Philip Ball Libri

In questo saggio Philip Ball racconta la storia dei colori, dai pigmenti minerali ai coloranti organici all'artificio dei prodotti della chimica. Grazie alla sua interpretazione del linguaggio cromatico, scopriamo che un particolare pigmento "parla" di sangue e clorofilla, mentre un altro rievoca lo zolfo e il mercurio degli alchimisti; impariamo le ragioni fisico-chimiche per cui il tempo ridipinge le tele; ci rendiamo conto di come spesso sia stata la quantità dei colori sulla tavolozza a limitare la creatività dei pittori, tanto che è possibile collegare la rivoluzione del Rinascimento veneziano alla disponibilità di nuovi pigmenti, e la comparsa dei prodotti chimici applicati all'industria alla nascita dell'Impressionismo.

Recent advancements in chemistry have led to groundbreaking innovations, such as superconducting ceramics for brain scanners and color-changing fabrics. Chemists are also transforming materials, creating drugs from crude oil, and identifying atmospheric pollutants while seeking solutions for environmental issues. Philip Ball, an editor at Nature, explores these developments, highlighting the versatile applications of buckminsterfullerene molecules, or "buckyballs," in various fields including medicine and electronics, making complex concepts accessible to general readers.

Philip Ball explores the science of the shapes we see in nature, revealing how, from the stripes of a zebra to the development of a snowflake or even a human embryo, there is a pattern-forming tendency in the basic processes of nature, and from a few simple themes, and the repetition of simple rules, endless beautiful variations can arise.

The first fully illustrated history of the chemical elements.

Understanding the human mind and how it relates to the world that we experience has challenged philosophers for centuries. How then do we even begin to think about 'minds' that are not human?Science now has plenty to say about the properties of mind. In recent decades, the mind - both human and otherwise - has been explored by scientists in fields ranging from zoology to astrobiology, computer science to neuroscience. Taking a uniquely broad view of minds and where they might be found - including in plants, aliens, and God - Philip Ball pulls these multidisciplinary pieces together to explore what sorts of minds we might expect to find in the universe. In so doing, he offers for the first time a unified way of thinking about what minds are and what they can do, arguing that in order to understand our own minds and imagine those of others, we need to move on from considering the human mind as a standard against which all others should be measured, and to think about the 'space of possible minds'.By identifying and mapping out properties of mind without prioritizing the human, Ball sheds new light on a host of fascinating questions. What moral rights should we afford animals, and can we understand their thoughts? Should we worry that AI is going to take over society? If there are intelligent aliens out there, how could we communicate with them? Should we? Understanding the space of possible minds also reveals ways of making advances in understanding some of the most challenging questions in contemporary science: What is thought? What is consciousness? And what (if anything) is free will?The more we learn about the minds of other creatures, from octopuses to chimpanzees, and to imagine the potential minds of computers and alien intelligences, the greater the perspective we have on if and how our own is different. Ball's thrillingly ambitious The Book of Minds about the nature and existence of minds is more mind-expanding than we could imagine. In this fascinating panorama of other minds, we come to better know our own.

Science Book Prize-winning science writer Philip Ball explores the diversity of thinking minds, from the variety of human minds to those of mammals, insects, computers and plants, in a book that brilliantly illuminates how many different ways there are to think and engage with the world; and how particular are our own.

This book aims to stimulate the reader to think anew about some of the relationships and differences between science and art, and to challenge some of the common notions about particular 'famous experiments'.

While the natural world is often described as organic, it is in fact structured to the very molecule, replete with patterned order that can be decoded with basic mathematical algorithms and principles. In a nautilus shell one can see logarithmic spirals, and the Golden Ratio can be seen in the seed head of the sunflower plant. These patterns and shapes have inspired artists, writers, designers, and musicians for thousands of years. "Patterns in Nature: Why the Natural World Looks the Way It Does" illuminates the amazing diversity of pattern in the natural world and takes readers on a visual tour of some of the world s most incredible natural wonders. Featuring awe-inspiring galleries of nature s most ingenious designs, "Patterns in Nature" is a synergy of art and science that will fascinate artists, nature lovers, and mathematicians alike."

As part of a trilogy of books exploring the science of patterns in nature, acclaimed science writer Philip Ball here looks at the form and growth of branching networks in the natural world, and what we can learn from them.Many patterns in nature show a branching form - trees, river deltas, blood vessels, lightning, the cracks that form in the glazing of pots. These networks share a peculiar geometry, finding a compromise between disorder and determinism, though some, like the hexagonal snowflake or the stones of the Devil's Causeway fall into a rigidly ordered structure. Branching networks are found at every level in biology - from the single cell to the ecosystem. Human-made networks too can come to share the same features, and if they don't, then it might be profitable to make them do nature's patterns tend to arise from economical solutions.