Drive and Curiosity

Author: Istvan Hargittai
Publisher: Prometheus Books
ISBN: 1616144696
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 330

Book Description
What motivates those few scientists who rise above their peers to achieve breakthrough discoveries? This book examines the careers of fifteen eminent scientists who achieved some of the most notable discoveries of the past century, providing an insider’s perspective on the history of twentieth century science based on these engaging personality profiles. They include: • Dan Shechtman, the 2011 Nobel laureate and discoverer of quasicrystals; • James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate and codiscoverer of the double helix structure of DNA; • Linus Pauling, the Nobel laureate remembered most for his work on the structure of proteins; • Edward Teller, a giant of the 20th century who accomplished breakthroughs in understanding of nuclear fusion; • George Gamow, a pioneering scientist who devised the initially ridiculed and now accepted Big Bang. In each case, the author has uncovered a singular personality characteristic, motivational factor, or circumstance that, in addition to their extraordinary drive and curiosity, led these scientists to make outstanding contributions. For example, Gertrude B. Elion, who discovered drugs that saved millions of lives, was motivated to find new medications after the deaths of her grandfather and later her fiancé. F. Sherwood Rowland, who stumbled upon the environmental harm caused by chlorofluorocarbons, eventually felt a moral imperative to become an environmental activist. Rosalyn Yalow, the codiscoverer of the radioimmunoassay always felt she had to prove herself in the face of prejudice against her as a woman. These and many more fascinating revelations make this a must-read for everyone who wants to know what traits and circumstances contribute to a person’s becoming the scientist who makes the big breakthrough.

Curiosity House: The Shrunken Head

Author: Lauren Oliver
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0062270834
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 198

Book Description
Edgar Award nominee for Best Juvenile Mystery The book is about, among other things: the strongest boy in the world, a talking cockatoo, a faulty mind reader, a beautiful bearded lady and a nervous magician, an old museum, and a shrunken head. Blessed with extraordinary abilities, orphans Philippa, Sam, and Thomas have grown up happily in Dumfrey’s Dime Museum of Freaks, Oddities, and Wonders. But when a fourth child, Max, a knife-thrower, joins the group, it sets off an unforgettable chain of events. When the museum’s Amazonian shrunken head is stolen, the four are determined to get it back. But their search leads them to a series of murders and an explosive secret about their pasts. This sensational new series—a 2016 Edgar nominee for Best Juvenile book and New York Times bestseller—combines the unparalleled storytelling gifts of Lauren Oliver with the rich knowledge of the notorious relics collector H. C. Chester. What you will find in this book: A rather attractive bearded lady Several scandalous murders A deliciously disgusting Amazonian shrunken head Four extraordinary children with equally extraordinary abilities A quite loquacious talking bird What you will NOT find in this book: An accountant named Seymour A never-ending line at the post office Brussel sprouts (shudder) A lecture on finishing all your homework on time A sweet, gooey story for nice little girls and boys Learn more about the series online at www.thecuriosityhouse.com

The Chain Of Curiosity

Author: Sandi Toksvig
Publisher: Sphere
ISBN: 1405527234
Category : Literary Collections
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
From the author of BETWEEN THE STOPS and TOKSVIG'S ALMANAC Sandi Toksvig - broadcaster, writer, actor and seeker of all things whimsical - has turned her probing mind to many of the most intriguing questions of our times in the pages of the Sunday Telegraph for many years. Now, for the very first time, these musings have been collected in one hilarious collection. In The Chain of Curiosity, Sandi takes the reader on a side-splitting journey through life's peculiarities in a book packed with wit, wisdom and wonderment. From pondering the joys of World Pencil Day to examining the intricacies of applause etiquette, and from tip-toeing around the delicate art of school report vocabulary to researching the oddest way to meet a sticky end, the tickling tidbits and intriguing revelations contained within the book will delight Sandi's fans, both old and new.

Why?

Author: Mario Livio
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1476792127
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 280

Book Description
Astrophysicist and author Mario Livio investigates perhaps the most human of all our characteristics—curiosity—in this “lively, expert, and definitely not dumbed-down account” (Kirkus Reviews) as he explores our innate desire to know why. Experiments demonstrate that people are more distracted when they overhear a phone conversation—where they can know only one side of the dialogue—than when they overhear two people talking and know both sides. Why does half a conversation make us more curious than a whole conversation? “Have you ever wondered why we wonder why? Mario Livio has, and he takes you on a fascinating quest to understand the origin and mechanisms of our curiosity. I thoroughly recommend it.” (Adam Riess, Nobel Prize Winner in Physics, 2011). Curiosity is not only at the heart of mystery and suspense novels, it is also essential to other creative endeavors, from painting to sculpture to music. It is the principal driver of basic scientific research. Even so, there is still no definitive scientific consensus about why we humans are so curious, or about the mechanisms in our brain that are responsible for curiosity. In the ever-fascinating Why? Livio interviewed scientists in several fields to explore the nature of curiosity. He examined the lives of two of history’s most curious geniuses, Leonardo da Vinci and Richard Feynman. He also talked to people with boundless curiosity: a superstar rock guitarist who is also an astrophysicist; an astronaut with degrees in computer science, biology, literature, and medicine. What drives these people to be curious about so many subjects? An astrophysicist who has written about mathematics, biology, and now psychology and neuroscience, Livio has firsthand knowledge of his subject which he explores in a lucid, entertaining way that will captivate anyone who is curious about curiosity.

Curious George's Big Book of Curiosity

Author: H. A. Rey
Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
ISBN: 054734757X
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 51

Book Description
This oversized paper-over-board concept book takes toddlers all over George’s world and theirs. Each page features a different concept: counting, shapes, opposites, emotions, family, jobs, homes, transportation and lots of new words! From morning to night, city to country, home to town and back again, little readers can follow George as they learn more about their own worlds. Just the right book for toddlers learning to talk to help build their vocabulary.

The Flip Side

Author: Flip Flippen
Publisher: Grand Central Life & Style
ISBN: 9780446581325
Category : Self-Help
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
Flip Flippen is a personable Texan whose philosophy has changed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people--from business leaders like Jack Welch and Mark McCormack (founder of IMG), to sports figures like Terry Bradshaw and NASCAR drivers, to the 150,000 people who trained with his company, The Flippen Group, in 2005. His approach is deceptively simple: What if, instead of focusing on the things you already do well, you knew how to honestly identify your weaknesses...those habitual behaviors that continually get in your way and prevent you from ever really succeeding in the way you know you could. It's these weaknesses, your "personal constraints," that are really holding you back from success. If you could correct these behaviors, you'd see a dramatic surge in productivity and a real improvement in all aspects of your life. That's the key to Flip Flippen's program: he teaches hundreds of thousands of people each year how to identify their personal obstacles and take the necessary steps to overcome them. The vast majority of Flip's trainees are in midlife. These are people who find themselves asking, "How can I accomplish more in my life, both personally and professionally?" and "How can I get better/go further/be happier in the time I have left?" His Personal Constraint Theory helps them zero in on their primary self-sabotaging behavior and actually turn it into their greatest asset.

Peas & Queues

Author: Sandi Toksvig
Publisher: Profile Books
ISBN: 1847658660
Category : Humor
Languages : en
Pages : 272

Book Description
How do you get rid of unwanted guests? What do you do if there's a racket in the quiet carriage? How should you eat peas, and behave in queues? How to behave, like how to punctuate, is an aspect of life that many are no longer taught - and getting it wrong is the stuff of comedy at best and humiliation at worst. Thankfully, Sandi Toksvig has come to the rescue with her entertaining guide to modern manners,with tips on what to do whether you're talking to a bore, or forgot their name in the first place. (Just call them 'darling'.) The award-winning Radio 4 broadcaster and writer offers guidance on the social pitfalls of every phase of life, from christenings to condolence letters. With characteristic wit and perceptiveness, and revealing the trickiest of her encounters along the way, she highlights decency rather than convention and provides an essential guide to twenty-first century behaviour. Now this down-to-earth, hilarious guide is available in perfect pocket-sized paperback size.

The Curiosity Muscle

Author: Diana Kander
Publisher: Truefolio
ISBN: 9780692135945
Category : Diffusion of innovations
Languages : en
Pages : 204

Book Description
Toys 'R' Us. Kodak. Blockbuster. Why is it that some companies evolve while others get left in the dust? How do they lose their relevance with customers? The scary truth is that the only thing harder than getting to the top is staying there. It may sound counterintuitive, but in many cases, it is the success of a company that eventually leads to its downfall. So what does it take to stay competitive and relevant when what customers went wild for yesterday is the boring, banal, bare minimum they'll accept today? Through the story of the rise and plateau of a gym franchise recounted as a novel, The Curiosity Muscle shows exactly why most companies reaching the peak of their potential lose their curiosity and crash into irrelevance. From how we develop blind spots about our business to the pitfalls of feeling like an expert, this thought-provoking, engaging tale reveals the smokescreens obscuring imminent threats to long-term viability and walks you through specific ways to boost innovation, uncover customer needs, solve problems, create new value for customers, and increase employee engagement. Most importantly, The Curiosity Muscle demonstrates why curiosity is your greatest asset, driving constant innovation and improvement and helps you ask the essential questions that will take your business from stagnant to soaring. By continuing to work your curiously muscle over time, you can help your company thrive and become competitive on more than price alone--ultimately, future-proofing your business.

Love Is Free. Guac Is Extra.

Author: Monty Moran
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781544540931
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Imagine you're one of 75,000 people working in a huge company, and the CEO wants to talk to you, one-on-one, to get to know and understand you. That's what Monty Moran did 20,000 times as he built the extraordinary culture that took Chipotle Mexican Grill from a regional burrito chain to a Fortune 500 superstar. In Love Is Free, Guac Is Extra, Monty shows how he used curiosity, vulnerability, love, and a unique understanding of the true meaning of empowerment to build a distinctive and wildly effective culture. From his teenage days befriending homeless people at a Colorado Dairy Queen to his nuanced navigation of a complex co-CEO relationship, Monty demonstrates a relentless humility and desire to understand the person across from him. This is not your average leadership book. This is a book about business leadership executed in a way you've never encountered before, by becoming the best version of yourself.

Curious Minds

Author: Perry Zurn
Publisher: MIT Press
ISBN: 0262547147
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 311

Book Description
An exhilarating, genre-bending exploration of curiosity’s powerful capacity to connect ideas and people. Curious about something? Google it. Look at it. Ask a question. But is curiosity simply information seeking? According to this exhilarating, genre-bending book, what’s left out of the conventional understanding of curiosity are the wandering tracks, the weaving concepts, the knitting of ideas, and the thatching of knowledge systems—the networks, the relations between ideas and between people. Curiosity, say Perry Zurn and Dani Bassett, is a practice of connection: it connects ideas into networks of knowledge, and it connects knowers themselves, both to the knowledge they seek and to each other. Zurn and Bassett—identical twins who write that their book “represents the thought of one mind and two bodies”—harness their respective expertise in the humanities and the sciences to get irrepressibly curious about curiosity. Traipsing across literatures of antiquity and medieval science, Victorian poetry and nature essays, as well as work by writers from a variety of marginalized communities, they trace a multitudinous curiosity. They identify three styles of curiosity—the busybody, who collects stories, creating loose knowledge networks; the hunter, who hunts down secrets or discoveries, creating tight networks; and the dancer, who takes leaps of creative imagination, creating loopy ones. Investigating what happens in a curious brain, they offer an accessible account of the network neuroscience of curiosity. And they sketch out a new kind of curiosity-centric and inclusive education that embraces everyone’s curiosity. The book performs the very curiosity that it describes, inviting readers to participate—to be curious with the book and not simply about it.