Modern Engineering

Science and violence converge in modern warfare. While the finest minds of the 20th century have improved human life, they have also produced human injury. They engineered radar, developed electronic computers, and helped mass produce penicillin all in the context of military mobilization. Scientists also developed chemical weapons, atomic bombs, and psychological warfare strategies. Rational Fog explores the quandary of scientific and technological productivity in an era of perpetual war.

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.

En El mapa fantasma se cuenta la historia de la aterradora epidemia de cólera que envolvió Londres en 1854 y sus dos héroes poco probables: el anestesista doctor John Snow y el afable clérigo, el reverendo Henry Whitehead, quienes derrotaron la enfermedad mediante una combinación de conocimiento local, investigación científica y elaboración de mapas.

In the first half of the 20th century, when seismology was still in in its infancy, renowned geologist Bailey Willis faced off with fellow high-profile scientist Robert T. Hill in a debate with life-or-death consequences for the millions of people migrating west. Their conflict centered on a consequential question: Is Southern California earthquake country? These entwined biographies of Hill and Willis offer a lively, accessible account of the ways that politics and financial interests influenced the development of earthquake science.

Sometimes our understanding of our universe is given a huge boost by one insightful thinker. Such a boost came in the first half of the 20th century, when an obscure Belgian priest put his mind to deciphering the nature of the cosmos. The Day Without Yesterday covers the modern history of an evolving universe, and how Georges Lemaître convinced a generation of thinkers to embrace the notion of cosmic expansion and the theory that this expansion could be traced backward to the cosmic origins, a starting point for space and time that Lemaître called "the day without yesterday".

Una esclarecedora crónica que es a su vez una llamada a enfrentar los retos climáticos del presente y el futuro. Hacia finales del siglo XVI, las temperaturas empezaron a caer, hasta tal punto que se helaron las aguas de algunos puertos mediterráneos y las aves se congelaban en pleno vuelo... Sobre el hielo del Támesis se organizaban animadas ferias. A mediados del siglo siguiente, Europa se transformó: cosechas arruinadas, hambrunas, migraciones...

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.