Most Popular Books in Science Fiction & Fantasy

Science and science fiction have become inseparable—with common stories, interconnected thought experiments, and shared language. This reference book lays out that relationship and its all-but-magical terms and ideas. Those who think seriously about the future are changing the world, reshaping how we speak and how we think. This book fully covers the terms that collected, clarified and crystallized the futurists’ ideas, sometimes showing them off, sometimes slowing them down, and sometimes propelling them to fame and making them the common currency of our culture. The many entries in this encyclopedic work offer a guided tour of the vast territories occupied by science fiction and futurism. In his Foreword, David Brin says, “Provocative and enticing? Filled with ‘huh!’ moments and leads to great stories? That describes this volume.”

"FROM SCIENCE FICTION TO SCIENCE FACTS" is the non-fiction companion study guide to the fantastic science-fiction novel, "Accused By Facet-Eyes". It is a unique teaching/learning approach, which pairs literary entertainment with fascinating life science facts. Academic enrichment for nature-loving readers, middle-, high-school and college students. Intended for mainstream, supplementary and home schooling education. Readers will learn why honeybees are endangered worldwide; their pivotal role in pollination and will better appreciate the essential, mutual interdependence with humankind. Eye-opening life science facts point out important interactions of biology, chemistry and physics with contemporary issues in ecology and human-induced environmental hazards from a global, social perspective. "From Science Fiction To Science Facts" is a great time-saver for busy educators. Over 400 easily accessed references support the science facts; an overview of the science topics shows their relevance to the National Science Education Standards categories; the analytical format and discussion questions encourage critical thought and debates; C.B. Don''s original, captivating photographs bring foraging honeybees on garden flowers to life!

Winner of a 2008 Hugo Award, this new paperback takes readers on spectacular tour of the language created by science fiction. From "Stargate" to "Force Field," this dictionary opens a fascinating window into an entire genre, through the words invented by science fiction''s most talented writers, critics, and fans. Each entry includes numerous citations of the word''s usage, from the earliest known appearance forward. Drawn not only from science fiction novels and stories, citations also come from fanzines, screenplays, comics, songs, and the Internet.

Essays on British writers of fantasy and science fiction during a time when science, technology and industrialization made increasingly impressive inroads from the Enlightenment to World War I.A gradual emphasis on social improvement, including literature, involved efforts to increase literacy through expanding material to read. During this period, publication of newspapers, penny dreadfuls and dime novels lead to pulp magazines and other popular periodicals.

This book is the first to offer a justice-focused cognitive reading of modern YA speculative fiction in its narrative and filmic forms. It links the expansion of YA speculative fiction in the 20th century with the emergence of human and civil rights movements, with the communitarian revolution in conceptualizations of justice, and with spectacular advances in cognitive sciences as applied to the examination of narrative fiction. Oziewicz argues that complex ideas such as justice are processed by the human mind as cognitive scripts; that scripts, when narrated, take the form of multiply indexable stories; and that YA speculative fiction is currently the largest conceptual testing ground in the forging of justice consciousness for the 21st century world. Drawing on recent research in the cognitive and evolutionary sciences, Oziewicz explains how poetic, retributive, restorative, environmental, social, and global types of justice have been represented in narrative fiction, from 19th century folk and fairy tales through 21st century fantasy, dystopia, and science fiction. Suggesting that the appeal of these and other nonmimetic genres is largely predicated on the dream of justice, Oziewicz theorizes new justice scripts as conceptual tools essential to help humanity survive the qualitative leap toward an environmentally conscious, culturally diversified global world. This book is an important contribution to studies of children’s and YA speculative fiction, adding a new perspective to discussions about the educational as well as social potential of nonmimetic genres. It demonstrates that the justice imperative is very much alive in YA speculative fiction, creating new visions of justice relevant to contemporary challenges.

Militarizing Outer Space explores the dystopian and destructive dimensions of the Space Age and challenges conventional narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry. Concentrating on weapons, warfare and viou200blence, this provocative volume examines real and imagined endeavors of arming the skies and conquering the heavens. The third and final volume in the groundbreaking u200bEuropean Astroculture trilogy, u200bMilitarizing Outer Space zooms in on the interplay between security, technopolitics and knowledge from the 1920s through the 1980s. Often hailed as the site of heavenly utopias and otherworldly salvation, outer space transformed from a promised sanctuary to a present threat, where the battles of the future were to be waged. Astroculture proved instrumental in fathoming forms and functions of warfare’s futures past, both on earth and in space. The allure of dominating outer space, the book shows, was neither limited to the early twenty-first century nor to current American space force rhetorics.

An ethnographic exploration of technoscientific immortality Immortality has long been considered the domain of religion. But immortality projects have gained increasing legitimacy and power in the world of science and technology. With recent rapid advances in biology, nanotechnology, and artificial intelligence, secular immortalists hope for and work toward a future without death. On Not Dying is an anthropological, historical, and philosophical exploration of immortality as a secular and scientific category. Based on an ethnography of immortalist communities—those who believe humans can extend their personal existence indefinitely through technological means—and an examination of other institutions involved at the end of life, Abou Farman argues that secular immortalism is an important site to explore the tensions inherent in secularism: how to accept death but extend life; knowing the future is open but your future is finite; that life has meaning but the universe is meaningless. As secularism denies a soul, an afterlife, and a cosmic purpose, conflicts arise around the relationship of mind and body, individual finitude and the infinity of time and the cosmos, and the purpose of life. Immortalism today, Farman argues, is shaped by these historical and culturally situated tensions. Immortalist projects go beyond extending life, confronting dualism and cosmic alienation by imagining (and producing) informatic selves separate from the biological body but connected to a cosmic unfolding. On Not Dying interrogates the social implications of technoscientific immortalism and raises important political questions. Whose life will be extended? Will these technologies be available to all, or will they reproduce racial and geopolitical hierarchies? As human life on earth is threatened in the Anthropocene, why should life be extended, and what will that prolonged existence look like?

DIE REIHE: LITERATUR- UND NATURWISSENSCHAFTEN entsteht unter Federführung des Erlanger Forschungszentrums für Literatur- und Naturwissenschaften (ELINAS). Experten unterschiedlicher Fachkulturen führen darin ihre Methoden zusammen und fragen sowohl nach den Funktionen der Sprache in der naturwissenschaftlichen Forschung als auch nach den Verfahren der Modellierung naturwissenschaftlicher Erkenntnisse in der Literatur. Die Reihe versteht sich als ein interdisziplinäres Forum zur Reflexion der kulturellen Bedeutung natur- und literaturwissenschaftlicher Forschung sowie zur Ethik und Rhetorik wissenschaftlicher Argumentation.

Wherever the cutting edge of science goes, Michael Crichton is there. From dinosaur cloning to global warming, nanotechnology to time travel, animal behavior to human genetics, Crichton always takes us to the cutting edge of science and then pushes the envelope. The Science of Michael Crichton examines the amazing inventions of Crichton''s books and lifts up the hood, revealing the science underneath. In intelligent and well-thought essays, scholars and experts decide what Crichton gets right and what he gets wrong. They examine which Crichton imaginings are feasible and which are just plain impossible. Scenarios examined include whether dinosaurs can be cloned, if nanotechnological particles can evolve intelligence, and if we can go back in time.

Looks at "Star Wars" in the light of the latest scientific discoveries and research and evaluates the probability of light sabers, the "force," and alien life.

Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene is an investigation of the cultural meanings, representations, and values of soil in a time of planetary change. The book offers critical reflections on some of the most challenging environmental problems of our time, including land take, groundwater pollution, desertification, and biodiversity loss. At the same time, the book celebrates diverse forms of resilience in the face of such challenges, beginning with its title as a way of honoring locally controlled food production methods championed by "field to plate" movements worldwide. By focusing on concepts of soil functionality, the book weaves together different disciplinary perspectives in a collection of dialogue texts between artists and scientists, interviews by the editors and invited curators, essays and poems by earth scientists and humanities scholars, soil recipes, maps, and DIY experiments. With contributions from over 100 internationally renowned researchers and practitioners, Field to Palette presents a set of visual methodologies and worldviews that expand our understanding of soil and encourage readers to develop their own interpretations of the ground beneath our feet.

Discourses and Narrations in the Biosciences investigates the forms of writing in which scientific claims are formulated and announced. Argumentative strategies, compositional rules, and figurative expressions in communication and narrativization of scientific knowledge are the focus of interdisciplinary contributions by humanities and science scholars. The first part of the book, dedicated to ''Rhetorical and Epistemological Aspects of Science Writing'', addresses how scientific pursuits and methods feed into multi-level texts that generate responses within science, society, and culture. The second part, entitled ''Bioscientific Discourses and Narrations'', examines popularisations and fictionalizations of science in relation to diversity, deviancy, ageing, illness, reproduction, the evolution of humankind, mathematical models of biomedical systems, and the myth of the heroic scientist. Assessing the narrative impetus and command of literary and meta-discoursive strategies shown by contemporary science writers enhances understanding of the methods and conventions through which the biosciences produce knowledge.

Lighthearted, quirky, and upbeat, this book explores the portrayal of science and technology on both the big and little screen -- and how Hollywood is actually doing a better job of getting it right than ever before. Grounded in the real-word, and often cutting-edge, science and technology that inspires fictional science, the authors survey Hollywood depictions of topics such as quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and alien worlds. Including material from interviews with over two dozen writers, producers, and directors of acclaimed science-themed productions -- as well as scientists, science fiction authors, and science advisors -- Hollyweird Science examines screen science fiction from the sometimes-conflicting vantage points of storytellers, researchers, and viewers. Including a foreword by Eureka co-creator and executive producer Jaime Paglia, and an afterword by astronomer and science fiction author Michael Brotherton, Ph.D., this book is accessible to all readers from the layperson to the armchair expert to the professional scientist, and will delight all of them equally.

Genes and the Bioimaginary examines the dramatic rise and contemporary cultural apotheosis of ''the gene''. The book traces not only the genetification of modern life but is also a journey through the complex relationship between science and culture. At the heart of this book are three interlinked questions. The first concerns the paradigmatic transformations of the ''genetics revolution'': how can we understand the impact of genes on social arenas as diverse as law and agriculture, politics and medicine, genealogy and jurisprudence? Second, how has the language of genes come to pervade public discourse - as much a trope of personal narrative as of the popular imaginary? And third, how can we gain critical purchase not only on the conditions and consequences of a particular science, but on its projective seductions, the terms of its persuasion, and the dilemmas and anxieties provoked in its wake? Through a series of illuminating case studies ranging from ''gay genes'' to ''Jew genes'', to genes for crime; from CSI to the Innocence Project, from genetics (post)racial imaginary to its phantasies of redemption, the book examines the emergence of the gene as a pre-eminent locus of both scientific and social explanation, and as a powerful object of spectacle, projective phantasy and attachment. Genes and the Bioimaginary makes a distinctive contribution to our understanding of how knowledge comes to be not only powerful, but plausible.

Home articulates a ‘critical geography of home’ in which home is understood as an emotive place and spatial imaginary that encompasses lived experiences of everyday, domestic life alongside a wider, and often contested, sense of being and belonging in the world. Engaging with the burgeoning cross-disciplinary interest in home since the first edition was published, this significantly revised and updated second edition contains new research boxes, illustrations, and contemporary examples throughout. It also adds a new chapter on ‘Home and the City’ that extends the scalar understanding of home to the urban. The book develops the conceptual and methodological underpinnings of a critical geography of home, drawing on key feminist, postcolonial, and housing thinkers as well as contemporary methodological currents in non-representational thinking and performance. The book’s chapters consider the making and unmaking of home across the domestic scale – house-as-home; the urban – city-as-home; national – nation-as-home; and homemaking in relation to transnational migration and diaspora. Each chapter includes illustrative examples from diverse geographical contexts and historical time periods. Chapters also address some of the key cross-cutting dimensions of home across these scales, including digital connectivity, art and performance, more-than-human constructions of home, and violence and dispossession. The book ends with a research agenda for home in a world of COVID-19. The book provides an understanding of home that has three intersecting dimensions: that material and imaginative geographies of home are closely intertwined; that home, power, and identity are intimately linked; and that geographies of home are multi-scalar. This framework, the examples used to illustrate it, and the intended audience of academics and students across the humanities and social sciences will together shape the field of home studies into the future.

The Theory of Special Relativity is one of the most profound discoveries of the twentieth century. Einstein''s Mirror blends a simple, nonmathematical account of the theory of special relativity and gravitation with a description of the way experiments have triumphantly supported these theories. The authors explore the many applications of relativity in atomic and nuclear physics, which are many and range from satellite navigation systems, particle accelerators and nuclear power to quantum chemistry, antimatter and black holes. The book also features a superb collection of photographs and includes amusing anecdotes and biographies about the early pioneers. In the closing chapter, the authors examine the influence of Einstein''s relativity on the development of science fiction. General readers with an interest in science will enjoy and benefit from this fascinating and accessible introduction to one of the most important areas of physics.

Authoritative yet accessible, the definitive undergraduate text on Russian geography and culture has now been thoroughly revised with the latest data and hot topics, such as the political crisis in Ukraine and the annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol. Thematic chapters provide up-to-date coverage of Russia''s physical, political, cultural, and economic geography. Regional chapters focus on the country''s major regions and the other 14 former Soviet republics. Written in a lucid, conversational style by a Russian-born international expert, the concise chapters interweave vivid descriptions of urban and rural landscapes, examinations of Soviet and post-Soviet life, deep knowledge of environmental and conservation issues, geopolitical insights, engaging anecdotes, and rigorous empirical data. Over 200 original maps, photographs, and other figures are also available as PowerPoint slides at the companion website, most in color. New to This Edition *Separate chapter on Ukraine and Crimea. *Timely topics--the political crisis in Ukraine and annexation of Crimea and Sevastopol; the return of Putin as President; climate change and environmental degradation; economic slowdown; political shifts in the republics; the role of Russian-backed forces in Syria, Libya, and Central African Republic; changes in Russia–United States relations, and more. *Thoroughly updated population, economic, and political data. *80 new or updated figures, tables, and maps. Pedagogical Features *End-of-chapter review questions, suggested assignments, and in-class exercises. *Within-chapter vignettes about Russian places, culture, and history. *End-of-chapter Internet resources and suggestions for further reading. *Companion website with all figures and maps from the book, most in full color.

In 1905, a young Jewish immigrant from Luxembourg founded an electrical supply shop in New York. This inventor, writer, and publisher Hugo Gernsback would later become famous for launching the first science fiction magazine, Amazing Stories, in 1926. But while science fiction’s annual Hugo Awards were named in his honor, there has been surprisingly little understanding of how the genre began among a community of tinkerers all drawn to Gernsback’s vision of comprehending the future of media through making. In The Perversity of Things, Grant Wythoff makes available texts by Hugo Gernsback that were foundational both for science fiction and the emergence of media studies. Wythoff argues that Gernsback developed a means of describing and assessing the cultural impact of emerging media long before media studies became an academic discipline. From editorials and blueprints to media histories, critical essays, and short fiction, Wythoff has collected a wide range of Gernsback’s writings that have been out of print since their magazine debut in the early 1900s. These articles cover such topics as television; the regulation of wireless/radio; war and technology; speculative futures; media-archaeological curiosities like the dynamophone and hypnobioscope; and more. All together, this collection shows how Gernsback’s publications evolved from an electrical parts catalog to a full-fledged literary genre. The Perversity of Things aims to reverse the widespread misunderstanding of Gernsback within the history of science fiction criticism. Through painstaking research and extensive annotations and commentary, Wythoff reintroduces us to Gernsback and the origins of science fiction.

The realm of theoretical physics is teeming with abstract and beautiful concepts. And the task of imagining them is one that demands profound creativity, argues Giovanni Vignale. Explaining them is curiously akin to the craft of poets, or magical realist novelists such as Borges, and Musil, or Bulgakov''s The Master and Margarita. In this unusual and sometimes poetic book, Vignale presents his own unorthodox accounts of fundamental theoretical concepts such as Newtonian mechanics, superconductivity, and Einstein''s theory of relativity, showing that what may seem at first quite simple in fact turns out to be much more profound. As we delve behind now-familiar metaphors such as ''electron spin'' and ''black hole'', the world that we take for granted melts away, leaving a glimpse of something much stranger.

This book focuses on the politics, discourse and actors surrounding climate change issues in China. This framework offers a new way of observing Chinese discourses around climate change. Discursive changes in coal consumption and air pollution have been raised to uncover the various motivations of China towards addressing climate issues. This book will be of interest to a variety of different stakeholders including policy-makers, non-state actors, business communities and media, and anyone who are interested in the climate governance of China.

Evolutionary Essays Evolutionary Essays are essays which I started to write at York University in Toronto, Canada and finished the FREE Draft''s on 05-02-2012. They are in the genres of Philosophy, Psychology, Politic''s, Economic''s, Religion, Culture, History and Evolution with a good dosage of Humor and Intellect. Evolutionary Essays is what I see as positive for this Planet and what is wrong especially in the Modern Western Civilization''s. This is not just pure optimism and will use sound, logical, argumentational and factual structures. This is also to dispel highly prevalent pessimisms and reveal realities, to regain constructive positivism which we have lost so many times nullifying our productivity; life is a sine wave, it is not about your success and failures but the fact you keep getting up again, it is not if you win or lose but how you fight your battles, it is not how you die but how you lived your life: Debts not paid in this one are incurred in the next one... This is to try and bring clarity and solutions from Observation and Experience, the distinct realm of Philosophy. This is a philosophical discourse, description and narration using logic, reason, reduction, deduction, facts and argumentation to provide a point of view with constructive criticism and suggestions for improvement which may be adopted and/or applied to Citizen''s, Government''s or Corporation''s. A Philosopher''s position is to ask questions, not per se answer anything or be a Guide but rather point in the correct direction of the past, present and future giving no more than a Guideline for you can only find your own will and way. Where possible, though it is highly relative, one can try and reveal Truth. Like Light versus Shadow it will always win in the end... Truth is Commonality.

THUS SPOKE EINSTEIN on LIFE and LIVING Wisdom of Albert Einstein in the Context Selected, Edited, and Commented by V. Alexander STEFAN Institute for Advanced Physics Studies Stefan University

A Gentle Conversation, Third Edition, is meant to be a student-friendly introductionto research methodology and statistics, aimed at allaying students'' fears and anxietiesabout studying these topics. Our more conversational approach should help studentsfeel as if the authors are standing by them, explaining concepts and procedures as theyread through the text. We use examples throughout to clarify concepts and strengthen theconnections between statistics, data, and research questions. The authors emphasizeunderstanding not only the manipulation of statistical data, but also what the actualfindings mean in relation to significance issues, samples, and populations. We covereffect size for all statistical inquiries, from correlation to ANOVA.

Does geography affect our sense of ''self''? How are social characteristics mapped out on the ground? And is there any ''authentic'' sense of place now, or are we increasingly ''placeless''? Concentrating on the period between the end of the Second World War and the end of the century, this Reader argues that there is a reciprocal relationship between the constitution of places and people. What it means to be a man or a woman , to have a nationality and a sense of place, has been transformed and reinvented as our view of the world has changed. The present is perceived as a time of fear, a period in which all that is solid seems to melt into air, while the 1950s are a site of nostalgia, a period of clarity and certainty, a time when people know their place. Bringing together an interdisciplinary collection of articles for social and cultural geographers, this Reader critically examines the argument that the close associations of the 1950s between place (the home, the community and the nation state) and the social divisions (gender, class and nationality) are breaking down in the 1990s. Drawing out the oppositional movements in each decade, it seeks to show how the supposed stability of one and the mobility of the other are exaggerated.

Justin O’Connor and Lily Kong The cultural and creative industries have become increasingly prominent in many policy agendas in recent years. Not only have governments identified the growing consumer potential for cultural/creative industry products in the home market, they have also seen the creative industry agenda as central to the growth of external m- kets. This agenda stresses creativity, innovation, small business growth, and access to global markets – all central to a wider agenda of moving from cheap manufacture towards high value-added products and services. The increasing importance of cultural and creative industries in national and city policy agendas is evident in Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, Beijing, Shanghai and Guangzhou, Australia, and New Zealand, and in more nascent ways in cities such as Chongqing and Wuhan. Much of the thinking in these cities/ countries has derived from the European and North American policy landscape. Policy debate in Europe and North America has been marked by ambiguities and tensions around the connections between cultural and economic policy which the creative industry agenda posits. These become more marked because the key dr- ers of the creative economy are the larger metropolitan areas, so that cultural and economic policy also then intersect with urban planning, policy and governance.

Where do children travel when they read a story? In this collection, scholars and authors explore the imaginative geography of a wide range of places, from those of Indigenous myth to the fantasy worlds of Middle-earth, Earthsea, or Pacificus, from the semi-fantastic Wild Wood to real-world places like Canada’s North, Chicago’s World Fair, or the modern urban garden. What happens to young protagonists who explore new worlds, whether fantastic or realistic? What happens when Old World and New World myths collide? How do Indigenous myth and sense of place figure in books for the young? How do environmental or post-colonial concerns, history, memory, or even the unconscious affect an author''s creation of place? How are steampunk and science fiction mythically re-enchanting for children? Imaginative geography means imaged earth writing: it creates what readers see when they enter the world of fiction. Exploring diverse genres for children, including picture books, fantasy, steampunk, and realistic novels as well as plays from Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Ireland from the early nineteenth century to the present, Children’s Literature and Imaginative Geography provides new geographical perspectives on children’s literature.

Bring science to life using 24 popular children''s books. Cross-curricular activities provide theme-based units that engage students in a broad scope of science discovery. Includes activities, student worksheets, extensions, and correlation charts.

Myths are usually seen as stories from the depths of time—fun and fantastical, but no longer believed by anyone. Yet, as Philip Ball shows, we are still writing them—and still living them—today. From Robinson Crusoe and Frankenstein to Batman, many stories written in the past few centuries are commonly, perhaps glibly, called “modern myths.” But Ball argues that we should take that idea seriously. Our stories of Dracula, Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, and Sherlock Holmes are doing the kind of cultural work that the ancient myths once did. Through the medium of narratives that all of us know in their basic outline and which have no clear moral or resolution, these modern myths explore some of our deepest fears, dreams, and anxieties. We keep returning to these tales, reinventing them endlessly for new uses. But what are they really about, and why do we need them? What myths are still taking shape today? And what makes a story become a modern myth? In The Modern Myths, Ball takes us on a wide-ranging tour of our collective imagination, asking what some of its most popular stories reveal about the nature of being human in the modern age.

“A lucid overview of [environmental] problems and a compelling call to action.” —Publishers Weekly From two of science fiction’s most celebrated and brilliant minds—Isaac Asimov and Frederik Pohl—comes the second edition of Our Angry Earth, a comprehensive analysis of today''s environmental threats and a guide on how we can heal our planet, with an introduction and afterword from New York Times bestselling author Kim Stanley Robinson. Our Angry Earth provides a candid picture of the present and many possibilities for a better, cleaner future. From the greenhouse effect and depletion of our ozone layer to nuclear waste and species extinction, Asimov and Pohl not only present accessible explanations of complex scientific processes but ways we can improve our behavior and relationship with the planet, whether it be involvement in social activism or individual lifestyle changes. Kim Stanley Robinson, author of New York Times bestsellers 2312, New York 2140, and the internationally renowned Mars trilogy, brings his decades-spanning expertise in climate change to Our Angry Earth’s introduction and afterword. At the Publisher''s request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Thomas Wm. Hamilton’s latest book Astronomical Numbers provides most of the commonly referenced and used numbers in astronomy. This includes the diameters of the sun, all the planets, and major moons, distances of orbits, magnitude scales, frequency of eclipses, the five different kinds of lunar month, and more. To maximize usefulness, all values are in both English units (e.g. miles) and metric (e.g. kilometers), and provide conversions for units commonly used in astronomy, such as the astronomical unit, lightyear, and parsec. Says the author, “There is a real need for a convenient and quick reference for all this astronomical data, which is scattered and time consuming to find.”

While the historical development of symbolic power has benefitted humanity enormously, there is an insidious and seldom recognised price that goes beyond environmental degradation and cultural disintegration. With insights from both social and natural sciences, this book explores the changing character of subjectivity in contemporary life.

This is the first comprehensive volume to explore and engage with current trends in Geographies of Media research. It reviews how conceptualizations of mediated geographies have evolved. Followed by an examination of diverse media contexts and locales, the book illustrates key issues through the integration of theoretical and empirical case studies, and reflects on the future challenges and opportunities faced by scholars in this field. The contributions by an international team of experts in the field, address theoretical perspectives on mediated geographies, methodological challenges and opportunities posed by geographies of media, the role and significance of different media forms and organizations in relation to socio-spatial relations, the dynamism of media in local-global relations, and in-depth case studies of mediated locales. Given the theoretical and methodological diversity of this book, it will provide an important reference for geographers and other interdisciplinary scholars working in cultural and media studies, researchers in environmental studies, sociology, visual anthropology, new technologies, and political science, who seek to understand and explore the interconnections of media, space and place through the examples of specific practices and settings.

The analysis of meat and its place in Western culture has been central to Human-Animal Studies as a field. Meat Culture brings into focus urgent critiques of hegemonic ‘meat culture’, animal farming and the wider animal industrial complex.

NEW STORIES AND ESSAYS FROM TOP AUTHORS AND EXPERT SCIENTISTS. Explorations of how interstellar travel may affect humanity by best-selling authors and scientists. The stars will change us. STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS is a collection of original science fiction stories and nonfiction essays speculating about humanity’s far-term expansion into the universe beyond the limits of our solar system—with an emphasis on the changes humans will undergo as a species as we make this happen. Is interstellar travel so far beyond our current imaginings that it will take a fundamental transformation of humanity in order to make it possible? And, if so, will we remain Homo sapiens or become a new and unique species—Homo stellaris (the People of the Stars)? Herein are original science fiction stories by award-winning authors such as Kevin J. Anderson, William Ledbetter, Todd McCaffrey and Sarah A. Hoyt, supplemented by accessible nonfiction essays describing the science behind the fiction from people who should know—Sir Martin Rees (Astronomer Royal of the United Kingdom), Mark Shelhamer (Chief Scientist for the NASA’s Human Research Program), and more. This collection of original stories and essays was inspired by a gathering of scientists, science fiction authors, and futurists at a series of annual meetings held by the Tennessee Valley Interstellar Workshop. Let their speculations, imaginations and boundless sense of what’s possible take your own journey beyond the edge of the solar system in STELLARIS: PEOPLE OF THE STARS! Stories and Provocative Speculation from Sir Martin Rees Kevin J. Anderson Sarah A. Hoyt Mike Massa William Ledbetter Todd McCaffrey Kacey Ezell and Philip Wohlrab Dan Hoyt Les Johnson Robert E. Hampson Mark Shelhamer Brent Roeder Jim Beall Cathe Smith At the publisher''s request, this title is sold without DRM (Digital Rights Management). About Stellaris: People of the Stars: [A] thought-provoking look at a selection of real-world challenges and speculative fiction solutions. . . . Readers will enjoy this collection that is as educational as it is entertaining."—Bookist About Mission to Methone by Les Johnson: "The spirit of Arthur C. Clarke and his contemporaries is alive and well in Johnson’s old-fashioned first-contact novel, set in 2068.... includes plenty of realistic detail and puts fun new spins on familiar alien concepts.... There’s a great deal here for fans of early hard SF."—Publishers Weekly "With equal parts science fiction and international intrigue....an exciting, fast-paced read that you will not want to put down."—Booklist About Rescue Mode by Ben Bova and Les Johnson: "... a suspenseful and compelling narrative of the first human spaceflight to Mars."—Booklist

"Reference title with facts and statistics and other information about science, for kids"--

This Handbook provides a comprehensive statement and reference point for theory, research and practice with regard to environment and communication, and it does this from a perspective which is both international and multi-disciplinary in scope. Offering comprehensive critical reviews of the history and state of the art of research into the key dimensions of environmental communication, the chapters of this handbook together demonstrate the strengths of multi-disciplinary and cross-disciplinary approaches to understanding the centrality of communication to how the environment is constructed, and indeed contested, socially, politically and culturally. Organised in five thematic sections, The Routledge Handbook of Environment and Communication includes contributions from internationally recognised leaders in the field. The first section looks at the history and development of the discipline from a range of theoretical perspectives. Section two considers the sources, communicators and media professionals involved in producing environmental communication. Section three examines research on news, entertainment media and cultural representations of the environment. The fourth section looks at the social and political implications of environmental communication, with the final section discussing likely future trajectories for the field. The first reference Handbook to offer a state of the art comprehensive overview of the emerging field of environmental communication research, this authoritative text is a must for scholars of environmental communication across a range of disciplines, including environmental studies, media and communication studies, cultural studies and related disciplines.

The old practices of interpretation have been exhausted, and the humanities and social sciences are facing a crisis. Is there a way out of the labyrinth of reading? In this book, Professor Neuman presents a challenging approach to interpreting texts and reading literature through the spectacles of conceptual mathematics. This approach strives to avoid the simplicity of a quantitative approach to the analysis of literature as well as both the relativistic and the ideological dangers facing a qualitative reading of a text. The approach is introduced in a rigorous and accessible manner and woven with insights gained from various fields. Taking us on a challenging journey from Ovid’s Metamorphoses to Nick Cave’s The Death of Bunny Munro, the book shows how we may gain a deeper understanding of literature and the aesthetic experience of reading.

This volume provides an extensive overview of current research on the complex relationships between gender and communication. Featuring a broad variety of chapters written by leading and upcoming scholars, this edited collection uses diverse theoretical frameworks to provide insight into recent concerns regarding changing gender roles, representations, and resources in communication studies. Established research and new perspectives address vital themes in this comprehensive text, including the shifting politics of gender, ethical and technological trends in gendered media, and gender in daily life. Comprising 39 chapters by a team of international contributors, the Handbook is divided into six thematic sections: • Gendered lives and identities • Visualizing gender • The politics of gender • Gendered contexts and strategies • Gendered violence and communication • Gender advocacy in action These sections examine central issues, debates, and problems, including the ethics and politics of gender as identity, impacts of media and technology, legal and legislative battlegrounds for gender inequality and LGBTQ+ human rights, changing institutional contexts, and recent research on gender violence and communication. The final section links academic research on gender and communication to activism and advocacy beyond the academy. The Routledge Handbook of Gender and Communication will be an invaluable reference work for students and researchers working at the intersections of gender studies and communication studies. Its international perspectives and the range of themes it covers make it an essential and pragmatic pedagogical resource.

An introductory guide to critical thinking identifies innate biases and traps that challenge the brain''s understandings of the world, arguing that skepticism is a constructive and optimistic attitude that can alleviate susceptibility to nonsense and delusion. Original.

Drawing on examples that are international in scope, The Transparent Body examines the dissemination of medical images to a popular audience, advancing the argument that medical imaging technologies are the material embodiment of collective desires and fantasies - the most pervasive of which is the ideal of transparency itself. The Transparent Body traces the cultural context and wider social impact of such medical imaging practices as X-ray and endoscropy, ultrasound imaging of fetuses, the filming and broadcasting of surgical operations, the creation of plastinated corpses for display as art objects, and the use of digitized cadavers in anatomical study.