure and notation. Detailed examples are given to clarify the different approaches. Each chapter concludes with a description of the model discussed and the details of its implementation on the computer. Christof Koch is an Assistant Professor of Computation and Neural Systems at the California Institute of Technology. Idan Segev is a Lecturer in Neurobiology at the Institute of Life Science, Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Methods in Neuronal Modeling inaugurates the new series in Computational Neuroscience, edited by Terrence J. Sejnowski and Tomaso Poggio. A Bradford Book.

This enticing collection is as devoted to the profound power of figures of speech as any oration of old Hellas. Metaphor reigns as we encounter the identification of our Earth as a Single, integrative organism, a tale told in image and passion. The discoveries and conjectures upon which this grand view rest are here as well. I have enjoyed these two dozen pieces hugely. No family tree of animal life but must somewhere disclose a cousinly infolding. We are compact of life past, and the looped handing down is more complex than the Mendel-Morgan dance of chromosomes and genes. That dance is essential, certainly, but it is the vital editing of an epic and many-rooted work, a book more like the Bible than like one great artists Remembrance of Things Past. We follow a few old shelves of bound DNA, not just a single book. Our major biochemical package for oxidative metabolism was de scribed in a small DNA manual, somehow engulfed to become an or ganelle within a lucky ancient ancestral anaerobe, and passed ever since viii FOREWORD from mother to offspring outside of the chromosome shuffie. The sperm do carry half the compact genetic message of the human DNA, but they are too small to transfer this equally essential symbiotic one that comes down from the mothers, within roomy egg after roomy egg.

Now a major motion picture starring Drew Barrymore, Ted Danson, Kristen Bell, Tim Blake Nelson, John Krasinski, and Vinessa Shaw—an account of the dramatic rescue of three gray whales trapped under the ice in Alaska in 1988. Set in Cold War–era 1988, Freeing the Whales tells the real story behind the remarkable, bizarre, and oftentimes uproarious event that mesmerized the world for weeks. On October 7, an Inuit hunter near Barrow, Alaska, found three California Gray whales imprisoned in the Arctic ice. In the past, as was nature's way, trapped whales always died. Not this time. Tom Rose, who was covering the event for a Japanese TV station, compellingly describes how oil company executives, environmental activists, Inupiat people, small business people, and the U.S. military boldly worked together to rescue the whales. He also tells the stories of some of the more than 150 international journalists who brought the story to the world's attention. The rescue was followed by millions of people around the world as Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev joined the forces of their two nations to help free the whales.

The Advances in Cancer Research series provides invaluable information on the exciting and fast-moving field of cancer research. This volume presents outstanding and original reviews on a variety of topics.