How do inventions take shape? How did the inventors of the sewing needle, the hammer, or the wheel find their ideas? Are these creations the result of random events, or are hidden principles at work? Using everyday objects most of us take for granted--from forks and Velcro to safety pins and doorknobs--noted cognitive psychologist Robert Weber takes a fascinating look at how our world of inventions came into being, and how the mind's problem-solving abilities gave them the forms they have.
As an archaeologist studies shards of pottery for clues about an ancient culture, Weber examines the...

Is invention really "99 percent" perspiration and "one percent inspiration" as Thomas Edison assured us? Inventive Minds assembles a group of authors well equipped to address this question: contemporary inventors of important new technologies, historians of science and industry, and cognitive psychologists interested in the process of creativity. In telling their stories, the inventors describe the origins of such remarkable devices as ultrasound, the electron microscope, and artificial diamonds. The historians help us look into the minds of innovators like Thomas Edison, Alexander...

In today's culture the self is considered largely a work in progress, and as we constantly reinvent ourselves, the challenge becomes one of coordinating change with the integrity and unity of the self. Using the insights of William James and evolutionary psychology as a springboard, Robert Weber explores the nature and meaning of our shifting selves. He proposes an ecology of the self based on three distinct but interdependent spheres: the body, the persona, and the spirit. Our bodily selves can be cosmetically nipped and tucked, and through new reproductive technologies extended in ways...

-Do you want to design a wireless transmitter or receiver for hand-held telephones? Have you wondered why the printed circuit wires on high-frequency circuits don't always run in a straight line? This valuable text will answer all of your questions regarding component parasitics and circuit characterization for rf/microwave amplifier, oscillator, and filter circuit design and analysis. You will understand why capacitors act as inductors and vice versa and why amplifiers work like oscillators, while oscillators for local area networks work more like local area heaters.

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