Nicholas Agar provides a uniquely accessible exploration of the highly controversial issue of cloning. Starting with the biology, and building up the scientific background step-by-step, Perfect Copy provides the perfect guide to the moral labyrinth that surrounds the cloning debate. Author lectures at Victoria University, NZ.
The 'No Logo-ers' need to switch sides. Global business can redistribute wealth, transfer technology and make the world work more effectively – for the benefit of all. The WTO, the IMF and others are the activists' best hope for steering our panicked planet off the rocks of inequality, oppression and environment-eating technology. But there's more to globalisation than Golden Arches by the Golden Temple, Cadillacs cruising the Valley of the Kings. Communities robbed by capitalism's 'invisible hand' are voting with their feet, going after the First World wealth currently denied them. Opening borders to exchange is the only alternative to closing them against runaway migration. Alan Shipman explains why globalisation is good – why it can spread the profits and spare the trees – and how multinationals will undermine the market economy and private property far more rapidly than the reddest-toothed revolutionary.
Beginning with the emergence of the postmodern, Sim goes on to investigate its philosophy, sociology and politics, science and technology, and finally its aesthetics. In doing so, he communicates what is at stake in current cultural discourses relating to postmodernism.
Breathtakingly rapid, the discovery that germs cause disease was both revolutionary and rich in human drama. John Waller describes the scientific virtuosity, outstanding intellectual courage and bitter personal rivalries that gave birth to this exceptional sea-change in scientific thinking.
Helps readers discover the noble art of tea-leaf reading.
John Ronald Reuel Tolkien is internationally renowned as the author of epic fantasy novels like 'The Hobbit' and 'The Lord of the Rings' trilogy. But who was he? Where did he get his ideas for the panoramic worlds he created and the Elfs, Orcs, Trolls and other creatures that lived in them?
Is sadomasochism yet another perversion? In this challenging and thought-provoking book, the author dares the reader to think again.
Established in 1942, the Manhattan Project brought together an international team of scientists in a top secret quest: beating the Nazis to the atomic bomb. Their 'Little Boy' and 'Fat Man' bombs destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August 1945. In one terrible swoop humans could now kill potentially millions of fellow humans. It was the dawn of a new age – in war, in politics and, so Jeff Hughes deftly explains, in science.
Icon's intriguing series of small books on the key ideas of psychoanalysis grows apace with three brand new titles, all by hugely respected authors. Depression is now recognised by the World Health Organisation as the world-wide commonest cause of disability and death of any disease. How can we understand and begin to treat this epidemic of human misery?
First published in 1970, The Pendulum Years argues that many of the striking features of the preceding decade stemmed from an underlying tension between the pull of the past and the pull of the future. Coruscating and often hilarious, it is an unparalled examination of epochal times.
Icon's intriguing series of small books on the key ideas of psychoanalysis grows apace with three brand new titles, all by hugely respected authors. David Bell traces the history of understanding paranoia from Freud to the practise of analysis today. Broaching such topics as racism and religion, he explains that paranoia is not simply an individualised neurosis but a social phenomenon that touches us all.
Sren Kierkegaard is now regarded as the founder of Existentialism and the first moder theologian. Philosphy, in his radical view, was of no use unless it permanently changed people's lives. This is an account of the strange life and ideas of a being tortured by his attempts to change the priorities of Western thought.
A collection of five vibrant essays on key thinkers of the 'posthuman': Haraway, McLuhan, Lyotard, Heidegger and Habermas – and Plato. It is introduced by Will Self, pre-eminent critic and author of a distinctly unsettling vision of posthumanity, Great Apes.
Big Numbers is a brilliant and imaginative book for 10 to 12 year olds which paints a fascinating picture of the comparative scale of phenomena in our world, from the vast to the infinitesimal. The reader is taken on a roller-coaster ride through maths, physics, chemistry, biology and technology: from zero to infinity in maths and time; from subatomic particles to galaxies; from the speed and size of the Big Bang to the size and age of the universe; from the speed of light to the power of gravity; from the size of a White Dwarf to that of a Black Hole; from a strand of DNA to the evolution of life on Earth; from the Hubble telescope to nanotechnology; Combining words and pictures in the way that has made Icon's highly acclaimed Introducing books famous, Big Numbers will fire the imagination of any bright youngster.
From nowhere, it is the land of the Finns, not the land of the free, that is setting the technological pace. The device that keeps us in constant touch has shifted how we live, work and play. Constant Touch tells the historical story of the mobile phone, what happened and why. The next generation of mobile phones is one of the greatest gambles in history, with the existence of major companies riding on the outcome. But are historical lessons being learnt?
Gaia is a theory of the Earth that has revolutionised how we see this 'pale blue dot': all living things are part of one great organism and life as a whole shapes the planetary environment. Lovelock and Gaia tells how that came about including the theory's long struggle to gain respectability. Opponents dubbed it mere metaphor or myth, suggested that it was either irrefutable or unnecessary, or argued that it was impossible on Darwinian grounds for life to affect environment on a global scale in any way which could be fruitfully coupled with natural selection. It is not yet clear where it will lead but its impact compares with the greatest of scientific revolutions.
From fashion to football, in our dreams and epiphanies, through jealous rages and moments of genius, the effects of castration anxiety, so claims Ivan Ward, are ever-present. Freud's famous 'castration complex' is met with continually in analytic experience. Yet it seems an unbelievable idea. Taking his evidence from myth, clinical practice and the sexual theories of children, Freud established the castration complex as one of the determining factors of human sexual desire and personality development. Ideas in Psychoanalysis continues to go where no other books dare Expertly written by the series editor, Ivan Ward Ask your Faber rep about extra discounts for bulk buys with Ideas series
The Sex Book: A no-nonsense guide for teenagers
That man ever managed to develop to 'scientific' attitude to the natural world is one of true wonders of human thought. And answering the question of where and how this attitude began can help us understand the world we live in and the science that governs it. Science began with the Greeks. But is Greek science something we would recognise today? This superbly approachable book has won many plaudits since publication late in 2001.
