Book picks similar to
The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels by Thomas Gold
science
non-fiction
geology
nonfiction
Introductory Astronomy and Astrophysics
Michael Zeilik - 1987
It has an algebra and trigonometry prerequisite, but calculus is preferred.
Isaac Newton: The Last Sorcerer
Michael White - 1997
Sympathetic yet balanced, Michael White's Isaac Newton offers a revelatory picture of Newton as a genius who stood at the point in history where magic ended and science began.
Vibrational Medicine: The #1 Handbook of Subtle-Energy Therapies
Richard Gerber - 1988
More than 125,000 copies sold. Explores the actual science of etheric energies, replacing the Newtonian worldview with a new model based on Einstein's physics of energy. Summarizes key points at the end of each chapter to help the serious student absorb and retain the wealth of information presented. Vibrational Medicine has gained widespread acceptance by individuals, schools, and health-care institutions nationwide as the textbook of choice for the study of alternative medicine. Trained in a variety of alternative therapies as well as conventional Western medicine, Dr. Gerber provides an encyclopedic treatment of energetic healing, covering subtle-energy fields, acupuncture, Bach flower remedies, homeopathy, radionics, crystal healing, electrotherapy, radiology, chakras, meditation, and psychic healing. He explains current theories about how various energy therapies work and offers readers new insights into the physical and spiritual perspectives of health and disease.
Sustainable Energy - Without the Hot Air
David J.C. MacKay - 2008
In case study format, this informative reference answers questions surrounding nuclear energy, the potential of sustainable fossil fuels, and the possibilities of sharing renewable power with foreign countries. While underlining the difficulty of minimizing consumption, the tone remains positive as it debunks misinformation and clearly explains the calculations of expenditure per person to encourage people to make individual changes that will benefit the world at large.
The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality
Don Lincoln - 2018
He was trying to find an equation that explained all physical reality - a theory of everything. He failed, but others have taken up the challenge in a remarkable quest that is shedding light on unsuspected secrets of the cosmos.Experimental physicist and award-winning educator Dr. Don Lincoln of the Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory takes you on this exciting journey in The Theory of Everything: The Quest to Explain All Reality. Suitable for the intellectually curious at all levels and assuming no background beyond basic high-school math, these 24 half-hour lectures cover recent developments at the forefront of particle physics and cosmology, while delving into the history of the centuries-long search for this holy grail of science.You trace the dream of a theory of everything through Newton, Maxwell, Einstein, Bohr, Schrödinger, Feynman, Gell-Mann, Weinberg, and other great physicists, charting their progress toward an all-embracing, unifying theory. Their resulting equations are the masterpieces of physics, which Dr. Lincoln explains in fascinating and accessible detail. Studying them is like touring a museum of great works of art - works that are progressing toward an ultimate, as-yet-unfinished masterpiece.Listening Length: 12 hours and 21 minutes
Physics, Volume 1
Robert Resnick - 1966
The Fourth Edition of volumes 1 and 2 is concerned with mechanics and E&M/Optics. New features include: expanded coverage of classic physics topics, substantial increases in the number of in-text examples which reinforce text exposition, the latest pedagogical and technical advances in the field, numerical analysis, computer-generated graphics, computer projects and much more.
Advanced Engineering Mathematics
Dennis G. Zill - 1992
A Key Strength Of This Text Is Zill'S Emphasis On Differential Equations As Mathematical Models, Discussing The Constructs And Pitfalls Of Each. The Third Edition Is Comprehensive, Yet Flexible, To Meet The Unique Needs Of Various Course Offerings Ranging From Ordinary Differential Equations To Vector Calculus. Numerous New Projects Contributed By Esteemed Mathematicians Have Been Added. Key Features O The Entire Text Has Been Modernized To Prepare Engineers And Scientists With The Mathematical Skills Required To Meet Current Technological Challenges. O The New Larger Trim Size And 2-Color Design Make The Text A Pleasure To Read And Learn From. O Numerous NEW Engineering And Science Projects Contributed By Top Mathematicians Have Been Added, And Are Tied To Key Mathematical Topics In The Text. O Divided Into Five Major Parts, The Text'S Flexibility Allows Instructors To Customize The Text To Fit Their Needs. The First Eight Chapters Are Ideal For A Complete Short Course In Ordinary Differential Equations. O The Gram-Schmidt Orthogonalization Process Has Been Added In Chapter 7 And Is Used In Subsequent Chapters. O All Figures Now Have Explanatory Captions. Supplements O Complete Instructor'S Solutions: Includes All Solutions To The Exercises Found In The Text. Powerpoint Lecture Slides And Additional Instructor'S Resources Are Available Online. O Student Solutions To Accompany Advanced Engineering Mathematics, Third Edition: This Student Supplement Contains The Answers To Every Third Problem In The Textbook, Allowing Students To Assess Their Progress And Review Key Ideas And Concepts Discussed Throughout The Text. ISBN: 0-7637-4095-0
What If the Moon Didn't Exist: Voyages to Earths That Might Have Been
Neil F. Comins - 1993
The book analyzes how differences could affect the plant, animal and human life on planet Earth.
Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know
Peter C. Doherty - 2012
The word conjures up images of horrific diseases sweeping the globe and killing everyone in their path. But such highly lethal illnesses almost never create pandemics. The reality is deadly serious but far more subtle.In Pandemics: What Everyone Needs to Know�, Peter Doherty, who won the Nobel Prize for his work on how the immune system recognizes virus-infected cells, offers an essential guide to one of the truly life-or-death issues of our age. In concise, question-and-answer format, he explains the causes of pandemics, how they can be counteracted with vaccines and drugs, and how we can better prepare for them in the future. Doherty notes that the term "pandemic" refers not to a disease's severity but to its ability to spread rapidly over a wide geographical area. Extremely lethal pathogens are usually quickly identified and confined. Nevertheless, the rise of high-speed transportation networks and the globalization of trade and travel have radically accelerated the spread of diseases. A traveler from Africa arrived in New York in 1999 carrying the West Nile virus; one mosquito bite later, it was loose in the ecosystem. Doherty explains how the main threat of a pandemic comes from respiratory viruses, such as influenza and SARS, which disseminate with incredible speed through air travel. The climate disruptions of global warming, rising population density, and growing antibiotic resistance all complicate efforts to control pandemics. But Doherty stresses that pandemics can be fought effectively. Often simple health practices, especially in hospitals, can help enormously. And research into the animal reservoirs of pathogens, from SARS in bats to HIV in chimpanzees, show promise for our prevention efforts.Calm, clear, and authoritative, Peter Doherty's Pandemics is one of the most critically important additions to the What Everyone Needs to Know� series.What Everyone Needs to Know� is a registered trademark of Oxford University Press.
Green Illusions
Ozzie Zehner - 2012
We have a consumption crisis. And this book, which takes aim at cherished assumptions regarding energy, offers refreshingly straight talk about what’s wrong with the way we think and talk about the problem. Though we generally believe we can solve environmental problems with more energy—more solar cells, wind turbines, and biofuels—alternative technologies come with their own side effects and limitations. How, for instance, do solar cells cause harm? Why can’t engineers solve wind power’s biggest obstacle? Why won’t contraception solve the problem of overpopulation lying at the heart of our concerns about energy, and what will? This practical, environmentally informed, and lucid book persuasively argues for a change of perspective. If consumption is the problem, as Ozzie Zehner suggests, then we need to shift our focus from suspect alternative energies to improving social and political fundamentals: walkable communities, improved consumption, enlightened governance, and, most notably, women’s rights. The dozens of first steps he offers are surprisingly straightforward. For instance, he introduces a simple sticker that promises a greater impact than all of the nation’s solar cells. He uncovers why carbon taxes won’t solve our energy challenges (and presents two taxes that could). Finally, he explores how future environmentalists will focus on similarly fresh alternatives that are affordable, clean, and can actually improve our well-being. Watch a book trailer.
Entering Space: Creating a Spacefaring Civilization
Robert Zubrin - 1999
From the current-day prospect of lunar bases and Mars settlements to the outer reaches of other galaxies, Zubrin delivers the most important and forward-looking work on space and the true possibilities of human exploration since Carl Sagan's Cosmos.Sagan himself said of Zubrin's humans-to-Mars plan, "Bob Zubrin really, nearly alone, changed our thinking on this issue." With Entering Space, he takes us further, into the prospect of human expansion to the outer planets of our own solar system--and beyond.
Physics for Scientists and Engineers
Douglas C. Giancoli - 1988
For the calculus-based General Physics course primarily taken by engineers and scientists.
Gravity
George Gamow - 1962
In Gravity, he takes an enlightening look at three of the towering figures of science who unlocked many of the mysteries behind the laws of physics: Galileo, the first to take a close look at the process of free and restricted fall; Newton, originator of the concept of gravity as a universal force; and Einstein, who proposed that gravity is no more than the curvature of the four-dimensional space-time continuum.Graced with the author's own drawings, both technical and fanciful, this remarkably reader-friendly book focuses particularly on Newton, who developed the mathematical system known today as the differential and integral calculus. Readers averse to equations can skip the discussion of the elementary principles of calculus and still achieve a highly satisfactory grasp of a fascinating subject.Starting with a chapter on Galileo’s pioneering work, this volume devotes six chapters to Newton's ideas and other subsequent developments and one chapter to Einstein, with a concluding chapter on post-Einsteinian speculations concerning the relationship between gravity and other physical phenomena, such as electromagnetic fields.
Uranium Wars: The Scientific Rivalry that Created the Nuclear Age
Amir D. Aczel - 2009
Its nucleus is so heavy that it is highly unstable and radioactive. If broken apart, it unleashes the tremendous power within the atom—the most controversial type of energy ever discovered.Set against the darkening shadow of World War II, Amir D. Aczel's suspenseful account tells the story of the fierce competition among the day's top scientists to harness nuclear power. The intensely driven Marie Curie identified radioactivity. The University of Berlin team of Otto Hahn and Lise Meitner--he an upright, politically conservative German chemist and she a soft-spoken Austrian Jewish theoretical physicist--achieved the most spectacular discoveries in fission. Curie's daughter, Irène Joliot-Curie, raced against Meitner and Hahn to break the secret of the splitting of the atom. As the war raged, Niels Bohr, a founder of modern physics, had a dramatic meeting with Werner Heisenberg, the German physicist in charge of the Nazi project to beat the Allies to the bomb. And finally, in 1942, Enrico Fermi, a prodigy from Rome who had fled the war to the United States, unleashed the first nuclear chain reaction in a racquetball court at the University of Chicago.At a time when the world is again confronted with the perils of nuclear armament, Amir D. Aczel's absorbing story of a rivalry that changed the course of history is as thrilling and suspenseful as it is scientifically revelatory and newsworthy.
Discarded Science: Ideas That Seemed Good at the Time...
John Grant - 2006
Take a fun journey through the history of science as it transforms from a field of wild speculation into a powerful tool of understanding. Explore the world in upheaval as Earth changed from center of the universe to a smallish planet orbiting an average star. Find out about hidden races and unknown creatures (like Yetis); early and bizarre thoughts on evolution; ancient astronauts and UFO crazes; the music of the spheres; the acquisition of virtues through cannibalism, and much more!