You Are Here is a dazzling exploration of the universe and our relationship to it, as seen through the lens of today's most cutting-edge scientific thinking. Christopher Potter brilliantly parses the meaning of what we call the universe. He tells the story of how something evolved from nothing and how something became everything. What does a material description of everything and nothing look like? What is it that science does when it describes a reality that is made out of something? In between nothing and everything is where we live.
Here, for the first time in a single span, is the life of the universe, from quarks to galaxy superclusters and from slime to Homo sapiens. The universe was once a moment of perfect symmetry and is now 13.7 billion years of history. Clouds of gas were woven into whatever complexity we find in the universe today: the hierarchies of stars or the brains of mammals. Potter writes entertainingly about the history and philosophy of science, and he shows that science advances by continually removing humankind from a position of primacy in the universe, but the universe responds by placing us back there again.
With wisdom and wonder, Potter traverses the cosmos from its conception to its eventual end—while exploring everything in between.
From School Library Journal YA-- Clearly worded definitions presented in an appealing format make this an essential reference work. Students with assignments in science, social science, health, computers, etc., will find it a great resource. Definitions are often cross-referenced, thus opening up new avenues for research. Appendixes include acronyms, abbreviations, unit equivalents, concentrations, and chemical elements. Multiple copies would be well used. Copyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal This environmental dictionary includes over 3000 terms, with heavy emphasis on U.S. government agencies and laws, chemistry, engineering, public policy, and environmental health. Words and phrases such as "rad," "greenhouse effect," "ozone layer," and "nuclear winter" are all here. A useful list of acronyms such as EPA, EIS, and GRAS is also included. Unfortunately, there is no pronunciation guide. Michael Allaby's Dictionary of the Environment (Macmillan, 1989. 3d ed.) includes more on flora and fauna, less on law and engineering, so the two are complementary. This title, with so few competitors, seems essential for most public and science libraries.
This Encyclopedia provides a saga of history of ideas, discovery and invention in the natural and mathematical sciences over 100 generations of great thinkers from Thales to Feyman. It blends the essential historical data (chronology, biographies, major background, political and economical events, etc.) together with science proper (principles, laws, experiments, observations, theories, equations, etc.). This encyclopedia tells the reader not only who did it and when it was done but also precisely what was done. In this treatise, I have drawn a map of science, technology and great ideas that is as accurate and complete as possible, yet sufficiently free from unessential details and sufficiently condensed as not to obstruct the general view.
This volume explores the science fiction/world politics intertext. Through detailed analyses of such texts as Blade Runner, Stalker, Star Trek, and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, the chapters in this volume examine the complex and sometimes contradictory relations between world politics, both as discipline and as practice, and discourses of science fiction. Offering a novel combination of popular culture analysis with major theoretical and empirical issues concerning world politics, To Seek Out New Worlds provides insights into the discursive constitution of both science fiction and world politics while highlighting the occasional challenges that the science fiction/world politics intertext launches at our common sense.
Connect content-area literacy and science with differentiated readers featuring lab activities and profiles of related scientitists. Anton van Leeuwenhoek was not educated in science, but he created the best microscopes of the 17th century. He made more than 400 microscopes and used them to study living organisms. British scientist Robert Hooke was the first scientist to observe cells and give them their name. Many scientists are still making discoveries in the areas of genetics and stem cell research.
