Over the course of the twentieth century, scientists came to accept four counterintuitive yet fundamental facts about the Earth: deep time, continental drift, meteorite impact, and global warming. When first suggested, each proposition violated scientific orthodoxy and was quickly denounced as scientific—and sometimes religious—heresy. Nevertheless, after decades of rejection, scientists came to accept each theory. The stories behind these four discoveries reflect more than the fascinating push and pull of scientific work. They reveal the provocative nature of science and how it raises profound and sometimes uncomfortable truths as it advances. For example, counter to common sense, the Earth and the solar system are older than all of human existence; the interactions among the moving plates and the continents they carry account for nearly all of the Earth's surface features; and nearly every important feature of our solar system results from the chance collision of objects in space. Most surprising of all, we humans have altered the climate of an entire planet and now threaten the future of civilization. This absorbing scientific history is the only book to describe the evolution of these four ideas from heresy to truth, showing how science works in practice and how it inevitably corrects the mistakes of its practitioners. Scientists can be wrong, but they do not stay wrong. In the process, astonishing ideas are born, tested, and over time take root.

This compelling new account of Russian constructivism repositions the agitator Aleksei Gan as the movement’s chief protagonist and theorist. Primarily a political organizer during the revolution and early Soviet period, Gan brought to the constructivist project an intimate acquaintance with the nuts and bolts of “making revolution.” Writing slogans, organizing amateur performances, and producing mass-media objects define an alternative conception of “the work of art”—no longer an autonomous object but a labor process through which solidarities are built. In an expansive analysis touching on aesthetic and architectural theory, the history of science and design, sociology, and feminist and political theory, Kristin Romberg invites us to consider a version of modernism organized around the radical flattening of hierarchies, a broad distribution of authorship, and the negotiation of constraints and dependencies. Moving beyond Cold War abstractions, Gan’s Constructivism offers a fine-grained understanding of what it means for an aesthetics to be political.

A groundbreaking chronicle of scientific ocean drilling—a crowning achievement of the twentieth century—and how it shaped our knowledge of Earth's past. Under the radar—or, rather, sonar—of most people and many scientists, for the last six decades ships have plied the world’s oceans, mining the seafloor for its secrets—and quietly resolving confounding geological mysteries. Continental drift and plate tectonics. The origin of the Hawaiʻian Islands. The erstwhile disappearance of the Mediterranean. The mystery of the ice ages. All are part of the story told by deep-sea drilling—and chapters in the history that unfolds in Mysteries of the Deep. In a series of vignettes ranging from the voyage of the HMS Challenger in the 1870s to the adventures of research ship Chikyū in the 2020s, James Powell recounts the surprises the seafloor has yielded to the probing of scientists. With a global, sometimes even extraterrestrial scope and a scientific reach that extends to every corner of geology and astrobiology, Powell’s work recounts how cores extracted from the ocean floor have: · produced insights into microbial life on Mars and the end of dinosaurs’ tenure on Earth · demonstrated that astronomical cycles control many geological events, and even human evolution · used a past episode of global warming to reveal the peril of high temperatures today · shown that global warming could melt enough Antarctic ice to drown the seacoasts The mysteries uncovered by deep-sea drilling, and covered by Powell in this eye-opening book, are many and various, often surprising and sometimes alarming—consequential not just for the science of the seafloor, but for how we learn about our planet's past and what we can do about its future.

In “...And it was So” Dr. Scott Ransom argues that perceived gaps between science and the Biblical account of creation are symptoms of misinterpretation. A proper understanding of the Hebrew language, the audience for which Genesis was written, the process of Biblical translation, and the nature of science coalesce into a coherent picture of creation in which science and the Bible align. Ransom takes the reader into the story of creation and the science behind it, distilling complex scientific concepts into easily digestible nuggets, and along the way introducing us to many of the lesser-known heroes of scientific discovery. In the end the reader will have a new appreciation for both science and the Bible as well as the harmony that exists between both.

The Moon is the most viewed object in the sky, the Sun being too bright to look at directly and the planets too far away. The Greeks deduced everything that could be learned about the Moon using only the naked eye, including that it has no light of its own but reflects that of the Sun. They understood the cause of eclipses and used the Earth's shadow on the Moon to conclude that our planet is a sphere and to calculate the size of both the Moon and the Earth. The invention of the telescope some two millennia later offered the opportunity for much greater understanding, but the early observers became sidetracked onto a dead end: First, they fooled themselves into believing that they saw evidence of life on the Moon, even the works of a civilization. Second, they became convinced that the craters of the Moon were volcanoes like those we have on the Earth. These wrong-headed beliefs took centuries to dispel. The origin of the Moon itself has proven an even more difficult question, but scientists have now closed in on the answer. They find that our placid and seemingly unchanging Moon was born in colossal violence as a planet the size of Mars crashed into the primordial Earth and flung off a blob that solidified to become our heavenly companion. Unlocking the Moon's Secrets follows these developments to show how science evolves, complete with misunderstandings, contentious arguments, difficult to relinquish assumptions, and shifting views as new facts come to light. Thanks to the work of generations of determined scientists, we understand our Moon, at last.

A Journey Through Tides is a fully comprehensive text on the history of tides. It brings together geology and oceanography and discusses, in detail, new ideas that have emerged about how tectonics and tides interact. In addition, the book provides an overview of Earth's history, from the perspective of tidal changes, while also highlighting other fascinating phenomena (e.g., solid Earth tides and links between tides and earthquakes). Sections cover an introduction to tides for oceanography students and scientists from other disciplines, cover the Earth's deep time processes, and include several case studies of specific topics/processes that apply to a earth science disciplines. There are many other processes that drive and modify the tides, hence this book also describes why there is a tide, how it has changed since Earth's early days, and what consequences the tides, and changes in the tides, have on other parts of the Earth system. - Presents a fully comprehensive overview on tides that goes beyond the field of oceanography - Provides a state-of-the-art review on science related to tides, a fundamental element in the Earth System that regulates our planet - Explores the limits of our knowledge, including much ongoing research on deep time tides, future tides, tides in exoplanets, and more - Includes a website with tectonic animations and associated tidal evolution videos for interactive learning

Cohen's exploration seeks to uncover nothing less than the nature of all scientific revolutions, the stages by which they occur, their time scale, specific criteria for determining whether or not there has been a revolution, and the creative factors in producing a revolutionary new idea.

Over the last 11,700 years, during which human civilization developed, the earth has existed within what geologists refer to as the Holocene Epoch. Now science is telling us that the Holocene Epoch in the geological time scale ended, replaced by the onset of a new, more dangerous Anthropocene Epoch, which began around 1950. The Anthropocene Epoch is characterized by an “anthropogenic rift” in the biological cycles of the Earth System, marking a changed reality in which human activities are now the main geological force impacting the earth as a whole, generating at the same time an existential crisis for the world’s population. What caused this massive shift in the history of the earth? In this comprehensive study, John Bellamy Foster tells us that a globalized system of capital accumulation has induced humanity to foul its own nest. The result is a planetary emergency that threatens all present and future generations, throwing into question the continuation of civilization and ultimately the very survival of humanity itself. Only by addressing the social aspects of the current planetary emergency, exploring the theoretical, historical, and practical dimensions of the capitalism’s alteration of the planetary environment, is it possible to develop the ecological and social resources for a new journey of hope.

Since its original publication in 1976, Perception and Misperception in International Politics has become a landmark book in its field, hailed by the New York Times as "the seminal statement of principles underlying political psychology." This new edition includes an extensive preface by the author reflecting on the book's lasting impact and legacy, particularly in the application of cognitive psychology to political decision making, and brings that analysis up to date by discussing the relevant psychological research over the past forty years. Jervis describes the process of perception (for example, how decision makers learn from history) and then explores common forms of misperception (such as overestimating one's influence). He then tests his ideas through a number of important events in international relations from nineteenth- and twentieth-century European history. Perception and Misperception in International Politics is essential for understanding international relations today.

There is a lot of buzz on creativity and there are many ways to look at it but, in this book, you will not find a methodology for “unlocking your inner creative soul.” Instead, you will be immersed in a thought-provoking dive into neuroscience, philosophy, psychology, and a variety of references from arts and sciences. Creativity takes courage (and it also takes time): one must take the existential approach of becoming (a meaningful engagement with life). Enjoy creativity as a process, not as a tool to conquer a goal. "Most people read one or two books on creativity in a lifetime, Joaquim Franch has probably read them all! In this book, he has broken them down, sorted out the common denominators, and put them in order to produce a book that is both thought proving and practical. An essential read for anyone interested in creativity". Ian Gibbs, with a degree in astrophysics and a postgrad in education, is an entrepreneur working as a learning-strategies specialist. Author of The Sorites Principle and the 2022 TEDx Talk, The Secret Key to Learning Hidden in Plain Sight. "I consider it of great value that the author has made use of creative parameters to address its nature. The result is a useful and original book that undoubtedly helps to take a step further in understanding creativity". Matilde Obradors, Professor in the Department of Communication at the Pompeu Fabra University (Barcelona). Author of Creatividad y generación de ideas. "My friend Joaquim is a true generalist (and a systems thinker) and, not surprisingly, with this work he has achieved a balanced vision of a widely studied subject in the Anglo-American world. It’s an honest intellectual analysis of diverse sources". Pere Marés, former Professor in the Automatic Control Department at the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (Barcelona).