Fascinating scientific concepts are simplified and explored in ways that kids will enjoy in the Magic Science series. Each book presents 16 simple experiments that can be performed with common objects
Two distinguished linguists on language, the history of science, misplaced euphoria, surprising facts, and potentially permanent mysteries.In The Secrets of Words, influential linguist Noam Chomsky and his longtime colleague Andrea Moro have a wide-ranging conversation, touching on such topics as language and linguistics, the history of science, and the relation between language and the brain. Moro draws Chomsky out on today’s misplaced euphoria about artificial intelligence (Chomsky sees “lots of hype and propaganda” coming from Silicon Valley), the study of the brain (Chomsky points out that findings from brain studies in the 1950s never made it into that era’s psychology), and language acquisition by children. Chomsky in turn invites Moro to describe his own experiments on language and the brain, and Moro does so, drawing a distinction between where questions (where in the brain language happens) and what questions (what actual information is passed from one neuron to another). Chom
Evolutionary biologists have produced a solid body of evidence to explain patterns of diversification, both within and among species. Recent textbooks are weighted towards studies of animals, which is surprising given that plants are ideally suited for answering evolutionary questions. Plants do not stand up and walk away and they can easily be cloned, transplanted or potted for experiments. This book aims to set the record straight by placing the wealth of data that have been collected on plants into the unifying framework of game theory. This allows a test of the theory of natural selection in some cases, while in other cases highlighting the need for additional data collection and theoretical development. It is the authors' hope that many students will take on this challenge and help the study of the evolutionary ecology of plants to develop as a mature, predictive science.
