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How did humans get their start as a species? This is one of the core questions that have preoccupied humankind for centuries. This volume considers the complex and often mysterious characteristics that define humanity, including its unique anatomical and neurological features, behaviors such as use of tools and language, and the social structures that are unique to the species. The book also considers how the species has evolved over time and how...
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Sports are a human universal: humans in all cultures play them, and they've done so for a long, long time. This title is for readers whose interest in sports and athleticism goes deeper than stats of their favorite players and the standings of their favorite teams. The articles collected here answer questions about the physical and psychological conditions that make elite athletes, they look at the effects of technology in sports, and they explore...
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Anxiety and depression are two of the most common conditions affecting mental health and overall quality of life, but there are tools for managing them. In this eBook, we'll explore how depression shows up in the brain, different manifestations of depression and anxiety, various talk therapies, technological innovations, lifestyle interventions and more.
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Neuroscientists have shown that music recruits nearly every area of the brain, fostering connections across different regions. In this eBook, we examine the latest imaging studies and discuss the effects of music on emotion, cognition, sensation and motor function. This includes an examination of the brain's anatomy when listening to or creating music, of music's relationship to learning math and language skills and of its role in promoting social...
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How do neurons create feelings of sadness? Or the sense of a unique self? On the other hand, could conscious thought be an illusion? The nature of conscious experience is one of the most essential, enduring mysteries, and in this eBook we explore the diverse and sometimes contentious approaches to defining consciousness, research into its physical footprints, advances in measuring conscious awareness and emerging technologies bringing artificial intelligence...
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We harbor roughly the same number of microbes as we have cells. This complex ecosystem is crucial to our health, affecting many processes including immunity, child development and bone density regulation. Research in this area has exploded, and in this eBook, we highlight some of the most exciting work on how the microbiome develops, its influence on brain and behavior and implications in both contributing to and treating various disorders.
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As evidence for human interference in the Earth's climate continues to accumulate, scientists have gained a better understanding of when, where and how the impacts of global warming are being felt. In this eBook, we examine those impacts on the planet, on human society and on the plant and animal kingdoms, as well as effective mitigation strategies including resourceful urban design and smart carbon policies.
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In 2020, mass shootings and hate crimes reached record highs. On January 6, 2021, a deadly mob stormed the US Capitol. In this eBook, we examine the factors that contribute to aggressive and brutal behavior, including its biological and genetic underpinnings, how intimacy and bias can lead to violence, how people become radicalized to commit acts of aggression, as well as certain psychological disorders and their role in violent behavior.
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The sense of position and movement is often called the sixth sense, the brain's connection to the immune system might be a seventh. In this eBook, we examine the diverse functions of the brain beyond the five senses, including the glymphatic system for maintaining brain health, the processes behind intuition and new research raising questions about "brain death."
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From irrational phobias to a midlife crisis, we've all experienced moments of utter confusion about the nature of our own behavior, emotions or perception of reality. In this eBook, neurologists and other scientists share what they know about how the mind works, including some of these baffling psychological experiences.
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Science fiction has imagined some pretty wild ideas about how the universe could work - from hidden extra dimensions in Interstellar to life as a mental projection in The Matrix. But these imaginings seem downright tame compared with the mind-bending science now coming out of physics and astronomy, and in this eBook, we look at the strange and fascinating discoveries shaping (and reshaping) the field today.
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Is time an illusion? Is time travel possible? Could time end? In this eBook, A Question of Time*, we take an interdisciplinary look at the fourth dimension, exploring the latest thinking on the nature of time and the ways it dominates our physical and mental worlds.
14) Extreme Physics
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Physicists are pushing into the extreme ends of the universe as we know it-from invisible particles and colliding massive black holes to the most crushing gravitational forces ever detected and spooky quantum entanglement. The 14-billion-year-old tale of our universe is far from over, and in this eBook, we examine a wave of discovery and take a new look at old ideas.
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Once dismissed as a mathematical curiosity, black holes are so strange they almost defy belief. Since their existence was confirmed, research into the nature of black holes has opened up new vistas in physics, and in this eBook, we examine some of the most fascinating discoveries about black hole formation and behavior, the new and evolving research in gravitational wave astronomy, theoretical possibilities such as wormholes and much more.
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People behave in strange ways. We sometimes giggle when someone falls down, swear we've been to places we haven't or continue believing in something despite scientific evidence to the contrary. For more than a decade, Scientific American MIND's long-running feature "Ask the Brains" has addressed questions from our readers on the quirks and quandaries of human behavior, psychology and neurology. Here in Ask the Brains, Part 1 we've compiled some of...
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While many of us strive to live healthy lives, the task can be daunting and the information overwhelming. Should we be more concerned with our diet or with keeping our weight down? How important is exercise? What kinds of diseases should we really be worried about getting-or preventing? In this eBook, Eat, Move, Think: Living Healthy, we've assembled a number of stories on what we think sums up a healthy lifestyle, as well as some of the common obstacles...
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The murder of George Floyd in May 2020 brought fierce and renewed tensions to issues of anti-Black racism and police violence in the US. The outcry and eruption of protests following Floyd's killing led to a long-overdue reckoning across industries, in politics and in society to confront white supremacy and racial injustice. For Scientific American, part of this reckoning is to make a commitment to improved and wider reporting of racism and to elevate...
20) Battling Drought
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The extreme drought in the US Southwest has brought the issues of water use into the media spotlight. The one-two punch of climate change and political turf battles that have plagued the area since the Wild West have upped the ante for rethinking our policies. This eBook, Battling Drought, takes a long look at this situation from the early engineering projects, such as building the Hoover and Grand Coulee dams, which were designed to tame the rivers,...
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