23 results for "Science Fiction"

Cry Wolf and Other Aesop Fables

Lewis, Naomi
Cry Wolf! Haste makes waste! Sour grapes! These familiar expressions come from stories that have been told around the world for more than two thousand years. Their reputed author Aesop lived in the 6th century BC, and is said by the Greek historian Herodotus to have been a slave on the island of Samos. Legend has it that Aesop was an ugly, deformed little man whose audience laughed at his appearance but also at his brilliant story-telling. Using mostly animals as characters, especially the fox, the wolf and the lion, each of Aesop's fables demonstrates a moral. The tales stress the value of plain common sense: how to save one's own skin; things are not always as they seem; please all, please none. In this magical presentation Barry Castle's stunning paintings, with their unique other-wordly quality, combine with Naomi Lewis' lyrical retelling of Aesop to create an exciting new version of these classic stories.
Oxford University Press 1988 30 pages

The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004

Tim Folger,Steven Pinker
Since its inception in 1915, the Best American series has become the premier annual showcase for the country's finest short fiction and nonfiction. For each volume, a series editor reads pieces from hundreds of periodicals, then selects between fifty and a hundred outstanding works. That selection is pared down to the twenty or so very best pieces by a guest editor who is widely recognized as a leading writer in his or her field. This unique system has helped make the Best American series the most respected -- and most popular -- of its kind. The Best American Science and Nature Writing 2004, edited by Steven Pinker, is another "provocative and thoroughly enjoyable [collection] from start to finish" (Publishers Weekly). Here is the best and newest on science and nature: the psychology of suicide terrorism, desperate measures in surgery, the weird world of octopuses, Sex Week at Yale, the linguistics of click languages, the worst news about cloning, and much more.
Houghton Mifflin 2004 209 pages

Tomorrowland: our journey from science fiction to science fact

Kotler, Steven
New York Times , Wired , Atlantic Monthly , Discover bestselling author Steven Kotler has written extensively about those pivotal moments when science fiction became science fact...and fundamentally reshaped the world. Now he gathers the best of his best, updated and expanded upon, to guide readers on a mind-bending tour of the far frontier, and how these advances are radically transforming our lives. From the ways science and technology are fundamentally altering our bodies and our world (the world's first bionic soldier, the future of evolution) to those explosive collisions between science and culture (life extension and bioweapons), we're crossing moral and ethical lines we've never faced before. As Kotler writes, "Life is tricky sport--and that's the emotional core of this story, the real reason we can't put Pandora back in the box. When you strip everything else away, technology is nothing more than the promise of an easier tomorrow. It's the promise of hope. And how do you stop hope?" Join Kotler in this fascinating exploration of our incredible next: a deep dive into those future technologies happening now--and what it means to be a part of this brave new world.
Amazon Publishing 2022-02 306 pages

Planet Earth

Jonathan Weiner
"This book is a guide to our lving, changing planet. We journey to the rim of a great meteor crater ... we travel back in time to 1930, in the icy heart of Greenland ... We journey to the outer reaches of our solar system, dive to a rock erupt from the heart of the earth to form new undersea mountains and a new ocean floor. Ulimately we will come to see this planet not as a hunk of stone in space but more like a living organism -- with its own internal dynamics, exchanging gases, healing itself, increasingly dependent on a new host creature -- man-- to shape its future."--Fly leaf.
Bantam Books 1986 370 pages

Opus 200

Isaac Asimov
What does a writer who produced two hundred books do with his spare time? If his name is Isaac Asimov, he writes - on any and every subject of interest to his fertile mind. Informative, amusing, timely, and provocative - OPUS 200 is Asimov at his sparkling best in selections carefully culled from his second hundred books. Drawing on novels (which have won both the Hugo and Nebula awards), on short stories, serious essays, and on children's books, Asimov addresses himself to everything from Black Holes to biblical Canaan. Here is a taste of the intelligence, the craftsmanship, and the ingenuity that have made Issac Asimov the most prolific writer of science fiction in the world.
Random House Publishing Group 1980-12 432 pages

Sex robots & vegan meat: adventures at the frontier of birth, food, sex & death

Kleeman, Jenny
A timely investigation into the forces that are driving innovation in the four core areas of human experience: birth, food, sex and death. Sex Robots and Vegan Meat will take readers on a fascinating exploration of the changes afoot, and their implications for who we are as a society and as humans. What if we could have babies without having to bear children, eat meat without killing animals, have the perfect sexual relationship without compromise or choose the time of our painless death? To find out, Jenny Kleeman interviewed a sex robot, ate a priceless labgrown chicken nugget, watched foetuses growing in plastic bags, and attended membersonly meetings where people learn how to kill themselves.Many of the people Kleeman has met say they are finding solutions to problems that have always defined and constricted humankind. But what truly motivates them? What kind of person devotes their life to building a death machine? What kind of customer is desperate to buy an artificially intelligent sex doll - and why? Who is campaigning against these advances, and how are they trying to stop them? And what about the many unintended consequences such inventions will inevitably unleash? Sex Robots & Vegan Meat is not science fiction. It's not about what might happen one day - it's about what is happening right now, and who is making it happen. In the end, it asks a simple question: are we about to change what it means to be human forever?
Picador 2021-04 368 pages

The Roving Mind

Isaac Asimov
Isaac Asimov's death on April 6, 19892, was a great loss to the world of both science and literature. This collection of essays reflects Asimov's extraordinary skill in disseminating knowledge from across the spectrum of human thought. Included are thoughtful and touching tributes from colleagues and friends who discuss Asimov's work and his inspiration and impact on others. Copyright © Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.
Prometheus Books, Publishers 1983-04 350 pages

Galaxy's Edge Magazine Issue 19, March 2016

David Drake,Robert Silverberg
A Magazine of Science Fiction and Fantasy ISSUE 19: March 2016 Mike Resnick, Editor Jean Rabe, Assistant Editor Shahid Mahmud, Publisher Stories by: Sylvia Spruck Wrigley, Larry Hodges, Robert Silverberg, Steve Pantazis, Dantzel Cherry, Jean Rabe, Ian Whates, Janis Ian, Alvaro Zinos-Amaro, Sunil Patel, David Drake, Kary English, Robert B Finegold, M.D. Serialization: The Long Tomorrow by Leigh Brackett Columns by: Barry Malzberg, Gregory Benford Book Reviews: Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett Interview: Joy Ward interviews David Weber Galaxy's Edge is a Hugo-nominated bi-monthly magazine published by Phoenix Pick, the science fiction and fantasy imprint of Arc Manor, an award winning independent press based in Maryland. Each issue of the magazine has a mix of new and old stories, a serialization of a novel, columns by Barry Malzberg and Gregory Benford, book reviews by Jody Lynn Nye and Bill Fawcett and an interview conducted by Joy Ward.
Arc Manor 2016-03 108 pages

The Structure and Measurement of Intelligence

Hans Eysenck
What is meant by the term "intelligence" and, once de- fined, how do we go about achieving a valid measurement of this faculty? This classic textbook, originally published in 1979, and now reissued with a new preface by Sybil Eysenck, incorporates a broad range of findings and reanalyzes much of the existing literature in this area. In The Structure and Measurement of Intelligence, Hans Eysenck draws on methods for determining the effect of genetics and environment on the development of intelligence and examines the validity of the term as defined in relation to internal as well as external criteria. He tests a number of hypotheses on intelligence against empirical research findings and considers various criticisms in detail. The significance of intelligence and its measurement in society are explored in depth. Eysenck greatly expands upon such questions as: Does IQ measure intelligence? How valid is the nature versus nurture argument? and, How might socioeconomic status influence one's intelligence? Designed primarily for students and scholars in psychology and education, this text will make thought-provoking reading for all concerned with the development and measurement of intelligence in the individual.
[distributor] Taylor & Francis, c/o Bookpoint 2017-10-27 226 pages

The Real Science Behind the X-Files Microbes, Meteorites, and Mutants

Anne Simon
Could an alien organism really survive a centuries-long trip on a meteor and remain virulent enough to attack a human being? How would a scientist know she was peering at a microbe from another planet? What's the possibility of a genetically mutated monster actually developing? In a gripping exploration of the facts behind the science fiction that has enthralled millions of X-philes, Anne Simon -- the respected virologist who comes up with the science for many intriguing episodes -- discusses telomeres, cloning, the Hayflick limit, nanotechnology, endosymbionts, lentiviruses, and other strange phenomena that have challenged the intellect and threatened the lives and sanity of America's favorite FBI agents. With Simon's extraordinary gift for explaining complicated, cutting-edge science in a light, accessible style, and her behind-the-scenes commentary on the development of various plot lines, The Real Science Behind the X-Files will appeal to science buffs and X-Files aficionados alike.
Simon and Schuster 2001 320 pages

Fact, fiction and forecast

Goodman, Nelson
Here, in a new edition, is Nelson Goodman’s provocative philosophical classic—a book that, according to Science , “raised a storm of controversy” when it was first published in 1954, and one that remains on the front lines of philosophical debate. How is it that we feel confident in generalizing from experience in some ways but not in others? How are generalizations that are warranted to be distinguished from those that are not? Goodman shows that these questions resist formal solution and his demonstration has been taken by nativists like Chomsky and Fodor as proof that neither scientific induction nor ordinary learning can proceed without an a priori , or innate, ordering of hypotheses. In his new foreword to this edition, Hilary Putnam forcefully rejects these nativist claims. The controversy surrounding these unsolved problems is as relevant to the psychology of cognitive development as it is to the philosophy of science. No serious student of either discipline can afford to misunderstand Goodman’s classic argument.
Harvard University Press 1983-03-07 131 pages

Hobson's Island

Themerson, Stefan
Hobson's Island (so called because Mr. Hobson bought it, or did Mr. Hobson buy it because it was so called?) enjoyed decades of isolation in the Atlantic Ocean. For years, the caretakers lived there peacefully, with only a cow for company and an empty house to care for. But all is suddenly disrupted when a wave of unusual visitors arrive: a deposed African king fleeing a revolution, a Hobson descendant claiming ownership, government agents eyeing the nation-less real estate, and scientists looking to test a dangerous new invention. In typical Themerson fashion, the comic is wound up with the serious and let go to devastating effect. A clever and apt parodying of Cold War power plays and twisted science, Hobson's Island is a strangely touching, sympathetic, and emotional account of the families and individuals brought together and broken up by Hobson's Island.
Dalkey Archive Press 2005 196 pages