Science and Society – serie

The Arguments of Agriculture presents the major issues, questions, and conflicting opinions of influential policymakers and critics concerning the role and future of modern agriculture. Today, while modern farm tools and chemicals take huge and unprecedented yields from those fields, they often cause an equally unprecedented loss of topsoil. Increased productivity has reduced the farming population drastically, and economic realities force many small farms out of business. A growing international market for food and fiber puts mounting pressure on farmers all over the world, even in traditional cultures, to use ever more sophisticated techniques to push their productivity higher – with new risks. Under this kind of pressure, the basic question about farming splits into several ones. There is a multitude of contradictory answers. The author urges the reader to weigh and consider all positions and supplies a primer in the basic arguments of agriculture. Each chapter begins with a series of hypothetical cases that illustrate the range of theoretical issues discussed in the chapter. The next section analyzes the basic issues, and the section entitled "Review" summarizes and contrasts the opinions of a number of prominent critics. Each chapter concludes with a list of recommended readings.

A fascinating look at the historical relationship between environmental issues and scientific study, social attitudes, and public policy from the 17th century to the present.The Environment and Science: Social Impact and Interaction explores the history of how science investigates nature and how those studies both shape and are shaped by the social attitudes, philosophies, and politics of their times. It follows the changes in perceptions of the natural world and humankind's place in it from the European colonization of North America through the Industrial Revolution and westward expansion, to the rise of the consumer economy and the recent hardening of the ideological battle lines over environmental policy.Coverage includes the emergence of ecology as a science and conservation as a movement, the long history of conflicts between business interests and environmentalists, and the role of scientific studies in debates over atomic and nuclear power, pesticides, toxic emissions, and other human-made sources of environmental degradation.Biographical sketches of major contributors to the study of human/environment interaction, including Carolus Linnaeus, Henry David Thoreau, Charles Darwin, Rachel Carson, and Barry CommonerPrimary source documents from key environmental writers

This comprehensive volume explores the intricate, mutually dependent relationship between science and exploration—how each has repeatedly built on the discoveries of the other and, in the process, opened new frontiers.A simple question: Which came first, advances in navigation or successful voyages of discovery? A complicated answer: Both and neither. For more than four centuries, scientists and explorers have worked together—sometimes intentionally and sometimes not—in an ongoing, symbiotic partnership. When early explorers brought back exotic flora and fauna from newly discovered lands, scientists were able to challenge ancient authorities for the first time. As a result, scientists not only invented new navigational tools to encourage exploration, but also created a new approach to studying nature, in which observations were more important than reason and authority.The story of the relationship between science and exploration, analyzed here for the first time, is nothing less than the history of modern science and the expanding human universe.

A survey of the interaction between science and Anglo-American literature from the late medieval period to the 20th century, examining how authors, thinkers, and philosophers have viewed science in literary texts, and used science as a window to the future.Spanning six centuries, this survey of the interplay between science and literature in the West begins with Chaucer's Treatise on the Astrolabe and includes commentary on key trends in contemporary literature.Beginning with the birth of science fiction, the authors examine the works of H. G. Wells and Jules Verne as well as Mary Shelley's Frankenstein within the context of a wider analysis of the impact of major historical developments like the Renaissance, the scientific revolution, the Enlightenment, and Romanticism. The book balances readings of literature with explanations of the impact of key scientific ideas. Focusing primarily on British and American literature, the book also takes an informed but accessible approach to the history of science, with seminal scientific works discussed in a critical rather than overly theoretical manner.Gives clear explanations of scientific ideas ranging from medieval cosmology to modern concepts in astronomyOrganizes the material in chronological order with a chronology and bibliographic essay accompanying each chapter

A unique resource that synthesizes existing primary and secondary sources to provide a fascinating introduction to the development and dissemination of science within history's great empires, as well as the complex interaction between imperialism and scientific progress over two centuries.Imperialism and Science is a scholarly yet accessible chronicle of the impact of imperialism on science over the past 200 years, from the effect of Catholicism on scientific progress in Latin America to the importance of U.S. government funding of scientific research to America's preeminent place in the world.Spanning two centuries of scientific advance throughout the age of empire, Imperialism and Science sheds new light on the spread of scientific thought throughout the former colonial world. Science made enormous advances during this period, often being associated with anti-Imperialist struggle or, as in the case of the science brought to 19th-century China and India by the British, with Western cultural hegemony.Packed with portraits of key scientists, their discoveries, and their achievements, bringing to life the contribution of scientists from even the most far-flung corners of empireIncludes a detailed chronology, bibliography, and a glossary of key scientific terms of the era, helping to make the history of science accessible to the general reader

This book will help children to be themselves and feel like they belong. From the atoms that made them to the things that bodies can do, ALL bodies are wonderful. We know that bodies can be tricky to understand. Sometimes you might feel like your body is different. But being different is completely natural ... it's just science! Trust the experts to help you have big conversations together using this inclusive guide.