Search results for ""experiment""

A leading early modern anatomist and physician, Marcello Malpighi often compared himself to that period's other great mind-Galileo. Domenico Bertoloni Meli here explores Malpighi's work and places it in the context of seventeenth-century intellectual life. Malpighi's interests were wide and varied. As a professor at the University of Bologna, he confirmed William Harvey's theory of the circulation of blood; published groundbreaking studies of human organs; made important discoveries about the anatomy of silkworms; and examined the properties of plants. He sought to apply his findings to medical practice. By analyzing Malpighi's work, the author provides novel perspectives not only on the history of anatomy but also on the histories of science, philosophy, and medicine. Through the lens of Malpighi and his work, Bertoloni Meli investigates a range of important themes, from sense perception to the meaning of Galenism in the seventeenth century. Bertoloni Meli contends that to study science and medicine in the seventeenth century one needs to understand how scholars and ideas crossed disciplinary boundaries. He examines Malpighi's work within this context, describing how anatomical knowledge was achieved and transmitted and how those processes interacted with the experimental and mechanical philosophies, natural history, and medical practice. Malpighi was central in all of these developments, and his work helped redefine the intellectual horizon of the time. Bertoloni Meli's critical study of this key figure and the works of his contemporaries-including Borelli, Swammerdam, Redi, and Ruysch-opens a wonderful window onto the scientific and medical worlds of the seventeenth century.

Read more less

In Fungible Life Aihwa Ong explores the dynamic world of cutting-edge bioscience research, offering critical insights into the complex ways Asian bioscientific worlds and cosmopolitan sciences are entangled in a tropical environment brimming with the threat of emergent diseases. At biomedical centers in Singapore and China scientists map genetic variants, disease risks, and biomarkers, mobilizing ethnicized "Asian" bodies and health data for genomic research. Their differentiation between Chinese, Indian, and Malay DNA makes fungible Singapore's ethnic-stratified databases that come to "represent" majority populations in Asia. By deploying genomic science as a public good, researchers reconfigure the relationships between objects, peoples, and spaces, thus rendering "Asia" itself as a shifting entity. In Ong's analysis, Asia emerges as a richly layered mode of entanglements, where the population's genetic pasts, anxieties and hopes, shared genetic weaknesses, and embattled genetic futures intersect. Furthermore, her illustration of the contrasting methods and goals of the Biopolis biomedical center in Singapore and BGI Genomics in China raises questions about the future direction of cosmopolitan science in Asia and beyond.

Read more less

A renowned art historian confronts the specific powers of painting, and the hold of the visual image on the viewer's imagination Why do we find ourselves returning to certain pictures time and again? What is it we are looking for? How does our understanding of an image change over time? In his latest book T. J. Clark addresses these questions—and many more—in ways that steer art writing into new territory. In early 2000 two extraordinary paintings by Poussin hung in the Getty Museum in a single room, Landscape with a Man Killed by a Snake (National Gallery, London) and the Getty's own Landscape with a Calm. Clark found himself returning to the gallery to look at these paintings morning after morning, and almost involuntarily he began to record his shifting responses in a notebook. The result is a riveting analysis of the two landscapes and their different views of life and death, but more, a chronicle of an investigation into the very nature of visual complexity. Clark’s meditations—sometimes directly personal, sometimes speaking to the wider politics of our present image-world—track the experience of viewing art through all its real-life twists and turns.

Read more less

Coming From Nothing is a tragi-comic love story concerned with notions of identity, such as Judith Butler's idea that sexual identity isn't determined by the body, and John Locke's that personal identity is a question of memory. The first novella in Zero Books new series of Thought Experiment Novellas, these are books that work out philosophical arguments in their plots. Whether focusing on William James' determinism, Descartes' mind/body dualism, or Judith Butler's argument for gender performativity, these short books attempt to flesh out philosophical problems. They are stories wherein philosophical ideas have consequences, at least in the lives of the characters.

Read more less

In the sweep of human history, the European Union stands out as one of humankind's most ambitious endeavours. It encompasses half a billion people, twenty-seven member states, twenty-three languages, and an economy valued at over $15 trillion. Modern Europe's stunning achievements aside, its sovereign debt crisis has shaken the world's largest political and economic union to its core. Can the federal institutions and shared values of Europeans meet the challenges of debt crisis that are as much political as economic? Or, are Europe's current woes indicative of a series of deep structural faults that foreshadow the breakup and failure of the European Union? In this edition of the Munk Debates -- Canada's premier international debate series -- former EU Commissioner Lord Peter Mandelson and EU parliament co-president of the Greens/European Free Alliance Group Daniel Cohn-Bendit, German publisher-editor and author Josef Joffe, and renowned economic historian Niall Ferguson debate the future of the EU -- one of the most pressing global issues of our day. For the first time ever, this electrifying debate, which played to a sold-out audience, is now available in print, along with candid interviews with Niall Ferguson and Lord Peter Mandelson. As youth unemployment rates flare, currencies collapse, and political alliances erode, the Munk Debate on Europe tries to answer: Has the great European experiment failed?

Read more less

For many the Russian Revolution of 1917 was a symbol of hope. In the eyes of its critics, however, Soviet authoritarianism and the horrors of the gulags have led to the revolution becoming synonymous with oppression, threatening to forever taint the very idea of socialism. The experience of Georgia, which declared its independence from Russia in 1918, tells a different story. In this riveting history, Eric Lee explores the little-known saga of the country’s experiment in democratic socialism, detailing the epic, turbulent events of this forgotten chapter in revolutionary history. Along the way, we are introduced to a remarkable cast of characters – among them the men and women who strove for a more inclusive vision of socialism that featured multi-party elections, freedom of speech and assembly, a free press and a civil society grounded in trade unions and cooperatives. Though the Georgian Democratic Republic lasted for just three years before it was brutally crushed on the orders of Stalin, it was able to offer, however briefly, a glimpse of a more humane alternative to the Soviet reality that was to come.

Read more less

From the bestselling author of Firewater comes a moving tribute to an older brother that traverses the thresholds of memoir, fiction, and fantasy and reimagines what could have been.When Harold Johnson returns to his childhood home in a northern Indigenous community for his brother Clifford’s funeral, the first thing his eyes fall on is a chair. It stands on three legs, the fourth broken off and missing. So begins a journey through the past, a retrieval of recollections of his silent, powerful Swedish father; his formidable Cree mother; and his brother Clifford, a precocious young boy who is drawn to the mysterious workings of the universe. As the night unfolds, memories of Clifford surface in Harold’s mind’s eye. Memory, fiction, and fantasy collide, and Clifford comes to life as the scientist he was meant to be, culminating in his discovery of the Grand Unified Theory.Exquisitely crafted, funny, visionary, and wholly moving, Clifford is an extraordinary work that embraces myriad forms of storytelling. To read it is to be immersed in a home, a family, a community, the wider world, the entire cosmos.

Read more less

Dare experiments! The book documents the teaching philosophy developed at the chair of experimental design by Frank Stepper and his team at the University of Kassel. The approach places an emphasis on fostering and developing aesthetic and formal imagination through experimentation. Thinking the "impossible" helps to formulate architectural concepts that progress beyond predictable causalities and functional constraints. For the emergence of innovative designs and novel construction typologies analogue models are augmented with computational strategies and digital fabrication methods. 20 Years of teaching Experimental Architecture, from introductory to thesis level projects Experimental videos with QR code links With contributions by Hitoshi Abe, Marie Therese Harnancourt-Fuchs, Steffanie Hennecke and others

Read more less

Mario Sironi gehörte in seinen Anfängen zum inneren Kreis der Futuristen. Nach dem Ersten Weltkrieg erlangte er als Maler der Industrieviertel in der Mailänder Peripherie und klassisch heroischer Figuren Bekanntheit. Berühmt wurde er letztlich durch seine Wandmalerei für das faschistische Italien. Dass der Futurismus sein gesamtes Werk beeinflusste, wird in dieser Abhandlung zum ersten Mal dargestellt. Das Thema der Landschaft, weitab vom Politischen, befreite Sironi zu Bilderfindungen geistiger Landschaften, den paesaggi dello spirito. Er löste sich kaum ganz vom Gegenstand, dennoch sind die Bilder jenseits der classicità von überraschender Abstraktion und vieldeutigem Raum. Seine Landschaftsscherben und die composizioni der Nachkriegszeit sind singulär. Sironi führt alle seine Motive in Schichtung und Streuung neu zusammen, bis sie in großer Dichte nahezu unkenntlich werden. Nicht nur die Abkehr von der Zentralperspektive erweist sich als Rückgriff auf den Futurismus: Der gekappte Baum ist Ausdruck für Zeit als durée im Sinne Henri Bergsons. Wie das Buch zeigt, war Sironi bis in seine letzten Jahre voll Energie und Mut zu neuen Entwicklungen – als Einziger unter den Zeitgenossen.

Read more less

Let's Make Letters! is a playful and informative workbook that encourages play, creativity, and even making misaktes along the way. The book features instructional, speculative, and approachable exercises in an effort to build reader's skills, curiosity, and confidence. Creation of handmade letters by providing readers with more than fifty exercises to create their own unique letterforms. Let's Make Letters! includes exercises that range from simple lettering basics to the expressive and experimental - with imaginative prompts and tips to go beyond the margins of the book. Fail! Make ugly letters! Have fun! Designers, artists, scribblers, teachers, and students are encouraged to take up new and familiar tools to draw, depict, and distort letters in original and inventive ways. It's up to the letterer - pen in hand - to complete the book. By enabling letterers to draw, paint, tape, cut, and gluedirectly into its pages, Let's Make Letters! will fill a void in hand-lettering publications.

Read more less

The capstone book in a trilogy from the New York Times bestselling author of How to Lead and The American Story and host of Bloomberg TV’s The David Rubenstein Show—American icons and historians on the ever-evolving American experiment, featuring Ken Burns, Madeleine Albright, Wynton Marsalis, Billie Jean King, Henry Louis Gates Jr., and many more.In this lively collection of conversations—the third in a series from David Rubenstein—some of our nations’ greatest minds explore the inspiring story of America as a grand experiment in democracy, culture, innovation, and ideas. -Jill Lepore on the promise of America -Madeleine Albright on the American immigrant -Ken Burns on war -Henry Louis Gates Jr. on reconstruction -Elaine Weiss on suffrage -John Meacham on civil rights -Walter Isaacson on innovation -David McCullough on the Wright Brothers -John Barry on pandemics and public health -Wynton Marsalis on music -Billie Jean King on sports -Rita Moreno on film Exploring the diverse make-up of our country’s DNA through interviews with Pulitzer Prize–winning historians, diplomats, music legends, and sports giants, The American Experiment captures the dynamic arc of a young country reinventing itself in real-time. Through these enlightening conversations, the American spirit comes alive, revealing the setbacks, suffering, invention, ingenuity, and social movements that continue to shape our vision of what America is—and what it can be.

Read more less

Most books cover the subject from a statistical or theoretical point of view. Ideal for working engineers, this book uses real-world examples and boils statistical theory and analysis down to its simplest form. Features new and updated material, including cases and a larger focus on multivariate analysis. Uses simple analysis tools for practical implementation on the job. Targets experiment planning as the groundwork for quality experiments.

Read more less

In this reassessment of one of the figures of early modern science, Rose-Mary Sargent explores Robert Boyle's philosophy of experiment, a central aspect of his life and work that became a model for mid to late 17th century natural philosophers and for those who followed them. Sargent examines the philosophical, legal, experimental, and religious traditions - among them English common law, alchemy, medicine, and Christianity - that played a part in shaping Boyle's experimental thought and practice. The roots of his philosophy in his early life and education, in his religious ideals and in the work of his predecessors - particularly Bacon, Descartes and Galileo - are explored, as are the possible influences of his social and intellectual circle. Drawing on a range of Boyle's published works, as well as on his unpublished notebooks and manuscripts, Sargent shows how these diverse influences were transformed and incorporated into Boyle's views on, and practice of, experiment.

Read more less

Our modern day, multimedia, information-obsessed culture has fundamentally altered much of what we do day-to-day. The way we shop and pay bills. The way we communicate. The way we research, study, and learn.In the realm of travel we have more tools than ever telling us where to go, how to get there, what it will look like, what to do, and why we should go in the first place. This proliferation of constantly updated data has changed the way we go about our journeys. But how?By tracing the evolution of the guidebook from pilgrim manuals and Baedeker’s books to Yelp reviews and Google Maps, David Bockino explores the effects this information growth has had on the state of travel and adventure. Inspired by some of the world’s greatest explorers, he sets out guidebook-less to a destination he knows little about, launching an experiment to determine just how the guidebook and its digital descendants have transformed the nature of travel.The Guidebook Experiment is a call-to-action to conduct our own guidebook experiments, to disconnect from the ceaseless barrage of information in modern life and explore an unknown neighborhood or unfamiliar country and discover the joy of travel on our own.

Read more less

The essential introduction to magnetic reconnection—written by a leading pioneer of the fieldPlasmas comprise more than 99 percent of the visible universe; and, wherever plasmas are, magnetic reconnection occurs. In this common yet incompletely understood physical process, oppositely directed magnetic fields in a plasma meet, break, and then reconnect, converting the huge amounts of energy stored in magnetic fields into kinetic and thermal energy. In Magnetic Reconnection, Masaaki Yamada offers an illuminating synthesis of modern research and advances on this important topic. Magnetic reconnection produces such phenomena as solar flares and the northern lights, and occurs in nuclear fusion devices. A better understanding of this crucial cosmic activity is essential to comprehending the universe and varied technological applications, such as satellite communications.Most of our knowledge of magnetic reconnection comes from theoretical and computational models and laboratory experiments, but space missions launched in recent years have added up-close observation and measurements to researchers’ tools. Describing the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, Yamada links the theory with the latest results from laboratory experiments and space-based observations, including the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) and the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission. He concludes by considering outstanding problems and laying out a road map for future research.Aimed at advanced graduate students and researchers in plasma astrophysics, solar physics, and space physics, Magnetic Reconnection provides cutting-edge information on a vital area of scientific investigation.

Read more less

The essential introduction to magnetic reconnection—written by a leading pioneer of the fieldPlasmas comprise more than 99 percent of the visible universe; and, wherever plasmas are, magnetic reconnection occurs. In this common yet incompletely understood physical process, oppositely directed magnetic fields in a plasma meet, break, and then reconnect, converting the huge amounts of energy stored in magnetic fields into kinetic and thermal energy. In Magnetic Reconnection, Masaaki Yamada offers an illuminating synthesis of modern research and advances on this important topic. Magnetic reconnection produces such phenomena as solar flares and the northern lights, and occurs in nuclear fusion devices. A better understanding of this crucial cosmic activity is essential to comprehending the universe and varied technological applications, such as satellite communications.Most of our knowledge of magnetic reconnection comes from theoretical and computational models and laboratory experiments, but space missions launched in recent years have added up-close observation and measurements to researchers’ tools. Describing the fundamental physics of magnetic reconnection, Yamada links the theory with the latest results from laboratory experiments and space-based observations, including the Magnetic Reconnection Experiment (MRX) and the Magnetospheric Multiscale (MMS) Mission. He concludes by considering outstanding problems and laying out a road map for future research.Aimed at advanced graduate students and researchers in plasma astrophysics, solar physics, and space physics, Magnetic Reconnection provides cutting-edge information on a vital area of scientific investigation.

Read more less

On October 3, 1968, a military junta led by General Juan Velasco Alvarado took over the government of Peru. In striking contrast to the right-wing, pro–United States/anti-Communist military dictatorships of that era, however, Velasco’s “Revolutionary Government of the Armed Forces” set in motion a left-leaning nationalist project aimed at radically transforming Peruvian society by eliminating social injustice, breaking the cycle of foreign domination, redistributing land and wealth, and placing the destiny of Peruvians into their own hands. Although short-lived, the Velasco regime did indeed have a transformative effect on Peru, the meaning and legacy of which are still subjects of intense debate.The Peculiar Revolution revisits this fascinating and idiosyncratic period of Latin American history. The book is organized into three sections that examine the era’s cultural politics, including not just developments directed by the Velasco regime but also those that it engendered but did not necessarily control; its specific policies and key institutions; and the local and regional dimensions of the social reforms it promoted. In a series of innovative chapters written by both prominent and rising historians, this volume illuminates the cultural dimensions of the revolutionary project and its legacies, the impact of structural reforms at the local level (including previously understudied areas of the country such as Piura, Chimbote, and the Amazonia), and the effects of state policies on ordinary citizens and labor and peasant organizations.

Read more less

In May 1904, the residents of Halcyon—a small utopian community on California’s central coast—invited their neighbors to attend the grand opening of the Halcyon Hotel and Sanatorium. As part of the entertainment, guests were encouraged to have their hands X-rayed. For the founders and members of Halcyon, the X-ray was a demonstration of mysterious spiritual forces made practical to human beings. Radiance from Halcyon is the story not only of the community but also of its uniquely inventive members’ contributions to religion and science. The new synthesis of religion and science attempted by Theosophy laid the foundation for advances produced by the children of the founding members, including microwave technology and atomic spectral analysis. Paul Eli Ivey’s narrative starts in the 1890s in Syracuse, New York, with the rising of the Temple of the People, a splinter group of the theosophical movement. After developing its ideals for an agricultural and artisanal community, the Temple purchased land in California and in 1903 began to live its dream there. In addition to an intriguing account of how a little-known utopian religious community profoundly influenced modern science, Ivey offers a wide-ranging cultural history, encompassing Theosophy, novel healing modalities, esoteric architecture, Native American concepts of community, socialist utopias, and innovative modern music.

Read more less

For decades, Woodrow Wilson has been remembered as either a paternalistic liberal or reactionary conservative at home and as a na ve idealist or cynical imperialist abroad. Historians' harsh judgments of Wilson are understandable. He won two elections by promising a deliberative democratic process that would ensure justice and political empowerment for all. Yet under Wilson, Jim Crow persisted, interventions in Latin America increased, and a humiliating peace settlement was forced upon Germany. A generation after Wilson, stark inequalities and injustices still plagued the nation, myopic nationalism hindered its responsible engagement in world affairs, and a second vastly destructive global conflict threatened the survival of democracy worldwide leaving some Americans today to wonder what, exactly, the buildings and programs bearing his name are commemorating. In Power without Victory, Trygve Throntveit argues that there is more to the story of Wilson than these sad truths. Throntveit makes the case that Wilson was not a "Wilsonian," as that term has come to be understood, but a principled pragmatist in the tradition of William James. He did not seek to stamp American-style democracy on other peoples, but to enable the gradual development of a genuinely global system of governance that would maintain justice and facilitate peaceful change a goal that, contrary to historical tradition, the American people embraced. In this brilliant intellectual, cultural, and political history, Throntveit gives us a new vision of Wilson, as well as a model of how to think about the complex relationship between the world of ideas and the worlds of policy and diplomacy.

Read more less

The aim of this book is to describe the methodology of conducting the THEDRE research "Traceable Human Experiment Design Research". It applies to Research in Human Centered Informatics (RICH). These are areas of computer research that integrate users to build scientific knowledge and supporting tools for this research. As an example, we can mention the relevant fields such as Information Systems (IS), Human Machine Interfaces (HMI) Engineering, and Human Information Systems (HIA). The construction of this language and method is based on experiments conducted since 2008 in the field of RICH.

Read more less

That brief, blinding dazzle? The blue smudge and lingering stink? The Flash Gang has struck again! They are the most notorious thieves in Pittsburgh, food-stealing crooks the police and newspapers say are highly trained and very dangerous. But eleven-year-old Lewis Carter isn’t a thief, he’s just homeless and hungry. The Flash is a recipe he invented from bits of his missing father’s scientific research. He uses it to pinch his dinners. It’s been going pretty well, until now…Now his recipe is stolen, and he is in the clutches of some rather nasty people. Enter tutu-wearing, starry-eyed, and all around extraordinary (she will tell you) Pearl Alice Clavell. She is on a mission to uncover a Nefarious Deed she’s convinced involves the Flash Gang. Rescuing Lewis is right up her alley. Truth is, a Nefarious Deed is afoot, one that threatens the entire country. It will take Lewis and Pearl joining forces to save the recipe and themselves against an enemy who will stop at nothing, including kidnapping, and, very possibly, murder.

Read more less

The theory behind the PDU model is outlined and the key principles underpinning it are identified. The PDU approach is clearly differentiated from the Nursing Development Unit model. Implementation of key principles is explored in depth, with reference to specific work carried out in the PDU. Issues of evaluation, potential future developments and applications of the PDU model are also discussed. The book is for nurses and other practitioners working in PDUs and NDUs, and for health professionals in any setting with an interest in clinical innovation, practice development, research and leadership of multi-professional teams.

Read more less

The ever-growing library on the history of eugenics and fascism focuses largely on nation-states, while Georgescu asks why an ethnic minority, the German-speaking Transylvanian Saxons, turned to eugenics as a means of self-empowerment in inter-war Romania. The Eugenic Fortress examines the eugenic movement that emerged in the early twentieth century, and focuses on its conceptual and methodological evolution during this turbulent period. Further on, the book analyzes the gradual process of radicalising and politicization by a second generation of Saxon eugenicists in conjunction with the rise of an equally indigenous fascist movement. The Saxon case-study offers valuable insights into why an ethnic minority would seek to re-entrench itself behind the race-hygienic walls of a 'eugenic fortress', as well as the influence that home nations had upon its design. Georgescu's work is ground-breaking in the sense that the history of this uprooted community is usually handled with extreme sensitivity and serious (and critical) research into Transylvanian Saxon involvement with Nazism has been scant, until now.

Read more less

This Book Thinks You’re a Maths Genius explores seven key areas of maths: geometry, space and volume, statistics, numbers and number patterns, codes and ciphers and the concept of infinity. Each spread centres on an open-ended question that introduces a key mathematical concept and suggests activities that engage the child in a fun and entertaining way. Activities include predicting the trajectory of a Malteser; building loo roll skyscrapers; mind-reading magic tricks; devising your own spy code; and working out the physical correlations between your dad and Usain Bolt. The end of the book includes a section of paper-based crafts including the kit to make a cardboard football and a data log for family quirks.

Read more less

Red Flag Wounded brings together essays covering the controversies and debates over the fraught history of the Soviet Union from the revolution to its disintegration. Those monumental years were marked not only by violence, mass killing, and the brutal overturning of a peasant society but also by the modernisation and industrialisation of the largest country in the world, the victory over fascism, and the slow recovery of society after the nightmare of Stalinism.Ronald Grigor Suny is one of the most prominent experts on the revolution, the fate of the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet empire, and the twists and turns of Western historiography of the Soviet experience. As a biographer of Stalin and a long-time commentator on Russian and Soviet affairs, he brings novel insights to a history that has been misunderstood and deliberately distorted in the public sphere. For a fresh look at a story that affects our world today, this is the place to begin.

Read more less

In this fascinating and timely volume, Carole Sweeney reminds us how five previously well-known experimental women writers of the mid-twentieth century are more or less neglected today. Via masterful textual analysis of some of their most notable works, together with concise biographical synopses, their personalities, creative endeavours and sheer radicalism are showcased for a new generation of readers to appreciate.'Gerri Kimber, Visiting Professor, University of NorthamptonExamines British women's experimental writing in historical contexts, 1945 1970Filling in a blank spot in the history of twentieth-century women's writing, Carole Sweeney examines the work of five experimental writers, Anna Kavan, Brigid Brophy, Christine Brooke-Rose, Eva Figes and Ann Quin, whose writing has been neglected in accounts of the development of post-1945 British literature. Each of these writers, Sweeney argues, engaged in diverse formal experiments that challenge the critical commonplace suggesting that after the end of aesthetic modernism the mid-century British novel was characterised by a wholesale return to realism. Avoiding any insistence on a straightforward opposition between literary realism and experimentalism, this study draws upon original archival and biographical material and offers close readings of the creative and critical work of these 'vagabond' writers, demonstrating how they wrote against aesthetic and thematic conventions of their times and negotiated (and often repudiated) concepts of 'feminine' writing.

Read more less

At the heart of the Soviet experiment was a belief in the impermanence of the human spirit: souls could be engineered; conscience could be destroyed. The project was, in many ways, chillingly successful. But the ultimate failure of a totalitarian regime to fulfill its ambitions for social and spiritual mastery had roots deeper than the deficiencies of the Soviet leadership or the chaos of a "command" economy. Beneath the rhetoric of scientific communism was a culture of intellectual and cultural dissidence, which may be regarded as the "prehistory of perestroika." This volume explores the contribution of Christian thought and belief to this culture of dissent and survival, showing how religious and secular streams of resistance joined in an unexpected and powerful partnership. The essays in The Dangerous God seek to shed light on the dynamic and subversive capacities of religious faith in a context of brutal oppression, while acknowledging the often-collusive relationship between clerical elites and the Soviet authorities. Against the Marxist notion of the "ideological" function of religion, the authors set the example of people for whom faith was more than an opiate; against an enduring mythology of secularization, they propose the centrality of religious faith in the intellectual, political, and cultural life of the late modern era. This volume will appeal to specialists on religion in Soviet history as well as those interested in the history of religion under totalitarian regimes.

Read more less

A fascinating ethnography of microbes that opens up new spaces for anthropological inquiry The trillions of microbes in and on our bodies are determined by not only biology but also our social connections. Gut Anthro tells the fascinating story of how a sociocultural anthropologist developed a collaborative “anthropology of microbes” with a human microbial ecologist to address global health crises across disciplines. It asks: what would it mean for anthropology to act with science? Based partly at a preeminent U.S. lab studying the human microbiome, the Center for Genome Sciences at Washington University, and partly at a field site in Bangladesh studying infant malnutrition, it examines how microbes travel between human guts in the “field” and in microbiome laboratories, influencing definitions of health and disease, and how the microbiome can change our views on evolution, agency, and life.As lab scientists studied the interrelationships between gut microbes and malnutrition in resource-poor countries, Amber Benezra explored ways to reconcile the scale and speed differences between the lab, the intimate biosocial practices of Bangladeshi mothers and their children, and the looming structural violence of poverty. In vital ways, Gut Anthro is about what it means to collaborate—with mothers, local field researchers in Bangladesh, massive philanthropic global health organizations, with the microbiome scientists, and, of course, with microbes. It follows microbes through various enactments in scientific research—microbes as kin, as data, and as race. Revealing how racial categories are used in microbiome research, Benezra argues that microbial differences need transdisciplinary collaboration to address racial health disparities without reifying race as a straightforward biological or social designation.Gut Anthro is a tour de force of science studies and medical anthropology as well as an intensely personal and deeply theoretical accounting of what it means to do anthropology today. Cover alt text:Black background overlaid with a pink organic path suggestive of a human digestive system. Title appears within the guts as if being processed.

Read more less

Discover the experimental and theoretical developments in optical single-molecule spectroscopy that are changing the ways we think about molecules and atoms The Advances in Chemical Physics series provides the chemical physics field with a forum for critical, authoritative evaluations of advances in every area of the discipline. This latest volume explores the advent of optical single-molecule spectroscopy, and how atomic force microscopy has empowered novel experiments on individual biomolecules, opening up new frontiers in molecular and cell biology and leading to new theoretical approaches and insights. Organized into two parts—one experimental, the other theoretical—this volume explores advances across the field of single-molecule biophysics, presenting new perspectives on the theoretical properties of atoms and molecules. Single-molecule experiments have provided fresh perspectives on questions such as how proteins fold to specific conformations from highly heterogeneous structures, how signal transductions take place on the molecular level, and how proteins behave in membranes and living cells.This volume is designed to further contribute to the rapid development of single-molecule biophysics research. Filled with cutting-edge research reported in a cohesive manner not found elsewhere in the literature, each volume of the Advances in Chemical Physics series serves as the perfect supplement to any advanced graduate class devoted to the study of chemical physics.

Read more less

A fascinating account by one of the world's leading neurologists of the profound influence of William Burroughs on his medical career. Lees relates how Burroughs, author of Naked Lunch and troubled drug addict, inspired him to discover a ground-breaking treatment for Parkinson's Disease. Lees journeys to the Amazonian rainforest in search of cures for Parkinson's Disease, and through self-experimentation seeks to find the answers his patients crave. He enters a powerful plea for the return of imagination to medical research.

Read more less

The Primal Blueprint 90-Day Journal -- A Personal Experiment is a comprehensive diet, exercise, and lifestyle logbook/journal to help you stay focused, accountable, and motivated to live Primally. The n=1 (an experiment of one) format allows you to dial in the exact foods, workout patterns, and supporting lifestyle behaviors you need to peak -- with your physique, fitness goals, and everyday energy and immune function. The 90-Day Journal is the ideal practical guide to support Mark Sisson's best-selling The Primal Blueprint and The Primal Blueprint 21-Day Total Body Transformation. Unlike many rigidly structured workout logs and food diaries, this journal allows for plenty of creativity and free-form expression. Filled with detailed how-to-use instructions, experiment suggestions, and handy Primal resources, this journal is exactly what you need to launch your experiment of one! Inside the 282 pages you'll find detailed, step-by-step instructions on how to conduct personal experiments and use the book to discover how your body works, and sample experiments for weight loss, improving sleep, moderating systemic inflammation and others to set you off in the right direction. In addition, you'll discover a spacious, two-page daily journal spreads with assorted customization options for meal and workout particulars, subjective Success Scores (for daily energy, motivation, health and goal progress), and data from unique personal experiments that you design and track during your 90-day journey, as well as a handy Primal resource section covering all the key Primal Blueprint concepts, food and meal suggestions, workout guidelines, macronutrient values for common meals and snacks, and more.

Read more less

Free thinking, unconstrained by facts The book is based on the thesis that we live in a world of abundance, full of natural riches, and cultural artifacts, full of human intellect and powerful technologies. Our thinking, however, is dominated by the opposite, the notion of scarcity. The limits of nature act as an inevitable necessity. In his book, David Schildberger adopts a novel approach to the subject of resources, with the help of intelligent instruments that introduce new foods, such as chocolate made from cocoa cell cultures, and even a fruit-bearing vine raised far from a vineyard. With his imagined scenarios, the author invites the reader to dare stretch their intellectual imaginations and ultimately presents nature as a contingent. Conceptual models on the subject of nature and alternative ways of producing food Recommended reading for architectural IT specialists New volume in the Applied Virtuality Book Series

Read more less

This book explores experimental approaches to the design and construction of wooden structures in architecture, while presenting the results of an artistic research project. Through the use of digital tools, the anatomy of wood becomes a design-determining principle for spatial structures. The architects and artists also explore the potential of traditional craftsmanship and derive from this a material-oriented practice. Structures are not designed here for a specific use, but rather open up various usage possibilities due to their unique spatial and geometric properties. The documentation provides insight into an open-ended research process. Guest contributions reflect on the underlying concepts and thus the future relevance of wood as a building material.

Read more less

In Millennial Style, Aliyyah I. Abdur-Rahman looks at recent experiments in black expressive culture that begin in the place of ruin. By ruin, Abdur-Rahman means the political terror and social abjection that constitute the ongoing peril of black lives. Whereas earlier black writers and artists have employed realist modes of expression to represent racial harm and to imaginatively remediate it, the black avant-garde of today displays more experimental methods. Abdur-Rahman outlines four widely employed modes in contemporary African diasporic cultural production: Black Grotesquerie, Hollowed Blackness, Black Cacophony, and the Black Ecstatic. Mobilizing black feminist and black radical thought, she considers work by such cultural practitioners as Wangechi Mutu, Marci Blackman, Alexandria Smith, Colson Whitehead, Toni Morrison, Harmony Holiday, and Essex Hemphill. Writerly and experimental, Millennial Style theorizes contemporary black art as the holding (or hoarding) of black mortal and material resources against the injuries of social death, as the fashioning of relational ethics, and as exuberant black world-building in ruinous times.

Read more less