Andrew Morris

Exploring Science in Everyday Life

Why Icebergs Float

From paintings and food to illness and icebergs, science is happening everywhere. Rather than follow the path of a syllabus or textbook, Andrew Morris takes examples from the science we see every day and uses them as entry points to explain a number of fundamental scientific concepts - from understanding colour to the nature of hormones - in ways that anyone can grasp. While each chapter offers a separate story, they are linked together by their fascinating relevance to our daily lives. This work was published by Saint Philip Street Press pursuant to a Creative Commons license permitting commercial use. All rights not granted by the work's license are retained by the author or authors.

Exploring Scienceeveryday Life

Sheri Hobbs

Balancing the Scales

ULTIMA VII Clue Book

Science touches all of our lives, every day, and should be a constant source of wonder and fascination — not something confined to the classroom. This book is for anybody who feels curious about ideas in science but lacks a strong background in the subject. Getting to Grips with Science draws on the author's twelve years of experience in leading experimental discussion groups, where people from all walks of life come together to pose questions in the presence of a science teacher. Bursting with testimonials from real people about their everyday experiences of science, the book acts as a gentle introduction for anyone wishing to find out more about the natural world. Drawing on practical examples and discussions that range from hormones to tectonic plates, it helps the reader understand any difficulties they may have encountered with science learning in the past and points to fresh ways of approaching the subject in the future. Concentrating on the themes that non-scientists are genuinely curious about, the book illustrates how we can begin to explore scientific ideas, first through our initial understanding of the world around us and then with the help of a trained tutor who explains the underlying scientific concepts. For those wishing to make a start on exploring science afresh, the book offers practical information about the books, museums, websites, podcasts, courses and events available to support them. Wider reflection on the experience of adults engaging with science through these discussion groups offers food for thought on the nature of science education in general. Andrew Morris has been running science discussion groups in informal settings in central London since 2002. Originally a science teacher in sixth-form, further and adult education, he has also worked as a senior manager in colleges and national bodies concerned with educational research. Contents:An Alternative ApproachWhat Captures Our Interest?Past DifficultiesLooking at Science AfreshWhat Excites Our Curiosity?Underlying ThemesFollowing Up Your CuriosityTaking Things FurtherAbout Science ItselfReflections Readership: All readers who are interested in scientific ideas. Key Features:People who are interested in scientific ideas but find popular science books too technical and specialized will find this book a good readDraws heavily on actual discussions with people who are curious about scientific ideas but lack a background in scienceLinks science to the arts and humanities by introducing person-centric approaches more familiar in these areas — thus addresses the “two cultures” debateKeywords:Science for All;Adult Learning;Public EngagementReviews: "You can't emphasise too highly the value of the process of exploring; it helps to root the discussion in our real lives and helps us to remember, and makes it relevant." Linda Slack NHS Manager and Member of Discussion Group "It really covered all the difficulties and threw a lot of light for me on why science and I hit it off so badly. It makes me realise what a huge resistance I have had towards science since school, more than a resistance, a real antipathy. Above all I like the way it so quickly gets beyond Physics, Chem and Bio!" Charlotte Eatwell Textile Artist "As someone who struggled to engage in science at school it feels like it's right at my level — 'Past Difficulties' rang true for me in every way!" Daisy Minton Counsellor “The chapter 'Underlying themes', with its actual science content, will probably be of most use to classroom practitioners, and there are practical suggestions of fresh ways to take things further. The book is clearly written, without academic jargon, and individual chapters can stand alone.” School Science Review

A Fresh Approach for the Curious

Getting to Grips with Science

The topics explored in each chapter are based on hundreds of discussions the author has led with adult science learners over many years – people who came from all walks of life and had no scientific training, but had developed a burning curiosity to understand the world around them. This book encourages us to reflect on our own relationship with science and serves as an important reminder of why we should continue learning as adults. Praise for Why Icebergs Float 'Asking questions is an important scientific skill and sometimes we can only understand something when we can find the language to ask the right questions; books like this can be really helpful in this respect....This book is one of UCL’s open access books. This means that it can be downloaded as a free PDF from the UCL Press website. The commitment to making scientific works such as this freely available is very welcome. This book is very accessible and deserves to reach a wide audience.' - School Science Review 'Morris says in the prologue: ‘If you come away from this book with a greater interest in science and enhanced confidence about tackling it, the book will have served its purpose.’ So, don’t be afraid of science and give Why Icebergs Float a chance. You will absolutely enjoy it.' - Chemistry World '[Why Icebergs Float] draws on experiences and first-person narratives of adult learners who – out of genuine curiosity or embarrassment at their levels of scientific ignorance – have sought to catch-up on lost school science and get a better understanding of their surroundings as a result.' - Education Journal '‘The approach illustrates beautifully the influence of language on understanding. The author makes clear how common language can be misleading when scientists have used everyday words but given them very specific meanings.’ Physics Education

Eleftheria Zeggini

This book is unique in covering a wide range of design and analysis issues in genetic studies of rare variants, taking advantage of collaboration of the editors with many experts in the field through large-scale international consortia including the UK10K Project, GO-T2D and T2D-GENES. Chapters provide details of state-of-the-art methodology for rare variant detection and calling, imputation and analysis in samples of unrelated individuals and families. The book also covers analytical issues associated with the study of rare variants, such as the impact of fine-scale population structure, and with combining information on rare variants across studies in a meta-analysis framework. Genetic association studies have in the last few years substantially enhanced our understanding of factors underlying traits of high medical importance, such as body mass index, lipid levels, blood pressure and many others. There is growing empirical evidence that low-frequency and rare variants play an important role in complex human phenotypes. This book covers multiple aspects of study design, analysis and interpretation for complex trait studies focusing on rare sequence variation. In many areas of genomic research, including complex trait association studies, technology is in danger of outstripping our capacity to analyse and interpret the vast amounts of data generated. The field of statistical genetics in the whole-genome sequencing era is still in its infancy, but powerful methods to analyse the aggregation of low-frequency and rare variants are now starting to emerge. The chapter Functional Annotation of Rare Genetic Variants is available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.

Design and Analysis of Genetic Studies

Assessing Rare Variation in Complex Traits

Kevin Brown

David Brookes

Adam Bradley

Eric S. Brown

Lennart Svensson

Nicholas Day

Andrew Hook

Alan Spencer

Barbra Annino

Lee Collins

Kevin Wallis

Tom Cardamone

Adrian Ludens

John M. Radosta

Richard Farren Barber

Christian McPhate

Wayne Summers

Thomas Henry Dylan

Willie Smith

Simon Addams

Aaron Polson

David McGillveray

Colin Meldrum

Craig Hallam

Paul Eckert

Morpheus Tales: The Best Weird Fiction Volume 3 Second Edition

From paintings and food to illness and icebergs, science is happening everywhere. Rather than follow the path of a syllabus or textbook, Andrew Morris takes examples from the science we see every day and uses them as entry points to explain a number of fundamental scientific concepts – from understanding colour to the nature of hormones – in ways that anyone can grasp. While each chapter offers a separate story, they are linked together by their fascinating relevance to our daily lives. The topics explored in each chapter are based on hundreds of discussions the author has led with adult science learners over many years – people who came from all walks of life and had no scientific training, but had developed a burning curiosity to understand the world around them. This book encourages us to reflect on our own relationship with science and serves as an important reminder of why we should continue learning as adults.

Andrew Morris

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