Showing results by publisher "Gildan Media, LLC" in Science & Engineering

A fascinating guided tour of the complex, fast-moving, and influential world of algorithms - what they are, why they’re such powerful predictors of human behavior, and where they’re headed next. Algorithms exert an extraordinary level of influence on our everyday lives - from dating websites and financial trading floors, through to online retailing and internet searches - Google's search algorithm is now a more closely guarded commercial secret than the recipe for Coca-Cola.

In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, John Jordan offers an accessible introduction to 3-D printing. Jordan outlines the stages of 3-D printing, from idea to software model to a printable file that slices the planned object into printable layers to the finished object itself. He describes additive technologies, consumer 3-D printing in homes and schools, mass customization, and industrial uses.

What gives the human brain the creative ability that defines us all as individuals? Although the silicon version is hard on its heels, the brain remains the most remarkable computer in existence. Leading us through cognitive theory, neuroscience and Darwinian evolution with his trademark wit and wisdom, Michael Corballis explains what we know - and don't know - about our minds. How do we know if we’re really the top dogs in brain power?

Soccer moms drive Priuses. Sport utility vehicles are going hybrid. Families are using hemp shopping bags. More and more companies are developing "green" buildings. What's more, the business consultants say going green is easy and profitable. In reality, though, many green-leaning businesses, families, and governments are still fiddling with the small stuff while the planet burns. Why?

Based on decades of research, Chronotherapy shows you how to harness the power of light to reset your natural clock and boost your mood, be more alert, and get a good night's sleep. A good night's sleep can be hard to get. Sleep problems and depressed mood often go hand in hand, forming a frustrating cycle. Only now are we beginning to understand the way these problems are based in the working of the brain's inner clock, through the science of chronobiology - the study of circadian rhythms and their regulation by light and darkness.

Distinguished authors like Daniel Kahneman, Dan Ariely, and Nassim Nicholas Taleb have written much about the flaws in the human brain when it comes time to make a decision. Our intuitions and passions frequently fail us, leading to outcomes we don't want. In this audiobook, Eyal Winter, Professor of Economics and Director of the Center for the Study of Rationality at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, wonders: why? If our emotions are so destructive and unreliable, why has evolution left us with them?

While megasellers like Grain Brain and Wheat Belly suggest that wheat may be the new asbestos, Stephen Yafa finds that it has been wrongly demonized. His revealing audiobook sets the record straight, breaking down the botany of the wheat plant we've hijacked for our own use, the science of nutrition and digestion, the effects of mass production on our health, and questions about gluten and fiber - all to point us toward a better, richer diet.

For astronaut Ron Garan, living on the International Space Station was a powerful, transformative experience - one that he believes holds the key to solving our problems here on Earth. On space walks and through windows, Garan was struck by the stunning beauty of the Earth from space but sobered by knowing how much needed to be done to help this troubled planet.

You will learn how design and innovation are being impacted by new and emerging technologies, societal demands, cultural shifts, and broader world issues. The Future of Design is practical, concise, and includes guidelines for building and supporting creative teams, advice and strategies for evaluating product concepts, and interviews with product designers, inventors, and innovators from around the world.

Our intuition about how things should behave is usually right in the everyday world. We see the baseball soar in the air, arc, drop, and lie stationary on the ground. Through data gathered by our senses and basic knowledge of the laws of classical mechanics, the motion of a ball makes perfect sense. But enter the world of the tiniest particles on earth—the motion of electrons, the shapes of molecules—and everything we think we know about the world radically changes.

Leading for Organisational Change is an intelligent and practical guide to the human side of merger integration and other organizational change. Building a clear sense of common purpose and then reinforcing it through storytelling can underpin the success of an integration or significant change program. Pulling together the best thinking from neuroscience, psychology, business, and her rich personal experience in 20 years of leading change projects in professional services organizations and other people-centered businesses, author Jennifer Emery presents a framework for change.

Our world seems to be experiencing stagnant economic growth, climatic deterioration, dwindling natural resources, and an unsustainable level of population growth. The world is doomed, they argue, and there are just too many problems to overcome. But is this really the case? In Fewer, Richer, Greener, author Laurence B. Siegel reveals that the world has improved - and will continue to improve - in almost every dimension imaginable.

The standard text on innovation advises would-be innovators to conduct creative brainstorming sessions and seek input from outsiders - users or communities. This kind of innovating can be effective at improving products but not at capturing bigger opportunities in the marketplace. In this book, Roberto Verganti offers a new approach - one that does not set out to solve existing problems, but to find breakthrough experiences. There is no brainstorming - which produces too many ideas, unfiltered - but a vision, subject to criticism.

People keep track. In the 18th century, Benjamin Franklin kept charts of time spent and virtues lived up to. Today, people use technology to self-track: hours slept, steps taken, calories consumed, medications administered. Ninety million wearable sensors were shipped in 2014 to help us gather data about our lives. This audiobook examines how people record, analyze, and reflect on this data, looking at the tools they use and the communities they become parts of.

Physics for Rock Stars is not a weighty treatise on science, but a personal tour of physics from a quirky friend. Anyone who's ever wondered why nature abhors a vacuum, what causes magnetic attraction, or how to jump off a moving train or do a perfect stage dive will find answers and a few laughs, too. No equations, numbers, or tricky concepts - just an inspiring and comical romp through the basics of physics and the beauty of the organized universe.

The great economic boom times in American history have come because of fortuitous discoveries. Natural resources (coal first, then oil) fueled vast economic and industrial expansions, which helped create and supply new markets. The last genuine economic game changer was the technology boom of the 1990s, which gave the U.S. a global competitive advantage based on electronics and silicon. In defiance of the recessionary times (in 1990), he saw the coming boom. Now, in 2013, he sees the threshold of another.

Why do certain civilizations, societies, and ecosystems collapse? How does the domino effect relate to the credit crunch? When can mathematics help explain marriage? And how on earth do toads predict earthquakes? The future is uncertain. But science can help foretell what lies ahead.

The bonds we are capable of feeling toward other people - how we know and belong to one another - provide fascinating glimpses into the intricacies of human behavior. Intimacy is that moment when our true identity is revealed to another, when traumas, fears, and ambitions are shared. Through the ordinary stories of eight relationships, Giovanni Frazzetto has woven an extraordinary narrative of togetherness.

No one can escape a sense of awe when reflecting on the workings of the mind: we see, we hear, we feel, we are aware of the world around us. But what is the mind? What do we mean when we say we are “aware” of something? What is this peculiar state in our heads, at once utterly familiar and bewilderingly mysterious, that we call awareness or consciousness? In Physics in Mind, eminent biophysicist Werner R. Loewenstein argues that to answer these questions, we must first understand the physical mechanisms that underlie the workings of the mind.

Discover the unexpected ways friends influence our personalities, choices, emotions, and even physical health in this fun and compelling examination of friendship, based on the latest scientific research and ever-relatable anecdotes. Why is dinner with friends often more laughter-filled and less fraught than a meal with family? Although some say it's because we choose our friends, it's also because we expect less of them than we do of relatives.