The Physical Universe

The Physical Universe
Author: Frank Shu
Publisher: University Science Books
Total Pages: 610
Release: 1982
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780935702057

"This is a truly astonishing book, invaluable for anyone with an interest in astronomy." Physics Bulletin "Just the thing for a first year university science course." Nature "This is a beautiful book in both concept and execution." Sky & Telescope

The Physical Universe

The Physical Universe
Author: Konrad Bates Krauskopf
Publisher:
Total Pages: 755
Release: 1991
Genre: Physical sciences
ISBN: 9780070357396

-The aim of this text is to present, as simply and clearly as possible, the essentials of physics, chemistry, geology, and astronomy.

Fine-Tuning in the Physical Universe

Fine-Tuning in the Physical Universe
Author: David Sloan
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 571
Release: 2020-10-29
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1108484549

An overview of fine-tuning arguments in physics, for students and researchers in physics and philosophy.

How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe?

How Can the Human Mind Occur in the Physical Universe?
Author: John R. Anderson
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 301
Release: 2009-08-28
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 0199741263

"The question for me is how can the human mind occur in the physical universe. We now know that the world is governed by physics. We now understand the way biology nestles comfortably within that. The issue is how will the mind do that as well."--Allen Newell, December 4, 1991, Carnegie Mellon University The argument John Anderson gives in this book was inspired by the passage above, from the last lecture by one of the pioneers of cognitive science. Newell describes what, for him, is the pivotal question of scientific inquiry, and Anderson gives an answer that is emerging from the study of brain and behavior. Humans share the same basic cognitive architecture with all primates, but they have evolved abilities to exercise abstract control over cognition and process more complex relational patterns. The human cognitive architecture consists of a set of largely independent modules associated with different brain regions. In this book, Anderson discusses in detail how these various modules can combine to produce behaviors as varied as driving a car and solving an algebraic equation, but focuses principally on two of the modules: the declarative and procedural. The declarative module involves a memory system that, moment by moment, attempts to give each person the most appropriate possible window into his or her past. The procedural module involves a central system that strives to develop a set of productions that will enable the most adaptive response from any state of the modules. Newell argued that the answer to his question must take the form of a cognitive architecture, and Anderson organizes his answer around the ACT-R architecture, but broadens it by bringing in research from all areas of cognitive science, including how recent work in brain imaging maps onto the cognitive architecture.

The Human World in the Physical Universe

The Human World in the Physical Universe
Author: Nicholas Maxwell
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
Total Pages: 338
Release: 2001
Genre: Philosophy
ISBN: 9780742512269

How is it possible for the world as we experience it to exist embedded in the physical universe? How can there be sensory qualities, consciousness, freedom, science and art, friendship, love, justice--all that which gives meaning and value to life--if the world really is more or less as modern science tells us it is? This is the problem that is tackled by this book. The solution proposed is that physics describes only a selected aspect of all that exists--that aspect which determines the way events unfold. Sensory qualities, inner experiences, consciousness, meaning and value, all these exist but lie beyond the scope of physics, and of that part of science that can be reduced to physics. Furthermore, these human features of the world are to be explained and understood, not scientifically, but "personalistically," a kind of understanding distinct from, and not reducible to, science. This view that the world is riddled with what may be called "double comprehensibility" leads to a proposed solution to the philosophical mind/body problem, and to the problem of free will; it leads to a reinterpretation of Darwin's theory of evolution, and to an account of the evolution of consciousness and free will. After a discussion of the location of consciousness in the brain, the book concludes with a proposal as to how academic inquiry might be changed so that it becomes a kind of inquiry rationally designed to help humanity create a more civilized human world in the physical universe.

Unifying the Universe

Unifying the Universe
Author: Hasan S. Padamsee
Publisher: CRC Press
Total Pages: 708
Release: 2002-11-05
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780750307581

Unifying the Universe: The Physics of Heaven and Earth provides a solid background in basic physics. With a humanistic perspective, it shows how science is significant for more than its technological consequences. The book includes clear and well-planned links to the arts and philosophies of relevant historical periods to bring science and the humanities together.

Understanding the Universe

Understanding the Universe
Author: James B. Seaborn
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
Total Pages: 324
Release: 1998
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780387982953

Intended for undergraduate non-science majors, satisfying a general education requirement or seeking an elective in natural science, this is a physics text, but with the emphasis on topics and applications in astronomy. The perspective is thus different from most undergraduate astronomy courses: rather than discussing what is known about the heavens, this text develops the principles of physics so as to illuminate what we see in the heavens. The fundamental principles governing the behaviour of matter and energy are thus used to study the solar system, the structure and evolution of stars, and the early universe. The first part of the book develops Newtonian mechanics towards an understanding of celestial mechanics, while chapters on electromagnetism and elementary quantum theory lay the foundation of the modern theory of the structure of matter and the role of radiation in the constitution of stars. Kinetic theory and nuclear physics provide the basis for a discussion of stellar structure and evolution, and an examination of red shifts and other observational data provide a basis for discussions of cosmology and cosmogony.

A Different Universe

A Different Universe
Author: Robert B. Laughlin
Publisher: Basic Books (AZ)
Total Pages: 276
Release: 2005-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780465038282

Proposes a new way of understanding and interpreting the fundamental laws of science that will open up human thinking to the vast possibilities of the universe.