Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Rise of Yeast - How the...

  Nicholas P. Money

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  The great Victorian biologist Thomas Huxley once wrote, "I know of no familiar substance forming part of our everyday knowledge and experience, the examination of which, with a little care, tends to open up such very considerable issues as does yeast." Huxley was right. Beneath the very foundations of human civilization lies yeast—also known as the sugar fungus. Yeast is responsible for fermenting our alcohol and providing us with bread—the very staples of life. Moreover, it has proven instrumental in helping cell biologists and geneticists understand how living things work, manufacturing life-saving drugs, and producing biofuels that could help save the planet from global warming.In The Rise of Yeast, Nicholas P. Money argues that we cannot ascribe too much importance to yeast, and that its discovery and controlled use profoundly altered human history. Humans knew what yeast did long before they knew what it was. It was not until Louis Pasteur's experiments in the 1860s that scientists even acknowledged its classification as a fungus. A compelling blend of science, history, and sociology, The Rise of Yeast explores the rich, strange, and utterly symbiotic relationship between people and yeast, a stunning account that takes us back to the roots of human history.

  Show book

• 

  Homo Sapiens

  Introbooks Team

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Around 13.5 billion years ago, energy, time, matter and space had come to be known as the phenomenon of the Big Bang. The theory of the fundamental features of the universe is referred to as physics. Around 30,000 years when these features had appeared, energy along with matter had started the coalescing into various complex structures referred to as the atoms. These then combined themselves into bigger molecules. The theory of atoms along with molecules as well as its interaction is referred to as the chemistry. Some 3.8 billion years before, on some planet known as the Earth, several molecules had combined to result in some large and well-defined structures known as the organisms. The theory of the organisms is referred to as biology. 
  Around 70,000 years before, the organisms which belonged to the group homo sapiens had started forming even larger and elaborative structures known as the cultures. The development of these cultures is known as history.

  Show book

• 

  Great Astronomers

  Robert Stawell Ball

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Of all the natural sciences there is not one which offers such sublime objects to the attention of the inquirer as does the science of astronomy. From the earliest ages the study of the stars has exercised the same fascination as it possesses at the present day. Among the most primitive peoples, the movements of the sun, the moon, and the stars commanded attention from their supposed influence on human affairs. From the days of Hipparchus down to the present hour the science of astronomy has steadily grown. One great observer after another has appeared from time to time, to reveal some new phenomenon with regard to the celestial bodies or their movements, while from time to time one commanding intellect after another has arisen to explain the true import of the facts of observations. The history of astronomy thus becomes inseparable from the history of the great men to whose labours its development is due.  In the ensuing chapters we have endeavoured to sketch the lives and the work of the great philosophers, by whose labours the science of astronomy has been created.  (from the Introduction)

  Show book

• 

  The History of Video Games

  Charlie Fish

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  This book is a potted history of video games, telling all the rollercoaster stories of this fascinating young industry that’s now twice as big globally than the film and music industries combined. Each chapter explores the history of video games through a different lens, giving a uniquely well-rounded overview.  Packed with pictures and stats, this book is for video gamers nostalgic for the good old days of gaming, and young gamers curious about how it all began. If you’ve ever enjoyed a video game, or you just want to see what all the fuss is about, this book is for you.  There are stories about the experimental games of the 1950s and 1960s; the advent of home gaming in the 1970s; the explosion – and implosion – of arcade gaming in the 1980s; the console wars of the 1990s; the growth of online and mobile games in the 2000s; and we get right up to date with the 2010s, including such cultural phenomena as twitch.tv, the Gamergate scandal, and Fortnite.  But rather than telling the whole story from beginning to end, each chapter covers the history of video games from a different angle: platforms and technology, people and personalities, companies and capitalism, gender and representation, culture, community, and finally the games themselves.

  Show book

• 

  Mesozoic Sea Dragons - Triassic...

  Olivier Rieppel

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An extensive, illustrated study of the ancient fish and marine reptiles who once lived in a tropical lagoon that is now a Swiss mountain. 
   
  Told in rich detail and with gorgeous color recreations, this is the story of marine life in the age before the dinosaurs. During the Middle Triassic Period (247–237 million years ago), the mountain of Monte San Giorgio in Switzerland was a tropical lagoon. Today, it is a UNESCO World Heritage Site because it boasts an astonishing fossil record of marine life from that time. Attracted to an incredibly diverse and well-preserved set of fossils, Swiss and Italian paleontologists have been excavating the mountain since 1850. 
   
  Synthesizing and interpreting over a century of discoveries through a critical twenty-first century lens, paleontologist Olivier Rieppel tells for the first time the complete story of the fish and marine reptiles who made that long-ago lagoon their home. Through careful analysis and vividly rendered recreations, he offers memorable glimpses of not only what Thalattosaurs, Protorosaurs, Ichthyosaurs,Pachypleurosaurs, and other marine life looked like but how they moved and lived in the lagoon. 
   
  An invaluable resource for specialists and accessible to all, this book is essential to all who are fascinated with ancient marine life. 
   
  Praise for Mesozoic Sea Dragons 
   
  “The most comprehensive review of the Middle Triassic marine faunas of Monte San Giorgio published to date. It synthesizes a vast body of literature in an accessible way and provides an informative, beautifully illustrated review of the vertebrate life that once thrived in the ancient lagoon. It also delivers a fascinating account of the history of fossil discoveries of this remarkable site.” —Palaeontologia Electronica

  Show book

• 

  Living Systems

  Ph.D. Fritjof Capra

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  At the heart of understanding living systems is the knowledge that everything is interconnected and interrelated. Out of this awareness comes the greatest challenge of our times - creating sustainable communities. Capra describes what he means when he suggests that we must shift from linear thinking to systems thinking.

  Show book