Best of
Science-Nature

1993

Growing Gourmet and Medicinal Mushrooms


Paul Stamets - 1993
    With updated production techniques for home and commercial cultivation, detailed growth parameters for 31 mushroom species, a trouble-shooting guide, and handy gardening tips, this revised and updated handbook will make your mycological landscapes the envy of the neighborhood.

Brother Wolf: A Forgotten Promise


Jim Brandenburg - 1993
    In a sequel to White Wolf, award-winning nature photographer Jim Brandenburg's powerful narrative--and 140 color photos of timber wolves in their natural habitat--will revolutionize our thinking about wolves, human nature, our primeval past, and the survival of our planet.

Manual of Ornithology: Avian Structure and Function


Noble S. Proctor - 1993
    A concise atlas of anatomy, it contains more than 200 specially prepared accurate and clear drawings that include material never illustrated before. The text is as informative as the drawings; written at a level appropriate to undergraduate students and to bird lovers in general, it discusses why birds look and act the way they do.Designed to supplement a basic ornithology textbook, the Manual of Ornithology covers systematics and evolution, topography, feathers and flight, the skeleton and musculature, and the digestive, circulatory, respiratory, excretory, reproductive, sensory, and nervous systems of birds, as well as field techniques for watching and studying birds. Each chapter concludes with a list of key references for the topic covered, with a comprehensive bibliography at the end of the volume. The book will be a guide and reference for every level of bird study—a basic tool for investigation for anyone curious about the fascinating world of birds.

Noah's Garden: Restoring the Ecology of Our Own Backyards


Sara Bonnett Stein - 1993
    When Stein realized what her intensive efforts at making a garden had done, she set out to "ungarden". Her book interweaves an account of her efforts with an explanation of the ecology of gardens. Illustrations.

Oaks of California


Bruce M. Pavlik - 1993
    Winner of the 1992 Benjamin Franklin Award for best "Regional" book, this title continues to be the definitive popular guide to California's most emblematic tree species.

Smithsonian Timelines of the Ancient World


Christopher Scarre - 1993
    1500. Superbly illustrated with 1,700 color photographs of museum artifacts, archaeological finds, artists' reconstructions, and specially commissioned maps, Timelines is the first comprehensive visual timechart.

Backyard


Donald M. Silver - 1993
    Just one small square is alive with creepers and crawlers, lifters and leapers, singers, buzzers, climbers, builders, and recyclers. Backyard invites children ages 7 and up to become nature lovers by looking, listening, touching, and smelling the world from the ground up! From the unique One Small Square series of science acitivity books. . .where children can explore exotic and familiar ecosystems in detail, one small square at a time.

Everest: Eighty Years of Triumph and Tragedy


Peter L. Gillman - 1993
    Ever since the first attempt in 1921, the world's highest mountain has served as an arena where mountaineers have played out their dreams and fears, bringing triumph and tragedy in almost equal measure.The dramas of Everest have inspired some of mountaineering's finest writing and photography. In this sumptuous anthology, climbers recount and portray their struggles to attain the summit, the moments of success and defeat, exultation and despair.All the great landmarks in Everest's history are represented. The pioneering expeditions of the 1920s and 1930s are recounted by climbers such as George Mallory and Eric Shipton. Sir Edmund Hillary tells how he and Tenzing Norgay became the first to reach the summit, via the South Col, in 1953, while Tom Hornbein describes the bravura West Ridge ascent by the Americans in 1963. Chris Bonington, Reinhold Messner, Doug Scott, and many more of mountaineering's most celebrated names also appear in this definitive collection.First published to wide acclaim in 1993, the anthology has been expanded to include the 1990s, perhaps the most dramatic decade of all. Included in the new edition are passages describing the tragedies and disasters of 1996, including an excerpt from Jon Krakauer's Into Thin Air and the extraordinary discovery of the body of George Mallory by American climbers in 1999.The book also contains Peter Gilman's own accounts of some of the mountain's most controversial episodes, such as the disputed Chinese ascent of 1960 and the enigma of the yeti. There are comprehensive, updated appendixes, including a full list of every ascent. The outcome is one of the finest mountaineering anthologies ever produced: a stirring assertion of the audacity of the human spirit in the face of challenging and perilous odds, presenting both the how of mountaineering and the why.

Broadsides from the Other Orders: A Book of Bugs


Sue Hubbell - 1993
    Covers everything from blackflies and gypsy moths to silverfish and ladybugs (the one insect for which "bug-hating" humans have an inordinate fondness). Line drawings.

Identifying Gems & Precious Stones (Identifying : the New Compact Study Guide and Identifier)


Cally Hall - 1993
    Great book!

By Nature's Design


Diane Ackerman - 1993
    Exquisite, full-color photographs unveil the secret blueprints of nature often overlooked by the casual observer: the spiral forms that appear in seashells, spiderwebs, and the heart of a daisy; the hexagons found in honeycombs and cracking mud. Through its captivating photographic content and accessible scientific examination. By Nature's Design reaveals the order, economy, and elegance of nature's diverse forms in an engaging volume that will fascinate and inform art and nature lovers alike.

Equations of Eternity: Speculations on Consciousness, Meaning, and the Mathematical Rules That Orchestrate the Cosmos


David Darling - 1993
    However, it is one of the basic principles of quantum theory, the most widely accepted explanation of the subatomic world - and one of the fascinating subjects dealt with in Equations of Eternity.

Perspectives on Animal Behavior


Judith Goodenough - 1993
    The text includes strong supportive reviews, a balanced approach and the latest in research and findings. The author is known for an accessible and easy-to-understand writing style making the most difficult topics understandable.

Camels Have Humps: And Other Questions About Animals


Anita Ganeri - 1993
    From the classic "Why do leopards have spots?" and the not-so-obvious "Why can't penguins fly?" to the amazing "How many ants can an anteater eat?" this book is packed with perennially asked questions about animals.

Essentials of Conservation Biology


Richard B. Primack - 1993
    It is beautifully illustrated and is written in clear, non-technical language. The book's broad, up-to-date coverage and its extensive bibliography with over 1,000 references also make it invaluable to graduate students and researchers. This new edition now comes with a Glossary.

Kepler


Max Caspar - 1993
    At a time when the Ptolemaic view still prevailed in official circles, Kepler undertook to prove the truth of the Copernican world view and through exceptional perseverance and force of intellect achieved that goal. His epochal intellectual feats are completely and thoroughly described in this splendid work, considered the definitive biography of Kepler. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources, the author presents a fascinating and erudite picture of Kepler's scientific accomplishments, his public life (work with Tycho Brahe, the Danish astronomer; mathematical appointments at Graz, Prague, and Linz; pioneering work with calculus and optics, and more) and his personal life: childhood and youth, financial situation, his mother's trial as a witch, his own lifelong fear of religious persecution, his difficulties in choosing one of eleven possible young women as his second wife, and more, through his last years in Ulm and death in Regensburg.Until his death in 1956, Professor Max Caspar was the world's foremost Kepler scholar. He had spent over two-thirds of his life assembling, cataloging, describing, analyzing, and editing Kepler's works. To this biography he brought tremendous learning and passionate enthusiasm for his subject, creating an unsurpassed resource on the life and work of one of history's greatest scientific minds. Originally published in German and superbly translated into English by C. Doris Hellman, Kepler will fascinate scholars and general readers alike.