Archives de catégorie : Popular Science

OUT OF YOUR MIND de Jorge Cham & Dwayne Godwin

An introductory journal into the human brain—if your inner voice had a PhD in brain science, made jokes, and drew cartoons. A fun, illustrated journey into the brain by acclaimed authors and scientists Jorge Cham and Dwayne Godwin.

OUT OF YOUR MIND: The Biggest Mysteries of the Human Brain
by Jorge Cham & Dwayne Godwin
Pantheon, Fall 2023
(via The Gernert Company)

Why do you love? Why do you lie? What makes you happy? Every single thought you have comes from one place: your brain. It is simultaneously the most complex structure we have ever encountered, and it’s the very same structure we use to study it. But what makes it tick? How does its intricate wiring affect our everyday lives? How much of it have we decoded, and how much remains an impenetrable mystery? Join popular online cartoonist Jorge Cham (PHD Comics; We Have No Idea; Daniel and Jorge Explain the Universe) and Neuroscientist Dwayne Godwin (Wake Forest University; Scientific American) on a deep dive into the fascinating world of human brain studies. With casual, clear and jargon-free explanations, compelling stories, and hilarious comics, Jorge and Dwayne will explore interesting questions like, « Where is you in the brain? » « Do we have free will? » « What is consciousness? » and « What makes us happy? » while illuminating everything we know (and DON’T know) about the brain.

Jorge Cham is the creator of the popular online comic Piled Higher and Deeper, also known as PHD Comics. He earned his PhD in robotics at Stanford.
Dwayne Godwin is a Professor in the Department of Neurobiology and Anatomy and the Dean of the Wake Forest University Graduate School for Biomedical Sciences.

MEHR PLATZ IM GEHIRN de Boris Nikolai Konrad

Marie Kondo for the brain!

MEHR PLATZ IM GEHIRN
(More Room in the Brain)
by Boris Nikolai Konrad
Ariston/PRH Verlagsgruppe, April 2022

The human brain is quite remarkable and is most often compared very favorably with high-performance computers. How is it then that we still have the feeling constantly forgetting things, being late to appointments, and having a hopelessly crowded head? Boris Nikolai Konrad helps us regain control of our cerebral processes. This neuroscientist first illustrates the amazing ways the brain functions. He then explains how we can improve how we use our brains. With his techniques we can learn to experience full relaxation without yoga, to remember every name with ease – and to finally eliminate the chaos in our head.

Neuroscience, the trend topic: understanding how the human brain works, and how to get more out of your own brain
• Explained by the World Memory Champion
• With numerous exercises

Boris Nikolai Konrad, born in 1984, is a neuroscientist, has been World Memory champion several times, has set up four Guinness Book records and is internationally in demand for television shows. He already started working as a memory trainer and lecturer in 2006. He has also devoted himself to this field as a scientist and is involved in research into extraordinarily good performances of memory, at present at the Donders Institute in Nijmegen, The Netherlands.

VOM ENDE DER ENDLICHKEIT de Moritz Riesewieck & Hans Block

Will our digital souls live on after our physical death?

VOM ENDE DER ENDLICHKEIT
(The End of Finiteness)
by Moritz Riesewieck & Hans Block
Goldmann/PRH Verlagsgruppe, April 2022

Can the personality of a deceased person be recreated and eventually transferred to a digital revenant? Will we be able to talk to the dead in the future? What sounds like a science fiction plot is already being worked on: Start-ups are working on a digital form of immortality, raising great hopes among people who have lost their partners, family members and friends.
Moritz Riesewieck and Hans Block accompany the first customers meeting their digital clones and hear the voices of the deceased speak to the mourners. They get exclusive insights into the technologies that are supposed to make digital resurrection possible. On their journeys into the digital afterlife, the authors discover the rebirth of an ancient concept of humanity in a new guise: the renaissance of the soul.

Moritz Riesewieck, born in 1985, is a theatre and film director and author. He obtained a degree in economics before studying directing at the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.
Hans Block, born in 1985, is a director and the author of several radio plays. He has degrees in percussion from the University of the Arts and in directing from the Academy of Dramatic Arts in Berlin.

FREIHEIT FÜR ALLE de Richard David Precht

How will we work in the future – and why should we work at all?

FREIHEIT FÜR ALLE
(Freedom For All)
by Richard David Precht
‎ Goldmann/PRH Verlagsgruppe, March 2022

It’s a given that, as far as work is concerned, nothing these days is a given. The Second Machine Age of self-teaching computers and robots will revolutionise not only the job market, but also redefine what ‘work’ is in the first place, and why we still do it. What happens when machines do so much of the work that economies no longer need to rely on human productivity? Without the old wage labour society of the First Machine Age, our conception of work as defined by the nineteenth century will become a mere appendix – useless and outdated. The big prize we aim for will no longer be full-time work, but self-realisation, and the raffle tickets will change accordingly: society will cease to think of employment as the be-all and end-all, and place greater value on high-quality jobs and workplace conditions.
Richard David Precht shows how changes in the world of work are also affecting our lives, our culture, our approach to education, and ultimately society itself – and the enormous challenges that lie ahead for politicians, who have to createnew policies in line with these changes, including restructuring our welfare systeminto a system based on universal basic income.

Richard David Precht, born in 1964, is a philosopher, journalist, and author, and one of the most distinctive intellectuals in German-speaking countries. He is an honorary professor of philosophy at the Leuphana University in Lüneburg and at the Hanns Eisler Academy of Music in Berlin. His books Wer bin ich – und wenn ja wie viele? (Who Am I and If So How Many?), Liebe: Ein unordentliches Gefühl (Love: A Disorderly Emotion) and Die Kunst, kein Egoist zu sein (The Art of Not Being an Egoist) are international bestsellers and have been translated into 40 languages. Since 2012 he has been the moderator of the philosophy program ‘Precht’ on the ZDF television network.

INTERSTELLAR de Avi Loeb

From the New York Times bestselling author of Extraterrestrial comes a mind-expanding new book explaining why becoming an interstellar species is imperative for humanity’s survival and detailing a game plan for how we can settle among the stars.

INTERSTELLAR:
The Search for Extraterrestrial Life and Our Future in the Stars
by Avi Loeb
‎ Mariner Books, August 2023
(via Dystel, Goderich & Bourret)

In the New York Times bestseller Extraterrestrial, Avi Loeb, the longest serving Chair of Harvard’s Astronomy Department, presented a theory that shook the scientific community: our solar system, Loeb claimed, had likely been visited by a piece of advanced alien technology from a distant star. This provocative and persuasive argument opened millions of minds internationally to the vast possibilities of our universe and the existence of intelligent life beyond Earth. But a crucial question remained: now that we are aware of the existence of extraterrestrial life, what do we do next? How do we prepare ourselves for interaction with interstellar extraterrestrial civilization? How can our species become interstellar?
Now Loeb tackles these questions in a revelatory, powerful call to arms that reimagines the idea of contact with extraterrestrial civilizations. Dismantling our science-fiction fueled visions of a human and alien life encounter, INTERSTELLAR provides a realistic and practical blueprint for how such an interaction might actually occur, resetting our cultural understanding and expectation of what it means to identify an extraterrestrial object. From awe-inspiring searches for extraterrestrial technology, to the heated debate of the existence of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena, Loeb provides a thrilling, front-row view of the monumental progress in science and technology currently preparing us for contact. He also lays out the profound implications of becoming—or not becoming—interstellar; in an urgent, eloquent appeal for more proactive engagement with the world beyond ours, he powerfully contends why we must seek out other life forms, and in the process, choose who and what we are within the universe.
Combining cutting edge science, physics, and philosophy, INTERSTELLAR revolutionizes the approach to our search for extraterrestrial life and our preparation for its discovery. In this eye-opening, necessary look at our future, Avi Loeb artfully and expertly raises some of the most important questions facing us as humans, and proves, once again, that scientific curiosity is the key to our survival

Abraham (Avi) Loeb is the Frank B. Baird, Jr., Professor of Science at Harvard University and bestselling author of Extraterrestrial: The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth (on lists of the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Publishers Weekly, Die Zeit, Der Spiegel, L’Express and more). He received a PhD in Physics from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem in Israel, led the first international project supported by the Strategic Defense Initiative, and was subsequently a longterm member of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton. Loeb wrote 8 books and more than 800 papers on a wide range of topics, including black holes, the first stars, and the future of the Universe. He was the longest serving Chair of Harvard’s Department of Astronomy, Founding Director of Harvard’s Black Hole Initiative, and is Director of the Institute for Theory and Computation within the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics. He is an elected fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, the American Physical Society, and the International Academy of Astronautics. Loeb is a former chair of the Board on Physics and Astronomy of the National Academies and a current member of the Advisory Board for « Einstein: Visualize the Impossible » of the Hebrew University. He also chairs the Advisory Committee for the Breakthrough Starshot Initiative and serves as the Science Theory Director for all Initiatives of the Breakthrough Prize Foundation. In 2012, TIME magazine selected Loeb as one of the 25 most influential people in space. Smithsonian Magazine printed a 12-page feature on Loeb and his work in their October 2021 issue.