A field guide to our mechanical future, presenting the next generation of intelligent robots and their makers.
Around the world, scientists and engineers are participating in a high-stakes race to build the first intelligent robot. Many robots already exist―automobile factories are full of them. But the new generation of robots will be something else: smart machines that act like living creatures. When they are brought into existence, science fiction will have become fact.
What will happen then? With our prosthetic limbs, titanium hips, and artificial eyes, we are already beginning to resemble our machines. Equally important, our machines are beginning to resemble us. Robots already walk, talk, and dance; they can react to our facial expressions and obey verbal commands. When they take the next step and become fully autonomous, what will they do? Will we be partners or rivals? Could we meld into a single species―Robo sapiens?
In Robo sapiens, Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio present the next generation of intelligent robots and their makers. Accompanying brilliant photographs of more than one hundred robots is an account of the little-known, yet vitally important scientific competition to build an autonomous robot. Containing extensive interviews with robotics pioneers, anecdotal "field notes" with behind-the-scenes information, and easy-to-understand technical data about the machines, Robo sapiens is a field guide to our mechanical future.

Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species

Arts & Photography

Menzel, Peter

D'Aluisio, Faith

Individual Artists

MIT Press]

Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

FOR USE IN SCHOOLS AND LIBRARIES ONLY.

Man Eating Bugs (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Cookbooks, Food & Wine

Turtleback Books

In an unprecedented effort, sixteen of the world’s foremost photographers traveled to thirty nations around the globe to live for a week with families that were statistically average for that nation. At the end of each visit, photographer and family collaborated on a remarkable portrait of the family members outside their home, surrounded by all of their possessionsa few jars and jugs for some, an explosion of electronic gadgetry for others. Vividly portraying the look and feel of the human condition everywhere on Earth, this internationally acclaimed bestseller puts a human face on the issues of population, environment, social justice, and consumption as it illuminates the crucial question facing our species today: Can all six billion of us have all the things we want?

Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Mann, Charles C.

Travel

Counterpoint

Photography & Video

A companion to the groundbreaking bestseller Material World: A Global Family Portrait, this remarkable volume portrays the striking similarities and profound differences in the lives of women around the world at the dawn of the twenty-first century. Under the direction of Faith D’Aluisio and Peter Menzel, a team of renowned women journalists traveled the world to take a close look at the lives of women in twenty disparate lands. In first-person interviews of startling candor, the women share their feelings about family, children, money, love, sex, and marriage. These interviews, together with 375 stunning full-color photographs, create a powerful multicultural portrait of the half of humanity that all too often remains invisible.

Women in the Material World

Clever gardeners are discovering the wisdom of imitating nature and grouping plants in communities much as they occur in the wild. This full-color encyclopedia illustrates 40 typical garden habitats, keying each of the more than 1,100 plants-perennials, annuals, ferns, and grasses-to the most appropriate settings.Published at $49.95 Our last copies available at $24.98

Color Encyclopedia of Garden Plants and Habitats

Reference

Köhlein, Fritz

Encyclopedias & Subject Guides

Timber Pr

A stunning photographic collection featuring portraits of 80 people from 30 countries and the food they eat in one day. In this fascinating study of people and their diets, 80 profiles are organized by the total number of calories each person puts away in a day. Featuring a Japanese sumo wrestler, a Massai herdswoman, world-renowned Spanish chef Ferran Adria, an American competitive eater, and more, these compulsively readable personal stories also include demographic particulars, including age, activity level, height, and weight. Essays from Harvard primatologist Richard Wrangham, journalist Michael Pollan, and others discuss the implications of our modern diets for our health and for the planet. This compelling blend of photography and investigative reportage expands our understanding of the complex relationships among individuals, culture, and food.

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

Material World

The team behind the critically and popularly acclaimed anthropological photoessays MATERIAL WORLD and WOMEN IN THE MATERIAL WORLD make their debut on our list with this oddly tantalizing book about a subject that's creeping into prominence: insects as food for people. With the distinctive blend of thoughtful cultural inquiry, intrepid exploration, and sumptuous photography that has earned them worldwide renown, the authors document the practice and history of entomophagy around the globe, discovering that insects are a nutritious, plentiful, and varied food source. From Mexico, where people celebrate the annual Jumile Festival with bug hunts and beauty queens, to China, where whole families make their livings from scorpion ranches, over a dozen bug-eating countries (including the USA!) are profiled in MAN EATING BUGS. Each chapter examines a culture through a stunning array of location photos, interviews with locals, and highlights from the authors' field journals, as well as carefully photographed indigenous recipes. A colorful, beautiful, and intelligent book. Awards1999 James Beard Award Winner

Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects

Cooking by Ingredient

The age-old practice of sitting down to a family meal is undergoing unprecedented change as rising world affluence and trade, along with the spread of global food conglomerates, transform eating habits worldwide. HUNGRY PLANET profiles 30 families from around the world--including Bosnia, Chad, Egypt, Greenland, Japan, the United States, and France--and offers detailed descriptions of weekly food purchases; photographs of the families at home, at market, and in their communities; and a portrait of each family surrounded by a week's worth of groceries. Featuring photo-essays on international street food, meat markets, fast food, and cookery, this captivating chronicle offers a riveting look at what the world really eats. The paperback edition of the 2006 James Beard Book of the Year featuring a photojournalistic survey of 30 families from 24 countries and the food they eat during the course of one week. Winner of the 2006 James Beard Award for writings on food, finalist for the 2006 IACP Cookbook Award for food reference/technical, and winner of the 2005 Harry Chapin Media Award. Includes more than 300 photographs plus essays on the politics of food by Marion Nestle, Michael Pollan, Charles C. Mann, Alfred W. Crosby, Francine R. Kaufman, Corby Kummer, and Carl Safina. The hardcover edition has sold 40,000 copies.Awards 2006 James Beard Cookbook of the YearThe Splendid Table Book of the Year 2005 Harry Chapin Media Award finalist for the 2006 IACP Cookbook Award Reviews"The photos are at once charming and astonishing in their honesty."—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel“A treasure trove of information . . . The photographs alone are worth the price of admission.”—Travel Girl“Arresting, beautiful, enlightening and infinitely human, this is a collection of full-page photos of families around the world surrounded by what they eat in a single week -- from Bhutan to San Antonio. Read the illuminating statistics and the essays. This is a book for the family and for the classroom. You won't see the same old "aren't we better than them" attitude, nor will you be shamed. This book reminds us that what we eat is the simplest, yet most profound, thread that ties us together.”—Lynne Rossetto Kasper, Host of American Public Media's Public Radio Program, The Splendid Table.“the politics of food at its most poignant and provocative. A coffee table book that will certainly make coffee interesting.” –Washington Post“While the photos are extraordinary--fine enough for a stand-alone volume--it's the questions these photos ask that make this volume so gripping. This is a beautiful, quietly provocative volume.” -Publishers Weekly, starred review“This book of portraits reveals a planet of joyful individuality, dispiriting sameness, and heart-breaking disparity. It's a perfect gift for the budding anti-globalists on your list” -Bon Appetit“[A] unique photographic study of global nutrition” –USA Today“Grabs your attention for the startlingly varied stories it tells about how people feed themselves around the world. Its contents are based on detailed research, beautifully photographed, presented with often disturbing clarity.” -Associated Press"The world's kitchens open to Peter Menzel and Faith D'Aluisio, the intrepid couple who created the series of books called Material World.... As always with this couple's terse, lively travelogues, politics and the world economy are never far from view." -New York Times Book Review “illuminating, thought-provoking, and gloriously colorful” –Saveur magazine“Richly colored and quietly composed photographs....Hungry Planet is not a book about obesity or corporate villains; it's something much grander. Its premise is simple to the point of obvious and powerful to the point of art.” -Salon.com“A fascinating nutritional and gustatory tour.” -San Jose Mercury News“A grand culinary voyage through our modern world...a lushly illustrated anthropological study.” -San Francisco Bay Guardian“The talked-about book of the season...the stories are fascinating.” -Detroit Free Press“Unique and engaging” –Delta Airlines Sky magazine

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Menzel, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Menzel, Peter

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Menzel, Peter. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Robo sapiens: Evolution of a New Species

Robo Sapiens: Evolution of a New Species

Man Eating Bugs (Turtleback School & Library Binding Edition)

Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Material World: A Global Family Portrait

Women in the Material World

Color Encyclopedia of Garden Plants and Habitats

What I Eat: Around the World in 80 Diets

Man Eating Bugs: The Art and Science of Eating Insects

Hungry Planet: What the World Eats