"How did the universe begin? Where did humans come from? Why did Darwin cause such a commotion? How did the Romans conquer the world? Find out in this whistle-stop history of our changing world. Bulging with pop-ups, flaps and booklets, this eye-opening guide covers billions of years, from the birth of the universe to ancient civilisations, the present and even the future of our incredible planet."--Back cover.
Sharp, thoughtful and mysterious, How the World Began is a powerful story about an outsider in a close-knit, devastated community. Susan, a science teacher from Manhattan, starts work in a small rural Kansas town that's been ripped apart by a tornado. When one of her pupils - the damaged, articulate Micah - takes offence at an off-the-cuff remark about how life on Earth began, Susan is thrown into an ethical firestorm about science and faith that leads to her fearing for her safety. Casting light on the tension between religion and secular liberalism, How the World Began explores the debate between creationism and evolution, and how this is taught in schools. With hints of American classics like Inherit the Wind and The Catcher in the Rye, the play traces the inexorable, fatalistic momentum from a single casual act into an all-encompassing dispute. A dispute which then threatens the very foundations of a community still reeling from a colossal disaster. In addition to its relevant and complex themes, the play is also about human psychology and what drives people to extreme ideological positions in times of duress. With writing which is provocative, moving and intelligent, Catherine Trieschmann asks important questions alongside in-depth character studies. This shrewd and compassionate drama is astute, perceptive and controversial.
“Impey combines the vision of a practicing scientist with the voice of a gifted storyteller.”—Dava Sobel In this vibrant, eye-opening tour of milestones in the history of our universe, Chris Impey guides us through space and time, leading us from the familiar sights of the night sky to the dazzlingly strange aftermath of the Big Bang. What if we could look into space and see not only our place in the universe but also how we came to be here? As it happens, we can. Because it takes time for light to travel, we see more and more distant regions of the universe as they were in the successively greater past. Impey uses this concept—"look-back time"—to take us on an intergalactic tour that is simultaneously out in space and back in time. Performing a type of cosmic archaeology, Impey brilliantly describes the astronomical clues that scientists have used to solve fascinating mysteries about the origins and development of our universe. The milestones on this journey range from the nearby to the remote: we travel from the Moon, Jupiter, and the black hole at the heart of our galaxy all the way to the first star, the first ray of light, and even the strange, roiling conditions of the infant universe, an intense and volatile environment in which matter was created from pure energy. Impey gives us breathtaking visual descriptions and also explains what each landmark can reveal about the universe and its history. His lucid, wonderfully engaging scientific discussions bring us to the brink of modern cosmology and physics, illuminating such mind-bending concepts as invisible dimensions, timelessness, and multiple universes. A dynamic and unforgettable portrait of the cosmos, How It Began will reward its readers with a deeper understanding of the universe we inhabit as well as a renewed sense of wonder at its beauty and mystery.
From New York Times bestselling author Diane Chamberlain comes a novel of chilling intrigue, a decades-old disappearance, and one woman’s quest to find the truth... “A novel about arts and secrets...grippingly told...pulls readers toward a shocking conclusion.”—People magazine, Best New Books North Carolina, 2018: Morgan Christopher's life has been derailed. Taking the fall for a crime she did not commit, her dream of a career in art is put on hold—until a mysterious visitor makes her an offer that will get her released from prison immediately. Her assignment: restore an old post office mural in a sleepy southern town. Morgan knows nothing about art restoration, but desperate to be free, she accepts. What she finds under the layers of grime is a painting that tells the story of madness, violence, and a conspiracy of small town secrets. North Carolina, 1940: Anna Dale, an artist from New Jersey, wins a national contest to paint a mural for the post office in Edenton, North Carolina. Alone in the world and in great need of work, she accepts. But what she doesn't expect is to find herself immersed in a town where prejudices run deep, where people are hiding secrets behind closed doors, and where the price of being different might just end in murder. What happened to Anna Dale? Are the clues hidden in the decrepit mural? Can Morgan overcome her own demons to discover what exists beneath the layers of lies? “Chamberlain, a master storyteller, keeps readers hooked, with a story line that leavens history and social commentary with romance and mystery.”—Lexington Dispatch
What did the Earth look like 300 million years ago? Here's a chance to travel back through time and discover the days when the Earth was a very different place. In this cleverly designed book, lifting the tracing paper pages is like peeling back the layers of history, allowing readers to compare animals living in prehistoric landscapes with the fossils they left behind. The changing face of our planet comes to life, while the science behind the Earth's geology and climate is clearly explained. Packed with fascinating illustrations, this is a wonderful way to understand the story of evolution, from the earliest single-cell lifeforms to the mighty dinosaurs and onwards to the first human beings. Winner of a Non-Fiction Special Mention, Bologna Ragazzi Awards 2021
Hailed by The New York Times for writing “with wonderful clarity about science . . . that effortlessly teaches as it zips along,” nationally bestselling author Robert M. Hazen offers a radical new approach to Earth history in this intertwined tale of the planet’s living and nonliving spheres. With an astrobiologist’s imagination, a historian’s perspective, and a naturalist’s eye, Hazen calls upon twenty-first-century discoveries that have revolutionized geology and enabled scientists to envision Earth’s many iterations in vivid detail—from the mile-high lava tides of its infancy to the early organisms responsible for more than two-thirds of the mineral varieties beneath our feet. Lucid, controversial, and on the cutting edge of its field, The Story of Earth is popular science of the highest order. "A sweeping rip-roaring yarn of immense scope, from the birth of the elements in the stars to meditations on the future habitability of our world." -Science "A fascinating story." -Bill McKibben
This edition of Science and Creationism summarizes key aspects of several of the most important lines of evidence supporting evolution. It describes some of the positions taken by advocates of creation science and presents an analysis of these claims. This document lays out for a broader audience the case against presenting religious concepts in science classes. The document covers the origin of the universe, Earth, and life; evidence supporting biological evolution; and human evolution. (Contains 31 references.) (CCM)
Modern Historiographyis the essential introduction to the history of historical writing. It explains the broad philosophical background to the different historians and historical schools of the modern era. In a unique overview of modern historiography, the book includes surveys on the Enlightenment and Counter Enlightenment; Romanticism; the voice of Science and the process of secularization within Western intellectual thought; the influence of, and broadening contact with, the New World; theAnnalesschool in France; and the effects of the repression and exile of the inter-war years and the Post-War 'moods.'Modern Historiographyprovides a clear and concise account of this modern period of historical writing.
The question of where we come from and where we are going is one of the elementary challenges of life. Perhaps it is the question of life. Only when we get an answer to it do we learn who we are. So begins How the World Began, a book that asks themost fundamental of all questions: who are we? And what did God intend us to be? Despite - perhaps even because of - the immense technological advances of our time, and the frightful consequences for the human race of the misuse of that power, humanity is brought face-to-face time and again with the essential problem that has haunted us since the beginning of time: the mystery of good and evil. Helmut Thielicke's work in these sermons on the first eleven chapters of Genesis is thought-provokingand exceptionally powerful.
Night and day, month after month, year after year, our ancestors dutifully recorded the passage of time on clay tablets, watching the heavens from stage towers and pyramids and from megalithic monuments whose incredible size and precise architecture boggle the mind. . . . Who were the builders of these mysterious structures? What was their purpose? Whose signature is indelibly written on these timeless stones, and who was the Divine Architect? Why was Stonehenge and its likes built by ancient civilizations at the very same time--4,100 years ago? What is their message for our time? With these questions in mind, Zecharia Sitchin, renowned researcher of past ages, takes us on a journey through the records of time in this, the fifth book of his Earth Chronicles series. Drawing deeply on Sumerian and Egyptian writings, millenia-old artifacts, and sacred architecture ranging from ancient Mesopotamia to pre-Columbian civilizations in the Americas, this bestselling scholar provides astounding insights into the origins of the calendar, astronomy, and astrology. He takes readers to the climax circa 2100 b.c. when Marduk, the Babylonian national god, attained supremacy on Earth and proclaimed the New Age of Aries--after which society, religion, science, and the status of women were never the same.
