New Scientist

Murder for hire Drug trafficking Embezzlement Money laundering These might sound like plot lines of a thriller but they are true stories from the short history of cryptocurrencies digital currencies conceived by computer hackers and cryptographers that represent a completely new sort of financial transaction that could soon become mainstream The most famous or infamous cryptocurrency is bitcoin But look beyond its tarnished reputation and something much shinier emerges The technology that underlies bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies the blockchain is hailed as the greatest advancement since the invention of the internet It is now moving away from being the backbone for a digital currency and making inroads into other core concepts of society identity ownership and even the rule of law The End of Money is your essential introduction to this transformative new technology that has governments entrepreneurs and forward thinking people from all walks of life sitting up and taking notice ABOUT THE SERIES New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science subjects that challenge attract debate invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds Designed for curious readers wh

The ancient Greeks called it Gaia; the Romans Terra. We know it simply as Earth, the planet we call home. And what a planet it is. Formed around 4.6 billion years ago from the debris of the big bang and long-dead stars, at first it was nothing special, but somehow it evolved to become the most amazing place in the known Universe. The only living planet we know of, it also has a very unusual moon, a remarkably dynamic surface, a complex atmosphere and a deeply mysterious interior. This is Planet Earth is dedicated to the wonders of Planet Earth. Its past is long and dramatic and its future shrouded in mystery. Yet despite centuries of research, only now are we starting to understand Earth''s complexity.

Sometime in the future the intelligence of machines will exceed that of human brain power So are we on the edge of an AI pocalypse with superintelligent devices superseding humanity as predicted by Stephen Hawking Or will this herald a kind of Utopia with machines doing a far better job at complex tasks than us You might not realise it but you interact with AIs every day They route your phone calls approve your credit card transactions and help your doctor interpret results Driverless cars will soon be on the roads with a decision making computer in charge But how do machines actually think and learn In Machines That Think AI experts and New Scientist explore how artificial intelligence helps us understand human intelligence machines that compose music and write stories and ask if AI is really a threat ABOUT THE SERIES New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science subjects that challenge attract debate invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals society and the planet translating the scientific co

Every year, readers send in thousands of questions to New Scientist, the world's best-selling science weekly, in the hope that the answers to them will be given in the 'Last Word' column - regularly voted the most popular section of the magazine.Does Anything Eat Wasps? is a collection of the best that have appeared, including: Why can't we eat green potatoes? Why do airliners suddenly plummet? Does a compass work in space? Why do all the local dogs howl at emergency sirens? How can a tree grow out of a chimney stack? Why do bruises go through a range of colours? Why is the sea blue inside caves? Many seemingly simple questions are actually very complex to answer. And some that seem difficult have a very simple explanation. New Scientist's 'Last Word' celebrates all questions - the trivial, the idiosyncratic, the baffling and the strange. This selection of the best is popular science at its most entertaining and enlightening.

En unos momentos en que la especie humana parece enfrentarse a una encrucijada definitiva en su relación con el planeta que habita, este libro brinda una introducción clara y ordenada a las ciencias de la Tierra, con un tratamiento homogeneo, completo y atractivo de todos los aspectos cientificos relevantes relacionandolos con la vida cotidiana y la defensa del medio ambiente.En unos momentos en que la especie humana parece enfrentarse a una encrucijada definitiva en su relación con el planeta que habita, este libro brinda una introducción clara y ordenada a las ciencias de la Tierra, con un tratamiento homogeneo, completo y atractivo de todos los aspectos cientificos relevantes desde un punto de vista transversal y relacionandolos con la vida cotidiana y la defensa del medio ambiente. Asi, sus capitulos tratan de la geologia (exponiendo la estructura interna del planeta, su historia, los terremotos, la tectonica global, el campo magnetico, la importancia del suelo para la biosfera y el devenir humano...), la oceanografia, las ciencias de la atmosfera (con especial hincapie sobre el calentamiento global y sus causas desde un punto de vista cientifico), la biologia, la astrofisica y la geofisica. Son tambien de especial interes los capitulos acerca del cambio climatico y el antropoceno, que analizan los efectos del ser humano sobre la Tierra.

Avalada por el rigor y la amenidad de la prestigiosa revista New Scientist, El maravilloso mundo de las matemáticas tiene como principal atractivo dar una visión global de la matemática moderna adaptada al interes del publico mas actual. El volumen, articulado con sumo conocimiento, ofrece una introduccion generica al sentido de esta ciencia, para a continuacion hacer un repaso por un abanico de temas atractivos para el aficionado a las matematicas divulgativas: el cero, el infinito, los numeros primos, los numeros fascinantes (pi, la razon aurea, el numero e, el numero i), probabilidad y azar, grandes problemas apasionantes (resueltos o no), matematicas aplicadas y un capitulo final que examina la relacion entre matematicas y realidad. Las constantes conexiones con otras ciencias (fisica, geografia) y los contenidos de matematica aplicada (teorias electorales, diagnosticos medicos, probabilidad bayesiana) incrementan el interes por los temas tratados.

EL CEREBRO presenta al lector, de manera inteligente y asequible, y también con mucho humor pero sin caer en la divulgación trivial, todos los aspectos relacionados con el cerebro humano: percepción, inteligencia, consciencia, pensamiento, memoria, aprendizaje, creatividad, voluntad, sociabilidad, sueño, recuperacion. Este conjunto de temas es tratado de manera amena mediante ejemplos, actividades, infografias y esquemas. Al finalizar cada bloque se ofrecen experimentos ingeniosos y fascinantes que ayudan al lector a poner en practica como funciona el cerebro, el dispositivo de procesamiento de informacion mas complejo del universo.Divulgacion cientifica de calidad de la mano de New Scientist, el semanario sobre temas cientificos mas vendido en el mundo, que acompaña al lector en un viaje a traves de toda la variedad de peculiaridades del cerebro humano.