Technology & Engineering Audiobooks | Science & Technology

From the acclaimed author of The Pencil and To Engineer Is Human, The Essential Engineer is an eye-opening exploration of the ways in which science and engineering must work together to address our world's most pressing issues, from dealing with climate change and the prevention of natural disasters to the development of efficient automobiles and the search for renewable energy sources. While the scientist may identify problems, it falls to the engineer to solve them. It is the inherent practicality of engineering, which takes into account structural, economic, environmental, and other factors that science often does not consider, that makes engineering vital to answering our most urgent concerns. Henry Petroski takes us inside the research, development, and debates surrounding the most critical challenges of our time, exploring the feasibility of biofuels, the progress of battery-operated cars, and the question of nuclear power. He gives us an in-depth investigation of the various options for renewable energy-among them solar, wind, tidal, and ethanol-explaining the benefits and risks of each. Will windmills soon populate our landscape the way they did in previous centuries? Will synthetic trees, said to be more efficient at absorbing harmful carbon dioxide than real trees, soon dot our prairies? Will we construct a "sunshade" in outer space to protect ourselves from dangerous rays? In many cases, the technology already exists. What's needed is not so much invention as engineering. Just as the great achievements of centuries past-the steamship, the airplane, the moon landing-once seemed beyond reach, the solutions to the twenty-first century's problems await only a similar coordination of science and engineering. Eloquently reasoned and written, The Essential Engineer identifies and illuminates these problems-and, above all, sets out a course for putting ideas into action.

Henry Petroski (Author), Mark Deakins (Narrator)

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Bad Ideas?: An arresting history of our inventions

As one of the world's leading experts in human reproduction and a research pioneer since the 1970s, Professor Winston is accustomed to working in the world of controversial science. From the earliest days of IVF treatment to current controversy over stem cell research, strong feelings and hot debate have always been provoked over the merits of medical technology and the ethics of so-called scientific progress. Few writers are better placed to review the history of human technological invention over the centuries and question its real benefits to mankind. Professor Winston argues that it is a basic human need to create and invent - a consequence of standing on two legs and seeing our environment as something separate from ourselves. But the more we invent, the more we intervene in the world around us, especially as mankind has many instincts besides the creative one: the urge to destroy, control, create disharmony and to use its powers to excess. For that reason, contained within every one of our finest inventions is the potential for great harm. This does not only apply to obvious menaces like gunpowder and oil, but to the most seemingly benign advances such as writing, farming, medicine. In this unique and timely book, Professor Winston takes a fresh look at man's greatest discoveries and innovations and asks whether our dependence on science and technology has led us into a precarious situation which is doomed to become worse before it gets better? As well as tracing the history and fall-out of our very worst ideas, his book also advocates the merits of scientific progress. For our drive to invent and improve the world around us is what, after all, makes us human.

Lord Robert Winston, Robert Winston (Author), Lord Robert Winston, Robert Winston (Narrator)

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Crash Course: The American Automobile Industry's Road from Glory to Disaster

Paul Ingrassia (Author), Patrick Girard Lawlor (Narrator)

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You Are Not a Gadget

Jaron Lanier, a Silicon Valley visionary since the 1980s, was among the first to predict the revolutionary changes the World Wide Web would bring to commerce and culture. Now, in his first book, written more than two decades after the web was created, Lanier offers this provocative and cautionary look at the way it is transforming our lives for better and for worse. The current design and function of the web have become so familiar that it is easy to forget that they grew out of programming decisions made decades ago. The web's first designers made crucial choices (such as making one's presence anonymous) that have had enormous-and often unintended-consequences. What's more, these designs quickly became "locked in," a permanent part of the web's very structure. Lanier discusses the technical and cultural problems that can grow out of poorly considered digital design and warns that our financial markets and sites like Wikipedia, Facebook, and Twitter are elevating the "wisdom" of mobs and computer algorithms over the intelligence and judgment of individuals. Lanier also shows: How 1960s antigovernment paranoia influenced the design of the online world and enabled trolling and trivialization in online discourse How file sharing is killing the artistic middle class; How a belief in a technological "rapture" motivates some of the most influential technologists Why a new humanistic technology is necessary. Controversial and fascinating, You Are Not a Gadget is a deeply felt defense of the individual from an author uniquely qualified to comment on the way technology interacts with our culture.

Jaron Lanier (Author), Rob Shapiro (Narrator)

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Bomb Power: The Modern Presidency and the National Security State

Garry Wills (Author), Stephen Hoye (Narrator)

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Telecosm: How Infinite Bandwidth Will Revolutionize Our World

The computer age is over. After a global run of thirty years, it has given birth to the age of the telecosm'the world enabled and defined by new communications technology. To seek the key to great wealth and to understand the bewildering ways that high tech is restructuring our lives, look not to chip speed but to bandwidth. Bandwidth is exploding, and its abundance is the most important social and economic fact of our time. George Gilder is one of the great technological visionaries, famous for understanding and predicting complex technologies as well as for putting it all together in a soaring view of why things change and what it means for our daily lives. He foresaw the power of fiber optics and wireless networks, the decline of the telephone regime, and the explosion of handheld computers; now, he brings you the bible of the new age of communications. 'This is indispensable listening for people touched in any way by the communications revolution. Jeff Riggenbach's reading is both intense and understated'.''AudioFile

George Gilder (Author), Jeff Riggenbach (Narrator)

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Fueling the Planet: The Past, Present, and Future of Energy

Renowned professor Michael B. McElroy leads a comprehensive examination of energy, including its history, use in the world today, and environmental consequences. Whether discussing the 'oil shocks' of the 1970s, the current reliance on imported oil, or the growing buildup of carbon dioxide in the planet's atmosphere, it is clear that energy represents one of the world's most daunting challenges. In these informed, easy-to-follow lectures, Professor McElroy imparts a clear understanding of energy'in all its applications'and offers a vision for a clean, safe, and sustainable future.

Michael McElroy (Author), Michael McElroy (Narrator)

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The Big Burn

On the afternoon of August 20, 1910, a battering ram of wind moved through the drought-stricken national forests of Washington, Idaho, and Montana, whipping the hundreds of small blazes burning across the forest floor into a roaring inferno that jumped from treetop to ridge as it raged, destroying towns and timber in the blink of an eye. Forest rangers had assembled nearly ten thousand men - college boys, day workers, immigrants from mining camps - to fight the fire. But no living person had seen anything like those flames, and neither the rangers nor anyone else knew how to subdue them. Egan narrates the struggles of the overmatched rangers against the implacable fire with unstoppable dramatic force. Equally dramatic is the larger story he tells of outsized president Teddy Roosevelt and his chief forester, Gifford Pinchot. Pioneering the notion of conservation, Roosevelt and Pinchot did nothing less than create the idea of public land as our national treasure, owned by and preserved for every citizen. The robber barons fought Roosevelt and Pinchot's rangers, but the Big Burn saved the forests even as it destroyed them: the heroism shown by the rangers turned public opinion permanently in their favor and became the creation myth that drove the Forest Service, with consequences still felt in the way our national lands are protected - or not - today.

Timothy Egan (Author), Robertson Dean (Narrator)

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The Department of Mad Scientists

The first-ever inside look at DARPA-the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency-the maverick and controversial group whose futuristic work has had amazing civilian and military applications, from the Internet to GPS to driverless cars America's greatest idea factory isn't Bell Labs, Silicon Valley, or MIT's Media Lab. It's the secretive, Pentagon-led agency known as DARPA. Founded by Eisenhower in response to Sputnik and the Soviet space program, DARPA mixes military officers with sneaker-wearing scientists, seeking paradigm-shifting ideas in varied fields-from energy, robotics, and rockets to peopleless operating rooms, driverless cars, and planes that can fly halfway around the world in just hours. DARPA gave birth to the Internet, GPS, and mind-controlled robotic arms. Its geniuses define future technology for the military and the rest of us. Michael Belfiore was given unprecedented access to write this first-ever popular account of DARPA. Visiting research sites across the country, he watched scientists in action and talked to the creative, fearlessly ambitious visionaries working for and with DARPA. Much of DARPA's work is classified, and this book is full of material that has barely been reported in the general media. In fact, DARPA estimates that only 2 percent of Americans know much of anything about the agency. This fascinating read demonstrates that DARPA isn't so much frightening as it is inspiring-it is our future.

Michael Belfiore (Author), Michael Belfiore (Narrator)

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Highest Duty: My Search for What Really Matters

In this inspirational autobiography, Captain "Sully" Sullenberger tells his life story and talks about the essential qualities that he believes have been so vital to his success. In January 2009, the world witnessed one of the most remarkable emergency landings in history when Captain Sullenberger brought a crippled US Airways flight onto the Hudson River, saving the lives of all of the passengers and crew aboard. The successful outcome was the result of effective teamwork, Sully's dedication to airline safety, his belief that a pilot's judgment must go hand in hand with technology, and forty years of careful training. Sully describes the experiences that have helped make him a better leader, particularly the importance of taking responsibility for everyone in his care. And he talks about what he believes is at the heart of America's "can do" spirit: the very human drive to prepare for the unexpected and to meet it with optimism and courage. Highest Duty reminds us that cultivating seemingly ordinary virtues can prepare us to perform extraordinary acts. **Please Contact Member Services for Additional Document**

Chesley B. Sullenberger, Iii Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger (Author), Chesley B. Sullenberger, Iii Captain Chesley B. Sullenberger, Michael McConnohie, Michael Mcconnohie (Narrator)

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Car Talk: Tales of the Brothers Grime

The Brothers Grimm told tales that in their original, unedited form were strange, sometimes rambling, and of dubious moral integrity-in other words, they're the perfect model for our Brothers Grime, the Tappet Brothers. America's favorite auto mechanics share reminiscences, rants, and hate mail in another time-wasting yet genuinely useful collection of highlights from their long-running radio show.So one day the guys were at a restaurant enjoying a cake someone delivered to their table. On their way out, they realized their mistake: It wasn't their cake after all. It was Grammy's birthday cake, bound for a party at a nearby table. They apologized later on the air.Tom and Ray lead colorful (not to mention grimy) lives, and each week they share the hilarity with millions of radio listeners. Their latest collection will delight diehard fans and anyone who cares about cars and good humor. Along with the usual dose of belly laughs, it includes Tommy's memories of his misadventures in the US Army, stories from the guys about their beloved pal Vito, and the debut performance of the Click and Clack Barbershop Quartet Minus Two singing "Goodbye My Coney Island Baby." That the debut was also the farewell performance is no coincidence.

Ray Magliozzi, Tom Magliozzi (Author), Ray Magliozzi, Tom Magliozzi (Narrator)

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Crude World

A stunning and revealing examination of oil's indelible impact on the countries that produce it and the people who possess it. Every unhappy oil-producing nation is unhappy in its own way, but all are touched by the "resource curse"—the power of oil to exacerbate existing problems and create new ones. In Crude World, Peter Maass presents a vivid portrait of the troubled world oil has created. He takes us to Saudi Arabia, where officials deflect inquiries about the amount of petroleum remaining in the country's largest reservoir; to Equatorial Guinea, where two tennis courts grace an oil-rich dictator's estate but bandages and aspirin are a hospital's only supplies; and to Venezuela, where Hugo Chávez's campaign to redistribute oil wealth creates new economic and political crises. Maass, a New York Times Magazine writer, also introduces us to Iraqi oilmen trying to rebuild their industry after the invasion of 2003, an American lawyer leading Ecuadorians in an unprecedented lawsuit against Chevron, a Russian oil billionaire imprisoned for his defiance of Vladimir Putin's leadership, and Nigerian villagers whose livelihoods are destroyed by the discovery of oil. Rebels, royalty, middlemen, environmentalists, indigenous activists, CEOs—their stories, deftly and sensitively presented, tell the larger story of oil in our time. Crude World is a startling and essential account of the consequences of our addiction to oil.

Peter Maass (Author), Dominic Hoffman (Narrator)

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Technology & Engineering Audiobooks in Science & Technology