Explore the past, present and future of the everyday stuff in your home, from tinned food to tampons. Learn how 30,000 bath toys and the work of amateur beachcombers have helped scientists study ocean currents. Explore how the search for a death ray led to the creation of the microwave oven and ready meals. Discover the surprising link between sticky tape and the Nobel Prize. Uncover the extraordinary stories of ordinary objects in this book for curious minds.

Brought to you by Penguin.The international best-selling author explores the revolutions--past and present--that define the chaotic, polarized and unstable age in which we livePopulist rage, ideological fracture, economic and technological shocks, geopolitical dangers and an international system studded with catastrophic risk -- the early decades of the 21st century may be one of the most revolutionary periods in modern history. But they are not the first. Humans have lived, and thrived, through more than one great realignment. What makes an age a revolutionary one? And how do they end?In this major new work, Fareed Zakaria masterfully investigates eras that have shattered and shaped humanity. Four such periods hold profound lessons for today. First, in seventeenth-century Netherlands a series of transformations made that tiny land the richest in thew world -- and created modern politics as we know it today. The 'Glorious Revolution' in Britain showed that major political change could happen peacefully. Next, the French Revolution, a dramatic decade and a half that devoured its ideological children and left a bloody legacy that haunts us to this day. Finally, the mother of all revolutions, the Industrial Revolution, which catapulted Britain and the U.S. to global dominance and created the modern world. Against these paradigm-shifting historical eras, Zakaria describes our current situation, unpacking the four revolutions we are living through now; in globalization, technology, identity, and geopolitics.As few public intellectuals can, Zakaria combines intellectual range, deep historical insight, and uncanny prescience to reframe and illuminate a turbulent present.

This thoroughly revised and updated Fourth Edition of a time-honored text provides the reader with a comprehensive introduction to the field of scanning electron microscopy (SEM), energy dispersive X-ray spectrometry (EDS) for elemental microanalysis, electron backscatter diffraction analysis (EBSD) for micro-crystallography, and focused ion beams. Students and academic researchers will find the text to be an authoritative and scholarly resource, while SEM operators and a diversity of practitioners — engineers, technicians, physical and biological scientists, clinicians, and technical managers — will find that every chapter has been overhauled to meet the more practical needs of the technologist and working professional. In a break with the past, this Fourth Edition de-emphasizes the design and physical operating basis of the instrumentation, including the electron sources, lenses, detectors, etc. In the modern SEM, many of the low level instrument parameters are now controlled and optimized by the microscope’s software, and user access is restricted. Although the software control system provides efficient and reproducible microscopy and microanalysis, the user must understand the parameter space wherein choices are made to achieve effective and meaningful microscopy, microanalysis, and micro-crystallography. Therefore, special emphasis is placed on beam energy, beam current, electron detector characteristics and controls, and ancillary techniques such as energy dispersive x-ray spectrometry (EDS) and electron backscatter diffraction (EBSD). With 13 years between the publication of the third and fourth editions, new coverage reflects the many improvements in the instrument and analysis techniques. The SEM has evolved into a powerful and versatile characterization platform in which morphology, elemental composition, and crystal structure can be evaluated simultaneously. Extension of the SEM into a "dual beam" platform incorporating bothelectron and ion columns allows precision modification of the specimen by focused ion beam milling. New coverage in the Fourth Edition includes the increasing use of field emission guns and SEM instruments with high resolution capabilities, variable pressure SEM operation, theory, and measurement of x-rays with high throughput silicon drift detector (SDD-EDS) x-ray spectrometers. In addition to powerful vendor- supplied software to support data collection and processing, the microscopist can access advanced capabilities available in free, open source software platforms, including the National Institutes of Health (NIH) ImageJ-Fiji for image processing and the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) DTSA II for quantitative EDS x-ray microanalysis and spectral simulation, both of which are extensively used in this work. However, the user has a responsibility to bring intellect, curiosity, and a proper skepticism to information on a computer screen and to the entire measurement process. This book helps you to achieve this goal.

How the Einsteinian revolution can be understood as the result of a long-term evolution of science.

Longlisted for the American Library Association's 2025 Andrew Carnegie Medal for Excellence in Nonfiction Exploring the most transformative breakthroughs in biology since the discovery of the double helix, a Nobel Prize–winning scientist unveils the RNA age. For over half a century, DNA has dominated science and the popular imagination as the “secret of life.” But over the last several decades, a quiet revolution has taken place. In a series of breathtaking discoveries, the biochemist Thomas R. Cech and a diverse cast of brilliant scientists have revealed that RNA¿long overlooked as the passive servant of DNA¿sits at the center of biology’s greatest mysteries: How did life begin? What makes us human? Why do we get sick and grow old? In The Catalyst, Cech finally brings together years of research to demonstrate that RNA is the true key to understanding life on Earth, from its very origins to our future in the twenty-first century. A gripping journey of discovery, The Catalyst moves from the early experiments that first hinted at RNA’s spectacular powers, to Cech’s own paradigm-shifting finding that it can catalyze cellular reactions, to the cutting-edge biotechnologies poised to reshape our health. We learn how RNA¿once thought merely to transmit DNA’s genetic instructions to the cell’s protein-making machinery¿may have jump-started life itself, and how, at the same time, it can cut our individual lives short through viral diseases and cancer. We see how RNA is implicated in the aging process and explore the darker depths of the supposed fountain of youth, telomerase. And we catch a thrilling glimpse into how RNA-powered therapies¿from CRISPR, the revolutionary tool that uses RNA to rewrite the code of life, to the groundbreaking mRNA vaccines that have saved millions during the pandemic, and more¿may enable us to improve and even extend life beyond nature’s current limits. Written by one of our foremost scientists, The Catalyst is a must-read guide to the present and future of biology and medicine.

A journey guided by science that explores the universe, the earth, and the story of life.

Christof Koch explores the only thing we directly experience: consciousness. At the book's heart is integrated-information theory, the idea that the essence of consciousness is the ability to exert causal power over itself, to be an agent of change. Koch investigates the physical origins of consciousness in the brain and how this knowledge can be used to measure consciousness in natural and artificial system.

This new book explores the pioneering field of transient - or time-domain - astronomy, the incredible discoveries being made, the tools that we use to detect these cosmic events, and the aspects that continue to puzzle observers and theorists. In an engaging style accessible to the layperson, the astronomer and popular science author gives us an up-to-date overview of the "transient universe," and explains how astronomers came to see the cosmos as a dynamic place, rather than a static one.