Terrestrial Space Radiation and Its Biological Effects (Nato Science Series: A:)

Book Description

NATURAL WONDERS EXPLORED AND EXPLAINED . . . an authoritative, user-friendly guide to awe-inspiring landscapes of the Greater Southwest (desert and canyon country of southern California, Arizona, New Mexico, northern Mexico, western Texas, Nevada, Utah, and western Colorado). Lavishly illustrated with 315 color photographs, 33 illustrations, and 7 maps, including a customized 15"x 20" tear-out road map. The text blends travel tips, Native American legends, prehistoric and historic vignettes, and non-technical explanations of earthly processes and events that have shaped the land, people, and wildlife. Included are attractions as familiar as the Grand Canyon and those as unfamiliar as musical dunes and dinosaur tracks.

The writing is informative without being academic, suitable for all adults and students in junior high and up. And the back-matter is packed with resources to help outdoor adventure-seekers plan their trips: 136 helpful websites, annotated listings for 63 books and 109 scenic attractions (including notable sites outside the parks), and a comprehensive index.

Customer Reviews:

A great multidimensional overview of the Southwest.......2006-01-21

This is a great mix of fantastic photography and well-themed chapters on a variety of subjects, that can be informative for anybody from a first-time visitor to a long-term resident or even a native.

For example, there's a welter of geological information on types of rocks and rock formations, how bajadas, sand dunes and other formations are created, and more. Along with that is climatolgical and geographic information on the different deserts, and subdeserts within the Sonoran, in this country.

Elsewhere, you get information in brief on the location of the different prehistoric Indian inhabitants, dinosaur and other fossils in the area, and yet more on canyon. rock and other formations.

A good coffee-table type book.

Art and science come together...........2003-04-10

Very few books offer the balance of stunning photography of our glorious land with creative layout and insights into the natural sciences, especially the Earth sciences. In the past few years, as a native of the east, I have used this book to help me explore the magnificent landscapes of my new home. Mr. Wiewandt and Ms. Wilks have captured the beauty of this region in a book that is truly unique. As a souvenir of the heart of the "desert" southwest and as a planning resource for the inquiring travel, this book excels.

Thomas McGuire
Earth Science Author & Educator
Cave Creek, AZ

"If we intend to live on this planet...
we truly need to understand how it works."

John Nemerovski MyMac.com Book Review.......2002-10-24

Tucked within the pages this unusual new book is a custom-made 15" x 20" multi-color map of America's "Greater Southwest." The map, like the book, focuses on desert and canyon country of southern California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, and portions of Colorado, Texas, and northern Mexico.

At the map's center is a spot called Four Corners, the point where New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, and Utah meet. And at the top of the map, you'll see an enlarged view of southern Utah that features the many remarkable natural wonders located between St. George and Moab. This is Desert Solitaire country, as fans of author Edward Abbey know so well.

Over 300 miles from Four Corners, author/photographer/educator Tom Wiewandt lives in the Tucson Mountains, near Saguaro National Park in the Sonoran Desert. I met him at a pot luck dinner for the Arizona Native Plant Society, and was instantly impressed by his tales of dodging electrocution while taking photos of the area's powerful summer "monsoon" lightning storms.

Imagine my surprise two days later when a review copy of The Southwest Inside Out arrived, complete with award emblems for prizes this volume has already received. Five jaw-dropping minutes spent leafing through its pages convinced me that nature lovers worldwide need to know about the book.

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The Southwest Inside Out delves into the geological origins of stunning landscapes that abound in this part of the world, clearly written for those of us who are curious but have no formal training in the earth sciences. But this book is much wider in scope: it offers a holistic overview that integrates scenic wonders with pre-history, plant and animal ecology, Native American mythology, recent history, and travel tips.

The lively, informative text is fully indexed and cleanly organized with side-bars for easy reading. Each page has been designed for maximum impact by the talented Carol Haralson, who deserves special mention. Wiewandt's photos are sensational, and no lesser adjective will suffice.

Seven major subject areas bring this far-ranging section of the United States into sharp focus. My favorites are:

* DUNES, with their austere majesty, hosting rugged, idiosyncratic life forms;

* WHERE WATER COMES AND GOES, explaining how horrible floods and devastating droughts will always be beyond our control;

* STORIES IN STONE, including charts and photos that place such creatures as trilobites, dinosaurs, and saber-tooth cats throughout the region.

Within each of these chapters are gorgeous landscape and nature photos, well-researched information, plus numerous illustrations and original maps. Check out Wiewandt's splendid photo gallery for sample pictures like those in his book. You can download photos from the website, but remember to respect his copyright.

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Tom Wiewandt is a native to the American Southwest and has led photographic learning vacations throughout this region for 11 years, establishing a solid foundation for The Southwest Inside Out - An Illustrated Guide to the Land and Its History. His co-author, Maureen Wilks is a geologist and librarian for the New Mexico Bureau of Geology and Mineral Resources. I thought I knew the area well after living here for a dozen years, but I'm still a tenderfoot in comparison.

Two useful sections deserve special mention: "Where to Find Them" lists every worthwhile federal and state park and scenic area within this enormous geographic zone; and four pages of "Photo Tips" tell you what to do and how to do it for optimum results in such demanding light/rock/sky/desert environments.

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The Southwest Inside Out sits prominently on my living room table, and I could have sold a dozen copies already to people who happened to pick it up for a "quick" glance. This book is attractive, informative, well-written, and inspiring for all ages and interests. You don't need to leave it at home. It has been built and designed to carry with you on the road, to be read on the fly. I can't wait to travel to at least a dozen new places, ones I never knew to exist before visiting them through the eyes of Tom Wiewandt.

A comprehensive book, but-----.......2002-03-07

As one who finds the Southwest, particularly the Colorado Plateau, to be the most beautiful, thought-provoking, and inspiring place on Earth, I purchased this book with a great deal of anticipation. A cursory review at the Arches N.P bookstore revealed that the photography was excellent, even sublime. The collection of photographs avoids the trite, road tourist views in good measure, and presents the topics from a fresh, seldom-visualized viewpoint. The sections on slot canyons, hoodoos, and natural bridges were particularly entertaining.
The textual treatment was less impressive, dwelling in most part on fundamental things any roadie would glimpse. I would have preferred a more detailed discussion on the "why" of the formations and features. So far as gaining a deep understanding of what has made the Southwest the world's premier geological wonderland, other books may be more appropriate.
This being said, I was nonetheless enchanted by the book. I have visited every national park, most of the national monuments, and many of the out-of-the way marvels. So have the book's authors and I am impressed with their care of the subject. Especially for the first-time visitor to the Southwest, I would count the book an essential read.

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Planet Earth/Inside Out

Manufacturer: HarperTrophy
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0688158498

Book Description

What if we could open up our planet and look inside? From its red-hot core to the highest mountain peak, come see Earth as you've never seen it before in a colorful introduction to the powerful forces shaping our home.

De-Coca-Colonization: Making the Globe from the Inside Out

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De-Coca-Colonization: Making the Globe from the Inside Out
Steven Flusty
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0415945380

Book Description

A novel theoretical account of globalization, De-Coca-Colonization argues that we must move away from top-down visions of the processes at work and concentrate on how ordinary people who are locked out of power structures create "globalities" of their own. Taking us on a kaleidoscopic tour through the worlds of ordinary people and their deceptively prosaic commodities, the author demonstrates that the little-g globalization is where much of the action reconstituting global social life is happening.

Earth: Inside and Out (American Museum of Natural History Books)

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Earth: Inside and Out (American Museum of Natural History Books)

Manufacturer: New Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1565845951

Book Description

Leading experts explain our planet in an illustrated companion to the acclaimed American Museum of Natural History's Hall of Planet Earth. Earth is a stunning exploration of how our planet works, of the research into the diverse environments that support life on Earth, and of the possibility of life beyond it, with essays by experts, profiles of historically significant scientists, and case studies from present-day researchers. Published to accompany the American Museum of Natural History's David S. and Ruth L. Gottesman Hall of Planet Earth, called "spectacular.... A fun way of learning about our planet" (New York Daily News), the book takes us on a journey to the center of the earth and beyond, examining the workings of the core and mantle, plate tectonics and earthquakes, volcanoes, the oceans and climate, and how all of these processes intersect in one giant system called Earth. Written for the general reader, Earth answers five basic questions: How has Earth evolved? Why are there ocean basins, continents, and mountains? How do we read the rocks? What causes climate and climate change? Why is Earth habitable? Essays by and about leading scientists at MIT, Princeton, Harvard, and Columbia, in addition to government organizations such as NASA, Los Alamos National Laboratories, and the United States Geological Survey, let the general reader in on many of Earth's newly revealed secrets. Black-and-white photographs and illustrations throughout.

The New Press is pleased to announce the publication of this new title with the American Museum of Natural History, a collaboration that began with the publication of Epidemic! in 2000.

Book Description

A compelling new theory of the psychological roots of the Scientific Revolution

The standard account of the rise of Western science recently has come under fire by historians who claim that there was nothing revolutionary about the Copernican Revolution and that science did not suddenly become modern in its aftermath. How, then, explain the fact that, after 14 centuries of barely noticeable scientific progress, virtually all of the major discoveries that formed the foundation of modern science were made within a few years of 1600? In It Started with Copernicus, social theorist Howard Margolis answers with a controversial new theory of the psychological roots of the Scientific Revolution. Margolis points out that Copernicus's great discovery was not that the Earth revolved around the sunsince Aristarchus had proposed it 1,800 years earlierbut that entertaining such a seemingly unlikely idea would solve other problems. Thus, he provided a model for Kepler, Galileo, Steven, Gilbert, and others who would go on to lay the foundations of modern science.

Customer Reviews:

Interesting but hardly convincing.......2005-12-29

This book is a valiant but perhaps futile attempt to rescue the reputation of Nicholas Copernicus from the disdain of "historians who see Copernicus as a fundamentally conservative figure".

Jacques Barzun, a prolific author on history and science, in April 1966 summed up the role of Copernicus and Galileo as "the first great shock administered by scientific thought, because their discoveries had religious implications". He also said, "the advent of science as a social institution, as I see it, should not be dated any earlier than the eighteen-eighties, at the end of the hundred years of controversy about evolution, which proved to be the great populizer of science".

Obviously, in America where Creationism and Intelligent Design are now hailed as fundamentalist classroom science, Barzun may be as far off base as Margolis. Both overlooked the obvious: science is a search, a course of inquiry, to learn how things work and thus predict the future. It is a way of thinking, not a destination of thought. Modern science was nicely summed up by Auguste Comte as all natural laws once we discover the mathematics, which succeeded the earlier attribution of everything to mysterious forces, which toook over from the idea that gods are responsible for everything.

Maybe I'm missing something, but it seems Margolis fails to recognize a basic human instinct is to predict. It explains projects from Stonehenge to last fall's National Institute of Standards and Technology discovery that half-a-dozen beryllium atoms can simultaneously spin clockwise and counterclockwise.

Let's start with Stonehenge and the winter solstice. In those days, when the sun has gone far away enough, festivities are held to invite the sun back. For thousands of years, this ritual never failed; the sun always came back. However, just because the solstice frestival "worked" doesn't mean it was the real reason the sun returned. Likewise, although you can't PROVE the sun will rise tomorrow, it's safe to assume it will. So, you could say that eating a bowl of cherries every night will make the sun rise tomorrow . . . sure enough, do it and the sun will rise. If you live in a world which believes your actions directly influence the gods, then it is "cause and effect" proven.

It is what Thomas Kuhn meant in 1962 when he said the bulk of science exists in a given framework for arbitrary historical reasons until too many problems arise and a revolution, or paradigm shift, occurs. Thus, the Stonehenge Festival and cherries fade away as knowledge increases. Karl Popper said the same thing in a different manner, he viewed science as a system of testing definitions until they are proven false, and this falsifiability doctrine produces a paradigm shift in thinking.

The 'too many problems' and 'falsifiability' ideas came much earlier than 1600; it began with people such as Jan Hus who challenged the tyranny of the existing religious orthodoxy. Stonehenge was abandoned because, several millennia earlier, someone had the courage to point out "it ain't necessarily so". If gods can be challenged, then the gods' explanations of the universe and everything else can be challenged.

Copernicus was as prescient as the modern beryllium researchers, and probably as equally mystifying to the average person. Instead of accepting the orthodoxy of centuries, he sought independent answers. Because the whole state of knowledge had grown vastly in the two millennia since Aristotle, he had stronger shoulders on which to stand to peer into the future.

The presumption by Margolis is that Copernicus did it all, instead of having vastly superior knowledge with which to work. It's like saying Mozart invented music, instead of using the notes and instruments of his time to compose the world's finest music. Who launched the American Revolution? The farmer who fired the first shot at Lexington? Or was it somewhat more involved?

It's an interesting book, with a good outline of what used to be -- but it's not convincing about the "scientific revolution" supposedly launched by Copernicus.

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The Earth (Inside and Out)
Angela Royston
Manufacturer: Heinemann Library
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: School & Library Binding

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The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century (Geological Society Special Publication Number 192)

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The Earth Inside and Out: Some Major Contributions to Geology in the Twentieth Century (Geological Society Special Publication Number 192)

Manufacturer: Geological Society of London
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1862390967

Book Description

The book offers a conspectus of important developments in the earth sciences in the twentieth century. The introductory essay considers features of twentieth-century geoscience as a whole (and science more generally), including general trends within geology and its associated disciplines; and it reviews secondary literature on twentieth-century geology. The contributed essays span detailed discussions of particular issues, such as the application of the phase rule to metamorphic petrology; surveys of fields such as sedimentology and palynology; delineation of broad fields such as `planetary geology', mathematical geology, and metamorphic geology; discussions of individual scientists' contributions (Norman Bowen, Arthur Holmes, Victor Goldschmidt, and Marie Tharp); an oral history account of the emergence of terrane theory; discussions of trends or problems within fields such as geomagnetism and stratigraphy; the social context of geology as regards palaeontological collecting and some of the Russian responses to the advent of plate-tectonic theory.

Incredible Earth: How Things Work From the Inside Out (How things work from the inside out.)

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Incredible Earth: How Things Work From the Inside Out (How things work from the inside out.)
Nick Clifford
Manufacturer: DK Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000N2B8AG

Nature Inside Out: A Leader's Guide to Nature Education Programs

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Nature Inside Out: A Leader's Guide to Nature Education Programs
Pam Newitt
Manufacturer: iUniverse, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Book Description

Nature Inside Out is a unique tool that will help you learn to use the schoolyard as an extension of your classroom. In each chapter, you will find:

ß Background Information

ß Fun, interactive and engaging indoor activities

ß Creative and hands-on outdoor activities

ß Songs

ß Picture book recommendations

ß Art projects and so much more.

Nature Inside Out uses a multidisciplinary approach that brings science to life through art, music, literature and math. Exposing kids to nature in the schoolyard, backyard or neighborhood reinforces inquiry-based learning while offering the opportunity to observe and interact with nature. Your lessons will come to life when your kids see first hand how their natural world works and how they fit into this dynamic system.

Use the activities and information in Nature Inside Out to complement your lessons or as a foundation to an in depth nature exploration. This book will open you and your kids to a world of exciting and fun learning.

Oak Trees Inside and Out (Getting Into Nature)

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Oak Trees Inside and Out (Getting Into Nature)
Andrew Hipp
Manufacturer: PowerKids Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0823942066

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