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Ecopsychology

Science, Totems, and the Technological Species
Edited by Peter H. Kahn, Jr. and Patricia H. Hasbach

We need nature for our physical and psychological well-being. Our actions reflect this when we turn to beloved pets for companionship, vacation in spots of natural splendor, or spend hours working in the garden. Yet we are also a technological species and have been since we fashioned tools out of stone. Thus one of this century’s central challenges is to embrace our kinship with a more-than-human world--“our totemic self”--and integrate that kinship with our scientific culture and technological selves.

Change of State

Information, Policy, and Power
By Sandra Braman

As the informational state replaces the bureaucratic welfare state, control over information creation, processing, flows, and use has become the most effective form of power. In Change of State Sandra Braman examines the theoretical and practical ramifications of this "change of state." She looks at the ways in which governments are deliberate, explicit, and consistent in their use of information policy to exercise power, exploring not only such familiar topics as intellectual property rights and privacy but also areas in which policy is highly effective but little understood.

Technology and Society

Building our Sociotechnical Future
By Langdon Winner, George Ritzer, Richard Dyer, Rachel Weber, Daniel Sarewitz, Jameson M. Wetmore, W. Patrick McCray, Dominique Vinck, Harold Collins, M. Carme Alemany Gomez, John L. Pollock, Gary Chapman, Judy Wajcman, Fabio Salamanca-Buentello, Noela Invernizzi, Roopali Phadke, Bruce Schneier, Torin Monahan, David Elliott, Kristin S. Shrader-Frechette and Michael Bess
Edited by Deborah G. Johnson and Jameson M. Wetmore

Technological change does not happen in a vacuum; decisions about which technologies to develop, fund, market, and use engage ideas about values as well as calculations of costs and benefits. This anthology focuses on the interconnections of technology, society, and values.

Unlocking the Clubhouse

Women in Computing
By Jane Margolis and Allan Fisher

The information technology revolution is transforming almost every aspect of society, but girls and women are largely out of the loop. Although women surf the Web in equal numbers to men and make a majority of online purchases, few are involved in the design and creation of new technology. It is mostly men whose perspectives and priorities inform the development of computing innovations and who reap the lion's share of the financial rewards.

The MIT Guide to Science and Engineering Communication, Second Edition

By James Paradis and Muriel Zimmerman

This guide covers the basics of scientific and engineering communication, including defining an audience, working with collaborators, searching the literature, organizing and drafting documents, developing graphics, and documenting sources. The documents covered include memos, letters, proposals, progress reports, other types of reports, journal articles, oral presentations, instructions, and CVs and resumes. Throughout, the authors provide realistic examples from actual documents and situations.

Structure and Interpretation of Classical Mechanics

By Gerald Jay Sussman and Jack Wisdom

This textbook takes an innovative approach to the teaching of classical mechanics, emphasizing the development of general but practical intellectual tools to support the analysis of nonlinear Hamiltonian systems. The development is organized around a progressively more sophisticated analysis of particular natural systems and weaves examples throughout the presentation. Explorations of phenomena such as transitions to chaos, nonlinear resonances, and resonance overlap to help the student to develop appropriate analytic tools for understanding.

Environmental Evolution, Second Edition

Effects of the Origin and Evolution of Life on Planet Earth
Edited by Lynn Margulis, Clifford Matthews and Aaron Haselton

In this book fifteen distinguished scientists discuss the effects of life—past and present—on planet Earth. Unlike other earth science and biology books, Environmental Evolution describes the impact of life on the Earth's rocky surfaces presenting an integrated view of how our planet evolved. Modeled on the Environmental Evolution course developed by Lynn Margulis and colleagues, it provides a unique synthesis of atmospheric, biological, and geological hypotheses that explain the present condition of the biosphere.

Tower of Babel

The Evidence against the New Creationism
By Robert T. Pennock

In Tower of Babel, philosopher Robert Pennock compares the views of the new creationists with those of the old and reveals the insubstantiality of their arguments. One of Pennock's major innovations is to turn from biological evolution to the less-charged subject of linguistic evolution, which has strong theoretical parallels with biological evolution both in content and in the sort of evidence scientists use to draw conclusions about origins.

The Computational Beauty of Nature

Computer Explorations of Fractals, Chaos, Complex Systems, and Adaptation
By Gary William Flake

In this book Gary William Flake develops in depth the simple idea that recurrent rules can produce rich and complicated behaviors.

Inventing the Internet

By Janet Abbate

Since the late 1960s the Internet has grown from a single experimental network serving a dozen sites in the United States to a network of networks linking millions of computers worldwide. In Inventing the Internet, Janet Abbate recounts the key players and technologies that allowed the Internet to develop; but her main focus is always on the social and cultural factors that influenced the Internet's design and use.

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