Прочая образовательная литература
Различные книги в жанре Прочая образовательная литератураFingerprints: Murder and the Race to Uncover the Science of Identity
This edition does not include illustrations.A fascinating exploration into the history of science and crime. In the tradition of ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’, FINGERPRINTS is the story of the race to discover the secrets trapped in the whorls and arches found on the palm of one’s hand.In 1905 an elderly couple were found murdered in their shop in Deptford, London. The only evidence at the scene of the crime was a sweaty fingerprint on a cashbox. Was it possible that a single fingerprint could be enough to lead to a conviction? Could the pattern of these tracks hold the secrets of the science of identification?Through the story of three brilliant men: William Herschel, a colonial administrator in Indian, Henry Faulds, a missionary in Japan and Charles Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, the extraordinary story of the history of fingerprinting is revealed.It is a story of intellectual skulduggery and scientific brilliance. Packed with an extraordinary cast of individuals whose scientific breakthroughs helped solve one of the most brutal murders in English history and shape our understanding of identity forever.
Servants of Nature: A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises and Sensibilities
‘Highly readable, subtle and thought-provoking scientific history’ ScotsmanIn this penetrating work, Pyenson and Pyenson identify that major advances in science stem from changes in three distinct areas of society: the social institutions that promote science, the sensibilities of scientists themselves and the goal of the scientific enterprise. Servants of Nature begins by examining the institutions that have shaped science: the academies of Ancient Greece, universities, the growth of museums of science, technology and natural history, botanical and zoological gardens, and the advent of modern specialized research laboratories. It is equally comprehensive when it analyses changing scientific sensibilities – for example, the relationship between religion and science, or the interplay between the growth of democracy and the growth of scientific knowledge.The final section of this book is on the changing nature of the scientific enterprise and considers how the goals of science have evolved. It is an indispensable account of how science, perhaps above all other human endeavours, has shaped, and been shaped by, the world we inhabit today.
The Watch on the Heath: Science and Religion before Darwin
Galileo once wrote that ‘the Bible tells us how to go to Heaven, but not how the heavens go’. From the Greeks to the present day, thoughtful people have struggled to reconcile the discoveries of science with religious belief and authority.In the age before Darwin many powerful clerics were also notable scientific scholars and leading scientists were often at least conventionally pious. Observing life ever more closely, an extraordinary generation of English geologists, fossil hunters and naturalists were compelled to accept that their planet was older, more complicated, diverse and cruel than they had previously imagined. Questions about God and the Bible inevitably began to arise. But for these men, unlike for Darwin, science and religion could share a philosophical basis: a careful, rational study of nature, instead of denying God, would confirm that life is, after all, the product of God’s unique creation. This belief became known as natural theology.Its greatest exponent was William Paley but the work of others such as John Ray, Robert Plot, William Whiston, Thomas Burnet, John Woodward, Erasmus Darwin and countless more writing between 1665 and 1800 gives us an extraordinary glimpse into minds at the forefront of an epic enquiry. Taking his title from Paley’s famous analogy that as a watch requiried a maker, so nature in all its intricacy had to be the creation of a supreme designer, Keith Thomson’s wonderful book brings to life their dilemmas, and is a winning portrayal of intellectuals struggling with their belief systems in an age of revolutionary science.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.
The Quest for Mars: NASA scientists and Their Search for Life Beyond Earth
This edition does not include illustrations.Is there life on Mars? And if not, why not? These questions have gripped mankind throughout the twentieth century. In the shadow of the new millennium, The Quest for Mars seeks the definitive answers from the dedicated NASA scientists participating in the race to discover life on the Red Planet.‘Ever since I was a small child, I’ve believed there was life out there. When I look at the magnitude of the universe, with its billions of stars, I believe that if life developed here on Earth, it must have developed elsewhere. We simply can’t be unique. I really don’t think we’re the most intelligent life forms in the universe, but that’s just my gut feeling’, Dr Claire Parkinson, NASA scientist.Of all the planets, Mars has exerted the most powerful allure over the human intellect and imagination. Generations of astronomers have expected to find clues to the origin and destiny of Earth and its inhabitants concealed amid the red storms sweeping across the surface of Mars. Today, the mystique of Mars is even greater. Public interest in the Mars mission is sky-high; the exploits of the tiny Mars Rover ‘Sojourner’ in the summer of 1997 excited the greatest curiosity in a space mission in a generation.In The Quest for Mars Laurence Bergreen has unrestricted access to a team of NASA employees – engineers, geologists and other scientists – who are consumed by the search for proof of life on Mars. As one formidable obstacle after another attempts to scupper their quest for a deeper understanding of life on Mars and throughout the Solar System, the narrative takes us step by step through the exhilaration and the despondency of their extraordinary adventure. Nothing is off limits in this unique, behind-the-scenes story of space exploration.
Universe: The story of the Universe, from earliest times to our continuing discoveries
An introduction to the universe covering everything from the big bang and our understanding of the universe over time, to the earth's formation, the Sun and how it affects us, the Moon and planets, black holes and galaxies.The companion volume to ‘Need to Know? Stargazing’ and by the same author, this book focuses on the basic history and science of the universe, rather than on the practical skywatching aspects. It includes information on:• Outrageous philosophy: weird notions and early ideas about the Universe including ancient Egyptian and Greek cosmology• How the universe began: creation theories and the expanding Universe, from the Big Bang to the formation of the Sun and the appearance of life and humans• The Earth's formation and the origin of the Moon• The structure and composition of planet and the atmosphere, volcanoes, mountain formation and geological catastrophes; past, present and future• The Solar System• Star types and their formation, development and demise• Types of galaxy• Professional instruments, research and space observatoriesIn particular, ‘Collins Need to Know? Universe’ also asks what we know about the future: the future of man, and space travel. Will we be able to colonize planets? Will the universe expand or crunch, and could there be alternative universes out there?
Prof. Brian Cox’s How The Universe Will End
Collins Shorts – insight in an instant.Professor Brian Cox shows us our universe as we've never seen it before. In this short he explains how this vast and complex universe – the subject of human fascination and scientific exploration for thousands of years – will end. Taken from his bestselling, mind-blowing exploration of space, Wonders of the Universe.Collins Shorts are a fresh look at the ebook short, with the emphasis on vibrant design, animated content and expert authors who can provide accessible insight. They satisfy your thirst for knowledge without the need for time commitment.This ebook will work on all e-readers but delivers its full punch on devices that support colour and animation. Please note the extent is between 20 to 40 pages, depending on your settings.
Britain’s Structure and Scenery
Britains Structure and Scenery deals with the physical background, the stage on which the drama of life is played and which provides the fundamental environment for plants, newnaturalists.comIt would be difficult to find an area of comparable size anywhere in the world with such a variety of physical conditions, scenery and consequently of plant and animal life as the British Isles. Our homeland is indeed a geological museum, epitomising in miniature the geological history of the globe. Each hill and valley, each plateau and plain reflects the underlying geological structure or build; this volume attempts not only to describe the surface features, but also to sketch the long and complex series of events which have given the land its present form – the building of the British Isles. It thus deals with the physical background, the stage on which the drama of life is played and which provides the fundamental environment for plants, animals and man.
Survivors: The Animals and Plants that Time has Left Behind
This ebook edition does not include illustrations.An awe-inspiring journey through the eons and across the globe, in search of visible traces of evolution in the living creatures which have survived from earlier times and whose stories speak to us of seminal events in the history of life.The history of life on Earth is far older – and far odder – than many of us realise. In ‘Survivors’, acclaimed author Richard Fortey traces this history not through fossil records, but in the living stories of organisms that have survived nearly unchanged for hundreds of millions of years and whose existence today affords us tantalising glimpses of landscapes long vanished.For evolution has not obliterated its tracks. Scattered across the globe, strange and marvellous plants and animals have survived virtually unchanged since life first began. They range from humble algal mats dating back almost two billion years to hardy musk oxen, which linger as the last vestiges of Ice Age fauna.Following in Fortey’s questing footsteps, ‘Survivors’ takes us on a fascinating journey to these ancient worlds. On a moonlit beach in Delaware where the horseshoe crab shuffles its way through a violent romance, we catch a glimpse of life 450 million years ago, shortly after it diversified on the ocean floor. Along a stretch of Australian coastline, we bear witness to the sights and sounds that would have greeted a Precambrian dawn. Finally, in the dense rainforests of New Zealand where the secretive velvet worm burrows into the rotting timber of the jungle floor, we marvel at a living fossil which has survived unchanged since before the dissolution of the Gondwana supercontinent.Written with Fortey’s customary sparkle and gusto, this wonderfully engrossing exploration of the world’s oldest flora and fauna brilliantly combines the best science writing about the origins of life with an explorer’s sense of adventure and a poet’s wonder at the natural world. Utterly compelling, eye-opening and awe-inspiring, this is a book for anyone with an interest in evolution, in nature, in the remarkable scope of geological time and our own modest interaction with it – in short, in life itself.
The Open Sea: The World of Plankton
The New Naturalist editors believe this to be the greatest general work on the subject ever written.Professor Alistair Hardy is truly obsessed by animals of the sea – devotedly enthusiastic about the nature of their adaptations and life histories, brilliantly critical in the examination of their mysteries, acutely lucid (and at the same time highly artistic) in his descriptions of them in his arresting plates.To describe the relatively unknown and mysterious world of plankton is a task that the greatest of marine zoologists might boggle at. Yet the plankton is to the sea what vegetation is to the land. The study of plankton is a complex discipline which few amateur naturalists have had the privilege to enjoy. Never before has such a synthesis of knowledge been attempted in a community of animals so mysterious, yet so important. Professor Hardy has grasped this problem in a new and exciting way; and at least the common reader can discern the pattern of life that dominates two-thirds of the world’s surface.
The Sea Coast
The Sea Coast shows in a persuasive and compelling way the origin and evolution of cliffs, estuaries, sea marshes, sand dunes and the communities of plants and animals that they support. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.comBritain's coasts have everything, from towering cliffs rising sheer from deep water to a thousand feet and more, to miles of tidal slobs and flats, restless shingle spits, shifting beaches, immobile rock headlands. The extraordinary consequences of a varied climate and a complicated geology are shown even more effectively in Britain's coasts than in her fascinating island scenery.Our greatest authority on coastal topography, Professor Steers, has studied the nature of Britain's sea-side and the evolution of coasts and coastline for most of his life. A past Professor of Geography of Cambridge University, he made the now famous comprehensive survey of our entire coastline. His book shows in a persuasive and compelling way the origin and evolution of cliffs, estuaries, sea marshes, sand dunes and the communities of plants and animals that they support.