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Author
Series
Lowell Institute lectures volume 1925
Summary
The famed mathematician and philosopher takes readers on a journey into a new scientific age, exploring topics from relativity to religion.
Alfred North Whitehead, one of the great figures in the philosophy of science, wrote this prescient work nearly a century ago. Yet, in an era that has us reckoning with science and technology's place and meaning in our lives, it remains as relevant as ever. Science and the Modern World puts scientific discovery...
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In this hip, hilarious and truly eye-opening cultural history, menstruation is talked about as never before. Flow spans its fascinating, occasionally wacky and sometimes downright scary story: from mikvahs (ritual cleansing baths) to menopause, hysteria to hysterectomies-not to mention the Pill, cramps, the history of underwear, and the movie about puberty they showed you in 5th grade.
Flow answers such questions as: What's the point of getting...
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"A new era in the scientific community has arrived, and it is an era of multinationalism and cooperative reach. Globalization, the Internet, and digital technology all play a role in making this new era possible, but something more fundamental is also at work. In all scientific endeavors lies an ancient drive for sharing ideas and knowledge. Communication serves as the driving force behind turning brilliant ideas into world-changing realities. Yet,...
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All across America, people are knitting for peace. In yarn shops and private homes, churches and synagogues, schools and even prisons, they meet on weekday evenings or weekend afternoons to knit afghans for refugees, mittens for the homeless, socks for soldiers, or preemie caps for AIDS babies. The tradition goes back as far as Martha Washington, who spearheaded knitting efforts for the soldiers of the Revolutionary War, and has seen a recent flourishing...
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"Lipstick is the one makeup item most women can?t live without?and the most iconic shade is red. Exuding power, sensuality, allure, and mystery, red lips have been a constant of fashion for more than 5,000 years, beginning with Mesopotamian women around 3500 B.C. Throughout the ages, red lipstick has been a signature look worn by royalty, celebrities, and real women across cultures and geography. In fact, nearly all women own a tube of red lipstick,...
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"We are Data explores what identity means in an algorithmic age: how it works, how our lives are controlled by it, and how we can resist it. Algorithms are everywhere, organizing the near limitless data that exists in our world. Derived from our every search, like, click, and purchase, algorithms determine the news we get, the ads we see, the information accessible to us and even who our friends are. These complex configurations not only form knowledge...
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Air pollution prematurely kills seven million people every year, including more than one hundred thousand Americans. It is strongly linked to strokes, heart attacks, many kinds of cancer, dementia, and premature birth, among other ailments. In Choked, Beth Gardiner travels the world to tell the story of this modern-day plague, taking readers from the halls of power in Washington and the diesel-fogged London streets to Poland's coal heartland and India's...
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"This is a neglected history. Not a sweeping, definitive, exhaustive history of the world but something quieter, more intimate and particular. A single journey, picked out in 101 objects, through the fascinating, too-often-overlooked, manifold histories of women. With engaging prose, compelling stories, and a beautiful full-page image of each object, Annabelle Hirsch curates a diverse compendium of women and their things, uncovering the thoughts and...
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"An intimate, deeply moving investigation of an underreported phenomenon-the rising number of unclaimed dead in America today-and what it says about the state of our society. For centuries, people who died destitute or alone were buried in potters' fields-a Dickensian end that even the most hard-pressed families tried to avoid. Today, more and more relatives are abandoning their dead, leaving it to local governments to dispose of the bodies. Up to...
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"Board games have been with us longer than even the written word. But what is it about this pastime that continues to captivate us well into the age of smartphones and instant gratification? In It's All a Game, British journalist and renowned games expert Tristan Donovan opens the box on the incredible and often surprising history and psychology of board games. He traces the evolution of the game across cultures, time periods, and continents, from...
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A reporter for the Los Angeles Times once noted that "I Love Lucy is said to be on the air somewhere in the world 24 hours a day." That Lucy's madcap antics can be watched anywhere at any time is thanks to television syndication, a booming global marketplace that imports and exports TV shows. Programs from different countries are packaged, bought, and sold all over the world, under the watch of an industry that is extraordinarily lucrative for major...
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What is the role of the senses in how we understand the world? Cognitive sociology has long addressed the way we perceive or imagine boundaries in our ordinary lives, but Asia Friedman pushes this question further still. How, she asks, did we come to blind ourselves to sex sameness?
Drawing on more than sixty interviews with two decidedly different populations-the blind and the transgendered-Blind to Sameness answers provocative questions about...
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From a cutting-edge cultural commentator, a bold and brilliant challenge to cherished notions of the Internet as the great leveler of our age
The Internet has been hailed as an unprecedented democratizing force, a place where everyone can be heard and all can participate equally. But how true is this claim? In a seminal dismantling of techno-utopian visions, The People's Platform argues that for all that we "tweet" and "like" and "share," the Internet...
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"Traveling from East to West over thousands of years, tea has played a variety of roles on the world scene--in medicine, politics, the arts, culture, and religion. Behind this most serene of beverages, idolized by poets and revered in spiritual practices, lie stories of treachery, violence, smuggling, drug trade, international espionage, slavery, and revolution. This book explores tea in all its social and cultural aspects. Entertaining yet informative...
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"Most parents share the same goals when raising kids: no spoiled brats, no crippling debt, and children who know a dollar takes work. Money affects you and your kids every day. But now you can learn to talk about money in a way that brings your family closer. This book provides a roadmap for how to have touchy conversations with all age groups--from young children to young adults."--Page [4] of cover.
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Iweala embarks on a remarkable journey through his native Nigeria, meeting individuals and communities that are struggling daily to understand both the impact and meaning of HIV/AIDS. The the ill and the healthy, doctors, nurses, truck drivers, sex workers, shopkeepers, students, parents, and children-- their testimonies are by turns uplifting, alarming, humorous, and surprising, and always unflinchingly candid. A deeply personal exploration of life,...