We see that javascript is disabled or not supported by your browser - javascript is needed for important actions on the site. Read more

What's New - Home - Login

Member $avings: $81,595,626.81 | Books Available: 791,064 | Members Online: 169

Swap Used Books - Buy New Books at Great Prices!

How To Swap Books Sign Up Search submenu

PBS Market (New Books)

Gift Buying Guide

Book Browser Advanced Search Books Posted Today Member Book Reviews Award Winning Books NYT Best Sellers Amazon Best Sellers Most Traveled Copies Club Wish List

Discussion Forums Book Lists

Club Lists My Book Lists My Watched Lists Create a List

Blog Donations

School Donation Program In Memory of... Military Donation Program Friends of PBS

Box-O-Books Maps The Eclectic Pen Fun Stuff

20 Questions Sudoku Bookmark Creator

Top 100

Requests Posts Swappers Referrers Reviewers

Pulse of PBS Spread The Word

Invite Friends Bookmarks Facebook Page Facebook App More Ways...

Photo Gallery Recipes Club Tag Cloud Member Testimonials

Help Center submenu

How To Swap Books Browse Help Docs Ask the Librarian PBS Member Icons Live Help

Kiosk

PBS Market (New Books) Go Shopping Buy Credits Buy PBS Money Upgrade Membership Gift Certificates Transfer Credits

Need Help?

Search - Living Within Limits: A Scientific Search for Truth

Living Within Limits A Scientific Search for Truth
Author: Kenneth M. Merz, Sr.

Presenting his view of life as “optimism triumphant,” Dr. Ken Merz, Sr., reflects on the limits of life, the limits of the physical universe, and the role of humans in that universe. — He explains various laws of science in a clear and accessible style while reviewing aspects of physical reality, aspects of biological reality, and def... more »initions of scientific reality. Discussing mankind’s ongoing search for truth, he examines the distinction between believing and knowing. The book’s themes include time and change, with a consideration of the work of Darwin, Mendel, and Watson and Crick. Explaining the basics of the double helix of DNA and the micro evolution of life, Dr. Merz ponders individualism and evolution, and makes a plea for humans to wield their power over life responsibly.

Recent events forcefully show that humans live on a limited planet and themselves have limited abilities. Limits face us from every direction. The Earth has a limited surface with limited arable and to farm, oxygen to breathe, water to drink, atoms to use, and oil to burn. We are pressing against Earth’s resources with unachievable demands.

Humans have limits in their sensory ability, memory, perception of truth, and endurance in the face of unending change. Science is limited to 92 elements and phenomena that are observable. Economics is limited to raising prices or seeking alternates. In a universe of unending change, existence itself is limited.

Malthus, Toynbee, Tainter, Meadows, Diamond, and many others have warned us of looming limits that would someday engulf our civilization. Nevertheless, we have continued to exploit resources wastefully, pollute the environment, and cause extinctions.

Man has searched for millennia but only since the time of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton has a reasonably useful procedure been found for finding truth — the scientific method of investigation. That method is the present source of humanity’s ascendancy over the Earth and its creatures.

The book explains the scientific method in terms of logic as well as the day to day activities of scientists. The method is the basis of higher living standards, improved health and longevity, and population growth. These are now diffusing into the countries of the third world, increasing the pressure on natural resources.

We have learned from science that living creatures, including humans, were created by and are controlled by DNA — the double helix of deoxyribonucleic acid — which has been evolving for at least 3.5 billion years. DNA controls behavior as well as our physical bodies. If, as the only conscious and rational creature, we are to accept and fulfill the role as Natural Selector of life on Earth, we must somehow achieve a collective ethical nature commensurate with the task. We cannot wait hundreds of centuries for DNA to do it; there is no time. We must solve the problems of Earth and human survival with what we now have. Our only trustworthy hope is to follow the methods of science, listening carefully along the way.

The Earth is now our home and responsibility; we must finally heed Buddha’s injunction of 2500 years ago: “The self is master of the self: for who else could be the master?”

ISBN-13: 9780875865867
ISBN-10: 0875865860
Publication Date: 6/30/2008
Pages: 232
Rating:

0 stars, based on 0 rating

Publisher: Algora Publishing
Book Type: Hardcover
Members Wishing: 0
Reviews: Amazon | Write a Review

Genres:

Science & Math >> Education >> Research

Back to the Top ↑

Search - Living Within Limits: A Scientific Search for Truth

Loading...