Harry Collins: 12 books
Gravity's Ghost and Big Dog
Scientific Discovery and Social Analysis in the Twenty-First Century
Language: English
Release Date: January 23, 2014
Gravity’s Ghost and Big Dog brings to life science’s efforts to detect cosmic gravitational waves. These ripples in space-time are predicted by general relativity, and their discovery will not only demonstrate the truth of Einstein’s theories but also transform astronomy. Although no gravitational...
Gravity's Kiss
The Detection of Gravitational Waves
Language: English
Release Date: January 20, 2017
A fascinating account, written in real time, of the unfolding of a scientific discovery: the first detection of gravitational waves.
Scientists have been trying to confirm the existence of gravitational waves for fifty years. Then, in September 2015, came a “very interesting event” (as...
Forms of Life
The Method and Meaning of Sociology
Language: English
Release Date: January 18, 2019
A concise, accessible, and engaging guide for students and practitioners of sociology.
In Forms of Life, Harry Collins offers an introduction to social science methodology, drawing on his forty-plus years of conducting high-profile sociological research. In this concise, accessible, and engaging...
Artifictional Intelligence
Against Humanity's Surrender to Computers
Language: English
Release Date: November 30, 2018
Recent startling successes in machine intelligence using a technique called ‘deep learning’ seem to blur the line between human and machine as never before. Are computers on the cusp of becoming so intelligent that they will render humans obsolete? Harry Collins argues we are getting ahead of...
Gravity's Ghost
Scientific Discovery in the Twenty-first Century
Language: English
Release Date: December 15, 2010
In theory, at least, gravitational waves do exist. We are constantly bathed in gravitational radiation, which is generated when stars explode or collide and a portion of their mass becomes energy that ripples out like a disturbance on the surface of a serene pond. But unfortunately no gravitational...
by Harry Collins, Robert Evans
Language: English
Release Date: March 27, 2017
Language: English
Release Date: March 27, 2017
We live in times of increasing public distrust of the main institutions of modern society. Experts, including scientists, are suspected of working to hidden agendas or serving vested interests. The solution is usually seen as more public scrutiny and more control by democratic institutions – experts...
by Harry Collins
Language: English
Release Date: March 28, 2014
Language: English
Release Date: March 28, 2014
To ordinary people, science used to seem infallible. Scientists were heroes, selflessly pursuing knowledge for the common good. More recently, a series of scientific scandals, frauds and failures have led us to question science’s pre-eminence. Revelations such as Climategate, or debates about the...
The Golem at Large
What You Should Know about Technology
Language: English
Release Date: May 15, 2014
In the very successful and widely discussed first volume in the Golem series, The Golem: What You Should Know about Science, Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch likened science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, a powerful creature which, while not evil, can be dangerous because it is clumsy....
The Shape of Actions
What Humans and Machines Can Do
Language: English
Release Date: January 5, 1999
What can humans do? What can machines do? How do humans delegate actions to machines? In this book, Harry Collins and Martin Kusch combine insights from sociology and philosophy to provide a novel answer to these increasingly important questions.The authors begin by distinguishing between two basic...
by John Law, Kalpana Shankar, David Hakken
Language: English
Release Date: December 16, 2016
Language: English
Release Date: December 16, 2016
The fourth edition of an authoritative overview, with all new chapters that capture the state of the art in a rapidly growing field.
Science and Technology Studies (STS) is a flourishing interdisciplinary field that examines the transformative power of science and technology to arrange and...
Bad Call
Technology's Attack on Referees and Umpires and How to Fix It
Language: English
Release Date: September 30, 2016
How technologies can get it wrong in sports, and what the consequences are—referees undermined, fans heartbroken, and the illusion of perfect accuracy maintained.
Good call or bad call, referees and umpires have always had the final say in sports. Bad calls are more visible: plays are televised...
The Golem
What You Should Know About Science
Language: English
Release Date: March 29, 2012
Harry Collins and Trevor Pinch liken science to the Golem, a creature from Jewish mythology, powerful yet potentially dangerous, a gentle, helpful creature that may yet run amok at any moment. Through a series of intriguing case studies the authors debunk the traditional view that science is the straightforward...