A fun look at the next step of tech evolution but one that could have taken a more skeptical look at the risks.
A colorful, upbeat overview of the ways massive amounts of data can influence everything from medicine to law enforcement to consumer behavior.
Petabyte is a word that appears often in this app, a companion to the coffee-table book of the same title by the producers of the Day in the Life series. A petabyte is 1,000 terabytes—too huge for any one computer to store but representative of the wealth of data that can now be accessed to provide new insight into human behavior. The app is broken up into essays that precede multimedia-rich features on “big data” trends. For example, in a feature on how computer pioneer Gordon Bell obsessively digitizes nearly every activity, readers can click through a slideshow of images and hear him discuss them. A feature on Major League Baseball’s data-capture process is built around an animation showing the many quantifiable events that occur during a single pitch. And a feature on how laptop motion sensors can be collectively leveraged to detect earthquakes invites users to shake the iPad to learn earthquake facts. Most of the multimedia elements aren’t quite so clever—many just point to related online videos—but the presentation is consistently inviting, rooted in splashy, rich photography, entertaining infographics and clean writing. (One of the more entertaining essays comes from stunt memoirist A.J. Jacobs, who writes about how personal data collection has improved his health.) The app’s chief flaw has more to do with philosophy than with design. Some essays hint at big data’s serious downsides—particularly loss of privacy, hackers and the power of software coders to manipulate consumers—yet these concerns lack sexy infographics of their own and are given little more than lip service.
A fun look at the next step of tech evolution but one that could have taken a more skeptical look at the risks.Pub Date: Dec. 4, 2012
ISBN: N/A
Page Count: -
Publisher: Against All Odds Productions
Review Posted Online: Dec. 25, 2012
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both...
Italian theoretical physicist Rovelli (General Relativity: The Most Beautiful of Theories, 2015, etc.) shares his thoughts on the broader scientific and philosophical implications of the great revolution that has taken place over the past century.
These seven lessons, which first appeared as articles in the Sunday supplement of the Italian newspaper Sole 24 Ore, are addressed to readers with little knowledge of physics. In less than 100 pages, the author, who teaches physics in both France and the United States, cogently covers the great accomplishments of the past and the open questions still baffling physicists today. In the first lesson, he focuses on Einstein's theory of general relativity. He describes Einstein's recognition that gravity "is not diffused through space [but] is that space itself" as "a stroke of pure genius." In the second lesson, Rovelli deals with the puzzling features of quantum physics that challenge our picture of reality. In the remaining sections, the author introduces the constant fluctuations of atoms, the granular nature of space, and more. "It is hardly surprising that there are more things in heaven and earth, dear reader, than have been dreamed of in our philosophy—or in our physics,” he writes. Rovelli also discusses the issues raised in loop quantum gravity, a theory that he co-developed. These issues lead to his extraordinary claim that the passage of time is not fundamental but rather derived from the granular nature of space. The author suggests that there have been two separate pathways throughout human history: mythology and the accumulation of knowledge through observation. He believes that scientists today share the same curiosity about nature exhibited by early man.
An intriguing meditation on the nature of the universe and our attempts to understand it that should appeal to both scientists and general readers.Pub Date: March 1, 2016
ISBN: 978-0-399-18441-3
Page Count: 96
Publisher: Riverhead
Review Posted Online: Dec. 7, 2015
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Dec. 15, 2015
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
A magnificent account of a central reality of our times, incorporating deep scientific expertise, broad political and social knowledge, and ethical insight, and Idled with beautifully written biographical sketches of the men and women who created nuclear physics. Rhodes describes in detail the great scientific achievements that led up to the invention of the atomic bomb. Everything of importance is examined, from the discovery of the atomic nucleus and of nuclear fission to the emergence of quantum physics, the invention of the mass-spectroscope and of the cyclotron, the creation of such man-made elements as plutonium and tritium, and implementation of the nuclear chain reaction in uranium. Even more important, Rhodes shows how these achievements were thrust into the arms of the state, which culminated in the unfolding of the nuclear arms race. Often brilliantly, he records the rise of fascism and of anti-Semitism, and the intensification of nationalist ambitions. He traces the outbreak of WW II, which provoked a hysterical rivalry among nations to devise the bomb. This book contains a grim description of Japanese resistance, and of the horrible psychological numbing that caused an unparalleled tolerance for human suffering and destruction. Rhodes depicts the Faustian scale of the Manhattan Project. His account of the dropping of the bomb itself, and of the awful firebombing that prepared its way, is unforgettable. Although Rhodes' gallery of names and events is sometimes dizzying, his scientific discussions often daunting, he has written a book of great drama and sweep. A superb accomplishment.
Pub Date: Feb. 1, 1986
ISBN: 0684813785
Page Count: 932
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Review Posted Online: Oct. 28, 2011
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 15, 1986
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