The Book of Why: The New Science of Cause and Effect

'Correlation does not imply causation.' This mantra was invoked by scientists for decades in order to avoid taking positions as to whether one thing caused another, such as smoking and cancer and carbon dioxide and global warming. But today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, sparked by world-renowned computer scientist Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and placed cause and effect on a firm scientific basis. Now, Pearl and science journalist Dana Mackenzie explain causal thinking to general readers for the first time, showing how it allows us to explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It is the essence of human and artificial intelligence. And just as Pearl's discoveries have enabled machines to think better, The Book of Why explains how we can think better.

Pearl, Judea

Mackenzie, Dana

Reference

Penguin

A Turing Award-winning computer scientist and statistician shows how understanding causality has revolutionized science and will revolutionize artificial intelligence"Correlation is not causation." This mantra, chanted by scientists for more than a century, has led to a virtual prohibition on causal talk. Today, that taboo is dead. The causal revolution, instigated by Judea Pearl and his colleagues, has cut through a century of confusion and established causality--the study of cause and effect--on a firm scientific basis. His work explains how we can know easy things, like whether it was rain or a sprinkler that made a sidewalk wet; and how to answer hard questions, like whether a drug cured an illness. Pearl's work enables us to know not just whether one thing causes another: it lets us explore the world that is and the worlds that could have been. It shows us the essence of human thought and key to artificial intelligence. Anyone who wants to understand either needs The Book of Why.

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

Basic Books

Visualizing Geography is the only book in the field that integrates text with high quality art. By adding to this already impressive art program with additional process diagrams and visualizing features, the second edition helps readers gain a sound understanding of basic geologic processes and the environmental ramifications of Earth's systems. It introduces plate tectonics early and incorporates numerous illustrations and photos to make the difficult concepts easier to comprehend. Readers will also benefit from the structured and effective format and accessible writing style.

Visualizing Geology

Science & Math

Murck, Barbara W.

Skinner, Brian J.

Earth Sciences

wiley

Visualizing Physical Geology

The first popular book to explain the dramatic theory behind the Moon's genesisThis lively science history relates one of the great recent breakthroughs in planetary astronomy-a successful theory of the birth of the Moon. Science journalist Dana Mackenzie traces the evolution of this theory, one little known outside the scientific community: a Mars-sized object collided with Earth some four billion years ago, and the remains of this colossal explosion-the Big Splat-came together to form the Moon. Beginning with notions of the Moon in ancient cosmologies, Mackenzie relates the fascinating history of lunar speculation, moving from Galileo and Kepler to George Darwin (son of Charles) and the Apollo astronauts, whose trips to the lunar surface helped solve one of the most enigmatic mysteries of the night sky: who hung the Moon?
Dana Mackenzie (Santa Cruz, CA) is a freelance science journalist. His articles have appeared in such magazines as Science, Discover, American Scientist, The Sciences, and New Scientist.

The Big Splat, or How Our Moon Came to Be

Astronomy & Space Science

Trade Paper Press

Most popular books about science, and even about mathematics, tiptoe around equations as if they were something to be hidden from the reader's tender eyes. Dana Mackenzie starts from the opposite premise: He celebrates equations. No history of art would be complete without pictures. Why, then, should a history of mathematics--the universal language of science--keep the masterpieces of the subject hidden behind a veil?
 The Universe in Zero Words tells the history of twenty-four great and beautiful equations that have shaped mathematics, science, and society--from the elementary (1+1=2) to the sophisticated (the Black-Scholes formula for financial derivatives), and from the famous (E=mc2) to the arcane (Hamilton's quaternion equations). Mackenzie, who has been called "a popular-science ace" by Booklist magazine, lucidly explains what each equation means, who discovered it (and how), and how it has affected our lives.
 Illustrated in color throughout, the book tells the human and often-surprising stories behind the invention or discovery of the equations, from how a bad cigar changed the course of quantum mechanics to why whales (if they could communicate with us) would teach us a totally different concept of geometry. At the same time, the book shows why these equations have something timeless to say about the universe, and how they do it with an economy (zero words) that no other form of human expression can match.
 The Universe in Zero Words is the ultimate introduction and guide to equations that have changed the world.

The Universe in Zero Words: The Story of Mathematics as Told through Equations

Mathematics

Princeton University Press

The goal of the series is to shed light on topics on the leading edge of mathematical research in a way that is accessible to the mathematical layperson. The articles frequently combine mathematics with physics, and are written in a lively style that should be accessible to anyone with genuine interest and some college-level experience in mathematics and science. --Choice What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences showcases the remarkable recent progress in pure and applied mathematics. Once again, there are some surprises, where we discover new properties of familiar things, in this case tightly-packed tetrahedra or curious turtle-like shapes that right themselves. Mathematics also has played significant roles in current events, most notably the financial crisis, but also in screening for breast cancer. The Netflix competition to find a better algorithm for recommending videos to subscribers demonstrated how deeply mathematics is used behind the scenes in our everyday lives. Mathematicians have settled several important conjectures in the past few years. In topology, the recently solved Kervaire invariant conjecture tells us about exotic spheres in high dimension. The Weinstein conjecture, proved by Cliff Taubes, guarantees periodicity in certain important dynamical systems. A very old dynamical system--the game of billiards--received two innovative makeovers. First, mathematicians proved the existence of "wandering" trajectories in an inside-out version of the game, called "outer billiards," which some researchers consider a toy model for planetary motion. Second, mathematicians proved two different versions of the Quantum Unique Ergodicity conjecture, which says that a quantum-mechanical billiard ball behaves, in the long term (and at high energies) similarly to a classical billiard ball. The proof uses ideas from pure number theory dating back to Ramanujan. Finally, in another area of statistical physics, mathematicians showed that the transition from an unmixed to a mixed system often happens, relatively speaking, in the blink of an eye. Dana Mackenzie, a science and mathematics writer, makes the mathematics and the applications easily comprehensible, by calling on common sense or on similar but familiar phenomena. The stories invite you into the exciting world of modern mathematics, with its thrill of discovery and the anticipation of what is still to come. Anyone with an interest in mathematics, from high school teachers and college students to engineers and computer scientists, will find something of interest here. The stories are well told and the mathematics is gripping.

What's Happening in the Mathematical Sciences (What's Happening in the Mathermatical Sciences)

Amer Mathematical Society

This text is an unbound, binder-ready edition. Visualizing Geology employs uniquely designed visual pedagogy to help students acquire the skills they need to become better learners. The 3rd edition has refined and expanded the visuals using insights from research on student outcomes. Visualizing Geology is a comprehensive, modern book for today's geology course. With current examples, thorough coverage of geologists' tools and technology, and a visual design that is accessible without sacrificing content, it is a title that will appeal to a broad range of instructors.

Politics & Social Sciences

Social Sciences

Visualizing Geology, Fourth Edition WileyPLUS LMS Student Package (Visualizing Series)

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Books by Mackenzie, Dana