New Books in Science, Technology, and Society

Gijs Mom, "Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and the Emergence of Layered Mobility, 1900–1980" (Berghahn Books, 2020)

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Why has "car society" proven so durable, even in the face of mounting environmental and economic crises? In Globalizing Automobilism: Exuberance and ...

David M. Peña-Guzmán, "When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Consciousness" (Princeton UP, 2022)

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Are humans the only dreamers on Earth? What goes on in the minds of animals when they sleep? When Animals Dream: The Hidden World of Animal Conscious...

Donald A. Barclay, "Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Post-Truth Era" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2022)

17 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Does the idea of a world in which facts mean nothing cause anxiety? Fear? Maybe even paranoia? Disinformation: The Nature of Facts and Lies in the Po...

Will Kinney, "An Infinity of Worlds: Cosmic Inflation and the Beginning of the Universe" (MIT Press, 2022)

16 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the beginning was the Big Bang: an unimaginably hot fire almost fourteen billion years ago in which the first elements were forged. The physical th...

Simon Peter Rowberry, "Four Shades of Gray: The Amazon Kindle Platform" (MIT Press, 2022)

15 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Four Shades of Gray: The Amazon Kindle Platform (MIT Press, 2022) is the first book-length analysis of Amazon's Kindle explores the platform's techno...

Nigel Rothfels, "Elephant Trails: A History of Animals and Cultures" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2021)

13 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When looking at historic records of all kinds—from prehistoric cave drawings and ancient rock art in Africa and India, from poetic narrations of tra...

Mark Neocleous, "The Politics of Immunity: Security and the Policing of Bodies" (Verso, 2022)

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our contemporary political condition is obsessed with immunity. The immunity of bodies and the body politic; personal immunity and herd immunity; how ...

Facing Failure and the Museum Dedicated to It

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Welcome to The Academic Life! In this episode you’ll hear about: Why failure is part of the hidden curriculum Why you can’t be creative or innov...

Banu Subramaniam, "Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism" (U of Washington Press, 2019)

12 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Holy Science: The Biopolitics of Hindu Nationalism (University of Washington Press, 2019), Banu Subramaniam examines how science and religion ha...

Samuel J. Redman, "Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology" (Harvard UP, 2021)

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prophets and Ghosts: The Story of Salvage Anthropology (Harvard UP, 2021) is a searching account of nineteenth-century salvage anthropology, an effor...

Sam Tatam, "Evolutionary Ideas: Unlocking Ancient Innovation to Solve Tomorrow's Challenges" (Harriman House, 2022)

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When faced with new challenges, it’s easy to feel our solutions need to be equally unprecedented. We think we need a revolution. But what if this i...

Eve Ng, "Cancel Culture: A Critical Analysis" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022)

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Eve Ng’s new book Cancel Culture: A Critical Analysis (Palgrave Macmillan, 2022), examines the phenomenon of "cancel culture" from a critical medi...

Pandemic Perspectives 10: Covid and the Art of Science Communication

11 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to John Tregoning, Imperial College respiratory infections...

Nicole Charles, "Suspicion: Vaccines, Hesitancy, and the Affective Politics of Protection in Barbados" (Duke UP, 2022)

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2014 Barbados introduced a vaccine to prevent certain strains of the human papillomavirus (HPV) and reduce the risk of cervical cancer in young wom...

Sangeet Kumar, "The Digital Frontier: Infrastructures of Control on the Global Web" (Indiana UP, 2021)

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Digital Frontier: Infrastructures of Control on the Global Web (Indiana University Press, 2021), Sangeet Kumar interrogates the world wide we...

The Future of Opinion Polls: A Conversation with Mark Pack

10 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the culture wars intensify, it seems that all sources of neutral authority get challenged and that includes opinion polls. Accusations about bias a...

Emily West, "Buy Now: How Amazon Branded Convenience and Normalized Monopoly" (MIT Press, 2022)

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How Amazon combined branding and relationship marketing with massive distribution infrastructure to become the ultimate service brand in the digital e...

Eugenics

09 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kim talks with Mercedes Trigos about eugenics. Mercedes references Francis Galton, who coined the term, preimplantation genetic profiling, and the f...

Gary B. Fogel, "Sky Rider: Park Van Tassel and the Rise of Ballooning in the West" (U New Mexico Press, 2021)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

With a reputation as the hot-air balloon capital of the world and the home of the Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta, the southwestern desert ci...

Computational Creativity

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Saronik talks to Tuhin Chakrabarty about the creative processes of Artificial Intelligence, what we can expect from it, and how to keep the results...

Jason Steinhauer, "History, Disrupted: How Social Media and the World Wide Web Have Changed the Past" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

06 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Internet has changed the past. Social media, Wikipedia, mobile networks, and the viral and visual nature of the Web have inundated the public sphe...

Sarah Walsh, "The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

05 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Religion of Life: Eugenics, Race, and Catholicism in Chile (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021) examines the interconnections and relationship between Cath...

Christine Leuenberger and Izhak Schnell, "The Politics of Maps: Cartographic Constructions of Israel/Palestine" (Oxford UP, 2020)

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan Valley has been one of the most disputed territories in history. Since the establishment of the ...

Pandemic Perspectives 9: Covid, 'Scientism,' and the Betrayal of the Enlightenment

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to bestselling author and University of Oxford law profess...

John Zerilli, "A Citizen's Guide to Artificial Intelligence" (MIT Press, 2022)

04 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Artificial intelligence, or AI for short, has generated a staggering amount of hype in the past several years. Is it the game-changer it's been cracke...

William F. Eadie, "When Communication Became a Discipline" (Lexington, 2021)

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

When Communication Became a Discipline (Lexington, 2021) argues that speech and journalism professors embraced the concept of communication between 1...

Daniel J. Solove and Woodrow Hartzog, "Breached!: Why Data Security Law Fails and How to Improve It" (Oxford UP, 2022)

02 May 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Digital connections permeate our lives-and so do data breaches. Given that we must be online for basic communication, finance, healthcare, and more, i...

Maia Weinstock, "Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus" (MIT Press, 2022)

29 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Carbon Queen: The Remarkable Life of Nanoscience Pioneer Mildred Dresselhaus (MIT Press, 2022) follows Mildred Dresselhaus (or Millie, as everyone c...

Anthony Hatch, "Silent Cells: The Secret Drugging of Captive America" (U Minnesota Press, 2019)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It’s no secret that the United States has the most expansive prison system of any nation in the world. And the US carceral system overwhelmingly and...

Rana A. Hogarth, "Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the Atlantic World, 1780-1840" (UNC Press, 2017)

28 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Medicine and slavery went hand-in-hand. But what was the nature of this vile partnership? In Medicalizing Blackness: Making Racial Difference in the ...

Amanda D. Lotz, "Media Disrupted: Surviving Pirates, Cannibals, and Streaming Wars" (MIT Press, 2021)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Has the internet really been the main culprit behind the upheaval of the contemporary media industries? In Media Disrupted: Surviving Pirates, Cannib...

Nancy L Segal, "Deliberately Divided: Inside the Controversial Study of Twins and Triplets Adopted Apart" (Rowman and Littlefield, 2021)

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

A lot can be learned from scientific twin studies about the relative contributions of nature versus nurture to human experience. However, when such st...

Pandemic Perspectives 8: Covid and the Embrace of the Biological World

27 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to renowned UC San Diego neurophilosopher Patricia Churchl...

Delinda Collier, "Media Primitivism: Technological Art in Africa" (Duke UP, 2020)

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Media Primitivism: Technological Art in Africa (Duke University Press, 2020) Delinda Collier provides a sweeping new understanding of technologic...

Gavin Mueller, "Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites Are Right About Why You Hate Your Job" (Verso, 2021)

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Breaking Things at Work: The Luddites are Right About Why You Hate Your Job (Verso, 2021), Gavin Mueller provides a bracing and wide-ranging stu...

Nicole Starosielski, "Media Hot and Cold" (Duke UP, 2021)

20 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Media Hot and Cold (Duke UP, 2021) attunes the reader to temperature as a crucial but often overlooked terrain of control, communication and contesta...

David Nemer, "Technology of the Oppressed: Inequity and the Digital Mundane in Favelas of Brazil" (MIT Press, 2022)

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Technology of the Oppressed: Inequity and the Digital Mundane in Favelas of Brazil (MIT Press, 2022), David Nemer draws on extensive ethnographic...

Deborah Gordon, "No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World" (Oxford UP, 2021)

19 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In No Standard Oil: Managing Abundant Petroleum in a Warming World (Oxford University Press, 2021), Deborah Gordon shows that no two oils or gases a...

Jeff Sebo, "Saving Animals, Saving Ourselves: Why Animals Matter for Pandemics, Climate Change, and Other Catastrophes" (Oxford UP, 2022)

18 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In 2020, COVID-19, the Australia bushfires, and other global threats served as vivid reminders that human and nonhuman fates are increasingly linked. ...

Susanne A. Wengle, "Black Earth, White Bread: A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food" (U Wisconsin Press, 2022)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Black Earth, White Bread: A Technopolitical History of Russian Agriculture and Food (University of Wisconsin Press, 2022), Dr. Susanne A. Wengle ...

Kris Ruijgrok, "Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and Other Authoritarian Regimes" (Palgrave Macmillan, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Internet-enabled mobilization begins long before there is a call for protest. In the book Internet Use and Protest in Malaysia and other Authoritaria...

Jonathan Beller, "The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism" (Duke UP, 2021)

15 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The World Computer: Derivative Conditions of Racial Capitalism (Duke UP, 2021) Jonathan Beller forcefully demonstrates that the history of commod...

Tim Hwang, "Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet" (FSG Originals, 2020)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Subprime Attention Crisis: Advertising and the Time Bomb at the Heart of the Internet (FSG Originals, 2020), Tim Hwang investigates the way big t...

Jennifer Petersen, "How Machines Came to Speak: Media Technologies and Freedom of Speech" (Duke UP, 2022)

14 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In How Machines Came to Speak: Media Technologies and Freedom of Speech (Duke University Press, 2022), Jennifer Petersen constructs a genealogy of h...

Robert A Jacobs, "Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha" (Yale UP, 2022)

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Robert Jacob’s book Nuclear Bodies: The Global Hibakusha (Yale UP, 2022) re‑envisions the history of the Cold War as a slow nuclear war, fought ...

Dashun Wang and Albert-László Barabási, "The Science of Science" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Dashun Wang, Professor at the Kellogg School of Management and McCormick School of Engineering at Northwestern University,...

Laura J. Martin, "Wild by Design: The Rise of Ecological Restoration" (Harvard UP, 2022)

13 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Environmental restoration is a global pursuit and a major political concern. Governments, nonprofits, private corporations, and other institutions spe...

James C. Ungureanu, "Science, Religion, and the Protestant Tradition: Retracing the Origins of Conflict" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2019)

12 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The story of the “conflict thesis” between science and religion—the notion of perennial conflict or warfare between the two—is part of our mod...

Marcus Kaiser, "Changing Connectomes: Evolution, Development, and Dynamics in Network Neuroscience" (MIT Press, 2020)

08 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The human brain undergoes massive changes during its development, from early childhood and the teenage years to adulthood and old age. Across a wide r...

Jacob Mchangama, "Free Speech: A History from Socrates to Social Media" (Basic Books, 2022)

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Jacob Mchangama, founder and director of the think tank Justitia, has written a one-volume history of freedom of thought, which ranges from the lon...

Pandemic Perspectives 5: Necessarily Global--How the Pandemic Forces Us To Think Bigger

06 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to Andy Hoffman, the dynamic and innovative business profes...

Robert Buderi, "Where Futures Converge: Kendall Square and the Making of a Global Innovation Hub" (MIT Press, 2022)

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Kendall Square in Cambridge, Massachusetts, has been called “the most innovative square mile on the planet.” It's a life science hub, hosting Biog...

The Future of Delusions: A Discussion with Lisa Bortolotti

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The accusation “you’re deluded” is often used as something of a cheap shot intended to silence an opponent in debate. But what is the nature of ...

Zeynep Pamuk, "Politics and Expertise: How to Use Science in a Democratic Society" (Princeton UP, 2021)

05 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our ability to act on some of the most pressing issues of our time, from pandemics and climate change to artificial intelligence and nuclear weapons, ...

Sherryl Vint, "Science Fiction" (MIT Press, 2021)

04 Apr 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The world today seems to be slipping into a science fiction future. We have phones that speak to us, cars that drive themselves, and connected devices...

Hannah Star Rogers, "Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies" (Routledge, 2021))

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

I spoke with Hannah Star Rogers, one of the editors of the Routledge Handbook of Art, Science, and Technology Studies (Routledge, 2021). Art and sc...

Natali Valdez, "Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era" (U California Press, 2022)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Weighing the Future: Race, Science, and Pregnancy Trials in the Postgenomic Era (University of California Press, 2022), Natali Valdez examines re...

Thomas Haigh and Paul E. Ceruzzi, "A New History of Modern Computing" (MIT Press, 2021)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In A New History of Modern Computing (MIT Press, 2021), Thomas Haigh and Paul Ceruzzi trace changes leading to the computer becoming a ubiquitous...

Rachel E. Gross, "Vagina Obscura: An Anatomical Voyage" (W. W. Norton, 2022)

30 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Vagina Obscura: an anatomical voyage by Rachel E. Gross A myth-busting voyage into the female body. A camera obscura reflects the world back but dimme...

The Future of Rational Decision Making: A Discussion with Olivier Sibony

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this podcast Owen Bennett-Jones discusses the future of rational decision making with Professor Olivier Sibony who after 25 years with McKinsey & C...

Christopher Ali, "Farm Fresh Broadband: The Politics of Rural Connectivity" (MIT, 2021)

29 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As much of daily life migrates online, broadband—high-speed internet connectivity—has become a necessity. The widespread lack of broadband in rura...

Scott Timcke, "Algorithms and the End of Politics: How Technology Shapes 21st-Century American Life" (Bristol UP, 2021)

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

As the US contends with issues of populism and de-democratization, this timely study considers the impacts of digital technologies on the country’s ...

Lucy Cooke, "Bitch: On the Female of the Species" (Basic Books, 2022)

28 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Bitch: On the Female of the Species (Basic Books, 2022) is a fierce, funny, and revolutionary look at the queens of the animal kingdom. Studying zoo...

Jing Tsu, "Kingdom of Characters: The Language Revolution That Made China Modern" (Riverhead Books, 2022)

24 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Tens of thousands of characters. Countless homonyms. Mutually unintelligible dialects across an entire country. This is what faced the Chinese thinker...

John Bellamy Foster, "The Return of Nature: Socialism and Ecology" (Monthly Review Press, 2021)

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

It is slowly becoming clear that we are heading towards a deep ecological catastrophe. Our societies carbon footprint and its impact have been known f...

Rob Percival, "The Meat Paradox: Eating, Empathy, and the Future of Meat" (Pegasus, 2022)

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Our future diet will be shaped by diverse forces. It will be shaped by novel technologies, by geopolitical tensions, and the evolution of cultural pre...

N. J. Enfield, "Language Vs. Reality: Why Language Is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists" (MIT Press, 2022)

23 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Nick Enfield’s book, Language vs. Reality: Why Language is Good for Lawyers and Bad for Scientists (MIT Press, 2022), argues that language is prim...

Howard Burton, "Pandemic Perspectives: A Filmmaker's Journey in 10 Essays" (Open Agenda, 2022)

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Howard Burton has been talking to very wise people for decades--scientists, historians, political thinkers, philosophers, etc. When Covid "hit" he was...

The Future of Disorder: A Discussion with Helen Thompson

22 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In her book Disorder: Hard Times in the 21st Century (Oxford UP, 2022), Cambridge academic Helen Thompson gets beyond the ephemeral and analyses in...

Stephen B. Heard, "The Scientist’s Guide to Writing: How to Write More Easily and Effectively Throughout Your Scientific Career, 2nd ed." (Princeton UP, 2022)

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Listen to this interview of Stephen Heard, Professor of Biology at the University of New Brunswick. We talk about his book The Scientist’s Guide to...

Kate Crawford, "The Atlas of AI: Power, Politics, and the Planetary Costs of Artificial Intelligence" (Yale UP, 2021)

21 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What happens when artificial intelligence saturates political life and depletes the planet? How is AI shaping our understanding of ourselves and our s...

Ori Schwarz, "Sociological Theory for Digital Society: The Codes That Bind Us Together" (Polity Press, 2021)

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The digital revolution has not only transformed multiple aspects of social life – it also shakes sociological theory, transforming the most basic as...

Nanna Katrine Luders Kaalund, "Explorations in the Icy North: How Travel Narratives Shaped Arctic Science in the Nineteenth Century" (U Pittsburgh Press, 2021)

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Harsh conditions, intense isolation, and acute danger inevitably impacted the making and communicating eighteenth-century scientific knowledge leading...

Pandemic Perspectives 2: A Conversation with Stephen Scherer

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to Stephen Scherer, Chief of Research at Toronto's Hospita...

Florian Jaton, "The Constitution of Algorithms: Ground-Truthing, Programming, Formulating" (MIT Press, 2021)

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The Constitution of Algorithms: Ground-Truthing, Programming, Formulating (MIT Press, 2021) is a laboratory study that investigates how algorithms ...

Jackie Higgins, "Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses" (Atria Books, 2022)

16 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Packed with beautiful imagery, but also hard scientific facts, Jackie Higgins's book Sentient: How Animals Illuminate the Wonder of Our Human Senses ...

Lydia Pyne, "Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network" (Reaktion Books, 2021)

15 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For this episode, I met historian and writer Dr. Lydia Pyne. She is author of Postcards: The Rise and Fall of the World’s First Social Network (Re...

Pratik Chakrabarti, "Inscriptions of Nature: Geology and the Naturalization of Antiquity" (Johns Hopkins UP, 2020)

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In the nineteenth century, teams of men began digging the earth like never before. Sometimes this digging—often for sewage, transport, or minerals—...

Joseph L. Graves and Alan H. Goodman, "Racism, Not Race: Answers to Frequently Asked Questions" (Columbia UP, 2021)

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The science on race is clear. Common categories like “Black,” “white,” and “Asian” do not represent genetic differences among groups. But ...

Carl R. Weinberg, "Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism In America" (Cornell UP, 2021)

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Red Dynamite: Creationism, Culture Wars, and Anticommunism In America (Cornell UP, 2021), Carl R. Weinberg argues that creationism's tenacious ho...

Silvia M. Lindtner, "Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation" (Princeton UP, 2020)

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Prototype Nation: China and the Contested Promise of Innovation (Princeton University Press, 2020) reveals how a growing distrust in Western models o...

Maryam Ziaee, "Big Data Analytics Adoption in Pharmaceutical Advanced Manufacturing"

10 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Dr. Maryam Ziaee is a University Lecturer at Victoria University in Australia teaching and researching Operations and Supply Chain Management. Dr. Zi...

Pandemic Perspectives 1: A Conversation with Miguel Nicolelis

09 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In this first Pandemic Perspectives Podcast, Ideas Roadshow founder and host Howard Burton talks to Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis w...

Alan Rubel et al., "Algorithms and Autonomy: The Ethics of Automated Decision Systems" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many have experienced moments where algorithms have made us uncomfortable or suspicious. In Algorithms and Autonomy: The Ethics of Automated Decisio...

The Future of Consciousness: A Discussion with Eva Jablonka

08 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

What makes a living body conscious? What is consciousness and are there different types of it? These questions have been studied by Professor Eva Jabl...

Sarah Brayne, "Predict and Surveil: Data, Discretion, and the Future of Policing" (Oxford UP, 2020)

04 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Police use of advanced data collection and analysis technologies—or, "big data policing"—continues to receive both positive and negative attention...

Firmin Debrabander, "Life After Privacy: Reclaiming Democracy in a Surveillance Society" (Cambridge UP, 2020)

03 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Privacy is gravely endangered in the digital age, and we, the digital citizens, are its principal threat, willingly surrendering it to avail ourselves...

The Future of Sleep: A Discussion with Derk-Jan Dijk

01 Mar 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many people, at some stage of their life, worry about sleep: are they getting enough of it? Or even, too much? Derk-Jan Dijk is Professor of Sleep and...

Paul M. Dover, "The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe" (Cambridge UP, 2021)

25 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In The Information Revolution in Early Modern Europe (Cambridge University Press, 2021), Dr. Paul Dover argues that changes in the generation, prese...

Gaye T. Lansdell et al., "Neurodisability and the Criminal Justice System: Comparative and Therapeutic Responses" (Edward Elgar, 2021)

23 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Neurodisability and the Criminal Justice System: Comparative and Therapeutic Responses (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2021) delves into an under-researche...

Mauro José Caraccioli, "Writing the New World: The Politics of Natural History in the Early Spanish Empire" (U Florida Press, 2021)

21 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Is natural history a genre of political thought? What do we miss about the substance of political ideas when we ignore the study of nature? Writing ...

Marissa Mika, "Africanizing Oncology: Creativity, Crisis, and Cancer in Uganda" (Ohio UP, 2021)

18 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Thousands of stories are given voice by Marissa Mika in Africanizing Oncology: Creativity, Crisis, and Cancer in Uganda (Ohio UP, 2021), a fearless,...

Keller Easterling, "Medium Design: Knowing How to Work on the World" (Verso, 2021)

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

How do we formulate alternative approaches to the world’s unresponsive or intractable dilemmas, from climate change, to inequality, to concentration...

Kathryn Millard, "Double Exposure: How Social Psychology Fell in Love with the Movies" (Rutgers UP, 2022)

17 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Double Exposure: How Social Psychology Fell in Love with the Movies (Rutgers University Press, 2022) examines the role of film in shaping social psy...

Michael Luca and Max H. Bazerman, "The Power of Experiments: Decision Making in a Data-Driven World" (MIT Press, 2021)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Have you logged into Facebook recently? Searched for something on Google? Chosen a movie on Netflix? If so, you've probably been an unwitting particip...

Tony Veale, "Your Wit Is My Command: Building AIs with a Sense of Humor" (MIT Press, 2021)

16 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

For fans of computers and comedy alike, an accessible and entertaining look into how we can use artificial intelligence to make smart machines funny. ...

Raghuveer Parthasarathy, "So Simple a Beginning: How Four Physical Principles Shape Our Living World" (Princeton UP, 2022)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

The form and function of a sprinting cheetah are quite unlike those of a rooted tree. A human being is very different from a bacterium or a zebra. The...

In Science We Trust?: An insider Conversation with Health Policy Reporter, Fran Kritz

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Americans are deeply polarized on many issues, including science and medicine. Where once was widespread agreement, today the differences are sharp: o...

Michelle Millar Fisher and Amber Winick, "Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births" (MIT Press, 2021)

15 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

In Designing Motherhood: Things that Make and Break Our Births (MIT Press, 2021), Michelle Millar Fisher and Amber Winick along with more than fifty...

Rachel Pagones, "Acupuncture as Revolution: Suffering, Liberation, and Love" (Brevis, 2021)

14 Feb 2022

Contributed by Lukas

Many in the global West have heard something about acupuncture as a treatment for pain relief; they may even have learned of its use in treating opioi...