Honey Santana
- self-proclaimed queen of lost causes
- has a Plan. She's working on a scheme to help rid the world of irresponsibility

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Have the world in your hands with these compact illustrated natural history guides. From the planets in our solar system to the constellations that brighten up the night skies leaf through Nature Guide Stars & Planets" a beautiful guide to our solar system & beyond. Part of a new generation of compact natural history guides " Stars & Planets" is expertly written & packed full of stunning images that reveal the intricate details & unique characteristics of our stars & planets. This guide will give you knowledge of the galaxy at your fingertips. With information on the tools & techniques youll need to observe the night skies & a guide to all 88 constellations " Nature Guide Stars & Planets" is the ideal identification guide to keep in your pocket." ...

A collection of anecdotes facts figures folklore & literature The Nature Magpie is a veritable treasure trove of humanity's thoughts & feelings about nature. With acclaimed nature writer Daniel Allen as your guide join naturalists novelists & poets as they explore the most isolated parts of the planet choose your side
- pineapple or durian
- in the great 'king of fruits' debate & discover which plants can be used to predict the weather. Meet the roadkill connoisseurs learn to dance the Hippopotamus Polka find out the likelihood of sharing your name with a hurricane
- & much more.


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Einstein said that the most incomprehensible thing about the universe is that it is comprehensible. But was he right? Can the quantum theory of fields & Einsteins general theory of relativity the two most accurate & successful theories in all of physics be united in a single quantum theory of gravity? Can quantum & cosmos ever be combined? On this issue two of the worlds most famous physicists
- Stephen Hawking (A Brief History of Time") & Roger Penrose (" The Emperors New Mind" & " Shadows of the Mind")
- disagree. Here they explain their positions in a work based on six lectures with a final debate all originally presented at the Isaac Newton Institute for Mathematical Sciences at the University of Cambridge. How could quantum gravity a theory that could explain the earlier moments of the big bang & the physics of the enigmatic objects known as black holes be constructed? Why does our patch of the universe look just as Einstein predicted with no hint of quantum effects in sight? What strange quantum processes can cause black holes to evaporate & what happens to all the information that they swallow? Why does time go forward not backward? In this book the two opponents touch on all these questions. Penrose like Einstein refuses to believe that quantum mechanics is a final theory. Hawking thinks otherwise & argues that general relativity simply cannot account for how the universe began. Only a quantum theory of gravity coupled with the no-boundary hypothesis can ever hope to explain adequately what little we can observe about our universe. Penrose playing the realist to Hawkings positivist thinks that the universe is unbounded & will expand forever. The universe can be understood he argues in terms of the geometry of light cones the compression & distortion of spacetime & by the use of twistor theory. With the final debate the reader will come to realize how much Hawking & Penrose diverge in their opinions of the ultimate quest to combine quantum mechanics & relativity & how differently they have tried to comprehend the incomprehensible. In a new afterword the authors outline how recent developments have caused their positions to further diverge on a number of key issues including the spatial geometry of the universe inflationary versus cyclic theories of the cosmos & the black-hole information-loss paradox. Though much progress has been made Hawking & Penrose stress that physicists still have much farther to go in their quest for a quantum theory of gravity."

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Lucretius poem On the Nature of Things" combines a scientific & philosophical treatise with some of the greatest poetry ever written. With intense moral fervour he demonstrates to humanity that in death there is nothing to fear since the soul is mortal & the world & everything in it is governed by the mechanical laws of nature & not by gods; & that by believing this men can live in peace of mind & happiness. He bases this on the atomic theory expounded by the Greek philosopher Epicurus & continues with an examination of sensation sex cosmology meteorology & geology all of these subjects made more attractive by the poetry with which he illustrates them." ...

Acclaimed author Matt Ridley's thrilling follow-up to his bestseller Genome. Armed with the extraordinary new discoveries about our genes Ridley turns his attention to the nature versus nurture debate to bring the first popular account of the roots of human behaviour. What makes us who we are? In February 2001 it was announced that the genome contains not 100 000 genes as originally expected but only 30 000. This startling revision led some scientists to conclude that there are simply not enough human genes to account for all the different ways people behave: we must be made by nurture not nature. Matt Ridley argues that the emerging truth is far more interesting than this myth. Nurture depends on genes too & genes need nurture. Genes not only predetermine the broad structure of the brain; they also absorb formative experiences react to social cues & even run memory. They are consequences as well as causes of the will. Published fifty years after the discovery of the double helix of DNA Nature via Nurture chronicles a new revolution in our understanding of genes. Ridley recounts the hundred years' war between the partisans of nature & nurture to explain how this paradoxical creature the human being can be simultaneously free-willed & motivated by instinct & culture. Nature via Nurture is an enthralling up-to-the-minute account of how genes build brains to absorb experience. ...

John Emsleys Natures Building Bocks was published in paperback in 2003. In this readable informative & fascinating guide to the elements are entries on each of the 100-odd chemical elements arranged alphabetically from actinium to zirconium. Each entry comprises an explanation of where the elements name comes from followed by Body element (the role it plays in living things) Element of history (how & when it was discovered) Economic element (what it is used for) Environmental element (where it occurs how much) Chemical element (facts figures & narrative) & Element of surprise (an amazing little-known fact). Since publication of the first edition there have been a number of developments. Three new chemical elements have been named & validated: darmstadtium roetgenium & copernicium & the section on transfermium elements has now been incorporated into the main part of the book. Economic uses of elements have grown & some quite rare elements such as Scandium are now economically important along with updates to elements such as gold due to new roles in industry. Fully revised & updated for 2010 this browsable compendium holds a wealth of useful information. ...

We know that animals cross miles of water land & sky with pinpoint precision on a daily basis. But it is only in recent years that scientists have learned how these astounding feats of navigation are actually accomplished. With colorful & thorough detail Natures Compass" explores the remarkable methods by which animals find their way both near home & around the globe. Noted biologist James Gould & popular science writer Carol Gould delve into the elegant strategies & fail-safe backup systems the invisible sensitivities & mysterious forces & incredible mental abilities used by familiar & rare species as they investigate a multitude of navigation strategies from the simple to the astonishing. The Goulds discuss how animals navigate without instruments & training at a level far beyond human talents. They explain how animals measure time & show how the fragile monarch butterfly employs an internal clock calendar compass & map to commence & measure the two-thous&-mile annual journey to Mexico
- all with a brain that weighs only a few thousandths of an ounce. They look at honey bees & how they rely on the sun & mental maps to locate landmarks such as nests & flowers. & they examine whether long-distance migrants such as the homing pigeon depend on a global positioning system to let them know where they are. Ultimately the authors ask if the disruption of migratory paths through habitat destruction & global warming is affecting & endangering animal species. Providing a comprehensive picture of animal navigation & migration " Natures Compass" decodes the mysteries of this extraordinary aspect of natural behavior."
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Why do many flowers have five or eight petals but very few six or seven? Why do snowflakes have sixfold symmetry? Why do tigers have stripes but leopards have spots? Mathematics is to nature as Sherlock Holmes is to evidence. Mathematics can look at a single snowflake & deduce the atomic geometry of its crystals; it can start with a violin string & uncover the existence of radio waves. & mathematics still has the power to open our eyes to new & unsuspected regularities
- the secret structure of a cloud or the hidden rhythms of the weather. There are patterns in the world we are now seeing for the first time
- patterns at the frontier of science yet patterns so simple that anybody can see them once they know where to look.

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W.D. Hamilton (1936-2000) was responsible for a revolution in thinking about evolutionary biology
- a revolution that changed our
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