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  The Triumph of Doubt - Dark...

  David Michaelis

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  Well-heeled American corporations have long had a financial stake in undermining scientific consensus and manufacturing uncertainty. In The Triumph of Doubt, former Obama and Clinton official David Michaels details how corrupt science becomes public policy—and where it's happening today. 
  Opioids. Concussions. Obesity. Climate Change. America is a country of everyday crises—big, long-spanning problems that persist despite their toll on the country's health. And for every case of government inaction on one of these issues, there is a set of familiar, doubtful refrains: The science is unclear. The data are inconclusive. Regulation is unjustified. It's a slippery slope. Is it? 
  The Triumph of Doubt traces the ascendance of science-for-hire in American life and government, from its origins in the tobacco industry in the 1950s to its current manifestations across government, public policy, and even professional sports. Amid fraught conversations of "alternative facts" and "truth decay," The Triumph of Doubt wields its unprecedented access to shine a light on the machinations and scope of manipulated science in American society. It is an urgent, revelatory work, one that promises to reorient conversations around science and the public good for the foreseeable future.

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  The Gaia Hypothesis - Science on...

  Michael Reus

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  “The book is full of empathetic, insightful, and often very funny portraits of Margulis, Lovelock, and a community of other figures associated with Gaia.” —Carla Nappi, New Books in Science, Technology, and Society 
   
  In 1965 English scientist James Lovelock had a flash of insight: the Earth is not just teeming with life; the Earth, in some sense, is life. He mulled this revolutionary idea over for several years, first with his close friend the novelist William Golding, and then in an extensive collaboration with the American scientist Lynn Margulis. In the early 1970s, he finally went public with the Gaia hypothesis, the idea that everything happens for an end: the good of planet Earth. Lovelock and Margulis were scorned by professional scientists, but the general public enthusiastically embraced Lovelock and his hypothesis. 
   
  In The Gaia Hypothesis, philosopher Michael Ruse, with his characteristic clarity and wit, uses Gaia and its history, its supporters and detractors, to illuminate the nature of science itself. Gaia emerged in the 1960s, a decade when authority was questioned and status and dignity stood for nothing, but its story is much older. Ruse traces Gaia’s connection to Plato and a long history of goal-directed and holistic—or organicist—thinking and explains why Lovelock and Margulis’s peers rejected it as pseudoscience. But Ruse also shows why the project was a success. He argues that Lovelock and Margulis should be commended for giving philosophy firm scientific basis and for provoking important scientific discussion about the world as a whole, its homeostasis or—in this age of global environmental uncertainty—its lack thereof.  
   
  “[Ruse’s] treatment is thought-provoking and original, as you would expect from this perceptive, irrepressible philosopher of biology.” —New Scientist

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  Guide to Stoicism

  St. George William Joseph Stock

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  This book is a primer on the philosophy of stoicism, resurrected from its origins in Greek and Roman philosophy. The original philosophy was based on a reasoning process which it was assumed would lead to a virtuous life. Zeno, the founder of stoicism, did not begin expounding on its teachings until he was in his forties. He believed that the purpose of life was "to live consistently." Cleanthes, his disciple, added "with nature," so that the purpose of life became "to live consistently with nature." - Summary by Bill Boerst

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  Strengthening Your Ability To...

  Winifred Gallagher

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  How may we focus on what is important to us? How can we avoid technology overload? Why do certain things grab our attention and not others? With so many things now demanding our attention — emails, cell phones, text messages — many of us are overwhelmed by a plethora of distractions. Our lives may be described as the sum of what we focus on.

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  Artificial Intelligence

  Introbooks Team

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  There is no definition of artificial intelligence (AI), but several. Ia is to make computers think like humans or that are as intelligent as humans. Thus, the ultimate goal of the research on this topic is to develop a machine that can simulate some human skills and to replace them with some activities. 
  Artificial intelligence is part of the Computer Science studies. The programs use the same language of conventional systems, but with a different logic. There are several ways to do this program. In some cases, the intelligent system operates with a simple logic - if the question is x, y is the answer. In other cases, such as studies on neural networks, the machine tries to reproduce the functioning of human neurons, where the information will be transmitted from one cell to another and combined with other data to arrive at a solution. 
  There are several branches of study in intelligent systems, each one dedicated to a particular aspect of human behavior. For example, some robots study and worry about the driving part. Other areas have addressed speech, with the goal of creating machines that can talk, understand the language and their meanings. The professor also claims that all research is highly specialized, and therefore no one is engaged in building a machine that reproduces the human being in its entirety - as in science fiction movies. Also, for this reason, robot production is very unlikely to become more intelligent than humans and can be "rebel". Many experts do not see the possibility of Android similar to man. There are studies that try to make the computer be able to learn, but even so, he still not aware of the world. Follow this e-book some of the major and controversial issues around the Artificial Intelligence.

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  Making Mental Might - How to...

  Bernard Patten

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  Doctor Bernard Patten―erstwhile Memory Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, founder of the first memory clinic at the Neurological Institute of New York, and author of scientific papers on memory therapy and memory problems―wants to help you to a better mind, a better memory, and, consequently, a better life. 
  Memory degradation happens to everyone. Even people in good health forget where they park their cars or leave their reading glasses. Some draw a blank entering their PIN. Is the stove off? Cat fed? Door locked? Did you take your medication? Not sure? How come? These memory problems only get worse as we get older unless we employ mental exercises to improve memory now. 
  Mountains of scientific research prove that mental exercise benefits the brain as much as physical exercise benefits the body. Mental gymnastics boosts brainpower, augments memory, and (in some cases) actually increases brain size. It can help prevent dementia, mental decline, and the much-feared Alzheimer's disease. 
  Making Mental Might does not aim to increase your IQ or show you how to get smarter. It offers the proper mental training to look, sound, and perform worlds better. These techniques have helped hundreds of students at Rice University's School of Continuing Studies under Doctor Patten improve their working memory. They can do the same for you.

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