In The Vision Revolution: How the Latest Research Overturns Everything We Thought We Knew About Human Vision, Mark Changizi, prominent neuroscientist and vision expert, addresses four areas of human vision and provides explanations for why we have those particular abilities, complete with a number of full-color illustrations to demonstrate his conclusions and to engage the reader. Written for both the casual reader and the science buff hungry for new information, The Vision Revolution is a resource that dispels commonly believed perceptions about sight and offers answers drawn from the field's most recent research. Changizi focuses on four “why" questions: 1. Why do we see in color? 2. Why do our eyes face forward? 3. Why do we see illusions? 4. Why does reading come so naturally to us? Why Do We See in Color? It was commonly believed that color vision evolved to help our primitive ancestors identify ripe fruit. Changizi says we should look closer to home: ourselves. Human color vision evolved to give us greater insights into the mental states and health of other people. People who can see color changes in skin have an advantage over their color-blind counterparts; they can see when people are blushing with embarrassment, purple-faced with exertion or the reddening of rashes. Changizi's research reveals that the cones in our eyes that allow us to see color are exquisitely designed exactly for seeing color changes in the skin. And it's no coincidence that the primates with color vision are the ones with bare spots on their faces and other body parts; Changizi shows that the development of color vision in higher primates closely parallels the loss of facial hair, culminating in the near hairlessness and highly developed color vision of humans. Why Do Our Eyes Face Forward? Forward-facing eyes set us apart from most mammals, and there is much dispute as to why we have them. While some speculate that we evolved this feature to give us depth perception available through stereo vision, this type of vision only allows us to see short distances, and we already have other mechanisms that help us to estimate distance. Changizi's research shows that with two forward-facing eyes, primates and humans have an x-ray ability. Specifically, we're able to see through the cluttered leaves of the forest environment in which we evolved. This feature helps primates see their targets in a crowded, encroached environment. To see how this works, hold a finger in front of your eyes. You'll find that you're able to look “through" it, at what is beyond your finger. One of the most amazing feats of two forward-facing eyes? Our views aren't blocked by our noses, beaks, etc. Why Do We See Illusions? We evolved to see moving objects, not where they are, but where they are going to be. Without this ability, we couldn't catch a ball because the brain's ability to process visual information isn't fast enough to allow us to put our hands in the right place to intersect for a rapidly approaching baseball. “If our brains simply created a perception of the way the world was at the time light hit the eye, then by the time that perception was elicited—which takes about a tenth of a second for the brain to do—time would have marched on, and the perception would be of the recent past," Changizi explains. Simply put, illusions occur when our brain is tricked into thinking that a stationary two-dimensional picture has an element that is moving. Our brains project the “moving" element into the future and, as a result, we don't see what's on the page, but what our brain thinks will be the case a fraction of a second into the future. Why Does Reading Come So Naturally to Us? We can read faster than we can hear, which is odd, considering that reading is relatively recent,

An opthalmologist’s guide to everything from lutein to Lasik: “Valuable tips, unique insights. . .Dr. Abel is a healer for the 21st century.”—from the Foreword by Mehmet Oz, M.D. Is it true that Alzheimer's can be predicted through the eye?Sleep apnea can cause blindness?Computers and texting are creating an epidemic of nearsightedness?Retina chips and stem cell therapy offer promise for macular degeneration patients?Your prescription drugs can give you cataracts. . .or glaucoma? Alternative therapies have created new vistas for hope in eye care. In this breakthrough guide—newly revised and updated--ophthalmologist Dr. Robert Abel brings you amazing nutritional, herbal, homeopathic, and Asian therapies, along with conventional methods, to prevent and even reverse most vision disorders. Discover: New devices that allow the blind to "see" through their tongues What you need to know about your children's eyes How to administer eye drops with your eyes closed Antioxidant must-haves for your eyes A safe, herbal treatment for glaucoma Surprising ways vitamins can protect and heal your eyes Easy steps to end eyestrain New developments in LASIK surgery Why lutein may be even more important for vision than beta-carotene How to improve lazy eyes through acupuncture and vision therapy Covering everything from high-tech laser treatments to centuries-old Asian remedies, Dr. Abel's authoritative, reliable information will help you and your doctor become full partners in saving your eyes and your overall good health. "If you have an eye condition, ask your ophthalmologist how he will treat you. Then pick up Dr. Abel's book and note how many more answers he gives. I can vouch for the fact that the options he offers, being natural and nutritional, are far better."—Robert C. Atkins, M.D.

Berkeley's Essay towards a New Theory of Vision (1709), his first substantial publication, revolutionized the theory of vision. His approach provided the framework for subsequent work in the psychology of vision and remains influential to this day. Among philosophers, however, the New Theory has not always been read as a landmark in the history of scientific thought, but instead as a halfway house to Berkeley's later metaphysics. In this book, Margaret Atherton seeks to redress the balance through a commentary on and a reinterpretation of Berkeley's New Theory.

In what may well rank as the finest political and intellectual history of the twentieth century, the late J. L. Talmon explores the origins of the schism within European society between the totalitarians of Right and Left as well as the split between an acceptance of the historical national community as the natural political and social framework and the vision of a socialist society achieved by a universal revolutionary breakthrough. This, the third and final volume of Talmon's history of the modern world, brings to bear the resources of his incisive scholarship to examine the workings of the ironies of totalitarianism as well as the resources of democracy.

Business and politics behind the development of digital high-definition television, by the Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent who covered it. The true impact of HDTV and how it was developed is more tortured--and the global competition that created it much more exciting--than any newspaper and magazine has been able to report. Here is the story from behind the scenes.

The focus of this book is a calling to come home to our hearts. To come back to the innocence and return to the love that is forever present.

Inspiring Christians to see people as God sees them and make a difference As Christians, we want to make a difference in this world. We want to have an impact not only on our immediate family and community, but on wider social issues. We want to protect the vulnerable and engage with the issues that really matter. But how? This book shows us how wonderful, liberating and empowering it is to be made in God’s image. It will change how we see ourselves and other people. Some will feel the call to run for office... others will roll up their sleeves and join the good work of non-profit ministry... and others might simply find little ways to incorporate this vision of human dignity into their everyday lives, and change their community one word, one action, one person at a time. Dan Darling shows us that each one of us can be, and are called to be, part of this new movement-a human dignity revolution that our societies desperately need, and how we-you-are uniquely placed to join. This compelling book shows you how to join the dignity revolution.

The scientific consensus is that our ability to understand human speech has evolved over hundreds of thousands of years. After all, there are whole portions of the brain devoted to human speech. We learn to understand speech before we can even walk, and can seamlessly absorb enormous amounts of information simply by hearing it. Surely we evolved this capability over thousands of generations. Or did we? Portions of the human brain are also devoted to reading. Children learn to read at a very young age and can seamlessly absorb information even more quickly through reading than through hearing. We know that we didn't evolve to read because reading is only a few thousand years old. In Harnessed, cognitive scientist Mark Changizi demonstrates that human speech has been very specifically “designed" to harness the sounds of nature, sounds we've evolved over millions of years to readily understand. Long before humans evolved, mammals have learned to interpret the sounds of nature to understand both threats and opportunities. Our speech—regardless of language—is very clearly based on the sounds of nature. Even more fascinating, Changizi shows that music itself is based on natural sounds. Music—seemingly one of the most human of inventions—is literally built on sounds and patterns of sound that have existed since the beginning of time. From Library Journal: "Many scientists believe that the human brain's capacity for language is innate, that the brain is actually "hard-wired" for this higher-level functionality. But theoretical neurobiologist Changizi (director of human cognition, 2AI Labs; The Vision Revolution) brilliantly challenges this view, claiming that language (and music) are neither innate nor instinctual to the brain but evolved culturally to take advantage of what the most ancient aspect of our brain does best: process the sounds of nature ... it will certainly intrigue evolutionary biologists, linguists, and cultural anthropologists and is strongly recommended for libraries that have Changizi's previous book." From Forbes: “In his latest book, Harnessed, neuroscientist Mark Changizi manages to accomplish the extraordinary: he says something compellingly new about evolution.… Instead of tackling evolution from the usual position and become mired in the usual arguments, he focuses on one aspect of the larger story so central to who we are, it may very well overshadow all others except the origin of life itself: communication."

Moments of Vision recounts Harold Edgerton's remarkable achievements in stroboscopy and electronic flash photography. It contains nearly two hundred photographs, including twelve pages in color, of many of the pioneer and classic images first published by Edgerton and Killian in Flash (1938) as well as numerous recent works by Edgerton and others using his stroboscopic inventions. Here are the famous milk drops, athletes and dancers in motion, bullets in transit, and hummingbird in flight-all made possible by the MIT scientist-engineer who pioneered the methods now widely used in stop-motion, night, and underwater photography.