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Ai Ethics

by Mark (Professor Of Philosophy Of Media And Technology, University Of Vienna) Coeckelbergh

22,97€ + 10% CARD

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 An accessible synthesis of ethical issues raised by artificial intelligence that moves beyond hype and nightmare scenarios to address concrete questions.
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Gain Of Function

by Nicholas G. Evans

~~45,05€~~ 40,55€ 10% OFF

 How a small number of risky experiments creates many unwieldy problems for life science research.The life sciences have never been more critical to human health, wealth, and security. But with any endeavor comes risk, and the last decade has seen concerns raised about gain-of function-research in which a microbe, usually a virus, is given new properties like enhanced lethality, transmissibility, or the capability to infect new species. In 2021 the term seeped into the tabloids when a conflict between Senator Rand Paul and Dr. Anthony Fauci arose over the origins of COVID-19. In Gain of Function, Nicholas Evansâ€"who has spent his career studying gain-of-function researchâ€"describes what this kind of research is, what it isn''t, and why a small number of scientific experiments continues to make headlines.Evans begins with a description of what gain-of-function research is in science, and what it means in government policy. He tells the story of the original papers that sparked controversy more than a decade ago, unpacking them for readers unfamiliar with virology research, and he identifies where and why policymakers and scientists alike became concerned. He then turns to the history of policies that attempt to regulate gain-of-function research, the current controversies, and the ethics of risky research. He concludes with the future of gain of function, including how debates about gain of function will influence science and public health in years to come.
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Standards

by Jason Griffey e Jeffrey Pomerantz

~~45,05€~~ 40,55€ 10% OFF

 An engaging introduction to standards, the invisible infrastructure that shapes the built and digital environments of the modern world.Standards are the DNA of the built environment, encoded in nearly all objects that surround us in the modern world. In Standards, Jeffrey Pomerantz and Jason Griffey provide an essential introduction to this invisible but critical form of infrastructureâ€"the rules and specifications that govern so many elements of the physical and digital environments, from the color of school buses to the shape of shipping containers. In an approachable, often outright funny fashion, Pomerantz and Griffey explore the nature, function, and effect of standards in everyday life. Using examples of specific standards and contexts in which they are appliedâ€"in the realms of technology, economics, sociology, and information scienceâ€"they illustrate how standards influence the development and scope, and indeed the very range of possibilities of our built and social worlds. Deeply informed and informally written, their work makes a subject generally deemed boring, complex, and fundamentally important comprehensible, clear, and downright engaging.
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Artificial General Intelligence

by Julian Togelius

~~47,70€~~ 42,93€ 10% OFF

 How to make AI capable of general intelligence, and what such technology would mean for society.Artificial intelligence surrounds us. More and more of the systems and services you interact with every day are based on AI technology. Although some very recent AI systems are generalists to a degree, most AI is narrowly specific; that is, it can only do a single thing, in a single context. For example, your spellchecker can''t do mathematics, and the world''s best chess-playing program can''t play Tetris. Human intelligence is different. We can solve a variety of tasks, including those we have not seen before. In Artificial General Intelligence, Julian Togelius explores technical approaches to developing more general artificial intelligence and asks what general AI would mean for human civilization.Togelius starts by giving examples of narrow AI that have superhuman performance in some way. Interestingly, there have been AI systems that are superhuman in some sense for more than half a century. He then discusses what it would mean to have general intelligence, by looking at definitions from psychology, ethology, and computer science. Next, he explores the two main families of technical approaches to developing more general artificial intelligence: foundation models through self-supervised learning, and open-ended learning in virtual environments. The final chapters of the book investigate potential artificial general intelligence beyond the strictly technical aspects. The questions discussed here investigate whether such general AI would be conscious, whether it would pose a risk to humanity, and how it might alter society.
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Blockchain Governance

by Morshed Mannan, Primavera De Filippi e Wessel Reijers

~~47,70€~~ 42,93€ 10% OFF

 An engaging and comprehensive exploration of how fundamental ideas in political and legal thought shape the governance of blockchain communities, and are, in turn, shaped by blockchain technology.
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Galaxies

by Or Graur

~~47,70€~~ 42,93€ 10% OFF

 An eminently readable overview of the history and physics of galaxies.In Galaxies, Or Grauroffers a brief and fascinating overview of the history, physics, and astrophysical uses of galaxies. Starting with the history of the last two thousand years of galaxy studies, Graur discusses the types of galaxies we observe and the physics that drive them; the myths and physical structure of the Milky Way; how galaxies were used to discover and study the mysterious phenomena of dark matter and dark energy; and how scientists think galaxies formed shortly after the Big Bang and evolved to their present forms. Tracing galaxy studies back thousands of years ago to their beginnings, Graur describes their origin in Ptolemy''s book Almagest, whichwaswritten in the first century CE. Almagest catalogued hundreds of stars and a few hazy cloud-like objects, one of which was the Andromeda galaxy. The reader will also encounter in this book well-known figures such as William Herschel, who, along with his sister Caroline (the first professional female astronomer), discovered hundreds of galaxies and lay the foundations for modern galaxy studies, as well as lesser-known astronomers, including tenth-century Persian astronomer Abd al-Rahman al-Sufi, twentieth-century American astronomer Vesto Melvin Slipher, and others. Galaxies concludes by showing readers how they can get involved in galaxy studies themselves and do their part to fight the light pollution that today obscures the Milky Way and all but the brightest of stars.Providing a brief but broad overview of galaxies for the nonspecialist, Galaxies shows just how modern science is done and what the future holds for this specific field of astronomy.
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Tech Monopoly

by Herbert Hovenkamp

~~45,05€~~ 40,55€ 10% OFF

 A serious look at competition problems in tech markets and whether antitrust law can help address them.In recent years, the astronomical rise of tech giants like Amazon, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft has been criticized as anticompetitive, and many have wondered if antitrust law can help protect workers and consumers. In Tech Monopoly, Herbert Hovenkamp explores competition problems in a wide range of high-tech firms—from those that sell purely digital products, such as video streaming, search, software, or email services, to others that sell more traditional "tactile" products, such as hardware, clothing, groceries, or rides. He offers a realistic look at the powers and limitations of antitrust law in tech markets with an assessment that is as comprehensive as it is accessible.After a general introduction to antitrust law, TechMonopoly considers how competitive harm should be assessed in these markets, as well as some features that make these markets unique, including "two-sided" structures. Then Hovenkamp looks at the role of large digital platforms, including Amazon, Alphabet, Apple, Meta, and Microsoft, and considers whether their size alone is an antitrust problem or if the concern should be limited to market power. Finally, the author addresses the very difficult problem of remedies. Should we "break up" big tech, and if so, how? What kind of breakup of these firms would make users or others better off? And if breakups are not the only possible antitrust fix, are there more effective and less disruptive alternatives?Offering simple explanations of the complex economics of digital platform markets, Tech Monopoly is an important read for anyone who wishes to understand how antitrust law works and whether it can help defend competition in the formidable era of big tech.
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Endangered Languages

by Evangelia Adamou

~~45,05€~~ 40,55€ 10% OFF

 A concise, accessible introduction to language endangerment and why it is one of the most urgent challenges of our times.58% of the world''s languages—or, approximately 4,000 languages—are endangered. When we break this figure down, we realize that roughly ten percent of languages have fewer than ten language keepers. And, if one language stops being used every three months, this means that in the next 100 years, if we do nothing, 400 more languages will become dormant. In Endangered Languages, Evangelia Adamou, a specialist of endangered languages and a learner of her own community language, Nashta, offers a sobering look at language endangerment and what is truly lost when a language disappears from usage.Combining recent advances from the Western scientific tradition—from the fields of linguistics, psycholinguistics, neurolinguistics, language attrition, population genetics, and natural language processing—and insights from Indigenous epistemology, theory, and ethics, Adamou examines a wealth of issues surrounding endangered languages. She discusses where endangered languages are found, including how they are faring in a digital world, why these languages are no longer used, and how communities can reclaim languages and keep them strong. Adamou also explains the impact of language continuity on community and individual health and well-being, the importance of language transmission in cultural transmission, and why language rights are essentially human rights.Drawing on varied examples from the Wampanoag Nation to Wales, Endangered Languages offers a powerful reminder of the crucial role every language has in the vitality and well-being of individuals, communities, and our world.
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Cyborg

by Danya Glabau e Laura Forlano

~~45,05€~~ 40,55€ 10% OFF

 A concise introduction to cyborg theory that examines the way in which technology is situated, political, and embodied.This introduction to cyborg theory provides a critical vantage point for analyzing the claims around emerging technologies like automation, robots, and AI. Cyborg analyzes and reframes popular and scholarly conversations about cyborgs from the perspective of feminist cyborg theory. Drawing on their combined decades of training, teaching, and research in the social sciences, design, and engineering education, Laura Forlano and Danya Glabau introduce an approach called critical cyborg literacy. Critical cyborg literacy foregrounds power dynamics and pays attention to the ways that social and cultural factors such as gender, race, and disability shape how technology is imagined, developed, used, and resisted. Forlano and Glabau offer critical cyborg literacy as a way of thinking through questions about the relationship between humanity and technology in areas such as engineering and computing, art and design, and health care and medicine, as well as the social sciences and humanities. Cyborg examines whether modern technologies make us all cyborgs—if we consider, for instance, the fact that we use daily technologies at work, have technologies embedded into our bodies in health care applications, or use technology to critically explore possibilities as artists, designers, activists, and creators. Lastly, Cyborg offers perspectives from critical race, feminist, and disability thinkers to help chart a path forward for cyborg theory in the twenty-first century.
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Cloud Computing

by Nayan B. Ruparelia

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 An updated, revised, and comprehensive overview of the concepts related to cloud computing, including recent applications, innovations, and its future evolution.In this Essential Knowledge volume, Nayan B. Ruparelia provides an updated and revised version of Cloud Computing, first published in 2016, to address not only the fact that cloud computing has become a ubiquitous part of mainstream computing since then but also has made strides in other key aspects of the technology''s development, including:• cloud computing''s history, • updated security fundamentals that provide examples of Identity and Access Management (IAM) use that illustrate the difference between on-premise (i.e., conventional) security and cloud-based security implementation and Security Information and Event Management SIEM), • an updated discussion of data migration to the cloud, • a new chapter on data integrity, • cloud native computing, • the use of microservice design patterns, • cloud automation using orchestrators and tools such as Kubernetes, • a comparison of common public clouds (Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud Platform, and Amazon AWS), • and a future outlook for cloud computing.An indispensable guide to cloud computing for the layperson, Cloud Computing cuts through the technical jargon and details that are irrelevant to nontechnologists, as well as the marketing hype, and explains clearly what cloud computing is, when to use it (and when not to), how to select a cloud service, how to integrate it with other technologies, and what the best practices are for its adoption.
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Plastics

by Imari Walker-Franklin e Jenna Jambeck

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A comprehensive introduction to the plastics life cycle—the impacts on our lives, our future, and our planet—and the actions we can take.Everywhere we look, we are surrounded by plastics: perhaps you have a book in one hand and your phone—made of various metals, plastics, and glass—in the other, or you are reading this on your polyurethane mattress after having flipped on a plastic light switch. In this Essential Knowledge series volume, Imari Walker-Franklin and Jenna Jambeck provide a deep exploration of the entire life of plastic things—plastics production and use, plastic waste generation and management, the environmental and societal impacts of plastics in our environment, and, finally, the policies that can help reduce pollution caused by our heavy use of plastics. One of the most current and comprehensive summaries on the subject, Plastics covers not only ocean and terrestrial plastic pollution but also the potential harms of microplastics on the human body. The authors also explain why we use plastic for so many products, how trash ends up in even the most remote corners of our world, and the alternatives and interventions that can help address our overreliance on this virtually imperishable material. As easily digestible to read as it is important, this book empowers its readers with the crucial knowledge and information they need to make thoughtful consumer choices, influence change, and spark inspiration.
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Memory

by Fergus Craik e Larry Jacoby

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A short, accessible primer on human memory, its workings, feats, and flaws, by two leading psychological researchers.Why do we vividly recall a traumatic childhood event but forget where we left our keys five minutes ago? How can a scent take us back fifty years while a colleague''s name eludes us? In this compact introduction, two leading psychological researchers describe memory—how it works and why it sometimes doesn''t; how it can be tricked, trained, or improved; and what changes with time.In a manner as engaging as it is informative, Fergus Craik and Larry Jacoby explain the strengths and weaknesses of memory. They trace evolving ideas about memory''s function and present a down-to-earth account of modern views. Citing the latest research, they outline the processes for acquiring and retrieving memories and explore the distinction between conscious and unconscious processes. With insights into the workings of the brain, Craik and Jacoby also provide a succinct account of feats and failures of memory, emotion and false memories, and the effects of aging. Their book draws a clear picture, at once broad and concise, of current and classical views of memory, that most essential and often mysterious feature of human life.
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Espionage - A Concise History

by Kristie Macrakis

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A concise introduction to the history and methods of espionage, illustrated by spy stories from antiquity to today''s high-tech world.Espionage is one of the most secret of human activities. It is also, as the popularity of spy stories suggests, one of the most intriguing. This book pulls the veil back on the real world of espionage, revealing how spying actually works. In a refreshingly clear, concise manner, Kristie Macrakis guides readers through the shadowy world of espionage, from the language and practice of spycraft to its role in international politics, its bureaucratic underpinnings, and its transformation in light of modern technology. Espionage is a mirror of society and human foibles with the added cloak of secrecy and deception. Accordingly, Espionage traces spying all the way back to antiquity, while also moving beyond traditional accounts of military and diplomatic intelligence to shine a light on industrial espionage and the new techno-spy. As thorough—and thoroughly readable—as it is compact, the book is an ideal introduction to the history and anatomy of espionage.
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Pragmatism

by John R. Shook

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A concise, reader-friendly overview of pragmatism, the most influential school of American philosophical thought.Pragmatism, America''s homegrown philosophy, has been a major intellectual movement for over a century. Unlike its rivals, it reaches well beyond the confines of philosophy into concerns and disciplines as diverse as religion, politics, science, and culture. In this concise, engagingly written overview, John R. Shook describes pragmatism''s origins, concepts, and continuing global relevance and appeal. With attention to the movement''s original thinkers—Charles Sanders Peirce, William James, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead—as well as its contemporary proponents, he explains how pragmatism thinks about what is real, what can be known, and what minds are doing. And because of pragmatism''s far-reaching impact, Shook shows how its views on reality, truth, knowledge, and cognition coordinate with its approaches to agency, sociality, human nature, and personhood.
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Causal Inference

by Paul R. Rosenbaum

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A nontechnical guide to the basic ideas of modern causal inference, with illustrations from health, the economy, and public policy.Which of two antiviral drugs does the most to save people infected with Ebola virus? Does a daily glass of wine prolong or shorten life? Does winning the lottery make you more or less likely to go bankrupt? How do you identify genes that cause disease? Do unions raise wages? Do some antibiotics have lethal side effects? Does the Earned Income Tax Credit help people enter the workforce?Causal Inference provides a brief and nontechnical introduction to randomized experiments, propensity scores, natural experiments, instrumental variables, sensitivity analysis, and quasi-experimental devices. Ideas are illustrated with examples from medicine, epidemiology, economics and business, the social sciences, and public policy.
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Fertility Technology

by Donna J. Drucker

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A concise overview of fertility technology—its history, practical applications, and ethical and social implications around the world.In the late 1850s, a physician in New York City used a syringe and glass tube to inject half a drop of sperm into a woman''s uterus, marking the first recorded instance of artificial insemination. From that day forward, doctors and scientists have turned to technology in ever more innovative ways to facilitate conception. Fertility Technology surveys this history in all its medical, practical, and ethical complexity, and offers a look at state-of-the-art fertility technology in various social and political contexts around the world.Donna J. Drucker''s concise and eminently readable account introduces the five principal types of fertility technologies used in human reproduction—artificial insemination; ovulation timing; sperm, egg, and embryo freezing; in vitro fertilization; and IVF in uterine transplants—discussing the development, manufacture, dispersion, and use of each. Geographically, it focuses on countries where innovations have emerged and countries where these technologies most profoundly affect individuals and population policies. Drucker''s wide-ranging perspective reveals how these technologies, used for birth control as well as conception in many cases, have been critical in shaping the moral, practical, and political meaning of human life, kinship, and family in different nations and cultures since the mid-nineteenth century.
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Happiness

by Tim Lomas

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A concise and engaging exploration of how we understand happiness.What does it mean to feel happiness? As a state of mind, it''s elusive. As a concept—despite the plethora of pop psychology books on the subject—it''s poorly understood. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, psychologist Tim Lomas offers a concise and engaging overview of our current understanding of happiness. Lomas explains that although the field of positive psychology, which focuses on happiness, emerged only in the last twenty-five years, interest in the meaning of happiness goes back several millennia. Drawing on a variety of disciplines, from philosophy and sociology to economics and anthropology, Lomas offers an expansive vision of what happiness means, exploring a significant range of experiential territory.After considering such related concepts as wellbeing and flourishing, Lomas traces ideas of happiness from the ancient Buddhist notions of sukha and nirvana through Aristotle''s distinction between hedonic and eudaemonic happiness to today''s therapeutic and scientific approaches. He discusses current academic perspectives, looking at the breadth of happiness research across disciplines; examines the mechanics of happiness—the physiological, psychological, phenomenological, and sociocultural processes that make up happiness; explores the factors that influence happiness, both individual and social; and discusses the cultivation of happiness.
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Whiteness

by Martin Lund

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 The socially constructed phenomenon of whiteness: how it was created, how it changes, and how it protects and privileges people who are perceived as white.This volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series examines the socially constructed phenomenon of whiteness, tracing its creation, its changing formation, and its power to privilege and protect people who are perceived as white. Whiteness, author Martin Lund explains, is not one single idea but a shifting, overarching category, a flexible cluster of historically, culturally, and geographically contingent ideals and standards that enable systems of hierarchical classification. Lund discusses words used to talk about whiteness, from white privilege to white fragility; the intersections of whiteness with race, class, and gender; whiteness in popular culture; and such ideas as "colorblindness" and "reverse racism," which, he argues, actually uphold whiteness.Lund shows why it is important to keep talking and thinking about whiteness. The word "whiteness," he writes, doesn''t describe; it conjures something into being. Drawing on decades of critical whiteness studies and citing a range of examples (primarily from the United States and Sweden), Lund argues that whiteness is continually manufactured and sustained through language, laws, policies, science, and representations in media and popular culture. It is often positioned as normative, even universal. And despite its innocuous-seeming manifestations in sitcoms and superheroes, whiteness is always in the service of racial domination.
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Supernova

by Or Graur

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A concise introduction to the history and physics of supernovae, the brilliant explosions of stars; with striking color illustrations.Supernovae are the explosions of stars. They are some of the most energetic phenomena in the Universe, rivaling the combined light of billions of stars. Supernovae have been studied for centuries, and they have also made appearances in popular culture: a glimpse of a supernova in a painting provides Sherlock Holmes with a crucial clue, for example. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, astrophysicist Or Graur offers a concise and accessible introduction to these awe-inspiring astronomical phenomena.Graur explains that a deep observational understanding of supernovae—why and how they shine and how their brightness changes over time—allows us to use them as tools for experiments in astrophysics and physics. A certain type of supernova, for example, brightens and fades in such a predictable manner that we can measure the distances to their host galaxies. We owe our existence to supernovae—they give us iron for our blood and calcium for our bones. But supernovae may also have caused a mass extinction event on Earth 2.6 million years ago.Graur shows how observations of supernovae played a role in the transformation of astronomy from astrology to astrophysics; surveys the tools used to study supernovae today; and describes the lives and deaths of stars and the supernova remnants, neutron stars, and black holes they leave behind. Illustrations in both color and black and white, many from Graur''s own Hubble Space Telescope data, make this account of supernovae particularly vivid.
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Content

by Kate Eichhorn

42,40€ + 10% CARD

 A concise introduction to content and the content industry, from the early internet to the Instagram egg.From the time we roll out of bed to check overnight updates to our last posts, likes, and views of the previous day, we''re consuming and producing content. But what does the term "content" even mean? When did it become ubiquitous? And at what cost? In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kate Eichhorn offers a concise introduction to content and the content industry, examining the far-reaching effects content has on culture, politics, and labor in a digital age . Eichhorn traces the evolution of our current understanding of content from the early internet to the current social mediaverse. The quintessential example of content, she says, is the Instagram egg—an image that imparted no information or knowledge and circulated simply for the sake of circulation. Eichhorn explores what differentiates user-generated content from content produced by compensated (although often undercompensated) workers; examines how fields from art and literature to journalism and politics have weathered the rise of the content industry; and investigates the increasing importance of artists'' "content capital"—the ability of artists, writers, and performers to produce content not about their work but about their status as artists.
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Nuclear Weapons

by Mark Wolverton

45,05€ + 10% CARD

 A primer on nuclear weapons, from the science of fission and fusion to the pursuit of mutual assured destruction, the SALT treaties, and the Bomb in pop culture.Although the world''s attention has shifted to drone-controlled bombing and cyberwarfare, the threat of nuclear war still exists. There are now fourteen thousand nuclear weapons in the hands of the nine declared nuclear powers. Even though the world survived the Cold War, we need to understand what it means to live with nuclear weapons. In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Mark Wolverton offers a primer on nuclear weapons, from the science of fission and fusion to the pursuit of mutual assured destruction, the SALT and START agreements, and the Bomb in pop culture.Wolverton explains the basic scientific facts, offers historical perspective, and provides a nuanced view of the unique political, social, and moral dilemmas posed by nuclear weapons. He describes the birth of the Bomb in 1945 and its use against the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki; explains how a nuclear bomb works; recounts episodes when the world came close to waging nuclear war, including the Cuban missile crisis in 1962; discusses nuclear policy and nuclear treaties; and traces the influence of such films as On the Beach, Dr. Strangelove, and The Day After.
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Quantum Entanglement

by Jed (Senior Lecturer In Physics, Emory University) Brody

21,62€ + 10% CARD

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 An exploration of quantum entanglement and the ways in which it contradicts our everyday assumptions about the ultimate nature of reality.
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Smart Cities

by Germaine (Professor And Director Of Undergraduate Studies, Kansas University) Halegoua

24,32€ + 10% CARD

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 Key concepts, definitions, examples, and historical contexts for understanding smart cities, along with discussions of both drawbacks and benefits of this approach to urban problems.
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Cynicism

by Ansgar (Lecturer, University Of Sheffield) Allen

20,27€ + 10% CARD

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 A short history of cynicism, from the fearless speech of the ancient Greeks to the jaded negativity of the present.
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