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From the visionary founder of the Self-Assembly Lab at MIT, a manifesto for the dawning age of active materialsThings in life tend to fall apart. Cars break down. Buildings fall into disrepair. Personal items deteriorate. Yet today's researchers are exploiting newly understood properties of matter to program materials that physically sense, adapt, and fall together instead of apart. These materials open new directions for industrial innovation and challenge us to rethink the way we build and collaborate with our environment. Things Fall Together is a provocative guide to this emerging, often mind-bending reality, presenting a bold vision for harnessing the intelligence embedded in the material world.Drawing on his pioneering work on self-assembly and programmable material technologies, Skylar Tibbits lays out the core, frequently counterintuitive ideas and strategies that animate this new approach to design and innovation. From furniture that builds itself to shoes printed flat that jump into shape to islands that grow themselves, he describes how matter can compute and exhibit behaviors that we typically associate with biological organisms, and challenges our fundamental assumptions about what physical materials can do and how we can interact with them. Intelligent products today often rely on electronics, batteries, and complicated mechanisms. Tibbits offers a different approach, showing how we can design simple and elegant material intelligence that may one day animate and improve itself—and along the way help us build a more sustainable future.Compelling and beautifully designed, Things Fall Together provides an insider's perspective on the materials revolution that lies ahead, revealing the spectacular possibilities for designing active materials that can self-assemble, collaborate, and one day even evolve and design on their own.

Programmable materials. --- Matter, Programmable --- Programmable matter --- Materials --- 3D printing. --- 4D printing. --- adaptive environments. --- adaptive materials. --- adaptive products. --- additive manufacturing. --- best science books. --- computing. --- consumer products. --- digital information. --- engineering. --- fabrication. --- material computation. --- material computing. --- physical computation. --- physical computing. --- popular science. --- product design. --- programmable materials. --- programmable matter. --- recycle. --- recycling. --- robotics. --- self-organization. --- smart environments. --- smart materials. --- smart products. --- smart wearables. --- transformable materials.

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What does it mean to be accompanied? How can autonomy and a sense of self emerge through one's involvement with others? This book examines the formation of self among the Urarina, an Amazonian people of lowland Peru. Based on detailed ethnography, the analysis highlights the role of intimate but asymmetrical attachments and dependencies which begin in the womb, but can extend beyond human society to include a variety of animals, plants, spirits and material objects. It thereby raises fundamental questions about what it means to be alive, to be an experiencing subject, and to be human. From the highly personalized relationships that develop between babies and their hammocks, to the demonstrations of love and respect between spouses and the power asymmetries that structure encounters between shamans and spirits, hunters and game animals, or owners and pets, what emerges is a strong sense that the lived experience of togetherness lies at the heart of the human condition. Recognizing this relational quality of existence enables us to see how acting effectively in the world may be less a matter of individual self-assertion than learning how to elicit empathetic acts of care and attentiveness by endearing oneself to others.

Urarina Indians --- Itucale Indians --- Indians of South America --- Social life and customs. --- Social networks. --- Psychology. --- #SBIB:39A74 --- Psychology --- Social life and customs --- Social networks --- Etnografie: Amerika --- amazonian culture. --- amazonian history. --- amazonian studies. --- anthropology. --- archaeology. --- biodiversity. --- cultural science. --- different cultures. --- distractions for kids. --- easy to read. --- engaging. --- ethnography. --- home school history books. --- home school science books. --- human society. --- learning while reading. --- life in south america. --- nonfiction books. --- politics. --- psychology. --- social science. --- south american culture. --- south american history. --- south american philosophies. --- south american politics. --- urarina.

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This volume is a one-of-a-kind contribution to applied social science and the product of a long collaboration between an established, interdisciplinary sociologist and a successful banking executive. Together, Neil Smelser and John Reed use a straightforward approach to presenting substantive social science knowledge and indicate its relevance and applicability to decision-making, problem-solving and policy-making. Among the areas presented are space-and-time coordinates of social life; cognition and bias; group and network effects; the role of sanctions; organizational dynamics; and macro-changes associated with economic development. Finally, the authors look at the big picture of why society at large demands and needs social-science knowledge, and how the academy actually supplies relevant knowledge.

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An unprecedented look at the complex and beautiful world of underground ant architectureWalter Tschinkel has spent much of his career investigating the hidden subterranean realm of ant nests. This wonderfully illustrated book takes you inside an unseen world where thousands of ants build intricate homes in the soil beneath our feet.Tschinkel describes the ingenious methods he has devised to study ant nests, showing how he fills a nest with plaster, molten metal, or wax and painstakingly excavates the cast. He guides you through living ant nests chamber by chamber, revealing how nests are created and how colonies function. How does nest architecture vary across species? Do ants have "architectural plans"? How do nests affect our environment? As he delves into these and other questions, Tschinkel provides a one-of-a-kind natural history of the planet's most successful creatures and a compelling firsthand account of a life of scientific discovery.Offering a unique look at how simple methods can lead to pioneering science, Ant Architecture addresses the unsolved mysteries of underground ant nests while charting new directions for tomorrow’s research, and reflects on the role of beauty in nature and the joys of shoestring science.

Ants --- Formigues --- Formícids --- Himenòpters --- Insectes --- Societats d'insectes --- Aculeata --- Formicidae --- Hymenoptera --- Myrmecology --- Nests. --- Nius. --- Arthropoda. --- Entomological Society of America. --- Formicidae. --- Hymenoptera. --- animal engineers. --- animal structures. --- ant life cycles. --- bees. --- biological research. --- books about insects. --- division of labor. --- ecology books. --- ecology. --- entomology. --- harvester ants. --- insect biology. --- insect colonies. --- natural history museums. --- nature books. --- nest building. --- nest-building. --- popular science. --- science books. --- social insects. --- soil animals. --- soil biology. --- solitary wasps. --- superorganism. --- superorganisms. --- wasps. --- zoology.

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Declining bird populations, especially those that breed in North American grasslands, have stimulated extensive research on factors that affect nest failure and reduced reproductive success. Until now, this research has been hampered by the difficulties inherent in observing nest activities. Video Surveillance of Nesting Birds highlights the use of miniature video cameras and recording equipment yielding new important and some unanticipated insights into breeding bird biology, including previously undocumented observations of hatching, incubation, fledging, diurnal and nocturnal activity patterns, predator identification, predator-prey interactions, and cause-specific rates of nest loss. This seminal contribution to bird reproductive biology uses tools capable of generating astonishing results with the potential for fresh insights into bird conservation, management, and theory.

Ornithology --- Birds --- Bird populations. --- Aves --- Avian fauna --- Avifauna --- Wild birds --- Amniotes --- Vertebrates --- Vertebrate populations --- Technique. --- Methodology. --- Behavior. --- Nests. --- Monitoring --- Eggs and nests --- biodiversity. --- biology books. --- bird biology. --- bird management. --- bird population. --- bird research. --- bird theory. --- bird watching. --- bird wildlife. --- books about the environment. --- books for bird lovers. --- conservation of bird life. --- discussion books. --- easy to read. --- educational books. --- engaging. --- environmental ecology. --- going green. --- home school science books. --- human vs nature. --- leisure reads. --- life sciences. --- nesting birds. --- ornithology. --- protecting nature. --- reproductive biology. --- research equipment. --- science and math. --- wildlife research.