The Book Of Probes

"'The Book of Probes' is a collection of Marshall McLuhan's finest words culled from his books, his more than 200 speeches, his classes at the University of Toronto ... and from nearly 700 shorter writings he published between 1945 and 1980"--Jacket.

THE BOOK OF PROBES is an exciting new publication that brings together for the first time a collection of his most prescient aphorisms and excerpts of McLuhan's prolific life's work. It is a revolutionary book that displays his bold perceptions; such as 'obsolescence is the moment of superabundance' which he calls 'probes'.

The Space Age is nearly 50 years old but exploration of the outer planets and beyond has only just begun. Deep-Space Probes Second Edition draws on the latest research to explain why we should explore beyond the edge of the Solar System and how we can build highly sophisticated robot spacecraft to make the journey. Many technical problems remain to be solved, among them propulsion systems to permit far higher velocities, and technologies to build vehicles a fraction of the size of today’s spacecraft. Beyond the range of effective radio control, robot vehicles for exploring deep space will need to be intelligent, ‘thinking’ craft – able to make vital decisions entirely on their own. Gregory Matloff also looks at the possibility for human travel into interstellar space, and some of the immense problems that such journeys would entail. This second edition includes an entirely new chapter on holographic message plaques for future interstellar probes – a NASA-funded project.

The use of fluorescent and luminescent probes to measure biological function has increased dramatically since publication of the First Edition due to their improved speed, safety, and power of analytical approach. This eagerly awaited Second Edition, also edited by Bill Mason, contains 19 new chapters and over two thirds new material, and is a must for all life scientists using optical probes. The contents include discussion of new optical methodologies for detection of proteins, DNA and other molecules, as well as probes for ions, receptors, cellular components, and gene expression. Emerging and advanced technologies for probe detection such as confocal laser scanning microscopy are also covered. This book will be essential for those embarking on work in the field or using new methods to enhance their research. TOPICS COVERED: * Single and multiphoton confocal microscopy * Applications of green fluorescent protein and chemiluminescent reporters to gene expression studies * Applications of new optical probes for imaging proteins in gels * Probes and detection technologies for imaging membrane potential in live cells * Use of optical probes to detect microorganisms * Raman and confocal raman microspectroscopy * Fluorescence lifetime imaging microscopy * Digital CCD cameras and their application in biological microscopy

The first complete, up-to-date history of space probe exploration. In just 50 years, space exploration has advanced from the Luna 1, the first artificial object to overcome Earth's gravitational field, to the New Horizons Mission, which will reach Pluto in 2015. Progress has been spectacular, and it bodes well for the remarkable achievements to come. Space Probes is the first complete and fully illustrated history of the international space exploration program. Thoroughly up to date, it is organized by destination and includes every space probe launched by all countries active in space exploration -- the United States, the USSR/Russia, the European Union, Japan, China and India. Each probe is described as to its objective, its technology, the hurdles overcome, the successes and failures of the mission, the information gained and the lessons learned. Fascinating photographs and technical drawings give an inside view of each mission, and special features focus on key engineers and physicists and the fruits of their research. After a section on the history of astronomy, Space Probes covers missions to: The moon, the first objective Venus, our sister planet Mars, the red planet Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune, the giant planets Mercury The sun Comets Asteroids and the dwarf planets Future missions. The book also includes sections on the Apollo Space Program, the USSR-USA space race and a cross-referenced chronological index of all the probes. Engaging and accessible, Space Probes is a comprehensive and expertly researched encyclopedia of humanity's space explorations, an adventure that has not finished astonishing us.

This fast-paced action novel is set in a future where the world has been almost destroyed. Like the award-winning novel Freak the Mighty, this is Philbrick at his very best.It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.

Culture Is Our Business is Marshall McLuhan's sequel to The Mechanical Bride: Folklore of Industrial Man. Returning to the subject of advertising newly armed with the electric sensibility that informed The Gutenberg Galaxy, Understanding Media, and The Medium Is the Massage, McLuhan takes on the mad men (a play on the ad men of Madison Avenue) of the sixties. Approaching commercial messages as unacknowledged art forms and cultural artifacts, McLuhan delivers a series of probes that pick apart their meanings and underlying values, their paradoxes and paralogisms, and their overt function as persuasion and propaganda. Through humor, satire, and a poetic sensibility, he provides us with a serious exploration of the consumer culture that emerged out of the electronic media environment. In keeping with the participatory ethos of the Internet that McLuhan so clearly anticipated, this is a book that is meant to open the door to further study, reflection, and discussion, and to encourage the development of critical reception on the part of the reader.

Documents the science, the mission, the spacecraft and the instrumentation on a unique NASA mission to study the Earth’s dynamic, dangerous and fascinating Van Allen radiation belts that surround the planet This collection of articles provides broad and detailed information about NASA’s Van Allen Probes (formerly known as the Radiation Belt Storm Probes) twin-spacecraft Earth-orbiting mission. The mission has the objective of achieving predictive understanding of the dynamic, intense, energetic, dangerous, and presently unpredictable belts of energetic particles that are magnetically trapped in Earth’s space environment above the atmosphere. It documents the science of the radiation belts and the societal benefits of achieving predictive understanding. Detailed information is provided about the Van Allen Probes mission design, the spacecraft, the science investigations, and the onboard instrumentation that must all work together to make unprecedented measurements within a most unforgiving environment, the core of Earth’s most intense radiation regions. This volume is aimed at graduate students and researchers active in space science, solar-terrestrial interactions and studies of the upper atmosphere. Originally published in Space Science Reviews, Vol. 179/1-4, 2013.