Showing results for "Life on the Edge" in Science & Engineering

Life is the most extraordinary phenomenon in the known universe; but how does it work? Even in this age of cloning and synthetic biology, the remarkable truth remains: nobody has ever made anything living entirely out of dead material. Life remains the only way to make life. Are we missing a vital ingredient in its creation? Like Richard Dawkins' The Selfish Gene, which provided a new perspective on how evolution works, Life on the Edge alters our understanding of life's dynamics.

Join Cecilia Blomdahl in Longyearbyen, Svalbard, the world's northernmost town. Located in the Arctic Ocean near the North Pole, Svalbard is a unique archipelago that boasts stunning wintry landscapes, endangered arctic animals, and awe-inspiring natural phenomena. Since 2016, Cecilia has called...

Australopithecines, dinosaurs, trilobites - such fossils conjure up images of lost worlds filled with vanished organisms. But in the full history of life, ancient animals, even the trilobites, form only the half-billion-year tip of a nearly four-billion-year iceberg. Andrew Knoll explores the deep history of life from its origins on a young planet to the incredible Cambrian explosion, presenting a compelling new explanation for the emergence of biological novelty.

In the bestselling The Signal and the Noise, Nate Silver showed how forecasting would define the age of Big Data. Now, in this timely and riveting new book, Silver investigates "The River," or those whose mastery of risk allows them to shape—and dominate—so much of modern life. These professional risk takers—poker players and hedge fund managers, crypto true-believers and blue-chip art collectors—can teach us much about navigating the uncertainty of the 21st century. 

'Profound, lyrical, and fascinating, Life’s Edge will give you a newfound appreciation for life itself. It is the work of a master science writer at the height of his skills.' – Ed Yong, author of An Immense World We all assume we know what life is, but the more scientists learn about the...

Welcome to the Zero Point Age Is there such a thing as a life force—an energy field that connects all living things across space and time? Could the existence of this living energy field provide a scientific explanation for supernatural phenomena? After interviewing cutting-edge scientists in...

Green belts are part of the landscape and psyche of post-war Britain, but have led to conflicts at every level of society - between conservationists and developers, town and country, politicians and people, nimbys and the forces of progress. Growing up on 'the last road in London' on an estate at the edge of the woods, John Grindrod had a childhood that mirrored these tensions. His family, too, seemed caught between two worlds: his wheelchair-bound mother and soft hearted father had moved from the inner city and had trouble adjusting.  

From the outset, Hynek and Vallee make their position clear: UFOs represent an unknown but real phenomenon. The far-reaching implications take us to the edge of what we consider the known and real in our physical environment. Perhaps UFOs signal the existence of a domain of nature as yet totally unexplored. These two eminent scientists studied the UFO phenomenon for decades and collaborated on this landmark report.

Brought to you by Penguin. For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths - via ever more mind-boggling numbers - led to strange new understandings of reality. But what are these mysterious numbers...

Summary The first source describes the resignation of all seven independent directors from 23andMe's board due to disagreements with CEO Anne Wojcicki regarding the company's strategic direction. These disagreements stemmed from Wojcicki's proposal to take the company private, which the board rejected due to a lack of a premium offer to shareholders. The second source discusses the potential future of 23andMe's genetic data as the company faces financial challenges and the possibility of going out of business. While the company emphasizes its commitment to privacy and its policy of anonymizing...

Urban expert John Rossant and business journalist Stephen Baker look beyond the false promises of the past to examine the real future of transportation and the repercussions for the world’s cities, the global economy, the environment, and our individual lives. Human mobility, dominated for a...