Vitenskap

No author has gone as far as Doerfler in covering methods of mental calculation beyond simple arithmetic. Even if you have no interest in competing with computers you'll learn a great deal about number theory and the art of efficient computer programming. ¿Martin Gardner

As an acoustic engineer, the author has spent his career eradicating unwanted noises - echoes in concert halls, clamour in classrooms. Until the day he heard something so astonishing that he had an epiphany: rather than quashing rare or bizarre sounds, we should be celebrating these sonic treasures. This title tells the story of his investigation.

Utterly beautiful. Profoundly disconcerting. Quantum theory is quite simply the most successful account of the physical universe ever devised. The pursuit of its implications has been the driving motivation of physicists for 100 years. Jim Baggott traces the story, the personalities and the rivalries, through 40 turning-point moments.

Chess, the ancient strategy game, meets the latest, cutting-edge philosophy in this unique book. When 12 philosophers weigh in on one of the world's oldest and most beloved pastimes, the results are often surprising. Philosophical concepts as varied as phenomenology and determinism share the page with a treatise on hip-hop chess tactics and the question of whether Garry Kasparov is, in fact, a cyborg. Putting forth a remarkable array of different views on chess from philosophers with varied chess-proficiency, Philosophy Looks at Chess is an engaging read for chess adherents and the philosophically inclined alike.

This super-condensed guide to college chemistry covers the ideal gas law, atomic structure, acids and bases, and more.

Is it possible that - rather than thinking in terms of 'good' and 'evil' - all of us instead lie somewhere on the empathy spectrum, and our position on that spectrum can be affected by both genes and our environments? Why do some people treat others as objects? This book examines an understanding in a study of what it means to be human.

In this three-volume set published posthumously in 1877, the influential Cambridge classicist Edward Meredith Cope analyses Aristotle's monumental treatise on the art of persuasion. Volume 3 contains the Greek text of Book 3 and Cope's discussion of Aristotle's understanding of style and arrangement as rhetorical devices.

In the same format as The Elements by Theodore Gray comes the most complete, fascinating and beautiful book ever written on every aspect of colour and how it affects every living creature on the planet in profound and countless ways.

We are attracted, whether we know it or not, to the hidden aspects of things and people. Some teenagers enjoy cutting themselves with razors. Some men pay good money to be spanked by prostitutes. The average Briton spends over a day a week watching television. This title examines the science behind these curious desires, attractions and tastes.

Throughout history, to the present day, witchcraft raises questions about the distinction between reality and fantasy, faith and proof. This Very Short Introduction explores witchcraft, both as a contemporary phenomenon and a historical subject. It looks at witch-beliefs and accusations around the world, from pre-history to the present.

Combining up-to-date scholarship with clear and accessible language and helpful exercises, Metaphor: A Practical Introduction is an invaluable resource for all readers interested in metaphor. This second edition includes two new chapters--on 'metaphors in discourse' and 'metaphor and emotion' --along with new exercises, responses to criticism and recent developments in the field, and revised student exercises, tables, and figures.

The perfect companion to Lewis Carroll's classic book and director Tim Burton's remake of Alice in Wonderland releasing in March 2010 Alice's Adventures in Wonderland is treasured by people of all ages who have followed young Alice on her trip down a rabbit hole and into a fantasy world filled with strange and whimsical characters.

Microcosmos is a remarkable photo-journey into everyday life through spectacular microscopic images.

The latest edition of the authoritative reference to HPLCHigh-performance liquid chromatography (HPLC) is today the leading technique for chemical analysis and related applications, with an ability to separate, analyze, and/or purify virtually any sample.

Fireworks are synonymous with celebration in the twenty-first century. But pyrotechnics have exploded in sparks and noise to delight audiences in Europe ever since the Renaissance. This title shows that fireworks helped foster advances in natural philosophy, chemistry, mathematics, and many other branches of the sciences.

The story of arsenic in Victorian Britain, looking both at its widespread presence in everything from candles to curtains, and also its more sinister use for murder and suicide.

The Buddhist philosophical tradition is vast, internally diverse, and comprises texts written in a variety of canonical languages. It is hence often difficult for those with training in Western philosophy who wish to approach this tradition for the first time to know where to start, and difficult for those who wish to introduce and teach courses in Buddhist philosophy to find suitable textbooks that adequately represent the diversity of the tradition, expose studentsto important primary texts in reliable translations, that contextualize those texts, and that foreground specifically philosophical issues. Buddhist Philosophy fills that lacuna. It collects important philosophical texts from each major Buddhist tradition. Each text is translated and introduced by a recognized authority in Buddhist studies. Each introduction sets the text in context and introduces the philosophical issues it addresses and arguments it presents, providing a useful and authoritative guide to reading and to teaching the text. The volume is organized into topical sections that reflect the way that Westernphilosophers think about the structure of the discipline, and each section is introduced by an essay explaining Buddhist approaches to that subject matter, and the place of the texts collected in that section in the enterprise. This volume is an ideal single text for an intermediate or advanced course in Buddhist philosophy, and makes this tradition immediately accessible to the philosopher or student versed in Western philosophy coming to Buddhism for the first time. It is also ideal for the scholar or student of Buddhist studies who is interested specifically in the philosophical dimensions of the Buddhist tradition.

The six American philosophers of technology whose work is profiled in this introduction to the field - Albert Borgmann, Hubert Dreyfus, Andrew Feenberg, Donna Haraway, Don Ihde, and Langdon Winner - are shown to represent an empirical direction in the philosophical study of technology that has developed mainly in North America.

Schopenhauer's two essays On the Freedom of the Will and On the Basis of Morals form his complete system of ethics. Their doctrines are here presented in more accessible, self-contained form than in his larger work, and in a new translation, introduced by Christopher Janaway, that preserves Schopenhauer's style in modern English.

An examination of the concepts of nothingness and freedom, both of which are derived from the ability of consciousness to imagine objects both as they are and as they are not - ideas that would drive Sartre's existentialism and entire theory of human freedom.

Covering interesting and varied philosophical terrain, Cycling - Philosophy for Everyone explores in a fun but critical way the rich philosophical, cultural, and existential experiences that arise when two wheels are propelled by human energy.

A study of Continental philosophy and aesthetics, from Kant to the present day, discussing the work and aesthetic theory of such figures as Heidegger, Derrida and Adorno.

German philosophy remains the core of modern philosophy. This Very Short Introduction discusses the idea that German philosophy forms one of the most revealing responses to the problems of modernity. Including many significant German philosophers, and other more neglected thinkers, he provides an insight into German philosophical traditions.

The Nobel Prize-winning physicist presents unique insights into his theory and its applications. Feynman starts with fundamentals and advances to the perturbation method, quantum electrodynamics, and statistical mechanics. 1965 edition, emended in 2005.

Why Evolution is True focuses on the hard evidence that proves evolution by natural selection to be a fact. Weaving together and explaining the latest discoveries and ideas from many disparate areas of modern science, this succinct and important book will leave no one with an open mind in any doubt about the truth-and the beauty-of evolution.

The perfect DeMYSTiFied book to help clarify this incredibly complex topic of Supersymmetry, at the time of peaking popularity, complete with equations and clear examples.

"A landmark book in the science of emotions and its implications for ethics and human universals."-Library Journal, starred review

Can philosophy offer reasonable grounds for the existence of a God as the centre of actual faith, rather than just a theoretical Absolute? This magnum opus explores the metaphysical systems of a diverse range of philosophers from Spinoza to the early 20th century, and offers a compelling new defence of a highly unfashionable Idealist worldview.

Richard Grusin is director of the Center for 21st Century Studies and professor of English at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee. He is the author of several books, including Premediation: Affect and Mediality after 9/11.