The Biologist's Imagination

The Biologist's Imagination

Author: William Hoffman

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 2014

Total Pages: 305

ISBN-13: 0199974594

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"Scholars and policymakers alike agree that innovation in the biosciences is key to future growth. The field continues to shift and expand, and it is certainly changing the way people live their lives in a variety of ways. But despite the lion's share offederal research dollars being devoted to innovation in the biosciences, the field has yet to live up to its billing as a source of economic productivity and growth. With vast untapped potential to imagine and innovate in the biosciences, adaptation of the innovative model is needed. In The Biologist's Imagination, William Hoffman and Leo Furcht examine the history of innovation in the biosciences, tracing technological innovation from the late eighteenth century to the present and placing special emphasis on how and where technology evolves. Place is key to innovation, from the early industrial age to the rise of the biotechnology industry in the second half of the twentieth century. The book uses the distinct history of bioscientific innovation to discuss current trends as they relate to medicine, agriculture, biofuels, stem-cell research, neuroscience, and more. Ultimately, Hoffman and Furcht argue that, as things currently stand, we fall short in our efforts to innovate in the biosciences; our system of innovation is itself in need of innovation. It needs to adapt to the massive changes brought about by converging technologies, globalization in higher education as well as in finance, and increases in entrepreneurship. The Biologist's Imagination is both an analysis of past models for bioscience innovation and a forward-looking, original argument for how future models should be developed"--


The Scientific Imagination

The Scientific Imagination

Author: Arnon Levy

Publisher:

Published: 2020

Total Pages: 361

ISBN-13: 0190212306

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This book looks at the role of the imagination in science, from both philosophical and psychological perspectives. These contributions combine to provide a comprehensive and exciting picture of this under-explored subject.


The Biology of the Honey Bee

The Biology of the Honey Bee

Author: Mark L. Winston

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 1991-04-01

Total Pages: 300

ISBN-13: 0674744209

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From ancient cave paintings of honey bee nests to modern science’s richly diversified investigation of honey bee biology and its applications, the human imagination has long been captivated by the mysterious and highly sophisticated behavior of this paragon among insect societies. In the first broad treatment of honey bee biology to appear in decades, Mark Winston provides rare access to the world of this extraordinary insect. In a bright and engaging style, Winston probes the dynamics of the honey bee’s social organization. He recreates for us the complex infrastructure of the nest, describes the highly specialized behavior of workers, queens, and drones, and examines in detail the remarkable ability of the honey bee colony to regulate its functions according to events within and outside the nest. Winston integrates into his discussion the results of recent studies, bringing into sharp focus topics of current bee research. These include the exquisite architecture of the nest and its relation to bee physiology; the intricate division of labor and the relevance of a temporal caste structure to efficient functioning of the colony; and, finally, the life-death struggles of swarming, supersedure, and mating that mark the reproductive cycle of the honey bee. The Biology of the Honey Bee not only reviews the basic aspects of social behavior, ecology, anatomy, physiology, and genetics, it also summarizes major controversies in contemporary honey bee research, such as the importance of kin recognition in the evolution of social behavior and the role of the well-known dance language in honey bee communication. Thorough, well-illustrated, and lucidly written, this book will for many years be a valuable resource for scholars, students, and beekeepers alike.


Imagination and the Meaningful Brain

Imagination and the Meaningful Brain

Author: Arnold H. Modell

Publisher: MIT Press

Published: 2003

Total Pages: 284

ISBN-13: 9780262134255

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An exploration of the biology of meaning that integrates the role of subjective processes with current knowledge of brain/mind function.


The Vital Science (Routledge Revivals)

The Vital Science (Routledge Revivals)

Author: Peter Morton

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-08-01

Total Pages: 272

ISBN-13: 1317629264

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In this title, first published in 1984, Peter Morton argues that in late Victorian Britain a group of novelists and essayists quite consciously sought and found ideas in post-Darwinian biology that were susceptible to imaginative transformation. The period between 1860 and 1900 was a time of great confusion in biology; the natural selection hypothesis was in retreat before its acute critics, and no extension of evolutionary theory to human affairs was too bizarre to attract its quota of enthusiasts. Writers capitalised on this prevailing uncertainty and used it to their own artistic or polemic ends. A fascinating and interdisciplinary title, this reissue will interest students of late Victorian literature, as well as historians of biological theory between The Origin of Species and Mendel.


Nature's Imagination

Nature's Imagination

Author: John Cornwell

Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA

Published: 1995

Total Pages: 232

ISBN-13:

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This collection from a 1992 symposium explores how and why mathematicians, astronomers, neuroscientists, and philosophers are moving beyond classic reductionism toward a new paradigm that accounts for the whole and emphasizes events and relationships. Essays examine the irreducibility of mathematics, the incompleteness theorem, consciousness and the mind-body problem, and the social implications of artificial intelligence. For scientists, philosophers, students, and adventurous readers. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR


The Biology of Wonder

The Biology of Wonder

Author: Andreas Weber

Publisher: New Society Publishers

Published: 2016-02-01

Total Pages: 386

ISBN-13: 1550925946

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A new way of understanding our place in the web of life from a scholar praised for his “graceful prose” (Publishers Weekly). The disconnection between humans and nature is perhaps one of the most fundamental problems faced by our species today. This schism is arguably the root cause of most of the environmental catastrophes unraveling around us. Until we come to terms with the depths of our alienation, we will continue to fail to understand that what happens to nature also happens to us. In The Biology of Wonder Andreas Weber proposes a new approach to the biological sciences that puts the human back in nature. He argues that feelings and emotions, far from being superfluous to the study of organisms, are the very foundation of life. From this basic premise flows the development of a "poetic ecology" which intimately connects our species to everything that surrounds us—showing that subjectivity and imagination are prerequisites of biological existence. Written by a leader in the emerging fields of biopoetics and biosemiotics, The Biology of Wonder demonstrates that there is no separation between us and the world we inhabit, and in so doing it validates the essence of our deep experience. By reconciling science with meaning, expression, and emotion, this landmark work brings us to a crucial understanding of our place in the rich and diverse framework of life—a revolution for biology as groundbreaking as the theory of relativity for physics. “Grounded in science, yet eloquently narrated, this is a groundbreaking book. Weber’s visionary work provides new insight into human/nature interconnectedness and the dire consequences we face by remaining disconnected.” —Richard Louv, author of Last Child in the Woods


Biological Computation

Biological Computation

Author: Ehud Lamm

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2011-05-25

Total Pages: 332

ISBN-13: 1420087967

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The area of biologically inspired computing, or biological computation, involves the development of new, biologically based techniques for solving difficult computational problems. A unified overview of computer science ideas inspired by biology, Biological Computation presents the most fundamental and significant concepts in this area. In the book


Make, Think, Imagine

Make, Think, Imagine

Author: John Browne

Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Published: 2019-08-28

Total Pages: 261

ISBN-13: 164313275X

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Today's unprecedented pace of change leaves many people wondering what new technologies are doing to our lives. Has social media robbed us of our privacy and fed us with false information? Are the decisions about our health, security and finances made by computer programs inexplicable and biased? Will these algorithms become so complex that we can no longer control them? Are robots going to take our jobs? Can we provide housing for our ever-growing urban populations? And has our demand for energy driven the Earth's climate to the edge of catastrophe?John Browne argues that we need not and must not put the brakes on technological advance. Civilization is founded on engineering innovation; all progress stems from the human urge to make things and to shape the world around us, resulting in greater freedom, health and wealth for all. Drawing on history, his own experiences and conversations with many of today's great innovators, he uncovers the basis for all progress and its consequences, both good and bad. He argues compellingly that the same spark that triggers each innovation can be used to counter its negative consequences. Make, Think, Imagine provides an eloquent blueprint for how we can keep moving towards a brighter future.


Transfinite Life

Transfinite Life

Author: Bruce Rosenstock

Publisher:

Published: 2017

Total Pages: 270

ISBN-13: 9780253029706

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Oskar Goldberg was an important and controversial figure in Weimar Germany. He challenged the rising racial conception of the state and claimed that the Jewish people were on a metaphysical mission to defeat race-based statism. He attracted the attention of his contemporaries--Walter Benjamin, Gershom Scholem, Thomas Mann, and Carl Schmitt, among others--with the argument that ancient Israel's sacrificial rituals held the key to overcoming the tyranny of technology in the modern world. Bruce Rosenstock offers a sympathetic but critical philosophical portrait of Goldberg and puts him into conversation with Jewish and political figures that circulated in his cultural environment. Rosenstock reveals Goldberg as a deeply imaginative and broad-minded thinker who drew on biology, mathematics, Kabbalah, and his interests in ghost photography to account for the origin of the earth. Caricatured as a Jewish proto-fascist in his day, Goldberg's views of the tyranny of technology, biopolitics, and the "new vitalism" remain relevant to this day.