Avi Loeb's Books

Extraterrestrial

The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

By: Avi Loeb

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Extraterrestrial

The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

By: Avi Loeb

New York Times Bestseller | Wall Street Journal Bestseller | Publishers Weekly Bestseller | Publishers Marketplace 2020 Buzz Book | Amazon Best Book of the Year | Longlisted for the 2022 PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award “Provocative and thrilling ... Loeb asks us to think big and to expect the unexpected.” —Alan Lightman, New York Times bestselling author of Einstein’s Dreams and Searching for Stars on an Island in Maine Harvard’s top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star. In late 2017, scientists at a Hawaiian observatory glimpsed an object soaring through our inner solar system, moving so quickly that it could only have come from another star. Avi Loeb, Harvard’s top astronomer, showed it was not an asteroid; it was moving too fast along a strange orbit, and left no trail of gas or debris in its wake. There was only one conceivable explanation: the object was a piece of advanced technology created by a distant alien civilization. In Extraterrestrial, Loeb takes readers inside the thrilling story of the first interstellar visitor to be spotted in our solar system. He outlines his controversial theory and its profound implications: for science, for religion, and for the future of our species and our planet. A mind-bending journey through the furthest reaches of science, space-time, and the human imagination, Extraterrestrial challenges readers to aim for the stars—and to think critically about what’s out there, no matter how strange it seems.

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Page Count

245

Publisher

HarperCollins

Published Date

ISBN 10

0358274559

ISBN 13

9780358274551

Extraterrestrial

The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

By: Avi Loeb

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Extraterrestrial

The First Sign of Intelligent Life Beyond Earth

By: Avi Loeb

Harvard's top astronomer lays out his controversial theory that our solar system was recently visited by advanced alien technology from a distant star

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245

Publisher

Houghton Mifflin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0358278147

ISBN 13

9780358278146

The Elephant in the Universe

Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter

By: Govert Schilling,Avi Loeb

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The Elephant in the Universe

Our Hundred-Year Search for Dark Matter

By: Govert Schilling,Avi Loeb

An award-winning science journalist details the quest to isolate and understand dark matter--and shows how that search has helped us to understand the universe we inhabit. When you train a telescope on outer space, you can see luminous galaxies, nebulae, stars, and planets. But if you add all that together, it constitutes only 15 percent of the matter in the universe. Despite decades of research, the nature of the remaining 85 percent is unknown. We call it dark matter. In The Elephant in the Universe, Govert Schilling explores the fascinating history of the search for dark matter. Evidence for its existence comes from a wealth of astronomical observations. Theories and computer simulations of the evolution of the universe are also suggestive: they can be reconciled with astronomical measurements only if dark matter is a dominant component of nature. Physicists have devised huge, sensitive instruments to search for dark matter, which may be unlike anything else in the cosmos--some unknown elementary particle. Yet so far dark matter has escaped every experiment. Indeed, dark matter is so elusive that some scientists are beginning to suspect there might be something wrong with our theories about gravity or with the current paradigms of cosmology. Schilling interviews both believers and heretics and paints a colorful picture of the history and current status of dark matter research, with astronomers and physicists alike trying to make sense of theory and observation. Taking a holistic view of dark matter as a problem, an opportunity, and an example of science in action, The Elephant in the Universe is a vivid tale of scientists puzzling their way toward the true nature of the universe.

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Page Count

377

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674248996

ISBN 13

9780674248991

Life in the Cosmos

From Biosignatures to Technosignatures

By: Manasvi Lingam,Avi Loeb

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Life in the Cosmos

From Biosignatures to Technosignatures

By: Manasvi Lingam,Avi Loeb

A rigorous and scientific analysis of the myriad possibilities of life beyond our planet. “Are we alone in the universe?” This tantalizing question has captivated humanity over millennia, but seldom has it been approached rigorously. Today the search for signatures of extraterrestrial life and intelligence has become a rapidly advancing scientific endeavor. Missions to Mars, Europa, and Titan seek evidence of life. Laboratory experiments have made great strides in creating synthetic life, deepening our understanding of conditions that give rise to living entities. And on the horizon are sophisticated telescopes to detect and characterize exoplanets most likely to harbor life. Life in the Cosmos offers a thorough overview of the burgeoning field of astrobiology, including the salient methods and paradigms involved in the search for extraterrestrial life and intelligence. Manasvi Lingam and Avi Loeb tackle three areas of interest in hunting for life “out there”: first, the pathways by which life originates and evolves; second, planetary and stellar factors that affect the habitability of worlds, with an eye on the biomarkers that may reveal the presence of microbial life; and finally, the detection of technological signals that could be indicative of intelligence. Drawing on empirical data from observations and experiments, as well as the latest theoretical and computational developments, the authors make a compelling scientific case for the search for life beyond what we can currently see. Meticulous and comprehensive, Life in the Cosmos is a master class from top researchers in astrobiology, suggesting that the answer to our age-old question is closer than ever before.

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Page Count

1089

Publisher

Harvard University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0674259947

ISBN 13

9780674259942

Selling the Silver Bullet

The Lone Ranger and Transmedia Brand Licensing

By: Avi Santo

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Selling the Silver Bullet

The Lone Ranger and Transmedia Brand Licensing

By: Avi Santo

Originating as a radio series in 1933, the Lone Ranger is a cross-media star who has appeared in comic strips, comic books, adult and juvenile novels, feature films and serials, clothing, games, toys, home furnishings, and many other consumer products. In his prime, he rivaled Mickey Mouse as one of the most successfully licensed and merchandised children’s properties in the United States, while in more recent decades, the Lone Ranger has struggled to resonate with consumers, leading to efforts to rebrand the property. The Lone Ranger’s eighty-year history as a lifestyle brand thus offers a perfect case study of how the fields of licensing, merchandizing, and brand management have operated within shifting industrial and sociohistorical conditions that continue to redefine how the business of entertainment functions. Deciphering how iconic characters gain and retain their status as cultural commodities, Selling the Silver Bullet focuses on the work done by peripheral consumer product and licensing divisions in selectively extending the characters’ reach and in cultivating investment in these characters among potential stakeholders. Tracing the Lone Ranger’s decades-long career as intellectual property allows Avi Santo to analyze the mechanisms that drive contemporary character licensing and entertainment brand management practices, while at the same time situating the licensing field’s development within particular sociohistorical and industrial contexts. He also offers a nuanced assessment of the ways that character licensing firms and consumer product divisions have responded to changing cultural and economic conditions over the past eighty years, which will alter perceptions about the creative and managerial authority these ancillary units wield.

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Page Count

332

Publisher

University of Texas Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1477303979

ISBN 13

9781477303979

Not Reckoned Among Nations

The Origins of the So-called "Jewish Question" in Roman Antiquity

By: Avi Avidov

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Not Reckoned Among Nations

The Origins of the So-called "Jewish Question" in Roman Antiquity

By: Avi Avidov

Outgrowth of the author's thesis (doctoral)--University of Cambridge, 1996.

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Page Count

252

Publisher

Mohr Siebeck

Published Date

ISBN 10

3161500210

ISBN 13

9783161500213

The Open Canon

On the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse

By: Avi Sagi

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The Open Canon

On the Meaning of Halakhic Discourse

By: Avi Sagi

In this groundbreaking study Avi Sagi outlines a broad spectrum of answers to important questions presented in Jewish literature, covering theological issues bearing on the meaning of the Torah and of revelation, as well as hermeneutical questions regarding understanding of the halakhic text. This is the first volume to attempt to provide a comprehensive map of the available views and theories concerning the theological, hermeneutical, and ontological meaning of dispute as a constitutive element of Halakhah. It offers an attentive reading of the texts and strives to present, clearly and exhaustively, the conscious account of Jewish tradition in general and of halakhic tradition in particular concerning the meaning of halakhic discourse.

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Page Count

241

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing

Published Date

ISBN 10

144110268X

ISBN 13

9781441102683

Practical Soldiers: Israel’s Military Thought and Its Formative Factors

By: Avi Kober

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Practical Soldiers: Israel’s Military Thought and Its Formative Factors

By: Avi Kober

This book suggests a general framework for the analysis of formative factors in military thought and offers an account of the Israel Defense Force’s state of intellectualism and modernity. This account is followed by an attempt to trace the factors that have shaped Israeli military thought. The explanations are a mixture of realist and non-realist factors, which can be found at both the systemic and the state level of analysis. At the systemic level, realist evaluations focus on factors such as the dominance of the technological dimension and the pervasiveness of asymmetrical, low-intensity conflict; whereas at the state level one can find realist explanations, cultural factors, and societal influences. Moral and legal constraints also factor into both the systemic and state levels.

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Page Count

210

Publisher

BRILL

Published Date

ISBN 10

9004306862

ISBN 13

9789004306868

Plato

Images, Aims, and Practices of Education

By: Avi I. Mintz

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Plato

Images, Aims, and Practices of Education

By: Avi I. Mintz

This book opens by providing the historical context of Plato’s engagement with education, including an overview of Plato’s life as student and educator. The author organizes his discussion of education in the Platonic Corpus around Plato’s images, both the familiar – the cave, the gadfly, the torpedo fish, and the midwife – and the less familiar – the intellectual aviary, the wax tablet, and the kindled fire. These educational images reveal that, for Plato, philosophizing is inextricably linked to learning; that is, philosophy is fundamentally an educational endeavor. The book concludes by exploring Plato’s legacy in education, discussing the use of the “Socratic method” in schools and the Academy’s foundational place in the history of higher education. The characters in Plato’s dialogues often debate – sometimes with great passion – the purpose of education and the nature of learning. The claims about education in the Platonic corpus are so provocative, nuanced, insightful, and controversial that educational philosophers have reckoned with them for millennia.

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