Advertisement
pbs nova lab: Your Inner Fish Neil Shubin, 2009-01-06 The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm. |
pbs nova lab: The Lab David Edwards, 2010-10-31 Unique to the innovation funnel is how creator risk is encouraged but also managed by mentors and others in each lab, so that the most daring ideasùlighting African villages with microbiotic lamps, or cleaning the air with plant-based filtersùcan emerge within passionate and sometimes inexperienced creative bands. -- |
pbs nova lab: The Last Stargazers Emily Levesque, 2020-08-04 The story of the people who see beyond the stars—an astronomy book for adults still spellbound by the night sky Embark on a captivating cosmic journey with The Last Stargazers. This enthralling book takes you on an awe-inspiring exploration of the night sky, offering a unique perspective on the vast celestial wonders that have fascinated humanity for millennia. Written by astrophysicist Dr. Emily Levesque, The Last Stargazers combines scientific expertise with captivating storytelling, making it the perfect companion for both astronomy enthusiasts and curious minds. Dr. Levesque's passion for the stars shines through as she shares her personal experiences and encounters while working at some of the world's most renowned observatories. Delve into the fascinating world of astronomy as you uncover the secrets of distant galaxies, supernovae, and elusive celestial phenomena. Discover: Inspiring narratives: Dr. Levesque's engaging storytelling transports readers to the front lines of astronomical research, providing a behind-the-scenes glimpse into the life of a modern-day stargazer. Cutting-edge research: Stay up to date with the latest scientific breakthroughs and advancements in the field of astronomy, as Dr. Levesque shares her firsthand experiences and encounters. Accessible explanations: Complex astronomical concepts are made understandable and relatable, allowing readers of all backgrounds to appreciate and comprehend the wonders of the cosmos. Personal perspective: Gain insight into the personal journey of a dedicated scientist as she navigates the challenges and triumphs of studying the stars. Whether you're a seasoned astronomer, a casual stargazer, or simply someone with a curiosity about the universe, The Last Stargazers is an indispensable guide that will ignite your passion for the cosmos and leave you in awe of the wonders that lie beyond. Take a leap into the vast unknown on a celestial odyssey like no other. |
pbs nova lab: Molecular Biology of the Gene James D. Watson, Tania A. Baker, Stephen P. Bell, 2014 Now completely up-to-date with the latest research advances, the Seventh Edition retains the distinctive character of earlier editions. Twenty-two concise chapters, co-authored by six highly distinguished biologists, provide current, authoritative coverage of an exciting, fast-changing discipline. |
pbs nova lab: The Soul of an Octopus Sy Montgomery, 2016-04-05 Finalist for the National Book Award for Nonfiction * New York Times Bestseller * A Huffington Post Notable Nonfiction Book of the Year * One of the Best Books of the Month on Goodreads * Library Journal Best Sci-Tech Book of the Year * An American Library Association Notable Book of the Year “Sy Montgomery’s The Soul of an Octopus does for the creature what Helen Macdonald’s H Is for Hawk did for raptors.” —New Statesman, UK “One of the best science books of the year.” —Science Friday, NPR A New York Times bestseller from the author of The Good Good Pig, this “fascinating…touching…informative…entertaining” (The Daily Beast) book explores the emotional and physical world of the octopus—a surprisingly complex, intelligent, and spirited creature—and the remarkable connections it makes with humans. In pursuit of the wild, solitary, predatory octopus, popular naturalist Sy Montgomery has practiced true immersion journalism. From New England aquarium tanks to the reefs of French Polynesia and the Gulf of Mexico, she has befriended octopuses with strikingly different personalities—gentle Athena, assertive Octavia, curious Kali, and joyful Karma. Each creature shows her cleverness in myriad ways: escaping enclosures like an orangutan; jetting water to bounce balls; and endlessly tricking companions with multiple “sleights of hand” to get food. Scientists have only recently accepted the intelligence of dogs, birds, and chimpanzees but now are watching octopuses solve problems and are trying to decipher the meaning of the animal’s color-changing techniques. With her “joyful passion for these intelligent and fascinating creatures” (Library Journal Editors’ Spring Pick), Montgomery chronicles the growing appreciation of this mollusk as she tells a unique love story. By turns funny, entertaining, touching, and profound, The Soul of an Octopus reveals what octopuses can teach us about the meeting of two very different minds. |
pbs nova lab: The Fabric of the Cosmos Brian Greene, 2007-12-18 NATIONAL BESTSELLER • From one of the world’s leading physicists and author of the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes “an astonishing ride” through the universe (The New York Times) that makes us look at reality in a completely different way. Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? Greene has set himself a daunting task: to explain non-intuitive, mathematical concepts like String Theory, the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle, and Inflationary Cosmology with analogies drawn from common experience. From Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’ entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world. |
pbs nova lab: The Truth About Dogs Stephen Budiansky, 2016-01-28 Stephen Budiansky holds that virtually everything previously written about dogs is either wrong or misguided. Instead he maintains that to understand the true nature of dogs we need to stop interpreting their behaviour in the human terms of loyalty and betrayal. The truth is far more complex and surprising. The Dog Genome Project is currently laying the groundwork for identifying the genetic basis of why our dogs behave in the way they do. Other research investigates canine intelligence, and some remarkable experiments reveal what dogs can and cannot see. Budiansky brings together the disciplines of behavioural science, genetics, neuroscience and archaeology to show us how wrong we have been about man's best friend. |
pbs nova lab: Building Big David Macaulay, 2004-05-10 Why this shape and not that? Why steel instead of concrete or stone? Why put it here and not over there? These are the kinds of questions that David Macaulay asks himself when he observes an architectural wonder. These questions take him back to the basic process of design from which all structures begin, from the realization of a need for the structure to the struggles of the engineers and designers to map out and create the final construction. As only he can, David Macaulay engages readers’ imaginations and gets them thinking about structures they see and use every day — bridges, tunnels, skyscrapers, domes, and dams. In Building Big he focuses on the connections between the planning and design problems and the solutions that are finally reached. Whether a structure is imposing or inspiring, he shows us that common sense and logic play just as important a part in architecture as imagination and technology do. As always, Macaulay inspires readers of all ages to look at their world in a new way. |
pbs nova lab: Faces of Science Mariana Ruth Cook, Gerard Piel, 2005 Collects portraits of people behind some of the modern scientific community's most significant discoveries, including Francis Crick, Richard Leakey, and Miriam Rothschild, and contains short autobiographical essays. |
pbs nova lab: Billion Dollar Burger Chase Purdy, 2024-05-14 The riveting story of the entrepreneurs and renegades fighting to bring lab-grown meat to the world. The trillion-dollar meat industry is one of our greatest environmental hazards; it pollutes more than all the world's fossil-fuel-powered cars. Global animal agriculture is responsible for deforestation, soil erosion, and more emissions than air travel, paper mills, and coal mining combined. It also, of course, depends on the slaughter of more than 60 billion animals per year, a number that is only increasing as the global appetite for meat swells. But a band of doctors, scientists, activists, and entrepreneurs have been racing to end animal agriculture as we know it, hoping to fulfill a dream of creating meat without ever having to kill an animal. In the laboratories of Silicon Valley companies, Dutch universities, and Israeli startups, visionaries are growing burgers and steaks from microscopic animal cells and inventing systems to do so at scale--allowing us to feed the world without slaughter and environmental devastation. Drawing from exclusive and unprecedented access to the main players, from polarizing activist-turned-tech CEO Josh Tetrick to lobbyists and regulators on both sides of the issue, Billion Dollar Burger follows the people fighting to upend our food system as they butt up against the entrenched interests fighting viciously to stop them. The stakes are monumentally high: cell-cultured meat is the best hope for sustainable food production, a key to fighting climate change, a gold mine for the companies that make it happen, and an existential threat for the farmers and meatpackers that make our meat today. Are we ready? |
pbs nova lab: The Gene Siddhartha Mukherjee, 2016-05-17 The #1 NEW YORK TIMES Bestseller The basis for the PBS Ken Burns Documentary The Gene: An Intimate History Now includes an excerpt from Siddhartha Mukherjee’s new book Song of the Cell! From the Pulitzer Prize–winning author of The Emperor of All Maladies—a fascinating history of the gene and “a magisterial account of how human minds have laboriously, ingeniously picked apart what makes us tick” (Elle). “Sid Mukherjee has the uncanny ability to bring together science, history, and the future in a way that is understandable and riveting, guiding us through both time and the mystery of life itself.” —Ken Burns “Dr. Siddhartha Mukherjee dazzled readers with his Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies in 2010. That achievement was evidently just a warm-up for his virtuoso performance in The Gene: An Intimate History, in which he braids science, history, and memoir into an epic with all the range and biblical thunder of Paradise Lost” (The New York Times). In this biography Mukherjee brings to life the quest to understand human heredity and its surprising influence on our lives, personalities, identities, fates, and choices. “Mukherjee expresses abstract intellectual ideas through emotional stories…[and] swaddles his medical rigor with rhapsodic tenderness, surprising vulnerability, and occasional flashes of pure poetry” (The Washington Post). Throughout, the story of Mukherjee’s own family—with its tragic and bewildering history of mental illness—reminds us of the questions that hang over our ability to translate the science of genetics from the laboratory to the real world. In riveting and dramatic prose, he describes the centuries of research and experimentation—from Aristotle and Pythagoras to Mendel and Darwin, from Boveri and Morgan to Crick, Watson and Franklin, all the way through the revolutionary twenty-first century innovators who mapped the human genome. “A fascinating and often sobering history of how humans came to understand the roles of genes in making us who we are—and what our manipulation of those genes might mean for our future” (Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel), The Gene is the revelatory and magisterial history of a scientific idea coming to life, the most crucial science of our time, intimately explained by a master. “The Gene is a book we all should read” (USA TODAY). |
pbs nova lab: The New Breed Kate Darling, 2021-04-20 For readers of The Second Machine Age or The Soul of an Octopus, a bold, exciting exploration of how building diverse kinds of relationships with robots—inspired by how we interact with animals—could be the key to making our future with robot technology work There has been a lot of ink devoted to discussions of how robots will replace us and take our jobs. But MIT Media Lab researcher and technology policy expert Kate Darling argues just the opposite, suggesting that treating robots with a bit of humanity, more like the way we treat animals, will actually serve us better. From a social, legal, and ethical perspective, she shows that our current ways of thinking don’t leave room for the robot technology that is soon to become part of our everyday routines. Robots are likely to supplement—rather than replace—our own skills and relationships. So if we consider our history of incorporating animals into our work, transportation, military, and even families, we actually have a solid basis for how to contend with this future. A deeply original analysis of our technological future and the ethical dilemmas that await us, The New Breed explains how the treatment of machines can reveal a new understanding of our own history, our own systems, and how we relate—not just to nonhumans, but also to one another. |
pbs nova lab: The Next 500 Years Christopher E. Mason, 2022-04-12 An argument that we have a moral duty to explore other planets and solar systems--because human life on Earth has an expiration date. Inevitably, life on Earth will come to an end, whether by climate disaster, cataclysmic war, or the death of the sun in a few billion years. To avoid extinction, we will have to find a new home planet, perhaps even a new solar system, to inhabit. In this provocative and fascinating book, Christopher Mason argues that we have a moral duty to do just that. As the only species aware that life on Earth has an expiration date, we have a responsibility to act as the shepherd of life-forms--not only for our species but for all species on which we depend and for those still to come (by accidental or designed evolution). Mason argues that the same capacity for ingenuity that has enabled us to build rockets and land on other planets can be applied to redesigning biology so that we can sustainably inhabit those planets. And he lays out a 500-year plan for undertaking the massively ambitious project of reengineering human genetics for life on other worlds. As they are today, our frail human bodies could never survive travel to another habitable planet. Mason describes the toll that long-term space travel took on astronaut Scott Kelly, who returned from a year on the International Space Station with changes to his blood, bones, and genes. Mason proposes a ten-phase, 500-year program that would engineer the genome so that humans can tolerate the extreme environments of outer space--with the ultimate goal of achieving human settlement of new solar systems. He lays out a roadmap of which solar systems to visit first, and merges biotechnology, philosophy, and genetics to offer an unparalleled vision of the universe to come. |
pbs nova lab: Secrets From the Eating Lab Traci Mann, 2015-04-07 A provocative expose of the dieting industry from one of the nation’s leading researchers in self-control and the psychology of weight loss that offers proven strategies for sustainable weight loss. From her office in the University of Minnesota’s Health and Eating Lab, professor Traci Mann researches self-control and dieting. And what she has discovered is groundbreaking. Not only do diets not work; they often result in weight gain. Americans are losing the battle of the bulge because our bodies and brains are not hardwired to resist food—the very idea of it works against our biological imperative to survive. In Secrets From the Eating Lab, Mann challenges assumptions—including those that make up the very foundation of the weight loss industry—about how diets work and why they fail. The result of more than two decades of research, it offers cutting-edge science and exciting new insights into the American obesity epidemic and our relationship with eating and food. Secrets From the Eating Lab also gives readers the practical tools they need to actually lose weight and get healthy. Mann argues that the idea of willpower is a myth—we shouldn’t waste time and money trying to combat our natural tendencies. Instead, she offers 12 simple, effective strategies that take advantage of human nature instead of fighting it—from changing the size of your plates to socializing with people with healthy habits, removing “healthy” labels that send negative messages to redefining comfort food. |
pbs nova lab: Tomorrow's Table Pamela C. Ronald, R. W. Adamchak, 2010-01-08 By the year 2050, Earth's population will double. If we continue with current farming practices, vast amounts of wilderness will be lost, millions of birds and billions of insects will die, and the public will lose billions of dollars as a consequence of environmental degradation. Clearly, there must be a better way to meet the need for increased food production. Written as part memoir, part instruction, and part contemplation, Tomorrow's Table argues that a judicious blend of two important strands of agriculture--genetic engineering and organic farming--is key to helping feed the world's growing population in an ecologically balanced manner. Pamela Ronald, a geneticist, and her husband, Raoul Adamchak, an organic farmer, take the reader inside their lives for roughly a year, allowing us to look over their shoulders so that we can see what geneticists and organic farmers actually do. The reader sees the problems that farmers face, trying to provide larger yields without resorting to expensive or environmentally hazardous chemicals, a problem that will loom larger and larger as the century progresses. They learn how organic farmers and geneticists address these problems. This book is for consumers, farmers, and policy decision makers who want to make food choices and policy that will support ecologically responsible farming practices. It is also for anyone who wants accurate information about organic farming, genetic engineering, and their potential impacts on human health and the environment. |
pbs nova lab: Zone to Win Geoffrey A. Moore, 2015-11-03 Over the last 25 years, Geoffrey Moore has established himself as one of the most influential high-tech advisors in the world—once prompting Conan O’Brien to ask “Who is Geoffrey Moore and why is he more famous than me?” Following up on the ferociously innovative ESCAPE VELOCITY, which served as the basis for Moore’s consulting work to such companies as Salesforce, Microsoft, and Intel, ZONE TO WIN serves as the companion playbook for his landmark guide, offering a practical manual to address the challenge large enterprises face when they seek to add a new line of business to their established portfolio. Focused on spurring next-generation growth, guiding mergers and acquisitions, and embracing disruption and innovation, ZONE TO WIN is a high-powered tool for driving your company above and beyond its limitations, its definitions of success, and ultimately, its competitors. Moore’s classic bestseller, CROSSING THE CHASM, has sold more than one million copies by addressing the challenges faced by start-up companies. Now ZONE TO WIN is set to guide established enterprises through the same journey. “For any company, regardless of size or industry, ZONE TO WIN is the playbook for succeeding in today’s disruptive, connected, fast-paced business world.” —Marc Benioff, CEO, Salesforce “Once again Geoffrey Moore weighs in with a prescient examination of what it takes to win in today’s competitive, disruptive business environment.” —Satya Nadella, CEO, Microsoft With this book, Geoffrey Moore continues to lead us all through ever-changing times...His work has changed the game of changing the game! —Gary Kovacs, CEO, AVG “ZONE TO WIN uses crystal-clear language to describe the management plays necessary to win in an ever-disrupting marketplace. Regardless of your level of management experience, you will find this book an invaluable tool for building long-term success for your business.” —Lip-Bu Tan, President and CEO, Cadence Design Systems |
pbs nova lab: How to Prepare for Climate Change David Pogue, 2021-01-26 A practical and comprehensive guide to surviving the greatest disaster of our time, from New York Times bestselling self-help author and beloved CBS Sunday Morning science and technology correspondent David Pogue. You might not realize it, but we’re already living through the beginnings of climate chaos. In Arizona, laborers now start their day at 3 a.m. because it’s too hot to work past noon. Chinese investors are snapping up real estate in Canada. Millennials have evacuation plans. Moguls are building bunkers. Retirees in Miami are moving inland. In How to Prepare for Climate Change, bestselling self-help author David Pogue offers sensible, deeply researched advice for how the rest of us should start to ready ourselves for the years ahead. Pogue walks readers through what to grow, what to eat, how to build, how to insure, where to invest, how to prepare your children and pets, and even where to consider relocating when the time comes. (Two areas of the country, in particular, have the requisite cool temperatures, good hospitals, reliable access to water, and resilient infrastructure to serve as climate havens in the years ahead.) He also provides wise tips for managing your anxiety, as well as action plans for riding out every climate catastrophe, from superstorms and wildfires to ticks and epidemics. Timely and enlightening, How to Prepare for Climate Change is an indispensable guide for anyone who read The Uninhabitable Earth or The Sixth Extinction and wants to know how to make smart choices for the upheaval ahead. |
pbs nova lab: Cellular Agriculture Dilek Ercili-Cura, Dorothee Barth, 2021-03-16 Cellular agriculture, also called lab-grown food, promises to provide alternative food options to current agriculture practices. Cellular agriculture is food grown in laboratories and bioreactors rather than on fields, relying on cultivation of cells under controlled conditions, with minimal use of natural resources and lower greenhouse gas emission costs than in traditional practices. It gives us the prospect of consuming the same foods such as a dairy ice cream or a burger. And it can further broaden the variety of textures, flavors, nutrition, and health-promoting aspects that food can deliver. Cellular Agriculture: Lab-Grown Foods gives an overview of the broad range of approaches to cellular agriculture, the current state of scale and regulations, and the results it brings about in terms of environmental footprint and consumer attitudes. Cellular Agriculture: Lab-Grown Foods was organized by Solar Foods, a food-tech company that develops a cell-based food protein produced from CO2 and electricity. A fruitful collaboration with VTT Technical Research Center of Finland Ltd allowed conceptualizing and streamlining of the written and visual content in the book. |
pbs nova lab: Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold Tom Shachtman, 1999 Shachtman presents the fascinating story of the scientific effort to master cold, from the creation of thermometers to the attainment of temperatures billionths of a degree above absolute zero. |
pbs nova lab: How the Hippies Saved Physics: Science, Counterculture, and the Quantum Revival David Kaiser, 2011-06-27 How the Hippies Saved Physics gives us an unconventional view of some unconventional people engaged early in the fundamentals of quantum theory. Great fun to read. —Anton Zeilinger, Nobel laureate in physics The surprising story of eccentric young scientists—among them Nobel laureates John Clauser and Alain Aspect—who stood up to convention and changed the face of modern physics. Today, quantum information theory is among the most exciting scientific frontiers, attracting billions of dollars in funding and thousands of talented researchers. But as MIT physicist and historian David Kaiser reveals, this cutting-edge field has a surprisingly psychedelic past. How the Hippies Saved Physics introduces us to a band of freewheeling physicists who defied the imperative to “shut up and calculate” and helped to rejuvenate modern physics. For physicists, the 1970s were a time of stagnation. Jobs became scarce, and conformity was encouraged, sometimes stifling exploration of the mysteries of the physical world. Dissatisfied, underemployed, and eternally curious, an eccentric group of physicists in Berkeley, California, banded together to throw off the constraints of the physics mainstream and explore the wilder side of science. Dubbing themselves the “Fundamental Fysiks Group,” they pursued an audacious, speculative approach to physics. They studied quantum entanglement and Bell’s Theorem through the lens of Eastern mysticism and psychic mind-reading, discussing the latest research while lounging in hot tubs. Some even dabbled with LSD to enhance their creativity. Unlikely as it may seem, these iconoclasts spun modern physics in a new direction, forcing mainstream physicists to pay attention to the strange but exciting underpinnings of quantum theory. A lively, entertaining story that illuminates the relationship between creativity and scientific progress, How the Hippies Saved Physics takes us to a time when only the unlikeliest heroes could break the science world out of its rut. |
pbs nova lab: The Tales Teeth Tell Tanya M. Smith, 2018-10-23 What human teeth can tell us about our evolution, development, and behavior . . . This fascinating, accessible study will “put a smile on your face with its weird facts about primate dentistry and the shrinking grins of modern-day humans” (Washington Post). Our teeth have intriguing stories to tell. These sophisticated time machines record growth, diet, and evolutionary history as clearly as tree rings map a redwood's lifespan. Each day of childhood is etched into tooth crowns and roots—capturing birth, nursing history, environmental clues, and illnesses. The study of ancient, fossilized teeth sheds light on how our ancestors grew up, how we evolved, and how prehistoric cultural transitions continue to affect humans today. In The Tales Teeth Tell, biological anthropologist Tanya Smith offers an engaging and surprising look at what teeth tell us about the evolution of primates—including our own uniqueness. Humans’ impressive set of varied teeth provides a multipurpose toolkit honed by the diet choices of our mammalian ancestors. Fossil teeth, highly resilient because of their substantial mineral content, are all that is left of some long-extinct species. Smith explains how researchers employ painstaking techniques to coax microscopic secrets from these enigmatic remains. Counting tiny daily lines provides a way to estimate age that is more powerful than any other forensic technique. Dental plaque—so carefully removed by dental hygienists today—records our ancestors' behavior and health in the form of fossilized food particles and bacteria, including their DNA. Smith also traces the grisly origins of dentistry, reveals that the urge to pick one’s teeth is not unique to humans, and illuminates the age-old pursuit of “dental art.” The book is generously illustrated with original photographs, many in color. |
pbs nova lab: The Case of the Frozen Addicts James William Langston, Jon Palfreman, 2014 How the Solution of a Medical MysteryRevolutionized the Understanding of Parkinsons Disease. In the summer of 1982, hospital emergency rooms in the San Francisco Bay Area were suddenly confronted with mysteriously frozen patients young men and women who, though conscious, could neither move nor speak. Doctors were baffled, until neurologist J. William Langston, recognizing the symptoms of advanced Parkinsons disease, administered L-dopa the only known effective treatment and unfroze his patient. Dr. Langston determined that this patient and five others had all used the same tainted batch of synthetic heroin, inadvertently laced |
pbs nova lab: Difficult Men Brett Martin, 2014-07-29 The 10th anniversary edition, now with a new preface by the author A wonderfully smart, lively, and culturally astute survey. - The New York Times Book Review Grand entertainment...fascinating for anyone curious about the perplexing miracles of how great television comes to be. - The Wall Street Journal I love this book...It's the kind of thing I wish I'd been able to read in film school, back before such books existed. - Vince Gilligan, creator of Breaking Bad and co-creator of Better Call Saul In the late 1990s and early 2000s, the landscape of television began an unprecedented transformation. While the networks continued to chase the lowest common denominator, a wave of new shows on cable channels dramatically stretched television’s narrative inventiveness, emotional resonance, and creative ambition. Combining deep reportage with critical analysis and historical context, Brett Martin recounts the rise and inner workings of this artistic watershed - a golden age of TV that continues to transform America's cultural landscape. Difficult Men features extensive interviews with all the major players - including David Chase (The Sopranos), David Simon and Ed Burns (The Wire), David Milch (NYPD Blue, Deadwood), Alan Ball (Six Feet Under), and Vince Gilligan (Breaking Bad, Better Call Saul) - and reveals how television became a truly significant and influential part of our culture. |
pbs nova lab: The Story of Earth Robert M. Hazen, 2013-07-30 Hailed by The New York Times for writing “with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,” nationally bestselling author Robert M. Hazen offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet’s living and nonliving spheres. With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s eye, Hazen calls upon twenty-first-century discoveries that have revolutionized geology and enabled scientists to envision Earth’s many iterations in vivid detail—from the mile-high lava tides of its infancy to the early organisms responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties beneath our feet. Lucid, controversial, and on the cutting edge of its field, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order. A sweeping rip-roaring yarn of immense scope, from the birth of the elements in the stars to meditations on the future habitability of our world. -Science A fascinating story. -Bill McKibben |
pbs nova lab: The Social Instinct Nichola Raihani, 2023-08-22 Enriching —Publisher's Weekly Excellent and illuminating—Wall Street Journal In the tradition of Richard Dawkins's The Selfish Gene, Nichola Raihani's The Social Instinct is a profound and engaging look at the hidden relationships underpinning human evolution, and why cooperation is key to our future survival. Cooperation is the means by which life arose in the first place. It’s how life progressed through scale and complexity, from free-floating strands of genetic material to nation states. But given what we know about evolution, cooperation is also something of a puzzle. How does cooperation begin, when on a Darwinian level, all the genes in the body care about is being passed on to the next generation? Why do meerkats care for one another’s offspring? Why do babbler birds in the Kalahari form colonies in which only a single pair breeds? And how come some reef-dwelling fish punish each other for harming fish from another species? A biologist by training, Raihani looks at where and how collaborative behavior emerges throughout the animal kingdom, and what problems it solves. She reveals that the species that exhibit cooperative behaviour most similar to our own tend not to be other apes; they are birds, insects, and fish, occupying far more distant branches of the evolutionary tree. By understanding the problems they face, and how they cooperate to solve them, we can glimpse how human cooperation first evolved. And we can also understand what it is about the way we cooperate that makes us so distinctive–and so successful. |
pbs nova lab: The Memory Thief Lauren Aguirre, 2022-08-09 Extensively researched. Aguirre writes clearly, concisely, and often cinematically. The book succeeds in providing an accessible yet substantive look at memory science and offering glimpses of the often-challenging process of biomedical investigation.—Science Sometimes, it’s not the discovery that’s hard – it’s convincing others that you’re right. The Memory Thief chronicles an investigation into a rare and devastating amnesia first identified in a cluster of fentanyl overdose survivors. When a handful of doctors embark on a quest to find out exactly what happened to these marginalized victims, they encounter indifference and skepticism from the medical establishment. But after many blind alleys and occasional strokes of good luck, they go on to prove that opioids can damage the hippocampus, a tiny brain region responsible for forming new memories. This discovery may have implications for millions of people around the world. Through the prism of this fascinating story, Aguirre recounts the obstacles researchers so often confront when new ideas bump up against conventional wisdom. She explains the elegant tricks scientists use to tease out the fundamental mechanisms of memory. And finally, she reveals why researchers now believe that a treatment for Alzheimer’s is within reach. |
pbs nova lab: On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer's Greg O'Brien, 2018-02-27 This is a book about living with Alzheimer’s, not dying with it. It is a book about hope, faith, and humor—a prescription far more powerful than the conventional medication available today to fight this disease. Alzheimer’s is the sixth leading cause of death in the US—and the only one of these diseases on the rise. More than 5 million Americans have been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s or a related dementia; about 35 million people worldwide. Greg O’Brien, an award-winning investigative reporter, has been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's and is one of those faceless numbers. Acting on long-term memory and skill coupled with well-developed journalistic grit, O’Brien decided to tackle the disease and his imminent decline by writing frankly about the journey. O’Brien is a master storyteller. His story is naked, wrenching, and soul searching for a generation and their loved ones about to cross the threshold of this death in slow motion. On Pluto: Inside the Mind of Alzheimer’s is a trail-blazing roadmap for a generation—both a “how to” for fighting a disease, and a “how not” to give up! |
pbs nova lab: Quantum Aspects of Life Abbott, 2008 This book presents the hotly debated question of whether quantum mechanics plays a non-trivial role in biology. In a timely way, it sets out a distinct quantum biology agenda. The burgeoning fields of nanotechnology, biotechnology, quantum technology, and quantum information processing are now strongly converging. The acronym BINS, for Bio-Info-Nano-Systems, has been coined to describe the synergetic interface of these several disciplines. The living cell is an information replicating and processing system that is replete with naturally-evolved nanomachines, which at some level require a quantum mechanical description. As quantum engineering and nanotechnology meet, increasing use will be made of biological structures, or hybrids of biological and fabricated systems, for producing novel devices for information storage and processing and other tasks. An understanding of these systems at a quantum mechanical level will be indispensable. |
pbs nova lab: Smart Thinking Art Markman, 2012-01-26 Drawing on the latest research into cognitive science, Art Markman shows you how to maximise your capacity to learn and solve problems effectively at home and at work. Think smart people are just born that way? Think again. Art Markman, one of the premier cognitive scientists in this field, demonstrates the difference between raw intelligence and 'smarter' thinking. Using examples from his own lab and stories from the worlds of business and popular culture, Markman shows it is possible to learn to be a smarter thinker. In doing so, you can reap the benefits in every area of your life. Smart Thinking provides: 1. The means to replace self-limiting habits with new behaviours that foster smart thinking, 2. An understanding of the mind itself as well as memory, 3. The ability to define and solve problems more efficiently, 4. Ways to present and process information effectively. Using the tools and practical exercises provided in Smart Thinking, you too can access the skills needed to achieve your personal goals and create your own 'culture of smart thinking' at work and home. |
pbs nova lab: Dr. Folkman's War Robert Cooke, 2001 In 1961, twenty-eight-year-old Dr. Judah Folkman saw something while doing medical research in a United States navy lab that gave him the first glimmering of a wild, inspired hunch. What if cancerous tumors, in order to expand, needed to trigger the growth of new blood vessels to feed themselves? And if that was true, what if a way could be found to stop that growth? Could cancers be starved to death? Dr. Folkman had ample reason to be self confident — second in his class at Harvard Medical School, he was already considered one of the most promising doctors of his generation. But even he never guessed that his idea would eventually grow into a multibillion-dollar industry that is now racing through human trials with drugs that show unparalleled promise of being able to control cancer, as well as other deadly diseases. For the creation of this book, Dr. Judah Folkman cooperated fully and exclusively with acclaimed science writer Robert Cooke. He granted Cooke unlimited interviews, showed him diaries and personal papers, and threw open the doors of his lab. The result is an astonishingly rich and candid chronicle of one of the most significant medical discoveries of our time and of the man whose vision and persistence almost single-handedly has made it possible. Dr. Folkman's radical new way of thinking about cancer was once considered preposterous. So little was known about how cancer spreads and how blood vessels grow that he wasn't even taken seriously enough to be considered a heretic. Other doctors shook their heads at the waste of a great mind, and ambitious young medical researchers were told that accepting a position in Folkman's lab would be the death of their careers. Now, though, the overwhelming majority of experts believes that the day will soon come when antiangiogenesis therapy supplants the current more toxic and less-effective treatments — chemotherapy, radiation, and surgery-as the preferred method of treatment for cancer in patients around the world, and Dr. Folkman's breakthrough will come to be taken for granted the way we now take for granted the polio vaccine and antibiotics. Dr. Folkman's War brilliantly describes how high the odds are against success in medical research, how vicious the competition for grants, how entrenched the skepticism about any genuinely original thinking, how polluted by politics and commerce the process of getting medicine into patients' hands. But it also depicts with rare power how exalted a calling medicine can be and how for the rare few—the brilliant, the tireless, and the lucky — the results of success can be world-changing. From the Hardcover edition. |
pbs nova lab: Current Protocols Essential Laboratory Techniques Sean R. Gallagher, Emily A. Wiley, 2012-03-19 The latest title from the acclaimed Current Protocols series, Current Protocols Essential Laboratory Techniques, 2e provides the new researcher with the skills and understanding of the fundamental laboratory procedures necessary to run successful experiments, solve problems, and become a productive member of the modern life science laboratory. From covering the basic skills such as measurement, preparation of reagents and use of basic instrumentation to the more advanced techniques such as blotting, chromatography and real-time PCR, this book will serve as a practical reference manual for any life science researcher. Written by a combination of distinguished investigators and outstanding faculty, Current Protocols Essential Laboratory Techniques, 2e is the cornerstone on which the beginning scientist can develop the skills for a successful research career. |
pbs nova lab: Vision and Art (Updated and Expanded Edition) Margaret S. Livingstone, 2014-03-25 A Harvard neurobiologist explains how vision works, citing the scientific origins of artistic genius and providing coverage of such topics as optical illusions and the correlation between learning disabilities and artistic skill. |
pbs nova lab: The Origin of Modern Humans Roger Lewin, 1998-01-01 The tools used to unearth the facts of our prehistoric past have not always been tangible. Each fossil discovery and new methods of analysis is met with an avalanche of debate, alternate interpretations, and the refutation of competing theories. This text is a concise and provocative look at some answers to the question Where did we come from? . |
pbs nova lab: The University of Illinois Frederick E Hoxie, 2017-02-07 The founding of the university in 1867 created a unique community in what had been a prairie. Within a few years, this creative mix of teachers and scholars produced innovations in agriculture, engineering and the arts that challenged old ideas and stimulated dynamic new industries. Projects ranging from the Mosaic web browser to the discovery of Archaea and pioneering triumphs in women's education and wheelchair accessibility have helped shape the university's mission into a double helix of innovation and real-world change. These essays explore the university's celebrated accomplishments and historic legacy, candidly assessing both its successes and its setbacks. Experts and students tell the eye-opening stories of campus legends and overlooked game-changers, of astonishing technical and social invention, of incubators of progress as diverse as the Beckman Institute and Ebertfest. Contributors: James R. Barrett, George O. Batzli, Claire Benjamin, Jeffrey D. Brawn, Jimena Canales, Stephanie A. Dick, Poshek Fu, Marcelo H. Garcia, Lillian Hoddeson, Harry Liebersohn, Claudia Lutz, Kathleen Mapes, Vicki McKinney, Elisa Miller, Robert Michael Morrissey, Bryan E. Norwood, Elizabeth H. Pleck, Leslie J. Reagan, Susan M. Rigdon, David Rosenboom, Katherine Skwarczek, Winton U. Solberg, Carol Spindel, William F. Tracy, and Joy Ann Williamson-Lott. |
pbs nova lab: Girl Decoded Rana el Kaliouby, Carol Colman, 2020-04-21 In a captivating memoir, an Egyptian American visionary and scientist provides an intimate view of her personal transformation as she follows her calling—to humanize our technology and how we connect with one another. LONGLISTED FOR THE PORCHLIGHT BUSINESS BOOK AWARD • “A vivid coming-of-age story and a call to each of us to be more mindful and compassionate when we interact online.”—Arianna Huffington NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY PARADE Rana el Kaliouby is a rarity in both the tech world and her native Middle East: a Muslim woman in charge in a field that is still overwhelmingly white and male. Growing up in Egypt and Kuwait, el Kaliouby was raised by a strict father who valued tradition—yet also had high expectations for his daughters—and a mother who was one of the first female computer programmers in the Middle East. Even before el Kaliouby broke ground as a scientist, she broke the rules of what it meant to be an obedient daughter and, later, an obedient wife to pursue her own daring dream. After earning her PhD at Cambridge, el Kaliouby, now the divorced mother of two, moved to America to pursue her mission to humanize technology before it dehumanizes us. The majority of our communication is conveyed through nonverbal cues: facial expressions, tone of voice, body language. But that communication is lost when we interact with others through our smartphones and devices. The result is an emotion-blind digital universe that impairs the very intelligence and capabilities—including empathy—that distinguish human beings from our machines. To combat our fundamental loss of emotional intelligence online, she cofounded Affectiva, the pioneer in the new field of Emotion AI, allowing our technology to understand humans the way we understand one another. Girl Decoded chronicles el Kaliouby’s journey from being a “nice Egyptian girl” to becoming a woman, carving her own path as she revolutionizes technology. But decoding herself—learning to express and act on her own emotions—would prove to be the biggest challenge of all. |
pbs nova lab: Musicophilia Oliver Sacks, 2010-02-05 What goes on in human beings when they make or listen to music? What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, power delectable and beneficent for the most part, but also capable of uncontrollable and sometimes destructive force? Music has no concepts, it lacks images; it has no power of representation, it has no relation to the world. And yet it is evident in all of us–we tap our feet, we keep time, hum, sing, conduct music, mirror the melodic contours and feelings of what we hear in our movements and expressions. In this book, Oliver Sacks explores the power music wields over us–a power that sometimes we control and at other times don’t. He explores, in his inimitable fashion, how it can provide access to otherwise unreachable emotional states, how it can revivify neurological avenues that have been frozen, evoke memories of earlier, lost events or states or bring those with neurological disorders back to a time when the world was much richer. This is a book that explores, like no other, the myriad dimensions of our experience of and with music. |
pbs nova lab: Some Assembly Required Neil Shubin, 2020-03-17 An exciting and accessible new view of the evolution of human and animal life on Earth. From the author of national bestseller, Your Inner Fish, this extraordinary journey of discovery spans centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity. “Fossils, DNA, scientists with a penchant for suits of armor—what’s not to love?”—BBC Wildlife Magazine Over billions of years, ancient fish evolved to walk on land, reptiles transformed into birds that fly, and apelike primates evolved into humans that walk on two legs, talk, and write. For more than a century, paleontologists have traveled the globe to find fossils that show how such changes have happened. We have now arrived at a remarkable moment—prehistoric fossils coupled with new DNA technology have given us the tools to answer some of the basic questions of our existence: How do big changes in evolution happen? Is our presence on Earth the product of mere chance? This new science reveals a multibillion-year evolutionary history filled with twists and turns, trial and error, accident and invention. In Some Assembly Required, Neil Shubin takes readers on a journey of discovery spanning centuries, as explorers and scientists seek to understand the origins of life's immense diversity. |
pbs nova lab: The Devil in Dover Lauri Lebo, 2016-04-12 “A brilliant account” of the controversial 2005 legal battle between evolution and creationism in public education “by a first-rate journalist” (Howard Zinn). In 2004, the School Board of Dover, Pennsylvania, decided to require its ninth-grade biology students to learn intelligent design—a pseudoscientific theory positing evidence of an intelligent creator. In a case that recalled the infamous 1925 Scopes “monkey” trial, eleven parents sued the school board. When the case wound up in federal court before a President George W. Bush–appointed judge, local journalist Lauri Lebo had a front-row seat. Destined to become required reading for a generation of journalists, scientists, and science teachers, as well as for anyone concerned about the separation of church and state, The Devil in Dover is Lebo’s acclaimed account of religious intolerance, First Amendment violations, and an assault on American science education. Lebo skillfully probes the background of the case, introducing the plaintiffs, the defendants, the lawyers, and a parade of witnesses, along with Judge John E. Jones III, who would eventually condemn the school board’s decision as one of “breathtaking inanity.” With the antievolution battle having moved to the state level—and the recent passage of state legislation that protects the right of schools to teach alternatives to evolution—Lebo’s work is more necessary than ever. “Lebo courageously exhibits the highest standards in intellectual honesty and journalistic ethos.” —Daily Kos “An unapologetic indictment of intelligent design, fundamentalist Christianity, and American journalism’s insistence on objectivity in the face of clear untruths.” —Columbia Journalism Review |
pbs nova lab: Tectonic Geomorphology Douglas W. Burbank, Robert S. Anderson, 2011-11-02 Tectonic geomorphology is the study of the interplay between tectonic and surface processes that shape the landscape in regions of active deformation and at time scales ranging from days to millions of years. Over the past decade, recent advances in the quantification of both rates and the physical basis of tectonic and surface processes have underpinned an explosion of new research in the field of tectonic geomorphology. Modern tectonic geomorphology is an exceptionally integrative field that utilizes techniques and data derived from studies of geomorphology, seismology, geochronology, structure, geodesy, stratigraphy, meteorology and Quaternary science. While integrating new insights and highlighting controversies from the ten years of research since the 1st edition, this 2nd edition of Tectonic Geomorphology reviews the fundamentals of the subject, including the nature of faulting and folding, the creation and use of geomorphic markers for tracing deformation, chronological techniques that are used to date events and quantify rates, geodetic techniques for defining recent deformation, and paleoseismologic approaches to calibrate past deformation. Overall, this book focuses on the current understanding of the dynamic interplay between surface processes and active tectonics. As it ranges from the timescales of individual earthquakes to the growth and decay of mountain belts, this book provides a timely synthesis of modern research for upper-level undergraduate and graduate earth science students and for practicing geologists. Additional resources for this book can be found at: www.wiley.com/go/burbank/geomorphology. |
pbs nova lab: The Complete Dinosaur Michael K. Brett-Surman, Thomas R. Holtz, James O. Farlow, 2012-06-27 Praise for the first edition A gift to serious dinosaur enthusiasts --Science The amount of information in these] pages is amazing. This book should be on the shelves of dinosaur freaks as well as those who need to know more about the paleobiology of extinct animals. It will be an invaluable library reference. --American Reference Books Annual An excellent encyclopedia that serves as a nice bridge between popular and scholarly dinosaur literature. --Library Journal (starred review) Copiously illustrated and scrupulously up-to-date... the book reveals dinos through the fractious fields that make a study of them. --Publishers Weekly Stimulating armchair company for cold winter evenings.... Best of all, the book treats dinosaurs as intellectual fun. --New Scientist The book is useful both as a reference and as a browse-and-enjoy compendium. --Natural History What do we know about dinosaurs, and how do we know it? How did dinosaurs grow, move, eat, and reproduce? Were they warm-blooded or cold-blooded? How intelligent were they? How are the various groups of dinosaurs related to each other, and to other kinds of living and extinct vertebrates? What can the study of dinosaurs tell us about the process of evolution? And why did typical dinosaurs become extinct? All of these questions, and more, are addressed in the new, expanded, second edition of The Complete Dinosaur. Written by many of the world's leading experts on the fearfully great reptiles, the book's 45 chapters cover what we have learned about dinosaurs, from the earliest discoveries of dinosaurs to the most recent controversies. Where scientific contention exists, the editors have let the experts agree to disagree. Copiously illustrated and accessible to all readers from the enthusiastic amateur to the most learned professional paleontologist, The Complete Dinosaur is a feast for serious dinosaur lovers everywhere. |
NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA Labs is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung …
About NOVA Labs | NOVA Labs | PBS
About NOVA Labs. NOVA Labs is a free digital platform that engages teens and lifelong learners in games and interactives that foster authentic scientific exploration.
The Evolution Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
To help you explore this tree and understand the amazing mechanism behind it, we’ve created the NOVA Evolution Lab. Play this Lab and you’ll be on your way to becoming an expert in …
The Energy Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
To help inform your design, you’ll study energy potential maps created for NOVA Labs by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Using sliders, you can select the types of …
The RNA Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA’s RNA Lab is an extension of a game called Eterna, which gets players to help scientists understand an important family of biomolecules called RNAs. Here’s how it works. RNA is …
Home | NOVA Labs | PBS
The Exoplanet Lab Help displaced aliens find new homes by mastering the same techniques scientists use to find and characterize exoplanets – worlds orbiting faraway stars. Learn More
The Cybersecurity Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA has teamed up with cybersecurity experts to create the Cybersecurity Lab, a game in which players will discover how they can keep their digital lives safe and develop an …
The Polar Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
From designing renewable energy systems with weather data to folding RNA molecules that might help researchers develop lifesaving drugs, playing the collection of NOVA Labs gives young …
Evolution | NOVA Labs | PBS
In this Lab, you’ll puzzle out the evolutionary relationships linking together a spectacular array of species. Explore the tree of life and get a front row seat to what some have called the greatest …
The Exoplanet Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
About the Exoplanet Lab. Are we alone? It’s one of those tantalizing mysteries we can’t help but ponder. Earth is teeming with life, including humans intelligent enough to ask such questions. …
NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA Labs is available to stream on pbs.org and the free PBS App, available on iPhone, Apple TV, Android TV, Android smartphones, Amazon Fire TV, Amazon Fire Tablet, Roku, Samsung Smart …
About NOVA Labs | NOVA Labs | PBS
About NOVA Labs. NOVA Labs is a free digital platform that engages teens and lifelong learners in games and interactives that foster authentic scientific exploration.
The Evolution Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
To help you explore this tree and understand the amazing mechanism behind it, we’ve created the NOVA Evolution Lab. Play this Lab and you’ll be on your way to becoming an expert in …
The Energy Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
To help inform your design, you’ll study energy potential maps created for NOVA Labs by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL). Using sliders, you can select the types of energy …
The RNA Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA’s RNA Lab is an extension of a game called Eterna, which gets players to help scientists understand an important family of biomolecules called RNAs. Here’s how it works. RNA is central …
Home | NOVA Labs | PBS
The Exoplanet Lab Help displaced aliens find new homes by mastering the same techniques scientists use to find and characterize exoplanets – worlds orbiting faraway stars. Learn More
The Cybersecurity Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
NOVA has teamed up with cybersecurity experts to create the Cybersecurity Lab, a game in which players will discover how they can keep their digital lives safe and develop an understanding of …
The Polar Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
From designing renewable energy systems with weather data to folding RNA molecules that might help researchers develop lifesaving drugs, playing the collection of NOVA Labs gives young …
Evolution | NOVA Labs | PBS
In this Lab, you’ll puzzle out the evolutionary relationships linking together a spectacular array of species. Explore the tree of life and get a front row seat to what some have called the greatest …
The Exoplanet Lab | NOVA Labs | PBS
About the Exoplanet Lab. Are we alone? It’s one of those tantalizing mysteries we can’t help but ponder. Earth is teeming with life, including humans intelligent enough to ask such questions. But …