I have always had an uncomfortable relationship with math. I don’t like numbers for the sake of numbers. I am not impressed by fancy formulas that have no real-world application. I particularly disliked high school calculus for the simple reason that no one ever bothered to tell me why I needed to learn it. What […]
Several years ago, when the first draft of the human genome was being completed, I decided to focus my efforts on the study of pathogen genomes. Armed with a background in software engineering, one of the first things that preoccupied me was a problem that loomed on the horizon and had little to do with […]
Science is the search for truth and knowledge. Scientists suggest explanations of why things are as they are, and then they test those explanations, using experiments. Some of what science discovers can be applied to our everyday lives. Life science How do living things survive and grow, where do they live, what do they eat, […]
A MOLECULAR PHENOMENON It is commonplace, almost banal, to say that science has made great strides in understanding nature. The laws of physics are now so well understood that space probes fly unerringly to photograph worlds billions of miles from earth. Computers, telephones, electric lights, and untold other examples testify to the mastery of science […]
IN THE EARLY NINETEEN SEVENTIES, a British photo retoucher named Robert Stevens arrived in south Florida to take a job at the National Enquirer, which is published in Palm Beach County. At the time, photo retouchers for supermarket tabloids used an airbrush (nowadays they use computers) to clarify news photographs of world leaders shaking hands […]
From the author of GROWING GOURMET AND MEDICINAL MUSHROOMS comes the only identification guide exclusively devoted to the world’s psilocybin-containing mushrooms. Detailed descriptions and color photographs for over 100 species are provided, as well as an exploration of their long-standing (and often religious) use by ancient peoples and their continued significance to modern-day culture. Some […]
What do we really know about the human brain? In the 1970s and 1980s, when the authors gained their training, the honest answer was “very little.” There was a saying circulating back then: Studying the brain was like putting a stethoscope on the outside of the Astrodome to learn the rules of football. Your brain […]
Since the publication of the fi rst edition of ‘Biochemical Pathways’ in 1999 the molecular life sciences (encompassing biology, biochemistry, pharmacy and medicine) have undergone dramatic changes. With the extremely rapid development in the ‘OMICS’ analytical techniques (Genomics, transcriptomics, proteomics, metabolimics) we are in principle able to determine the genome of a microorganism in one […]
In early 2007, Paul Deards from Wiley approached me and asked whether I would like to edit a book on the topic of light-responsive nucleic acids. Upon this impulse we started a fruitful discussion on that topic. An initial survey of books that cover nucleic acids in general, and on light-responsive nucleic acids in particular, […]
Despite the public fascination with augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR), few within the broader audience understand how these systems actually function. AR and VR are seen as cool technologies for better gaming and entertainment experiences, but beyond that point, the general understanding of the topic is vague. Since the initial wave of interest […]
WE LIVE ON the edge, perched on the boundary between planet Earth and the rest of the universe. On a clear night, anyone can admire the vast legions of bright stars, familiar and permanent, landmarks unique to our place in the cosmos. Every human civilization has seen the stars, but no one has touched them. […]
One of the more compelling scientific (cum-theological) questions in the Middle Ages was: “How many angels can dance on the head of a pin?” Today’s version in cutting-edge science is, “How many strings… ?” As posited by s tring theory physics, strings are furiously vibrating loops of stuff. The concept of strings was devised to […]