When Computers Were Human

When Computers Were Human
Author: David Alan Grier
Publisher: Princeton University Press
Total Pages: 423
Release: 2013-11-01
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1400849365

Before Palm Pilots and iPods, PCs and laptops, the term "computer" referred to the people who did scientific calculations by hand. These workers were neither calculating geniuses nor idiot savants but knowledgeable people who, in other circumstances, might have become scientists in their own right. When Computers Were Human represents the first in-depth account of this little-known, 200-year epoch in the history of science and technology. Beginning with the story of his own grandmother, who was trained as a human computer, David Alan Grier provides a poignant introduction to the wider world of women and men who did the hard computational labor of science. His grandmother's casual remark, "I wish I'd used my calculus," hinted at a career deferred and an education forgotten, a secret life unappreciated; like many highly educated women of her generation, she studied to become a human computer because nothing else would offer her a place in the scientific world. The book begins with the return of Halley's comet in 1758 and the effort of three French astronomers to compute its orbit. It ends four cycles later, with a UNIVAC electronic computer projecting the 1986 orbit. In between, Grier tells us about the surveyors of the French Revolution, describes the calculating machines of Charles Babbage, and guides the reader through the Great Depression to marvel at the giant computing room of the Works Progress Administration. When Computers Were Human is the sad but lyrical story of workers who gladly did the hard labor of research calculation in the hope that they might be part of the scientific community. In the end, they were rewarded by a new electronic machine that took the place and the name of those who were, once, the computers.

Mind Myths

Mind Myths
Author: Sergio Della Sala
Publisher:
Total Pages: 322
Release: 1999-06-02
Genre: Medical
ISBN:

Mind Myths shows that science can be entertaining and creative. Addressing various topics, this book counterbalances information derived from the media with a 'scientific view'. It contains contributions from experts around the world.

Big Data

Big Data
Author: Executive Office of the President
Publisher: CreateSpace
Total Pages: 84
Release: 2014-10-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 9781503016446

Since the first censuses were taken and crop yields recorded in ancient times, data collection and analysis have been essential to improving the functioning of society. Foundational work in calculus, probability theory, and statistics in the 17th and 18th centuries provided an array of new tools used by scientists to more precisely predict the movements of the sun and stars and determine population-wide rates of crime, marriage, and suicide. These tools often led to stunning advances. In the 1800s, Dr. John Snow used early modern data science to map cholera “clusters” in London. By tracing to a contaminated public well a disease that was widely thought to be caused by “miasmatic” air, Snow helped lay the foundation for the germ theory of disease.Gleaning insights from data to boost economic activity also took hold in American industry. Frederick Winslow Taylor's use of a stopwatch and a clipboard to analyze productivity at Midvale Steel Works in Pennsylvania increased output on the shop floor and fueled his belief that data science could revolutionize every aspect of life.2 In 1911, Taylor wrote The Principles of Scientific Management to answer President Theodore Roosevelt's call for increasing “national efficiency”: Today, data is more deeply woven into the fabric of our lives than ever before. We aspire to use data to solve problems, improve well-being, and generate economic prosperity. The collection, storage, and analysis of data is on an upward and seemingly unbounded trajectory, fueled by increases in processing power, the cratering costs of computation and storage, and the growing number of sensor technologies embedded in devices of all kinds. In 2011, some estimated the amount of information created and replicated would surpass 1.8 zettabytes. In 2013, estimates reached 4 zettabytes of data generated worldwide.

Communicating Science

Communicating Science
Author: Toss Gascoigne
Publisher: ANU Press
Total Pages: 994
Release: 2020-09-14
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1760463663

Modern science communication has emerged in the twentieth century as a field of study, a body of practice and a profession—and it is a practice with deep historical roots. We have seen the birth of interactive science centres, the first university actions in teaching and conducting research, and a sharp growth in employment of science communicators. This collection charts the emergence of modern science communication across the world. This is the first volume to map investment around the globe in science centres, university courses and research, publications and conferences as well as tell the national stories of science communication. How did it all begin? How has development varied from one country to another? What motivated governments, institutions and people to see science communication as an answer to questions of the social place of science? Communicating Science describes the pathways followed by 39 different countries. All continents and many cultures are represented. For some countries, this is the first time that their science communication story has been told.

The British Industrial Revolution

The British Industrial Revolution
Author: Joel Mokyr
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 472
Release: 2018-02-06
Genre: History
ISBN: 0429974191

The Industrial Revolution remains a defining moment in the economic history of the modern world. But what kind and how much of a revolution was it? And what kind of ?moment? could it have been? These are just some of the larger questions among the many that economic historians continue to debate. Addressing the various interpretations and assumptions that have been attached to the concept of the Industrial Revolution, Joel Mokyr and his four distinguished contributors present and defend their views on essential aspects of the Industrial Revolution. In this revised edition, all chapters?including Mokyr's extensive introductory survey and evaluation of research in this field?are updated to consider arguments and findings advanced since the volume's initial 1993 publication. Like its predecessor, the revised edition of The British Industrial Revolution is an essential book for economic historians and, indeed, for any historian of Great Britain in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.

The Neglected War

The Neglected War
Author: Hermann Hiery
Publisher: University of Hawaii Press
Total Pages: 416
Release: 1995-01-01
Genre: History
ISBN: 9780824816681

.

Legal Issues in Global Contexts

Legal Issues in Global Contexts
Author: Kirk St. Amant
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 236
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Psychology
ISBN: 1351865072

Today, it has been said, the world is "flat," as online media allow information to move easily from point to point across the earth. International legal differences, however, are increasingly affecting the ease with which data and ideas can be shared across nations. Copyright law, for example, affects the international flow of materials by stipulating who has the right to replicate or to share certain kinds of content. Similarly, perspectives on privacy rights can differ from nation to nation and affect how personal information is shared globally. Moreover, national laws can affect the exchange of ideas by stipulating the language in which information must be presented in different geopolitical regions. Today's technical communicators need to understand how legal factors can affect communication practices if they wish to work effectively in global contexts. This collection provides an overview of different legal aspects that technical communicators might encounter when creating materials or sharing information in international environments. Through addressing topics ranging from privacy rights and information exchange to the legalities of business practices in virtual worlds and perspectives on authorship and ownership, the contributors to this volume examine a variety of communication-based legal issues that can cause problems or miscommunication in international interactions. Reviewing such topics from different perspectives, the authors collectively provide ideas that could serve as a foundation for creating best practices on or for engaging in future research in the area of legal issues in international settings.

Shaping the University of the Future

Shaping the University of the Future
Author: Stephen James Marshall
Publisher: Springer
Total Pages: 592
Release: 2018-01-02
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9811076200

This book focuses on developing an understanding of the complex interplay of forces acting on individual universities and higher education systems to enable leaders and practitioners to take purposeful and strategic action. It explores the challenging landscape of higher education and the pressures that are reshaping the university as a societal institution, describing the complex interplay of technological, sociological, political and economic forces driving change. The issues analysed are global in scope, reflecting the diversity of contexts, but also the common nature of the challenges facing institutions individually and collectively. The analysis draws on the lessons learnt and evidence from over fifty organisational case studies undertaken by the author over the past decade, exploring organisational change in higher education institutions in New Zealand, Australia, the United States and the United Kingdom, and on his engagement as president of the ACODE organisation with colleagues responsible for learning technological change in Australasia. The book helps institutions respond to technological change purposefully, in ways that build upon a clear understanding of the complex nature of the existing institution, its students and the organisational context.