Wetenschap en Techniek

This adventure in science and imagination, which the Medical Tribune said might herald "a Copernican revolution for the life sciences," leads the reader through unexplored jungles and uncharted aspects of mind to the heart of knowledge.In a first-person narrative of scientific discovery that opens new perspectives on biology, anthropology, and the limits of rationalism, The Cosmic Serpent reveals how startlingly different the world around us appears when we open our minds to it.

In trying to understand the atom, physicists built quantum mechanics and found, to their embarrassment, that their theory intimately connects consciousness with the physical world. Quantum Enigma explores what that implies and why some founders of the theory became the foremost objectors to it. Authors Bruce Rosenblum and Fred Kuttner explain all of this in non-technical terms with help from some fanciful stories and anecdotes about the theory's developers. They present the quantum mystery honestly, with an emphasis on what is and what is not speculation. Quantum Enigma's description of the experimental quantum facts, and the quantum theory explaining them, is undisputed. Interpreting what it all means, however, is controversial. Every interpretation of quantum physics encounters consciousness. Rosenblum and Kuttner therefore turn to exploring consciousness itself--and encounter quantum physics. Free will and anthropic principles become crucial issues, and the connection of consciousness with the cosmos suggested by some leading quantum cosmologists is mind-blowing. Readers are brought to a boundary where the particular expertise of physicists is no longer a sure guide. They will find, instead, the facts and hints provided by quantum mechanics and the ability to speculate for themselves.

Onderzoek naar het verschijnsel nihilisme in verleden en heden en de invloed ervan op cultuur, maatschappij en persoonlijkheid. In 1960 promoveerde Goudsblom op het proefschrift "Nihilisme en cultuur". Goudsblom, inmiddels emeritus-hoogleraar sociologie, heeft destijds een overzicht gegeven van de geschiedenis van de begrippen 'nihilisme' en 'cultuur' en van hun interactie, met Nietzsche als centrale figuur. Nihilisme is een geestesgesteldheid waarin mensen niets meer zinvol vinden, geen enkele sociale norm nog als bindend erkennen, en menen dat, zoals Friedrich Nietzsche gezegd heeft, de hoogste waarden zijn uitgehold. Van deze intellectuele vertwijfeling wordt in dit boek de herkomst nagegaan. Goudsblom kwam uiteindelijk uit op het bestaan van individuele autonomie als bron van persoonlijke waarden.

Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites--such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.


The very latest discoveries in paleontology--many of them made by the author and his students--are integrated with emerging insights from molecular biology and earth system science to forge a broad understanding of how the biological diversity that surrounds us came to be. Moving from Siberia to Namibia to the Bahamas, Knoll shows how life and environment have evolved together through Earth's history. Innovations in biology have helped shape our air and oceans, and, just as surely, environmental change has influenced the course of evolution, repeatedly closing off opportunities for some species while opening avenues for others.

Readers go into the field to confront fossils, enter the lab to discern the inner workings of cells, and alight on Mars to ask how our terrestrial experience can guide exploration for life beyond our planet. Along the way, Knoll brings us up-to-date on some of science's hottest questions, from the oldest fossils and claims of life beyond the Earth to the hypothesis of global glaciation and Knoll's own unifying concept of ''permissive ecology.''

In laying bare Earth's deepest biological roots, Life on a Young Planet helps us understand our own place in the universe--and our responsibility as stewards of a world four billion years in the making.

In a new preface, Knoll describes how the field has broadened and deepened in the decade since the book's original publication.

David Bohm was one of the foremost scientific thinkers and philosophers of our time. Although deeply influenced by Einstein, he was also, more unusually for a scientist, inspired by mysticism. Indeed, in the 1970s and 1980s he made contact with both J. Krishnamurti and the Dalai Lama whose teachings helped shape his work. In both science and philosophy, Bohm's main concern was with understanding the nature of reality in general and of consciousness in particular. In this classic work he develops a theory of quantum physics which treats the totality of existence as an unbroken whole. Writing clearly and without technical jargon, he makes complex ideas accessible to anyone interested in the nature of reality.

Artikelen over vragen die verband houden met het begin van het nieuwe millennium.

THE PHENOMENAL BESTSELLER FROM THE AUTHOR OF HELGOLAND AND THE ORDER OF TIME

'The perfect antidote to the fluff and nonsense around right now. Learn how the world is and how you might just fit in' Simon Mayo

'By God, it's beguiling' New Statesman

These seven short lessons guide us, with simplicity and clarity, through the scientific revolution that shook physics in the twentieth century and still continues to shake us today. In this mind-bending overview of modern physics, Carlo Rovelli explains Einstein's theory of general relativity, quantum mechanics, black holes, the complex architecture of the universe, elementary particles, gravity, and the nature of the mind. Not since Richard Feynman's celebrated Six Easy Pieces has physics been so vividly, intelligently and entertainingly revealed.

Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

'The physicist transforming how we see the universe' (Financial Times)

'An utter joy' (Adam Rutherford)

'A hugely engaging book... Rovelli is a charming, thought-provoking tour guide' (Manjit Kumar Prospect)

Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture?
Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered.

Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

The Current Deep Economic Crisis Marks a Great Transition. The Chinese phrase for crisis consists of two words danger and opportunity. In Beyond the Crisis: The Future of Capitalism, renowned futurologist, Adjiedj Bakas, leads you through, and then out of, the New Great Depression of the 21st century. The current economic crisis marks the end of an era, and the start of a new one. It is the 5th major crisis in 200 years' time. All of them occurred at the transition from one era to the next. The 1930s may have been a time of deep economic crisis and mass unemployment, yet in those days the Kennedys made their fortunes, art deco was born and the radio, car, and telephone grew to be so much in demand that great new industries emerged out of the ashes of the crisis. During the major economic crisis of the 1980s the personal computer, mobile phone and Internet were born and developed into major new industries. During the current crisis we finally say goodbye to the 20th century and transit into the new, post-material economy with new economic pillars and the mixture with digital collaboration powered by "cloud computing," the next generation Internet. We say hello to a new era, with China as the new global powerhouse instead of the U.S., with globalization turning into slowbalization, with less wealth and more focus on the Economy of Happiness. "Bakas looks behind today¿s headlines and uses knowledge and wisdom from different fields: economics, technology, philosophy and spirituality, in order to grasp what is really going on in our world, and the real changes in our global economy. I truly recommend this book because it may change your future and that of your children." --Professor Jianmao Wang, Economist at the China Europe International Business School

Grondbeginselen van de natuurkunde in historische context.

Hoe zet je een piramidespel op? Wat hebben Groucho Marx en Bertrand Russell met elkaar gemeen? Waarom was het statistische bewijs tegen O.J. Simpson zo overweldigend? Welke wiskundige patronen liggen ten grondslag aan het denken van een gevaarlijke terrorist als de Unabomber?

In Er was eens een getal legt de bekende wiskundige John Allen Paulos de verrassende verbanden bloot die er bestaan tussen fantasie en feiten, tussen verbeelding en abstractie, tussen verhalen en getallen. Hij laat zien hoe in logica en kansberekening intuïtie en creativiteit altijd een heel belangrijk rol hebben gespeeld, en maakt duidelijk dat kunst en literatuur het onmogelijk zonder de logica kunnen stellen.

Aan de hand van talloze anekdotes en geestige observaties weet Paulos wiskundige problemen op een plezierige en literaire manier toegankelijk te maken. Er was eens een getal is dan ook een heerlijk en onmisbaar boek voor alfa's met bétavrees.

A richly illustrated book full of never-before published typewriter memorabilia, intriguing historical documents and entertaining anecdotes, The Typewriter: a Graphic History of the Beloved Machine is a beautiful ode to an all-but-obsolete creative companion.

In this biography, Sylvia Nasar re-creates the life of a mathematical genius whose brilliant career was cut short by schizophrenia and who, after three decades of devastating mental illness, miraculously recovered and was honored with a Nobel Prize. A Beautiful Mind traces the meteoric rise of John Forbes Nash, Jr., from his lonely childhood in West Virginia to his student years at Princeton, where he encountered Albert Einstein, John von Neumann, and a host of other mathematical luminaries. At twenty-one, the handsome, ambitious, eccentric graduate student invented what would become the most influential theory of rational human behavior in modern social science. Nash's contribution to game theory would ultimately revolutionize the field of economics. At thirty, Nash was poised to take his dreamed-of place in the pantheon of history's greatest mathematicians. Then Nash suffered a catastrophic mental breakdown Nasar details Nash's harrowing descent into insanity - his bizarre delusions that he was the Prince of Peace; his resignation from MIT, flight to Europe, and attempt to renounce his American citizenship; his repeated hospitalizations, from the storied McLean, where he came to know the poet Robert Lowell, to the crowded wards of a state hospital; his "enforced interludes of rationality" during which he was able to return briefly to mathematical research. At age sixty-six, twin miracles - a spontaneous remission of his illness and the sudden decision of the Nobel Prize committee to honor his contributions to game theory - restored the world to him. Nasar recounts the bitter behind-the-scenes battle in Stockholm over whether to grant the ultimate honor in science to a man thought to be "mad." She describes Nash's current ambition to pursue new mathematical breakthroughs and his efforts to be a loving father to his adult sons.

Door dit boekje konden miljoenen lezers op aarde kennismaken met de ideeën van de briljante theoretisch natuurkundige Stephen Hawking. Het is een rijk geïllustreerde uitgave. Hawking richt zich tot het lezerspubliek om de voornaamste wetenschappelijke ontdekkingen en de daarmee verbonden vragen uit de periode sinds het verschijnen van zijn unaniem geprezen eerste boek, toe te lichten.

"If you want to know what anthropology is, look at what anthropologists do," write the authors of Social and Cultural Anthropology: A Very Short Introduction. This engaging overview of the field combines an accessible account of some of the discipline's guiding principles and methodology with abundant examples and illustrations of anthropologists at work.

Peter Just and John Monaghan begin by discussing anthropology's most important contributions to modern thought: its investigation of culture as a distinctively human characteristic, its doctrine of cultural relativism, and its methodology of fieldwork and ethnography. Drawing on examples from their own fieldwork in Indonesia and Mesoamerica, they examine specific ways in which social and cultural anthropology have advanced our understanding of human society and culture. Including an assessment of anthropology's present position, and a look forward to its likely future, Social and Cultural Anthropology will make fascinating reading for anyone curious about this social science.

About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.

Er is iets vreemds aan de hand. We waren nog nooit zo rijk als nu. Bedrijfswinsten, vermogens, pensioenpotten: naar bijna alle traditionele maatstaven leven we in uitzonderlijk welvarende tijden. Maar wie beter kijkt, ziet dat steeds minder mensen meedelen in al die welvaart. Ouderen moeten langer door tot hun pensioen. Jongeren hebben het voor het eerst minder goed dan hun ouders. En een woning is in veel steden ook voor de betere middenklasse onbetaalbaar. Zelfs wie zuinig leeft heeft een probleem: sparen kost binnenkort geld. Sander Heijne en Hendrik Noten onderzochten waar het misging met onze economie. Hoe kan het dat vrijwel niemand de groei van de economie nog terugziet in zijn of haar portemonnee? Wat bedoelen onze politici eigenlijk, als ze elkaar feliciteren met een 'goed presterende economie'? De zoektocht bracht ze van premier Rutte tot de oprichters van Uber, naar de boeken van Adam Smith. En van conferenties op Zwitserse bergtoppen tot de achterkamertjes van Den Haag. Vliegend door de tijd ontrafelen ze het systeem en rollen ze van de ene verbazing in de andere. Met als conclusie: de huidige hang naar groei is geen noodzaak, maar het resultaat van een verhaal dat we zijn gaan geloven. Er is niets vanzelfsprekends aan stagnerende lonen of veel te hoge huizenprijzen. Het kan anders: eerlijker en duurzamer. Het is tijd voor een nieuw verhaal, waarin de economie weer voor ons werkt, in plaats van wij voor de economie. Bron : https://www.businesscontact.nl.

A galaxy of distinguished international economists and historians pit economic history against the shaky assumptions of the classical economic theory of natural growth. Their explanations consider the factors of technology, entrepreneurialism, and paths to economic growth, but each reflects an ideological wave of explanation that has marked the last two hundred years.

Why was the European Monetary System in 1992-93 swept by waves of disruptive speculative attacks? And what lessons emerged from that episode as regards the future of the European Monetary Union? This book provides a comprehensive assessment of the causes and implications of the 1992-93 crisis of the exchange rate mechanism. Cogent factual presentation, original theoretical analysis, and an interpretation rooted in theory, make this treatment by three leading economists essential reading to understand the process toward economic and political integration in Europe.

With customary clarity, eloquence, and humor, Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith gets at the heart of what economic security means in The Affluent Society. Warning against individual and societal complacence about economic inequity, he offers an economic model for investing in public wealth that challenges “conventional wisdom” (a phrase he coined that has since entered our vernacular) about the long-term value of a production-based economy and the true nature of poverty. Both politically divisive and remarkably prescient, The Affluent Society is as relevant today on the question of wealth in America as it was in 1958

Ben Bernanke's history of the Federal Reserve and its response to the 2008 financial crisis

In 2012, Ben Bernanke, chairman of the U.S. Federal Reserve, gave a series of lectures about the Federal Reserve and the 2008 financial crisis, as part of a course at George Washington University on the role of the Federal Reserve in the economy. In this unusual event, Bernanke revealed important background and insights into the central bank's crucial actions during the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression. Taken directly from these historic talks, The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis offers insight into the guiding principles behind the Fed's activities and the lessons to be learned from its handling of recent economic challenges.

Bernanke traces the origins of the Federal Reserve, from its inception in 1914 through the Second World War, and he looks at the Fed post-1945, when it began operating independently from other governmental departments such as the Treasury. During this time the Fed grappled with episodes of high inflation, finally tamed by then-chairman Paul Volcker. Bernanke also explores the period under his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, known as the Great Moderation. Bernanke then delves into the Fed's reaction to the recent financial crisis, focusing on the central bank's role as the lender of last resort and discussing efforts that injected liquidity into the banking system. Bernanke points out that monetary policies alone cannot revive the economy, and he describes ongoing structural and regulatory problems that need to be addressed.

Providing first-hand knowledge of how problems in the financial system were handled, The Federal Reserve and the Financial Crisis will long be studied by those interested in this critical moment in history.

The recent financial crisis shook not only the global economy but also conventional wisdom about economic policy. After the collapse of Lehman Brothers in September 2008, policy makers reversed course and acted on an unprecedented scale. The policy response was remarkable both for its magnitude and for the variety of measures undertaken. This book examines both the major role central banks played in the crisis and the role they might play in preventing or preparing for future crises.

The contributors, central bankers from around the world, focus on monetary policy, the new area of macroprudential policy, and issues of exchange rates, capital flows, and banking and financial markets. They look at the experiences of both developed and emerging economies, considering why some, including Israel and Australia, suffered only mild effects while others--Ireland for example--plunged into severe financial crisis.

Besprekingen van twintig sterrenkundige en natuurkundige vragen.