Dr. Lewis Dartnell is a research scientist at University of Leicester, currently holding fellowships for both research and science popularisation. After a first class degree in biology at the University of Oxford he completed a PhD in the field of astrobiology and the search for life beyond Earth. His work focuses on how microbial life, and signs of its existence, might survive the cosmic radiation in the dry dusty surface of Mars and what are the best ways to detect it.
Alongside his research, Lewis writes regularly about science and technology for New Scientist, BBC Focus, Cosmos, and national newspapers, has a monthly column in BBC Sky at Night magazine and has won several awards for his science writing. Lewis also presents frequent live events, including at the Royal Albert Hall, Royal Institution, literary and science festivals around the world, and even music festivals and a cruise ship touring the Mediterranean. Lewis has also appeared on TV shows including BBC Horizon, Wonders of the Universe, live international news shows, and documentaries on Discovery, History, and NOVA channels.
Lewis’ first book, Life in the Universe: A Beginner’s Guide was published in 2007 by OneWorld Publications, and he has also published an illustrated children’s book My Tourist’s Guide to the Solar System and Beyond with Dorling Kindersley (2012).
If our technological society collapsed tomorrow, perhaps from a viral pandemic or catastrophic asteroid impact, what would be the one book you would want to press into the hands of the postapocalyptic survivors? What crucial knowledge would they need to survive in the immediate aftermath and to rebuild civilization as quickly as possible—a guide for rebooting the world?
Human knowledge is collective, distributed across the population. It has built on itself for centuries, becoming vast and increasingly specialized. Most of us are ignorant about the fundamental principles of the civilization that supports us, happily utilizing the latest—or even the most basic—technology without having the slightest idea of why it works or how it came to be. If you had to go back to absolute basics, like some sort of postcataclysmic Robinson Crusoe, would you know how to re-create an internal combustion engine, put together a microscope, get metals out of rock, accurately tell time, weave fibers into clothing, or even how to produce food for yourself?
Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. Every piece of technology rests on an enormous support network of other technologies, all interlinked and mutually dependent. You can’t hope to build a radio, for example, without understanding how to acquire the raw materials it requires, as well as generate the electricity needed to run it. But Dartnell doesn’t just provide specific information for starting over; he also reveals the greatest invention of them all—the phenomenal knowledge-generating machine that is the scientific method itself. This would allow survivors to learn technological advances not explicitly explored in The Knowledge as well as things we have yet to discover.
The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
發表於2024-06-29
The Knowledge 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載
《世界重啓》的格局很宏大,大災變之後,如何快速再造人類文明?這是一本末世之後幸存者的聖經。不過這個末世有相當大的限製條件——僅是針對生物類的災難而言,即人類大批量死亡,無生命物體如建築、傢具,或非人類生命如昆蟲、樹木都不受任何影響的情況而言,非此情況,...
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評分如果人類文明將不復存在,搭上“諾亞”方舟時隻能攜帶―件物品,你會選擇什麼呢?或許路易斯·達特內爾的科普讀物《世界重啓》不失為一個好選擇。無論是生存最重要的庇護所、淨水和食物,還是保障生活質量的燃料、藥品和資源,攜帶的物資終有耗竭的―天。而科學知識是重建文明...
評分01 作者在書中進行瞭一個思維實驗,假設人類文明突然奔潰,一部分人幸存瞭下來,但城市、交通、糧食、衣服等基礎設施都停止瞭維護和供應,在這樣的情況下,幸存者們該怎麼辦? 在災難發生之後,會有一段時間的“寬限期”,小群體的幸存者在大災之後的短時間可能會過的相當舒服...
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圖書標籤: 科普 tools technology science-nature 英語 英文原版 【科普雜文】
The Knowledge 2024 pdf epub mobi 電子書 下載