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Nature and Science April 2019
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| Europe: A Natural History by Tim FlanneryWelcome to: Europe, the tropical archipelago that formed 100 million years ago and, following floods, ice ages, and other events, transformed into the geographically and biologically diverse region we know today.
Look for: the "hell pigs" of the Oligocene period, the two-foot long proto-hedgehog Deinogalerix, and Europe's first hominids -- the human-Neanderthal hybrids that colonized the continent 38,000 years ago.
What's next? Confronting the existential threats of climate change, according to Australian author and paleontologist Tim Flannery. |
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| Never Enough: The Neuroscience and Experience of Addiction by Judith GriselWhat it's about: a behavioral neuroscientist with a history of substance abuse examines addiction from a scientific and personal perspective.
Media buzz: Author Judith Grisel appeared on NPR's Fresh Air to discuss both the book and her experiences with addiction.
Food for thought: Grisel notes, "The opposite of addiction, I have learned, is not sobriety but choice." |
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| No Beast So Fierce: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, The Deadliest Animal... by Dane HuckelbridgeWhat it's about: the notorious Champawat Tiger, which killed more than 400 people in Nepal in the early 1900s -- and the intrepid hunter that tracked her down and killed her.
Read it for: a suspenseful account of the hunt, evocative descriptions of the tiger's territory, and reflections on environmental issues.
For fans of: John Vaillant's The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival. |
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| Figuring by Maria PopovaWhat it is: a lyrical exploration of the connections between great minds throughout history.
Why you might like it: Starting with Johannes Kepler and concluding with Rachel Carson, Figuring's discursive narrative follows an idiosyncratic, erudite path that blends science and art.
About the author: Maria Popova is the creator of the popular and expansively multidisciplinary Brain Pickings blog. |
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Focus on: Artificial Intelligence
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| Life 3.0: Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence by Max TegmarkWhat it is: an MIT professor's largely optimistic take on the future of AI -- and the ultimate fate of humans.
What sets it apart: In conversational style, Life 3.0 presents an overview of the field of artificial intelligence, while addressing some of the social and ethical issues that accompany it.
Supplementary materials: flowcharts, diagrams, and explanatory sidebars. |
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Solomon's code : humanity in a world of thinking machines
by Olaf Groth
What it is: A global trends and strategy adviser, an AI scientist and social entrepreneur and an economics reporter team up to provide a provocative examination into artificial intelligence and how it reshapes human values, trust and power around the world.
What reviewers say: "The authors occasionally strain credulity with overly optimistic projections, as when they minimize AI's potential effect on employment, but their positive outlook, free of the doomsday theorizing common elsewhere, makes for a refreshingly calm discussion of the future of AI."
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A human's guide to machine intelligence : how algorithms are shaping our lives and how we can stay in control
by Kartik Hosanagar
What it is: A Wharton professor and tech entrepreneur demonstrates how algorithms are making a plethora of everyday decisions for humans and reveals the dangerous biases they can bring out, explaining how they work and why they sometimes go rogue. Includes six graphs.
About the author: Hosanager is the John C. However Professor of Technology and Digital Business and Professor of Marketing at the Warton School of the University of Pennsylvania.
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AI superpowers : China, Silicon Valley, and the new world order
by Kai-Fu Lee
What it is: This book argues that China has caught up to United States technology at a rapid and unexpected pace, and that artificial intelligence will have a devastating impact on blue-collar and white-collar jobs.
You might also like: Dogfight by Fred Vogelstein, Planet Google by Randall E. Stross, The Second Machine Age by Erik Brynjolfsson, and Always on by Brian Chen.
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