Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-09-13

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 9780691138077

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds offers an eye-opening look into how the characteristics of the physical world drive the designs of animals and plants. These characteristics impose limits but also create remarkable and subtle opportunities for the functional biology of organisms. In particular, Steven Vogel examines the size and scale, and trade-offs among different physical processes. He pays attention to how the forms and activities of animals and plants reflect the materials available to nature, and he explores the unique constraints and possibilities provided by fluid flow, structural design, and environmental forces. Each chapter of the book investigates a facet of the physical world, including the drag on small projectiles; the importance of diffusion and convection; the size-dependence of acceleration; the storage, conduction, and dissipation of heat; the relationship among pressure, flow, and choice in biological pumps; and how elongate structures tune their relative twistiness and bendiness. Vogel considers design-determining factors all too commonly ignored, and builds a bridge between the world described by physics books and the reality experienced by all creatures. Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds contains a wealth of accessible information related to functional biology, and requires little more than a basic background in secondary-school science and mathematics. Drawing examples from creatures of land, air, and water, the book demonstrates the many uses of biological diversity and how physical forces impact biological organisms.


Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009-08-24

Total Pages: 320

ISBN-13: 1400833868

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds offers an eye-opening look into how the characteristics of the physical world drive the designs of animals and plants. These characteristics impose limits but also create remarkable and subtle opportunities for the functional biology of organisms. In particular, Steven Vogel examines the size and scale, and trade-offs among different physical processes. He pays attention to how the forms and activities of animals and plants reflect the materials available to nature, and he explores the unique constraints and possibilities provided by fluid flow, structural design, and environmental forces. Each chapter of the book investigates a facet of the physical world, including the drag on small projectiles; the importance of diffusion and convection; the size-dependence of acceleration; the storage, conduction, and dissipation of heat; the relationship among pressure, flow, and choice in biological pumps; and how elongate structures tune their relative twistiness and bendiness. Vogel considers design-determining factors all too commonly ignored, and builds a bridge between the world described by physics books and the reality experienced by all creatures. Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds contains a wealth of accessible information related to functional biology, and requires little more than a basic background in secondary-school science and mathematics. Drawing examples from creatures of land, air, and water, the book demonstrates the many uses of biological diversity and how physical forces impact biological organisms.


Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Glimpses of Creatures in Their Physical Worlds

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: Princeton University Press

Published: 2009

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0691138060

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

This book investigates facets of the physical world, including the drag on small projectiles; the importance of diffusion and convection; the size-dependence of acceleration; the storage, conduction, and dissipation of heat; the relationship among pressure, flow, and choice in biological pumps; and how elongate structures tune their relative twistiness and bendiness. It considers design-determining factors and builds a bridge between the world described by physics books and the reality experienced by all creatures.


Christianity Exposed

Christianity Exposed

Author: G. A. Hedtke

Publisher: Wipf and Stock Publishers

Published: 2023-04-06

Total Pages: 271

ISBN-13: 1666766291

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

Christianity Exposed presents an overall picture of God’s work, plan, and the marrow of Christianity, supported by the Bible without religion’s interference. Perspectives of disharmony and love may touch a reader’s emotions, and they can empathize with story situations, social problems, and world problems. Perceptions about how the world operates are enhanced. This book traces mankind’s development and how God uses nature and evil for his purpose. It questions why God allows evil and pain in this world from numerous outlooks, intending to explain away confusing arguments people may hear that could hinder their understanding or belief. It doesn’t dwell on the specific problems of the world but explains why they exist, to see why the world is as it is. The author presents biblical observations and new descriptions for understanding Christianity. He discusses the spiritual world. The book describes how religion affects Christians’ lives and how they live toward their beliefs. Readers will gain a solid understanding of doctrine and have common questions answered. They will deepen their understanding of how Christianity is a relationship. This is a well-documented, fresh work for Christians that also lets outsiders see what the religion is.


Glimpses from Beyond

Glimpses from Beyond

Author: Sondra Perlin Zecher Charles E. Zecher

Publisher: Balboa Press

Published: 2017-09-22

Total Pages: 281

ISBN-13: 1504387457

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The content of this book is material channeled through the author by her spirit guide. If you are not interested in having your personal belief system offended, particularly in the areas of religion and generally accepted historical accounts, please do not read this book. Much of the content herein flies in the face of traditional thinking and beliefs, most notably in the area of religion. On the other hand, some of the content supports religious concepts, even though from a non-traditional point of view. The author herself finds some of the ideas hard to accept or even give minimal credence to. Therefore, she cannot vouch for the validity of much of what the book contains. The book does, however, present a great deal of thought for the readers to ponder. It is solely up to them to espouse or to reject whatever they so choose. The author is making no attempt to promote anything. Nevertheless, the material is presented exactly as it was channeled through her by her spirit guide at the monthly meetings of the Coral Springs (FL) Metaphysical Group.


Spider Ecophysiology

Spider Ecophysiology

Author: Wolfgang Nentwig

Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media

Published: 2013-02-15

Total Pages: 509

ISBN-13: 3642339891

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With over 43,000 species, spiders are the largest predacious arthropod group. They have developed key characteristics such as multi-purpose silk types, venoms consisting of hundreds of components, locomotion driven by muscles and hydraulic pressure, a highly evolved key-lock mechanism between the complex genital structures, and many more unique features. After 300 million years of evolutionary refinement, spiders are present in all land habitats and represent one of the most successful groups of terrestrial organisms. Ecophysiology combines functional and evolutionary aspects of morphology, physiology, biochemistry and molecular biology with ecology. Cutting-edge science in spiders focuses on the circulatory and respiratory system, locomotion and dispersal abilities, the immune system, endosymbionts and pathogens, chemical communication, gland secretions, venom components, silk structure, structure and perception of colours as well as nutritional requirements. Spiders are valuable indicator species in agroecosystems and for conservation biology. Modern transfer and application technologies research spiders and their products with respect to their value for biomimetics, material sciences, and the agrochemical and pharmaceutical industries.


The Life of a Leaf

The Life of a Leaf

Author: Steven Vogel

Publisher: University of Chicago Press

Published: 2012-10-17

Total Pages: 316

ISBN-13: 0226859398

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

In its essence, science is a way of looking at and thinking about the world. In The Life of a Leaf, Steven Vogel illuminates this approach, using the humble leaf as a model. Whether plant or person, every organism must contend with its immediate physical environment, a world that both limits what organisms can do and offers innumerable opportunities for evolving fascinating ways of challenging those limits. Here, Vogel explains these interactions, examining through the example of the leaf the extraordinary designs that enable life to adapt to its physical world. In Vogel’s account, the leaf serves as a biological everyman, an ordinary and ubiquitous living thing that nonetheless speaks volumes about our environment as well as its own. Thus in exploring the leaf’s world, Vogel simultaneously explores our own. A companion website with demonstrations and teaching tools can be found here: http://www.press.uchicago.edu/sites/vogel/index.html


Engineering Animals

Engineering Animals

Author: Mark Denny

Publisher: Harvard University Press

Published: 2011-05-16

Total Pages: 400

ISBN-13: 0674060857

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

The alarm calls of birds make them difficult for predators to locate, while the howl of wolves and the croak of bullfrogs are designed to carry across long distances. From an engineer's perspective, how do such specialized adaptations among living things really work? And how does physics constrain evolution, channeling it in particular directions? Writing with wit and a richly informed sense of wonder, Denny and McFadzean offer an expert look at animals as works of engineering, each exquisitely adapted to a specific manner of survival, whether that means spinning webs or flying across continents or hunting in the dark-or writing books. This particular book, containing more than a hundred illustrations, conveys clearly, for engineers and nonengineers alike, the physical principles underlying animal structure and behavior. Pigeons, for instance-when understood as marvels of engineering-are flying remote sensors: they have wideband acoustical receivers, hi-res optics, magnetic sensing, and celestial navigation. Albatrosses expend little energy while traveling across vast southern oceans, by exploiting a technique known to glider pilots as dynamic soaring. Among insects, one species of fly can locate the source of a sound precisely, even though the fly itself is much smaller than the wavelength of the sound it hears. And that big-brained, upright Great Ape? Evolution has equipped us to figure out an important fact about the natural world: that there is more to life than engineering, but no life at all without it.


World-Builders on World-Building

World-Builders on World-Building

Author: Mark J.P. Wolf

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2020-05-12

Total Pages: 153

ISBN-13: 0429516010

DOWNLOAD EBOOK

With contributions from a distinguished group of world-builders, including academics, writers, and designers, this anthology of essays describes the process and discusses the nature of subcreation and the construction of worlds. From Oz to MUD, Walden to Rockall, all the worlds featured in this volume share one thing in common: they began in someone’s imagination, grew from there, and became worlds built with the assistance of multiple authors and a variety of different ideas and media, including designs, imagery, sound, music, stories, and more. The book examines this development, with examples and discussions pertaining to the process and the final product of the building of imaginary worlds, including some transmedial worlds. World-Builders on World-Building is a fascinating deep dive into the practical problems of world-building as well as its theoretical aspects. It is ideal for students, scholars, and even practitioners interested in media studies, game studies, subcreation studies, franchise studies, transmedia studies, and pop culture.