Leisure Reading at Sterne Library: STEM Café Collection

This must-have book will guide you through your first steps in 3D printing at home! Get started with a solid overview of concepts and techniques and learn the basics of 3D construction with essential information on data files, programs, and software, such as FreeCAD, Blender, Sketchup Free, Autodesk, Cura, Chitubox, and more. Know what your options are for both kits and ready-to-use printers, discover what you need to do to make your first 3D printed part, and find out what it takes to become a 3D printing professional. This newly updated and expanded edition of 3D Printers: A Beginner's Guide features the latest printers and programs, new software updates, and a larger gallery to show you what's possible and what's not with tips and tricks for practical applications with all the current technologies.

The fascinating, untold story of the air we breathe, the hidden life it contains, and invisible dangers that can turn the world upside down Every day we draw in two thousand gallons of air--and thousands of living things. From the ground to the stratosphere, the air teems with invisible life. This last great biological frontier remains so mysterious that it took over two years for scientists to finally agree that the Covid pandemic was caused by an airborne virus. In Air-Borne, award-winning New York Times columnist and author Carl Zimmer leads us on an odyssey through the living atmosphere and through the history of its discovery. We travel to the tops of mountain glaciers, where Louis Pasteur caught germs from the air, and follow Amelia Earhart and Charles Lindbergh above the clouds, where they conducted groundbreaking experiments. We meet the long-forgotten pioneers of aerobiology including William and Mildred Wells, who tried for decades to warn the world about airborne infections, only to die in obscurity. Air-Borne chronicles the dark side of aerobiology with gripping accounts of how the United States and the Soviet Union clandestinely built arsenals of airborne biological weapons designed to spread anthrax, smallpox, and an array of other pathogens. Air-Borne also leaves readers looking at the world with new eyes--as a place where the oceans and forests loft trillions of cells into the air, where microbes eat clouds, and where life soars thousands of miles on the wind. Weaving together gripping history with the latest reporting on Covid and other threats to global health, Air-Borne surprises us on every page as it reveals the hidden world of the air.

Get in the game and learn essential computer algorithms by solving competitive programming problems, in the fully revised second edition of the bestselling original. (Still no math required!) Are you hitting a wall with data structures and algorithms? Whether you're a student prepping for coding interviews or an independent learner, this book is your essential guide to efficient problem-solving in programming. UNLOCK THE POWER OF DATA STRUCTURES & ALGORITHMS- Learn the intricacies of hash tables, recursion, dynamic programming, trees, graphs, and heaps. Become proficient in choosing and implementing the best solutions for any coding challenge. REAL-WORLD, COMPETITION-PROVEN CODE EXAMPLES- The programs and challenges in this book aren't just theoretical-they're drawn from real programming competitions. Train with problems that have tested and honed the skills of coders around the world. GET INTERVIEW-READY- Prepare yourself for coding interviews with practice exercises that help you think algorithmically, weigh different solutions, and implement the best choices efficiently. WRITTEN IN C, USEFUL ACROSS LANGUAGES- The code examples are written in C and designed for clarity and accessibility to those familiar with languages like C++, Java, or Python. If you need help with the C code, no problem- We've got recommended reading, too. Algorithmic Thinking is the complete package, providing the solid foundation you need to elevate your coding skills to the next level.

CLEAR AND CONCISE TECHNIQUES FOR USING ANALYTICS TO DELIVER BUSINESS IMPACT AT ANY ORGANIZATION Organizations have more data at their fingertips than ever, and their ability to put that data to productive use should be a key source of sustainable competitive advantage. Yet, business leaders looking to tap into a steady and manageable stream of "actionable insights" often, instead, get blasted with a deluge of dashboards, chart-filled slide decks, and opaque machine learning jargon that leaves them asking, "So what?" Analytics the Right Way is a guide for these leaders. It provides a clear and practical approach to putting analytics to productive use with a three-part framework that brings together the realities of the modern business environment with the deep truths underpinning statistics, computer science, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. The result: a pragmatic and actionable guide for delivering clarity, order, and business impact to an organization's use of data and analytics. The book uses a combination of real-world examples from the authors' direct experiences--working inside organizations, as external consultants, and as educators--mixed with vivid hypotheticals and illustrations--little green aliens, petty criminals with an affinity for ice cream, skydiving without parachutes, and more--to empower the reader to put foundational analytical and statistical concepts to effective use in a business context.

A vivid account of a major shift in how we understand Earth, from an exceptionally talented new voice. Earth is not simply an inanimate planet on which life evolved, but rather a planet that came to life. "Glorious . . . full of achingly beautiful passages, mind-bending conceptual twists, and wonderful characters. Jabr reveals how Earth has been profoundly, miraculously shaped by life."--Ed Yong, Pulitzer Prize winner and bestselling author of An Immense World One of humanity's oldest beliefs is that our world is alive. Though once ridiculed by some scientists, the idea of Earth as a vast interconnected living system has gained acceptance in recent decades. We, and all living things, are more than inhabitants of Earth--we are Earth, an outgrowth of its structure and an engine of its evolution. Life and its environment have coevolved for billions of years, transforming a lump of orbiting rock into a cosmic oasis--a planet that breathes, metabolizes, and regulates its climate. Acclaimed science writer Ferris Jabr reveals a radical new vision of Earth where lush forests spew water, pollen, and bacteria to summon rain; giant animals engineer the very landscapes they roam; microbes chew rock to shape continents; and microscopic plankton, some as glittering as carved jewels, remake the air and sea. Humans are one of the most extreme examples of life transforming Earth. Through fossil fuel consumption, agriculture, and pollution, we have altered more layers of the planet in less time than any other species, pushing Earth into a crisis. But we are also uniquely able to understand and protect the planet's wondrous ecology and self-stabilizing processes. Jabr introduces us to a diverse cast of fascinating people who have devoted themselves to this vital work. Becoming Earth is an exhilarating journey through the hidden workings of our planetary symphony--its players, its instruments, and the music of life that emerges--and an invitation to reexamine our place in it. How well we play our part will determine what kind of Earth our descendants inherit for millennia to come.

Implement AI and big data at your organization using principles from behavioral economics In Behavioral AI: Unleash Decision Making with Data, behavioral economist Dr. Rogayeh Tabrizi delivers an intuitive roadmap to help organizations disentangle the complexity of their data to create tangible and lasting value. The book explains how to balance the multiple disciplines that power AI and behavioral economics using a combination of the right questions and insightful problem solving. You'll learn why intellectual diversity and combining subject matter experts in psychology, behavior, economics, physics, computer science, and engineering is essential to creating advanced AI solutions. You'll also discover: How behavioral economics principles influence data models and governance architectures and make digital transformation processes more efficient and effective Discussions of the most important barriers to value in typical big data and AI projects and how to bring them down The most effective methodology to help shorten the long, wasteful process of "boiling the ocean of data" An exciting and essential resource for managers, executives, board members, and other business leaders engaged or interested in harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and big data, Behavioral AI will also benefit data and machine learning professionals.

Renowned naturalist Kenn Kaufman examines the scientific discoveries of John James Audubon and his artistic and ornithologist peers in this fascinating "blend of history, science, art, biography, and memoir" (Booklist, starred review) that is "a bird lovers' delight" (Kirkus Reviews). Raging ambition. Towering egos. Competition under a veneer of courtesy. Heroic effort combined with plagiarism, theft, exaggeration, and fraud. This was the state of bird study in eastern North America during the early 1800s, as a handful of intrepid men raced to find the last few birds that were still unknown to science. The most famous name in the bird world was John James Audubon, who painted spectacular portraits of birds. But although his images were beautiful, creating great art was not his main goal. Instead, he aimed to illustrate (and write about) as many different species as possible, obsessed with trying to outdo his rival, Alexander Wilson. George Ord, a fan and protégé of Wilson, held a bitter grudge against Audubon for years, claiming he had faked much of his information and his scientific claims. A few of Audubon's birds were pure fiction, and some of his writing was invented or plagiarized. Other naturalists of the era, including Charles Bonaparte (nephew of Napoleon), John Townsend, and Thomas Nuttall, also became entangled in the scientific derby, as they stumbled toward an understanding of the natural world--an endeavor that continues to this day. Despite this intense competition, a few species--including some surprisingly common songbirds, hawks, sandpipers, and more--managed to evade discovery for years. Here, renowned bird expert and artist Kenn Kaufman explores this period in history from a new angle, by considering the birds these people discovered and, especially, the ones they missed. Kaufman has created portraits of the birds that Audubon never saw, attempting to paint them in that artist's own stunning style, showing how our understanding of birds continues to gain clarity, even as some mysteries persist from Audubon's time until ours.

Named a Best Book of the Year by Kirkus Reviews "Riveting . . . Character Limit offers a telling lesson in the cost of getting everything you want." --The Washington Post "You couldn't hope for a better ringside seat on the unfolding drama . . . [Character Limit] is a triumph." --The Guardian   "Masterful in how it paints a picture and puts you in the room with the famous entrepreneur . . . Character Limit is a page turner." --Forbes Rising star New York Times technology reporters, Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, tell for the first time the full and shocking inside story of Elon Musk's unprecedented takeover of Twitter and the forty-four-billion-dollar deal's seismic political, social, and financial fallout The billionaire entrepreneur and Tesla CEO Elon Musk has become inextricable from the social media platform that until 2023 was known as Twitter. Started in the mid-2000s as a playful microblogging platform, Twitter quickly became a vital nexus of global politics, culture, and media--where the retweet button could instantly catapult any idea to hundreds of millions of screens around the world, unleashing raw collective emotion like nothing else before. While its founder had idealistically dreamed of building a "digital town square," he detested Wall Street and never focused on building a profitable business. Musk joined the platform in 2010 and, by 2022, had become one of the site's most influential users, hooking over 80 million followers with a mix of provocations, promotion of his companies, and attacks on his enemies. To Musk, Twitter -- once known for its almost absolute commitment to free speech -- had badly lost its way. He blamed it for the proliferation of what he called the "woke mind virus" and claimed that the survival of democracy and the human race itself depended on the future of the site. In January of 2022, Musk began secretly accumulating Twitter stock. By April, he was its largest shareholder, and soon after, made an unsolicited offer to purchase the company for the unimaginable sum of $44 billion dollars. Backed into a corner, Twitter's board accepted his offer--but Musk quickly changed his mind, forcing Twitter to sue him to close the deal in October. The richest man on earth controlled one of the most powerful media platforms in the world--but at what price? Before long Twitter would be gone for good, replaced by something radically different, as Musk remade the company in his own image from the ground up. The story of the showdown between Musk and Twitter and his eventual takeover of the company is unlike anything in business or media that has come before. In vivid, cinematic detail, Conger and Mac follow the inner workings of the company as Musk lays siege to it, first from the outside as one of its most vocal users, and then finally from within as a contentious and mercurial leader. Musk has shared some of his version of events, but Conger and Mac have uncovered the full story through exclusive interviews, unreported documents, and internal recordings at Twitter following the billionaire's takeover. With unparalleled sources from within and around the company, they provide a revelatory, three-dimensional, and definitive account of what really happened when Musk showed up, spoiling for a brawl and intent on revolution, with his merciless, sycophantic cadre of lawyers, investors, and bankers. This is the defining story of our time told with uncommon style and peerless rigor. In a world of viral ideas and emotion, who gets to control the narrative, who gets to be heard, and what does power really cost?

Shortlisted for the Women's Prize for Non-Fiction Named a best book of the year by Publishers Weekly A riveting story of what it means to be human in a world changed by artificial intelligence, revealing the perils and inequities of our growing reliance on automated decision-making On the surface, a British poet, an UberEats courier in Pittsburgh, an Indian doctor, and a Chinese activist in exile have nothing in common. But they are in fact linked by a profound common experience--unexpected encounters with artificial intelligence. In Code Dependent, Murgia shows how automated systems are reshaping our lives all over the world, from technology that marks children as future criminals, to an app that is helping to give diagnoses to a remote tribal community. AI has already infiltrated our day-to-day, through language-generating chatbots like ChatGPT and social media. But it's also affecting us in more insidious ways. It touches everything from our interpersonal relationships, to our kids' education, work, finances, public services, and even our human rights. By highlighting the voices of ordinary people in places far removed from the cozy enclave of Silicon Valley, Code Dependent explores the impact of a set of powerful, flawed, and often-exploitative technologies on individuals, communities, and our wider society. Murgia exposes how AI can strip away our collective and individual sense of agency, and shatter our illusion of free will. The ways in which algorithms and their effects are governed over the coming years will profoundly impact us all. Yet we can't agree on a common path forward. We cannot decide what preferences and morals we want to encode in these entities--or what controls we may want to impose on them. And thus, we are collectively relinquishing our moral authority to machines. In Code Dependent, Murgia not only sheds light on this chilling phenomenon, but also charts a path of resistance. AI is already changing what it means to be human, in ways large and small, and Murgia reveals what could happen if we fail to reclaim our humanity.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * An urgent warning of the unprecedented risks that AI and other fast-developing technologies pose to global order, and how we might contain them while we have the chance--from a co-founder of the pioneering artificial intelligence company DeepMind and current CEO of Microsoft AI "A fascinating, well-written, and important book."--Yuval Noah Harari "Essential reading."--Daniel Kahneman "An excellent guide for navigating unprecedented times."--Bill Gates A Best Book of the Year: CNN, Economist, Bloomberg, Politico Playbook, Financial Times, The Guardian, CEO Magazine, Semafor * Winner of the Inc. Non-Obvious Book Award * Finalist for the Porchlight Business Book Award and the Financial Times and Schroders Business Book of the Year Award We are approaching a critical threshold in the history of our species. Everything is about to change.    Soon you will live surrounded by AIs. They will organize your life, operate your business, and run core government services. You will live in a world of DNA printers and quantum computers, engineered pathogens and autonomous weapons, robot assistants and abundant energy.    None of us are prepared.   As co-founder of the pioneering AI company DeepMind, part of Google, Mustafa Suleyman has been at the center of this revolution. The coming decade, he argues, will be defined by this wave of powerful, fast-proliferating new technologies.    In The Coming Wave, Suleyman shows how these forces will create immense prosperity but also threaten the nation-state, the foundation of global order. As our fragile governments sleepwalk into disaster, we face an existential dilemma: unprecedented harms on one side, the threat of overbearing surveillance on the other.    How do we ensure the flourishing of humankind? How do we maintain control? How do we navigate the narrow path to a successful future?   This groundbreaking book from the ultimate AI insider establishes "the containment problem"--the task of maintaining control over powerful technologies--as the essential challenge of our age.

A hands-on, beginner-friendly approach to developing complete web applications from the ground up, using JavaScript and its most popular frameworks, including Node.js and React.js. Whether you've been in the developer kitchen for decades or are just taking the plunge to do it yourself, The Complete Developer will show you how to build and implement every component of a modern stack-from scratch. You'll go from a React-driven frontend to a fully fleshed-out backend with Mongoose, MongoDB, and a complete set of REST and GraphQL APIs, and back again through the whole Next.js stack. The book's easy-to-follow, step-by-step recipes will teach you how to build a web server with Express.js, create custom API routes, deploy applications via self-contained microservices, and add a reactive, component-based UI. You'll leverage command line tools and full-stack frameworks to build an application whose no-effort user management rides on GitHub logins. You'll also learn how to- Work with modern JavaScript syntax, TypeScript, and the Next.js framework Simplify UI development with the React library Extend your application with REST and GraphQL APIs Manage your data with the MongoDB NoSQL database Use OAuth to simplify user management, authentication, and authorization Automate testing with Jest, test-driven development, stubs, mocks, and fakes Whether you're an experienced software engineer or new to DIY web development, The Complete Developer will teach you to succeed with the modern full stack. After all, control matters. Covers- Docker, Express.js, JavaScript, Jest, MongoDB, Mongoose, Next.js, Node.js, OAuth, React, REST and GraphQL APIs, and TypeScript

Nat Eliason had six months to make as much money as possible before his first child was born. So, he turned to where countless others did in 2021: Crypto. Within a year, he'd made millions writing code holding hundreds of millions of dollars of other people's money. He'd been hacked. He'd sold a picture of a monkey for two hundred grand. He'd become an influencer, speaking at conferences, and writing a weekly newsletter to tens of thousands of fans. Best of all, Nat had amassed a small fortune. But how much of this money was even real? And how many times can someone double down before they eventually lose everything? Crypto Confidential is Nat's unfiltered, insider's account of the hyperactive, hyper-speculative, hyper-addictive, nearly unregulated, completely insane world being built on the blockchain. A behind-the-scenes expose of the bull runs and breakdowns, revealing exactly how the crypto-sausage gets made. A story of getting rich, going broke, scamming and getting scammed - and how we can all be more educated participants during the inevitable next bull run.

From internationally-bestselling author and journalist Andrew Smith, an immersive, alarming, sharp-eyed journey into the bizarre world of computer code, told through his sometimes painful, often amusing attempt to become a coder himself Throughout history, technological revolutions have been driven by the invention of machines. But today, the power of the technology transforming our world lies in an intangible and impenetrable cosmos of software: algorithmic code. So symbiotic has our relationship with this code become that we barely notice it anymore. We can't see it, are not even sure how to think about it, and yet we do almost nothing that doesn't depend on it. In a world increasingly governed by technologies that so few can comprehend, who--or what--controls the future? Devil in the Stack follows Andrew Smith on his immersive trip into the world of coding, passing through the stories of logic, machine-learning and early computing, from Ada Lovelace to Alan Turing, and up to the present moment, behind the scenes into the lives--and minds--of the new frontiers people of the 21st century: those who write code. Smith embarks on a quest to understand this sect in what he believes to be the only waypossible: by learning to code himself. Expansive and effervescent, Devil in the Stack delivers a portrait of code as both a vivid culture and an impending threat. How do we control a technology that most people can't understand? And are we programming ourselves out of existence? Perhaps most terrifying of all: Is there something about the way we compute - the way code works - that is innately at odds with the way humans have evolved? By turns revelatory, unsettling, and joyously funny, Devil in the Stack is an essential book for our times, of vital interest to anyone hoping to participate in the future-defining technological debates to come.

Before Edmond Halley, comets were dreadful things, full of dire import. They foretold doom and destruction, the coming of plague, the death of a ruler, the fall of a kingdom. But the Astronomer Royal changed all that … and much more.

The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo's Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own "Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name," writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science--Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre's untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life. As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy--from France's Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway's Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie's elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève's later recollection, "discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world." With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.

Simple for beginners to pick up, JavaScript is a flexible, lightweight language for building full-scale applications for the modern web. This much-anticipated fourth edition of Eloquent JavaScript shows you how to write beautiful, effective JavaScript code. It has been updated to reflect the current state of both JavaScript and web browsers, discussing new features like optional chaining, nullish coalescing, class properties, private fields, and newly standardized methods. Chapters on asynchronous programming, objects, and modules have been overhauled to reflect modern JavaScript style and improve readability. This bestselling book teaches through extensive examples and immerses you in code from the start, while exercises and full-chapter projects give you hands-on experience with writing your own programs. As you build projects, like a website and a pixel art editor, you'll: Understand the essential elements of JS programming, including syntax, control, and data Organize and clarify your code with object-oriented and functional programming techniques Use the DOM effectively to interact with browsers Script the browser and make basic web applications Harness Node.js to build servers and utilities Isn't it time you became fluent in the language of the web?

The software architect role is evolving. As systems and their interactions with the teams that build, run, and evolve them become more complex, it's often impossible for those playing the traditional architect roles to be everywhere they need to be. There's simply too much architecture to be done, and the situation has reached a breaking point. There's a better way. Author Andrew Harmel-Law shows you how architects and development teams can collaborate to create and evolve more efficient architectures for their systems. Techniques in this book will help you learn how to create a mindset that allows everyone to practice architecture and build the best systems they've ever experienced. With this book, you will: Understand the new dynamics that affect modern software delivery Learn a methodology that brings software architecture and development together Nurture the fundamental interplay of decisions, advice, architecture, and feedback from running systems Initiate practices that maximize benefits and mitigate risks Create an approach tuned to architecture, everyone's skills, and your organization's culture

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER | USA TODAY BESTSELLER  |  LOS ANGELES TIMES BESTSELLER  | J.P. MORGAN NEXTLIST SELECTION In his final book, the late Henry Kissinger joins forces with two leading technologists to mount "a profound exploration" (Walter Isaacson) of the epochal challenges and opportunities presented by the revolution in Artificial Intelligence: a breakthrough that dramatically empowers people in all walks of life while also raising urgent questions about the future of humanity.   As it absorbs data, gains agency, and intermediates between humans and reality, AI (Artificial Intelligence) will help us to address enormous crises, from climate change to geopolitical conflicts to income inequality. It might well solve some of the greatest mysteries of our universe and elevate the human spirit to unimaginable heights. But it will also pose challenges on a scale and of an intensity that we have never seen--usurping our power of independent judgment and action, testing our relationship with the divine, and perhaps even spurring a new phase in human evolution.   The last book of elder statesman Henry Kissinger, written with technologists Craig Mundie and Eric Schmidt, Genesis charts a course between blind faith and unjustified fear as it outlines an effective strategy for navigating the age of AI.

We've all heard the phrase 'it's not brain surgery.' But what exactly is brain surgery? It's a profession that is barely a hundred years old and profoundly connects two human beings, but few know how it works, or its history. How did early neurosurgeons come to understand the human brain - an extraordinarily complex organ that controls everything we do, and yet at only three pounds is so fragile? And how did this incredibly challenging and lifesaving specialty emerge? In this warm, rigorous, and deeply insightful book, Dr. Theodore H. Schwartz explores what it's like to hold the scalpel, wield the drill, extract a tumor, fix a bullet hole, and remove a blood clot - when every second can mean life or death. Drawing from the author's own cases, plus media, sports, and government archives, this seminal work delves into all the brain-related topics that have long-consumed public curiosity, like what really happened to JFK, President Biden's brain surgery, and the NFL's management of CTE. Dr. Schwartz also surveys the field's latest incredible advances and discusses the philosophical questions of the unity of the self and the existence of free will. A neurosurgeon as well as a professor of neurosurgery at Weill Cornell Medical Center at New York Presbyterian Hospital, one of the busiest and most highly ranked neurosurgery centers in the world, Dr. Schwartz tells this story like no one else could. Told through anecdote and clear explanation, this is the ultimate cultural and scientific history of a literally mind-blowing human endeavor, one that cuts to the core of who we are.

How society can shape individual actions in times of uncertainty When we make decisions, our thinking is informed by societal norms, "guardrails" that guide our decisions, like the laws and rules that govern us. But what are good guardrails in today's world of overwhelming information flows and increasingly powerful technologies, such as artificial intelligence? Based on the latest insights from the cognitive sciences, economics, and public policy, Guardrails offers a novel approach to shaping decisions by embracing human agency in its social context. In this visionary book, Urs Gasser and Viktor Mayer-Schönberger show how the quick embrace of technological solutions can lead to results we don't always want, and they explain how society itself can provide guardrails more suited to the digital age, ones that empower individual choice while accounting for the social good, encourage flexibility in the face of changing circumstances, and ultimately help us to make better decisions as we tackle the most daunting problems of our times, such as global injustice and climate change. Whether we change jobs, buy a house, or quit smoking, thousands of decisions large and small shape our daily lives. Decisions drive our economies, seal the fate of democracies, create war or peace, and affect the well-being of our planet. Guardrails challenges the notion that technology should step in where our own decision making fails, laying out a surprisingly human-centered set of principles that can create new spaces for better decisions and a more equitable and prosperous society.

#1 New York Times Bestseller "This brilliant book will shatter your assumptions about what it takes to improve and succeed. I wish I could go back in time and gift it to my younger self. It would've helped me find a more joyful path to progress." --Serena Williams, 23-time Grand Slam singles tennis champion The #1 New York Times bestselling author of Think Again illuminates how we can elevate ourselves and others to unexpected heights. We live in a world that's obsessed with talent. We celebrate gifted students in school, natural athletes in sports, and child prodigies in music. But admiring people who start out with innate advantages leads us to overlook the distance we ourselves can travel. We underestimate the range of skills that we can learn and how good we can become. We can all improve at improving. And when opportunity doesn't knock, there are ways to build a door. Hidden Potential offers a new framework for raising aspirations and exceeding expectations. Adam Grant weaves together groundbreaking evidence, surprising insights, and vivid storytelling that takes us from the classroom to the boardroom, the playground to the Olympics, and underground to outer space. He shows that progress depends less on how hard you work than how well you learn. Growth is not about the genius you possess--it's about the character you develop. Grant explores how to build the character skills and motivational structures to realize our own potential, and how to design systems that create opportunities for those who have been underrated and overlooked. Many writers have chronicled the habits of superstars who accomplish great things. This book reveals how anyone can rise to achieve greater things. The true measure of your potential is not the height of the peak you've reached, but how far you've climbed to get there.

"Bold and intriguing."--Wall Street Journal * "Penetrating. . . . Provocative and profound."--Publishers Weekly (starred review) * "Offers plenty of food for thought."--Kirkus Reviews (starred review)   "Ball's marvelous book is both wide-ranging and deep. . . . I could not put it down."--Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of The Song of the Cell and the Pulitzer Prize-winning The Emperor of All Maladies A new, cutting-edge vision of biology that revises our understanding of what life itself is, how to enhance it, and what possibilities it offers.   Biology is undergoing a quiet but profound transformation. Several aspects of the standard picture of how life works--the idea of the genome as a blueprint, of genes as instructions for building an organism, of proteins as precisely tailored molecular machines, of cells as entities with fixed identities, and more--have been exposed as incomplete, misleading, or wrong.   In How Life Works, Philip Ball explores the new biology, revealing life to be a far richer, more ingenious affair than we had guessed. Ball explains that there is no unique place to look for an answer to this question: life is a system of many levels--genes, proteins, cells, tissues, and body modules such as the immune system and the nervous system--each with its own rules and principles. How Life Works explains how these levels operate, interface, and work together (most of the time).   With this knowledge come new possibilities. Today we can redesign and reconfigure living systems, tissues, and organisms. We can reprogram cells, for instance, to carry out new tasks and grow into structures not seen in the natural world. As we discover the conditions that dictate the forms into which cells organize themselves, our ability to guide and select the outcomes becomes ever more extraordinary. Some researchers believe that ultimately we will be able to regenerate limbs and organs, and perhaps even create new life forms that evolution has never imagined.   Incorporating the latest research and insights, How Life Works is a sweeping journey into this new frontier of the life sciences, a realm that will reshape our understanding of life as we know it.

By now you've heard the buzz about Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs), and how they are going to redefine how we work and earn. But when you peel away the hype and tech jargon, what are they really? How do they operate, why do they matter, and how can we all thrive in this brave new world of work? In How to DAO, industry veterans Kevin Owacki and Puncar take you on an illuminating journey into the world of groundbreaking change, exploring the principles of decentralized finance, and teaching the brass tacks of setting up and managing your own DAO, from smart contracts to governance and innovation. With How to DAO, discover what DAOs are really about, and learn the tips and tricks you need to harness the limitless potential of this transformative new technology.

Scientific breakthroughs that changed the way we understand the world--and the fascinating stories of the scientists behind them Some of the most significant breakthroughs in science don't receive widespread recognition until decades later, sometimes after their author's death. Nobel Prize-winner Max Planck, whose black-body radiation law established the discipline of quantum mechanics, stated this as what has become known as Planck's principle, commonly summarized as "Science progresses one funeral at a time." In other words, for some truly groundbreaking discoveries, a new consensus builds only when proponents of the old consensus die off. Breakthrough discoveries require a paradigm shift, and it takes time and new minds for the new paradigm to be adopted.   In Innovators, Donald Kirsch tells the stories of sixteen visionary scientists who suffered this fate, some now famous like Max Planck himself, Galileo, and Gregor Mendel, and some less well known. Among them are Barbara McClintock who, working with Indian corn, discovered transposons, also known as jumping genes, which provide a major mechanism driving biological evolution; Rachel Carson, catalyst for the environmental movement; and Roger Revelle, the climatologist whose findings were the first to be described by the term "global warming." The breakthroughs cover fields from biology to medicine to physics and earth sciences and include the discovery of prions, life-changing treatments such as drugs for high blood pressure, ulcers, and organ transplantation; the process of continental drift; and our understanding of how molecules form matter.

A fast-paced, thorough programming introduction that will have you writing your own software and web applications in no time. Like Python Crash Course, this hands-on guide is a must-have for anyone who wants to learn how to code from the ground up-this time using the popular JavaScript programming language. Learn JavaScript-Fast! JavaScript Crash Course is a fun-filled, fast-paced introduction to programming with JavaScript. Dive right in and you'll be writing code, solving problems, and building working web applications and games in no time. You'll start by learning fundamental programming concepts, such as variables, arrays, objects, functions, conditionals, loops, classes, and more. Aided by engaging examples and hands-on exercises, you'll build on this foundation and combine JavaScript with HTML and CSS to create interactive web applications that you can run right away. Then you'll put your new skills into play with three substantial projects- a Pong-style game with a virtual opponent, an app that generates electronic music, and a platform for visualizing data fetched from an API. Along the way, you'll learn how to- . Update web pages in real time by manipulating the Document Object Model . Trigger functions in response to events like key presses and mouse clicks . Generate graphics and animations with JavaScript and HTML's Canvas element . Visualize data with the D3.js library and scalable vector graphics (SVG) . Make electronic music with Tone.js and the Web Audio API If you've been thinking about digging into programming, JavaScript Crash Course will get you writing real programs fast. Why wait any longer? Jump on your magic carpet and ride!

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER ONE OF TIME'S 100 MOST INFLUENTUAL PEOPLE IN GLOBAL HEALTH "This book is more than a memoir-it also serves as a call to action to create a more equitable healthcare system for patients of color, particularly Black women." -Essence One of NPR's 11 Books to Look Forward to in 2024 One of Good Morning America's 15 New Books to Read for the New Year "Legacy is both a compelling memoir and an edifying analysis of the inequities in the way we deliver healthcare in America. Uche Blackstock is a force of nature." -Abraham Verghese, MD, New York Times bestselling author of The Covenant of Water " An extraordinary family story." -Dr. Damon Tweedy, The New York Times Book Review "This book should be required reading for all medical students." -Gayle King, CBS Mornings The rousing, captivating story of a Black physician, her career in medicine, and the deep inequities that still exist in the U.S. healthcare system Growing up in Brooklyn, New York, it never occurred to Uche Blackstock and her twin sister, Oni, that they would be anything but physicians. In the 1980s, their mother headed an organization of Black women physicians, and for years the girls watched these fiercely intelligent women in white coats tend to their patients and neighbors, host community health fairs, cure ills, and save lives. What Dr. Uche Blackstock did not understand as a child-or learn about at Harvard Medical School, where she and her sister had followed in their mother's footsteps, making them the first Black mother-daughter legacies from the school-were the profound and long-standing systemic inequities that mean just 2 percent of all U.S. physicians today are Black women; the racist practices and policies that ensure Black Americans have far worse health outcomes than any other group in the country; and the flawed system that endangers the well-being of communities like theirs. As an ER physician, and later as a professor in academic medicine, Dr. Blackstock became profoundly aware of the systemic barriers that Black patients and physicians continue to face. Legacy is a journey through the critical intersection of racism and healthcare. At once a searing indictment of our healthcare system, a generational family memoir, and a call to action, Legacy is Dr. Blackstock's odyssey from child to medical student to practicing physician-to finally seizing her own power as a health equity advocate against the backdrop of the pandemic and the Black Lives Matter movement.

The bestselling author of Other Minds shows how we and our ancestors have reinvented our planet. If the history of the Earth were compressed down to a year, our species would arise in the last thirty minutes or so of the final hour. But life itself is not such a late arrival: It has existed on Earth for something like 3.7 billion years--most of our planet's history and over a quarter of the age of the universe (as far as we can tell). What have these organisms--bacteria, animals, plants, and the rest--done in all this time? In Living on Earth, the philosopher Peter Godfrey-Smith proposes a new way of understanding how the actions of living beings have shaped our planet. Where his acclaimed books Other Minds and Metazoa explored the riddle of how conscious minds came to exist on Earth, Living on Earth turns to what happens when we look at the mind from another side--when we come to see organisms as active causes, not merely as results of the evolutionary process. The planet we inhabit is significantly the work of other living beings, who shaped the environments that we ourselves later transformed. To that end, Godfrey-Smith takes us on a grand tour of the history of life on earth. He visits Rwandan gorillas and Australian bowerbirds, returns to coral reefs and octopus dens, considers the impact of language and writing, and weighs the responsibilities our unique powers bring with them, as they relate to factory farming, habitat preservation, climate change, and the use of animals in experiments. Ranging from the seas to the forests, and from animate matter's first appearance to its future extinction, Godfrey-Smith offers a novel picture of the course of life on Earth and how we might meet the challenges of our time, the Anthropocene.

Unveils how the immune system works and explores strategies for harnessing its potential for maintaining good health. Embark on a fascinating journey into the human immune system with The Logic of Immunity. B. J. Cherayil, an accomplished immunologist and educator, demystifies the complex workings of our body's defense system. This scientifically grounded book illustrates the inner mechanisms of specialized cells and molecules that safeguard our health, shedding light on how and why our immune systems can malfunction and lead to disease. Drawing from years of experience and expertise, Dr. Cherayil skillfully guides readers through the intricacies of immune responses and offers invaluable insights into the latest research-backed strategies to harness their power for maintaining and restoring well-being. Blending scientific knowledge with historical anecdotes, this work also introduces the remarkable scientists who have shaped our understanding of immune function. Complemented by detailed illustrations and a glossary of key terms, The Logic of Immunityexplains how the immune system interacts with other body systems, why some people develop autoimmune diseases while others do not, and how lifestyle factors may activate or suppress the immune system. Explore the enigmatic world of immunity, unlock its secrets, and discover the power it holds to protect our health.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER! An ode to triangles, the shape that makes our lives possible   Trigonometry is perhaps the most essential concept humans have ever devised. The simple yet versatile triangle allows us to record music, map the world, launch rockets into space, and be slightly less bad at pool. Triangles underpin our day-to-day lives and civilization as we know it.   In Love Triangle, Matt Parker argues we should all show a lot more love for triangles, along with all the useful trigonometry and geometry they enable. To prove his point, he uses triangles to create his own digital avatar, survive a harrowing motorcycle ride, cut a sandwich, fall in love, measure tall buildings in a few awkward bounds, and make some unusual art. Along the way, he tells extraordinary and entertaining stories of the mathematicians, engineers, and philosophers--starting with Pythagoras--who dared to take triangles seriously.   This is the guide you should have had in high school--a lively and definitive answer to "Why do I need to learn about trigonometry?" Parker reveals triangles as the hidden pattern beneath the surface of the contemporary world. Like love, triangles actually are all around. And in the air. And they're all you need.

The bestselling author of Lost Connections and Stolen Focus offers a revelatory look at the new drugs transforming weight loss as we know it--from his personal experience on Ozempic to our ability to heal our society's dysfunctional relationship with food, weight, and our bodies. In January 2023, Johann Hari started to inject himself once a week with Ozempic, one of the new drugs that produces significant weight loss. He wasn't alone--some predictions suggest that in a few years, a quarter of the U.S. population will be taking these drugs. While around 80 percent of diets fail, someone taking one of the new drugs will lose up to a quarter of their body weight in six months. To the drugs' defenders, here is a moment of liberation from a condition that massively increases your chances of diabetes, cancer, and an early death.  Still, Hari was wildly conflicted. Can these drugs really be as good as they sound? Are they a magic solution--or a magic trick? Finding the answer to this high-stakes question led him on a journey from Iceland to Minneapolis to Tokyo, and to interview the leading experts in the world on these questions. He found that along with the drug's massive benefits come twelve significant potential risks.  He also found that these drugs radically challenge what we think we know about shame, willpower, and healing. What do they reveal about the nature of obesity itself? What psychological issues begin to emerge when our eating patterns are suddenly disrupted? Are the drugs a liberation or a further symptom of our deeply dysfunctional relationship with food?  These drugs are about to change our world, for better and for worse. Everybody needs to understand how they work--scientifically, emotionally, and culturally. Magic Pill is an essential guide to the revolution that has already begun, and which one leading expert argues will be as transformative as the invention of the smartphone.

"I love maps. I love math. And gosh, do I love this book, which so beautifully and clearly sounds the depths of both." --Ben Orlin, author of Math with Bad Drawings Explore the surprising connections between math and maps--and the myriad ways they've shaped our world and us. Why are coastlines and borders so difficult to measure? How does a UPS driver deliver hundreds of packages in a single day? And where do elusive serial killers hide? The answers lie in the crucial connection between maps and math. In Mapmatics, mathematician Paulina Rowińska leads us on a riveting journey around the globe to discover how maps and math are deeply entwined, and always have been. From a sixteenth-century map, an indispensable navigation tool that exaggerates the size of northern countries, to public transport maps that both guide and confound passengers, to congressional maps that can empower or silence whole communities, she reveals how maps and math have shaped not only our sense of space but our worldview. In her hands, we learn how to read maps like a mathematician--to extract richer information and, just as importantly, to question our conclusions by asking what we don't see. Written with authority and compassion, wit and unforgettable storytelling, this is math exposition at its best. By unpacking the math behind the maps we depend on, Mapmatics illuminates how our world works and, ultimately, how we can better look after it.

A Fortune magazine journalist draws on his expertise and extensive contacts among the companies and scientists at the forefront of artificial intelligence to offer dramatic predictions of AI's impact over the next decade, from reshaping our economy and the way we work, learn, and create to unknitting our social fabric, jeopardizing our democracy, and fundamentally altering the way we think. Within the next five years, Jeremy Kahn predicts, AI will disrupt almost every industry and enterprise, with vastly increased efficiency and productivity. It will restructure the workforce, making AI copilots a must for every knowledge worker. It will revamp education, meaning children around the world can have personal, portable tutors. It will revolutionize health care, making individualized, targeted pharmaceuticals more affordable. It will compel us to reimagine how we make art, compose music, and write and publish books. The potential of generative AI to extend our skills, talents, and creativity as humans is undeniably exciting and promising. But while this new technology has a bright future, it also casts a dark and fearful shadow. AI will provoke pervasive, disruptive, potentially devastating knock-on effects. Leveraging his unrivaled access to the leaders, scientists, futurists, and others who are making AI a reality, Kahn will argue that if not carefully designed and vigilantly regulated AI will deepen income inequality, depressing wages while imposing winner-take-all markets across much of the economy. AI risks undermining democracy, as truth is overtaken by misinformation, racial bias, and harmful stereotypes. Continuing a process begun by the internet, AI will rewire our brains, likely inhibiting our ability to think critically, to remember, and even to get along with one another--unless we all take decisive action to prevent this from happening. Much as Michael Lewis's classic The New New Thing offered a prescient, insightful, and eminently readable account of life inside the dot-com bubble, Mastering AI delivers much-needed guidance for anyone eager to understand the AI boom--and what comes next.

From Stanford professor, author of Limitless Mind, youcubed.org founder, and leading expert in the field of mathematics education Jo Boaler comes a groundbreaking guide to finding joy and understanding by adopting a diverse approach to learning math. "Every once in a while, someone revolutionizes an approach to a difficult subject and changes it forever. That is what Jo Boaler has done for math. Fresh, smart, and inclusive, Jo Boaler's strategy eschews the one-size-fits-a-few approach and instead allows math to be seen and solved by everyone. A huge achievement. Math-ish is the only math book I've ever enjoyed reading in my entire life. Honestly." -Bonnie Garmus, author of Lessons in Chemistry Mathematics is a fundamental part of life, yet every one of us has a unique relationship with learning and understanding the subject. Working with numbers may inspire confidence in our abilities or provoke anxiety and trepidation. Stanford researcher, mathematics education professor, and the leading expert on math learning Dr. Jo Boaler argues that our differences are the key to unlocking our greatest mathematics potential. In Math-ish, Boaler shares new neuroscientific research on how embracing the concept of "math-ish"--a theory of mathematics as it exists in the real world--changes the way we think about mathematics, data, and ourselves. When we can see the value of diversity among people and multi-faceted approaches to learning math, we are free to truly flourish. Utilizing the latest research on math education, Jo guides us through seven principles that can radically reframe our relationship with the subject: * The power of mindset on learning * Utilizing a visual approach to math * The impact of physical movement and communication on understanding * Understanding the value of an "ish" perspective - in mathematics and beyond * The importance of connected and flexible knowledge * New data on diverse teaching modes that work with different learning styles, not against them * The value of diversity in learning mathematics--and beyond When mathematics is approached more broadly, inclusively, and with a greater sense of wonder and play--when we value the different ways people see, approach, and understand it--we empower ourselves and gain a beneficial understanding of its value in our lives.

Use applied math to map fire stations, develop facial recognition software, solve the art gallery problem and more in this hands-on, real-world infosec book. Explore the intersection of mathematics and computer security with this engaging and accessible guide. Math for Security will equip you with essential tools to tackle complex security problems head on. All you need are some basic programming skills. Once you've set up your development environment and reviewed the necessary Python syntax and math notation in the early chapters, you'll dive deep into practical applications, leveraging the power of math to analyze networks, optimize resource distribution, and much more. In the book's final chapters, you'll take your projects from proof of concepts to viable applications and explore options for delivering them to end users. As you work through various security scenarios, you'll- Employ packet analysis and graph theory to detect data exfiltration attempts in a network Predict potential targets and find weaknesses in social networks with Monte Carlo simulations Use basic geometry and OpenCell data to triangulate a phone's location without GPS Apply computational geometry to Voronoi diagrams for use in emergency service planning Train a facial recognition system with machine learning for real-time identity verification Use spatial analysis to distribute physical security features effectively in an art gallery Whether you're an aspiring security professional, a social network analyst, or an innovator seeking to create cutting-edge security solutions, this book will empower you to solve complex problems with precision and confidence. Embrace the intricate world of math as your secret weapon in computer security! Covers Python 3.x

An accessible, beautifully illustrated celebration of insects--and their extraordinary contributions to humankind--from the hosts of the BBC Radio's Metamorphosis Insects outnumber humans 200 million to one, and their impact on people and the planet boasts a similar magnitude. Metamorphosis: How Insects Are Changing Our World investigates how modern entomological wonders contribute to the prosperity of humankind. Featuring more than 80 color illustrations that highlight the impressive variety and vibrancy of everything from beetles to blowflies, the book covers contemporary topics that emphasize the intersections between insects, technology, and the future of the planet, including: the role of insect metamorphosis as a barometer to track future climate change how invaluable the fruit fly has been to space travel how the hawkmoth's tongue is inspiring bioengineers to develop medical nanoprobes the way bee intelligence is shaping sophisticated flying robots for surveillance and rescue how a network of fly farms are set to lower carbon emissions  The study of insects has led to incredible strides in robotics, genetics, forensics, agriculture, medicine, aerospace, artificial intelligence, and biodiversity. Metamorphosis celebrates insect-driven progress and captures its sense of possibility with up-to-date research and scientific storytelling that connects readers to the bugs around them.

"A WONDERFUL READ ... Christine's deep love for turtles comes through on each page."--CRAIG FOSTER, MY OCTOPUS TEACHER "Will appeal to anyone interested in the world around us."--DR. JANE GOODALL Filled with reverence and wonder for the natural world, this captivating book reveals the secret life of sea turtles, one of the oldest living creatures on Earth, alongside one female scientist's fight to save their future. In 2015, a team of researchers carefully removed a plastic straw from a sea turtle's nostril off the coast of Costa Rica. The disturbing incident, which was captured on video, went viral, leading to corporate straw bans around the world. In this evocative book, reminiscent of Jane Goodall's memoir In the Shadow of Man, the marine biologist behind the camera, Christine Figgener, recounts her own life spent studying and protecting sea turtles. From the time she was a young girl, Figgener was determined to become a biologist, and study the marvels of the marine world. In My Life With Sea Turtles, she shares how she went from a small, gray town on the edge of industry to the lush coastline of Costa Rica, where she fell in love with the local environment and its famous residents: the sea turtles. Figgener describes patrolling the beach at night, swimming with turtles in the open ocean, watching tiny turtles emerge from sandy nests, and risking her life during tropical storms. We learn about her experience as a woman in conservation, a male dominated space where she struggles to be taken seriously. Through discovering the fascinating science of sea turtles and the threats they face today, readers will be inspired to live their own lives differently to ensure the survival of these magnificent creatures.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * From the author of Sapiens comes the groundbreaking story of how information networks have made, and unmade, our world. "Striking original . . . A historian whose arguments operate on the scale of millennia has managed to capture the zeitgeist perfectly."--The Economist "This deeply important book comes at a critical time as we all think through the implications of AI and automated content production. . . . Masterful and provocative."--Mustafa Suleyman, author of The Coming Wave For the last 100,000 years, we Sapiens have accumulated enormous power. But despite all our discoveries, inventions, and conquests, we now find ourselves in an existential crisis. The world is on the verge of ecological collapse. Misinformation abounds. And we are rushing headlong into the age of AI--a new information network that threatens to annihilate us. For all that we have accomplished, why are we so self-destructive? Nexus looks through the long lens of human history to consider how the flow of information has shaped us, and our world. Taking us from the Stone Age, through the canonization of the Bible, early modern witch-hunts, Stalinism, Nazism, and the resurgence of populism today, Yuval Noah Harari asks us to consider the complex relationship between information and truth, bureaucracy and mythology, wisdom and power. He explores how different societies and political systems throughout history have wielded information to achieve their goals, for good and ill. And he addresses the urgent choices we face as non-human intelligence threatens our very existence.   Information is not the raw material of truth; neither is it a mere weapon. Nexus explores the hopeful middle ground between these extremes, and in doing so, rediscovers our shared humanity.

The Occasional Human Sacrifice is an intellectual inquiry into the moral struggle that whistleblowers face, and why it is not the kind of struggle that most people imagine. Carl Elliott is a bioethicist at the University of Minnesota who was trained in medicine as well as philosophy. For many years he fought for an external inquiry into a psychiatric research study at his own university in which an especially vulnerable patient lost his life. Elliott's efforts alienated friends and colleagues. The university stonewalled him and denied wrongdoing until a state investigation finally vindicated his claims. His experience frames the six stories in this book of medical research in which patients were deceived into participating in experimental programs they did not understand, many of which had astonishing and well-concealed mortality rates. Beginning with the public health worker who exposed the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and ending with the four physicians who in 2016 blew the whistle on lethal synthetic trachea transplants at the Karolinska Institute, Elliott tells the extraordinary stories of insiders who spoke out against such abuses, and often paid a terrible price for doing the right thing.

The Instant New York Times Bestseller "Engaging and entertaining... a glimpse of the economy of the future." --Tim Wu, New York Times Book Review From the New York Times bestselling author of The Signal and the Noise, the definitive guide to our era of risk--and the players raising the stakes   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," the community of like-minded people 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 twenty-first century. By immersing himself in the worlds of Doyle Brunson, Peter Thiel, Sam Bankman-Fried, Sam Altman, and many others, Silver offers insight into a range of issues that affect us all, from the frontiers of finance to the future of AI. Most of us don't have traits commonly found in the River: high tolerance for risk, appreciation of uncertainty, affinity for numbers--paired with an instinctive distrust of conventional wisdom and a competitive drive so intense it can border on irrational. For those in the River, complexity is baked in, and the work is how to navigate it. People in the River have increasing amounts of wealth and power in our society, and understanding their mindset--and the flaws in their thinking-- is key to understanding what drives technology and the global economy today. Taking us behind the scenes from casinos to venture capital firms, and from the FTX inner sanctum to meetings of the effective altruism movement, On the Edge is a deeply reported, all-access journey into a hidden world of power bro­kers and risk-takers.

Until recently, infrastructure was the backbone of organizations operating software they developed in-house. But now that cloud vendors run the computers, companies can finally bring the benefits of agile custom-centricity to their own developers. Adding product management to infrastructure organizations is now all the rage. But how's that possible when infrastructure is still the operational layer of the company? This practical book guides engineers, managers, product managers, and leaders through the shifts that modern platform-led organizations require. You'll learn what platform engineering is--and isn't--and what benefits and value it brings to developers and teams. You'll understand what it means to approach a platform as a product and learn some of the most common technical and managerial barriers to success. With this book, you'll: Cultivate a platform-as-product, developer-centric mindset Learn what platform engineering teams are and are not Start the process of adopting platform engineering within your organization Discover what it takes to become a product manager for a platform team Understand the challenges that emerge when you scale platforms Automate processes and self-service infrastructure to speed development and improve developer experience Build out, hire, manage, and advocate for a platform team

Put the fun back in Python programming and build your skills as you create 3D simulations and graphics, speech-recognition machine-learning systems, IoT devices, and more. The fully updated 2nd edition is here, now with 5 brand-new projects! Harness the power of Python as you turn code into tangible creations with Python Playground, a collection of 15 inventive projects that will expand your programming horizons, spark your curiosity, and elevate your coding skills. Go beyond the basics as you write programs to generate art and music, simulate real-world phenomena, and interact with hardware, all through the use of Python and common libraries such as numpy, matplotlib, and Pillow. As you work through the book's projects, you will- Craft intricate Spirograph-like designs with parametric equations and the turtle module Generate music by synthesizing plucked string sounds Transform everyday images into ASCII art, photomosaics, and eye-popping autostereograms Design engaging cellular automata and flocking simulations Explore the realm of 3D graphics, from basic shape rendering to visualizing MRI scan data Build a Raspberry Pi-powered laser show that dances along with music New to this edition- We've expanded your playground with five new projects- you'll draw fractals, bring Conway's Game of Life into 3D space, and use a Raspberry Pi and Python to create a musical instrument, an IoT garden monitor, and even a machine learning-driven speech recognition system. Whether you're a seasoned professional or just getting started, you'll find Python Playground to be a great way to learn, experiment with, and master this versatile programming language. Covers Python 3.x

For readers concerned about the roots of the public mistrust of science, get the book that Publishers Weekly says is "an ardent appraisal of what ails the scientific establishment." Rescuing Science: Restoring Trust in an Age of Doubt is the product of Paul M. Sutter's long career in the scientific community, both inside and outside academia. Interweaving his own experiences as an astrophysicist with broader trends observed by himself and others, Sutter roots the current distrust of science within the academic scientific community itself. Throughout this book, Sutter reveals a community that has come to disregard the broader public, is obsessed with winning grants, ignores political landmines, limits the entrance of minorities, and permits fraud in the pursuit of notoriety. Sutter tackles these and other issues through the lens of a vicious cycle, where public mistrust and misunderstanding of science leads to fewer funding opportunities, which leads to more competition within science, which leads to a rise in fraud, which circles back to greater mistrust. Each chapter addresses one of the vices the academic scientific community has allowed to perpetuate, the sum of which he likens to an illness of the soul of science. He also explores the historical context of each issue in order to identify its root causes. Sutter concludes each chapter by providing actionable solutions for both the nonscientific and scientific communities, as well as what he regards as an ideal and healthy scientific approach, which will lead to greater public trust.

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER Most Anticipated in: AARP | Associated Press | Time Magazine | Oprah Daily | Chicago Tribune | Literary Hub | Publishers Weekly | Publishers Lunch Twenty-five years after the publication of his groundbreaking first book, Malcolm Gladwell returns with a brand-new volume that reframes the lessons of The Tipping Point in a startling and revealing light. Why is Miami...Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In this provocative new work, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in twenty-five years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena.   Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering. He takes us to the streets of Los Angeles to meet the world's most successful bank robbers, rediscovers a forgotten television show from the 1970s that changed the world, visits the site of a historic experiment on a tiny cul-de-sac in northern California, and offers an alternate history of two of the biggest epidemics of our day: COVID and the opioid crisis. Revenge of the Tipping Point is Gladwell's most personal book yet. With his characteristic mix of storytelling and social science, he offers a guide to making sense of the contagions of modern world. It's time we took tipping points seriously.

Shortlisted for the 2024 British Academy Book Prize A new history of mathematics focusing on the marginalized voices who propelled the discipline, spanning six continents and thousands of years of untold stories. "A book to make you love math." --Financial Times Mathematics shapes almost everything we do. But despite its reputation as the study of fundamental truths, the stories we have been told about it are wrong--warped like the sixteenth-century map that enlarged Europe at the expense of Africa, Asia and the Americas. In The Secret Lives of Numbers, renowned math historian Kate Kitagawa and journalist Timothy Revell make the case that the history of math is infinitely deeper, broader, and richer than the narrative we think we know. Our story takes us from Hypatia, the first great female mathematician, whose ideas revolutionized geometry and who was killed for them--to Karen Uhlenbeck, the first woman to win the Abel Prize, "math's Nobel." Along the way we travel the globe to meet the brilliant Arabic scholars of the "House of Wisdom," a math temple whose destruction in the Siege of Baghdad in the thirteenth century was a loss arguably on par with that of the Library of Alexandria; Madhava of Sangamagrama, the fourteenth-century Indian genius who uncovered the central tenets of calculus 300 years before Isaac Newton was born; and the Black mathematicians of the Civil Rights era, who played a significant role in dismantling early data-based methods of racial discrimination. Covering thousands of years, six continents, and just about every mathematical discipline, The Secret Lives of Numbers is an immensely compelling narrative history.

The uplifting story of a young Black scientist's challenging journey to flourish outside the traditional confines of academia, inspired by her innate connection to nature's most misunderstood animal-the shark. "Jasmin Graham has that winning combination of talent and grit needed to excel as a scientist. Every girl who wants to be a marine biologist should have this book." -Hope Jahren, New York Times bestselling author of Lab Girl and The Story of More Sharks have been on this planet for over 400 million years, so there is a lot they can teach us about survival and adaptability. For example- how do sharks, which unlike other fish are denser than water, stay afloat? They keep moving. When Jasmin Graham, an award-winning young shark scientist, started to feel that the traditional path to becoming a marine biologist was pulling her under, she remembered this important lesson- keep moving forward. If navigating the choppy waters of traditional academic study was no longer worth it, then that meant creating an ocean of her own. Jasmin joined with three other Black women to form Minorities in Shark Sciences (MISS), an organization dedicated to providing support and opportunities for other young women of color. She became an independent researcher- a rogue shark scientist, seeking ways to keep these extraordinary endangered creatures swimming free-just like her. Sharks Don't Sink is a riveting, moving, and ultimately triumphant memoir at the intersection of science and social justice- a guidebook to how we can all learn to respect and protect some of nature's most misunderstood and vulnerable creatures-and grant the same grace to ourselves.

Since it was first published in 2005, Ray Kurzweil's The Singularity Is Near (Duckworth) and its vision of the future have been influential in spawning a worldwide movement with millions of followers, hundreds of books, and major films (Her, Lucy, Ex Machina). During the succeeding decade many of his predictions about tech advancements have been borne out. In this entirely new book Kurzweil takes a fresh perspective on advances in the singularity - assessing many of his predictions and examining the novel advancements to a revolution in knowledge and an expansion of human potential.

An Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller From the New York Times bestselling author and MSNBC and podcast host, a powerful wide-angle reckoning with how the assault from attention capitalism on our minds and our hearts has reordered our politics and the very fabric of our society "An ambitious analysis of how the trivial amusements offered by online life have degraded not only our selves but also our politics." --New York Times "Brilliant book... Reading it has made me change the way I work and think."--Rachel Maddow We all feel it--the distraction, the loss of focus, the addictive focus on the wrong things for too long. We bump into the zombies on their phones in the street, and sometimes they're us. We stare in pity at the four people at the table in the restaurant, all on their phones, and then we feel the buzz in our pocket. Something has changed utterly: for most of human history, the boundary between public and private has been clear, at least in theory. Now, as Chris Hayes writes, "With the help of a few tech firms, we basically tore it down in about a decade." Hayes argues that we are in the midst of an epoch-defining transition whose only parallel is what happened to labor in the nineteenth century: attention has become a commodified resource extracted from us, and from which we are increasingly alienated. The Sirens' Call is the big-picture vision we urgently need to offer clarity and guidance. Because there is a breaking point. Sirens are designed to compel us, and now they are going off in our bedrooms and kitchens at all hours of the day and night, doing the bidding of vast empires, the most valuable companies in history, built on harvesting human attention. As Hayes writes, "Now our deepest neurological structures, human evolutionary inheritances, and social impulses are in a habitat designed to prey upon, to cultivate, distort, or destroy that which most fundamentally makes us human." The Sirens' Call is the book that snaps everything into a single holistic framework so that we can wrest back control of our lives, our politics, and our future.

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * The origin story of one of the most influential and transformative business leaders and philanthropists of the modern age "A surprisingly candid memoir of the Microsoft mogul's early years...Reading this book feels like watching someone take a well-known black-and-white sketch, fill in the details, and paint it in vivid color." --GeekWire The business triumphs of Bill Gates are widely known: the twenty-year-old who dropped out of Harvard to start a software company that became an industry giant and changed the way the world works and lives; the billionaire many times over who turned his attention to philanthropic pursuits to address climate change, global health, and U.S. education. Source Code is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It's the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It's the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world. Bill Gates tells this, his own story, for the first time: wise, warm, revealing, it's a fascinating portrait of an American life.

Experimental physicist at CERN and acclaimed science presenter Harry Cliff offers an eye-opening account of the inexplicable phenomena that science has only recently glimpsed, and that could transform our understanding of the fundamental nature of reality. Something strange is going on in the cosmos. Scientists are uncovering a catalogue of weird phenomena that simply can't be explained by our long-established theories of the universe. Particles with unbelievable energies are bursting from beneath the Antarctic ice.  Unknown forces seem to be tugging on the basic building blocks of matter. Stars are flying away from us far faster than anyone can explain.   After decades of fruitless searching, could we finally be catching glimpses of a profound new view of our physical world? Or are we being fooled by cruel tricks of the data?  In Space Oddities, Harry Cliff, a physicist who does cutting-edge work on the Large Hadron Collider, provides a riveting look at the universe's most confounding puzzles.  In a journey that spans continents, from telescopes perched high above the Atacama Desert to the subterranean caverns of state-of-the-art particle colliders to balloons hovering over the frozen icesheets of the South Pole, he meets the men and women hunting for answers--who have staked their careers and reputations on the uncertain promise of new physics.  The result is a mind-expanding, of-the-moment look at the fields of physics and cosmology as they transform before us.  With wonder, clarity, and a dose of humor, Cliff investigates the question: Are these anomalies accidents of nature, or could they be pointing us toward vast, hidden worlds?

Offers a model for increasing equity in STEM education at the K-12 level in the United States. In STEM Education in Underserved Schools, editor Julia V. Clark addresses an urgent national problem: the need to provide all students with a quality STEM education. Clark brings together a prestigious group of scholars to uncover the factors that impede equity and access in STEM education teaching and learning and provides research-based strategies to address these inequities. This contributed volume demonstrates that students of color and those from lower socioeconomic communities have less access to qualified science and mathematics teachers, less access to strong STEM curriculum, less access to resources, and fewer classroom opportunities than their peers at other schools. Identifying the challenges and best practices related to producing more equitable and inclusive routes to access STEM education and professions, contributors explain how to positively impact the trajectory of individuals from underrepresented groups in K-12 and pre-college programs and lay out a bold reenvisioning of STEM education. These essays aim to build knowledge and theory for how schools can promote coherent guidance for culturally responsive instruction by exploring the policies and practices of four nations--Finland, Singapore, Korea, and Australia--that have made noteworthy strides toward more equitable achievement in science and mathematics. Clark offers a powerful framework in STEM to capture the benefits of international collaborations that would embed American scientists and students in vibrant, globally collaborative networks. Through a deep analysis of successful programs elsewhere in the world and a uniquely international framework, Clark and these contributors present an innovative road map to equalize access to STEM education in the United States.

Instant New York Times and USA Today Bestseller. Tech visionary and co-founder of Manas AI Reid Hoffman shares his unique insider's perspective on an AI-powered future, making the case for its potential to unlock a world of possibilities. "An essential companion." -- Fei-Fei Li "An important read." --Bill Gates "Brilliant mind. Compassionate heart. Bold ideas...Read this book!" --Van Jones "Refreshingly optimistic and welcome perspective." -- Ariana Huffington "A fascinating and insightful book." --Yuval Noah Harari As taught at UPenn's Wharton and Stanford. Superagency offers a roadmap for using AI inclusively and adaptively to improve our lives and create positive change. While acknowledging challenges like disinformation and potential job changes, the book focuses on AI's immense potential to increase individual agency and create better outcomes for society as a whole. Imagine AI tutors personalizing education for each child, researchers rapidly discovering cures for diseases like Alzheimer's and cancer, and AI advisors empowering people to navigate complex systems and achieve their goals. Hoffman and co-author, tech and culture writer Greg Beato envision a world where these possibilities, and many more, become a reality. Superagency challenges conventional fears, inviting us to view the future through a lens of opportunity, rather than fear. It's a call to action - to embrace AI with excitement and actively shape a world where human ingenuity and the power of AI combine to create something extraordinary. Entrepreneur Reid Hoffman is a co-founder of LinkedIn, Inflection AI, and Manas AI. He is also host of the podcasts Possible and Masters of Scale.

From the telegraph and telephone in the 1800s to the internet and social media in our own day, the public has welcomed new communication systems. Whenever people gain more power to share information, the assumption goes, society prospers. Superbloom tells a startlingly different story. As communication becomes more mechanized and efficient, it breeds confusion more than understanding, strife more than harmony. Media technologies all too often bring out the worst in us. A celebrated commentator on the human consequences of technology, Nicholas Carr reorients the conversation around modern communication, challenging some of our most cherished beliefs about self-expression, free speech, and media democratization. He reveals how messaging apps strip nuance from conversation, how "digital crowding" erodes empathy and triggers aggression, how online political debates narrow our minds and distort our perceptions, and how advances in AI are further blurring the already hazy line between fantasy and reality. Even as Carr shows how tech companies and their tools of connection have failed us, he forces us to confront inconvenient truths about our own nature. The human psyche, it turns out, is profoundly ill-suited to the "superbloom" of information that technology has unleashed. With rich psychological insights and vivid examples drawn from history and science, Superbloom provides both a panoramic view of how media shapes society and an intimate examination of the fate of the self in a time of radical dislocation. It may be too late to change the system, Carr counsels, but it's not too late to change ourselves.

From a leading futurist and OneShared.World founder, a "brilliant" book that explores how artificial intelligence and other revolutionary technologies are transforming our lives-and our future (Sanjay Gupta MD, bestselling author, neurosurgeon, and Emmy-award winning chief medical correspondent (CNN)  New technologies have the potential to improve our health, feed billions of people, supercharge our economies, store essential information for millions of years, and save our planet. But if we're not careful, they can also do immeasurable harm. Luckily, in Jamie Metzl, we have a leading expert who integrates science, technology, history, politics, and international affairs to envision a future that most specialists, almost by definition, cannot see.  In this bold and inspiring exploration of transformative human knowledge, Metzl gives us the definitive account of the technological precipice on which we stand and the map to where we go from here.

In this new collection of bite-size pop science essays, bestselling author, chemistry professor, and radio broadcaster Dr. Joe Schwarcz shows that you can find science virtually anywhere you look. And the closer you look, the more fascinating it becomes. In this volume, we look through our magnifying glass at maraschino cherries, frizzy hair, duct tape, pickle juice, yellow school buses, aphrodisiacs, dental implants, and bull testes. If those don't tickle your fancy, how about aconite murders, shot towers, book smells, Swarovski crystals, French wines, bees, or head transplants? You can also learn about the scientific escapades of James Bond, California's confusing Proposition 65, the problems with oxygen on Mars, Valentine's Meat Juice, the benefits of pasteurization, the pros and cons of red light therapy, the controversy swirling around perfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), why English cucumbers are wrapped in plastic, and how probiotics may have seeded Hitler's downfall. Superfoods, Silkworms, and Spandex answers all your burning questions about the science of everyday life, like: why "superfood" is a marketing term, not a scientific one; why plastic wrap is sometimes the environmental choice; why supplements to reduce inflammation may just reduce your bank account; how maraschino cherries went from a luxury good to a cheap sundae topper; what's behind "old book smell"; how margarine became a hot item for bootleggers; why duct tape is useful, but not on ducts; and how onstage accidents led to fireproof fabrics.

Shortlisted for the 2024 Financial Times & Schroders Business Book of the Year In November of 2022, a webpage was posted online with a simple text box. It was an AI chatbot called ChatGPT, and was unlike any app people had used before. It was more human than a customer service agent, more convenient than a Google search. Behind the scenes, battles for control and prestige between the world's two leading AI firms, OpenAI and DeepMind, who now steers Google's AI efforts, has remained elusive - until now. In Supremacy, Olson, tech writer at Bloomberg, tells the astonishing story of the battle between these two AI firms, their struggles to use their tech for good, and the hazardous direction they could go as they serve two tech Goliaths whose power is unprecedented in history. The story focuses on the continuing rivalry of two key CEOs at the center of it all, who cultivated a religion around their mission to build god-like super intelligent machines: Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI, and Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind. Supremacy sharply alerts readers to the real threat of artificial intelligence that its top creators are ignoring: the profit-driven spread of flawed and biased technology into industries, education, media and more. With exclusive access to a network of high-ranking sources, Parmy Olson uses her 13 years of experience covering technology to bring to light the exploitation of the greatest invention in human history, and how it will impact us all.

INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER * "A cri de coeur that takes aim at the tech industry for abandoning its history of helping America and its allies."--The Wall Street Journal From the Palantir co-founder, one of tech's boldest thinkers and The Economist's "best CEO of 2024," and his deputy, a sweeping indictment of the West's culture of complacency, arguing that timid leadership, intellectual fragility, and an unambitious view of technology's potential in Silicon Valley have made the U.S. vulnerable in an era of mounting global threats. "Not since Allan Bloom's astonishingly successful 1987 book The Closing of the American Mind--more than one million copies sold--has there been a cultural critique as sweeping as Karp's."--George F. Will, The Washington Post Silicon Valley has lost its way. Our most brilliant engineering minds once collaborated with government to advance world-changing technologies. Their efforts secured the West's dominant place in the geopolitical order. But that relationship has now eroded, with perilous repercussions. Today, the market rewards shallow engagement with the potential of technology. Engineers and founders build photo-sharing apps and marketing algorithms, unwittingly becoming vessels for the ambitions of others. This complacency has spread into academia, politics, and the boardroom. The result? An entire generation for whom the narrow-minded pursuit of the demands of a late capitalist economy has become their calling. In this groundbreaking treatise, Palantir co-founder and CEO Alexander C. Karp and Nicholas W. Zamiska offer a searing critique of our collective abandonment of ambition, arguing that in order for the U.S. and its allies to retain their global edge--and preserve the freedoms we take for granted--the software industry must renew its commitment to addressing our most urgent challenges, including the new arms race of artificial intelligence. The government, in turn, must embrace the most effective features of the engineering mindset that has propelled Silicon Valley's success. Above all, our leaders must reject intellectual fragility and preserve space for ideological confrontation. A willingness to risk the disapproval of the crowd, Karp and Zamiska contend, has everything to do with technological and economic outperformance. At once iconoclastic and rigorous, this book will also lift the veil on Palantir and its broader political project from the inside, offering a passionate call for the West to wake up to our new reality.

This book will teach you the underlying concepts of large language models (LLMs), as well as the technologies associated with them. The book starts with an introduction to the rise of conversational AIs such as ChatGPT, and how they are related to the broader spectrum of large language models. From there, you will learn about natural language processing (NLP), its core concepts, and how it has led to the rise of LLMs. Next, you will gain insight into transformers and how their characteristics, such as self-attention, enhance the capabilities of language modeling, along with the unique capabilities of LLMs. The book concludes with an exploration of the architectures of various LLMs and the opportunities presented by their ever-increasing capabilities--as well as the dangers of their misuse. After completing this book, you will have a thorough understanding of LLMs and will be ready to take your first steps in implementing them into your own projects.  What You Will Learn Grasp the underlying concepts of LLMs Gain insight into how the concepts and approaches of NLP have evolved over the years Understand transformer models and attention mechanisms Explore different types of LLMs and their applications Understand the architectures of popular LLMs Delve into misconceptions and concerns about LLMs, as well as how to best utilize them Who This Book Is For Anyone interested in learning the foundational concepts of NLP, LLMs, and recent advancements of deep learning

A New York Times Editors' Choice A Next Big Idea Club and Sierra Magazine Must-Read Book A Behavioral Scientist's Summer Book List Pick A Financial Times Best Summer Book A deeply reported, eye-opening book about climate change, our brains, and the weight of nature on us all. The march of climate change is stunning and vicious, with rising seas, extreme weather, and oppressive heat blanketing the globe. But its effects on our very brains constitute a public-health crisis that has gone largely unreported. Based on seven years of research, this book by the award-winning journalist and trained neuroscientist Clayton Page Aldern, synthesizes the emerging neuroscience, psychology, and behavioral economics of global warming and brain health. A masterpiece of literary journalism, this book shows readers how a changing environment is changing us today, from the inside out. Aldern calls it the weight of nature. Hotter temperatures make it harder to think clearly and problem-solve. They increase the chance of impulsive violence. Immigration judges are more likely to reject asylum applications on hotter days. Umpires, to miss calls. Air pollution, heatwaves, and hurricanes can warp and wear on memory, language, and sensory systems; wildfires seed PTSD. And climate-fueled ecosystem changes extend the reach of brain-disease carriers like mosquitos, brain-eating amoebas, and the bats that brought us the mental fog of long COVID. How we feel about climate change matters deeply; but this is a book about much more than climate anxiety. As Aldern richly details, it is about the profound, direct action of global warming on our brains and behavior--and the most startling portrait yet of unforeseen environmental influences on our minds. From farms in the San Joaquin Valley and public schools across the United States to communities in Norway's Arctic, the Micronesian islands, and the French Alps, this book is an unprecedented portrait of a global crisis we thought we understood.

A fascinating guide to the rapidly advancing world of artificial intelligence and how this powerful technology will impact our lives, our careers, and our world. Artificial intelligence is driving workforce disruption on a scale not seen since the Industrial Revolution. In schools and universities AI technology has forced a reevaluation of the way students are taught and assessed. Meanwhile, ChatGPT has become a cultural phenomenon, reaching a hundred million users and attracting a reputed $1 trillion investor interest in its parent company, OpenAI. The race to dominate the generative AI market is accelerating at breakneck speed, inspiring breathless headlines and immense public interest. Welcome to AI provides a rare view into a frontier area of computer science that will change everything about how you live and work. Read this book and better understand how to succeed in the AI-enabled future.

Would you read this book if a computer wrote it? Would you even know? And why would it matter? Today's eerily impressive artificial intelligence writing tools present us with a crucial challenge: As writers, do we unthinkingly adopt AI's time-saving advantages or do we stop to weigh what we gain and lose when heeding its siren call? To understand how AI is redefining what it means to write and think, linguist and educator Naomi S. Baron leads us on a journey connecting the dots between human literacy and today's technology. From nineteenth-century lessons in composition, to mathematician Alan Turing's work creating a machine for deciphering war-time messages, to contemporary engines like ChatGPT, Baron gives readers a spirited overview of the emergence of both literacy and AI, and a glimpse of their possible future. As the technology becomes increasingly sophisticated and fluent, it's tempting to take the easy way out and let AI do the work for us. Baron cautions that such efficiency isn't always in our interest. As AI plies us with suggestions or full-blown text, we risk losing not just our technical skills but the power of writing as a springboard for personal reflection and unique expression. Funny, informed, and conversational, Who Wrote This? urges us as individuals and as communities to make conscious choices about the extent to which we collaborate with AI. The technology is here to stay. Baron shows us how to work with AI and how to spot where it risks diminishing the valuable cognitive and social benefits of being literate.

A rich, narrative explanation of the mathematics that has brought us machine learning and the ongoing explosion of artificial intelligence Machine learning systems are making life-altering decisions for us: approving mortgage loans, determining whether a tumor is cancerous, or deciding if someone gets bail. They now influence developments and discoveries in chemistry, biology, and physics--the study of genomes, extrasolar planets, even the intricacies of quantum systems. And all this before large language models such as ChatGPT came on the scene. We are living through a revolution in machine learning-powered AI that shows no signs of slowing down. This technology is based on relatively simple mathematical ideas, some of which go back centuries, including linear algebra and calculus, the stuff of seventeenth- and eighteenth-century mathematics. It took the birth and advancement of computer science and the kindling of 1990s computer chips designed for video games to ignite the explosion of AI that we see today. In this enlightening book, Anil Ananthaswamy explains the fundamental math behind machine learning, while suggesting intriguing links between artificial and natural intelligence. Might the same math underpin them both? As Ananthaswamy resonantly concludes, to make safe and effective use of artificial intelligence, we need to understand its profound capabilities and limitations, the clues to which lie in the math that makes machine learning possible.