Humans in Space (Big Ideas: Low Intermediate)
Author: Martin Hajovsky
Publisher: Wayzgoose Press
Published: 2017-08-17
Total Pages: 81
ISBN-13:
DOWNLOAD EBOOKPosts
Human Frontiers
Author: Michael Bhaskar
Publisher: MIT Press
Published: 2022-08-02
Total Pages: 433
ISBN-13: 0262545101
DOWNLOAD EBOOKWhy has the flow of big, world-changing ideas slowed down? A provocative look at what happens next at the frontiers of human knowledge. The history of humanity is the history of big ideas that expand our frontiers—from the wheel to space flight, cave painting to the massively multiplayer game, monotheistic religion to quantum theory. And yet for the past few decades, apart from a rush of new gadgets and the explosion of digital technology, world-changing ideas have been harder to come by. Since the 1970s, big ideas have happened incrementally—recycled, focused in narrow bands of innovation. In this provocative book, Michael Bhaskar looks at why the flow of big, world-changing ideas has slowed, and what this means for the future. Bhaskar argues that the challenge at the frontiers of knowledge has arisen not because we are unimaginative and bad at realizing big ideas but because we have already pushed so far. If we compare the world of our great-great-great-grandparents to ours today, we can see how a series of transformative ideas revolutionized almost everything in just a century and a half. But recently, because of short-termism, risk aversion, and fractious decision making, we have built a cautious, unimaginative world. Bhaskar shows how we can start to expand the frontier again by thinking big—embarking on the next Universal Declaration of Human Rights or Apollo mission—and embracing change.
Probable Impossibilities
Author: Alan Lightman
Publisher: Vintage
Published: 2022-04-19
Total Pages: 209
ISBN-13: 0593081323
DOWNLOAD EBOOKThe acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.
A Framework for K-12 Science Education
Author: National Research Council
Publisher: National Academies Press
Published: 2012-02-28
Total Pages: 400
ISBN-13: 0309214459
DOWNLOAD EBOOKScience, engineering, and technology permeate nearly every facet of modern life and hold the key to solving many of humanity's most pressing current and future challenges. The United States' position in the global economy is declining, in part because U.S. workers lack fundamental knowledge in these fields. To address the critical issues of U.S. competitiveness and to better prepare the workforce, A Framework for K-12 Science Education proposes a new approach to K-12 science education that will capture students' interest and provide them with the necessary foundational knowledge in the field. A Framework for K-12 Science Education outlines a broad set of expectations for students in science and engineering in grades K-12. These expectations will inform the development of new standards for K-12 science education and, subsequently, revisions to curriculum, instruction, assessment, and professional development for educators. This book identifies three dimensions that convey the core ideas and practices around which science and engineering education in these grades should be built. These three dimensions are: crosscutting concepts that unify the study of science through their common application across science and engineering; scientific and engineering practices; and disciplinary core ideas in the physical sciences, life sciences, and earth and space sciences and for engineering, technology, and the applications of science. The overarching goal is for all high school graduates to have sufficient knowledge of science and engineering to engage in public discussions on science-related issues, be careful consumers of scientific and technical information, and enter the careers of their choice. A Framework for K-12 Science Education is the first step in a process that can inform state-level decisions and achieve a research-grounded basis for improving science instruction and learning across the country. The book will guide standards developers, teachers, curriculum designers, assessment developers, state and district science administrators, and educators who teach science in informal environments.
Dark Skies
Author: Daniel Deudney
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Published: 2020-03-02
Total Pages: 465
ISBN-13: 019090335X
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSpace is again in the headlines. E-billionaires Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk are planning to colonize Mars. President Trump wants a "Space Force" to achieve "space dominance" with expensive high-tech weapons. The space and nuclear arms control regimes are threadbare and disintegrating. Would-be asteroid collision diverters, space solar energy collectors, asteroid miners, and space geo-engineers insistently promote their Earth-changing mega-projects. Given our many looming planetary catastrophes (from extreme climate change to runaway artificial superintelligence), looking beyond the earth for solutions might seem like a sound strategy for humanity. And indeed, bolstered by a global network of fervent space advocates-and seemingly rendered plausible, even inevitable, by oceans of science fiction and the wizardly of modern cinema-space beckons as a fully hopeful path for human survival and flourishing, a positive future in increasingly dark times. But despite even basic questions of feasibility, will these many space ventures really have desirable effects, as their advocates insist? In the first book to critically assess the major consequences of space activities from their origins in the 1940s to the present and beyond, Daniel Deudney argues in Dark Skies that the major result of the "Space Age" has been to increase the likelihood of global nuclear war, a fact conveniently obscured by the failure of recognize that nuclear-armed ballistic missiles are inherently space weapons. The most important practical finding of Space Age science, also rarely emphasized, is the discovery that we live on Oasis Earth, tiny and fragile, and teeming with astounding life, but surrounded by an utterly desolate and inhospitable wilderness stretching at least many trillions of miles in all directions. As he stresses, our focus must be on Earth and nowhere else. Looking to the future, Deudney provides compelling reasons why space colonization will produce new threats to human survival and not alleviate the existing ones. That is why, he argues, we should fully relinquish the quest. Mind-bending and profound, Dark Skies challenges virtually all received wisdom about the final frontier.
The Astronomy Book
Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2021-02-02
Total Pages: 706
ISBN-13: 1465470719
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSince the dawn of humankind, people have looked upward to the heavens and tried to understand them. This encyclopedia takes you on an expedition through time and space to discover our place in the universe. We invite you to take a journey through the wonders of the universe. Explore the cosmos, from planets to black holes, the Big Bang, and everything in-between! Get ready to discover the story of the universe one page at a time! This educational book for young adults will launch you on a wild trip through the cosmos and the incredible discoveries throughout history. Filled to the brim with beautifully illustrated flowcharts, graphics, and jargon-free language, The Astronomy Book breaks down hard-to-grasp concepts to guide you in understanding almost 100 big astronomical ideas. Big Ideas How do we measure the universe? Where is the event horizon? What is dark matter? Now you can find out all the answers to these questions and so much more in this inquisitive book about our universe! Using incredibly clever visual learning devices like step-by-step diagrams, you’ll learn more about captivating topics from the Copernican Revolution. Dive into the mind-boggling theories of recent science in a user-friendly format that makes the information easy to follow. Explore the biographies, theories, and discoveries of key astronomers through the ages such as Ptolemy, Galileo, Newton, Hubble, and Hawking. To infinity and beyond! Journey through space and time with us: • From Myth to Science 600 BCE – 1550 CE • The Telescope Revolution 1550 – 1750 • Uranus to Neptune 1750 – 1850 • The Rise of Astrophysics 1850 – 1915 • Atom, Stars, And Galaxies 1915 – 1950 • New Windows on The Universe 1950 – 1917 • The Triumph of Technology 1975 – Present The Series Simply Explained With over 7 million copies sold worldwide to date, The Astronomy Book is part of the award-winning Big Ideas Simply Explained series from DK Books. It uses innovative graphics along with engaging writing to make complex subjects easier to understand. Shortlisted: A Young Adult Library Services Association Outstanding Books for the College Bound and Lifelong Learners list selection A Mom's Choice Awards® Honoring Excellence Gold Seal of Approval for Young Adult Books A Parents' Choice Gold Award winner
The Biggest Ideas in the Universe
Author: Sean Carroll
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2022-09-20
Total Pages: 305
ISBN-13: 0593186583
DOWNLOAD EBOOKINSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “Most appealing... technical accuracy and lightness of tone... Impeccable.”—Wall Street Journal “A porthole into another world.”—Scientific American “Brings science dissemination to a new level.”—Science The most trusted explainer of the most mind-boggling concepts pulls back the veil of mystery that has too long cloaked the most valuable building blocks of modern science. Sean Carroll, with his genius for making complex notions entertaining, presents in his uniquely lucid voice the fundamental ideas informing the modern physics of reality. Physics offers deep insights into the workings of the universe but those insights come in the form of equations that often look like gobbledygook. Sean Carroll shows that they are really like meaningful poems that can help us fly over sierras to discover a miraculous multidimensional landscape alive with radiant giants, warped space-time, and bewilderingly powerful forces. High school calculus is itself a centuries-old marvel as worthy of our gaze as the Mona Lisa. And it may come as a surprise the extent to which all our most cutting-edge ideas about black holes are built on the math calculus enables. No one else could so smoothly guide readers toward grasping the very equation Einstein used to describe his theory of general relativity. In the tradition of the legendary Richard Feynman lectures presented sixty years ago, this book is an inspiring, dazzling introduction to a way of seeing that will resonate across cultural and generational boundaries for many years to come.
Mankind Beyond Earth
Author: Claude A. Piantadosi
Publisher: Columbia University Press
Published: 2013-01-01
Total Pages: 383
ISBN-13: 0231531036
DOWNLOAD EBOOKSeeking to reenergize Americans' passion for the space program, the value of further exploration of the Moon, and the importance of human beings on the final frontier, Claude A. Piantadosi presents a rich history of American space exploration and its major achievements. He emphasizes the importance of reclaiming national command of our manned program and continuing our unmanned space missions, and he stresses the many adventures that still await us in the unfolding universe. Acknowledging space exploration's practical and financial obstacles, Piantadosi challenges us to revitalize American leadership in space exploration in order to reap its scientific bounty. Piantadosi explains why space exploration, a captivating story of ambition, invention, and discovery, is also increasingly difficult and why space experts always seem to disagree. He argues that the future of the space program requires merging the practicalities of exploration with the constraints of human biology. Space science deals with the unknown, and the margin (and budget) for error is small. Lethal near-vacuum conditions, deadly cosmic radiation, microgravity, vast distances, and highly scattered resources remain immense physical problems. To forge ahead, America needs to develop affordable space transportation and flexible exploration strategies based in sound science. Piantadosi closes with suggestions for accomplishing these goals, combining his healthy skepticism as a scientist with an unshakable belief in space's untapped—and wholly worthwhile—potential.
Hexarchate Stories
Author: Yoon Ha Lee
Publisher: Rebellion Publishing Ltd
Published: 2019-06-25
Total Pages: 321
ISBN-13: 1786181932
DOWNLOAD EBOOKNEW YORK TIMES BEST-SELLING AUTHOR – WINNER OF THE 2016 LOCUS AWARD – NOMINATED FOR THE HUGO, NEBULA AND ARTHUR C. CLARKE AWARDS. An ex-Kel art thief has to save the world from a galaxy-shattering prototype weapon... A general outnumbered eight-to-one must outsmart his opponent... A renegade returns from seclusion to bury an old comrade... From the incredible imagination of Hugo- and Arthur C. Clarke-nominated author Yoon Ha Lee comes a collection of stories set in the world of the best-selling Ninefox Gambit. Showcasing Lee’s extraordinary imagination, this collection takes you to the very beginnings of the hexarchate’s history and reveals new never-before-seen stories.
Mammoth Science
Author: DK
Publisher: Penguin
Published: 2020-08-04
Total Pages: 160
ISBN-13: 0744033594
DOWNLOAD EBOOKDavid Macaulay's troupe of curious mammoths lead you through the basics of physics, biology, and chemistry in this unconventional and highly original guide to science. From the interior of an atom to the solar system and beyond, the mammoths seek to understand the science! These intrepid science demonstrators will go to incredible lengths to educate and entertain. They wrestle with magnets to understand their powerful force, make mammoth models of different materials explore what gives them mass, and step into an X-ray machine to reveal the bones beneath their woolly exterior. Observing and recording the mammoth's behavior is bestselling illustrator David Macaulay, whose How Machines Work won the Royal Society Young People's Book Prize in 2016. Renowned for his ability to explain complex ideas with simple genius, Macaulay captures the oddball humor of his subject matter, making Macaulay's Mammoth Science the perfect introduction to scientific principles for the young and the young-at-heart.
