Outer space, a moon base, and . . . bananas? Discover Ben Joel Price’s quirky extraterrestrial world and its unusual trio of guardians. A spaceman, a robot, and a cheeky monkey use a most unusual method to protect Earth from hungry, googly-eyed moon aliens. Ben Joel Price’s offbeat rhymes and colorful, retro-style illustrations evoke a funny little world away from ours, which will captivate readers young and old.
Many environmentalists think going into space detracts from solving problems here on Earth. Many astrophysicists feel environmentalism hampers their exploration and settlement of space. Actually environmentalism and space exploration have one and the same objective, argues leading astro-biologist Professor Charles Cockell: to ensure humanity has a home. Cockell calls for a fusion of the two movements as the only way forward. The technologies we develop to live sustainably on Earth, such as wind and solar power, will also establish humanity in space. The exploration of space will provide new resources and skills for the protection of the Earth's environment. For example, studying extreme environments on Earth is helping us to look for life on Mars and satellites orbiting Earth are helping track hurricanes and protect people from natural disasters. There are many books on environmentalism and many on space faring. Space On Earth is the first to provide a new vision of humanity's future bringing these two goals together.
Seeking to reenergize Americans' passion for the space program, the value of further exploration of the Moon, and the importance of human beings on the final frontier, Claude A. Piantadosi presents a rich history of American space exploration and its major achievements. He emphasizes the importance of reclaiming national command of our manned program and continuing our unmanned space missions, and he stresses the many adventures that still await us in the unfolding universe. Acknowledging space exploration's practical and financial obstacles, Piantadosi challenges us to revitalize American leadership in space exploration in order to reap its scientific bounty. Piantadosi explains why space exploration, a captivating story of ambition, invention, and discovery, is also increasingly difficult and why space experts always seem to disagree. He argues that the future of the space program requires merging the practicalities of exploration with the constraints of human biology. Space science deals with the unknown, and the margin (and budget) for error is small. Lethal near-vacuum conditions, deadly cosmic radiation, microgravity, vast distances, and highly scattered resources remain immense physical problems. To forge ahead, America needs to develop affordable space transportation and flexible exploration strategies based in sound science. Piantadosi closes with suggestions for accomplishing these goals, combining his healthy skepticism as a scientist with an unshakable belief in space's untapped—and wholly worthwhile—potential.
Take an incredible journey through Space, starting from a launchpad on earth, to the solar system, the Milky Way and beyond, and finally to the very edges of the visible universe. Featuring the latest spectacular images from NASA and other sources, including more than 100 pictures released during the last two years, makes this a journey of a lifetime. Discover the technology and spacecrafts behind these extraordinary journeys, learn more about planets, asteroids, and galaxies as they are introduced and supported with explanatory artworks and find out about the important discoveries that have been made
This is an outstanding overview of the history of the Earth from a unique planetary perspective for introductory courses in the earth sciences. The book approaches Earth history as an evolution, encompassing the origin of the cosmos through the inner working of living cells. Earth: Evolution of a Habitable Planet tells how the Earth has come to its present state, why it differs from its neighboring planets, what life's place is in Earth's history, and how humanity affects the processes that make our planet livable. Today's human influences are contemplated in the context of natural changes on Earth. This book brings a fresh perspective to the study of the Earth for students who wish to learn how our planet evolved to its present form.
This book uses the Lagrangian approach, especially useful and convenient for studying large-scale transport and mixing in the ocean, to present a detailed view of ocean circulation. This approach focuses on simulations and on monitoring the trajectories of fluid particles, which are governed by advection equations. The first chapter of the book is devoted to dynamical systems theory methods, which provide the framework, methodology and key concepts for the Lagrangian approach. The book then moves on to an analysis of chaotic mixing and cross-stream transport in idealized models of oceanic meandering currents like the Gulfstream in the Atlantic, the Kuroshio in the Pacific, and Antarctic Circumpolar Current, after which the current state of physical oceanography is reviewed. The latter half of the book applies the techniques and methods already described in order to study eddies, currents, fronts and large-scale mixing and transport in the Far-Eastern seas and the north-western part of the Pacific Ocean. Finally, the book concludes with a discussion of Lagrangian simulation and monitoring of water contamination after the Fukushima disaster of 2011. The propagation of Fukushima-derived radionuclides, surface transport across the Kuroshio Extension current, and the role of mesoscale eddies in the transport of Fukushima-derived cesium isotopes in the ocean are examined, and a comparison of simulation results with actual measurements are presented.Written by some of the world leaders in the application of Lagrangian methods in oceanography, this title will be of benefit to the oceanographic community by presenting the necessary background of the Lagrangian approach in an accessible manner.
Earth at night, as the photos and essays of this book showcases, is an electric planet, glittering with billions of lights for all the solar system to see.
The universe that science reveals to us can seem far outside the comfort zone of the human mind. Subjects near and far open up dizzying vistas, from the infinitesimal to the colossal. Humanity, the unlikely product of uncountable coincidences on unimaginable scales, inhabits a tumultuous universe that extends from our immediate environs to the most distant galaxies and beyond. But when the mind balks at the vertiginous complexity of the universe, science unveils the elegance amid the chaos. In this book, Thomas R. Scott ventures into the known and the unknown to explain our universe and the laws that govern it. The Universe as It Really Is begins with physics and the building blocks of the universe—time, gravity, light, and elementary particles—and chemistry’s ability to explain the interactions among them. Scott, with the assistance of James Lawrence Powell, next tours the earth and atmospheric sciences to explain the forces that shape our planet and then takes off for the stars to describe our place in the cosmos. He provides vivid introductions to our collective scientific inheritance, narrating discoveries such as the shape of the atom and the nature of the nucleus or how we use GPS to measure time and what that has to do with relativity. A clear demonstration of the power of scientific reasoning to bring the incomprehensible within our grasp, The Universe as It Really Is gives an engrossing account of just how much we do understand about the world around us.
An engaging account of our quest for habitable environments, recounting fascinating recent discoveries and providing insight into future space missions.
