Can you remember the first time you encountered true darkness? The kind that remains as black and inky whether your eyes are open or closed? Where you can't see your hand in front of your face?Jacqueline Yallop can. It was in an unfamiliar bedroom while holidaying in Yorkshire as a child, and ever since then she has been fascinated by the dark, by our efforts to capture or avoid it, by the meanings we give to it and the way our brains process it.Taking a journey into the dark secrets of place, body and mind, she documents a series of night-time walks, exploring both the physical realities of darkness and the psychological dark that helps shape our sense of self. Exploring our enduring love-hate relationship with states of darkness, she considers how we attempt to understand and contain the dark, and, as she comes to terms with her father's deteriorating Alzheimer's, she reflects on how our relationship with the dark can change with time and circumstance.Darkness captivates, baffles and appals us. It's a shifty thing of many textures and many moods. It can be an absence and a presence, a solace and a threat, a beginning and an end. Into the Dark is the story of the many darks that fascinate and assail us. It faces the darkness in all its guises and mysteries, celebrating it as a thing of beauty while peering into the void.
Women make over 80 percent of healthcare decisions in the U.S. yet have been excluded from designing the health system for too long. It was only 1993 when women and people of color were officially included in clinical trials. Heart attacks are the number one killer of women worldwide, but women are 50 percent more likely to be given a wrong diagnosis. Only four percent of all healthcare research and development is focused on women's health issues. From periods and childbirth to menopause, female pain has been normalized, as society shrugs and says "Welcome to being a woman" instead of coming up with better solutions.In The Vagina Business, award-winning journalist Marina Gerner PhD takes an eye-opening-and often times shocking-look at the inequities when it comes to scientific research and the funding of female-focused health companies. She exposes the obstacles entrepreneurs around the world face in the boardroom and beyond. Most of all, she shows us that it doesn't have to be this way. From a life-saving bra to non-hormonal contraception and new takes on fertility and menopause, she shines a light on innovation that matters. Women should not be denied solutions to health issues just because people are embarrassed to talk about vaginas. We deserve much better.
In this provocative new book, Lucy Ash reveals how, under Putin, religion is being stripped of its spiritual content and used as a weapon to control the population in a way never seen before. Orthodox clerics and their acolytes are trying to drag Russia backwards into a new Middle Ages.Combining historical research with vivid present-day reportage, The Baton and the Cross explores the impact the Church is having on millions of Russians' lives - from the tower blocks of Moscow and the big cities to far-flung villages in Siberia. Delving into the underbelly of politics, state security and big money, Ash shows how these forces have formed an unholy alliance with Orthodoxy.
Brainjacking takes us on a journey through advertising and marketing's attempts to understand and influence our thoughts and desires, from the earliest billboards to the technologies of the future. To discover how science intersects with our desires and decisions, the book pulls together three strands that have a huge impact on our lives: advertising, how much privacy we can and should have in the new electronic world, and how to draw the line been information and influence. With Brian Clegg as your guide, this is a book that will help you unpick the insidious world of brainjacking. Expertly pulling together different strands on disparate topics including AI, Big Data, subliminal advertising and more, this essential investigation shows how new and old technology and science can be combined to influence human behaviour and beliefs.
Everyone has an interest in the weather, whether it's to check the prospects for a day out or to know when best to harvest a crop. The Earth's weather systems also provide some of the most dramatic forces of nature, from the vast release of energy in a lightning flash to the devastating impact of tornadoes and hurricanes.For centuries, our only real guide to future weather was folklore, but with the introduction of the first weather forecasts and maps in Victorian times, attempts were made to give some warning of the weather to come. Until relatively recently, these forecasts could be wildly inaccurate - think of Michael Fish's denial that there was a storm on the way the night before the UK's great storm of 1987. This was due to the mathematically chaotic nature of weather systems, first discovered in the 1960s, understanding of which would transform forecasting from the 1990s and mean that meteorologists became amongst the foremost users of supercomputers.
Veteran traveler and textile expert Chris Aslan explores the Silk, Wool and Cotton Roads of Central Asia. Three textile roads tangle their way through Central Asia. The famous Silk Road united east and west through trade. Older still was the Wool Road, of critical importance when houses made from wool enabled nomads to traverse the inhospitable winter steppes. Then there was the Cotton Road, marked by greed, colonialism and environmental disaster. At this intersection of human history, fortunes were made and lost through shimmering silks, life-giving felts and gossamer cottons. Chris Aslan, who has spent fifteen years living and working in the region, expertly unravels the strands of this tangled history and embroiders them with his own experiences of life in the heart of Asia.
'A gripping read for anyone who cares about what we're doing to the planet and how we can change it' DAVID SHUKMAN, FORMER BBC NEWS SCIENCE EDITOR'Searing observations focused on our need to protect biodiversity - A tour de force' SIR TIM SMIT OBE, CO-FOUNDER OF THE EDEN PROJECT'An informative, uplifting and truly important book' JONATHON PORRITT, AUTHOR AND CAMPAIGNEROne woman's journey through South America - and the devastating story of our planet's disappearing biodiversityPedalling hard for thirteen months, eco adventurer Kate Rawles cycled the length of the Andes on an eccentric bicycle she built herself. The Life Cycle charts her mission to find out why biodiversity is so important, what's happening to it, and what can be done to protect it. From the Pacific Ocean to rainforests and salt flats, Kate learns that armadillos can cross rivers by holding their breath, that Colombia has more species of birds than North America and Europe combined, and that in threatening ecosystems, we're tearing down our own life support system. En route, she witnesses the devastation of goldmining and oil drilling but finds hope in the incredible people working to regenerate habitats and communities. As she reaches the 'end of the world', she realises that to tackle biodiversity loss we all have a role to play.
'Lucid, poetic and fascinating' ALICE ROBERTS 'Engaging, authoritative and full of fascinating stories of the past' RAY MEARS 'A gentle, personal and very readable book' JULIA BLACKBURN AUTHOR OF TIME SONG 'A triumph!' JAMES CANTON, AUTHOR OF THE OAK PAPERS 'I loved this book' FRANCIS PRYOR, AUTHOR OF STONEHENGE On paths, roads, seas, in the air, and in space - there has never been so much human movement. In contrast we think of the past as static, 'frozen in time'. But archaeologists have in fact always found evidence for humanity's irrepressible restlessness. Now, latest developments in science and archaeology are transforming this evidence and overturning how we understand the past movement of humankind. In this book, archaeologist Jim Leary traces the past 3.5 million years to reveal how people have always been moving, how travel has historically been enforced (or prohibited) by people with power, and how our forebears showed incredible bravery and ingenuity to journey across continents and oceans. With Leary to show the way, you'll follow the footsteps of early hunter-gatherers preserved in mud, and tread ancient trackways hollowed by feet over time. Passing drovers, wayfarers and pilgrims, you'll see who got to move, and how people moved. And you'll go on long-distance journeys and migrations to see how movement has shaped our world.
Over 50 years ago, astronomers launched the world's first orbiting telescope. This allowed them to gaze further into outer space and examine anything that appears in the sky above our heads, from comets and planets to galaxy clusters and stars. Since then, almost 100 space telescopes have been launched from Earth and are orbiting our planet, with 26 still active and relaying information back to us.As a result of these space-based instruments, such as NASA's iconic Hubble Space Telescope, we know much more about the universe than we did half a century ago. But why is Hubble, orbiting just 540 kilometres above the Earth, so much more effective than a ground-based telescope? How can a glorified camera tell us not only what distant objects look like, but their detailed chemical composition and three-dimensional structure as well?
A stag leaps on an ancient brooch. A doe and a fawn step across a field at first light. A pair of antlers is silhouetted by the side of a busy road.From the earliest cave paintings to the present day, humans and deer have a long and complex history. Royal harts were the coveted quarry of European kings, while the first Americans relied on deer for everything from buckskins to arrow heads. Once hunted to the point of extinction in some parts of the world, deer numbers have exploded in recent years, causing tension between scientists and conservationists. And yet, this is our own story, as the fortune of deer is inextricably bound up with the actions that we humans take on the world around us.
Your expert guide to mastering the numbers behind the mysteries of modern mathematics. What with the mysteries of infinity and imaginary numbers, the power of mathematical modelling, and the logic and structures hiding behind real-life situations and digital worlds, the modern landscape of mathematics is an extraordinary place to explore. But how are you expected to navigate this enigmatic and abstract world?Short Cuts: Maths provides the map you need to start exploring seriously big ideas. Puzzling questions prompt ''short cut'' answers written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for instructions to help you plot your path through the mathematical maze.
Your expert guide to understanding the models, morals, minefields and mechanisms of the modern global marketplace.What with trickle down and level up, boom and bust, stimulus and stagflation, green investment and Black Monday, the modern landscape of economics is an intriguing place to explore. But how are you expected to navigate the means and ends of this turbulent world?Short Cuts: Economics provides the map you need to start exploring seriously big ideas. A wealth of provocative questions prompt ''short cut'' answers written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for instructions to help you plot your path through the economic maze.
What is knowledge? What makes me, me? Do we have free will? People have been asking such fundamental questions about the nature of reality for centuries, but how can they help us make sense of our existence in a 21st-century world of social media, cyber wars, cloning, artificial intelligence and virtual reality?Short Cuts: Philosophy provides the map you need to travel beyond traditional foundations and explore a diverse array of deep thinkers. Soul-searching questions prompt 'short cut' answers written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for instructions that plot a path through the philosophical landscape. With 'one-stop' graphics visualizing a memorable theory or idea for each concept, and 'route map' glossaries explaining key words and their connections, Short Cuts: Philosophy will help you wrestle with the meaning of ancient and modern philosophical thought.
Is there an epidemic of pandemics? Does climate change effect our health? Will AI ever replace doctors?Questions about medicine have always been central to society, but what can they tell us about our future well- being in a 21st-century world of antibiotic resistance and anti-vaxxers, organ transplants and gene therapies, miracle drugs and magic bullets?Short Cuts: Medicine provides the map you need to explore the latest thinking in ethics, practice, treatment and prevention. Incisive questions prompt 'short cut' diagnoses written by experts in their field, with each one the setting-off point for instructions to help you plot your path through the medical maze. With 'one-stop' graphics visualizing a theory or idea for each topic, and 'route map' glossaries explaining key words and connections, Short Cuts: Medicine will help you navigate the mysteries of the modern medical world.
Jean Baggott is 'the girl on the wall' - a 1948 photograph taken of her when she was eleven - whose life was never going to be remarkable and the pinnacle of whose achievements would come from being a wife and a mother. Almost 60 years later, with her children gone, dealing with the loss of the love of her life, Jean began the education denied to her as a girl. Inspired by ceilings of Lincolnshire's Burghley House and by the History degree she had begun, Jean began to stitch a tapestry which looked back at her life and the changing world around her. It took sixteen months to complete. The tapestry consists of over 70 intersecting circles, each telling some aspect of her life. Some represent extraordinary events such as the moon landings or world historical news stories like the Cuban Missile Crisis; some circles comment on famous people and places she remembers, others about the music she loves - Pink Floyd - and the games she played as a child, and growing up during the second world war with her brothers. Each chapter of "e;The Girl on the Wall"e; features a circle from the tapestry and Jean's accompanying narrative, exploring the circle and the memories it evokes. It reveals an ordinary life in extraordinary detail. The result is a truly unique, touching portrait of a seemingly average British woman's life. To stand back and look at the tapestry is to be struck by the richness of one human journey - from 1940 to the present day. The girl on the wall would be proud. The book includes a full-colour pull-out of Jean's tapestry inside the back cover.
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