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Author: David E. Alexander Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 0128498978 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 202
Book Description
Nature’s Machines: An Introduction to Organismal Biomechanics presents the fundamental principles of biomechanics in a concise, accessible way while maintaining necessary rigor. It covers the central principles of whole-organism biomechanics as they apply across the animal and plant kingdoms, featuring brief, tightly-focused coverage that does for biologists what H. M. Frost’s 1967 Introduction to Biomechanics did for physicians. Frequently encountered, basic concepts such as stress and strain, Young’s modulus, force coefficients, viscosity, and Reynolds number are introduced in early chapters in a self-contained format, making them quickly available for learning and as a refresher. More sophisticated, integrative concepts such as viscoelasticity or properties of hydrostats are covered in the later chapters, where they draw on information from multiple earlier sections of the book. Animal and plant biomechanics is now a common research area widely acknowledged by organismal biologists to have broad relevance. Most of the day-to-day activities of an animal involve mechanical processes, and to the extent that organisms are shaped by adaptive evolution, many of those adaptations are constrained and channelized by mechanical properties. The similarity in body shape of a porpoise and a tuna is no coincidence. Many may feel that they have an intuitive understanding of many of the mechanical processes that affect animals and plants, but careful biomechanical analyses often yield counterintuitive results: soft, squishy kelp may be better at withstanding pounding waves during storms than hard-shelled mollusks; really small swimmers might benefit from being spherical rather than streamlined; our bones can operate without breaking for decades, whereas steel surgical implants exhibit fatigue failures in a few months if not fully supported by bone. Offers organismal biologists and biologists in other areas a background in biomechanics to better understand the research literature and to explore the possibility of using biomechanics approaches in their own work Provides an introductory presentation of the everyday mechanical challenges faced by animals and plants Functions as recommended or required reading for advanced undergraduate biology majors taking courses in biomechanics, supplemental reading in a general organismal biology course, or background reading for a biomechanics seminar course
Author: David E. Alexander Publisher: Academic Press ISBN: 0128498978 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 202
Book Description
Nature’s Machines: An Introduction to Organismal Biomechanics presents the fundamental principles of biomechanics in a concise, accessible way while maintaining necessary rigor. It covers the central principles of whole-organism biomechanics as they apply across the animal and plant kingdoms, featuring brief, tightly-focused coverage that does for biologists what H. M. Frost’s 1967 Introduction to Biomechanics did for physicians. Frequently encountered, basic concepts such as stress and strain, Young’s modulus, force coefficients, viscosity, and Reynolds number are introduced in early chapters in a self-contained format, making them quickly available for learning and as a refresher. More sophisticated, integrative concepts such as viscoelasticity or properties of hydrostats are covered in the later chapters, where they draw on information from multiple earlier sections of the book. Animal and plant biomechanics is now a common research area widely acknowledged by organismal biologists to have broad relevance. Most of the day-to-day activities of an animal involve mechanical processes, and to the extent that organisms are shaped by adaptive evolution, many of those adaptations are constrained and channelized by mechanical properties. The similarity in body shape of a porpoise and a tuna is no coincidence. Many may feel that they have an intuitive understanding of many of the mechanical processes that affect animals and plants, but careful biomechanical analyses often yield counterintuitive results: soft, squishy kelp may be better at withstanding pounding waves during storms than hard-shelled mollusks; really small swimmers might benefit from being spherical rather than streamlined; our bones can operate without breaking for decades, whereas steel surgical implants exhibit fatigue failures in a few months if not fully supported by bone. Offers organismal biologists and biologists in other areas a background in biomechanics to better understand the research literature and to explore the possibility of using biomechanics approaches in their own work Provides an introductory presentation of the everyday mechanical challenges faced by animals and plants Functions as recommended or required reading for advanced undergraduate biology majors taking courses in biomechanics, supplemental reading in a general organismal biology course, or background reading for a biomechanics seminar course
Author: Henry Plotkin Publisher: Harvard University Press ISBN: 9780674192812 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 292
Book Description
Learn and survive. Behind this simple equation lies a revolution in the study of knowledge, which has left the halls of philosophy for the labs of science. This book offers a cogent account of what such a move does to our understanding of the nature of learning, rationality, and intelligence. Bringing together evolutionary biology, psychology, and philosophy, Henry Plotkin presents a new science of knowledge, one that traces an unbreakable link between instinct and our ability to know. Contrary to the modern liberal idea that knowledge is something derived from experience, this science shows us that what we know is what our nature allows us to know, what our instincts tell us we must know. Since our ability to know our world depends primarily on what we call intelligence, intelligence must be understood as an extension of instinct. Drawing on contemporary evolutionary theory, especially notions of hierarchical structure and universal Darwinism, Plotkin tells us that the capacity for knowledge, which is what makes us human, is deeply rooted in our biology and, in a special sense, is shared by all living things. This leads to a discussion of animal and human intelligence as well as an appraisal of what an instinct-based capacity for knowledge might mean to our understanding of language, reasoning, emotion, and culture. The result is nothing less than a three-dimensional theory of our nature, in which all knowledge is adaptation and all adaptation is a specific form of knowledge.
Author: David S. Goodsell Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 1461223369 Category : Medical Languages : en Pages : 186
Book Description
Molecular Nature is a richly illustrated guide to the extraordinary diversity of molecules that are responsible for life. David Goodsell, author of the highly-praised book, The Machinery of Life, has synthesized a vast amount of data in a manner that is accessible to the general reader. Molecular Nature examines topics ranging from the shape of cells to the molecules responsible for digestion, immunity, and thought. The author's unique combination of scientific and artistic talents make this a readable, stimulating and highly evocative book. About the Author: David Goodsell is in the Department of Molecular Biology at the Research Institute of Scripps Clinic in La Jolla, California. His research involves computer graphics and X-ray crystallography. He is the author of The Machinery of Life (Springer-Verlag, 1992), and his artwork has been shown at exhibitions on science and art.
Author: Dennis E. Shasha Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company ISBN: 0393336832 Category : Computers Languages : en Pages : 297
Book Description
Drawing on interviews with 15 leading scientists, the authors present an unexpected vision: the future of computing is a synthesis with nature.
Author: Justin E. H. Smith Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media ISBN: 9400700415 Category : Philosophy Languages : en Pages : 208
Book Description
In recent decades, there has been much scholarly controversy as to the basic ontological commitments of the philosopher Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (1646-1716). The old picture of his thought as strictly idealistic, or committed to the ultimate reduction of bodies to the activity of mind, has come under attack, but Leibniz's precise conceptualization of bodies, and the role they play in his system as a whole, is still the subject of much controversy. One thing that has become clear is that in order to understand the nature of body in Leibniz, and the role body plays in his philosophy, it is crucial to pay attention to the related concepts of organism and of corporeal substance, the former being Leibniz's account of the structure of living bodies (which turn out, for him, to be the only sort of bodies there are), and the latter being an inheritance from the Aristotelian hylomorphic tradition which Leibniz appropriates for his own ends. This volume brings together papers from many of the leading scholars of Leibniz's thought, all of which deal with the cluster of questions surrounding Leibniz's philosophy of body.
Author: Martyn Hudson Publisher: Routledge ISBN: 1351615246 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 174
Book Description
This book offers a re-examination of the relationship between humans and nature with a new methodology: by examining our entanglement with machines. Using central ideas of critical theory, it uncovers the suppression of nature through technology, tools and engines. It focuses on the ways in which human social forms have actively subjugated and destroyed other species in order to enhance their own social power and accumulation, leading to a new Anthropocene epoch in which human intervention is signalled in the geological record. Beginning with an account of the interactions between humans and other species, the book moves on to explore the hidden history of Marx and his obsession with machines, as well as new attempts to rethink a Marxist ecology, before proceeding to examine the manner in which technologies were used to suppress and destroy one particular species - the Whale of what we call the Cetacean Holocaust. Following this, there are analyses of the emergence of the ‘human encampments’ of the cities and the rise of mobile, locomotive cultures, and consideration of the relationship between machines of memory, and the ‘capturing’ of nature. A radical rethinking of classical social theory that develops new ways of thinking about ecological catastrophe and nature, this book will appeal to scholars of social theory and environmental sociology.
Author: Carson J. Bruns Publisher: John Wiley & Sons ISBN: 1119044006 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 788
Book Description
“The story is told by THE inventor-pioneer-master in the field and is accompanied by amazing illustrations… [it] will become an absolute reference and a best seller in chemistry!” Alberto Credi “… the great opus on the mechanical bond. A most impressive undertaking!” Jean-Marie Lehn Congratulations to co-author J. Fraser Stoddart, a 2016 Nobel Laureate in Chemistry. In molecules, the mechanical bond is not shared between atoms—it is a bond that arises when molecular entities become entangled in space. Just as supermolecules are held together by supramolecular interactions, mechanomolecules, such as catenanes and rotaxanes, are maintained by mechanical bonds. This emergent bond endows mechanomolecules with a whole suite of novel properties relating to both form and function. They hold unlimited promise for countless applications, ranging from their presence in molecular devices and electronics to their involvement in remarkably advanced functional materials. The Nature of the Mechanical Bond is a comprehensive review of much of the contemporary literature on the mechanical bond, accessible to newcomers and veterans alike. Topics covered include: Supramolecular, covalent, and statistical approaches to the formation of entanglements that underpin mechanical bonds in molecules and macromolecules Kinetically and thermodynamically controlled strategies for synthesizing mechanomolecules Chemical topology, molecular architectures, polymers, crystals, and materials with mechanical bonds The stereochemistry of the mechanical bond (mechanostereochemistry), including the novel types of dynamic and static isomerism and chirality that emerge in mechanomolecules Artificial molecular switches and machines based on the large-amplitude translational and rotational motions expressed by suitably designed catenanes and rotaxanes. This contemporary and highly interdisciplinary field is summarized in a visually appealing, image-driven format, with more than 800 illustrations covering both fundamental and applied research. The Nature of the Mechanical Bond is a must-read for everyone, from students to experienced researchers, with an interest in chemistry’s latest and most non-canonical bond. Read the Preface
Author: Deborah A. Parks Publisher: Franklin Watts ISBN: 9780531169551 Category : Biologists Languages : en Pages : 118
Book Description
Mimi Koehl, a biomechanist, uses engineering and physics to study the designs of living things that fly, swim, drift, and crawl. She loves solving riddles about how creatures from feathered dinosaurs to flying frogs live and move. Mimi's curiosity has led her into all kinds of natural neighborhoods.
Author: George Dyson Publisher: Macmillan + ORM ISBN: 0374710074 Category : Social Science Languages : en Pages : 269
Book Description
Named one of WIREDâs "The Best Pop Culture That Got Us Through 2020" In Analogia, technology historian George Dyson presents a startling look back at the analog age and life before the digital revolutionâand an unsettling vision of what comes next. In 1716, the philosopher and mathematician Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz spent eight days taking the cure with Peter the Great at Bad Pyrmont in Saxony, trying to persuade the tsar to launch a voyage of discovery from Russia to America and to adopt digital computing as the foundation for a remaking of life on earth. In two classic books, Darwin Among the Machines and Turingâs Cathedral, George Dyson chronicled the realization of the second of Leibnizâs visions. In Analogia, his pathbreaking new book, he brings the story full circle, starting with the Russian American expedition of 1741 and ending with the beyond-digital revolution that will complete the transformation of the world. Dyson enlists a startling cast of characters, from the time of Catherine the Great to the age of machine intelligence, and draws heavily on his own experiences at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and onward to the rain forest of the Northwest Coast. We are, Dyson reveals, entering a new epoch in human history, one driven by a generation of machines whose powers are no longer under programmable control. Includes black-and-white illustrations
Author: David E. Alexander
Author: David E. Alexander
Author: Henry Plotkin
Author: David S. Goodsell
Author: Time-Life Books
Author: Dennis E. Shasha
Author: Justin E. H. Smith
Author: Martyn Hudson
Author: Carson J. Bruns
Author: Deborah A. Parks
Author: George Dyson