Scientific American Library Books
Over 100,000 copies of this spectacular journey have already been sold. In forty-two consecutive scenes, each at a different 'power of ten' level of magnification, readers are taken from the dimension of one billion light years to the realm of the atom. The text and other illustrations depict what we can perceive at each progressively smaller level of magnitude. "A brilliant pictorial and textual embodiment of a wonderful idea." Stephen Jay Gould Videos of Powers of Ten are available from: RITELtd. Cross Tree, Walton Street, Walton in Gordano, Clevedon, Avon BS21 7AW Tel: 01275-340279 Fax: 01275-340327
Discusses the basics of genetics and examines the influence of genes and environment on the development of the characteristics of an individual
This commentary on the discovery of the atom's constituents provides an historical account of key events in the physics of the twentieth century that led to the discoveries of the electron, proton and neutron. Steven Weinberg introduces the fundamentals of classical physics that played crucial roles in these discoveries. Connections are shown throughout the book between the historic discoveries of subatomic particles and contemporary research at the frontiers of physics, including the most current discoveries of new elementary particles. Steven Weinberg was Higgins Professor of Physics at Harvard before moving to The University of Texas at Austin, where he founded its Theory Group. At Texas he holds the Josey Regental Chair of Science and is a member of the Physics and Astronomy Departments. His research has spanned a broad range of topics in quantum field theory, elementary particle physics, and cosmology, and has been honored with numerous awards, including the Nobel Prize in Physics, the National Medal of Science, the Heinemann Prize in Mathematical Physics, the Cresson Medal of the Franklin Institute, the Madison Medal of Princeton University, and the Oppenheimer Prize. In addition to the well-known treatise, Gravitation and Cosmololgy, he has written several books for general readers, including the prize-winning The First Three Minutes (now translated into 22 foreign languages), and most recently Dreams of a Final Theory (Pantheon Books, 1993). He has also written a textbook The Quantum Theory of Fields, Vol.I, Vol. II, and Vol. III (Cambridge).
Considers the role of shape and size in natural selection, looks at growth, biological structure, and locomotion, and discusses the effect of scale on living organisms
The novelist and physicist C. P. Snow once remarked that not knowing the Second Law of thermodynamics was analogous to never having read a work of Shakespeare's. This profusproductely illustrated volume breaks down the mathematical barriers that have prevented many from understanding this fundamental principle of energy transformation and describes the origin, atomic basis, and wide-ranging applications of this central, unifying description of all natural change. Simply stated, the Second Law recognizes the intrinsic asymmetry in nature. Aspects of this asymmetry can be found all around us: hot objects cool, but cool objects do not spontaneously become hot; a bouncing ball comes to rest, but a stationary ball does not spontaneously begin to bounce. Oxford professor P. W. Atkins begins his examination of these seemingly random but vitally important phenomena with early observations of the steam engine and traces the deepening understanding that emerged when the atomic basis of the Law was established. He analyzes the Law from a modern viewpoint, enabling us to see how a single, simple idea encompasses all elements of natural change. Atkins explores this idea from its first recognition through its application in engines, refrigerators, and heat pumps to its role as the driving force of chemical reactions and, finally, to the emergence of the exquisitely ordered structures characteristic of life itself. Using striking computer graphics to develop a unified picture of nature, the author shows us how structures are built apparently out of chaos until we grasp the underlying, awesome simplicity of complexity. An appendix details how to program the generation of printouts of the concepts discussed.
Explains how diagrams are used to represent chemical bonds, and describes the structure and characteristics of molecules encountered in everyday life
Covers form, tensile strength, tensile failure, metals, animal soft tissues, stiff biological materials, and new artificial materials.
Particle physicists explore the microworld of the atom; cosmologists study the universe on a grand scale. From Quarks to the Cosmos follows the dramatic merger of these fields as they seek to define the connections among all structures, great and small - the so-called 'theory of everything'. Leon M. Lederman shared the 1988 Nobel Prize in physics. "Definitely one of my books of the year." New Scientist
A century and a half ago the pioneering physicist and chemist Michael Faraday delivered a celebrated series of lectures that attempted to explain the inner workings of matter through the chemical history of a candle. "There is no better, there is no more open door by which you can enter into the study of natural philosophy", Faraday told his audience. Now the distinguished chemist P.W. Atkins follows in Faraday's footsteps, using his predecessor's deceptively simple theme to show how far we have come in understanding the remarkable chemical reactions that govern everything from how candles burn to how life functions. While Faraday could say little more than that a chemical reaction changes a substance's appearance and properties, chemists today understand reactions in terms of the rearrangement of atoms and electrons. Atkins - tracing the course of a carbon atom released by a flaming candle - explores the complex forces that operate at the atomic and sub atomic levels to drive these rearrangements.
With this fascinating volume, Keith Devlin proves that the guiding principles of some of the most mysterious mathematical topics can be made comprehensible. Writing with an elegant lucidity, Devlin shows just why the definition of mathematics as "working with numbers" has been out of date for nearly 2,500 years. And he demonstrates that far from being too abstract to matter, mathematics is instead an essential and uniquely human endeavor, one that helps us understand the universe and ourselves. In this century alone, there has been a veritable explosion of mathematical activity. A body of knowledge that in 1900 might have filled 80 volumes now would require nearly 100,000. Fields such as algebra and topology have grown tremendously, while complexity theory, dynamical systems theory, and other new areas have developed. And in the last two decades, a common thread running through the many facets of mathematics has been recognized: mathematicians of all kinds now see their work as the study of patterns - real or imagined, visual or mental, arising from the natural world or from within the human mind. Devlin uses this basic definition as his central theme, revealing the search for patterns that drives the mathematics of counting (natural numbers), reasoning (language and logic), motion (calculus), shape (geometry, tilings), and position (topology, knots, symmetry). Interweaving historical highlights and current developments, and using a minimum of formulas, he lets readers see into the kind of reasoning that allows mathematicians to create and explore arcane subjects. And he makes clear the many ways mathematics informs our perceptions of reality - both the physical, biological, and social worlds without, and the realm of ideas and thoughts within. "Mathematics, rightly viewed, possesses not only truth, but supreme beauty," the noted philosopher and mathematician Bertrand Russell once wrote. In Mathematics: The Science of Patterns, Keith Devlin makes such a vision accessible, entertaining, and meaningful. It is an insightful, richly illustrated celebration of the simplicity, the precision, the purity, and the elegance of mathematics.
A particularly clear and well presented introduction to biogeochemical cycles, explicating the interrelationship of carbon, nitrogen, sulfur and living organisms as agents of change in the environment. Smil (U. of Manitoba) demonstrates how microscopic organisms of the ocean affect the atmosphere and follows the life chain to contemporary human society's industrialization and development with its worldwide disruption, specifically focusing on the links among environment, energy, food, population, economy and society that will determine the earth's future. Includes color graphs and photographs. Annotation c. by Book News, Inc., Portland, Or.