Sunday, January 01, 2012

Free Books for Science Geeks!

The National Academies Press is the publishing arm of the government's highest scientific organizations - the National Academy of Sciences, the National Academy of Engineering, the Institute of Medicine, and the National Research Council.   Those organizations publish dozens, if not hundreds, of titles each year.  Well, in the last year or two, they've made a concerted effort to make their publications available as free PDF downloads.  The most recent statement on the site states that "over 4000" books and reports are now available for free download.  A quick look at the front page offers the following titles:

  • "On Being a Scientist: A Guide to Responsible Conduct in Research"
  • "Macondo Well-Deepwater Horizon Blowout: Lessons for Offshore Drilling Safety"
  • "Surrounded by Science: Learning Science in Informal Environments"

Over in the "Computers and Informational Technology" section, we find:

  • "The Future of Computing Performance: Game Over or Next Level?"
  • "The Rise of Games and High Performance Computing for Modeling and Simulation"
  • "Critical Code: Software Producibility for Defense"

If you have ANY interest in ANY scientific field, it looks like NAP has free PDF books for you.  I'm going to enjoy building a library from this site...

The National Academies Press

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