Outros livros que poderiam interessá-lo

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  The Martians - The True Story of...

  David Baron

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  In the early 1900s, many Americans actually believed we had discovered intelligent life on Mars, as bestselling science writer David Baron chronicles in The Martians, his truly bizarre tale of a nation swept up in Mars mania. 
   
   
   
  At the center of Baron's historical drama is Percival Lowell, the Boston Brahmin and Harvard scion, who observed "canals" etched into the surface of Mars. Lowell devised a grand theory that the red planet was home to a utopian society that had built gargantuan ditches to funnel precious meltwater from the polar icecaps to desert farms and oasis cities. The public fell in love with the ambitious amateur astronomer who shared his findings in speeches and wildly popular books. 
   
   
   
  While at first people treated the Martians whimsically―Martians headlining Broadway shows, biologists speculating whether they were winged or gilled―the discussion quickly became serious. Inventor Nikola Tesla announced he had received radio signals from Mars; Alexander Graham Bell agreed there was "no escape from the conviction" that intelligent beings inhabited the planet. Martian excitement reached its zenith when Lowell financed an expedition to photograph Mars from Chile's Atacama Desert, resulting in what newspapers hailed as proof of the Martian canals' existence.

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  Dream States - Smart Cities...

  John Lorinc

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  WINNER OF THE 2022 WRITERS’ TRUST BALSILLIE PRIZE FOR PUBLIC POLICY
  		 
  Is the ‘smart city’ the utopia we’ve been waiting for?
  		 
  The promise of the so-called smart city has been at the forefront of urban planning and development since the early 2010s, and the tech industry that supplies smart city software and hardware is now worth hundreds of billions a year.
  		 
  But the ideas and approaches underpinning smart city tech raise tough and important questions about the future of urban communities, surveillance, automation, and public participation. The smart city era, moreover, belongs firmly in a longer historical narrative about cities — one defined by utopian ideologies, architectural visions, and technological fantasies.
  		 
  Smart streetlights, water and air quality tracking, autonomous vehicles: with examples from all over the world, including New York, Los Angeles, Boston, Portland, and Chicago, Dream States unpacks the world of smart city tech, but also situates this important shift in city-building into a broader story about why we still dream about perfect places.
  		 
  “John Lorinc’s incisive analysis in Dream States reminds us that the search for urban utopia is not new. Throughout the book, Lorinc underscores the fact that a gamut of urban innovations – from smart city megaprojects to e-government to pandemic preparedness tools – only provide promise when scrutinized together with the political, economic, social, and physical complexities of urban life.” – Shauna Brail, University of Toronto
  		 
  “Dream States: Smart Cities, Technology, and the Pursuit of Urban Utopias takes us on a fascinating journey across world cities to show how technology has shaped them in the past and how smart city technology will reshape them in the future. This book is essential reading for policy makers, researchers, and practitioners interested in understanding the opportunities and challenges of smart city technology and what it means for city building.” – Enid Slack, University of Toronto School of Cities
  		 
  “Utopia may be the oldest grift in the city-building business, but Dream States shows that technology is a timeless tool for turning the most ordinary of urban dreams – clean air and water, safe streets, and decent homes – into reality. As digital dilettantes try to sell us on a software overhaul, John Lorinc provides us an indispensable and flawless guide to the must-haves and never-agains of the smart city.” – Anthony Townsend, Urbanist in Residence, Cornell Tech, author of Smart Cities

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  Night Crickets and Flowing Water...

  Greg Cetus

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  This immersive binaural audio recording invites you into the heart of a tranquil nocturnal landscape. A rich, dynamic chorus of night crickets fills the air with a steady, rhythmic hum, varying in intensity like nature’s own lullaby. Beneath it all, a gurgling stream meanders softly through the scene, its gentle flow adding a calming layer to the atmosphere. In the distant background, a low, continuous roar signals the presence of wind moving unseen through the treetops—an ever-present but soothing reminder of the vast wilderness beyond. The combination of these natural elements creates a deeply relaxing environment, ideal for meditation, stress relief, or restful sleep. Designed to replicate the serene sounds of a summer night in the wild, this recording offers a peaceful escape from the noise of modern life, wrapping listeners in a blanket of pure, undisturbed calm.

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  An Engineer Imagines

  Peter Rice

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  The long-awaited reissue of the autobiography of Peter Rice, one of the main structural engineers behind the Sydney Opera House, the Pompidou Centre, the Menil Collection and Lloyd's of London.
  
  'I am an engineer. Often people will call me an 'architect engineer' as a compliment. It is meant to signify a quality of engineer who is more imaginative and design-orientated than a normal engineer... To call an engineer an 'architect engineer' because he comes up with unusual or original solutions is essentially to misunderstand the role of the engineer in society.'
  An Engineer Imagines is a rare look into the professional creativity and philosophy of Peter Rice, who was widely acclaimed as the greatest structural engineer of his generation. He was a man who, in Renzo Piano's words, could design structures 'like a pianist who can play with his eyes shut'. Working with many of the world's greatest architects on buildings that became icons of contemporary architecture, he brought a uniquely poetic feeling to his work.
  Joining Ove Arup & Partners in 1956, Rice had heard that 'it was a place where an oddball could fit in.' Taking on Arup's theory of Total Design to heart, Rice writes about the role of the engineer in society, and how he himself applied his creativity to various projects. He admits he became an engineer by accident, tentatively feeling his way through a career without a natural instinct. But as he takes you through each of his projects, one-by-one, you can trace his development from graduate to veteran.
  Written in clear and poetic language, Rice's autobiography is perfect for those who want to better understand postwar buildings, our concrete environment, or are budding students of engineering and architecture.

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  The Witch's Garden - Plants in...

  Sandra Lawrence

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  The Witch's Garden describes over fifty of the world's most powerful, harmful, legendary, and storied plants—from the screaming mandrake to calming St John's Wort, to predicting the weather with seaweed, the creation of salves for broken hearts, sore heads, protection from evil spirits, and to even induce immortality. 
   
  Wise women, apothecaries, witches, herbalists: whatever you like to call them, those who cultivate plants for their apparent mystical properties have existed for thousands of years. The Witch's Garden tells the story of our folkloric fascination with these magical specimens, documenting the beliefs and rituals surrounding the natural world. This book beautifully evokes the bewitching nature of mysterious plants.

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  Microbes - The Unseen Agents of...

  David L. Kirchman

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  For billions of years, microbes have produced and consumed greenhouse gases that regulate global temperature and in turn other aspects of our climate. The balance of these gases maintains Earth's habitability. Methane, a greenhouse gas produced only by microbes, may have kept Earth out of a deep freeze billions of years ago. Likewise, variations in carbon dioxide, another greenhouse gas released by microbes and other organisms, help to explain the comings and goings of ice ages over the last million years. 
   
   
   
  Now we face a human-made climate crisis with drastic consequences. The complete story behind greenhouse gases, however, involves microbes and their role in natural ecosystems. Microscopic organisms are also part of the solution, producing biofuels and other forms of green energy which keep fossil fuels in the ground. Other microbes can be harnessed to reduce the release of methane and nitrous oxide from agriculture, and geoengineering solutions that depend on microbes could pull carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. 
   
   
   
  David L. Kirchman introduces a unique and timely contribution to the climate change conversation and the part microbes play in our past, present, and future. He takes listeners into the unseen world behind the most important environmental problem facing society today and encourages us to embrace microbial solutions.

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