How was the hypothetical character of theories of experience thought about throughout the history of science? The essays cover periods from the middle ages to the 19th and 20th centuries. It is fascinating to see how natural scientists and philosophers were increasingly forced to realize that a natural science without hypotheses is not possible.

Naturwissenschaftler und Philosophen haben im Lauf der Wissenschaftsgeschichte unterschiedliche Auffassungen vom Hypothesencharakter empirischer Theorien entwickelt. Der Band widmet sich drei verschiedenen Epochen, in denen der Erkenntnisoptimismus erfolgreicher Wissenschaftspraxis auf ein wachsendes Bewusstsein der Grenzen naturwissenschaftlicher Einsicht trifft: der Frühen Neuzeit (Kopernikus, Kepler, Bacon, Galilei, Descartes, Boyle, Newton, Locke, mit einem Rückblick auf die mittelalterlichen Autoren Maimonides und Gersonides), dem mechanistischen Weltbild des 19. Jahrhunderts (Herschel, Whewell, Mill, C. G. J. Jacobi, Carl Neumann, Boutroux, Ch. S. Peirce, mit einem Rückblick auf Lagrange und d'Alembert) und dem 20. Jahrhundert mit dem Aufkommen der modernen Physik (Hertz, Poincaré, Vaihinger, Duhem, Heisenberg, Popper). Abgerundet wird der Band durch Studien zur Gegenwartsdiskussion des wissenschaftlichen Realismus und den Chancen einer hypothetischen Metaphysik der Natur.

This book is a provocative and invigorating real-time exploration of the future of human evolution by two of the world’s leading interdisciplinary ecologists – Michael Charles Tobias and Jane Gray Morrison. Steeped in a rich multitude of the sciences and humanities, the book enshrines an elegant narrative that is highly empathetic, personal, scientifically wide-ranging and original. It focuses on the geo-positioning of the human Self and its corresponding species. The book's overarching viewpoints and poignant through-story examine and powerfully challenge concepts associated historically with assertions of human superiority over all other life forms. Ultimately, The Hypothetical Species: Variables of Human Evolution is a deeply considered treatise on the ecological and psychological state of humanity and her options – both within, and outside the rubrics of evolutionary research – for survival. This important work is beautifully presented with nearly 200 diverse illustrations, and is introduced with a foreword by famed paleobiologist, Dr. Melanie DeVore.

One of the pathways by which the scientific community confirms the validity of a new scientific discovery is by repeating the research that produced it. When a scientific effort fails to independently confirm the computations or results of a previous study, some fear that it may be a symptom of a lack of rigor in science, while others argue that such an observed inconsistency can be an important precursor to new discovery. Concerns about reproducibility and replicability have been expressed in both scientific and popular media. As these concerns came to light, Congress requested that the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine conduct a study to assess the extent of issues related to reproducibility and replicability and to offer recommendations for improving rigor and transparency in scientific research. Reproducibility and Replicability in Science defines reproducibility and replicability and examines the factors that may lead to non-reproducibility and non-replicability in research. Unlike the typical expectation of reproducibility between two computations, expectations about replicability are more nuanced, and in some cases a lack of replicability can aid the process of scientific discovery. This report provides recommendations to researchers, academic institutions, journals, and funders on steps they can take to improve reproducibility and replicability in science.

The first half of 'Religion and the Natural Sciences' is an introduction to the discussion of science and religion. Here the reader learns why there is any debate at all and what resources exist for responding to it. The second half deals with specific issues that arise in the individual sciences, from astronomy and physics to biology and ecology. Any project hoping to connect science and religion must supply the categories of connection, which are found primarily, although not exclusively, in philosophy. The simplicity of the arrangement and the nature of the selections are intended to make 'Religion and the Natural Sciences' available to as wide an audience as possible, including students from the sciences and technology, the professions, the humanities and liberal studies, and theology.

This book is designed to introduce doctoral and graduate students to the process of conducting scientific research in the social sciences, business, education, public health, and related disciplines. It is a one-stop, comprehensive, and compact source for foundational concepts in behavioral research, and can serve as a stand-alone text or as a supplement to research readings in any doctoral seminar or research methods class. This book is currently used as a research text at universities on six continents and will shortly be available in nine different languages.

The creator of the incredibly popular webcomic xkcd presents his heavily researched answers to his fans' oddest questions, including “What if I took a swim in a spent-nuclear-fuel pool?” and “Could you build a jetpack using downward-firing machine guns?” 100,000 first printing.