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Summary of Scott Kelly's Endurance is the memoir of a retired American astronaut who spent nearly a year on the International Space Station (ISS) starting in 2015. Alternating between scenes from the ISS and the story of his life, Scott describes the emotional and physical demands as well as the many rewards of being an astronaut…
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Summary of Frans de Waal's Are We Smart Enough to Know How Smart Animals Are? provides an overview of the history of animal cognition research and the most recent discoveries about animal intelligence. As researchers continue to improve methods for testing animals' cognitive abilities, they are discovering that animals process, respond to, and act on stimuli in ways previously assumed to be exclusively human…
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Summary of Michael Pollan's The Botany of Desire examines the intricate evolutionary relationship between plant cultivation and human desire. Author Michael Pollan explores this relationship by recounting the history of four plants that have been cultivated to meet four distinct human longings…
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Nicholas Kardaras's Glow Kids
A pandemic is overtaking kids today - but it's not Covid. It's the glowing screens they carry everywhere. In Glow Kids (2016), addiction expert Nicholas Kardaras explores how technology, especially interactive media such as video games, affects human development. Glowing screens can change the structure and composition of the brain by offering high amounts of satisfaction for long...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Carlo Rovelli's The Order of Time
Time is one of life's biggest mysteries. In The Order of Time (2017), physicist Carlo Rovelli dives into both simple and complex aspects of time. It is a concept that has been long studied by philosophers, artists, and scientists alike, and our understanding of it has gone through many phases. He explains the basic laws of physics, Einstein's relativity, quantum theory, and...
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Summary of Irene Pepperberg's Alex & Me is an account of Irene Pepperberg's relationship with her African grey parrot, Alex, whom she studied in order to demonstrate that birds have sophisticated cognitive abilities. Pepperberg traces her childhood and the many hurdles she scaled in the scientific community...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Jeff Hawkins's A Thousand Brains
In A Thousand Brains (2021), Jeff Hawkins explores how the brain learns countless models of the world and creates intelligence. He introduces a new understanding of the human mind and points out how human intelligence will most likely lead Earth and humanity to their demise with the help of AI. He also argues that understanding intelligence is the most important scientific research...
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Summary of Judea Pearl & Dana Mackenzie's The Book of Why explores an underutilized science called causal inference, a tactic which mimics humanity's natural ability to determine a cause by observing an effect. By employing causal inference, scientists are able to mathematically determine the causes and effects of a given phenomenon...
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Summary of Stephen Hawking's A Brief History of Time is about the universe, both the grand-scale universe of stars and planets, general relativity, and the tiny universe of atoms and subatomic particles, quantum mechanics. The reason the book covers both dimensions is that understanding both is the only way to understand the way the universe works as a whole. Some theories explain the workings of the grand scale of the universe and others the workings...
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Buy now to get the Key Takeaways from Frank Wilczek's Fundamentals.
Sample Key Takeaways:
1) There is a common theme that runs through literature, philosophy, and theology that humans are insignificantly small when compared to the vastness of our universe. But when you look at humans, there are approximately 10 octillion atoms inside each of us. In essence, we are extremely vast as well.
2) Global Positioning System (GPS) is able to obtain our location...
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from Brittany Hennessy's Influencer
In Influencer (2018), Brittany Hennessy shares a step-by-step approach to becoming a bona fide influencer – from building a community to packaging a brand and monetizing influence, she covers the necessary tools to succeed in the world of influencer marketing. Hennessy also gives readers an inside look at the intricacies of the branded content industry. She shares many expert...
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Summary of Mary Roach's Grunt examines technological and medical research in the military. Each chapter focuses on a different topic-for example, diarrhea among soldiers-and then presents historical background, interviews with scientists and affected military personnel, and possible solutions to the problem.
Military research in both news accounts and films is usually presented as a matter of technology and combat equipment, such as faster airplanes,...
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Summary of Stephen Hawking's Brief Answers to the Big Questions presents the thoughts of theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking on 10 major scientific and philosophical debates, including whether a deity exists, whether intelligent life exists in space, and whether humans should seek out a new home outside of Earth. Hawking, who spent his life studying how black holes could help scientists better understand the universe's beginnings,...
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Buy now to get the insights from Avi Loeb's Extraterrestrial.
Sample Key Takeaways:
1) Many things await us when we simply look up at the celestial objects above us, as they are the inspiration that pushed renowned scientists to make discoveries and change our view of Earth.
2) What if scientists focused on the possibility of unknown civilizations beyond our Earth? And if their existence proved to be true, it seems unlikely that humanity would be...
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Summary of Brian Christian & Tom Griffiths's Algorithms to Live By is an immersive look at the history and development of several algorithms used to solve computer science problems. It also considers potential applications of algorithms in human life including memory storage and network communication.
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from David Attenborough's A Life on Our Planet
Humans have long ruled the natural world, bending it to our will and desires. But all actions have consequences, and we've only just begun to see the destruction our actions have caused on our planet.
In A Life on Our Planet, David Attenborough discusses how we as a species arrived at this crucial juncture in our planet's history, and what we must do in order to return...
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Summary of Siddhartha Mukherjee's The Gene describes the history of genetic research, the impact of genetic inheritance on his family, and the potential for future applications of gene science. Mukherjee's father and uncles struggled with disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder, both of which are linked to genetic mutations.
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Buy now to get the main key ideas from David Christian's Origin Story
Humans now know much more of the history of the universe. Our brains allow us to understand what is going on today and what was happening billions of years ago, as well as build the necessary technology in order to find out more. In Origin Story (2018), David Christian goes over the entire 13.8 billion-year history of the universe. He starts with the big bang and ends with a tiny...
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Summary of Michael Pollan's How to Change Your Mind explores the benefits that psychedelics can provide, both for those suffering from mental illness and for those trying to cultivate new perspectives and habits. Before these drugs were prohibited, there was an extensive history of research into their effects in North America and Europe, and studies that utilize lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) and magic mushrooms continue today.