This iconoclastic book proposes that superconductivity is misunderstood in contemporary science and that this hampers scientific and technological development. Superconductivity is the ability of some metals to carry electric current without resistance at very low temperatures. Properly understanding superconductivity would facilitate finding materials that superconduct at room temperature, providing great benefits to society.The conventional BCS theory of superconductivity, developed in 1957 and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972, is generally believed to fully explain the lower temperature 'conventional superconductors' but not the more recently discovered 'high temperature superconductors', for which the charge carriers are positive Holes rather than negative electrons. Instead, this book proposes the holistic view that Holes are responsible for superconductivity in all materials. It explains in simple terms how the most fundamental property of all superconductors, that they expel H-fields (the Meissner effect), can be understood with Hole carriers and cannot be explained by BCS. It describes the historical development of the conventional theory and why it went astray, and credits pre-BCS researchers for important insights that were forgotten after BCS but are in fact relevant for the proper understanding of superconductivity.The book's author, Jorge E Hirsch, is a renowned expert in the field of condensed matter physics who has published over 250 articles on the subject. He has developed the theory of 'Hole superconductivity', the focus of this book, over the last 30 years. He is also the inventor of the H-index, a bibliometric measure of scientific impact which, he admits in this book, fails to identify high scientific achievement in the field of superconductivity.

This iconoclastic book proposes that superconductivity is misunderstood in contemporary science and that this hampers scientific and technological development. Superconductivity is the ability of some metals to carry electric current without resistance at very low temperatures. Properly understanding superconductivity would facilitate finding materials that superconduct at room temperature, providing great benefits to society. The conventional BCS theory of superconductivity, developed in 1957 and awarded the Nobel Prize in 1972, is generally believed to fully explain the lower temperature 'conventional superconductors' but not the more recently discovered 'high temperature superconductors', for which the charge carriers are positive holes rather than negative electrons. Instead, this book proposes the holistic view that holes are responsible for superconductivity in all materials. It explains in simple terms how the most fundamental property of all superconductors, that they expel H-fields (the Meissner effect), can be understood with hole carriers and cannot be explained by BCS. It describes the historical development of the conventional theory and why it went astray, and credits pre-BCS researchers for important insights that were forgotten after BCS but are in fact relevant for the proper understanding of superconductivity.

An account of the creation of new forms of life and intelligence in cybernetics, artificial life, and artificial intelligence that analyzes both the similarities and the differences among these sciences in actualizing life.The Allure of Machinic Life

In the seventeenth century, a vision arose which was to captivate the Western imagination for the next three hundred years: the vision of Cosmopolis, a society as rationally ordered as the Newtonian view of nature. While fueling extraordinary advances in all fields of human endeavor, this vision perpetuated a hidden yet persistent agenda: the delusion that human nature and society could be fitted into precise and manageable rational categories. Stephen Toulmin confronts that agenda—its illusions and its consequences for our present and future world. "By showing how different the last three centuries would have been if Montaigne, rather than Descartes, had been taken as a starting point, Toulmin helps destroy the illusion that the Cartesian quest for certainty is intrinsic to the nature of science or philosophy."—Richard M. Rorty, University of Virginia "[Toulmin] has now tackled perhaps his most ambitious theme of all. . . . His aim is nothing less than to lay before us an account of both the origins and the prospects of our distinctively modern world. By charting the evolution of modernity, he hopes to show us what intellectual posture we ought to adopt as we confront the coming millennium."—Quentin Skinner, New York Review of Books

A sweeping cultural survey reminiscent of Barzun's From Dawn to Decadence. "At irregular times and in scattered settings, human beings have achieved great things. Human Accomplishment is about those great things, falling in the domains known as the arts and sciences, and the people who did them.' So begins Charles Murray's unique account of human excellence, from the age of Homer to our own time. Employing techniques that historians have developed over the last century but that have rarely been applied to books written for the general public, Murray compiles inventories of the people who have been essential to the stories of literature, music, art, philosophy, and the sciences—a total of 4,002 men and women from around the world, ranked according to their eminence. The heart of Human Accomplishment is a series of enthralling descriptive chapters: on the giants in the arts and what sets them apart from the merely great; on the differences between great achievement in the arts and in the sciences; on the meta-inventions, 14 crucial leaps in human capacity to create great art and science; and on the patterns and trajectories of accomplishment across time and geography. Straightforwardly and undogmatically, Charles Murray takes on some controversial questions. Why has accomplishment been so concentrated in Europe? Among men? Since 1400? He presents evidence that the rate of great accomplishment has been declining in the last century, asks what it means, and offers a rich framework for thinking about the conditions under which the human spirit has expressed itself most gloriously. Eye-opening and humbling, Human Accomplishment is a fascinating work that describes what humans at their best can achieve, provides tools for exploring its wellsprings, and celebrates the continuing common quest of humans everywhere to discover truths, create beauty, and apprehend the good.

With the convergence of Nanotechnology, Biotechnology, Information technology and Cognitive science (NBIC) fields promising to change our competitive, operational, and employment landscape in fundamental ways, we find ourselves on the brink of a new technological and science-driven business revolution. The already emerging reality of convergence is to be found in genomics, robotics, bio-information and artificial intelligence applications, such as: • Self-assembled, self-cleaning and self-healing manufactured materials and textiles, and much stronger, lighter and more customizable structural materials, • Miniature sensors allowing unobtrusive real-time health monitoring and dramatically improved diagnosis; with greatly enhanced real time information to vehicles and drivers on the way, • New generations of supercomputers and efficient energy generators based on biological processes, • Greatly enhanced drug delivery from unprecedented control over fundamental structural properties and biocompatibility of materials. These advances are here already, or in development. And Japan, other Asian nations and Western European countries are investing heavily and moving aggressively to develop and apply NBIC technologies. Notwithstanding the passage of the 21st Century Nanotechnology Research and Development Act, significant further funding and action by both government and private industry will be critical to maintaining US scientific and industry leadership.

Analyzing the role of journalists in science communication, this book presents a perspective on how this is going to evolve in the twenty-first century. The book takes three distinct perspectives on this interesting subject. Firstly, science journalists reflect on their ‘operating rules’ (science news values and news making routines). Secondly, a brief history of science journalism puts things into context, characterising the changing output of science writing in newspapers over time. Finally, the book invites several international journalists or communication scholars to comment on these observations thereby opening the global perspective. This unique project will interest a range of readers including science communication students, media studies scholars, professionals working in science communication and journalists.