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How things work encyclopedia
Uses detailed photographs and illustrations to explore the inner workings of the world around us.
Book
Hedonizing Technologies
Rachel P. Maines's latest work examines the rise of hobbies and leisure activities in Western culture from antiquity to the present day. As technologies are \"hedonized, \" consumers find increasing pleasure in the hobbies' associated tools, methods, and instructional literature.
Work once essential to survival and comfort—gardening, hunting, cooking, needlework, home mechanics, and brewing—have gradually evolved into hobbies and recreational activities. As a result, the technologies associated with these pursuits have become less efficient but more appealing to the new class of leisure artisans.
Maines interprets the growth and economic significance of hobbies in terms of broad consumer demand for the technologies associated with them. Hedonizing Technologies uses bibliometric and retail census data to show the growth in world markets for hobby craft tools, books, periodicals, and materials from the late 18th century to today. The book addresses basic issues in the history of labor and industry and makes an original contribution to the discussion of how technology and people interact.
eBook
An introduction to nanoscience and nanotechnology
A clear primer on the basics of this emerging field What is nanotechnology? What does it do, and why is it expected to have a significant impact on our lives? These seemingly simple questions do not have easy, direct answers. There are so many aspects to nanotechnology that the uninitiated often find it challenging to begin to understand and appreciate it. Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology explains the basics in clear language, even to those who do not have a scientific background. It reveals the present state of the art and latest applications in nanotechnology, makes estimates of where the technology is headed, and predicts what will be possible in the future. The book begins by addressing how small the nanometer length scale is in comparison to macroscopic objects and why it is special. From a discussion of naturally occurring nanoparticles and nanoparticles composed of carbon, the book then presents the tools of nanotechnology that can build, image, and manipulate nanostructures to build materials and devices (such as MEMS devices and scanning probe technologies), as well as one of the most exciting aspects of the field-combining Bottom-up and Top-down approaches so that individual nanostructures can be probed. Readers will learn about artificially produced nanostructures that have a built-in functionality, such as magnetic nanoparticles that can store a data bit. They'll see how it is possible to produce biologically active nanoparticles that can interact with specific cells in the body, which can lead to powerful new treatments for diseases such as cancer. In addition, they'll discover the potential for building autonomous machines with nanoscale components-and how the tools of nanotechnology may one day lead to a deeper understanding of our universe. From new areas of biomedical applications to probing the \"quantum
vacuum,\" Introduction to Nanoscience and Nanotechnology is accessible to all general science readers, as well as to undergraduates and graduate students studying nanotechnology.
eBook
Living with robots : what every anxious human needs to know
The truth about robots: two experts look beyond the hype, offering a lively and accessible guide to what robots can (and can't) do. The authors discuss the history of our fascination with robots - from chatbots and prosthetics to autonomous cars and robot swarms.
Book
Planning parenthood : strategies for success in fertility assistance, adoption, and surrogacy
Planning to become a parent is a profound experience, at times agonizing, hopeful, stressful, and joyous. Not everyone is able to become pregnant, however. When the journey to parenthood proves challenging, Planning Parenthood will guide prospective parents through the complicated mazes of assisted reproduction and adoption.Specialist authors first describe fertility assistance, surrogacy, and adoption, clearly outlining the requirements of each strategy. They compare the medical, emotional, financial, and legal investments and risks involved with each of these options. Then they introduce the issues that people will need to consider when deciding which path to parenthood is best for them. Along the way these experts offer encouragement for changing course under any number of circumstances. Supporting the detailed information in this book are personal stories of the often long, winding, and emotional road to parenthood-from in vitro fertilization to egg donation to surrogacy to adoption. Armed with professional knowledge and inspired by the experiences of others who have gone before them, prospective parents will be informed and reassured by this unique resource.
eBook
The story of innovation : how yesterday's discoveries lead to tomorrow's breakthroughs
\"Documenting the interconnectedness among the crucial milestones of our time, and illustrated with full-color photography, a comprehensive tour of modern science and technology explores the most important innovations and inventions in engineering, physics, medicine, chemistry, biology and more.\"--Publisher's description.
Book
You look like a thing and I love you : how artifical intelligence works and why it's making the world a weirder place
The author explains how AI understands our world, and what it gets wrong.
Book
Engineers for Change
An account of conflicts within engineering in the 1960s that helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history.
In the late 1960s an eclectic group of engineers joined the antiwar and civil rights activists of the time in agitating for change. The engineers were fighting to remake their profession, challenging their fellow engineers to embrace a more humane vision of technology. In Engineers for Change, Matthew Wisnioski offers an account of this conflict within engineering, linking it to deep-seated assumptions about technology and American life.
The postwar period in America saw a near-utopian belief in technology's beneficence. Beginning in the mid-1960s, however, society—influenced by the antitechnology writings of such thinkers as Jacques Ellul and Lewis Mumford—began to view technology in a more negative light. Engineers themselves were seen as conformist organization men propping up the military-industrial complex. A dissident minority of engineers offered critiques of their profession that appropriated concepts from technology's critics. These dissidents were criticized in turn by conservatives who regarded them as countercultural Luddites. And yet, as Wisnioski shows, the radical minority spurred the professional elite to promote a new understanding of technology as a rapidly accelerating force that our institutions are ill-equipped to handle. The negative consequences of technology spring from its very nature—and not from engineering's failures. “Sociotechnologists” were recruited to help society adjust to its technology. Wisnioski argues that in responding to the challenges posed by critics within their profession, engineers in the 1960s helped shape our dominant contemporary understanding of technological change as the driver of history.
eBook