WOWIO New Releases - Science

Bittersweet

Fri, 11 Apr 2008 09:28:33 CST

Peter Macinnis

Forty years after first chewing on sugar cane in New Guinea, the home of sugar, the author underwent some complex dental work as a direct result of his sweet tooth. This led him to explore sugar cane's journey from New Guinea to Shakespeare's England. In the days before dentistry, people paid dearly for this sweet new food from exotic places. Queen Elizabeth I became so partial to hippocras, sugared almonds and pastilles that her teeth turned completely black.

Bittersweet is full of ripping...

Rockets

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 10:11:15 CST

Peter Macinnis

Our story starts around 700 BC when the Chinese used a form of gunpowder to fumigate their houses. The first real rockets were gunpowder filled sections of bamboo thrown under horses to scare them; the next development was to tie these to arrows.

The Mongols took rockets from China to Europe where only some, including Admiral Nelson and the Crown Prince of Sweden, were impressed. The Royal Navy used them in all sorts of odd actions against "restless natives" in Tierra Del Fuego, Australia...

The Story of Mathematics

Mon, 17 Mar 2008 14:31:13 CST

Anne Rooney

For hundreds of thousands of years, we have sought order in the apparent chaos of the universe. Mathematics has been our most valuable tool in that search, uncovering the patters and rules that govern our world and beyond. The Story of Mathematics traces humankind's greatest achievements, plotting a journey from innumerate cave-wellers, through the towering mathematical intellects of the last 4,000 years, to where we stand today.

Topics include:

Counting and measuring from the earliest...

Quantum Leaps: 100 Scientists Who Changed the World

Fri, 14 Mar 2008 16:33:01 CST

Jon Balchin

"If I saw further than others," said Sir Isaac Newton, "it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants."

Quantum Leaps introduces one hundred of these giants and examines their achievements: the men and women who, often in the face of extreme scepticism or worse, have striven and succeeded in pushing back the boundaries of human knowledge. Ranging across the spectrum of scientific endeavour, from the cosmology of Copernicus and Galileo, through the medical revolutions of...

Deducibility and Decidability

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 11:55:43 CST

R.R. Rockingham Gill

The classic results obtained by Godel, Tarski, Kleene and Church in the early thirties are the finest flowers of symbolic logic. They are of fundamental importance to those investigations of the foundations of mathematics via the concept of a formal system that were inaugurated by Frege, and of obvious significance to the mathematical disciplines, such as computability theory, that developed from them. Derived from courses taught by the author over several years, this new exposition of the...

Mind Wars: The Battle for Your Brain

Fri, 15 Feb 2008 17:42:59 CST

Ian McFadyen

Why do human beings wage war and persecute each other? Why do religious and political factions battle to control nations? Why do seemingly intelligent people cling to beliefs that fly in the face of scientific evidence?

In Mind Wars, Ian McFadyen puts forward the startling argument that human beings, the so-called intelligent species, are, in fact, not totally in control of their own thought processes. And human behaviour is not a product of instinct nor of any social, political or economic...

The Serendipity Machine

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 16:04:51 CST

David Green

Computers, we love them and we curse them. No matter what we think about them, we know they have changed the world irrevocably. They have allowed us to make surprising, fantastic and unexpected discoveries. They are serendipity machines.

However, computers have also made our world and our lives more complex. From mobile phones to the Internet, we use them to cope with rapid change and global crises. But what of their social impacts, especially when it comes to personal privacy and the role...

Psychology and Education

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:51:43 CST

Robert Morris Ogden

First published 1926, according to one commentator, Frank S. Freeman it was "the first book by an American psychologist written from the viewpoint of Gestalt theory and principles". This volume in the "International Library of Psychology" series is regarded as the first study of education in a psychological background which commends itself as an orderly development of scientific principles. Routledge has re-issued this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and...

The Psychology of Health: An Introduction

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:53:17 CST

Marian Pitts and Keith Phillips (Eds.)

The first edition of The Psychology of Health was very well received and has become the standard recommended text for many courses. This completely revised and updated second edition contains new material in all chapters and has several additional chapters on such topics as cancer, nutrition and exercise, social drugs, and the impact of social inequalities upon health. This edition also contains annotated further reading, a glossary of key terms, boxes with ideas and questions for seminar...

The Psychology of Intelligence

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:53:21 CST

Jean Piaget

Think of developmental psychology, and the name of Jean Piaget immediately springs to mind. His theory of learning lies at the very heart of the modern understanding of the human learning process, and he is celebrated as the founding father of child psychology. A prolific writer, is the author of more than fifty books and several hundred articles. The Psychology of Intelligence is one of his most important works. Containing a complete synthesis of his thoughts on the mechanisms of intellectual...

New Thinking for a New Millennium: The Knowledge Base of Futures Studies

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:51:10 CST

Richard A. Slaughter (Ed.)

In this book, Richard Slaughter draws on the relatively new but rapidly developing field of futures studies to illustrate how our thinking must change in order to deal with the challenges presented by the new millennium. In doing so he brings together the latest work from some of the leading international names in futures thinking.

Natural Disasters and Cultural Change

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:51:02 CST

Robin Torrence and John Grattan (Eds.)

Natural disasters, large or small, wide-ranging or localized, sudden or prolonged, often have effects on humans and their lifestyles. This innovative and timely compilation explores some disasters which had enduring consequences for human cultures yet also explodes the myth that all major disasters inevitably have such consequences.

Matters of Mind: Consciousness, Reason and Nature

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:50:49 CST

Scott Sturgeon

The mind-body problem continues to be the focus of many of our philosophical concerns. Matters of Mind tackles how the problem has spanned and how it has changed from the earlier theories of reducing aboutness to empirical cases for physicalism. The theories of perception, property explanation, content and knowledge, reliabilism and the problem of zombies and ghosts are all carefully assessed.

Magic Bullets, Lost Horizons: The Rise and Fall of Antibiotics

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:50:36 CST

Sebastian G. B. Amyes

From the day that Paul Ehrlich hailed his newly discovered treatment for syphilis as the "magic bullet," antibiotics have transformed medical practice. They are considered one of the miracle drugs of the 20th century. However, the massive and increasing misuse of these agents is causing a problem of resistance that may prove to be one of the greatest threats to health in the 21st century. Magic Bullets, Lost Horizons aims to put some of the media sensationalism into perspective. It examines not...

Medicine, Magic and Religion: The FitzPatrick Lectures delivered before The Royal College of Physicians in London in 1915-1916

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:50:57 CST

W.H.R. Rivers

This work represents the FitzPatrick lectures delivered before the Royal College of Physicians of London in 1915 and 1916. It represents perhaps the first attempt to interpret with sympathetic insight the thoughts and ideas that find expression in primitive medicine.

An Introduction to the Philosophy of Social Research

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:47:21 CST

Malcolm Williams and Tim May

An introduction to the philosophy of social research which relates philosophical ideas to actual research practice. The book makes effective use of illustrations from the UK, US and Europe to examine specific problems and broader issues.

An Introduction to Sustainable Development

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:47:18 CST

Jennifer A. Elliott

Sustainable development continues to be the key idea around which environment and development are structured. This extensively revised third edition continues to provide a concise, accessible introduction to the ideas behind and the practices flowing from the notion of sustainable development with a particular focus on the developing world.

The new edition has been extensively revised to highlight recent developments in the theory and practice of sustainable development. The theoretical...

An Introduction to Meaning and Purpose in Analytical Psychology

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:47:10 CST

Dale Mathers

The question of meaning is a central one in Analytical Psychology. Human suffering can result from meaning disorders both at an individual and a cultural level, and people often fail to find meaning through religion or philosophy. How can analytical psychology help us to find individual meaning and social purpose?

An Introduction to Meaning and Purpose in Analytical Psychology is a highly original take on the fundamental theories of psychoanalysis, and encompasses other disciplines such as...

The Importance of Fathers: A Psychoanalytic Re-evaluation

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:53:01 CST

Judith Trowell and Alicia Etchegoyen (Eds.)

It is widely acknowledged that children need structure, security, stability and attachment to develop and flourish, and that the father is an important part of this. Issues such as high divorce rates, new family structures, increased mobility, women's liberation and contraception are very common in society. This book sets out to explore what has happened to men and to fathers during all these changes and transitions.

Judith Trowell and Alicia Etchegoyen, along with an array of renowned...

History of Science and Religion in the Western Tradition: An Encyclopedia

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:50:05 CST

Darrel W. Amundsen, Gary B. Ferngren and Edward J. Larson (Eds.)

First comprehensive survey in the field
The debate over evolution's place in the school science curriculum in the United States illustrates the ongoing importance of the relationship between science and religion in the West. Surprisingly, however, that relationship has not always been a locus of contention. It has been varied and multifaceted, with religion oftentimes nurturing and encouraging scientific progress. For the first time, this relationship, which has gone on in some form perhaps...

Heroin Century

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:50:02 CST

Tom Carnwath and Ian Smith

Heroin first saw the light of day a century and a quarter ago in a laboratory in Paddington Station, London. Since then it has spread across most parts of the world in fits and starts, temporarily held up here or blocked there, but pushing on with a persistence that has eventually overcome all obstacles. Despite the reach of heroin, the information on which public debate about heroin is based is quite often wrong.

Tom Carnwath and Ian Smith have written The Heroin Century to set the record...

Genes: A Philosophical Inquiry

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:49:44 CST

Gordon Graham

"It's all in the genes." Is this true, and if so, what is all in the genes? Genes: A Philosophical Inquiry is a crystal clear and highly informative guide to a debate none of us can afford to ignore.

Beginning with a much-needed overview of the relationship between science and technology, Gordon Graham lucidly explains and assesses the most important and controversial aspects of the genes debate: Darwinian theory and its critics, the idea of the "selfish" gene, evolutionary psychology...

Faith in Science: Scientists Search for Truth

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:49:33 CST

Mark Richardson and Gordy Slack (Eds.)

Science vs religion-the two have traditionally been seen as having an adversarial relationship, from before Galileo to this day. Faith in Science demonstrates how misleading this portrayal is, by allowing those who know best-scientists-speak for themselves.

W. Mark Richardson and Gordy Slack, philosopher and science writer respectively, conducted interviews with twelve of the world's top scientists on subjects ranging from the existence and nature of God to the role of religion and...

Baudrillard's Bestiary: Baudrillard and Culture

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:48:17 CST

Mike Gane

This book provides an introduction to Baudrillard's cultural theory: the conception of modernity and the complex process of simulation. It examines his literary essays: his confrontation with Calvino, Styron, Ballard, and Borges. It offers a coherent account of Baudrillard's theory of cultural ambience, and the culture of consumer society. It also provides an introduction to Baudrillard's fiction-theory, and the analysis of transpolitical figures.

The book also includes an interesting and...

B.F. Skinner: Consensus and Controversy

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 17:48:15 CST

Sohan Modgil and Celia Modgil (Eds.)

Contributors evaluate important elements of Skinner's work: radical behaviorism; political, social and moral implications; philosophy of science and psychology; the explanatory power of Skinnerian principles; Skinner's position against theory and against mentalism; the 'Vitrus Dormitivia' argument; rule-governed behavior; perception/cognition; and naturalistic ethics.