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The Revolutionary Genius of Plants: A New Understanding of Plant Intelligence and Behavior
Mancuso, Stefano
(Hardcover)
List Price: $30.00 Our Price: $11.65
Do plants have intelligence? Do they have memory? Are they better problem solvers than people? The Revolutionary Genius of Plants—a fascinating, paradigm-shifting work that upends everything you thought you knew about plants—makes a compelling scientific case that these and other astonishing ideas are all true.Plants make up eighty percent of the weight of all living things on earth, and yet it is easy to forget that these innocuous, beautiful organisms are responsible for not only the air that lets us survive, but for many of our modern comforts: our medicine, food supply, even our fossil fuels.On the forefront of uncovering the essential truths about plants, world-renowned scientist Stefano Mancuso reveals the surprisingly sophisticated ability of plants to innovate, to remember, and to learn, offering us creative solutions to the most vexing technological and ecological problems that face us today. Despite not having brains or central nervous systems, plants perceive their surroundings with an even greater sensitivity than animals. They efficiently explore and react promptly to potentially damaging external events thanks to their cooperative, shared systems; without any central command centers, they are able to remember prior catastrophic events and to actively adapt to new ones.Every page of The Revolutionary Genius of Plants bubbles over with Stefano Mancuso’s infectious love for plants and for the eye-opening research that makes it more and more clear how remarkable our fellow inhabitants on this planet really are. In his hands, complicated science is wonderfully accessible, and he has loaded the book with gorgeous photographs that make for an unforgettable reading experience. The Revolutionary Genius of Plants opens the doors to a new understanding of life on earth.
How to Read Water: Clues and Patterns From Puddles to the Sea
Gooley, Tristan
(Hardcover)
List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $9.79
Read the sea like a Viking and interpret ponds like a Polynesian--with a little help from the "natural navigator"! In his eye-opening books The Lost Art of Reading Nature's Signs and The Natural Navigator, Tristan Gooley helped readers reconnect with nature by finding direction from the trees, stars, clouds, and more. Now, he turns his attention to our most abundant--yet perhaps least understood--resource. Distilled from his far-flung adventures--sailing solo across the Atlantic, navigating with Omani tribespeople, canoeing in Borneo, and walking in his own backyard--Gooley shares hundreds of techniques in How to Read Water. Readers will: Find north using puddles Forecast the weather from waves Decode the colors of ponds Spot dangerous water in the dark Decipher wave patterns on beaches, and more!
We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast
Foer, Jonathan Safran
(Hardcover)
List Price: $25.00 Our Price: $9.79
Some people reject the fact, overwhelmingly supported by scientists, that our planet is warming because of human activity. But do those of us who accept the reality of human-caused climate change truly believe it? If we did, surely we would be roused to act on what we know. Will future generations distinguish between those who didn’t believe in the science of global warming and those who said they accepted the science but failed to change their lives in response?In We Are the Weather, Jonathan Safran Foer explores the central global dilemma of our time in a surprising, deeply personal, and urgent new way. The task of saving the planet will involve a great reckoning with ourselves - with our all-too-human reluctance to sacrifice immediate comfort for the sake of the future. We have, he reveals, turned our planet into a farm for growing animal products, and the consequences are catastrophic. Only collective action will save our home and way of life. And it all starts with what we eat - and don’t eat - for breakfast.
The Ocean of Life: The Fate of Man an the Sea
Roberts, Callum
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $6.79
The sea feeds and sustains us, but its future is under catastrophic threat. In this powerful and ambitious book Callum Roberts - one of the world's foremost conservation biologists - tells the story of the history of the sea, from the earliest traces of water on earth to the oceans as we know them today. He offers a devastating account of the impact of overfishing, deep-sea mining, pollution, and climate change and explains what we must do now to preserve our rapidly dwindling marine life. Passionate and persuasive, The Ocean of Life is a wake-up call that will appeal to anyone who loves the sea and its creatures.
Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs: The Astounding Interconnectedness of the Universe
Randall, Lisa
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.99 Our Price: $6.79
In this brilliant exploration of our cosmic environment, the renowned particle physicist and New York Times bestselling author of Warped Passages and Knocking on Heaven’s Door uses her research into dark matter to illuminate the startling connections between the furthest reaches of space and life here on Earth. Sixty-six million years ago, an object the size of a city descended from space to crash into Earth, creating a devastating cataclysm that killed off the dinosaurs, along with three-quarters of the other species on the planet. What was its origin? In Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Lisa Randall proposes it was a comet that was dislodged from its orbit as the Solar System passed through a disk of dark matter embedded in the Milky Way. In a sense, it might have been dark matter that killed the dinosaurs. Working through the background and consequences of this proposal, Randall shares with us the latest findings - established and speculative - regarding the nature and role of dark matter and the origin of the Universe, our galaxy, our Solar System, and life, along with the process by which scientists explore new concepts. In Dark Matter and the Dinosaurs, Randall tells a breathtaking story that weaves together the cosmos’ history and our own, illuminating the deep relationships that are critical to our world and the astonishing beauty inherent in the most familiar things.
Storms of My Grandchildren: The Truth About the Coming Climate Catastrophe and Our Last Chance to Save Humanity
Hansen, James
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $4.89
An urgent and provocative call to action from the world's leading climate scientist - speaking out here for the first time with the full story of what we need to know about humanity's last chance to get off the path to a catastrophic global meltdown, and why we don't know the half of it.
The Cure for Catastrophe: How We Can Stop Manufacturing Natural Disasters
Muir-Wood, Robert
(Hardcover)
List Price: $29.99 Our Price: $6.25
We can't stop natural disasters but we can stop them being disastrous. One of the world's foremost risk experts tells us how.Year after year, floods wreck people's homes and livelihoods, earthquakes tear communities apart, and tornadoes uproot whole towns. Natural disasters cause destruction and despair. But does it have to be this way?In The Cure for Catastrophe, global risk expert Robert Muir-Wood argues that our natural disasters are in fact human ones: We build in the wrong places and in the wrong way, putting brick buildings in earthquake country, timber ones in fire zones, and coastal cities in the paths of hurricanes. We then blindly trust our flood walls and disaster preparations, and when they fail, catastrophes become even more deadly. No society is immune to the twin dangers of complacency and heedless development.Recognizing how disasters are manufactured gives us the power to act. From the Great Lisbon Earthquake of 1755 to Hurricane Katrina, The Cure for Catastrophe recounts the ingenious ways in which people have fought back against disaster. Muir-Wood shows the power and promise of new predictive technologies, and envisions a future where information and action come together to end the pain and destruction wrought by natural catastrophes. The decisions we make now can save millions of lives in the future.Buzzing with political plots, newfound technologies, and stories of surprising resilience, The Cure for Catastrophe will revolutionize the way we conceive of catastrophes: though natural disasters are inevitable, the death and destruction are optional. As we brace ourselves for deadlier cataclysms, the cure for catastrophe is in our hands.
Climate Changed: A Personal Journey Through the Science
Squarzoni, Philippe
(Paperback)
List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $11.39
What are the causes and consequences of climate change? When the scale is so big, can an individual make any difference? Documentary, diary, and masterwork graphic novel, this up-to-date look at our planet and how we live on it explains what global warming is all about. With the most complicated concepts made clear in a feat of investigative journalism by artist Philippe Squarzoni, Climate Changed weaves together scientific research, extensive interviews with experts, and a call for action. Weighing the potential of some solutions and the false promises of others, this groundbreaking work provides a realistic, balanced view of the magnitude of the crisis that An Inconvenient Truth only touched on. Climate Changed is printed on FSC-certified paper from responsibly-managed, environmentally-sound sources.
Into the Storm: Two Ships, a Deadly Hurricane, and an Epic Battle for Survival
Korten, Tristram
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $6.79
The true story of two doomed ships and a daring search-and-rescue operation that shines a light on the elite Coast Guard swimmers trained for the most dangerous ocean missionsIn late September 2015, Hurricane Joaquin swept past the Bahamas and swallowed a pair of cargo vessels in its destructive path: El Faro, a 790-foot American behemoth with a crew of thirty-three, and the Minouche, a 230-foot freighter with a dozen sailors aboard. From the parallel stories of these ships and their final journeys, Tristram Korten weaves a remarkable tale of two veteran sea captains from very different worlds, the harrowing ordeals of their desperate crews, and the Coast Guard’s extraordinary battle against a storm that defied prediction.When the Coast Guard received word from Captain Renelo Gelera that the Minouche was taking on water on the night of October 1, the servicemen on duty helicoptered through Joaquin to the sinking ship. Rescue swimmer Ben Cournia dropped into the sea—in the middle of a raging tropical cyclone, in the dark—and churned through the monstrous swells, loading survivors into a rescue basket dangling from the helicopter as its pilot struggled against the tempest. With pulsating narrative skill in the tradition of Sebastian Junger and Jon Krakauer, Korten recounts the heroic efforts by Cournia and his fellow guardsmen to haul the Minouche’s crew to safety.Tragically, things would not go as well for Captain Michael Davidson and El Faro. Despite exhaustive searching by her would-be rescuers, the loss of the vessel became the largest U.S. maritime disaster in decades. As Korten narrates the ships’ fates, with insights drawn from insider access to crew members, Coast Guard teams, and their families, he delivers a moving and propulsive story of men in peril, the international brotherhood of mariners, and the breathtaking power of nature.
The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast
Blum, Andrew
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.99 Our Price: $6.49
The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It’s a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind all these humble interactions is the largest and most elaborate piece of infrastructure human beings have ever constructed—a triumph of both science and global cooperation. But what is the weather machine, and who created it?In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through the people, places, and tools of forecasting, exploring how the weather went from something we simply observed to something we could actually predict. As he travels across the planet, he visits some of the oldest and most important weather stations and watches the newest satellites blast off. He explores the dogged efforts of forecasters to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere, while trying to grasp the ongoing relevance of TV weather forecasters.In the increasingly unpredictable world of climate change, correctly understanding the weather is vital. Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our changing relationships with technology, the planet, and our global community.
The Unnatural World: The Race to Remake Civilization in Earth's Newest Age
Biello, David
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $5.99
With the historical perspective of The Song of the Dodo and the urgency of Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth, The Unnatural World chronicles a disparate band of unlikely heroes: an effervescent mad scientist who would fertilize the seas; a pigeon obsessive bent on bringing back the extinct; a low-level government functionary in China doing his best to clean up his city, and more. These scientists, billionaires, and ordinary people are all working toward saving the best home humanity is ever likely to have.What is the threat? It is us. In a time when a species dies out every ten minutes, when summers are getting hotter, winters colder, and oceans higher, some people still deny mankind’s effect on the Earth. But all of our impacts on the planet have ushered in what qualifies as a new geologic epoch, thanks to global warming, mass extinction, and such technologies as nuclear weapons and plastics.“A futurist ray of hope amid the usual denial and despair” (Esquire), The Unnatural World examines the world we have created and analyzes the glimmers of light emerging from the efforts of incredible individuals seeking to change our future. Instead of a world without us, this history of the future shows how to become good gardeners, helping people thrive along with an abundance of plants, animals, all the exuberant profusion of life on Earth—a better world with us. The current era of humans need not be the end of the world—and “Biello describes both what we have done to alter our planet and what we should do in the future to ensure its habitability” (Scientific American).
Weather 101
Sears, Kathleen
(Hardcover)
List Price: $15.99 Our Price: $6.79
All too often books about the study of weather are so tedious that even your favorite weatherperson would be bored to tears. Weather 101 changes all that.With an engaging, conversational tone, this easy-to-follow guide will keep you entertained - whether you're a novice meteorologist or just interested in learning more about weather patterns. From clear blue skies to hail to dust storms and featuring information on how to predict the weather; how to be ready for natural disasters; and how climate change is affecting the world, t his guide turns anyone into a weather expert.From low- and high-pressure systems to floods, hurricanes, and tornadoes, Weather 101 has all the answers - even the ons you didn't know you were looking for.
Moby-Duck
Hohn, Donovan
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $6.79
When the writer Donovan Hohn heard of the mysterious loss of thousands of bath toys at sea, he figured he would interview a few oceanographers, talk to a few beachcombers, and read up on Arctic science and geography. But questions can be like ocean currents: wade in too far, and they carry you away. Hohn's accidental odyssey pulls him into the secretive arena of shipping conglomerates, the daring work of Arctic researchers, the lunatic risks of maverick sailors, and the shadowy world of Chinese toy factories. Moby-Duck is a journey into the heart of the sea and an adventure through science, myth, the global economy, and some of the worst weather imaginable.
The Great Quake: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet
Fountain, Henry
(Paperback)
List Price: $16.00 Our Price: $7.09
At 5:36 p.m. on March 27, 1964, a magnitude 9.2. earthquake – the second most powerful in world history – struck the young state of Alaska. The violent shaking, followed by massive tsunamis, devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later, George Plafker, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, arrived to investigate. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics.In a compelling tale about the almost unimaginable brute force of nature, New York Times science journalist Henry Fountain combines history and science to bring the quake and its aftermath to life in vivid detail. With deep, on-the-ground reporting from Alaska, often in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people - and on science.
Kings of the Yukon: One Summer Paddling Across the Far North
Weymouth, Adam
(Hardcover)
List Price: $27.00 Sale: $2.46
A thrilling journey by canoe across Alaska, by critically acclaimed writer Adam WeymouthThe Yukon river is 2,000 miles long, the longest stretch of free-flowing river in the United States. In this riveting examination of one of the last wild places on earth, Adam Weymouth canoes along the river's length, from Canada's Yukon Territory, through Alaska, to the Bering Sea. The result is a book that shows how even the most remote wilderness is affected by the same forces reshaping the rest of the planet.Every summer, hundreds of thousands of king salmon migrate the distance of the Yukon to their spawning grounds, where they breed and die, in what is the longest salmon run in the world. For the communities that live along the river, salmon was once the lifeblood of the economy and local culture. But climate change and a globalized economy have fundamentally altered the balance between man and nature; the health and numbers of king salmon are in question, as is the fate of the communities that depend on them.Traveling along the Yukon as the salmon migrate, a four-month journey through untrammeled landscape, Adam Weymouth traces the fundamental interconnectedness of people and fish through searing and unforgettable portraits of the individuals he encounters. He offers a powerful, nuanced glimpse into indigenous cultures, and into our ever-complicated relationship with the natural world. Weaving in the rich history of salmon across time as well as the science behind their mysterious life cycle, Kings of the Yukon is extraordinary adventure and nature writing at its most urgent and poetic.
Climate Justice: Hope, Resilience, and the Fight for a Sustainable Future
Robinson, Mary
(Hardcover)
List Price: $26.00 Our Price: $10.55
An urgent call to arms by one of the most important voices in the international fight against climate change, sharing inspiring stories and offering vital lessons for the path forward.Holding her first grandchild in her arms in 2003, Mary Robinson was struck by the uncertainty of the world he had been born into. Before his fiftieth birthday, he would share the planet with more than nine billion people--people battling for food, water, and shelter in an increasingly volatile climate. The faceless, shadowy menace of climate change had become, in an instant, deeply personal.Mary Robinson's mission would lead her all over the world, from Malawi to Mongolia, and to a heartening revelation: that an irrepressible driving force in the battle for climate justice could be found at the grassroots level, mainly among women, many of them mothers and grandmothers like herself. From Sharon Hanshaw, the Mississippi matriarch whose campaign began in her East Biloxi hair salon and culminated in her speaking at the United Nations, to Constance Okollet, a small farmer who transformed the fortunes of her ailing community in rural Uganda, Robinson met with ordinary people whose resilience and ingenuity had already unlocked extraordinary change.Powerful and deeply humane, Climate Justice is a stirring manifesto on one of the most pressing humanitarian issues of our time, and a lucid, affirmative, and well-argued case for hope.
Quakeland: On the Road to America's Next Devastating Earthquake
Miles, Kathryn
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $5.49
A journey around the United States in search of the truth about the threat of earthquakes leads to spine-tingling discoveries, unnerving experts, and ultimately the kind of preparations that will actually help guide us through disasters. It’s a road trip full of surprises.Earthquakes. You need to worry about them only if you’re in San Francisco, right? Wrong. We have been making enormous changes to subterranean America, and Mother Earth, as always, has been making some of her own. . . . The consequences for our real estate, our civil engineering, and our communities will be huge because they will include earthquakes most of us do not expect and cannot imagine - at least not without reading Quakeland. Kathryn Miles descends into mines in the Northwest, dissects Mississippi levee engineering studies, uncovers the horrific risks of an earthquake in the Northeast, and interviews the seismologists, structual engineers, and emergency managers around the country who are addressing this ground shaking threat. As Miles relates, the era of human-induced earthquakes began in 1962 in Colorado after millions of gallons of chemical-weapon waste was pumped underground in the Rockies. More than 1,500 quakes over the following seven years resulted. The Department of Energy plans to dump spent nuclear rods in the same way. Evidence of fracking’s seismological impact continues to mount. . . . Humans as well as fault lines built our “quakeland”.What will happen when Memphis, home of FedEx's 1.5-million-packages-a-day hub, goes offline as a result of an earthquake along the unstable Reelfoot Fault? FEMA has estimated that a modest 7.0 magnitude quake (twenty of these happen per year around the world) along the Wasatch Fault under Salt Lake City would put a $33 billion dent in our economy. When the Fukushima reactor melted down, tens of thousands were displaced. If New York’s Indian Point nuclear power plant blows, ten million people will be displaced. How would that evacuation even begin?Kathryn Miles’ tour of our land is as fascinating and frightening as it is irresistibly compelling.
The Big Ones: How Natural Disasters Have Shaped Us (and What We Can Do About Them)
Jones, Lucy
(Hardcover)
List Price: $26.95 Our Price: $9.09
By the world-renowned seismologist, a riveting history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come.Earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes--they stem from the same forces that give our planet life. Earthquakes give us natural springs; volcanoes produce fertile soil. It is only when these forces exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Together they have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and toppled governments; influenced the way we think, feel, fight, unite, and pray. The history of natural disasters is a history of ourselves.In The Big Ones, leading seismologist Dr. Lucy Jones offers a bracing look at some of the world's greatest natural disasters, whose reverberations we continue to feel today. At Pompeii, Jones explores how a volcanic eruption in the first century AD challenged prevailing views of religion. She examines the California floods of 1862 and the limits of human memory. And she probes more recent events--such as the Indian Ocean tsunami of 2004 and the American hurricanes of 2017--to illustrate the potential for globalization to humanize and heal.With population in hazardous regions growing and temperatures around the world rising, the impacts of natural disasters are greater than ever before. The Big Ones is more than just a work of history or science; it is a call to action. Natural hazards are inevitable; human catastrophes are not. With this energizing and exhaustively researched book, Dr. Jones offers a look at our past, readying us to face down the Big Ones in our future.
Everyday Amazing: Fascinating Facts about the Science That Surrounds Us
Beatrice the Biologist
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.99 Our Price: $2.29
Like fan mail addressed to the natural world, Everyday Amazing is filled with uplifting and interesting musings on science from Beatrice the Biologist. Beatrice the Biologist is an easily amused former high school biology teacher with a soft spot for the mind-blowing science we encounter daily that we often take for granted. In Everyday Amazing, she shines the spotlight on ten different types of amazing everyday scientific facts in short chapters full of fun and fascinating tidbits bound to both entertain you and expand your horizons!Learn the basics of atomic science, sound waves, bioscience, microbiology, and more in accessible chapters offering a fresh perspective on concepts you may have learned about, but aren’t totally clear on. Quirky illustrations throughout add to the fun!
The Weather Machine: A Journey Inside the Forecast
Blum, Andrew
(Hardcover)
List Price: $25.99 Our Price: $11.89
The weather is the foundation of our daily lives. It’s a staple of small talk, the app on our smartphones, and often the first thing we check each morning. Yet behind all these humble interactions is the largest and most elaborate piece of infrastructure human beings have ever constructed—a triumph of both science and global cooperation. But what is the weather machine, and who created it?In The Weather Machine, Andrew Blum takes readers on a fascinating journey through the people, places, and tools of forecasting, exploring how the weather went from something we simply observed to something we could actually predict. As he travels across the planet, he visits some of the oldest and most important weather stations and watches the newest satellites blast off. He explores the dogged efforts of forecasters to create a supercomputer model of the atmosphere, while trying to grasp the ongoing relevance of TV weather forecasters.In the increasingly unpredictable world of climate change, correctly understanding the weather is vital. Written with the sharp wit and infectious curiosity Andrew Blum is known for, The Weather Machine pulls back the curtain on a universal part of our everyday lives, illuminating our changing relationships with technology, the planet, and our global community.
Over the Rivers (An Aerial View of Geology)
Collier, Michael
(Hardcover)
List Price: $34.95 Our Price: $14.09
Over the Rivers is the second volume in the exciting Aerial View of Geology series (the first was the highly praised Over the Mountains). As as a geologist, one of America's premier aerial photographers and a gifted science writer, Michael Collier is exceptionally well qualified to present these spectacular landscapes and stunning aerial photographs that vividly demonstrate geological processes.Vivid text and clear captions guide readers through the exciting photographs, enhancing their understanding of fundamental geological processes. Collier explores, for example:• How a 6,000-foot-deep canyon was carved out by the erosive power of a single river• How violent tectonic forces millions of years ago vaulted a river over a mountain• Why one river takes its time meandering, another suddenly drops over a cliff, and a third slowly separates into a sprawling delta.Over the Rivers inspires as it informs, and dazzles as it enlightens.
How the Earth Works: An Illustrated Guide to the Wonders of Our Planet (How Things Work)
Chartwell Books
(Hardcover)
List Price: $21.00 Our Price: $7.59
How do mountains move? Why are polar bears white? How are raindrops formed in the middle of a storm? What makes a dormant volcano erupt? All of these questions and thousands more are answered and explained in How the Earth Works via amazing photography and stunning illustrations in full-color cross sections.From the comfort of your home, discover and explore the world's greatest curiosities and most fascinating spectacles. Learn how and when the planet was formed and examine some of its most interesting, beautiful , and horrifying natural wonders - from its tallest trees, highest mountains, and deepest oceans, to its earthquakes that cause devastating tsunamis. Earth awaits you!
The Attacking Ocean
Fagan, Brian
(Softcover)
List Price: $18.00 Our Price: $5.99
The past fifteen thousand years--the entire span of human civilization--have witnessed dramatic sea level changes, which began with rapid global warming at the end of the Ice Age, when coastlines were more than seven hundred feet below modern levels. Over the next ten millennia, the oceans climbed in fits and starts. These rapid changes had little effect on those humans who experienced them, partly because there were so few people on earth, and also because those people were able to adjust readily to new coastlines. Global sea levels stabilized about six thousand years ago, except for local adjustments that caused often significant changes to places such as the Nile Delta. The curve of inexorably rising seas flattened out as urban civilizations developed in Egypt, Mesopotamia, and South Asia. The earth's population boomed, quintupling from the time of Christ to the Industrial Revolution. The threat from the oceans increased with our crowding along shores to live, fish, and trade. Since 1860, the world has warmed significantly and the ocean's climb has accelerated. The sea level changes are cumulative and gradual; no one knows when they will end. The Attacking Ocean, from celebrated author Brian Fagan, tells a tale of the rising complexity of the relationship between humans and the sea at their doorsteps, a complexity created not by the oceans, which have changed little. What has changed is us, and the number of us on earth.
The Field Guide to Natural Phenomena: The Secret World of Optical, Atmospheric and Celestial Wonders
Heidorn, Keith PhD
(Softcover)
List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $2.29
This is an illustrated guide to nature's most theatrical and mysterious events, from eclipses and the aurora borealis to rainbows and light pillars. Dr. Keith Heidorn combines engaging text with color photographs and line drawings to describe each phenomenon in simple, non-technical terms. The field guide examines the origins and behaviors of natural phenomena and draws on science, history, folklore, travel and other disciplines. Some are familiar events, yet others are once-in-a-lifetime spectacles.
The Edge of Memory: Ancient Stories, Oral Tradition and the Post-Glacial World (Bloomsbury Sigma)
Nunn, Patrick
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $8.69
In The Edge of Memory, Patrick Nunn explores the science in folk history. He looks at ancient tales and traditions that may be rooted in scientifically verifiable fact, and can be explored via geological evidence, such as the Biblical Flood.We all know those stories that have been told in our families for generations. The ones that start "Have I ever told you about your great, great Uncle ...?" In some cultures these stories have been passed down for thousands of years, and often reveal significant information about how the surrounding environment has changed and the effect it has had on societies--from stories referring to coastal drowning to the devastation caused by meteorite falls.Take Australian folklore, for instance. People arrived in Australia more than 60,000 years ago, and the need to survive led to the development of knowledge that was captured orally in stories passed down through the generations. These stories conveyed both practical information and recorded history, and they frequently made reference to a coastline that was very different to the one we recognize today. In at least 21 different communities along the fringe of Australia, flood stories were recorded by European anthropologists, missionaries, and others. They described a lost landscape that is now under as much as 100 feet of ocean. And these folk traditions are backed up by hard science. Geologists are now starting to corroborate the tales through study of climatic data, sediments and land forms; the evidence was there in the stories, but until recently, nobody was listening.The Edge of Memory is an important book that explores the wider implications for our knowledge of how human society has developed through the millennia.
Snow: A Scientific and Cultural Exploration
Whittell, Giles
(Hardcover)
List Price: $25.00 Sale: $2.37
Brimming with interesting facts and surprising anecdotes, this scientific and cultural history opens our eyes to the wonders of one of nature’s most delicate, delightful, and deadly phenomena: SNOW! Perfect for fans of The Hidden Life of Trees and Rain.Go on an extraordinary journey across centuries and continents to experience the wonders of snow; from the prehistoric humans that trekked and even skied across it tens of thousands of years ago to the multi-billion-dollar industry behind our moving, making, and playing with snow. Blending accessible writing with fascinating science, Giles Whittell explores how snow dictates where we live, provides us with drinking water, and has influenced countless works of art and more.Whittell also uncovers compelling mysteries of this miraculous substance, such as why avalanches happen, how snow saved a British prime minister’s life, where the legend of the yeti comes from, and the terrifying truth behind the opening ceremony of the 1960 winter Olympics.Filled with in-depth research and whip-smart prose, Snow is an eye-opening and charming book that illuminates one of the most magnificent wonders of nature.
The Great Extinctions: What Causes Them and How They Shape Life
MacLeod, Norman
(Softcover)
List Price: $24.95 Our Price: $9.79
For over a century, geologists have tried to identify and understand the processes responsible for the complex history of species extinction. This search has become even more important over the last decade as human populations and human technology may now rival sea-level change, volcanic eruptions and asteroid impacts as an extinction mechanism.The Great Extinctions explores the history of that search, its subjects, its controversies, its current conclusions and their meaning for our efforts to preserve the Earth's biodiversity. It explains what extinction is, what causes it and whether it can be prevented. Examining extinction over geological time,The Great Extinctions compares past geological extinction events and uses them to predict what it is likely to happen in the future.
Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health in the United States: A Scientific Assessment
Research Program, US Global Change
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.99 Our Price: $4.89
As global climate change proliferates, so too do the health risks associated with the changing world around us. Called for in the President’s Climate Action Plan and put together by experts from eight different Federal agencies, The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health: A Scientific Assessment is a comprehensive report on these evolving health risks, including:• Temperature-related death and illness• Air quality deterioration• Impacts of extreme events on human health• Vector-borne diseases• Climate impacts on water-related Illness• Food safety, nutrition, and distribution• Mental health and well-beingThis report summarizes scientific data in a concise and accessible fashion for the general public, providing executive summaries, key takeaways, and full-color diagrams and charts. Learn what health risks face you and your family as a result of global climate change and start preparing now with The Impacts of Climate Change on Human Health.
In Oceans Deep: Courage, Innovation, and Adventure Beneath the Waves
Streever, Bill
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $10.79
In an age of unprecedented exploration and innovation, our oceans remain largely unknown, and endlessly fascinating: full of mystery, danger, beauty, and inspiration. In Oceans Deep celebrates the daring pioneers who tested the limits of what the human body can endure under water: free divers able to reach 300 feet on a single breath; engineers and scientists who uncovered the secrets of decompression; teenagers who built their own diving gear from discarded boilers and garden hoses in the 1930s; saturation divers who lived under water for weeks at a time in the 1960s; and the trailblazing men who voluntarily breathed experimental gases at pressures sufficient to trigger insanity.Tracing both the little-known history and exciting future of how we travel and study the depths, Streever's captivating journey includes seventeenth-century leather-hulled submarines, their nuclear-powered descendants, a workshop where luxury submersibles are built for billionaire clients, and robots capable of roving unsupervised between continents, revolutionizing access to the ocean.In this far-flung trip to the wild, night-dark place of shipwrecks, trapped submariners, oil wells, innovative technologies, and people willing to risk their lives while challenging the deep, we discover all the adventures our seas have to offer -- and why they are in such dire need of conservation.
The Spinning Magnet: The Electromagnetic Force That Created the Modern World - and Could Destroy It
Mitchell, Alanna
(Hardcover)
List Price: $28.00 Our Price: $7.59
The mystery of Earth's invisible, life-supporting powerAlanna Mitchell's globe-trotting history of the science of electromagnetism and the Earth's magnetic field--right up to the latest indications that the North and South Poles may soon reverse, with apocalyptic results--will soon change the way you think about our planet.Award-winning journalist Alanna Mitchell's science storytelling introduce intriguing characters--from the thirteenth-century French investigations into magnetism and the Victorian-era discover that electricity and magnetism emerge from the same fundamental force to the latest research. No one has ever told so eloquently how the Earth itself came to be seen as a magnet, spinning in space with two poles, and that those poles have dramatically reversed many time, often coinciding with mass extinctions. The most recent reversal was 780,000 years ago.Mitchell explores indications that the Earth's magnetic force field is decaying faster than previously thought. When the poles switch, a process that takes many years, the Earth is unprotected from solar radiation storms that would, among other disturbances, wipe out much and possible all of our electromagnetic technology. Navigation for all kinds of animals is disrupted without a stable, magnetic North Pole. But can you imagine no satellites, no Internet, no smartphones--maybe no power grids at all?Alanna Mitchell offers a beautifully crafted narrative history of surprising ideas and science, illuminating invisible parts of our own planet that are constantly changing around us.
Meteorites: The Story of Our Solar System
Smith, Caroline
(Softcover)
List Price: $19.95 Our Price: $7.35
Meteorites are natural objects that have fallen from space to the Earth's surface. Once considered bad omens, they are now recognized as a unique window onto the processes that forged the formation of the solar system 4,570 million years ago. They reveal how impacts have shaped and modified planets, asteroids and moons; and they even contain evidence of astrophysical phenomena that occurred long before our solar system was born.This book contains all the latest information on key meteorite falls and considers some of the big questions that still remain - such as whether our solar system is unusual in creating a planet that supports life, and if it is likely we will find complex life elsewhere. With a mix of photographs, diagrams and maps, Meteorites is essential reading for all those with an interest in the nature of our solar system.
Lost Antarctica
McClintock, James
(Paperback)
List Price: $17.00 Our Price: $5.99
Few of us will ever get to Antarctica. The bitter cold and three months a year without sunlight makes the sixth continent virtually uninhabitable for humans. Yet marine biologist James B. McClintock has spent three decades studying the frozen land in order to understand better the world that lies beneath it.In this luminous and closely observed account, one of the world's leading experts on Antarctica introduces the reader to this fascinating world - the extraordinary wildlife that persists despite the harsh conditions and the way each of the pieces fit into the puzzle of the intricate environment: from single-celled organisms to baleen whales, with leopard seals, penguins, 50-foot algae, sea spiders, coral, and multicolored sea stars, in between. Now, as temperatures rise, the fragile ecosystem is under attack. Adelie penguins that have successfully nested on Antarctic islands for several hundred years have been nearly wiped out. King crabs that used to populate the deep seafloor are moving into shallower waters, disturbing the set order of life there. Lost Antarctica is an appeal to understand and appreciate the wondrous place at the bottom of the world that we are on the brink of losing.
Mammoths and Mastodons of the Ice Age
Lister, Adrian
(Hardcover)
List Price: $29.95 Our Price: $10.29
A vivid, authoritative exploration of the iconic giants of the Ice Age. Featuring stunning photographs of skeletons, casts, tusks and preserved flesh from the world-famous collections of the Natural History Museum in London and Chicago's Field Museum (home to the most complete and best preserved mammoth baby), this book reveals what life was like for these prehistoric giants whose remains invite so much modern fascination and speculation. From 1.8 million to 10,000 years ago as global temperatures cooled, colossal mammals were an imposing presence on the Pleistocene landscape, roaming alongside humans across great swaths of Europe, Asia, and much of North America. Mammoths and Mastodons of the Ice Age explains the differences between these animals, describes their habitats and behaviors, and introduces other amazing creatures from the Ice Age, such as the saber-toothed cat, giant sloth, cave bear and dire wolf. Drawing on current scientific research, including recently revealed DNA analysis that shows the real color of mammoths, Adrian Lister explores how hunters stalked the elephantine prey, why they died out and whether it's possible to clone them today. He also examines what wild elephants (their surviving cousins) tell us about their extinct ancestors and how the natural and human-caused challenges elephants face today may doom them to the same fate. Mammoths and Mastodons of the Ice Age is a tie-in with the traveling museum exhibition "Mammoths and Mastodons: Titans of the Ice Age," which opened in Chicago in 2010, and will tour through 2016. The similarly named 3D film has received rave reviews and undoubtedly will become a popular big-screen event, once the museum exhibition closes.
Everything You Know About Planet Earth Is Wrong (Everything You Know Is Wrong)
Brown, Matt
(Hardcover)
List Price: $12.95 Our Price: $4.89
Think you know the truth about how our world works? Matt Brown is here to blow away your long-held beliefs with his illuminating look at the many myths, legends, and misquotes that have shaped our perception of Earth.Convinced Earth is round? It’s actually flatter at the poles. Think the Sahara is the biggest desert on the planet? It’s actually Antarctica. Matt Brown will astound you with some surprising truths about geography, nature, cities, and the people who live there. He guides you through a minefield of misinformation as he answers questions about whether we could solve overpopulation by colonizing space, why you shouldn’t measure earthquakes on the Richter scale, how the Mayans got it wrong when they predicted the world would end in 2012, and how a heatwave in 2003 led to a worldwide shortage of wine.
Darwin's First Theory: Exploring Darwin's Quest for a Theory of Earth
Wesson, Rob
(Paperback)
List Price: $18.95 Our Price: $7.59
An acclaimed geologist leads the reader on an adventure through the landscape that absorbed and inspired Charles Darwin.Everybody knows - or thinks they know - Charles Darwin, the father of evolution and the man who altered the way we view our place in the world. But what most people do not know is that Darwin was on board the HMS Beagle as a geologist - on a mission to examine the land, not flora and fauna.Retracing Darwin’s footsteps in South America and beyond, geologist Rob Wesson treks across the Andes, cruises waters charted by the Beagle, hunts for fossils in Uruguay and Argentina, and explores sites of long vanished glaciers in Scotland and Wales. As he follows Darwin’s path - literally and intellectually - Wesson experiences the land as Darwin did, engages with his observations, and tackles the same questions Darwin had about our ever-changing Earth.Upon his return from his five-year journey aboard the Beagle, after examining the effects of earthquakes, tsunamis, volcanic eruptions, and more, Darwin conceived his theory of subsidence and uplift‚ - his first theory. These concepts and attitudes - the vastness of time; the enormous cumulative impact of almost imperceptibly slow change; change as a constant feature of the environment - underlie Darwin’s subsequent discoveries in evolution. And this peculiar way of thinking remains vitally important today as we enter the human-dominated Anthropocene age.Expertly interweaving science and adventure, Darwin’s First Theory is a riveting and revelatory journey around the world with one of the greatest scientific minds in history.
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