Science

They have done time as jewelry and tools, as medicines, currency, and symbols of industry--and they have intrigued people, from beach-combing toddlers to serious scientists, since time began. Native interest meets natural history in this exquisitely illustrated account of the science and culture of seashells.

With closeup photography and basic explanations of different shell types--univalves, bivalves, and cephalopods--how they are formed, what mollusks inhabit them, their morphology and life cycles, and much more, this is the book for anyone with an interest in seashells.

This book includes information on the bewildering array of shell shapes, colors, sizes, and types, and describes where the different shells can be found throughout the world. As informative as it is visually arresting, the book will appeal to amateur and expert, collector and casual beachcomber.

"Seeing and Believing" tells the story, visionary by visionary and discovery by discovery, of the telescope, one of the few inventions that have revolutionized our view of the universe and how we fit into it. In the tradition of Dava Sobel's "Longitude," "Seeing and Believing" focuses on the often larger-than-life figures whose insights and breakthroughs made our cosmological odyssey possible - from Galileo himself to William Herschel, the musician-turned-astronomer who discovered Uranus, to George Ellery Hale, who regularly conversed with an elf yet managed nonetheless to found both the Mount Wilson and Mount Palomar observatories. But the most fascinating character of all is the telescope itself, which, designed solely to help us determine our place in the scheme of things, is an evolving metaphor for how we see ourselves.

We humans have been tinkering with genes for a long, long time. In Shrinking the Cat, Sue Hubbell shows how this tinkering is the definition of humanness by telling the stories of four important species we created. She tells how we made cats easier to live with by making them smaller and their brains less complicated, taking out much of the alertness that natural selection had packed in. How ancient farmers turned a wild grass into corn, a tremendously important crop that can't live without us. How silkworms were smuggled from China to the West and bred to be completely dependent on us. How silk traders picked up wild apples in their travels and how we manipulated the apple's complex genetics to grow only the best-tasting ones - and then made them taste worse. Today's tools are new, but we were engineering genes even before we knew about them, and we made some mistakes along the way. For example, the gypsy moths that regularly defoliate trees arrived through efforts to breed silkworms suitable to North America.
Genetic engineering is controversial today. Some see it as a source of great benefit and great profits; others see it as a nightmare. Sue Hubbell shows that if we ignore our own history, pretending that genetic engineering is something completely new and dangerous, we are condemned to repeat the mistakes of the past.

No twentieth-century American scientist is better known to a wider spectrum of people than Richard P. Feynman (1918-1988)--physicist, teacher, author, and cultural icon. His autobiographies and biographies have been read and enjoyed by millions of readers around the world, while his wit and eccentricities have made him the subject of TV specials and even a theatrical film.The spectacular reception of the book and audio versions of Feynman's Six Easy Pieces (published in 1995) resulted in a worldwide clamor for "More Feynman! More Feynman!" The outcome is these six additional lectures, drawn from the celebrated three-volume Lectures on Physics. Though slightly more challenging than the first six, these lectures are more focused, delving into the most revolutionary discovery in twentieth-century physics: Einstein's Theory of Relativity.No single breakthrough in twentieth-century physics (with the possible exception of quantum mechanics) changed our view of the world more than that of Einstein's discovery of relativity. The notions that the flow of time is not a constant, that the mass of an object depends on its velocity, and that the speed of light is a constant no matter what the motion of the observer, at first seemed shocking to scientists and laymen alike. But, as Feynman shows so clearly and so entertainingly in the lectures chosen for this volume, these crazy notions are no mere dry principles of physics, but are things of beauty and elegance. No one--not even Einstein himself--explained these difficult, anti-intuitive concepts more clearly, or with more verve and gusto, than Richard Feynman.

FOLLOW THE SUN TO MORE EVIL FUN!

Let the sun shine on your evil side - and have a wicked amount of fun on your way to becoming a solar energy master! In this guide, the popular Evil Genius format ramps up your understanding of powerful, important, and environmentally friendly solar energy - and shows you how to build real, practical solar energy projects you can use in your home, yard - even on the road!

In Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius, high-tech guru Gavin Harper gives you everything you need to build more than 50 thrilling solar energy projects. You'll find complete, easy-to-follow plans, with clear diagrams and schematics, so you know exactly what's involved before you begin.

Illustrated instructions and plans for 30 amazing pretested solar energy projects that assume no prior experience with energy science

Explanations of the science and math behind each project

Projects that progress in difficulty - from simple ones that may inspire science fair entries - all the way to converting a real home to solar energy

Frustration-factor removal-needed parts are listed, along with sources-plus all the tools you'll need

Solar Energy Projects for the Evil Genius provides you with complete plans, instructions, parts lists, and sources for:

Crushed berries solar cell

Solar "death ray"

Solar powered hot dog cooker

Solar furnace

Sun-powered refrigerator

Camping shower, oven, and more

Hot recipes for solar cooking

Water purifier

Flashlight

Garden lights

Solar vehicle

Environmentally friendly robot

Much more!

This provocative book dispels social cliches and spotlights biological realities.

At the Pneumatic Institution in Bristol, England, founded in the closing years of the eighteenth century, dramatic experiments with gases precipitated not only a revolution in scientific medicine but also in the history of ideas. Guided by the energy of maverick doctor Thomas Beddoes, the institution was both laboratory and hospital--the first example of a modern medical research institution. But when its members discovered the mind-altering properties of nitrous oxide, or laughing gas, their experiments devolved into a pioneering exploration of consciousness with far-reaching and unforeseen effects.

This riveting book is the first to tell the story of Dr. Beddoes and the brilliant circle who surrounded him: Erasmus Darwin, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, and Robert Southey, who supported his ideas; James Watt, who designed and built his laboratory; Thomas Wedgwood, who funded it; and the dazzling young chemistry assistant, Humphry Davy, who identified nitrous oxide and tested it on himself, with spectacular results. Medical historian Mike Jay charts the chaotic rise and fall of the institution in this fast-paced account, and reveals its crucial influence--on modern drug culture, attitudes toward objective and subjective knowledge, the development of anesthetic surgery, and the birth of the Romantic movement.

Offers three-dimensional perspectives on glaciers, volcanoes, earthquakes, tornadoes, hurricanes, floods, and other natural wonders.

The Hundredth Monkey takes its title from philosopher Ron Amundson's expose of the "Hundredth Monkey Phenomenon," a claim about collective consciousness. Forty-three essays by thirty-nine authors, including Isaac Asmov, Martin Gardner, Carl Sagan, Ray Hyman, Paul Kurtz, and James Randi, examine aspects of paranormal and fringe-science beliefs from an authoritative, scientific point of view. The penetrating and entertaining essays, many with timely postscripts, are grouped into nine categories:

- Understanding Human Need
- Examining Popular Claims

- Encouraging Critical Thinking
- Medical Controversies

- Evaluating the Anomalous Experience
- Astrology

- Considering Parapsychology
- Crashed Saucer Claims

- Controversies Within Science

Scientists and scholars discuss the burden of skepticism and the delicate balance between a creative openness to new ideas and the relentless scrutiny of new claims. A classic source book for scientifically responsible explanations of controversies, hoaxes, bizarre mysteries, and popular cultural myths.

Elaborating on the theme that biology is reflected in behavior and behavior in biology ("nature vs. nurture" theory), Dr. Restak positions both schools of thought as legitimate ways of studying what it means to be human and how and why the mind works as it does. 4-color illustrations.

The Physics of Pitching is a well-rounded and comprehensive study that explores the formula for success in pitching and the secret to staying healthy and injury free. It brings together the expertise of a professional scout and pitching consultant, a former major league pitcher and current pitching coach, a sports orthopedic surgeon, and a strength and conditioning specialist. Step-by-step instruction is combined with a discussion of the fundamentals of pitching mechanics and kinetics, physiology and orthopedics, weight training, and the mental and strategic sides of baseball. The Physics of Pitching is illustrated throughout with step-by-step photography and detailed illustrations of the key mechanics.

In 1994 Bryan Sykes was called in as an expert to examine the frozen remains of a man trapped in glacial ice in northern Italy for over 5000 years--the Ice Man. Sykes succeeded in extracting DNA from the Ice Man, but even more important, writes Science News, was his "ability to directly link that DNA to Europeans living today." In this groundbreaking book, Sykes reveals how the identification of a particular strand of DNA that passes unbroken through the maternal line allows scientists to trace our genetic makeup all the way back to prehistoric times--to seven primeval women, the "seven daughters of Eve."

There's no question that e-mail is an incredible phenomenon that represents a kind of cultural and technological advancement. The first e-mail was sent less than forty years ago; by 2011, there will be 3.2 billion e-mail users. The average corporate worker now receives upwards of two hundred e-mails per day. The flood of messages is ceaseless and follows us everywhere.

In The Tyranny of E-mail, John Freeman takes an entertaining look at the unrelenting nature of correspondence through the ages. Put down your smart phone and consider the consequences. As the toll of e-mail mounts, reducing our time for leisure and contemplation and separating us in an unending and lonely battle with the overfull inbox, John Freeman--one of America's preeminent literary critics--enters a plea for communication that is more selective and nuanced and, above all, more sociable.

An eye-opening look at the alien abduction phenomenon by the real-life "X-files" man and author of the best-selling Open Skies, Closed Minds

From 1991 to 1994 Nick Pope investigated UFO sightings for the British government's Ministry of Defense. He is the only person ever to have conducted official research into this controversial subject -- Pope is the real-life version of Agent Fox Mulder from television's hit series, "The X-Files". In The Uninvited he provides an overview of UFO phenomenon, supported by some of the most sensational cases ever reported.

Thousands of people throughout the world have claimed they have been abducted by aliens. These people are ridiculed by the media, by scientists, by governments. In spite of that ridicule, they persist with their claims. Nick Pope's research has convinced him that many of the individual experiences are not in the mind. He has seen the proof that the phenomenon is real and more widespread than anyone has suspected -- he went in a skeptic and came out a believer.

The Uninvited is powerful stuff, providing convincing evidence for human encounters with non-human intelligence. Roswell and Project Blue Book are just the beginning -- this expose delves deep into one of the last great mysteries of our time.

For many of us, the physical sciences are as obscure as the phenomena they explain. We see the wonders of nature but miss the symmetry beneath, framed as it is in ever stranger symbols and concepts. Roger Newton's accessible account of how physicists understand the world allows the expert and novice alike to explore both the mysteries of the universe and the beauty of the science that gives shape to the unseeable.

In "What Makes Nature Tick?" we find engaging discussions of solitons and superconductors, quarks and strings, phase space, tachyons, time, chaos, and indeterminacy, as well as the investigations that have led to their elucidation. But Roger Newton does not limit this volume to late-breaking discoveries and startling facts. He presents physics as an expanding intellectual structure, a network of very human ideas that stretches back three hundred years from our present frontier of knowledge. Where does our unidirectional sense of time come from? What makes a particle elementary? How can forces be transmitted through empty space? In addition to providing these answers, and a host of others at the very heart of physics, Newton shows us how physicists formulate the questions--a process in which intuition, imagination, and aesthetics have a powerful influence.

Global warming, new epidemics, and the destruction of natural resources have all made the future of the planet seem increasingly dire. But the real truth, according to respected scientist Dr. Seymour Garte, is that the environment is actually in better shape than we have been led to believe.

Where We Stand will serve as a reality check for a debate surrounded by controversy. Garte presents irrefutable evidence that the state of the environment and human welfare has been improving steadily for the past two decades and that our efforts to "save the planet" are working. Contrary to popular opinion, the air and water are getting cleaner, cancer rates are decreasing, and forestation is improving. Meant to motivate -- not to lull -- Where We Stand will energize future efforts with the knowledge that we can make a difference. In giving us the good news, Garte does not neglect the bad; those issues that urgently need to be dealt with. There is still work to be done, but with a clearer picture of where we stand today, we will have a better chance for tomorrow. Hopeful, balanced, and convincing, this is a book that will change the way readers view the planet and the future.

A comprehensive consumer guide to all the fascinating high-tech innovations that have helped build the personal growth movement into a $35 billion-a-year industry. 250 photographs and line drawings.