Renowned for its old-growth rain forest, wilderness coast, and glaciated peaks, Olympic National Park is a living laboratory for ecological renewal, especially as the historic Elwha River basin regenerates in the wake of dam removal. In this classic guide to the park, Tim McNulty invites us into the natural and human history of these nearly million acres, from remote headwaters to roadside waterfalls, from shipwreck sites to Native American hist ...
For much of the 20th century, an apparently solid conceptual wall allowed us to separate information and bodies. Information is that which exists between elements; bodies are the elements themselves. One is abstract the other corporeal. One is intricately involved in signs and syntax, the other in cells and organs. Yet in the last few decades, it has become increasingly clear that this conceptual wall leaks–bodies and information will not stay s ...
In 1950, Alan Turing, the British mathematician, cryptographer, and computer pioneer, looked to the future: now that the conceptual and technical parameters for electronic brains had been established, what kind of intelligence could be built? Should machine intelligence mimic the abstract thinking of a chess player or should it be more like the developing mind of a child? Should an intelligent agent only think, or should it also learn, feel, and ...
The Informed Gardener Blooms Again picks up where The Informed Gardener left off, using scientific literature to debunk a new set of common gardening myths. Once again, Linda Chalker-Scott investigates the science behind each myth, reminding us that urban and suburban landscapes are ecosystems requiring their own particular set of management practices. The Informed Gardener Blooms Again provides answers to questions such as:Does using drought-to ...
Winner of the Sociology of Health and Illness Book PrizeHIV has changed in the presence of recent biomedical technologies. In particular, the development of anti-retroviral therapies (ARVs) for the treatment of HIV was a significant landmark in the history of the disease. Treatment with ARV drug regimens, which began in 1996, has enabled many thousands to live with the human immunodeficiency virus without progressing to AIDS. Yet ARVs have also ...
Since World War II, the biological and technological have been fusing and merging in new ways, resulting in the loss of a clear distinction between the two. This entanglement of biology with technology isn't new, but the pervasiveness of that integration is staggering, as is the speed at which the two have been merging in recent decades. As this process permeates more of everyday life, the urgent necessity arises to rethink both biology and ...