Slashdot Mirror
National Academies Release Over 4,000 Free Science Books
Shipud writes "The National Academies Press are offering all their books for free in PDF format. These are all the publications of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, Institute of Medicine, and National Research Council. Lots of great stuff there, and now for free."
Eg, looking for a math book and all I see is shit like "Gender Differences at Critical Transitions in the Careers of Science, Engineering, and Mathematics Faculty"
Do you even lift?
These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.
This isn't "Free as in Freedom" it's "Free as in Promotional".
FTFA:
Printed books will continue to be available for purchase through the NAP website and traditional channels. The free PDFs are available exclusively from the NAP’s website, http://www.nap.edu/, and remain subject to copyright laws. PDF versions exist for the vast majority of NAP books. Exceptions include some books that were published before the advent of PDFs; books from the Joseph Henry Press imprint; and in cases where contractually prohibited, such as reference books in the Nutrient Requirements of Domestic Animals series.
So, you can download them to your computer, but you can't (legally) make a copy for your friend... This isn't the free as in "land of the free" that I grew up learning about... seems like a trap to me. "How did you know that without ever buying our book or downloading our PDF? You must be a sea faring rapist and murderous theif!"
Let me know when it's released under a CC license, then I'll think about downloading it.
This gives more citations, - i.e. it's a win-win!
What do you cite if you're on a tight budget? The free stuff, not necessarily the most "relevant" stuff (said the cynic, in me, too); here, the relevant stuff may be cited in the free stuff, so why not, the logical chain is there.
That was published in a real book?
If you are doing 'research' that needs to reference previous public studies, this is great news. (If you are associated with a university or large institution you probably already had access it). This is not the place for discovering how something works (hint: try wikipedia), this is a place for discovering how we use something and what it means for the public.
Yes, these books are useful.
Coming from academia there are some rather obscure subjects
there, but why not read about the handling and management of
chemicals? That which is not common is still useful. I daresay
that skipping over the more "odd" things is an inditement of the
educational system. Reading that which doesn't interest you at
first is a great way to learn new things, just as reading political
views you don't agree with might broaden your ideas.
Me, I'm going back to trough now. I only have about 50 of
them,
Keeping the opposition about 5,000 leaps of faith ahead.
--
New Expletive: IS
If you're interested in facts I'll tell you what they are and I'll give you sources - Chomsky on The Big Idea
Please won't someone download all of these and post a torrent?
The publisher's page: http://www.bjupress.com/about/look-inside-science-4.php
You can view some sample pages.
And cry.
We both said a lot of things that you are going to regret.
Very often, the books and papers from NAS, NAE, IOM and NRC provide excellent references by the best people in the country and are very good evaluations of current research, and how we got there. In my work in indoor air quality microbiology, I downloaded one of their books (a page at a time), and the references and reviews were exceptionally helpful in my keeping current and interpreting data. Making their work available for downloading in large units is awesome!
The titles alone put me to sleep in seconds. I can't help but wonder when various Bush appointees will classify the book titles as a federally controlled substance?
Unfortunately, yes:
http://www.bjupress.com/about/electricity-is-a-mystery.php
Oddly enough combining Christianity with science resulted in a science book that'll leave kids thinking that Jesus is busy each night towing the Moon in to the sky so we'll have a nice bit of light.
They have a point in that we may not have full explanations, and have to infer the existence of something from its effects rather than direct observation, but in the context of this book it's pretty clear they're a bunch of religious nutters looking to indoctrinate rather than educate.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
That seriously HAS to be a parody of religious beliefs! There is no way the author is serious about the stuff that he wrote.
We're talking about people who believe that some long-dead bastard child of a divine being is going to be waiting after death to bring them to eternal happy land in the sky. Some of them gather each week so a guy in a robe can magic crackers in to the flesh of this guy so they can eat it.
With that foundation I'm more surprised that people are as sane and competent as they appear to be.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
It seems rather ridiculous, but for balance one should also read the publisher's explanation of this page here.
Why is there an "insightful" mod and why isn't it "-1"? If I wanted insight, I wouldn't be reading
For balance it's better to read a bit more of the book. Why would a serious science book attempt to ascribe a reason to the moon's creation, let alone claim that it was created by God so that we would have light?
It's a pretty amusing attempt to shoe-horn Jesus in to science by over-playing gaps in our knowledge, and in places being downright dishonest. All standard stuff from the playbook of the liars for Jesus.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
I immediately found a book for $99.95 and downloaded it. Saved almost $100!
I'll come back tomorrow and see if I can find five more for $99.95, so I can buy a new laptop.
- yep I learned logical reasoning from the music industry.
http://www.pdfernhout.net/open-letter-to-grantmakers-and-donors-on-copyright-policy.html ... Foundations, other grantmaking agencies handling public tax-exempt dollars, and charitable donors need to consider the implications for their grantmaking or donation policies if they use a now obsolete charitable model of subsidizing proprietary publishing and proprietary research. In order to improve the effectiveness and collaborativeness of the non-profit sector overall, it is suggested these grantmaking organizations and donors move to requiring grantees to make any resulting copyrighted digital materials freely available on the internet, including free licenses granting the right for others to make and redistribute new derivative works without further permission. It is also suggested patents resulting from charitably subsidized research research also be made freely available for general use. The alternative of allowing charitable dollars to result in proprietary copyrights and proprietary patents is corrupting the non-profit sector as it results in a conflict of interest between a non-profit's primary mission of helping humanity through freely sharing knowledge (made possible at little cost by the internet) and a desire to maximize short term revenues through charging licensing fees for access to patents and copyrights. In essence, with the change of publishing and communication economics made possible by the wide spread use of the internet, tax-exempt non-profits have become, perhaps unwittingly, caught up in a new form of "self-dealing", and it is up to donors and grantmakers (and eventually lawmakers) to prevent this by requiring free licensing of results as a condition of their grants and donations. "
"An Open Letter to All Grantmakers and Donors On Copyright And Patent Policy In a Post-Scarcity Society
A 21st century issue: the irony of technologies of abundance in the hands of those still thinking in terms of scarcity.
It requires a registered account to download the PDFs. And, to be honest, I wasn't much excited about the titles either. Are there any gems that are really worth making an account for?
Is there anything exactly wrong in the posted jpg?
Read something very similar from a local (Bosnian) version of a religious "textbook".
Only this one was about plants (as in trees) being food-factories.
The fun part: science has no fucking clue how do "the juices" get pumped from the ground, up through the trunk and into the branches and fruit.
"There are several theories, but none of them have been able to provide the answer."
That particular one is from a Muslim "textbook". Others are not much different. It's a built-in defect.
Mit der Dummheit kämpfen Götter selbst vergebens
Yes. The reference to Psalms is a bit odd, although not unexpected given the context. Even accepting that this book is intended for kids it's still amazingly over simplified. Electricity in this book could easily be the force from the Star Trek universe. Reading this one would think that electricity's magically appearing in bulbs without anyone knowing anything about its origin.
Contrary to what the book says, we know far more than how to bring electricity forth. I'm not sure if they're serious there or if it's just sloppy writing.
-- Using the preview button since 2005
(With light parody of one of the texts)
The Slashdot Community forgets its own arguments over time.
This is one particular publisher releasing its archive. It's Academia - the stuff that used to cost $200 per book, which made us all furious at the Book Scam. Now they have released every single one of their texts for download, and the whole point is that you can convert it to text from the PDF. Every one of these can become a podcast. If you and five buddies like it/them, you just have a LAN party and you each download your books.
All those Intro to X books are covered elsewhere. These are the specific topics that you have to read several of, and read between the lines, to really extract the useful parts. Ah yes, this is Slashdot, we champion the art of not reading long texts!
The bigger point is if the OTHER science publishers ALSO released their collections, you could get your favorite Intro to X books from the Houghton Mifflin branch of whoever owns it now. Then you have the best of all worlds.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Even accepting that this book is intended for kids it's still amazingly over simplified.
You're too kind. It's plain wrong, as is their CYA explanation on their website. They point out that we can't see electricity (true) and infer that therefore nobody can understand electricity (false). I mean, "We cannot even say where electricity comes from. Some scientists think that the sun may be the source of most electricity. Others think that the movement of the earth produces some of it." There's no way to recontextualize that to make it anything other than just plain wrong. As you say, it's basically The Force, or Magic in any crappy fantasy novel (*good* fantasy novels tend to have a more coherent model for any magic than the one these guys put forward for electricity).
"*There are a small number of older reports that never had PDF files and therefore, those reports are not available for download. In addition, there are contractual requirements that preclude NAP from offering some PDF files for free. Those include ... books in the Joseph Henry Press imprint."
Your example is in the Joseph Henry imprint.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
I think I saw a "continue as guest" option but really, just sign up and get some street cred in the academic circles.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
So, you can download them to your computer, but you can't (legally) make a copy for your friend... This isn't the free as in "land of the free" that I grew up learning about... seems like a trap to me. "How did you know that without ever buying our book or downloading our PDF? You must be a sea faring rapist and murderous theif!"
More evidence for the theory that no good deed goes unpunished. The +5 informative is just sad.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
You're on to something.
You can either browse them on the site by topic, or even play the fun lottery game I found called "guess the ID number". I'll get you guys started:
8 10 11 13 15 19 21 22 25 30 35 40 41 54 55 56 58 61 63 75 80 81 86 91 92 100 101.
They made the books absolutely as clean as they could, no DRM, it extracts to text for podcasting, and so on. However we have a surprising number of people in the thread under their logged in names saying "meh, it's not a torrent so I can't share it".
We have a variant of the True Scotsman fallacy going on here. This is literally a Million Dollar archive (assuming new horrid academic prices of some $250 average per book). But 30% of the thread comments are "why is this not a torrent?". And there's the secret. Lots of torrenters don't ever plan to exhaust the materials in their torrent. They just like having it like collecting mushrooms in a video game.
My first Journal Entry ever, in 8 years! http://slashdot.org/journal/365947/aphelion-scifi-fantasy-horror-poetry-webzine
Unfortunately, I can see where a comment like "no torrent?!?" makes sense - someone appreciates that it is being shared, and would like to help take a small fraction of the load/cost away from the source, even if they never plan to use the materials themselves.
For example, I have no plan on upgrading to Ubuntu 11.04, but I torrented it to upload 20gb of each cd on the release day - I have the bandwidth/resources, and it was a way of giving back. Not planning on running Slackware again anytime soon, but I torrented it for a while too when 13.37 was released.
Don't blame me, I voted for Kodos
On a related note, are any of these books suitable for teaching science to high school students?
Nothing for 6-digit uids?
Lots of these are quite specialised. For a broad intro to physics (up to general relativity and quantum theory), try Motion Mountain:
http://motionmountain.net/
I read the explanation page of the author and then reread the page posted to imgur.com. I have to say that it is a piss poor attempt to make the original publication sound reasonable after having been called out for trying teaching absolute non-sense to 4th graders. The explanation page is thoughtful. If only as much thought went into the publication of the supposed textbook on basic science.
- lower download data costs, &
- they'd have another form of feedback on how popular each title is
(eg, by the # of [seeds &] peers each attracts, & for how long...)
(Of course, in time, they'll still need to be the main source... so, it could be a short-term savings.)
PS If they don't... perhaps people will soon start put together packages of NAP books, for BT distrib'n...?
Gold.
Whats the harm in yelling 'Computer, end program!'? You could be living in Star Trek! Go on.. give it a try.
Oddly enough combining Christianity with science resulted in a science book that'll leave kids thinking that Jesus is busy each night towing the Moon in to the sky so we'll have a nice bit of light.
Oh, dunno about that. I remember when, as a kid send to Sunday School where they gave this sort of "explanation" of the moon, my immediate thought was to ask why God had put the moon in an orbit that was only visible on average for half the night time, and spent half its time in the day sky where it's not needed. You'd think that, if God is all-powerful, He'd have arranged to have the moon stay exactly opposite the sun in the sky, so that it was always full and always shining at night. Doesn't that seem like rather sloppy design (or implementation if you prefer)?
Somehow, the Sunday-School teacher(s) didn't seem to think this was an interesting question, and didn't even try to answer it. But I eventually learned that astronomers had good explanations of how the Earth-moon-sun system worked, and were honest enough to admit that they didn't know why it's all set up that way. So I went with their explanation rather than the Sunday-School teachers'.
I did like the suggestion that, when they were created, the sun and moon had orbits that were exact multiples of each other, but over the eons (millennia?) the solar system has gotten badly out of alignment. God is too busy with other things to do any maintenance, giving us the incommensurable orbital periods that we see today. It seems that God just can't be bothered with our part of His creation any more ...
Those who do study history are doomed to stand helplessly by while everyone else repeats it.
Something to do with fucking magnets.
Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
Congrats to the Foundation! Maybe this will get more people to study and understand science. I hope some other institutions follow suit.
There are three good reasons for them to keep the copyright.
1. They can prevent people from modifying the originals (eg: for political propoganda).
2. They can still make a few bucks from people who want to order the hard copies for whatever reason.
3. Attracts people to their website.
Besides, even though technically you can't copy them I very much doubt they care if you do so in good faith.
And did you exchange a walk on part in the war for a lead role in a cage? - Pink Floyd.
I'm not sure. Every research institute or university has access to pretty much all relevant journals through site contracts.
I know you're trying to be a smartass, but as a faithful and devout Catholic, I can say you understand Catholic beliefs better than a lot of Catholics themselves do. Make of that what you will.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Oddly enough combining Christianity with science resulted in the history of Western Civilization.
There, FTFY.
Just because a lot of current Christians (e.g., the Fundamentalists) have some weird and fairly novel ideas that Christianity and science are at odds with each other doesn't mean its true. That isn't to say there haven't been issues along the way (like Galileo) but the reason Western Civilization totally took off, while many other societies stagnated or declined is precisely because Christianity, specifically Catholicism, is compatible with science and reason in ways that many other religions fail. For a much better summary of the idea, see Pope Benedict's Regensburg speech from a few years ago.
Meanwhile, I downloaded several books last night and found a couple I would like to buy. John Derbyshire has written two really excellent books about math that I have read and learned a lot from. They are both definitely worth reading again: Unknown Quantity and Prime Obsession.
You are in a maze of twisty little passages, all alike.
Cheers. Yeah, it was a bit if a cheap dig. Been off the smokes, so the mood is a bit flakey.
I wish people would learn a bit more about the past 2000 odd years of Christianity and Church history - if only to better understand what they're believing in. I'm in Ireland, where the majority are Catholics who think that the Council of Trent is a place in England where people go to complain when their bins haven't been collected. Shame.
-- Using the preview button since 2005