検索キーワード： 歴史・哲学

From the beginning of history, measurement has been interwoven into the human experience, shaping our understanding of nature, personal relationships, and the supernatural. We measure the world to know our past, comprehend the present, and plan the future.

In the last 350-odd years, the international “scientific community” has come to be the bastion of consensus and concerted action, especially in the face of two global crises: disastrous climate change, and a deadly pandemic. How did “the scientific community” come into existence, and why does it work? Rivals is an attempt to answer these questions in the form of a brief historical overview, from the late seventeenth to the early twenty-first centuries.

In his first book since the best-selling Fermat's Enigma, Simon Singh offers the first sweeping history of encryption, tracing its evolution and revealing the dramatic effects codes have had on wars, nations, and individual lives. From Mary, Queen of Scots, trapped by her own code, to the Navajo Code Talkers who helped the Allies win World War II, to the incredible (and incredibly simple) logistical breakthrough that made internet commerce secure, The Code Book tells the story of the most powerful intellectual weapon ever known: secrecy.

In our muddled era of conspiracy theories, fake news and groupthink, science's only goal is truth. Like all human pursuits it can go wrong, but it has the great strength of being self-correcting. At its best, what lasts - after much deliberation, rigour and sweat - is the truth. The story of science is how we get there. Standing on the shoulders of giants, world-renowned immunologist Luke O'Neill (aka the People's Immunologist) tells the zigzag story of how we got to this moment in human history, and what the future might hold.

Daniel C. Dennett, philosopher and cognitive scientist, has spent his career considering consciousness. I've Been Thinking traces the development of Dennett's own intellect and instructs us how we too can become good thinkers. Dennett's restless curiosity leads him from his childhood in Beirut to Harvard, and from Parisian jazz clubs to 'tillosophy' on his tractor in Maine. Along the way, he encounters and debates with a host of legendary thinkers, and reveals the breakthroughs and misjudgments that shaped his paradigm-shifting philosophies.

A century ago, sleep was considered a state of nothingness—even a primitive habit that we could learn to overcome. Then, an immigrant scientist and his assistant spent a month in the depths of a Kentucky cave, making nationwide headlines and thrusting sleep science to the forefront of our consciousness. Award-winning journalist Kenneth Miller weaves together science and history to tell the story of four outsider scientists who took sleep science from fringe discipline to mainstream obsession through spectacular experiments, technological innovation, and single-minded commitment.

Mit Harald Lesch die Milchstraße entdecken. Unser kosmisches Zuhause ist die Milchstraße, eine Galaxie, die aus vielen Milliarden Sternen, zahllosen Planetensystemen und Gasnebeln besteht. Seit Langem schon haben Forscher versucht herauszufinden, was dieses auffällige Band am Nachthimmel eigentlich ist, wie die Milchstraße entstand und wie sie sich entwickelt hat. Es dauerte bis zum Anfang des 20. Jahrhunderts, bis der Astronom Edwin Hubble die bahnbrechende Entdeckung machte, dass die Milchstraße nicht die einzige Galaxie im Universum ist.

A ciência vem sendo maltratada. Negacionismo, achismos, falta de investimento: ela tem precisado lutar pelo que antes era óbvio, pois vivemos em um momento em que fatos inquestionáveis são...questionados. Os prejuízos desse desapego pela ciência são sentidos duramente nos dias atuais e amplificados pelas redes sociais. Que remédio há para esses males?

Do aclamado autor do best-seller O andar do bêbado, um retrato íntimo e inspirador de Stephen Hawking — o homem, o amigo e o físico. Recordando quase duas décadas como colaborador e amigo de Stephen Hawking, o físico e autor best-seller Leonard Mlodinow retrata aqui, de uma forma singular e profundamente pessoal, um ser humano fora de qualquer expectativa.

The remarkable stories of the world's most famous body parts. All too often, historical figures feel distant and abstract; more myth and legend than real flesh and blood. These stories of bodies and its parts remind us that history's most-loved, and most-hated, were real breathing creatures who inhabited organs and limbs just like us - until they're cut off that is. Medical historian Dr Suzie Edge investigates over 40 cases of how we've used, abused, dug up, displayed, experimented on, and worshipped body parts.

The conditions that allowed humans to live on this earth are fragile, incredibly so. Climate variability has at times created new niches that humans or their ancestors could potentially exploit, and challenges that at times have spurred innovation. But there’s a relatively narrow envelope of climate variability within which human civilization remains viable. And our survival depends on conditions remaining within that range. In this book, renowned climate scientist Michael Mann will arm listeners with the knowledge necessary to appreciate the gravity of the unfolding climate crisis.

Anni fa, sulle rive del lago Bajkal, in Siberia, una donna mi lesse la mano. E un paio di anni dopo un bramino della città sacra di Vrindavan, in India, guardò nel mio futuro. Entrambi mi raccontarono delle stesse gioie che mi avrebbe riservato la vita. E della morte. Prematura e violenta. Che dovrebbe cogliermi tra poco.Alcune tra le cose predette si sono avverate. Altre non saprei. Le parole si sono perse nel tempo insieme alle cose a cui non do importanza. Ma con l’avvicinarsi di quell’appuntamento mi sono ritrovato a concentrarmi su un errore della divinazione.

Every so often, a new idea comes along that changes everything. Vaccinations. Relativity. Fascism. Can we imagine a world before the invention of writing? hat would Christianity have looked like without with a concept of hell? This fascinating little audiobook tells the stories behind 150 revolutionary concepts and explains why they are important. Taken from the realms of science, politics, society, religion and technology, these are the big ideas that have changed the world - in a nutshell.

Four-and-a-half billion years ago, Planet Earth was formed from a vast spinning nebula of cosmic dust, the detritus left over from the birth of the sun. Within the next 100 years, human life on swathes of the Earth's surface will end in a haze of heat, drought, and, again, dust. Dust is a legacy of 20th-century progress and a profound threat to life in the 21st century. And yet dust is something we hardly ever consider--it is so small and so mundane as to be beyond the threshold of thought. Jay Owen's Dust sparks curiosity and corrects that oversight.

Since Copernicus, humanity has increasingly seen itself as adrift, an insignificant speck within a large, cold universe. Brazilian physicist, astronomer, and winner of the 2019 Templeton Prize Marcelo Gleiser argues that we’re using the wrong paradigm to relate to the universe and our position in it. In this deeply researched and beautifully rendered book, he calls for us to embrace a new life-centric perspective, one which recognizes just how rare and precious life is and why it should be our mission to preserve and nurture it.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Bully for Brontosaurus and learn about natural history.

Sette luoghi comuni. Sette bugie. Da “studia tanto e tutto andrà bene” a “se lavori come si deve presto avrai i soldi per comprare casa”, da “la politica si occuperà dei giovani” a “ormai facciamo sempre così, è troppo tardi per cambiare”: Beniamino Pagliaro racconta i problemi che le generazioni recenti si sono trovate ad affrontare, dai contratti meno tutelati a pensioni fantasma e quantomai ipotetiche, sempre con la certezza di trovarsi poi, per la prima volta in più di un secolo, più poveri dei propri genitori.

Reason has done much of the heavy lifting throughout history. In this second volume, this book presents quotations from many of history's key figures who both recognize the importance—and also the limitations—of reason.

Collections of preserved plant specimens, known as herbaria, have existed for nearly five centuries. These pressed and labeled plants have been essential resources for scientists, allowing them to describe and differentiate species and to document and research plant changes and biodiversity over time—including changes related to climate. Maura C. Flannery tells the history of herbaria, from the earliest collections belonging to such advocates of the technique as sixteenth-century botanist Luca Ghini, to the collections of poets, politicians, and painters, and to the digitization today.

Award-winning author and journalist Benyamin Cohen has a bizarre side hustle as the manager of Einstein's official social media accounts, which have 20 million followers—more than most living celebrities. In The Einstein Effect, Cohen embarks on a global quest to unearth Einstein's ongoing relevance today. Along the way, he meets scientists and celebrities, speaks to dozens with the last name Einstein (including two rabbis), and even tracks down the brain of Einstein, stolen from his body during the autopsy