Mixtures, Compounds & Solutions (Material Matters)

Book Description

The four-volume “Science of Everyday Things” set illustrates the importance of scientific and mathematical principles through their use in everyday life. Each volume focuses on a specific scientific discipline — biology, chemistry, earth sciences and physics — offering an in-depth understanding of each discipline and its theories, creating a sense of real-life relevance for students and those not scientifically-inclined, and including interesting facts and details relating to each principle. The fascinating entries offer explanations of concepts using a straightforward, step-by-step approach, and present theories in their everyday applications. Some examples of the entries covered include how osmosis is used in dehydrating fruit; Charles' law and the chemical reaction that sets off an airbag; and how algorithms are used to figure out the NCAA playoff tournaments.

Compound formation, specific conductivity, and ionization in fused salt mixtures,

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Compound formation, specific conductivity, and ionization in fused salt mixtures,
Isaac Bencowitz
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
ASIN: B00088ZLBC

Thermophysical Properties of High Temperature Solid Materials. Volume 4: Oxides and Their Solutions and Mixtures, Part I: Simple Oxygen Compounds and Their Mixtures

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Thermophysical Properties of High Temperature Solid Materials. Volume 4: Oxides and Their Solutions and Mixtures, Part I: Simple Oxygen Compounds and Their Mixtures
Y. S., ed. Touloukian
Manufacturer: NY: Macmillan
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Book Description

This new text provides an integrated view of the forces that influence the patterns and rates of vertebrate evolution from the level of living populations and species to those that resulted in the origin of the major vertebrate groups. The evolutionary roles of behavior, development, continental drift, and mass extinctions are compared with the importance of variation and natural selection that were emphasized by Darwin. It is extensively illustrated, showing major transitions between fish and amphibians, dinosaurs and birds, and land mammals to whales. No book since Simpson's Major Features of Evolution has attempted such a broad study of the patterns and forces of evolutionary change. Undergraduate students taking a general or advanced course on evolution, and graduate students and professionals in evolutionary biology and paleontology will find the book of great interest.

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Evolution - the big picture.......2000-11-26

This reference starts off by noting problems in evolutionary theory, particularly that while short-term microevolution shows Darwinian characteristics, long-term macroevolution based on the fossil record does not, with species suddenly appearing and then persisting for long periods with few changes. Vertebrates are proposed as a model for studying evolution, noting that they are a monophyletic group, have sexual reproduction, share a similar body plan, and most importantly have an excellent fossil record. While the knowledgeable reader will find this reference interesting in its integration of the forces affecting vertebrate evolution, the more general reader will find a variety of topics from fundamentals of population genetics to evolutionary development to the origins of major vertebrate groups, useful reading.

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Process and Pattern in Evolution
Charlotte J. Avers
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0195052757

Book Description

This textbook examines a broad range of topics covered in evolutionary biology courses. Part one sets the historical, physical, and chemical framework for the origin of life, and provides in-depth coverage of genome evolution, metabolic pathways, the genetic code, and cellular organization in primeval life. Part two concentrates on the genetic processes underlying the diversity of gene organization, function, and expression; adaptation and neutral evolution; gene frequency changes in populations; and tempos and modes of speciation. Part three emphasizes patterns and trends in evolution as deduced from morphological and molecular phylogenetic analyses and from geological and paleontological studies. The final two chapters describe major evolutionary concepts as seen in the emergence of the human family from its ancestral vertebrate beginnings to Homo sapiens. The text is enhanced by numerous tables and illustrations, many from the original research literature. Extensive references, reading lists, and summaries accompany each chapter, providing students with the opportunity to explore further the ongoing challenge of the evolutionary biology of past and present life on Earth.

The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions

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An Excellent, Well-Written Thesis
Informative and Entertaining
The End of the Dinosaurs
Great Little Book
End of the Dinosaurs.

The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions
Charles Frankel
Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0521474477

Book Description

The discovery of the giant Chicxulub impact crater, buried off the coast of Mexico, unveiled the solution to one of Earth's greatest mysteries--what killed the dinosaurs. Scientists uncovered physical evidence to explain the mass extinction that rocked the Earth 65 million years ago. Step-by-step, The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions tells this great scientific detective story. Charles Frankel recounts the birth of the cosmic hypothesis, which holds that the crash of a meteor on the Earth's surface killed two-thirds of life and all the dinosaurs. He first provides a dramatic account of the impact and its aftermath. Frankel then goes on to detail the controversy that preceded the acceptance of the cosmic hypothesis, the search for the crater, its discovery and ongoing exploration, and the effect of the giant impact on the biosphere. In addition, he reviews other mass extinctions in the fossil record and the threat of asteroids and comets to our planet today. More than 70 photographs and diagrams enhance and help illustrate the material. Filled with drama and interesting science, The End of the Dinosaurs will readily appeal to both the general reader fascinated with the subject and the specialist always searching for more clues to this great mystery. Charles Frankel has written a number of articles on the earth sciences in books and magazines. His many books include Volcanoes of the Solar System (Cambridge University Press 1996).

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An Excellent, Well-Written Thesis.......2007-07-11

Charles Frankel's book "The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions" is a well-written, thoroughly researched thesis on the theory of a meteor impact that resulted in the mass extinctions of dinosaurs and other species 65 million years ago.

The author requires no prior knowledge of geology, astronomy, archeology, or paleontology. Instead, he carefully outlines all of the accumulated scientific evidence from these fields of science and presents a convincing argument in support of the impact theory as the cause of the mass extinctions documented in the fossil record. He also presents opposing theories and his arguments against them. The book is nicely illustrated with interesting photographs that supplement the salient points of each chapter.

The book is an easy read, especially for a scientific thesis, and is constructed concisely and intuitively, without the repetitiveness often suffered in similar non-fiction works. I enjoyed reading it on vacation in the Caribbean where I was delighted to be able to spot, in some exposed cliffs, the K-T geologic boundary the author describes so well!

I later shared the book with my 14 year old son, who used the book as his primary resource for a school paper on the subject of an important historical event. My son also found the book to be fascinating, lucid, and eminently readable.

I highly recommend this outstanding work of non-fiction.

Informative and Entertaining.......2005-05-23

This book is an entertaining and informative explanation of how scientists posed the theory that an asteriod had caused the mass extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous, found evidence that supported the theory, searched for the crater, and eventually linked the Chicxulub Crater in the Yucatan Peninsula to the extinctions.

This book is also a wonderful illustration of how the scientific process works, what scientific controversy looks like, and how people from many different scientific disciplines can work together to advance knowledge. The author provides enough background information for the lay reader to understand the basic situation, but not so much that the reader gets bogged down in details. With a publication date of 1999, it is perhaps a bit dated, but it is well worth reading.

The End of the Dinosaurs.......2002-11-23

The End of the Dinosaurs: Chicxulub Crater and Mass Extinctions written by Charles Frankel is an account of the hunt for, finding, and the theory and controversy assoicited with the great mass extinction that rocked the Earth 65 million years ago.

This book encompasses some great detective work and recounts the birth of the cosmic hypothesis that the effects of a giant impact created on the eart's biosphere led to the exticntion of one very successful life forms on earth... dinosauria.

The descriptions of the crater geology is in terms that the layperson can understand and comprehend. This is ment to pique your interest into Earth sciences and there is and index and bibliography for further study if warrented.

What I found to be the greatest asset in reading this book is the detective work involve in finding the impact area on earth that coinsided with the correct time frame to prove that the impact of an extraterresstial source was one of the contributing factors that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs.

There are photos within this book that show impacts throughout the earth, but the only one that can be linked to 65 millions years ago is Chicxulub in the Northern edge of the Yucatan in Mexico. It amazes me how the geologists work and came up with this site. Iridium was only one of the clues that the geologists used to track down the date of tthe impact, but closer to the impact site there were other telltale signs.

Around the Gulf of Mexico, unusual outcrops are found at the K-T boundary. K-T stands for Late Cretaceous-Tertiary begining. In El Penon, Mexico, a thick sandstone unit is interpreted to be a catastrophic tsunami deposit, laid down by the impact. Where it is capped by a fine clay displaying a wavy pattern, thought to mark the oscilation of the current as the tsunami wave sloshed back and forth across the continental platform. When you take a cross-section of the clay you can really see the the ripple marks, making testament to the current switching directions.

From Mexico, to Haiti and around the Gulf of Mexico you see this clay layer and sandstone around the K-T boundary denoting an impact, but what really piqued my interest here was the fine of the ejecta known as spherules and tektites. Tektites are spashes of the impact melt that take on aerodynamic shapes as they spin through the Earth's atmosphere.

On a different note... why are comet more dangerous to Earth than asteroid... because of the sublimation of the ices heated by sunlight. The jets of gas act as reactors and constantly modify the comet's trajectory. Thus, making comets less predictable than asteroids.

This book takes the reader on a journey into Earth Science and shows us what can happen... fascinating what asteroids, meteorites, bolides and comets can do to the rich complexity of the biosphere, not only then, but today as well.

Great Little Book.......2002-05-27

This great little book is far more than promised by the title -- although I must admit that I grabbed it because of the title, so I can hardly fault them for picking something dinosaur oriented.

Yes, we get a history of the scientific controversies leading to the widespread acceptance of a meteorite/comet strike as the cause of the extinction of the dinosaurs. But there's more: the book reviews the evidence for associations between bolide strikes and all of the major mass extinctions in earth history. In prose that's clear, but not dry, Frankel reveals what we know -- and don't know -- about these events. Good illustrations and intelligent speculation round out a first-rate and quite up-to-date overview of a rapidly developing field.

One subtext of Frankel's work is how scientist adapt (and in some cases don't adapt) to new evidence. For example, the Siberian Tunguska explosion of 1908 is now widely acknowledged to have been a strike from a comet fragment, but only 20 or so years ago you could read about it primarily in UFO magazines and "mysteries of the unexplained" books. Because science lacked an explanation for it, the explosion was largely ignored.

I second the recommendation of "The Eternal Frontier."

End of the Dinosaurs........2000-04-11

So many theories of the KT extinctions have been forwarded by scientist and lay person alike that it is almost refreshing to have it come down to the confrontation between two, or a few, major theories, in this case the "impactist" and "volcanist" theories. Frankel does a fine job of presenting a balanced and fair account of the contenting theories, particularly Courtillot's Deccan Traps volcanism (for which see Evolutionary Catastrophies or my review of it) and their supporting data. He is, however, thoroughly in the impactist camp. He gives an excellent description of the astroid and of how scientists were able to work out its size, the size of its crater, and its subsequent atmospheric and environmental effects. This is probably the best of the three books (T. Rex and the Crater of Doom, Evolutionary Catastrophies, and End of the Dinosaurs) I've recently read on the subject, although all three are worth reading.

The Evolutionary Process: A Critical Study of Evolutionary Theory

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The Evolutionary Process: A Critical Study of Evolutionary Theory
Verne Grant
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

This second edition has been completely revised and includes such subjects as morphological constraints in evolution, sexual selection, preadaptation, and ages and stages in the history of species.

Phylogenetic Patterns and the Evolutionary Process: Method and Theory in Comparative Biology

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Phylogenetic Patterns and the Evolutionary Process: Method and Theory in Comparative Biology
Niles Eldredge , and Joel Cracraft
Manufacturer: Columbia University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes

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Cooperation and Conflict in General Evolutionary Processes

Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471594873

Book Description

In May 1992, within the Arctic Circle and under the midnight sun, a small group of researchers from diverse disciplines met to study one of the most fundamental questions of existence: What are the roles of conflict and cooperation in the evolution of life?

The answers that came—from such fields as physics, literature, biology, economics, linguistics, and computer science—shed new light on this very old question.

Sponsored by the Swedish Council for Planning and Coordination of Research, these internationally renowned scholars discussed and debated the complementary effects of individual self-interest and collective group interests. The twelve chapters in this volume, representing a wide range of perspectives, are the fruit of this meeting. They illustrate the dynamics of evolution and, contrary to many traditional ideas of nature, make a compelling case for the crucial role of cooperation in successful evolutionary adaptation.

The fascination of this volume lies in watching the push and pull of conflict and cooperation play out in such areas as economic organization, computer science, the development of urban structures, the evolution of languages, and molecular formation in the primeval environment.

Among the specific issues raised and illuminated:

What are the roles of stability vs. instability in the evolution of primitive life?
What does research into game theory and computer models tell us about the most successful survival strategies in conflict—cooperation dilemmas?
What parts do randomness and uncertainty play in the evolution of biological as well as mathematical systems?
What is the relationship between our stories of evolution and the process of evolution itself?
Is there a link between the evolution of our bodies and our ability to make choices about conflict or cooperation?
How is it possible for a cooperative entity to arise and prosper in a situation presumably driven by competition?
What were the mechanisms of genetic formation in the primordial world?
How does meaning evolve in the development of natural language?

Is Nature "red in tooth and claw''?

The twelve chapters in this volume offer an overview of the dynamics of evolutionary phenomena across a stimulating array of fields, including biology, economics, literature, physics, philosophy, linguistics, and computer science. Written by internationally recognized experts, they trace the issue of conflict vs. cooperation through such topics as molecular formation, city planning, and the building of intellectual structures.

Urban Systems and Evolution —W. Brian Arthur

Modeling Errors and Parasites in the Evolution of Primitive Life: Possibilities of Spatial Self-Structuring —Clas Blomberg and Mikael Cronhjort

Cooperation: The Ghost in the Machinery of Evolution —John L. Casti

Randomness in Arithmetic and the Decline and Fall of Reductionism in Pure Mathematics —Gregory J. Chaitin

Narratives of Evolution and the Evolution of Narratives —N. Katherine Hayles

Biologically Bound Behavior, Free Will, and the Evolution of Humans —Philip Lieberman

A Hierarchy of Complex Behaviors in Microbiological Systems —Erik Mosekilde, Heidi Stranddorf, Jesper Skovhus Thomsen and Gerold Baier

Chaotic Dynamics of Linguistic-like Processes at the Syntactic and Semantic Levels: In Pursuit of a Multifractal Attractor —John S. Nicolis and Anastassis A. Katsikas

Cooperation and Chimera —Robert Rosen

Minimal Properties for Evolutionary Optimization —Peter Schuster

A Perception Machine Built of Many Cooperating Agents —Erik Skarman

Language, Evolution, and the Theory of Games —Karl Wärneryd

Book Description

Traditional ecological approaches to species evolution have frequently studied too few species, relatively small areas, and relatively short time spans. In The Coevolutionary Process, John N. Thompson advances a new conceptual approach to the evolution of species interactions—the geographic mosaic theory of coevolution. Thompson demonstrates how an integrated study of life histories, genetics, and the geographic structure of populations yields a broader understanding of coevolution, or the development of reciprocal adaptations and specializations in interdependent species.

Using examples of species interactions from an enormous range of taxa, Thompson examines how and when extreme specialization evolves in interdependent species and how geographic differences in specialization, adaptation, and the outcomes of interactions shape coevolution. Through the geographic mosaic theory, Thompson bridges the gap between the study of specialization and coevolution in local communities and the study of broader patterns seen in comparisons of the phylogenies of interacting species.

Development of Catholic Doctrine: Evolution, Revolution, or an Organic Process?

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Development of Catholic Doctrine: Evolution, Revolution, or an Organic Process?
Dave Armstrong
Manufacturer: Lulu.com
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Book Description

C.S. Lewis, the famous Anglican writer, once wrote: "The very possibility of progress demands that there should be an unchanging element . . . the positive historical statements made by Christianity have the power . . . of receiving, without intrinsic change, the increasing complexity of meaning which increasing knowledge puts into them" ("God in the Dock," Eerdmans, Grand Rapids, MI, 1970, 44-47). Doctrine clearly develops within Scripture ("progressive revelation"). Examples: doctrines of the afterlife, the Trinity, the Messiah (eventually revealed as God the Son), the Holy Spirit (Divine Person in the New Testament), the equality of Jews and Gentiles, bodily resurrection, sacrifice of lambs evolving into the sacrifice of Christ, etc. This book serves as an introduction to the notion of doctrinal development, written from a popular lay apologetics standpoint.

Evolution of Life: Processes, Patterns and Prospects

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Evolution of Life: Processes, Patterns and Prospects
Michael L. McKinney
Manufacturer: Prentice Hall
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Evolution: Process and Product
Edward O. Dodson
Manufacturer: Prindle Weber & Schmidt
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0871508265

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