Résultats de "Scientific American" dans Toutes les catégories

Our nearest planetary neighbor has been the subject of endless fascination and wide-ranging theories throughout history. Is there life on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? What was the atmosphere like thousands or millions of years ago? From Percival Lowell, who built his own observatory so he could dedicate himself to studying the red planet, to NASA landing the car-sized Curiosity rover in 2012, this book traces Scientific American's coverage of the observation and exploration of Mars.

During allergy season, sufferers know the drill: runny nose, watery eyes, sneezing up a storm. For the unlucky with asthma, symptoms might also include coughing and wheezing. However, asthma is not always caused by allergens like pollen and dust - nonallergenic asthma is brought on by a number of possible environmental or genetic triggers. Then there’s the common cold, which also presents with similar symptoms. So what’s causing your runny nose?

With global population numbers projected to increase by two billion by 2050, a veritable food crisis is on the horizon. In this audiobook we examine some of the complex factors involved in the coming “food crisis” and the innovative ideas and technologies designed to increase food production sustainably. We also examine current industry methods to increase production and the controversies surrounding them, including not only hot-button issues like genetically modified (or GM) and processed foods but also food safety and the physical effects of the modern diet.

Why do facts fail to change people’s minds? In this audiobook, we examine how we form our beliefs and maintain them with a host of cognitive biases, the difference between intelligence and thinking rationally, and some solutions for how to overcome these obstacles both in reasoning with others and in dealing with our own prejudices.

On June 5, 1981, the scientific community received a wake-up call from the CDC in the form of a terrible new illness that the world would soon know as AIDS. Three decades later, remarkable progress has been made, but much more remains to be understood and to be done. In this audiobook, we explore where the disease came from, how it works, how it spreads, the search for a vaccine, and cultural and sociological factors.

Making ethical decisions involves more than listening to an inner moral compass, a feeling in the gut of what’s right and wrong. Questions of ethics in science are becoming increasingly complex, especially as technology encroaches upon even our most private cellular spaces. In Doing the Right Thing: Ethics in Science, we cover a wide range of areas in science and medicine where complicated ethical questions come to bear, including genomics and research where informed - and ethically sound - choices are the basis of many scientific studies.

From increasingly severe storms to collapsing coral reefs to the displacement of Syrian citizens, in this audiobook we examine the effects of Earth’s changing climate on weather systems, ecosystems, and human habitability and what this means for our future.

Is time an illusion? Is time travel possible? Could time end? In this audiobook, A Question of Time, we take an interdisciplinary look at the fourth dimension, exploring the latest thinking on the nature of time and the ways it dominates our physical and mental worlds.

Host Rachel Feltman, alongside leading science and tech journalists, dives into the rich world of scientific discovery in this bite-size science variety show.

Boy or girl? Even before a person is born, that’s the first thing everyone wants to know - underscoring just how much value human societies of all types place on gender. In His Brain, Her Brain, we take a closer look at the anatomical, chemical, and functional differences in the brains of men and women - as well as some surprising similarities. For instance, studies of infants find few differences in cognitive skills between boys and girls; but there is no denying that boys love trucks, whereas girls prefer dolls.

Have you ever wondered why humans lost their body hair? Curious about what causes a hangover? Or what makes that popping sound when we crack our knuckles? What about the oft-cited maxim that we only use 10 percent of our brains? Professors, scientists, and biologists provide answers that are at once accurate, understandable, and sometimes just plain funny.

Take control and retrain your brain to achieve a happier, healthier state of mind. In this audiobook, we examine aspects of daily life that affect mood such as perception, social support, and time management and offer approaches shown to boost contentment, including reframing negative events, increasing resilience through self-compassion, and practicing mindfulness.

Addiction is costly on many levels to the individuals affected, their families, and society as a whole, but science may soon be able to offer treatment options to make the road to recovery a little smoother. First, we investigate why and how people succumb to a veritable prison of the mind as sections one and two delve respectively into the psychology and the neurochemistry behind addiction. Subsequent sections break out addictive substances individually: recreational drugs, prescription drugs, alcohol, and nicotine. Finally, section seven examines new avenues for overcoming addiction.

This audiobook, Tomorrow's Medicine, looks at some of the more fascinating areas where technology that could transform health is being developed, including cybernetics, regenerative medicine, nanotechnology, and genetically tailored treatments. Although many of these advances may not be ready to treat humans for many years, some of them may someday profoundly change - and extend - our lives. As exciting as the possibilities are to extend both the length and quality of life, immortality - or at least agelessness - may be forever out of our reach.

We harbor roughly the same number of microbes as we have cells. This complex ecosystem is crucial to our health, affecting many processes including immunity, child development, and bone density regulation. Research in this area has exploded, and in this audiobook, we highlight some of the most exciting work on how the microbiome develops, its influence on brain and behavior, and implications in both contributing to and treating various disorders.

Genetic engineering, which refers to the direct manipulation of DNA, became a reality in the 1970s. In this audiobook, we take a look at how far the field has come, starting with a revolutionary gene-editing tool called CRISPR that’s taking the research world by storm. We then examine how CRISPR and other approaches are being investigated to treat disease, the fantastic-sounding research being done in synthetic biology, controversial efforts in modifying crops and saving species, as well as the numerous ethical issues raised in these areas.

Love - in both the abstract and the up-close-and-personal - has always provided limitless inspiration for artists, writers, and musicians, but scientists are just as fascinated by these affairs of the heart, though they seldom sing about it. In Love, Sex, and Science, our editors take a step back, analyzing romance using tools like fMRI studies instead of a paint brush or guitar. The writers examine a variety of topics, starting with the perceived sex differences between men and women discussed in Section 1 - are we really as different as Mars and Venus?

In the two decades since astronomers first discovered the existence of a planet outside of our solar system, “exoplanetology” has become the hottest specialty in astrophysics. Scientists young and old, inspired by the thought of finding either another habitable world or the Holy Grail of space exploration - life itself - flocked to be part of this burgeoning field. With so much brainpower on hand, it’s no wonder that investigative techniques advanced more quickly than anyone would have thought.

Terrible lizards. That’s what the word dinosaurs means. Yet dinosaurs are not true lizards, and they are not necessarily terrible, either. Paleontologists have overturned many misconceptions, and in Dinosaurs!, we look at what the latest research tells us and what we still have to learn about these endlessly fascinating creatures.

From irrational phobias to a midlife crisis, we’ve all experienced moments of utter confusion about the nature of our own behavior, emotions, or perception of reality. In this audiobook, neurologists and other scientists share what they know about how the mind works, including some of these baffling psychological experiences.