Other books that might interest you

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  3D Printing

  John M. Jordan

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  An accessible introduction to 3D printing that outlines the additive manufacturing process, industrial and household markets, and emerging uses.The use of 3D printing—digitally controlled additive manufacturing—is growing rapidly. Consumer models of 3D printers allow people to fabricate small plastic objects, from cabinet knobs to wedding cake toppers. Industrial uses are becoming widespread, as businesses use the technology to fabricate prototypes, spare parts, custom-fitted prosthetics, and other plastic or metal items, often at lower cost and with greater efficiency than standard manufacturing. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, John Jordan offers an accessible introduction to 3D printing.Jordan outlines the stages of 3D printing, from idea to software model to a printable file that slices the planned object into printable layers to the finished object itself. He describes additive technologies, consumer 3D printing in homes and schools, mass customization, and industrial uses. He considers the possible unintended consequences of 3D printing on jobs, as companies scramble to find employees with an uncommon skill set; on business models and supply chains, as manufacturing is decentralized; and on patent law, as machines can be programmed to copy protected property. Finally, Jordan looks at new and emerging uses, including bioprinting, building construction, and micromachines.

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  The Copernicus Complex - Our...

  Caleb Scharf

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  In the 16th century, Nicolaus Copernicus dared to go against the establishment by proposing that Earth rotates around the Sun. Having demoted Earth from its unique position in the cosmos to one of mediocrity, Copernicus set in motion a revolution in scientific thought. This perspective has influenced our thinking for centuries. However, recent evidence challenges the Copernican Principle, hinting that we do in fact live in a special place, at a special time, as the product of a chain of unlikely events. But can we be significant if the Sun is still just one of a billion trillion stars in the observable universe? And what if our universe is just one of a multitude of others — a single slice of an infinity of parallel realities? In The Copernicus Complex, the renowned astrophysicist Caleb Scharf takes us on a scientific adventure, from tiny microbes within the Earth to distant exoplanets, probability theory, and beyond, arguing that there is a solution to this contradiction, a third way of viewing our place in the cosmos, if we weigh the evidence properly. As Scharf explains, we do occupy an unusual time in a 14-billion-year-old universe, in a somewhat unusual type of solar system surrounded by an ocean of unimaginable planetary diversity: hot Jupiters with orbits of less than a day, planet-size rocks spinning around dead stars, and a wealth of alien super-Earths. Yet life here is built from the most common chemistry in the universe, and we are a snapshot taken from billions of years of biological evolution.A Macmillan Audio production.

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  Bitcoin for Beginners & Dummies:...

  Giovanni Rigters

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  The Bitcoin mania continues to sweep the world like never seen before. The soaring value of cryptocurrencies provides a massive incentive for individuals, dummies and businesses to join the party. Those who cashed in during the meteoric rise of digital currencies, like bitcoin, know just how much difference the right investment decisions can make.  
  However, it is never too late for anyone to make a killing with cryptocurrency, bitcoin inclusive. 
  There are many reasons why people are adopting digital currencies in droves besides the profit potential.  
  First, cryptocurrencies, like Bitcoin, are incredibly secure. Technology aficionados and enthusiasts worldwide would agree that the blockchain, the ledger which underpins cryptocurrencies is hugely secure, especially for digital currencies like bitcoin. The blockchain has been carefully built to make it hard for robbers to change or tamper with data.  
  Second, your transactions cannot be traced back to you unless you publicize your wallet address.  
  Third, there is no paperwork involved, unlike what is obtainable with traditional bank accounts. You can start trading cryptocurrencies without providing proof of address, ID card, or passport. However, the opposite may hold if you intend to trade large sums. But if you are trading small amounts, all you will be needing is your wallet and address.  
  Fourth, as cryptocurrencies are highly anonymous, you do not have to worry about identity theft when dealing in them. Besides, cryptocurrency transactions are completed within few minutes, unlike traditional debt settlement systems which always take time. 
  Now that you have an idea on how cryptocurrencies can benefit you, this eBook aims to provide even more information to help you grow digital currency literacy and critical thinking further.

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  Michael Owens and the Glass...

  Quentin Skrabec

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  A biography of the “Owens” in “Owens Corning”—a brilliant but humble inventor with nine companies and forty-nine patents bearing his name. He stands next to Thomas Edison in the pantheon of inventors. Commercial products stamped with his name are ubiquitous in modern life. His inventions are directly responsible for safety glass in car windshields and consistently proportioned medicine jars—and helped to significantly reduce child labor in America. His designs have changed the way we illuminate a dark room and buy pasteurized milk. Michael J. Owens has left an indelible mark in human history, yet his name often has been overlooked publicly, until now.  Michael Owens was a driven but unassuming man who shunned the spotlight, wanting only to create. In this first biography of a visionary, artist, and craftsman, Quentin R. Skrabec’s research has uncovered a resourceful, colorful, and dynamic industrialist and inventor. This insightful account sets the stage for Owens by going back to the beginning—the history of glass as an art form. Today, his flourishing legacy includes Owens Corning, employing nearly twenty thousand people in over thirty countries.

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  The Facemaker - A Visionary...

  Lindsey Fitzharris

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  "Enthralling. Harrowing. Heartbreaking. And utterly redemptive. Lindsey Fitzharris hit this one out of the park." —Erik Larson, author of The Splendid and the VileLindsey Fitzharris, the award-winning author of The Butchering Art, presents the compelling, true story of a visionary surgeon who rebuilt the faces of the First World War’s injured heroes, and in the process ushered in the modern era of plastic surgery. The audiobook is read by actor Daniel Gillies who is the great, great nephew of the pioneering surgeon, Harold Gillies. From the moment the first machine gun rang out over the Western Front, one thing was clear: mankind’s military technology had wildly surpassed its medical capabilities. Bodies were battered, gouged, hacked, and gassed. The First World War claimed millions of lives and left millions more wounded and disfigured. In the midst of this brutality, however, there were also those who strove to alleviate suffering. The Facemaker tells the extraordinary story of such an individual: the pioneering plastic surgeon Harold Gillies, who dedicated himself to reconstructing the burned and broken faces of the injured soldiers under his care.Gillies, a Cambridge-educated New Zealander, became interested in the nascent field of plastic surgery after encountering the human wreckage on the front. Returning to Britain, he established one of the world’s first hospitals dedicated entirely to facial reconstruction. There, Gillies assembled a unique group of practitioners whose task was to rebuild what had been torn apart, to re-create what had been destroyed. At a time when losing a limb made a soldier a hero, but losing a face made him a monster to a society largely intolerant of disfigurement, Gillies restored not just the faces of the wounded but also their spirits.The Facemaker places Gillies’s ingenious surgical innovations alongside the dramatic stories of soldiers whose lives were wrecked and repaired. The result is a vivid account of how medicine can be an art, and of what courage and imagination can accomplish in the presence of relentless horror.A Macmillan Audio production from Farrar, Straus and Giroux.

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  Chrysalis - Maria Sibylla Merian...

  Kim Todd

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  Before Darwin, before Audubon, there was Maria Sibylla Merian. 
  An artist turned naturalist, Merian was born just 16 years after Galileo proclaimed that the Earth orbited the sun. But at the age of 50, she sailed from Europe to South America on a solo scientific expedition to study insect metamorphosis—an unheard-of journey for any naturalist at that time, much less a woman. 
  When she returned, she produced a book that secured her reputation, only to have it savaged in the 19th century by scientists who disdained the work of “amateurs.” 
  Chrysalis takes us from golden age Amsterdam to the Surinam tropics to modern laboratories where Merian’s insights fuel a new branch of biology. The New Yorker called it a "spellbinding biography." In it, Kim Todd brings to life a 17th century woman whose boldness and vision would still be exceptional today.

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