Topic: Nature

A lively account of a controversial technology developed to mitigate earthquake risk and change how we live with threatening environments. The Sistema de Alerta Sísmica Mexicano is the world's oldest...

Essays on evolvability from the perspectives of quantitative and population genetics, evolutionary developmental biology, systems biology, macroevolution, and the philosophy of science. Evolvability—the capability of organisms to evolve—wasn't recognized as...

Understanding Linear Algebra is a freely available linear algebra textbook suitable for use in a first undergraduate linear algebra course. The text aims to support readers as they develop their ability...

A provocative look at the unconscious mind that challenges contemporary perceptions and exposes the indefensible science that fostered them. How much of a role does the unconscious play in our...

A unique exploration of teleonomy—also known as “evolved purposiveness”—as a major influence in evolution by a broad range of specialists in biology and the philosophy of science. The evolved purposiveness...

An exploration of the economization of the ocean through the small modifications that enable great transformations of nature. The ocean is the site of an ongoing transformation that is aimed...

An overview of the mechanisms and evolution of spatial cognition, integrating evidence from psychology, neuroscience, cognitive science, and computational geometry. Understanding how we deal with space requires input from many...

The “mapness of maps”—how maps live in interaction with their users, and what this tells us about what they are and how they work. In a sense, maps are temporarily...

An engaging and insightful journey into human consciousness. What if our goal had not been to land on Mars, but in pure consciousness? The experience of pure consciousness—what does it...

The little-known stories of the people responsible for what we know today as modern medical ethics. In Making Modern Medical Ethics, Robert Baker tells the counter history of the birth of bioethics,...

A novel, interdisciplinary exploration of the relative contributions of rigidity and flexibility in the adoption, maintenance, and evolution of technical traditions. Techniques can either be used in rigid, stereotypical ways...