Science All books
Steven Pinker
How the Mind Works
In his new book, Steven Pinker studies the human mind. What is it? How did it evolve? How does it enable us to see, think, feel, laugh, interact with others, have aesthetic experiences, and reflect on our own lives? This is the long-awaited synthesis encompassing all the major explanations offered by evolutionary biology and the cognitive sciences concerning mental life of human beings. Steven Pinker heads the Center of Cognitive Neurosciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is the author of the highly acclaimed Language Instinct.
Marc D. Hauser
Wild Minds: What Animals Really Think
A slender loris comes up to a zoo keeper and hugs him. A dog lowers its head and whines when its master is unhappy. Is such behaviour a sign of affection and empathy or are other mechanisms at work, to explain the animals near-human behaviour? Why do chimps and dolphins form coalitions to defend themselves? How do lions determine, from far away, the number of gazelles calmly watering by a stream? How is it that a few species can recognise their own image in a mirror? Marc D. Hauser is a professor of psychology and neuroscience at Harvard University, where he is a fellow of the Mind, Brain and Behavior Program. Besides performing laboratory research, he has done extensive fieldwork in Kenya, Uganda and Puerto Rico.
Maurice Jacob
At the Heart of the Matter
The study of elementary particle physics and high energies, undertaken in huge laboratories such as the accelerators of Stanford, Chicago, Brookhaven, CERN at Geneva, and Dubna et Serpukhov near Moscow, is one of the most astonishing scientific feats of the last half century. The field not only allows us to understand the composition of matter and the origin and evolution of the universe, but also helps prevent these scientific instruments being used as weapons of war. The Pugwash conferences, held between scientists of the East and West, won a Nobel Prize for this very reason. Maurice Jacob, the honorary director of the division of theoretical physics at CERN, recounts in this book how these objectives have been achieved. Maurice Jacob is a theoretical physician of elementary particles.
Étienne-Émile Baulieu, Françoise Héritier, Henri Leridon
Contraception : Constraint or Liberty ? (Work of the Collège de France)
It is now generally accepted that contraception should be readily available.
Stanislas Dehaene, Christine Petit
Words and Music Genesis of human dialogue
Speech and music shape social cognition through shared emotional states, intentions, symbols and cultures...
Douglas Hofstadter, Emmanuel Sander
Analogy:Surfaces and Depths A New Theory of Mind
Could analogy, which we use unconsciously every day, lie at the core of human thought?
Vilayanur S. Ramachandran, Sandra Blakeslee
Phantoms in the Brain Human Nature and the Architecture of the Mind
How do we make decisions? Why do we deceive ourselves? Why do we dream? Why may we believe in God? Why do we laugh or become depressed? Few scientists have dared address these questions that inform our daily lives with so much acumen and audacity. V.S. Ramachandran is a brilliant Sherlock Holmes of neuroscience. He reveals the strangest case studies he has encountered of patients suffering from serious neurological disorders and the insights they yield about human nature and the workings of the mind. V.S. Ramachandran is professor and director of the Center for Brain and Cognition, at the University of California.
Jean-Claude Heudin
Robots and Avatars
Robots & Avatars is a highly accessible introduction to the latest technological advances that herald tomorrow’s world.
