Bøker utgitt av MIT Press Ltd

A compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible.

An accessible and gratifying introduction to the world of paranormal beliefs and bizarre experiences.

A compelling, real-life account of how scientists uncovered air pollution’s deadly impact on human health—and the contentious battles to use key scientific evidence in the critical fight for clean air.Particles of Truth is a riveting account of the discovery of the critical health effects of air pollution told by Arden Pope and Douglas Dockery, who have been at the forefront of air pollution and health research for four decades. With an insightful foreword by former EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy, this compelling book provides an inside look at groundbreaking scientific research and ensuing political and public-policy battles. It presents evidence that air pollution is a major contributor to disease and death and that reducing air pollution saves lives. The book also delves into intense efforts to discredit and cast doubt on the science.Through firsthand accounts, Pope and Dockery bring the scientific discoveries regarding the health effects of air pollution and accompanying controversies to life. They describe the real-world challenges of conducting impactful research when public health clashes with economic interests and politics. Despite these challenges, they and their colleagues persisted, accumulating evidence that supports landmark clean-air legislation and pollution reduction efforts worldwide. More than an inside look at pioneering air pollution research and the hidden health burden of air pollution, Particles of Truth is a story of determination and perseverance by those working to protect air quality and our health; indeed, their efforts have contributed to improvements in public health and increase in longevity. For anyone interested in public health, environmental quality, or public policy, this is a must-read book that takes you to the front lines of discovery and controversy.

"Investigates the initial decisions that led to school closures in the spring of 2020, and looks at why so many schools remained closed despite mounting evidence that schools could be safely reopened"--

The much-anticipated sequel to Butch Heroes, an ingenious retelling of history that combines portraits and texts to recover—and celebrate—queer subjects from around the world.Ingeniously conceived, Ria Brodell’s Butch Heroes books recover and celebrate queer subjects obscured or misrepresented within the dominant narratives of history. More Butch Heroes presents 15 original paintings and biographies in the style of the first volume, Butch Heroes: slyly subverted Catholic holy cards featuring individuals who were assigned female at birth but who presented as masculine.In this book, we meet queer individuals in their everyday lives, relaxing or working, enduring their struggles (which sometimes led to death or punishment), or simply living their lives with their partners or pets: Esther Eng stands with her camera in front of the Mandarin Theatre in San Francisco where she worked in the box office as a child. Tom fishes on the Fraser River in British Columbia. Joe sits astride his horse, ready for a day's work in southwestern Idaho.Brodell uses the format of the holy card in its traditional sense, as a means of remembrance and reverence, but also as a way to memorialize those who were often unjustly persecuted by the church. Each deeply researched portrait draws from social class, occupation, clothing, and environmental details of the time period, as well as artifacts, maps, journals, drawings, prints, or photos. For Brodell, who was raised Catholic, these queer holy figures act as retrospective replacements for the role models they wish they had known.

A practical handbook for accelerating innovation, both internally and externally, through engagement with innovation ecosystems.Leaders in large organizations face continuous pressure to innovate, and few possess all the internal resources needed to keep up with rapid advances in innovation, science, and technology. But looking beyond their own organizations, most face a bewildering landscape of external resources. In Accelerating Innovation, these leaders—whether from the private, public, or nonprofit sectors—will find a practical guide to this external landscape. Authors Phil Budden and Fiona Murray provide directions for navigating innovation ecosystems—those hotspots worldwide where researchers, entrepreneurs, and investors congregate.While Silicon Valley and Greater Boston are popularly known for web-based digital technology and biotechnology, respectively, the logic of innovation ecosystems is not solely American—so this guide takes in new locations and varied sectors such as Singapore (smart cities), Perth (mining), Cairo and Dubai (fintech), London and Lagos (fintech and media), Copenhagen (quantum computing), Rio de Janeiro (energy), Halifax (oceans), and Tel Aviv (cybersecurity). Drawing practical advice from a synthesis of works on tech, innovation, entrepreneurship, and strategic management, and from a decade of their own research and teaching at the intersection of these topics, Budden and Murray distill insights and interconnections from all these different worlds into a useful and globally applicable set of frameworks and models. Their approach provides leaders at every organizational level with a clear and workable roadmap for making the most of the unique resources of innovation ecosystems.

What has gone wrong with the left and what leftists must do if they want to change politics, ethics, and minds.

An essential history for understanding how we mother now, and how motherhood itself became a medium winner of the Brooke Hindle Award from the Society for the History of Technology.

The strange, but true biography of the colorful founder of Saucerian Books, a central purveyor and promoter of flying saucer and conspiracist knowledge in the mid-twentieth century.Gray Barker (1925–1984) was an eccentric literary outsider, filled with ideas that were out of step with the world. An author and unreliable narrator of implausible stories, Barker founded and operated Saucerian Books, an independent publisher of books about flying saucers and other ideas at the fringes of popular discourse. In The Saucerian, Gabriel Mckee tells the fascinating story of Barker’s West Virginia–based press, the unique corpus of materials it published, and how office-copying and self-publishing techniques influenced the spread of paranormal beliefs and conspiratorial worldviews over the last century. Following the development of UFO subculture, Mckee explores the life and career of a larger-than-life hoaxer and originator of pseudoscientific ideas.Ever an entertainer, Barker established his reputation with one of the first flying saucer fanzines, The Saucerian, and with his first book, the conspiratorial and sensationalistic They Knew Too Much about Flying Saucers. By the close of the 1950s, he had established a publishing imprint that brought out some of the strangest UFO-related books of the era, with a particular emphasis on flying saucer contactees. Saucerian Books became a platform for those whose stories were too unusual, implausible, or crudely written for more mainstream publishers. Though Barker himself was a skeptic, he viewed the world of occult believers as a source of ongoing entertainment. He also may have used the perceived eccentricity of flying saucer research, or “ufology,” to obscure his homosexuality from his small-town neighbors. From his place on the fringes of midcentury American culture, Barker left an unmatched legacy in conspiratorial concepts that have become prominent pop-cultural folklore, including the Men in Black, the Mothman, and the Philadelphia Experiment. As a mastermind behind the fantastical, Barker’s promotional efforts were the precursor to contemporary conspiracism.

"A manifesto for a new dawn of natural history, practiced by community scientists in their own urban jungle"--

"A simple, enduring framework for understanding the complex world of AI and machine learning"--

An engaging, illustrated collection of insights revealing the practices and principles that expert software designers use to create great software.What makes an expert software designer? It is more than experience or innate ability. Expert software designers have specific habits, learned practices, and observed principles that they apply deliberately during their design work. This book offers sixty-six insights, distilled from years of studying experts at work, that capture what successful software designers actually do to create great software. The book presents these insights in a series of two-page illustrated spreads, with the principle and a short explanatory text on one page, and a drawing on the facing page. For example, “Experts generate alternatives” is illustrated by the same few balloons turned into a set of very different balloon animals. The text is engaging and accessible; the drawings are thought-provoking and often playful.Organized into such categories as “Experts reflect,” “Experts are not afraid,” and “Experts break the rules,” the insights range from “Experts prefer simple solutions” to “Experts see error as opportunity.” Readers learn that “Experts involve the user”; “Experts take inspiration from wherever they can”; “Experts design throughout the creation of software”; and “Experts draw the problem as much as they draw the solution.” One habit for an aspiring expert software designer to develop would be to read and reread this entertaining but essential little book. The insights described offer a guide for the novice or a reference for the veteran—in software design or any design profession.A companion web site provides an annotated bibliography that compiles key underpinning literature, the opportunity to suggest additional insights, and more.

A new way to teach macroeconomics based on problem-solving and hands-on learning.Offering an important paradigm-shift in the way macroeconomics is taught, this innovative textbook invites students to learn by doing. Organized as a series of word problems motivated by specific macroeconomic questions—Can an economy grow indefinitely by accumulating capital?  Why is nominal GDP a poor gauge of changes in economic activity?  What constrains the firm?—the text equips readers to think like macroeconomists rather than simply receive expository information. This novel approach develops intuition, analytical skills, and background knowledge simultaneously. Interrelated themes, techniques, and results emerge as students work through the problems, resulting in a dynamic but cohesive treatment of macroeconomics in which agents making choices subject to constraints are the central characters. Classroom-tested, learn-by-doing, problem-solving approach Comprehensively covers the material of a single-semester undergraduate macroeconomics course, including optimizing agents and general equilibrium, rational expectations, and modern monetary policyVersatile structure suits both large lecture formats and smaller classesRobust instructor resources support transition to new pedagogical method

Why we enjoy works of art, and how repetition plays a central part in the pleasure we receive.Leonard Bernstein, in his famous Norton Lectures (1976) extolled repetition, saying that it gave poetry its musical qualities and that music theorists’ refusal to take it seriously did so at their peril. Play It Again, Sam takes Bernstein seriously. In this book, Samuel Jay Keyser explores in detail the way repetition works in poetry, music, and painting. He argues, for example, that rhyme in metrical verse is identical to the way songwriters like Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn (Satin Doll) and Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart (My Funny Valentine) constructed their iconic melodies. Furthermore, the form of these tunes can be found in such classical compositions as Mozart’s Rondo Alla Turca and his German Dances as well as in galant music in general.The author also looks at repetition in paintings like Caillebotte’s Rainy Day in Paris, Warhol’s Campbell Soup Cans, and Pollock’s drip paintings. Finally, the photography of Lee Friedlander, Roni Horn, and Osmond Giglia—Giglia’s Girls in the Windows is one of the highest grossing photographs in history—are all shown to be built on repetition in the form of visual rhyme.The book ends with a cognitive conjecture on why repetition has been so prominent in the arts from the Homeric epics through Duke Ellington and beyond. Artists have exploited repetition throughout the ages. The reason why it is straightforward: the brain finds the detection of repetition innately pleasurable. Play It Again, Sam offers experimental evidence to support this claim.

"A critique of social norm interventions across the Global South caught between good intentions and the inequalities of past Western interventionism in the name of societal progress"--

The cultural, political, and pedagogical history of an elite Iranian engineering institution in the years directly preceding the 1979 Iranian revolution.In 1966, the Shah of Iran established Arya-Mehr University of Technology (AMUT), now known as Sharif University of Technology, as part of a larger campaign to modernize the nation. In 1979, AMUT engineering students played a critical role in the revolution that overthrew the Shah and his regime. In Revolutionary Engineers, Sepehr Vakil, Mahdi Ganjavi, and Mina Khanlarzadeh show how Western notions of scientific and technical rigor combined in unexpected ways with Iranian and Islamic values at AMUT in the years directly preceding the 1979 Iranian revolution. They also argue that global perspectives, particularly from the Global South, can deepen and complicate contemporary discussions on ethics, epistemology, and knowledge production in STEM fields. The authors present the cultural, political, and pedagogical history of AMUT, from its 1966 establishment up to its pivotal role in the 1979 revolution, while delving into the complex interplay of global, national, and Islamic values in STEM education. In the past several years, STEM education scholars have challenged the epistemological and ontological foundations of STEM education research and practice, while deepening the field's engagement with questions of power, ethics, race, and justice. The case of AMUT presents the opportunity to contribute a Global South perspective to studies of the civic, cultural, and political functions and foundations of science and engineering education. Sharif University continues to be at the epicenter of politics in Iran.

An in-depth look at how we make and circulate art today, and how creative and economic processes shape the meaning and value of artworks.In Ecologies of Artistic Practice, Ashley Lee Wong explores the economic relationships of artists working at the nexus of art and technology as they negotiate a means to make art in a neoliberal creative economy. Wong looks at the diverse ways in which artworks circulate, both online and offline, in galleries, on digital platforms, and media facades, and investigates some of the mechanisms that enable artists to create works, including selling artworks and NFTs, grants, licensing, commissions, and artist residencies. The book also looks at the ways in which artists collaborate with corporations and develop practices as commercial entities themselves. The book provides unique insights into the diverse creative and economic processes that shape the meaning and value of artworks. Wong seeks to shift away from notions of individual authorship and finite artworks that can be bought and sold, and instead toward an understanding of artistic practices as collaborative, social, and cultural processes.Rather than critique this economy, Ecologies of Artistic Practice opens space for engaging in hypercommercialized contexts, while considering how money is not an end goal, but a means to initiate or continue an artistic process.

An essential resource for anyone committed to fostering equality and fairness in employment—with actionable proposals for public policy that can address these inequities.In a world where discrimination against minorities remains a pressing issue even in economically and socially advanced countries, Invisible Barriers delves into the multifaceted nature of this pervasive problem. Drawing on extensive research from economics, management, psychology, and sociology, Stéphane Carcillo and Marie-Anne Valfort present a comprehensive examination of discriminatory practices in employment and their profound social and economic impacts.The first part of the book methodically explores the forms, sources, and consequences of discrimination in the labor market, offering readers a solid understanding of the approaches used to measure and identify discriminatory practices. In the second part, the book details research findings on specific groups, illustrating how discrimination manifests uniquely across different demographics; women, ethnic minorities, older workers, LGBTI+, and more. From recruitment biases to career advancement hurdles, the book sheds light on the varied and often hidden ways discrimination operates. Finally, the authors discuss public policies aimed at mitigating discrimination, advocating for a multifaceted approach that combines punitive measures with incentives, educational programs, and communication campaigns to effectively combat biases, prejudices, and stereotypes.

"On the politics of disaster. How humanity might make a positive transition to more sustainable forms of social organization among the wreckage left by extreme events"--

An innovative history of heartbeats, pulse, and technoscience in the works of a wide international array of artists and composers.Heartbeat Art is the first study of how artists have engaged with heartbeats from the 1960s to the present, creating sophisticated and technological works that project in unique ways the circulatory processes of the body beyond its physical limits. Drawing on a long history of scientific and artistic experimentation, Claudia Arozqueta offers detailed case studies of heartbeat works by a wide range of international artists working at the interconnections of our bodies, art, and science and technology, including Yoko Ono, Pauline Oliveros, Heinz Mark, Brian O’Doherty, Teresa Burga, and many others.Technoscientific advances in monitoring heartbeats and pulses in the nineteenth century—such as René Laennec’s stethoscope, Étienne-Jules Marey’s sphygmograph and chronophotograph, and Willem Einthoven’s electrocardiograph—transformed the movements of the heart into audible and visual representations. Artists saw in the language of these scientific technologies a way of mingling the inner with the outer, the physical with the technological, and data with flesh. Using archival research, interviews, and correspondence, Arozqueta describes significant works in detail, discusses their contexts and development, and examines the larger classes and contours of this neglected area of artistic activity. Other artists in the volume include Éliane Radigue, Jean Dupuy, Linda Montano, Catherine Richards, Diana Domingues, Mona Hatoum, Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, and Christian Boltanski.

"Gear: Cultures of Audio and Music Technologies, traces the life and socio-cultural relations of professional audio recording technologies from their material origins through to heritage status"--

A rich account of the world’s leading science prize told through the lives it has changed, the controversies it has generated, and the impact it has made on the public.In a world where the work of science largely remains inscrutable to the general public, the Nobel Prize confers a degree of intelligibility like no other honor. Our best-known and most prestigious award for individual scientific achievement, the Nobel attaches a brilliant face to a story of profound discovery, making moving headlines. In Geniuses, Heroes, and Saints, Massimiano Bucchi tells an equally compelling story of the Nobel’s transformation of science into an epic pursuit legible both to the field and to the public, bound up with the currents of historical change. Three main narratives characterize the Nobel. The scientist as genius, portrayed as a creative visionary, an exceptional intellect reflecting a solitary and romantic ideal of great communicative impact. The scientist as national hero acts as a surrogate of competition among nations in a peaceful, rational contest. The scientist as saint shines with moral exceptionality, a figure worthy of celebration and worship, known for virtues such as modesty, humility, and total dedication, body and soul, to the scientific enterprise. Whether the recipient was Albert Einstein or a countryside doctor toiling for years in obscurity, whether the prize was worthily given or awarded to work later disproved, or whether we even remember the honorees today, the Nobel defined the image of science in the twentieth century, Bucchi shows, an image that still lives in all sorts of fascinating ways today.

"A revised and expanded edition of an essential resource for parents and educators, written by a leading authority in communication disorders"--