Science

Lifestreaming: What Happens When We Share Our Lives Online?

Read a piece from Alice Marwick on why “social media is making us anxious and paranoid” on Medium.com!  (13-min read) Follow @alicetiara Follow @yaleSCIbooks In her new book, Status Update: Celebrity, Publicity, and Branding in the Social Media Age, Alice E. Marwick explores how Web 2.0–or social media–encourages a preoccupation with

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Editor Sarah Miller on Wilderness and the American Mind

Sarah Miller— Right before Yale College’s course “shopping period” at the beginning of each semester, I visited the campus bookstores. Among the best parts of each new semester was an excuse to buy new books, and I was drawn to more than a few courses based solely on the corresponding

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Q&A With Author David Sedlak on the Future of Clean Water

Follow @yaleSCIbooks With the planet’s clean water sources strained by over-population and pollution, Yale University Press sat down with Water 4.0 author David Sedlak to talk about the future of urban water systems. For more on what we must do to protect our most precious resource, visit water4point0.com.   Yale University

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Why Does (Striking Down) Net Neutrality Matter to You?

Last week, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that the Federal Communications Commission cannot prevent Internet service providers from striking deals with content providers to provide preferential access and services to consumers who pay for these benefits. This means that a company like Verizon can

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January Theme: Technology

As 2014 begins, we turn our minds to the future. Technology, our January theme, is developing at a rapid pace, and we are excited to see what the year has in store for us. Our books this month will keep you on the cutting edge of technology development in several

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Surprising Trends from the World of Online Gaming

Read Nick Yee’s piece on how the media gets video games wrong on the Huffington Post.   Online games such as Second Life or EverQuest might seem escapes from reality, opportunities to create new persona and new worlds. In his book, The Proteus Paradox, gaming researcher Nick Yee instead contends

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40 Years of Endangered Species Act, 39 Years of Attacks on the Snail Darter

Follow @yaleSCIbooks Today is the 40th anniversary of the Endangered Species Act (ESA) of 1973. The ESA attempts to protect species from extinction as a “consequence of economic growth and development untempered by adequate concern and conservation.” The ESA uses quite broad language, protecting “any species”. There was some question

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Animating Anthro with Art: An interview with Paleo-Artist John Gurche

When you see dug-up primate bones at a natural history museum or in the science classroom, it can be difficult to fully grasp the notion that they belonged to beings that lived and breathed millennia ago. Even more difficult is to visualize what now extinct or evolved animals actually looked

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The Climate Casino: Applying Economic Reasoning to the Problem of Global Warming

Follow @yaleSCIbooks “Global warming,” William Nordhaus declares, “is one of the defining issues of our time. It ranks along with violent conflicts and economic depressions as a force that will shape the human and natural landscapes for the indefinite future.” In his new book, The Climate Casino: Risk, Uncertainty, and Economics

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A Little Fish Offers a Perceptive Window on the World

Follow @yaleSCIbooks Zygmunt J. B. Plater— It has been called The Most Extreme Environmental Case Ever, the two-inch long “snail darter” endangered fish “mis-used” by radical environmentalists to block completion of “a huge hydroelectric dam” in Tennessee. The snail darter is still today referenced as an example of extreme leftist

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