'Grunt' tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries -- panic, exhaustion, heat, noise -- and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed...

"An award-winning defense expert tells the story of today's great power rivalry-the struggle to control artificial intelligence. A new industrial revolution has begun. Like mechanization or electricity before it, artificial intelligence will touch every aspect of our lives-and cause profound disruptions in the balance of global power, especially among the AI superpowers: China, the United States, and Europe. Autonomous weapons expert Paul Scharre...

"A riveting inside look at an elite unit within the Pentagon--the Defense Innovation Unit, also known as Unit X--whose mission is to bring Silicon Valley's cutting-edge technology to America's from the two men who launched the unit." --

In this engaging book, Jeremy Black argues that technology neither acts as an independent variable nor operates without major limitations. This includes its capacity to obtain end results, as technologys impact is far from simple and its pathways are by no means clear. After considering such key conceptual points, Black discusses important technological advances in weaponry and power projection from sailing warships to aircraft carriers, muskets to...

"In the wild, animals use teeth, claws, and other natural weapons to attack their prey. On the battlefield, soldiers need weapons to fight the enemy. Military forces have often looked to nature for inspiration to develop effective weapons and combat tactics. From the first feathered arrows to tomorrow's high-tech weaponry, take a look at how military technology often imitates the natural weapons of animals to help soldiers succeed in combat. Then...

War between the Kingdom of Honneamise and its archrival, The Republic, seems inevitable. But even as the two nations' rapidly evolving technology creates new ways to wage greater and more deadly forms of warfare, a small group seeks to use those same advances to propel mankind forward into the future and into space in the world's first manned spaceflight program. For astronaut candidate Shirotsugh Lhadatt, it's not just a journey beyond the reach...

Examines how technological innovation shaped the rise and fall of empires during four historical periods, from the Gunpowder Age to the Industrial Revolution, and continues to play a pivotal role in modern warfare.

'Grunt' tackles the science behind some of a soldier's most challenging adversaries--panic, exhaustion, heat, noise--and introduces us to the scientists who seek to conquer them. Mary Roach dodges hostile fire with the U.S. Marine Corps Paintball Team as part of a study on hearing loss and survivability in combat. She visits the fashion design studio of U.S. Army Natick Labs and learns why a zipper is a problem for a sniper. She visits a repurposed...

Military historians and experts detail the advances that made Civil War weaponry so deadly. The War between North and South introduced technology that was a quantum leap beyond that used in any previous conflict. The machine gun, aerial reconnaissance, advanced battlefield medicine, instantaneous communication, ironclad ships and even the first aircraft carrier all debuted during the Civil War. CIVIL WAR TECH investigates improvements in weapons,...