Modern Engineering

The New Atlantis (1627) is a utopian novel by Sir Francis Bacon in which he describes a vision of the future of human discovery, expressing his aspirations and ideals for humanity. The novel portrays a utopian world where "generosity and enlightenment, dignity and splendour, piety and public spirit" are the dominant qualities of the inhabitants.

Am I happy enough? This has been a pivotal question since America's inception. "Am I not happy enough because I am depressed?" is a more recent version. Psychotherapist Gary Greenberg shows how depression has been manufactured---not as an illness but as an idea about our suffering, its source, and its relief. He challenges us to look at depression in a new way.

A significant number of Americans, especially evangelical Christians, believe Earth and humankind were created in their present form sometime in the last 10,000 years or so - the rationale being that this is (presumably) the story told in the book of Genesis. Within that group, any threatening scientific evidence that suggests otherwise is rejected or, when possible, retrofitted into a creationist worldview.

For centuries, electricity was seen as little more than a curious property of certain substances that sparked when rubbed. Then, in the 1790s, Alessandro Volta began the scientific investigation that ignited an explosion of knowledge and invention. The force that once seemed inconsequential was revealed to be responsible for everything from the structure of the atom to the functioning of our brains. In harnessing its power, we have created a world of wonders—complete with roller coasters and radar, computer networks and psychopharmaceuticals.

As humans we probably became aware of "rust" just after our ancestors made their first metals. It's thought we may have begun to control corrosion very soon after that by trying to keep metal away from corrosive environments. Bringing in tools out of the rain and cleaning blood from off your sword would have been early disciplines in the fight against corrosion and its affects. Now that the mechanisms of corrosion are better understood, more techniques have been developed to control its effects and this book will focus on those in offshore wind structures.

This is the second in the Modern Manufacturing Case Studies series of three books. If you have an interest in how things are made, this collection of impactful manufacturing case studies is for you! Take a tour with the author inside more than 30 world-class facilities to experience the most remarkable innovations and highly sophisticated robotics and automation in action. Capture a front-row seat to top-brand, big-budget manufacturing in action with complex machines communicating with other machines. However, you can also learn from small-to-medium size manufacturers.

From the familiar to the improbable, the gross to the endearing, The Modern Bestiary is a compendium of curious creatures. It includes both animals that have made headlines and those you’ve probably never heard of, such as skin-eating caecilians, harp sponges, or zombie worms—also known as bone-eating snot flowers.

French philosophy and meditation expert Fabrice Midal's The Three-Minute Philosopher includes 40 brief essays for tapping into a deeper understanding of your existence, with experiences that will transform, enlighten, and invite you to see the world in a new way.

Many are familiar with the commonly known senses - sight, hearing, taste, smell, and touch. But most do know realize that humans have other senses beyond these. This is not, however, a spooky "sixth sense" of extrasensory perception. But humans do have a different kind of sixth sense. We also have a seventh sense, and it can be debated that we have even more. These additional senses are in fact specialized systems to detect other aspects of the world that we rarely consider, though they are an important part of our everyday life.

According to veterinarian and journalist Mark Walters, we are contributing to - if not overtly causing - some of the scariest epidemics of our time. Through human stories and cutting-edge science, Walters explores the origins of seven diseases: Mad Cow Disease, HIV/AIDS, Salmonella DT104, Lyme Disease, Hantavirus, West Nile, and new strains of flu. He shows that they originate from manipulation of the environment, from emitting carbon and clear-cutting forests to feeding naturally herbivorous cows “recycled animal protein.”

Project Spinnaker was a joint Canada-US defense project conceived in the waning days of the Cold War. Spinnaker’s secret purpose was to reassert Canada’s Arctic sovereignty by providing the capability to monitor submarine traffic in Canadian Arctic waters. The star of Project Spinnaker was Theseus - a massive, Canadian-made, autonomous underwater vehicle designed for a single purpose: laying fiber-optic cable in ice-covered waters.

The latest developments in physics have the potential to radically revise our understanding of the world: its makeup, its evolution, and the fundamental forces that drive its operation. Knocking on Heaven's Door is an exhilarating and accessible overview of these developments and an impassioned argument for the significance of science. There could be no better guide than Lisa Randall.

For an era in which Darwin is more talked about than read, Daniel Duzdevich offers a clear, modern English rendering of Darwin's first edition. Neither an abridgement nor a summary, this version might best be described as a "translation" for contemporary English listeners. A monument to reasoned insight, the Origin illustrates the value of extensive reflection, carefully gathered evidence, and sound scientific reasoning.

This book is about software project management, using the fictitious story of Kelly, Pat, and Shane, who work on developing a product called Stippy at a startup called FunPlace. The book covers the different phases of the project, from planning to execution, and the challenges and solutions that the team encounters along the way.

Nobel per la chimica nel 1993, Kary Mullis è divenuto una leggenda per la scoperta della PCR (Polymerase Chain Reaction), una tecnica che ha rivoluzionato il mondo della chimica e della genetica. Esperto surfista e contestatore nella Berkeley negli anni Sessanta, Mullis è l'unico Nobel ad aver descritto un possibile incontro con gli alieni.

La scienza moderna non nasce con Galileo e Newton. Le sue origini vanno retrodatate di almeno 2000 anni, alla fine del IV sec. a.C. La Rivoluzione scientifica del XVIII sec. riscopre la Rivoluzione ellenistica di figure come Euclide, Archimede, Erarstotene, Aristarco di Samo e di tanti altri raffinati scienziati. Lo studio della "rivoluzione scientifica", cioè della nascita dello sviluppo scientifico, è indispensabile per la comprensione della "civiltà classica". Inoltre, l'esame del ruolo svolto dalla scienza nella civiltà ellenistica è essenziale.

Within a decade, nearly half of all American farmland will change hands as an older generation of farmers steps aside. In their place, a groundswell of new growers will face numerous challenges, including soil degradation, insufficient income, and investors devouring farmland at a staggering pace.

A system can describe what we see (the solar system), operate a computer (Windows 10), or be made on a page (the 14 engineered lines of a sonnet). In this book, Clifford Siskin shows that system is best understood as a genre - a form that works physically in the world to mediate our efforts to understand it. Indeed, many Enlightenment authors published works they called "system" to compete with the essay and the treatise.

In this fascinating book, David Barash highlights an intriguing patch of common ground between scientific and religious thought, illuminating the many parallels between biology and Buddhism, allowing listeners to see both in a new way. Indeed, he shows that there are numerous places where the Buddhist and biological perspectives coincide. For instance, the cornerstone ecological concept - the interconnectedness and interdependence of all things - is remarkably similar to the fundamental insight of Buddhism.

Take an inside tour with the author to more than 30 world-class facilities to experience the most remarkable innovations and highly sophisticated robotics and automation in action. Have a front-row seat to top-brand, big-budget manufacturing in action, with complex machines communicating with other machines. However, you can also learn from small-to-medium-sized manufacturers. Discover how some simple tried-and-true, old-school low-budget manufacturing processes can be game changers for the industry.