Archives de catégorie : Popular Science

DIE WEISHEIT DER FÜCHSE

The secret life of foxes: Clever, playful and caring – what these shrewd survival artists can teach us. Surprising and inspiring.

DIE WEISHEIT DER FÜCHSE
[The Wisdom of Foxes]
by Dag Frommhold & Daniel Peller
‎ Ludwig/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, September 2022

Red fur, amber eyes, a bushy tail: foxes are incredibly beautiful animals. We also think of them as intelligent, shrewd and playful. Yet foxes are not just smart: they have an extraordinary gift for empathy and are excellent communicators. They have a capacity for altruism and self-sacrifice, foster close emotional relationships, and are affectionate partners and loving parents. Foxes prove that you can achieve more through constructive debate than aggression, that smarts and flexibility can get us what we want, and that selflessness benefits everyone in the end.
In DIE WEISHEIT DER FÜCHSE, fox experts Dag Frommhold and Daniel Peller tell astonishing stories showing just how fascinating foxes are – not only are they much more like us than we think, but we can learn a lot from these unsung heroes.

Dag Frommhold has loved foxes ever since he was a child. As an author, co-founder of wildlife conservation initiatives and spokesperson for various wildlife and nature conservation organisations, he has spent many years championing foxes and their fellow vulpines.
When a serious illness forced him to give up his job, Daniel Peller decided to dedicate his life to foxes. After more than twenty years of observing them, corresponding with international fox specialists and closely working with wildlife shelters, he is now a bona fide fox expert. In 2017, he founded the organisation « Fox Aid », running its online aid network, and campaigning for wildlife conservation.

BÖSE BÄUME de Markus Bennemann

The evil life of trees: they kill, steal and commit arson – the truth about our beloved woodland friends.

BÖSE BÄUME
[Bad Trees]
by Markus Bennemann
Goldmann/Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, November 2022

No wonder we love trees so much. Even just a short stroll through a park or woodland helps us breathe easier and replenish our energy resources, and looking up into the leafy canopy above your head can help clear your mind. But beeches, yews, etc. also have a darker side: they commit all sorts of nefarious deeds, and are willing to poison, mutilate and kill to gain the advantage over their neighbours. In BÖSE BÄUME, the science editor Markus Bennemann – who loves nothing more than taking a stroll in the woods – uncovers the unpleasant truth about their darker side. He tells readers about the tropical strangler fig, which insidiously chokes its victims; about the domestic walnut, which turns out to be a nasty poisoner; and about eucalyptus trees, who are actually pyromaniacs – and many other such unpalatable fellows in the world of trees.

Markus Bennemann couldn’t decide whether to major in literature or biology. In the end, he chose literature, and now writes books about… well, biology. He is the author of several adult non-fiction and children’s books, which have been translated into numerous languages.

YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND de Janice Kaplan

In this new book, the author of the New York Times best-seller The Gratitude Diaries explores a new science-based mega-theme: the ineluctably profound mind-body connection, how the body, more often than not, provides our brain with key information, not the reverse and when the mind and body work as a seamless team, we feel a true sense of wellness and flow.

YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND:
Discovering the New Science for Happiness, Gratitude, and Joy
by Janice Kaplan
Sourcebooks, 2024
(via The Martell Agency)

Photo: © Matt MercadoYOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND couldn’t be more relevant or important as we increasingly rely on technology to give our brains key information. Do we really need a smartwatch to tell us how we slept? Your body tells you that when you wake up, we’ve just stopped listening. Instead, we’ve come to see our bodies as something we need to take care of, so that our minds can function and manage life. But our feeling bodies are often smarter than our thinking minds. Of most importance, research across a wide range of fields in science, shows that when the body and mind work together, we experience a deep sense of pleasure and happiness.
In this new book, Janice will explore the myriad ways that our physical and psychological and spiritual beings are profoundly linked and collaborate in often surprising overlapping patterns in all human experience. YOUR BODY IS SMARTER THAN YOUR MIND will interweave intriguing new scientific research from experts around the globe in many disciplines — from psychologists to neuroscientists to environmentalists — with a powerful personal narrative, as Janice in her own life seeks hardcore scientific research which proves how much our minds rely on the actions and responses of our bodies. For example, the act of smiling can improve your mood. When you pass a dark alley and your body tenses and your heart starts pounding, your cardiovascular system is sending a message to your brain to be frightened, rather than the other way around.
The book will provide tips and strategies about how to rediscover this vital connection, so your mind and body can work, as they should, as a seamless team. A major strength of Janice’s approach is that, unlike an expert in a given field drilling down on one theory, one core premise, to the exclusion of all else, Janice will integrate the ground-breaking discoveries of multiple experts who study mind-body connectivity from many different angles. This makes the premise of the book far more powerful and wholly credible. And as is essential, Janice is expert at making complex research and information interesting, accessible, and relevant to a general reader.

Janice Kaplan has written more than a dozen popular books including the New York Times bestseller The Gratitude Diaries. She was editor-in-chief of Parade when it was the biggest magazine in America with 32 million copies circulating each week and began her career as a writer and producer at Good Morning America and went on to be the executive producer of more than 30 network television specials. She has appeared regularly on national TV shows including GMA, Today, and CBS This Morning and continues to be a frequent guest on podcasts and radio shows. Janice hosted the podcast “The Gratitude Diaries” for iHeartMedia, attracting a large audience for the 120 episodes. Since the publication of The Gratitude Diaries and her most recent book The Genius of Women, she gives dozens of talks each year and has become a popular keynote speaker at corporate and non-profit events. The Templeton Foundation is very enthusiastic about the concept and is prepared to get behind the book, as it did for The Gratitude Diaries.

WHY WE PLAY de Will Freeman

WHY WE PLAY investigates the transformative power of one of the most widespread artforms and businesses of our times. Perfect for readers of Tomorrow, And Tomorrow, And Tomorrow by Gabrielle Zevin and Life 3.0 by Max Tegmark.

WHY WE PLAY:
How Video Games Took Over the World
by Will Freeman
Neem Tree Press, September 2023
(via Randle Editorial & Literary)

Offering an accessible and balanced analysis, WHY WE PLAY explores how video games have permeated our daily lives. Their presence in our homes, culture, business, politics, sport, education, and healthcare has made them one of the most ubiquitous mediums of modern times. The role games play today – from influencing youth culture to informing the design of space craft –renders them remarkably powerful. But as games occupy an increasingly important place in our daily lives, it’s becoming harder to understand the opportunities they offer and the challenges they present.
For gamers and non-gamers alike, WHY WE PLAY provides the ultimate guide to questions you didn’t even know you had…

Will Freeman is a games journalist who has written for The Guardian and The Observer as well as gaming publications and game industry titles for over 17 years. Will also serves the game industry as a writer, editor, speaker, script editor, event curator, awards judge, consultant, and more. As an expert in the field, Will is fascinated by the wide-ranging impact of video games on our lives and our cultural landscape.

CODIFIED d’Andrew Smith

From award-winning journalist Andrew Smith, contributing writer for the Sunday Times and the Guardian, CODIFIED is an immersive, sharp-eyed tour of the world of computer programming, told through Smith’s own journey to learn how to code.

CODIFIED
by Andrew Smith
‎ Atlantic Monthly Press/Grove Atlantic, Winter 2024

Andrew Smith’s first book, Moondust, was a #1 UK and international bestseller, nominated for two British Book Awards (including Read of the Year), and cited by the Times as one of its “100 Best Books of the Decade.” His follow-up Totally Wired—centered on the late 1990s dot-com bubble and its tumultuous crash—was published to rave reviews, hailed as “effervescent and vivid . . . a book whose time has come” (Sunday Times). Smith’s latest, CODIFIED, is a mesmerizing, up-to-the-minute account of the world of coders, as experienced through his own endeavor to become one.
Throughout history, technological revolutions have been driven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the tech transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos of software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code become that we barely notice it anymore. We can’t see it, are not even sure how to think about it, and yet we do almost nothing that doesn’t depend on it. In a world increasingly governed by technologies that so few can comprehend, who controls the future?
CODIFIED follows Andrew Smith on his immersive trip into the world of coding, taking us behind the scenes into the lives—and minds—of the new gatekeepers of the 21st century: those who write code. Smith embarks on a quest to understand this sect in what he believes to be the only way possible: by learning to code himself. Along the way, he becomes involved with a wild array of characters and takes part in several lively rituals of initiation into the coding world: he visits a global coding conference in Ohio, where he meets the creator of the Python programming language; and he takes part in a 24-hour “hackathon” in Silicon Valley, a Darwinian race to see who can build the best app overnight. At the start of his odyssey he travels to Magdeburg, Germany to have his brain scanned by a team of scientists studying the effects of coding on the human brain and will share the results of the final comparison scan. Smith delivers a vivid, effervescent portrait of a culture working in an office or coworking space near you—all while wrestling with everything that’s at stake in this stage of technological evolution. How do we control a technology that most people can’t understand? And are we programming ourselves out of existence? By-turns illuminating, alarming, and amusing, CODIFIED is an essential book for our times.

“Smith is an ideal narrator: sharp-eyed yet increasingly affectionate about his subjects; expert enough to dissect Apollo minutiae clearly but not so obsessed as to leave a general reader trailing in the jetwash.”
—Financial Times on Moondust

“A brilliant exploration of madness and genius in the early days of the web. Fascinatingly weird . . . terrific.”
—Guardian on Totally Wired

“A rich mix of cultural history, reportage and personal reflection.” —Evening Standard on Moondust

“Highly entertaining . . . [Smith’s] superb book is a fitting tribute to a unique band of 20th-century heroes.”
—GQ on Moondust

Andrew Smith has worked as a critic and feature writer for the Sunday Times, the Guardian, the Observer, and The Face, and has penned documentaries for the BBC. He is the author of the internationally bestselling book Moondust, about the nine remaining men who walked on the moon between 1969 and 1972, and Totally Wired. He was raised in the UK and currently lives in California.