検索キーワード： 歴史・哲学

A captivating journey through humanity’s relentless quest to harness and control physical power, fueling groundbreaking innovations while leaving a profound impact on our planet—from the acclaimed author of The Age of Wood. The Powerful Primate presents a compelling argument that flips the...

From the Marginalian creator and bestselling author Maria Popova, a bold exploration of what makes a meaningful life. What is life? What is death? What makes a body a person? What makes a planet a world? In Traversal, Maria Popova illuminates our various instruments of reckoning with the...

Extreme heat, fires, floods, and storms are transforming our planet. Yet we get increasing emissions, divisive politics, and ersatz solutions that offer more of the same: more capitalism, more complexity, more "progress." The impasse we face is not only political and institutional, but cognitive, existential, and narrative. We're incapable of grasping the scale, speed, and impact of global warming. And we optimistically cling to a narrative that promises a better tomorrow if we just keep doing what we're doing.

Of the codified laws of nature, only one inscribes a direction to time: the dreaded second law of thermodynamics, which declares that the disorder of a closed system tends to increase as time passes. New shoes eventually scuff, our bodies weaken and die. Yet our senses tell us that miraculous order constantly emerges, too: children grow and learn; spontaneous patterns manifest in murmurations of starlings. Can it be true that the laws of our universe mandate only dissolution?

Do scientists speak truth to power? During the Cold War, a group of American strategists and science advisors claimed to do precisely that. Styling themselves as figures of rationality and restraint, they insisted that mutual assured destruction was the natural logic of the atomic age: as long as nuclear deterrence was credible, no one would ever shoot first. This doctrine, known as "strategic stability," became the foundation of the arms control movement. But in this counterhistory, Benjamin Wilson shows that we have misunderstood them and their efforts.

Shortlisted for the Baillie Gifford Prize In this dazzling new biography, Richard Holmes, critically acclaimed author of The Age of Wonder, discovers in Young Tennyson an astonishingly magnetic and mercurial personality, a secretly expressive and highly emotional man haunted by the great...

Award-winning food writer Bee Wilson’s secret history of kitchens, showing how new technologies—from the fork to the microwave and beyond—have fundamentally shaped how and what we eat “Like having a long dinner table discussion with a fascinating friend…. A pure joy to read.”—Los...

"Allows readers to practically experience firsthand how humans have adapted to and dealt with disease throughout history...necessary and timely...engaging and entertaining. Highly recommended." ―Library Journal, starred "[A] splendid examination...Deeply insightful if unsettling." ―Kirkus...

In this thought-provoking exploration, physicists Chris Ferrie and Geraint F. Lewis delve into the fundamental questions that have puzzled humanity for centuries. With clarity and precision, Ferrie and Lewis navigate the realms of quantum physics, relativity, and cosmology, providing accessible explanations that engage both novices and enthusiasts.

The cells were supposed to die. Instead, they changed everything. When Henrietta Lacks walked into Johns Hopkins Hospital in 1951 complaining of vaginal bleeding, neither she nor her doctors could have imagined the medical revolution about to unfold. The cervical cancer that would claim her life at age 31 harbored an extraordinary secret: her cells could live forever. Without her knowledge or consent, those cells would reshape modern medicine. Dubbed "HeLa" cells, Henrietta's tissue became the cornerstone of countless medical breakthroughs.

Science isn’t a subject — it’s a system. A way of seeing, testing, and making sense of everything. From ancient myths to AI-powered labs, Science 101 tells the story of how humans figured out how to figure things out. This isn’t about listing facts or memorizing disciplines — it’s about the evolution of the scientific mindset. How did we go from believing lightning was a god… to splitting atoms? How did we learn to measure, test, repeat, and doubt? And what happens when machines start doing the science for us?

Quali meccanismi sociali presiedono alla formazione di reazioni allarmate verso gli inceneritori, il Tav in Val di Susa o il Tap in Salento? Come vengono promossi comportamenti antiadattivi, che portano molti a rifiutare i vaccini o la chemioterapia e, al contempo, a dare credito a cure alternative prive di supporto scientifico?

Before grammar, stories, or history, there was pointing. Grunting. Guesswork. And somehow, from that, we built language. This isn’t a textbook. It’s the story of how humans learned to name the world, how we stitched together meaning from noise, and how the system we invented ended up running us. From cave mouths to cuneiform, slang to syntax, sacred scripts to AI chatbots, this book tells the full arc of the original human software: invented, forgotten, rediscovered, and now automated. This Is a Rock doesn’t teach you how to talk. It shows you how we figured out that we could.

From the first fermented fruit to the last digital dopamine hit — this is the ultimate story of humanity’s oldest habit: getting out of its own head.

On December 23, 1919, Alice H. Parker received Patent No. 1,325,905 for a revolutionary gas-powered heating system that would transform American homes forever. Yet today, almost no one knows her name. HEAT OF GENIUS chronicles the remarkable life and groundbreaking innovation of Alice Parker, the Black woman inventor whose vision of centralized heating became the blueprint for every modern HVAC system.

Resulta que la música no es sólo entretenimiento: es un medio de comunicación profundamente arraigado y sutilmente poderoso. Las canciones resuenan con tus patrones de ondas cerebrales e impulsan cambios en tu cerebro: creando tus estados de ánimo, consolidando tus recuerdos, fortaleciendo tus hábitos (tanto los buenos como los malos) ... incluso haciendo que te enamores o desenamores. Tu música te está moldeando, a nivel subconsciente, durante todo el día. Y ahora, por primera vez, puedes hacerte cargo.

In this Very Short Introduction, Paul Klenerman describes the immune system, and how it works in health and disease. He considers how the immune system evolved, the basic rules that govern its behavior, and the major health threats where it is important. Paul Klenerman also explains how things can go wrong when there is too little or too much immunity. The book also addresses what we learned about the immune system from the COVID-19 pandemic and how that has influenced thinking about future pandemics.

The Voyager Space Missions: From the Grand Tour to Interstellar Space is the definitive story of humanity’s most daring leap into the unknown. When NASA launched Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 in 1977, the world had never seen the outer planets up close, and interstellar space was only a theory. What began as an ambitious plan to take advantage of a once-in-a-lifetime planetary alignment soon became one of the greatest scientific adventures in history.

الصوت جزءٌ لا يتجزّأ من تجربتنا الحياتية وتفاعلنا مع العالم من حولنا، سواء أكان ذلك في صورة ضجيج أم موسيقى؛ فالصوت يُشكِّل كيفية تعاملنا مع كل ما يحيط بنا، ومن ثم فلا غنى عن فهمه في العديد من المجالات المتنوّعة، مثل علم النفس واللغويات والعمارة والسلوك الحيواني والتطوّر وعلم المحيطات، وبالطبع الموسيقى. في هذا الكتاب، يأخذنا مايك جولدسميث في جولة سريعة نلقي فيها نظرة على علم الصوت ونستكشفه في سياقات متباينة، ما بين المسموع وغير المسموع، وما تحت الأرض وتحت الماء، وما هو إلكتروني وكهربائي، فضلاً عن نعمة السمع لدى الإنسان والحيوان. وعلى مدار الفصول الثمانية القصيرة لهذا الكتاب، يلقي جولدسميث الضوء على أهم الاكتشافات في تاريخ البشرية التي أثّرت على فهمنا للصوت واستخداماتنا المعاصرة له، كما يناقش مشكلة الصوت عندما يكون «في غير محله»، أي الضجيج، وكيف يمكننا الحدّ منه وحماية آذاننا وسط الأصوات التي لا نختار الاستماع إليها.

المادَّة هي المكوِّن الأساسي للكون. ونحن نعرف الذرَّة جيداً وأنها جُسيم شديد الصِّغر لدرجة أن شعرة الإنسان الرفيعة قد تتَّسع لمليون ذرَّة. إلا أن المادَّة بحرٌ أوسع من هذا بكثير، وفَـهْـم طبيعتها عملية دؤوبة لا تنتهي. يستكشف «جيف كوتريل» خبايا جميع أشكال المادَّة، بدايةً من أشكالها المألوفة مثل المواد الصلبة والسائلة والغازيَّـة، وحتى البلازما والأشكال غير المألوفة، مثل المادَّة الكميَّـة والمادَّة المضادَّة. يستعرض كوتريل كذلك نشأة المادَّة في الانفجار العظيم، فيتحدَّث عن تكوين الذرَّة والطاقة والكتلة والأشكال الغامضة للمـادَّة المظلمة والطاقة المظلمة، فيتضح لنا أننا ما زلنا لا نعلم الكثير عن المادَّة التي يتكوَّن منها عالمنا.