Most Popular Books by Steve Olson

Children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs present a special challenge for policy makers and practitioners. These children exhibit tremendous heterogeneity in their conditions and needs, requiring a varied array of services to meet those needs. Uneven public and professional awareness of their conditions and a research base marked by significant gaps have led to programs, practices, and policies that are inconsistent in quality and coverage. Parents often have to navigate and coordinate, largely on their own, a variety of social, medical, and educational support services, adding to the already daunting financial, logistical, and emotional challenges of raising children with special needs. The unmet needs of children with disabilities and complex medical and educational needs can cause great suffering for these children and for those who love and care for them. To examine how systems can be configured to meet the needs of children and families as they struggle with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in December 2015. The goal of the workshop was to highlight the main barriers and promising solutions for improving care and outcome of children with complex medical and educational needs. Workshop participants examined prevention, care, service coordination, and other topics relevant to children with disabilities and complex health and educational needs, along with their families and caregivers. More broadly, the workshop seeks actionable understanding on key research questions for enhancing the evidence base; promoting and sustaining the quality, accessibility, and use of relevant programs and services; and informing relevant policy development and implementation. By engaging in dialogue to connect the prevention, treatment, and implementation sciences with settings where children are seen and cared for, the forum seeks to improve the lives of children by improving the systems that affect those children and their families. This publications summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Engineering has long gravitated toward great human ambitions: navigation of the oceans, travel to the moon and back, Earth exploration, national security, industrial and agricultural revolutions, communications, and transportation. Some ambitions have been realized, some remain unfulfilled, and some are yet to be determined. In 2008 a committee of distinguished engineers, scientists, entrepreneurs, and visionaries set out to identify the most important, tractable engineering system challenges that must be met in this century for human life as we know it to continue on this planet. For the forum at the National Academy of Engineering''s 2015 annual meeting, 7 of the 18 committee members who formulated the Grand Challenges for Engineering in 2008 reflected on what has happened in the seven year since. Grand Challenges for Engineering: Imperatives, Prospects, and Priorities summarizes the discussions and presentations from this forum.

Engineers know what they mean by the word technology. They mean the things engineers conceive, design, build, and deploy. But what does the word global in the phrase global technology mean? Does it mean finding a way to feed, clothe, house, and otherwise serve the 9 billion people who will soon live on the planet? Does it mean competing with companies around the world to build and sell products and services? On a more immediate and practical level, can the rise of global technology be expected to create or destroy U.S. jobs? The National Academy of Engineering held a three-hour forum exploring these and related questions. The forum brought together seven prominent members of the engineering community: Esko Aho, Executive Vice President of Corporate Relations and Responsibility, Nokia; former Prime Minister of Finland Bernard Amadei, Founder, Engineers Without Borders, Professor, University of Colorado John Seely Brown, Visiting Professor, University of Southern California; Former Chief Scientist of Xerox Corporation Ruth A. David, President and CEO of Analytic Services, Inc. Eric C. Haseltine, Consultant, former Associate Director for Science and Technology in the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, and former head of research and development at Disney Imagineering Nicholas Negroponte, Founder, One Laptop Per Child Association Inc., Founder and Chairman Emeritus of the MIT Media Lab Raymond S. Stata, Co-founder and Chairman of the Board, Analog Devices Inc. In the first half of the forum, each panelist explored a specific dimension of the global spread of technology. The topics varied widelyâ€"from reducing poverty to the impact of young people on technology to the need for systems thinking in engineering. But all seven presenters foresaw a world in which engineering will be fundamentally different from what it has been. In the second half of the forum, the panelists discussed a variety of issues raised by moderator Charles Vest and by forum attendees.

Carter is an adventurous little snake and as usual his curiosity will get him into trouble. He sets out on his adventure and faces all the perils of the barnyard, what he doesn''t know, is he will meet Grandpa Steve and his grandchildren, Ramie and Treyton, face to face. He finds out his home is the safest place to be. The proceeds from the Grandpa Steve''s series books go to the Ramie and Treyton Memorial Fund. Ramie and Treyton''s parents started this fund to try to help families that have lost a child. They started the fund with money from the generosity of family, friends and some they didn''t even know. Thanks for your purchase. Enjoy! If you would like to see pictures of Ramie and Treyton, go to www.audreysangels.net

From early childhood I was always in awe of my Grandpa. I would follow him, and try to act like him. I wanted to be just like him. His stories would hold me spellbound, as I set on his lap. The example he set as a grandfather is what I aspire to be to my own grandchildren. I wrote this in Ramie s voice. It is what I thought Ramie would think of me. Each page is a memory I have of her. I am hoping to touch the hearts of all parents and grandparents, and cherish each memory with your children. Grandpa Steve"

Based on a conference held in Washington, D.C., Feb. 27-28, 1985, and sponsored by the Academy Industry Program of the National Academy of Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and Institute of Medicine.

This book brings the concerned individual up-to-date on the breakthroughs and social questions emerging from biology today. Author Steve Olson draws on the latest research in a number of fields as well as the views of leading biologists, ethicists, and philosophers. He tells the story of the intricate, often frustrating, path scientists must follow to find out why we are the way we are. The volume highlights groundbreaking research being done in four of biology''s most exciting fields: genetics, development, neurobiology, and evolution. In each field, the implications of this research extend far beyond basic biology, ranging from human gene therapy to cancer, from neural transplantation to the evolution of the atmosphere.

150,000 years of human existence have passed, and yet what do we really know about our history before the advent of writing? Some of the most momentous events - including our origins, our migrations across the globe, and our acquisition of language - were lost in the darkness of ''prehistory''. But at last geneticists and other scientists are piecing together a history - the true story of Adam and Eve. Mapping Human History is nothing less than a ''history of prehistory''. Steve Olson travelled through four continents to discover the development of humans and our expansion throughout the planet. He describes, for example, new thinking about how centres of agriculture sprang up among disparate foraging societies at roughly the same time. He tells why most of us can claim Julius Caesar and Confucius among our forebears. He pinpoints why the ways in which the story of the Jewish people jibes with, and diverges from, biblical accounts. And using very recent genetic findings, he explodes the myth that human races are a biological reality.

The Roundtable on Obesity Solutions of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine held a workshop in Washington, DC, on April 6, 2017, titled The Challenge of Treating Obesity and Overweight: A Workshop. The discussions covered treatments for obesity, overweight, and severe obesity in adults and children; emerging treatment opportunities; the development of a workforce for obesity treatments; payment and policy considerations; and promising paths to move forward. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop--Publishers website.