From one of the most significant neuroscientists at worktoday, a pathbreaking investigation of a question that hasconfounded philosophers, psychologists, and neuroscientists forcenturies: how is consciousness created? Antonio Damasio has spent the past thirty years studying andwriting about how the brain operates, and his work has garneredacclaim for its singular melding of the scientific and thehumanistic. In Self Comes to Mind, he goes against thelong-standing idea that consciousness is somehow separate from thebody, presenting compelling new scientific evidence thatconsciousness—what we think of as a mind with a self—is to beginwith a biological process created by a living organism. Besides thethree traditional perspectives used to study the mind (theintrospective, the behavioral, and the neurological), Damasiointroduces an evolutionary perspective that entails a radicalchange in the way the history of conscious minds is viewed andtold. He also advances a radical hypothesis regarding the o

The object of this book is to present a complete, systematic andthorough exposition of the neoclassical theory of production anddistribution. Despite this basic objective, each chapter presentsextensions of neoclassical theory and interpretations ofestablished relations. The book has two distinct parts. In Part Ithe microeconomic theories of production, cost and derived inputdemand are explored in depth for both fixed-proportions andvariable-proportions production functions. Special emphasis isplaced upon the characteristics and implications of productionfunctions homogeneous of degree one. Part II is devoted chiefly tothe neoclassical theory of aggregate relative factor shares, theelasticity of substitution, and technological progress.

In celebration of summer, Assouline evokes the beauty of thegarden in a remarkable gift-volume. Including more than threecenturies of drawings culled from the rare books library of theCooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, each page in Botanicalsexplodes with rich colours and lifelike details. Exquisite flowers,delicate fuits, and exuberant butterflies are among the jewels ofnature that come to life in this unique compendium. Featured areworks by leading botanical artists, including Maria Sibylla Merian,a rfevolutionary female entomologist and natural historian of theseventeeth century; E.A. Seguy, whose art nouveau-era work servesas inspiration for many contemporary creative directors anddesigners; and Dr Robert John thornton, a British visionaryrenowned for his inerest in botany. Botanicals is extraordinary, aremarkable objet d'art in the spirit of the season. AUTHOR: LeslieK. Overstreet is the curator of Natural-History Rare Books at theSmithsonian Institution. She has published bibliographical artic

Tile dynamics underlying tile major problems of ourtime--,cancer,crime, pollution, nuclear powej', inflation, theenergy shortage are alltile same. We have reach~d.a time ofdramatic and potentiallydangerous change, a turning point for theplanet as a whole. We need a new vision of reality, one that allowstile forces transforming our world to flow together as a positivemovement for social change. Now (listinguished scientist FritjofCapra gives us that vision, a holisticpara(ligm of science andspirit.

One of the major neuropsychological models of personality,developed by world-renowned psychologist Professor Jeffrey Gray, isbased upon individual differences in reactions to punishing andrewarding stimuli. This biological theory of personality - nowwidely known as 'Reinforcement Sensitivity Theory' (RST) - has hada major influence on motivation, emotion and psychopathologyresearch. In 2000, RST was substantially revised by Jeffrey Gray,together with Neil McNaughton, and this revised theory proposedthree principal motivation/emotion systems: the'Fight-Flight-Freeze System' (FFFS), the 'Behavioural ApproachSystem' (BAS) and the 'Behavioural Inhibition System' (BIS). Thisis the first book to summarise the Reinforcement Sensitivity Theoryof personality and bring together leading researchers in the field.It summarizes all of the pre-2000 RST research findings, explainsand elaborates the implications of the 2000 theory for personalitypsychology and lays out the future research agenda for RST.

How did the replication bomb we call life begin and where inthe world, or rather, in the universe, is it heading? Writing withcharacteristic wit and an ability to clarify complex phenomena (theNew York Times described his style as the sort of science writingthat makes the reader feel like a genius), Richard Dawkinsconfronts this ancient mystery.

In this fascinating volume, today’s foremost scientistsdiscuss their own versions and visions of Einstein: how he hasinfluenced their worldviews, their ideas, their science, and theirprofessional and personal lives. These twenty-four essays are atestament to the power of scientific legacy and are essentialreading for scientist and layperson alike. Contributors include: Roger Highfield on the Einstein myth John Archibald Wheeler on his meetings with Einstein Gino C. Segrè, Lee Smolin, and Anton Zeilinger on Einstein’sdifficulties with quantum theory Leon M. Lederman on the special theory of relativity Frank J. Tipler on why Einstein should be seen as a scientificreactionary rather than a scientific revolutionary

Research clearly indicates that ethnic groups differsignificantly on levels of mental and physical health, antisocialbehavior, and educational attainment. This book explains thesevariations among ethnic groups with respect to their psychologicaland social functioning and tests competing hypotheses about themechanisms that might cause the functioning to be better, worse, ordifferent in pattern from other groups. Attention is paid toeducational attainments, antisocial behavior, schizophrenia andsuicide, and to the complex and changing patterns of ethnicidentity. The book also focuses on evidence on risk and protectivefactors that is used systematically to ask whether such factorsmight account for the differences in both migration histories andethnic mixture. It concludes with a discussion of the multiplemeanings of ethnicity, the major variations among ethnic groups,and the policy implications of the findings discussed in thebook.

The solar system most of us grew up with included nineplanets, with Mercury closest to the sun and Pluto at the outeredge. Then, in 2005, astronomer Mike Brown made the discovery of alifetime: a tenth planet, Eris, slightly bigger than Pluto. Butinstead of its resulting in one more planet being added to oursolar system, Brown’s find ignited a firestorm of controversy thatriled the usually sedate world of astronomy and launched him intothe public eye. The debate culminated in the demotion of Pluto fromreal planet to the newly coined category of “dwarf” planet.Suddenly Brown was receiving hate mail from schoolchildren andbeing bombarded by TV reporters—all because of the discovery he hadspent years searching for and a lifetime dreaming about. Filled with both humor and drama, How I Killed Pluto and Why ItHad It Coming is Mike Brown’s engaging first-person account of themost tumultuous year in modern astronomy—which he inadvertentlycaused. As it guides readers through important scientifi