Author: Vicki Cobb Publisher: Sky Pony ISBN: 9781632203168 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 192
Book Description
With See for Yourself!, budding scientists can wow their teachers and classmates (and maybe win a ribbon or two) by learning: How to extract DNA from an onion How pigments from vegetables make dye How to make paper out of lint from a clothes dryer How to make a friend feel like he or she has a third hand What happens when you grow yeast in dandruff shampoo That tea and iron pills make excellent inks And much more! See for Yourself! includes experiments in the areas of chemistry, earth science, physical science, the human body, and technology, but the experiments all take their inspiration from very familiar places. The materials needed to execute the experiments can all be inexpensively purchased at the supermarket, the toy store, the hardware store, the stationery store, and the drugstore. Some of the experiments are quick and easy, while others are more challenging. Most include additional suggestions so that curious young scientists can keep on investigating.
Author: Matthias Gross Publisher: MIT Press ISBN: 0262265613 Category : Technology & Engineering Languages : en Pages : 255
Book Description
The relationship between ignorance and surprise and a conceptual framework for dealing with the unexpected, as seen in ecological design projects. Ignorance and surprise belong together: surprises can make people aware of their own ignorance. And yet, perhaps paradoxically, a surprising event in scientific research—one that defies prediction or risk assessment—is often a window to new and unexpected knowledge. In this book, Matthias Gross examines the relationship between ignorance and surprise, proposing a conceptual framework for handling the unexpected and offering case studies of ecological design that demonstrate the advantages of allowing for surprises and including ignorance in the design and negotiation processes. Gross draws on classical and contemporary sociological accounts of ignorance and surprise in science and ecology and integrates these with the idea of experiment in society. He develops a notion of how unexpected occurrences can be incorporated into a model of scientific and technological development that includes the experimental handling of surprises. Gross discusses different projects in ecological design, including Chicago's restoration of the shoreline of Lake Michigan and Germany's revitalization of brownfields near Leipzig. These cases show how ignorance and surprise can successfully play out in ecological design projects, and how the acknowledgment of the unknown can become a part of decision making. The appropriation of surprises can lead to robust design strategies. Ecological design, Gross argues, is neither a linear process of master planning nor a process of trial and error but a carefully coordinated process of dealing with unexpected turns by means of experimental practice.
Author: Rudolf Peierls Publisher: Princeton University Press ISBN: 0691217882 Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 178
Book Description
Problems in theoretical physics often lead to paradoxical answers; yet closer reasoning and a more complete analysis invariably lead to the resolution of the paradox and to a deeper understanding of the physics involved. Drawing primarily from his own experience and that of his collaborators, Sir Rudolf Peierls selects examples of such "surprises" from a wide range of physical theory, from quantum mechanical scattering theory to the theory of relativity, from irreversibility in statistical mechanics to the behavior of electrons in solids. By studying such surprises and learning what kind of possibilities to look for, he suggests, scientists may be able to avoid errors in future problems. In some cases the surprise is that the outcome of a calculation is contrary to what physical intuition seems to demand. In other instances an approximation that looks convincing turns out to be unjustified, or one that looks unreasonable turns out to be adequate. Professor Peierls does not suggest, however, that theoretical physics is a hazardous game in which one can never foresee the surprises a detailed calculation might reveal. Rather, he contends, all the surprises discussed have rational explanations, most of which are very simple, at least in principle. This book is based on the author's lectures at the University of Washington in the spring of 1977 and at the Institut de Physique Nucleaire, University de Paris-Sud, Orsay, during the winter of 1977-1978.
Author: Timothy D. Wilson Publisher: Little, Brown Spark ISBN: 0316192074 Category : Psychology Languages : en Pages : 233
Book Description
What if there were a magic pill that could make you happier, turn you into a better parent, solve a number of your teenager's behavior problems, reduce racial prejudice, and close the achievement gap in education? There is no such pill, but story editing -- the scientifically based approach described in Redirect -- can accomplish all of this. The world-renowned psychologist Timothy Wilson shows us how to redirect the stories we tell about ourselves and the world around us, with subtle prompts, in ways that lead to lasting change. Fascinating, groundbreaking, and practical, Redirect demonstrates the remarkable power small changes can have on the ways we see ourselves and our environment, and how we can use this in our everyday lives. "There are few academics who write with as much grace and wisdom as Timothy Wilson. Redirect is a masterpiece." -- Malcolm Gladwell
Author: Michael Brooks Publisher: Abrams ISBN: 146831159X Category : Science Languages : en Pages : 219
Book Description
“Engaging . . . touches on advanced computing, essential differences between men and women, the power of the will to live, mysteries of the cosmos and more.” —The Washington Post The atom. The Big Bang. DNA. Natural selection. All are ideas that revolutionized science—and all were dismissed out of hand when they first appeared. The surprises haven’t stopped in recent years, and in At the Edge of Uncertainty, bestselling author Michael Brooks investigates the new wave of radical insights that are shaping the future of scientific discovery. Brooks takes us to the extreme frontiers of what we understand about the world. He journeys from the observations that might rewrite our story of how the cosmos came to be, through the novel biology behind our will to live, and on to the physiological root of consciousness. Along the way, he examines the gender imbalance in clinical trials, explores how merging humans with other species might provide a solution to the shortage of organ donors, and finds out whether the universe really is like a computer or if the flow of time is a mere illusion. “Absorbing . . . scintillating . . . the edgy edge of scientific investigation presented with verve.” —Kirkus Reviews “Mind-bending . . . Brooks handily works his way through these thorny problems, highlighting current research and researchers along the way.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Author: Glen Vecchione Publisher: Sterling Publishing Company, Inc. ISBN: 9781402706530 Category : Juvenile Nonfiction Languages : en Pages : 356
Book Description
Hundreds of fascinating, flabbergasting, and sometimes freaky facts are at your disposal in this fun-sized compendium. Uncover animal oddities, including the fact that certain species of frogs can survive being frozen solid and thawed. Find out how strange people really are: Did you know that the average human produces 25,000 quarts of saliva in a lifetime—enough to fill two swimming pools? And there are botanical surprises, such as that bananas are actually herbs, plus science tidbits about the Earth, inventions, computers, and more.
Author: Vicki Cobb
Author: John Daniel Hartzog
Author: Sandra Markle
Author: Matthias Gross
Author: Rudolf Peierls
Author: G. Waters
Author: Timothy D. Wilson
Author: Michael Brooks
Author: Sandra Markle
Author: Glen Vecchione