Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Dressmaker's Mirror - Sudden...

  Susan Weiss Liebman

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  Experts agree on the value of genetic testing when there is a family history of disease, or if the patient has an illness frequently caused by a mutation. Knowing the disease mutation lets family members find out if they have it too and need preventive care. The book explains that doctors can order tests with genetic counseling at relatively low cost and how this will help them prescribe preventive actions, make earlier diagnoses, and get better outcomes. The book's genetic discussions also delve into the implications of broad-based genetic screening without a family history. Policymakers are considering the benefits and drawbacks of this approach and I present both sides of this debate.While working on this book I uncovered a family secret hidden for over one hundred years. Family lore had it that a heavy dressmaker's mirror fell on and killed my uncle when he was four. But the death certificate told a different story—his true cause of death was heart failure. My grandparents fabricated the accident to protect their surviving children's marriage prospects. Long before the discovery of DNA, my grandparents intuited and feared James Watson's message, "We used to think that our fate was in our stars, but now we know that, in large measure, our fate is in our genes." The book suggests genetic testing and associated medical intervention can change our fates.

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  Protecting New York From Future...

  PBS NewsHour

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  As thousands of residents continue to clean up from Hurricane Sandy, many are anticipating future disasters and considering how New York will cope with rising seas and potentially more devastating flooding. In this November 2012 report, Hari Sreenivasan looks at options like barriers that could protect the region from future storm surges.

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  Freakonomics Rev Ed

  Steven D. Levitt, Stephen J. Dubner

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  Steven D. Levitt and Stephen J. Dubner offer the long-awaited paperback edition of Freakonomics, the runaway bestseller, including six Freakonomics columns from the New York Times Magazine and a Q & A with the authors.

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  Data-ism - The Revolution...

  Steve Lohr

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  “Lohr uses his Pulitzer Prize-winning reporting skills to dig into and explain the power, pervasiveness, and potential downside of big data.” —Library Journal 
   
  In Data-ism, New York Times reporter Steve Lohr explains how big-data technology is ushering in a revolution in proportions that promise to be the basis of the next wave of efficiency and innovation across the economy. But more is at work here than technology. Big data is also the vehicle for a point of view, or philosophy, about how decisions will be—and perhaps should be—made in the future. Lohr investigates the benefits of data while also examining its dark side. 
   
  Data-ism is about this next phase, in which vast Internet-scale data sets are used for discovery and prediction in virtually every field. It shows how this new revolution will change decision making—by relying more on data and analysis, and less on intuition and experience—and transform the nature of leadership and management. Focusing on young entrepreneurs at the forefront of data science as well as on giant companies such as IBM that are making big bets on data science for the future of their businesses, Data-ism is a field guide to what is ahead, explaining how individuals and institutions will need to exploit, protect, and manage data to stay competitive in the coming years. With rich examples of how the rise of big data is affecting everyday life, Data-ism also raises provocative questions about policy and practice that have wide implications for everyone. 
   
  The age of data-ism is here. But are we ready to handle its consequences, good and bad?

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  Rethinking Consciousness - A...

  Michael S. A. Graziano

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  Focusing attention can help an animal find food or flee a predator. It also may have led to consciousness. Tracing evolution over millions of years, Michael S. A. Graziano uses examples from the natural world to show how neurons first allowed animals to develop simple forms of attention: taking in messages from the environment, prioritizing them, and responding as necessary.Then some animals evolved covert attention—a roving mental focus that can take in information apart from where the senses are pointed, like hearing sirens at a distance or recalling a memory.Graziano proposes that in order to monitor and control this specialized attention, the brain evolved a simplified model of it—a cartoonish self-description depicting an internal essence with a capacity for knowledge and experience. In other words, consciousness.In this eye-opening work, Graziano accessibly explores how this sense of an inner being led to empathy and formed us into social beings. The theory may point the way to engineers for building consciousness artificially. Graziano discusses what a future with artificial consciousness might be like, including both advantages and risks, and what AI might mean for our evolutionary future.

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  Cichlids (PB) - Understanding...

  David Alderton

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  Cichlids are popular fish for home aquariums because of their fantastic variety of colors, shapes, and sizes. This book covers the various species in detail while providing basic care, maintenance, and breeding instructions. More than 140 color photographs and easy-to-use language make this book helpful for the beginner and the aquarium enthusiast alike.

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