Immagine dell'autore.
75+ opere 45,263 membri 689 recensioni 168 preferito

Sull'Autore

Jared Mason Diamond is a physiologist, ecologist, and the author of several popular science books. Born in Boston in 1937, Diamond earned his B.A. at Harvard and his Ph.D. from Cambridge. A distinguished teacher and researcher, Diamond is well-known for the columns he contributes to the widely read mostra altro magazines Natural History and Discover. Diamond's book The Third Chimpanzee: The Evolution and Future of the Human Animal was heralded for its accessibility and for its blending of science and social science. The interdisciplinary Guns, Germs and Steel--Diamond's examination of the relationship between scientific technology and economic disparity--won the 1997 Pulitzer Prize. Diamond has won a McArthur Foundation Fellowship in addition to several smaller awards for his science and writing. (Bowker Author Biography) mostra meno

Serie

Opere di Jared Diamond

Natural Experiments of History (2010) — A cura di — 136 copie
Community Ecology (1986) 9 copie
Seks Neden Keyiflidir (2016) 2 copie
Writing Right 1 copia
Father's Milk 1 copia
Easter's End 1 copia
Turning A Man 1 copia
Inventer pour le XXIe siècle (2011) — Collaboratore — 1 copia

Opere correlate

The Oxford Book of Modern Science Writing (2008) — Collaboratore — 803 copie
What Evolution Is (2001) — Prefazione — 734 copie
The Best American Essays 2004 (2004) — Collaboratore — 289 copie
1000 Events That Shaped the World (2007) — Prefazione — 120 copie
Guns, Germs, and Steel [2005 TV mini series] (2005) — Orignal book — 48 copie
The Living Bird: 100 Years of Listening to Nature (2015) — Collaboratore — 40 copie
Penguin Green Ideas Collection (2021) — Collaboratore — 10 copie

Etichette

Informazioni generali

Nome legale
Diamond, Jared Mason
Altri nomi
DIAMOND, Jared Mason
DIAMOND, Jared M.
DIAMOND, Jared
Data di nascita
1937-09-10
Sesso
male
Nazionalità
VS
Nazione (per mappa)
USA
Luogo di nascita
Boston, Massachusetts, USA
Istruzione
Roxbury Latin School
Harvard University (BA | 1958)
University of Cambridge (PhD | Physiology and Biophysics | 1961)
Attività lavorative
evolutionary biologist
physiologist
biogeographer
Professor of Physiology
environmentalist
anthropologist (mostra tutto 9)
ornithologist
linguist
science writer
Relazioni
Cohen, Marie Nabel (wife)
Diamond, Josh (son)
Diamond, Max (son)
Organizzazioni
American Philosophical Society
World Wildlife Fund
University of California, Los Angeles
The Skeptics Society
Premi e riconoscimenti
American Academy of Arts and Sciences
National Academy of Sciences
Lannan Literary Award (1999)
California Book Awards (1998)
Elliott Coues Award (1998)
Phi Beta Kappa Science Book Prize (1997) (mostra tutto 21)
Lewis Thomas Prize for Writing about Science (2002)
Randi Award (1994)
Zoological Society of San Diego Conservation Medal (1993)
Los Angeles Times Science Book Prize (1992)
Tanner Lecturer (1992)
Archie Carr Medal (1989)
MacArthur Fellowship (1985)
Franklin L. Burr Award (1979)
Nathaniel Bowditch Prize (1976)
Kaiser Permanente/Golden Apple Teaching Award (1976)
Distinguished Achievement Award, 1975
Distinguished Teaching Award, 1972, 1973
Prize Fellowship, 1961
National Medal of Science (1999)
Kew International Medal, 2012
Breve biografia
Jared Diamond, professor of geography at the University of California at Los Angeles ... began his scientific career in physiology and expanded into evolutionary biology and biogeography. [from Guns, Germs, and Steel (2005)]
JARED DIAMOND is Professor of Geography at the University of California, Los Angeles. Until recently he was Professor of Physiology at the UCLA School of Medicine. He is the author of The World Until Yesterday: What Can We Learn from Traditional Societies?; Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of the widely acclaimed Guns, Germs, and Steel: the Fates of Human Societies, which also is the winner of Britain's 1998 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize.

Dr. Diamond is also the author of two other trade books: The Third Chimpanzee, which won The Los Angeles Times Book award for the best science book of 1992 and Britain's 1992 Rhone-Poulenc Science Book Prize; and Why is Sex Fun? (ScienceMasters Series).

Dr. Diamond is the recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship ("Genius Award"); research prizes of the American Physiological Society, National Geographic Society, and Zoological Society of San Diego; and many teaching awards and endowed public lectureships. In addition, he has been elected a member of all three of the leading national scientific/academic honorary societies (National Academy of Sciences, American Academy of Arts and Sciences, American Philosophical Society).

His field experience includes 17 expeditions to New Guinea and neighboring islands, to study ecology and evolution of birds; rediscovery of New Guinea's long-lost goldenfronted bowerbird; other field projects in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia. As a conservationist he devised a comprehensive plan, almost all of which was subsequently implemented, for Indonesian New Guinea's national park system; numerous field projects for the Indonesian government and World Wildlife Fund; founding member of the board of the Society of Conservation Biology; member of the Board of Directors of World Wildlife Fund/USA.

http://edge.org/memberbio/jared_diamo...

Utenti

Discussioni

AUGUST - SPOILERS - Collapse in The Green Dragon (Ottobre 2014)

Recensioni

Molto interessante, senza ombra di dubbio. Ho appreso molte cose che non sapevo, soprattutto su folklore e sui popoli polinesiani..purtroppo però, mi è sembrato spesso ripetitivo e a volte anche abbastanza "scontato". Forse, prefiggersi un compito così impegnativo come quello di riuscire a capire come mai l'uomo bianco occidentale sia "più avanzato" di quelli del resto del mondo, è qualcosa di troppo complesso..da risolvere semplicemente così, con qualche teoria.
In ogni caso, il libro è interessante e argomentato abbastanza bene, ripetizioni a parte. In alcuni punti è troppo pedante, ma probabilmente si tratta del modo di scrivere dell'autore.… (altro)
 
Segnalato
Anshin | 372 altre recensioni | Dec 31, 2023 |
Not all new technology is adopted, even if it is more efficient and useful. For example, a keyboard that would facilitate faster typing was never embraced by society:

"Once an inventor has discovered a use for a new technology, the next step is to persuade society to adopt it. Merely having a bigger, faster, more powerful device for doing something is no guarantee of ready accep­tance. Innumerable such technologies were either not adopted at all or adopted only after prolonged resistance. Notorious examples include the U.S. Congress's rejection of funds to develop a supersonic transport in 1971, the world's continued rejection of an efficiently designed typewriter keyboard, and Britain's long reluctance to adopt electric lighting. What is it that promotes an invention's acceptance by a society?

"Let's begin by comparing the acceptability of different inventions within the same society. It turns out that at least four factors influence acceptance.

"The first and most obvious factor is relative economic advantage compared with existing technology. While wheels are very useful in modern industrial societies, that has not been so in some other societies Ancient Native Mexicans invented wheeled vehicles with axles for use as toys, but not for transport. That seems incredible to us, until we reflect that ancient Mexicans lacked domestic animals to hitch to their wheeled vehicles, which therefore offered no advantage over human porters.

"A second consideration is social value and prestige, which can override economic benefit (or lack thereof). Millions of people today buy designer jeans for double the price of equally durable generic jeans -- because the social cachet of the designer label counts for more than the extra cost. Similarly, Japan continues to use its horrendously cumbersome kanji writ­ing system in preference to efficient alphabets or Japan's own efficient kana syllabary -- because the prestige attached to kanji is so great.

"Still another factor is compatibility with vested interests. This book, like probably every other typed document you have ever read, was typed with a QWERTY keyboard, named for the left-most six letters in its upper row. Unbelievable as it may now sound, that keyboard layout was designed in 1873 as a feat of anti-engineering. It employs a whole series of perverse tricks designed to force typists to type as slowly as possible, such as scatter­ing the commonest letters over all keyboard rows and concentrating them on the left side (where right-handed people have to use their weaker hand). The reason behind all of those seemingly counterproductive features is that the typewriters of 1873 jammed if adjacent keys were struck in quick suc­cession, so that manufacturers had to slow down typists. When improve­ments in typewriters eliminated the problem of jamming, trials in 1932 with an efficiently laid-out keyboard showed that it would let us double our typing speed and reduce our typing effort by 95 percent. But QWERTY keyboards were solidly entrenched by then. The vested interests of hundreds of millions of QWERTY typists, typing teachers, typewriter and computer salespeople, and manufacturers have crushed all moves toward keyboard efficiency for over 60 years.

The Dvorak keyboard, a faster and more ergonomic alternative to the QWERTY layout.
"While the story of the QWERTY keyboard may sound funny, many similar cases have involved much heavier economic consequences. Why does Japan now dominate the world market for transistorized electronic consumer products, to a degree that damages the United States's balance of payments with Japan, even though transistors were invented and pat­ented in the United States? Because Sony bought transistor licensing rights from Western Electric at a time when the American electronics consumer industry was churning out vacuum tube models and reluctant to compete with its own products. Why were British cities still using gas street lighting into the 1920s, long after U.S. and German cities had converted to electric street lighting? Because British municipal governments had invested heav­ily in gas lighting and placed regulatory obstacles in the way of the compet­ing electric light companies.

"The remaining consideration affecting acceptance of new technologies is the ease with which their advantages can be observed. In A.D. 1340, when firearms had not yet reached most of Europe, England's earl of Derby and earl of Salisbury happened to be present in Spain at the battle of Tarifa, where Arabs used cannons against the Spaniards. Impressed by what they saw, the earls introduced cannons to the English army, which adopted them enthusiastically and already used them against French sol­diers at the battle of Crecy six years later."
… (altro)
 
Segnalato
AntonioGallo | 372 altre recensioni | Mar 16, 2022 |
E’ il primo libro che rileggo da quando ho iniziato le recensioni. E lo apprezzo più della prima volta. Allora mi parve, a tratti, noioso. Una grande analisi della storia dell’uomo e, in particolare, delle ragioni delle differenze tra i popoli, viste con diversi metodi della scienza. Dall’approccio antropologico, a quello puramente storico, a quello goeologico. Una storia dell’uomo, quindi, e del suo straordinario viaggio nel mondo, analizzando i flussi migratori, le prime comunità, i passaggi dai villaggi alle città. Ed una affascinante storia delle scoperte, delle evoluzioni, dei passaggi del mondo, dalla pietra a quello della modernità. L’approccio è tipicamente anglosassone, quindi, tende a favorire la lettura ed a dare un quadro di chiaro e definito. Una diversa lettura delle origini della disuguaglianza di Rousseau. Molto più vicino alle ragioni della plebe, disprezzata dagli illuministi francesi; non intesa come sacca povera di determinate aree geografiche, ma come paesi in via di sviluppi. Autonomo sviluppo, secondo Diamond. Gran bel libro.… (altro)
 
Segnalato
grandeghi | 372 altre recensioni | Apr 7, 2019 |
Ottimo saggio da tenere in biblioteca per consultazione
 
Segnalato
permario | 372 altre recensioni | Oct 1, 2018 |

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Statistiche

Opere
75
Opere correlate
9
Utenti
45,263
Popolarità
#362
Voto
4.0
Recensioni
689
ISBN
387
Lingue
26
Preferito da
168

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