The Present Is The Form Of All Life

The acclaimed author of Einstein’s Dreams tackles "big questions like the origin of the universe and the nature of consciousness ... in an entertaining and easily digestible way” (Wall Street Journal) with a collection of meditative essays on the possibilities—and impossibilities—of nothingness and infinity, and how our place in the cosmos falls somewhere in between. Can space be divided into smaller and smaller units, ad infinitum? Does space extend to larger and larger regions, on and on to infinity? Is consciousness reducible to the material brain and its neurons? What was the origin of life, and can biologists create life from scratch in the lab? Physicist and novelist Alan Lightman, whom The Washington Post has called “the poet laureate of science writers,” explores these questions and more—from the anatomy of a smile to the capriciousness of memory to the specialness of life in the universe to what came before the Big Bang. Probable Impossibilities is a deeply engaged consideration of what we know of the universe, of life and the mind, and of things vastly larger and smaller than ourselves.

This edition of Science and Creationism summarizes key aspects of several of the most important lines of evidence supporting evolution. It describes some of the positions taken by advocates of creation science and presents an analysis of these claims. This document lays out for a broader audience the case against presenting religious concepts in science classes. The document covers the origin of the universe, Earth, and life; evidence supporting biological evolution; and human evolution. (Contains 31 references.) (CCM)

Perhaps best known for the iconic desert monolith "Cadillac Ranch" and stunts like "Media Burn," the radical architecture and media art group Ant Farm created an abundance of works across disciplines--including video, publications, built environments and performances. Throughout their career (1968-79), Ant Farm conceived a series of time capsules that focused not on the eternal but rather on the fleeting aspects of postwar American culture: consumer goods, media archives and tchotchkes. For various reasons, all of Ant Farm's time capsules failed to function, that is, to be opened at the allotted future time and the intact contents examined. Ant Farm's successor group, LST, has taken up the project with their contemporary work "Ant Farm Media Van v.08 [Time Capsule]" (2008). This work not only functions but updates the original's line of questioning, exploring notions of the time capsule in the digital age. The Present Is the Form of All Life represents the first comprehensive documentation of these overlooked ephemeral works. Including many previously unpublished images, this publication also boasts essays by Constance M. Lewallen, Steve Seid and Gabriella Giannachi, and a discussion between curator Rudolf Frieling and LST.

The Principles of Biology sequence (BI 211, 212 and 213) introduces biology as a scientific discipline for students planning to major in biology and other science disciplines. Laboratories and classroom activities introduce techniques used to study biological processes and provide opportunities for students to develop their ability to conduct research.

The Present is the Form of All Life: The Time Capsules of Ant Farm and LSTPerhaps most well known for the iconic desert monolith Cadillac Ranch, and spectacular stunts like Media Burn, the radical architecture and media art group, Ant Farm, created an abundance of works across disciplines - including video, print publications, built environments, and performance. Throughout their career (1968-1979), Ant Farm conceived a series of "time capsule" works that turned away from the typical idea of the time capsule as a reliable means of cultural representation and preservation. Rather, often soliciting items from participants, Ant Farm focused on the inherently fleeting and unstable aspects of postwar consumer culture, such as utilitarian consumer goods, media archives, and tchotchkes. Destroyed, stolen, lost, never realized, or deemed "environmentally hazardous" by the Environmental Protection Agency, these time capsule works failed to function as a time capsule should, that is, to be opened at the allotted future time and the contents examined and intact. This collected archive of the time capsule works considers how Ant Farm embraced dysfunction and the unforeseeable-through essays and archival materials including, scrapbook pages, schematics, and preliminary sketches and documentation by participants and local media. The contemporary work Ant Farm Media Van v.08 [Time Capsule], created by Ant Farm successor group, LST, for an exhibition at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art called The Art of Participation: 1950 to Now, is also examined in the context of the historic time capsule works.With many never before published or reproduced images of Electronic Oasis (1969), Time Capsule 1972-1984 (1972), Citizen's Time Capsule (1975), and Aerosol Arsenal (1975), a forward and an introduction by curators Gabriel Florenz and Liz Flyntz, essays by Constance Lewallen, Steve Seid, and Gabriella Giannachi, and a discussion between curator Rudolf Frieling and LST, this volume is the first comprehensive documentation and examination of these overlooked ephemeral works.

For centuries, medicine aimed to treat abnormalities. But today normality itself is open to medical modification. Equipped with a new molecular understanding of bodies and minds, and new techniques for manipulating basic life processes at the level of molecules, cells, and genes, medicine now seeks to manage human vital processes. The Politics of Life Itself offers a much-needed examination of recent developments in the life sciences and biomedicine that have led to the widespread politicization of medicine, human life, and biotechnology. Avoiding the hype of popular science and the pessimism of most social science, Nikolas Rose analyzes contemporary molecular biopolitics, examining developments in genomics, neuroscience, pharmacology, and psychopharmacology and the ways they have affected racial politics, crime control, and psychiatry. Rose analyzes the transformation of biomedicine from the practice of healing to the government of life; the new emphasis on treating disease susceptibilities rather than disease; the shift in our understanding of the patient; the emergence of new forms of medical activism; the rise of biocapital; and the mutations in biopower. He concludes that these developments have profound consequences for who we think we are, and who we want to be.

Gaia, in which James Lovelock puts forward his inspirational and controversial idea that the Earth functions as a single organism, with life influencing planetary processes to form a self-regulating system aiding its own survival, is now a classic work that continues to provoke heated scientific debate.