Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  Tree Story - The History of the...

  Valerie Trouet

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  Trouet, a leading tree-ring scientist, takes us out into the field, from remote African villages to radioactive Russian forests, offering readers an insider's look at tree-ring research, a discipline formally known as dendrochronology. Tracing her own professional journey while exploring dendrochronology's history and applications, Trouet describes the basics of how tell-tale tree cores are collected and dated with ring-by-ring precision, explaining the unexpected and momentous insights we've gained from the resulting samples.Blending popular science, travelogue, and cultural history, Tree Story highlights exciting findings of tree-ring research, including the fate of lost pirate treasure, successful strategies for surviving California wildfire, the secret to Genghis Khan's victories, the connection between Egyptian pharaohs and volcanoes, and even the role of olives in the fall of Rome. These fascinating tales are deftly woven together to show us how dendrochronology sheds light on global climate dynamics and uncovers the clear links between humans and our leafy neighbors. Trouet delights us with her dedication to the tangible appeal of studying trees, a discipline that has taken her to austere and beautiful landscapes around the globe and has enabled scientists to solve long-pondered mysteries of Earth and its human inhabitants.

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  Mirage - Napoleon's Scientists...

  Nina Burleigh

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  The story of Napoleon’s invasion of the Nile Valley, the scholars and scientists who tagged along, and the birth of Egyptology: “A fascinating read.” —San Francisco Chronicle 
   
  Two hundred years ago, only the most reckless or eccentric Europeans had dared to traverse the unmapped territory of the modern-day Middle East. But in 1798, more than 150 French engineers, artists, doctors, and scientists—even a poet and a musicologist—traveled to the Nile Valley under the command of Napoleon Bonaparte and his invading army. Hazarding hunger, hardship, uncertainty, and disease, Napoleon’s “savants” risked their lives in pursuit of discovery.  
   
  The first large-scale interaction between Europeans and Muslims in the modern era, the audacious expedition was both a triumph and a disaster, resulting in finds of immense historical and scientific importance (including the ruins of the colossal pyramids and the Rosetta Stone) and in countless tragic deaths through plague, privation, madness, or violence. 
   
  In this account, journalist and New York Times–bestselling author Nina Burleigh brings readers back to the landmark adventure at the dawn of the modern era that ultimately revealed the deepest secrets of ancient Egypt to a curious continent. 
   
  “An absorbing glimpse of Napoleon’s thwarted bid for a grand French empire and its intellectual fruits.” —Publishers Weekly 
   
  “Pepper[ed] with multitudes of facts, digressions and anecdotes.” —The New York Times Book Review (Editor’s Choice) 
   
    
   
  “Illuminates an unfamiliar moment in the history of science . . . Burleigh’s storytelling ability is mesmerizing.” —Library Journal

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  The Little Book of Mathematical...

  Robert Solomon

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  This little book makes serious math simple—with more than 120 laws, theorems, paradoxes, and more explained in jargon-free terms. 
   
  The Little Book of Mathematical Principles provides simple, clear explanations for the principles, equations, paradoxes, laws, and theorems that form the basis of modern mathematics. It is a refreshingly engaging tour of Fibonacci numbers, Euclid's Elements, and Zeno's paradoxes, as well as other fundamental principles such as chaos theory, game theory, and the game of life. 
   
  Renowned mathematics author Dr. Robert Solomon simplifies the ancient discipline of mathematics and provides fascinating answers to intriguing questions, such as: What is the greatest pyramid?, What is a perfect number?, and Is there a theory for stacking oranges?

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  A Primer of Life Histories -...

  Jeffrey A. Hutchings

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  Life histories can be defined as the means by which individuals (or more precisely genotypes) vary their age—or stage-specific expenditures of reproductive effort in response to genetic, phenotypic, and environmental correlates of survival and fecundity. Life histories reflect the expression of traits most closely related to individual fitness, such as age and size at maturity, number and size of offspring, and the timing of the expression of those traits throughout an individual's life. Life-history research plays an integral role in species conservation and management.This accessible primer encompasses the basic concepts, theories, and applied elements of life history evolution, including patterns of trait variability, underlying mechanisms of plastic/evolutionary change, and the practical utility of life-history traits as metrics of species/population recovery, sustainable exploitation, and risk of extinction.A Primer of Life Histories is designed for listeners from a broad range of academic backgrounds and experience, including graduate students and researchers of ecology and evolutionary biology. It will also be useful to a more applied audience of academic/government researchers in fields such as wildlife biology, conservation biology, fisheries science, and the environmental sciences.

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  Rivers - A Very Short Introduction

  Nick Middleton

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  Rivers have acted as cradles for civilization and agents of disaster; a river may be a barrier or a highway, it can support trade and sediment, culture and conflict. This Very Short Introduction is a celebration of rivers in all their diversity. Geographer Nick Middleton covers a wide and eclectic range of river-based themes, from physical geography to mythology, to industrial history and literary criticism. Offering a truly global look at rivers, with examples from all continents, including Egypt, India, and Bangladesh, Middleton considers the role that rivers have played in human history from settlements and trade to warfare, and also looks at the human impact upon rivers by the construction of dams and cutting of channels.

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  The Autonomous Revolution -...

  William H. Davidow, Michael S....

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  The bestselling authors of The Virtual Corporation describe how the rise of AI and virtual environments are ushering in an epic cultural transformation.   We are at the dawn of the Autonomous Revolution, a turning point in human history as decisive as the Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions. More and more, AI-based machines are replacing human beings, and online environments are gathering our data and using it to manipulate us. This loss of human autonomy amounts to nothing less than a societal phase change, a fundamental paradigm shift. The same institutions will remain—schools, banks, churches, and corporations—but they will radically change form, obey new rules, and use new tools.   William H. Davidow and Michael S. Malone go deeply into the enormous implications of these developments. They show why increases in productivity no longer translate into increases in the GDP and how zero cost, one-to-many communications have been turned into tools for cybercrime and propaganda. Many of the book’s recommendations—such as using taxes to control irresponsible internet behavior and enabling people to put their data into what are essentially virtual personal information “safety deposit boxes”—are bold and visionary, but we must figure out how we will deal with these emerging challenges now, before the Autonomous Revolution overcomes us.  “Lots of books talk about what’s happening. This book talks about the why behind the what. It will transform your view of the future.”  —Geoffrey Moore, bestselling author of Crossing the Chasm  “A provocative work combining historical inquiry, present-day technology crises, and possible future solutions.”—Library Journal

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