Books in The MIT Press series

Leading researchers offer a range of disciplinary perspectives on the implications of spatial thinking and reasoning for education and learning.The current “spatial turn” in many disciplines reflects an emerging scholarly interest in space and spatiality as central components in understanding the natural and cultural worlds. In Space in Mind, leading researchers from a range of disciplines examine the implications of research on spatial thinking and reasoning for education and learning. Their contributions suggest ways in which recent work in such fields as spatial cognition, geographic information systems, linguistics, artificial intelligence, architecture, and data visualization can inform spatial approaches to learning and education.After addressing the conceptual foundations of spatial thinking for education and learning, the book considers visualization, both external (for example, diagrams and maps) and internal (imagery and other mental spatial representations); embodied cognition and spatial understanding; and the development of specific spatial curricula and literacies. ContributorsKinnari Atit, John Bateman, Ruth Conroy Dalton, Ghislain Deslongchamps, Bonnie Dixon, Roger M. Downs, Daniel R. Montello, Christian Freksa, Michael F. Goodchild, Karl Grossner, Mary Hegarty, Scott R. Hinze, Christoph Hölscher, Alycia M. Hund, Donald G. Janelle, Sander Lestrade, Evie Malaia, Nora S. Newcombe, David N. Rapp, Thomas F. Shipley, Holger Schultheis, Mary Jane Shultz, Diana Sinton, Mike Stieff, Thora Tenbrink, Basil Tikoff, Dido Tsigaridi, David Waller, Ranxiao Frances Wang, Ronnie Wilbur, Kenneth C. Williamson, Vickie M. Williamson

The story of how a chain of failures, missteps, and bad decisions led to America's biggest environmental disaster.On April 20, 2010, the gigantic drilling rig Deepwater Horizon blew up in the Gulf of Mexico, killing eleven crew members and causing a massive eruption of oil from BP's Macondo well. For months, oil gushed into the Gulf, spreading death and destruction. Americans watched real-time video of the huge column of oil and gas spewing from the obviously failed “blowout preventer.” What was missing, though, was the larger story of this disaster. In Blowout in the Gulf, energy experts William Freudenburg and Robert Gramling explain both the disaster and the decisions that led up to it. Blowout in the Gulf weaves a fascinating narrative of failures, missteps, and bad decisions, explaining why this oil spill was a disaster waiting to happen―and how making better energy choices will help prevent others like it.

A meditation on what was lost―and on what is worth preserving―in the movement away from analog music and culture.Although digital media have created new possibilities for music making and sharing, they have also given rise to new concerns. What do we lose in embracing the digital? Do streaming services discourage us from listening closely? In this book, musician Damon Krukowski uses the sound engineer's distinction between signal and noise to examine what we have lost as a technological culture, and to identify what is worth preserving. Krukowski examines experiences from the production and consumption of music that have changed since the analog era―the disorientation of headphones, flattening of voice, silence of media, loudness of mastering, and manipulation of time―and employs them as a lens through which to consider digital culture. When music went digital through such streaming services as Napster and iTunes, it was reduced to signal only, stripped of its analog-era noise. But the analog and the digital need not exist in isolation from one another, Krukowski argue; noise can be as communicative as signal, conveying time, location, and space. The New Analog urges us to reconsider the role of noise in our increasingly digital lives, to appreciate its continued relevance, and to plug in without tuning out.

A visually stunning celebration of the rich variety of ocean life, with 180 color photographs.Seen from space, the earth is blue. That luminous blueness is water―the Atlantic, Pacific, Indian, Arctic, and Antarctic oceans. Seventy percent of what we call "earth" is under water. Life began in the ocean, and the ocean still plays a vital role in our lives and the earth's ecosystem. More than half the world's population lives within a few miles of the sea; we're drawn to it to swim, surf, sail, or simply gaze out across the waves. The ocean itself teems with life, from the coldest, ice-bound poles to the warmest tropical seas, from the surface to the deepest trenches where no light penetrates. Out of the Blue is a celebration of the rich variety of ocean life. Stunning color photographs and engaging, informative text capture the astonishing diversity of marine life, from the tiniest plants and plankton to the awe-inspiring Giant Squid and the blue whale, the largest animal ever to have lived. Out of the Blue looks at the drifters, the minute creatures that are the ocean's life source and the first link in the marine food chain. It describes the migration of turtles and whales, and the living structures of coral reefs and atolls. It shows us fish, marine mammals, and the secret lives of creatures who live in the deepest and darkest part of the ocean. It reveals unusual ecosystems such as sea mounts and the Sargasso Sea. And it considers the consequences of human activity―including climate change and pollution―on the life of the sea. Throughout, it emphasizes how the different elements within the oceans interact.

Why our human brains are awesome, and how we left our cousins, the great apes, behind: a tale of neurons and calories, and cooking.Humans are awesome. Our brains are gigantic, seven times larger than they should be for the size of our bodies. The human brain uses 25% of all the energy the body requires each day. And it became enormous in a very short amount of time in evolution, allowing us to leave our cousins, the great apes, behind. So the human brain is special, right? Wrong, according to Suzana Herculano-Houzel. Humans have developed cognitive abilities that outstrip those of all other animals, but not because we are evolutionary outliers. The human brain was not singled out to become amazing in its own exclusive way, and it never stopped being a primate brain. If we are not an exception to the rules of evolution, then what is the source of the human advantage?Herculano-Houzel shows that it is not the size of our brain that matters but the fact that we have more neurons in the cerebral cortex than any other animal, thanks to our ancestors' invention, some 1.5 million years ago, of a more efficient way to obtain calories: cooking. Because we are primates, ingesting more calories in less time made possible the rapid acquisition of a huge number of neurons in the still fairly small cerebral cortex―the part of the brain responsible for finding patterns, reasoning, developing technology, and passing it on through culture.Herculano-Houzel shows us how she came to these conclusions―making "brain soup" to determine the number of neurons in the brain, for example, and bringing animal brains in a suitcase through customs. The Human Advantage is an engaging and original look at how we became remarkable without ever being special.

These sixteen essays are drawn from a body of work strongly influenced by the thought of Joseph A. Schumpeter. They are particularly appropriate in a time when low rates of growth have become the norm in the Western world and much of the economic debate focuses on prescriptions for industrial regeneration. Each essay tests hypotheses derived from the Schumpeterian propositions that technological innovation gives capitalist economies their peculiar dynamics through a process of "creative destruction," that technological progress has radically increased real income per capita in Western industrialized nations, and that monopoly market structures and their pursuit are a powerful engine of technological progress.

Bringing together speeches given at the Institute's annual King day convocation, this book celebrates two decades of commitment by MIT to honoring the memory and furthering the work of Martin Luther King, Jr. In reading these speeches, one catches in reflection twenty years of turmoil and change -- some positive (including an increasing number of speakers drawn from the ranks of MIT's African American alumni/ae) but much negative -- in which Dr. King's dream has been a continuing beacon for action.