Machine Learning Algorithms for Problem Solving in Computational Applications

How genomics reveals deep histories of inequality, going back many thousands of years. Inequality is an urgent global concern, with pundits, politicians, academics, and best-selling books all taking up its causes and consequences. In Inequality, Carles Lalueza-Fox offers an entirely new perspective on the subject, examining the genetic marks left by inequality on humans throughout history. Lalueza-Fox describes genetic studies, made possible by novel DNA sequencing technologies, that reveal layers of inequality in past societies, manifested in patterns of migration, social structures, and funerary practices. Through their DNA, ancient skeletons have much to tell us, yielding anonymous stories of inequality, bias, and suffering. Lalueza-Fox, a leader in paleogenomics, offers the deep history of inequality. He explores the ancestral shifts associated with migration and describes the gender bias unearthed in these migrations―the brutal sexual asymmetries, for example, between male Euro

An optimistic--but realistic and feasible--action plan for fighting climate change while creating new jobs and a healthier environment: electrify everything.Climate change is a planetary emergency. We have to do something now―but what? Saul Griffith has a plan. In Electrify, Griffith lays out a detailed blueprint―optimistic but feasible―for fighting climate change while creating millions of new jobs and a healthier environment. Griffith’s plan can be summed up simply: electrify everything. He explains exactly what it would take to transform our infrastructure, update our grid, and adapt our households to make this possible. Billionaires may contemplate escaping our worn-out planet on a private rocket ship to Mars, but the rest of us, Griffith says, will stay and fight for the future. Griffith, an engineer and inventor, calls for grid neutrality, ensuring that households, businesses, and utilities operate as equals; we will have to rewrite regulations that were created for a fossil-f

The first English translation of a nonfiction work by Stanisław Lem, which was "conceived under the spell of cybernetics" in 1957 and updated in 1971.In 1957, Stanisław Lem published Dialogues, a book "conceived under the spell of cybernetics," as he wrote in the preface to the second edition. Mimicking the form of Berkeley's Three Dialogues between Hylas and Philonous, Lem's original dialogue was an attempt to unravel the then-novel field of cybernetics. It was a testimony, Lem wrote later, to "the almost limitless cognitive optimism" he felt upon his discovery of cybernetics. This is the first English translation of Lem's Dialogues, including the text of the first edition and the later essays added to the second edition in 1971. For the second edition, Lem chose not to revise the original. Recognizing the naivete of his hopes for cybernetics, he constructed a supplement to the first dialogue, which consists of two critical essays, the first a summary of the evolution of cybernetics,

An accessible guide to cybersecurity for the everyday user, covering cryptography and public key infrastructure, malware, blockchain, and other topics.It seems that everything we touch is connected to the internet, from mobile phones and wearable technology to home appliances and cyber assistants. The more connected our computer systems, the more exposed they are to cyber attacks--attempts to steal data, corrupt software, disrupt operations, and even physically damage hardware and network infrastructures. In this volume of the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, cybersecurity expert Duane Wilson offers an accessible guide to cybersecurity issues for everyday users, describing risks associated with internet use, modern methods of defense against cyber attacks, and general principles for safer internet use. Wilson describes the principles that underlie all cybesecurity defense: confidentiality, integrity, availability, authentication, authorization, and non-repudiation (validating the

The story of the most abundant substance on Earth, from its origins in the birth of stars billions of years ago to its importance in the living world.Water is so ubiquitous in our lives that it is easy to take for granted. The average American uses ninety gallons of water a day; nearly every liquid we encounter is mostly water--milk, for example, is 87 percent water. Clouds and ice--water in other forms--affect our climate. Water is the most abundant substance on Earth, and the third-most abundant molecule in the universe. In this lavishly illustrated volume, science writer Jack Challoner tells the story of water, from its origins in the birth of stars to its importance in the living world. Water is perhaps the most studied compound in the universe--although mysteries about it remain--and Challoner describes how thinkers from ancient times have approached the subject. He offers a detailed and fascinating look at the structure and behavior of water molecules, explores the physics of wat

Why gender is strange, even when it's played straight, and how race and money are two of its most dramatic ingredients.In this volume in the MIT Press Essential Knowledge series, Kathryn Bond Stockton explores the fascinating, fraught, intimate, morphing matter of gender. Stockton argues for gender's strangeness, no matter how "normal" the concept seems; gender is queer for everyone, she claims, even when it's played quite straight. And she explains how race and money dramatically shape everybody's gender, even in sometimes surprising ways. Playful but serious, erudite and witty, Stockton marshals an impressive array of exhibits to consider, including dolls and their new gendering, the thrust of Jane Austen and Lil Nas X, gender identities according to women's colleges, gay and transgender ballroom scenes, and much more. Stockton also examines gender in light of biology's own strange ways, its out-of-syncness with "male" and "female," explaining attempts to fortify gender with clothing

In 1937, H. G. Wells proposed a predigital, freely available World Encyclopedia to represent a civilization-saving World Brain.In a series of talks and essays in 1937, H. G. Wells proselytized for wha

How conflicting ideas of nature threaten to fracture America's identity.Amber waves of grain, purple mountain majesties: American invest much of their national identity in sites of natural beauty. And yet American lands today are torn by conflicts over science, religion, identity, and politics. Creationists believe that the Biblical flood carved landscapes less than 10,000 years ago; environmentalists protest pipelines; Western states argue that the federal government's land policies throttle free enterprise; Native Americans demand protection for sacred sites. In this book, David Nye looks at Americans' irreconcilably conflicting ideas about nature.A landscape is conflicted when different groups have different uses for the same location—for example, when some want to open mining sites that others want to preserve or when suburban development impinges on agriculture. Some landscapes are so degraded from careless use that they become toxic “anti-landscapes.” Nye traces these conflicts t

Why, when we have been largely socialized into good behavior, are there more laws that govern our behavior than ever before?Levels of violent crime have been in a steady decline for centuries--for mil

An investigation of hate speech: legal approaches, current controversies, and suggestions for limiting its spread.Hate speech can happen anywhere--in Charlottesville, Virginia, where young men in khak

How organizations--including Google, StubHub, Airbnb, and Facebook--learn from experiments in a data-driven world.Have you logged into Facebook recently? Searched for something on Google? Chosen a mov

A concise but informative overview of AI ethics and policy.Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, has generated a staggering amount of hype in the past seven years. Is it the game-changer it's been

The emergence of ketamine--previously known as a combat anesthetic and club drug--as a treatment for depression.Ketamine, approved in 2019 by the Food and Drug Administration for the treatment of depr

What does the birth of babies whose embryos had gone through genome editing mean--for science and for all of us?In November 2018, the world was shocked to learn that two babies had been born in China

Wikipedia's first twenty years: how what began as an experiment in collaboration became the world's most popular reference work.We have been looking things up in Wikipedia for twenty years. What began

An analysis of visual epistemology in the digital humanities, with attention to the need for interpretive digital tools within humanities contexts.In the several decades since humanists have taken up

Theoretical reflections on memory and prediction, linking these concepts to the role of the cerebellum in higher cognition.What is memory? What is memory for? Where is memory in the brain? Although me

A day in the inner and outer lives of a college professor, blogger, divorced father, thinker, and yearner.What would it feel like to wake up inside the head of someone who writes about science for a l

The development of psychiatry in the Middle East, viewed through the history of one of the first modern mental hospitals in the region.'Asfuriyyeh (formally, the Lebanon Hospital for the Insane) was f

An integrated analysis of how financial frictions can be accounted for in macroeconomic models built to study monetary policy and macroprudential regulation.Since the global financial crisis, there ha

An update to a provocative manifesto intended to serve as a platform for debate and as a resource and inspiration for those teaching in online environments.In 2011, a group of scholars associated with

An introduction to the laws of celestial mechanics and a step-by-step guide to developing software for direct use in astrophysics research.This book offers both an introduction to the laws of celestia

A meditation on the trauma and possibility of searching for connection in a world that enforces bland norms of gender, sexual, and social conformity.When you turn the music off, and suddenly you feel

How to make liberal democracies more inclusive and the digital economy more equitable: a guide for the coming Fourth Industrial Revolution.Around the world, liberal democracies are in crisis. Citizens

Ideas, theories, experiments, and unanswered questions in particle physics, explained (with anecdotes) for the general reader.The elementary particles of matter hold the secrets of Nature together wit

How to think about what it means to look and see: a guide for navigating the complexities of visual culture.The visual surrounds us, some of it invited, most of it not. In this visual environment, eve

Prominent philosophers explore themes in the work of Owen Flanagan, focusing on debates about the nature of mind, the self, and morality.Owen Flanagan's work offers a model for how to be a naturalisti

A classic in the philosophy of education, considering the fundamental purpose and function of schools, translated into English for the first time.This classic 1971 work on the fundamental purpose and

An accessible introduction to an exciting new area in computation, explaining such topics as qubits, entanglement, and quantum teleportation for the general reader.Quantum computing is a beautiful fus

A leading scientist describes his life, his gender transition, his scientific work, and his advocacy for gender equality in science.Ben Barres was known for his groundbreaking scientific work and for

How to get more innovation and more equality.Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades--in such areas as artificial intelligenc

Finding opportunities for innovation on the path between farmer and table.Even if we think we know a lot about good and healthy food--even if we buy organic, believe in slow food, and read Eater--we p

An authority on creativity introduces us to AI-powered computers that are creating art, literature, and music that may well surpass the creations of humans.Today's computers are composing music that s

Experts from economics, finance, law, policy, and banking discuss the design and implementation of a future capital market union in Europe. The plan for further development of Europe's economic and

An overview of recycling as an activity and a process, following different materials through the waste stream. Is there a point to recycling? Is recycling even good for the environment? In this volu

How to get more innovation and more equality. Is economic inequality the price we pay for innovation? The amazing technological advances of the last two decades-in such areas as artificial intellige

A proposal for using cost-benefit analysis to evaluate the socioeconomic impact of public investment in large scientific projects. Large particle accelerators, outer space probes, genomics platforms