Your Inner Fish
Your Inner Fish

Author: Neil Shubin

Publisher: Vintage

Published: 2008-01-15

Total Pages: 258

ISBN-13: 0307377164

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The paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells a “compelling scientific adventure story that will change forever how you understand what it means to be human” (Oliver Sacks). By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

Unimagined Gifts
Unimagined Gifts

Author: Charly Heavenrich

Publisher: iUniverse

Published: 2011-04-06

Total Pages: 308

ISBN-13: 1462000886

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TRUE STORIES OF ORDINARY PEOPLE GOING TO EXTRAORDINARY PLACES. Is it possible to spend time in a natural place like the Grand Canyon and walk away with the gift of a life-changing experience? In Unimagined Gifts, a seasoned Grand Canyon raft guide shares the stories of ordinary people who came to the Grand Canyon for an adventure vacation and found themselves accomplishing extraordinary feats, forever changing their awareness of what is possible. Charly Heavenrich transports you on a Grand Canyon adventure through the eyes of his former passengers, sharing compelling stories of what can happen when one travels to the edge and learns how to go beyond it. Youll meet a nearsighted boy disoriented without his glasses, a middle-aged woman on her first vacation, an English couple out of their element, and an Israeli lawyer on a journey towards self-discovery, among others. Youll be inspired by their attempts to break through self-imposed limitations, drawing strength from one of the most wondrous natural landscapes in the world. The compelling tales in Unimagined Gifts demonstrate that all who travel through the Grand Canyon will come out on the other side having learned more about themselves and their capabilities than they could have imagined.

The Pale King
The Pale King

Author: David Foster Wallace

Publisher: Little, Brown

Published: 2011-04-15

Total Pages: 584

ISBN-13: 0316175293

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The "breathtakingly brilliant" novel by the author of Infinite Jest (New York Times) is a deeply compelling and satisfying story, as hilarious and fearless and original as anything Wallace ever wrote. The agents at the IRS Regional Examination Center in Peoria, Illinois, appear ordinary enough to newly arrived trainee David Foster Wallace. But as he immerses himself in a routine so tedious and repetitive that new employees receive boredom-survival training, he learns of the extraordinary variety of personalities drawn to this strange calling. And he has arrived at a moment when forces within the IRS are plotting to eliminate even what little humanity and dignity the work still has. The Pale King remained unfinished at the time of David Foster Wallace's death, but it is a deeply compelling and satisfying novel, hilarious and fearless and as original as anything Wallace ever undertook. It grapples directly with ultimate questions -- questions of life's meaning and of the value of work and society -- through characters imagined with the interior force and generosity that were Wallace's unique gifts. Along the way it suggests a new idea of heroism and commands infinite respect for one of the most daring writers of our time. "The Pale King is by turns funny, shrewd, suspenseful, piercing, smart, terrifying, and rousing." --Laura Miller, Salon

Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science
Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science

Author: John Gunn

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2004-08-02

Total Pages: 1971

ISBN-13: 1135455082

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The Encyclopedia of Caves and Karst Science contains 350 alphabetically arranged entries. The topics include cave and karst geoscience, cave archaeology and human use of caves, art in caves, hydrology and groundwater, cave and karst history, and conservation and management. The Encyclopedia is extensively illustrated with photographs, maps, diagrams, and tables, and has thematic content lists and a comprehensive index to facilitate searching and browsing.

The Origins of Life
The Origins of Life

Author: David W. Deamer

Publisher:

Published: 2010

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781936113040

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Life arose on Earth more than three billion years ago. How the first self-replicating systems emerged from prebiotic chemistry and evolved into primitive cell-like entities is an area of intense research, spanning molecular and cellular biology, organic chemistry, cosmology, geology, and atmospheric science. Written and edited by experts in the field, this collection from Cold Spring Harbor Perspectives in Biology provides a comprehensive account of the environment of the early Earth and the mechanisms by which the organic molecules present may have self-assembled to form replicating material such as RNA and other polymers. The contributors examine the energetic requirements for this process and focus in particular on the essential role of semi-permeable compartments in containment of primitive genetic systems. Also covered in the book are new synthetic approaches for fabricating cellular systems, the potentially extraterrestrial origin of life's building blocks, and the possibility that life once existed on Mars. Comprising five sections Setting the Stage, Components of First Life, Primitive Systems, First Polymers, and Transition to a Microbial World it is a vital reference for all scientists interested in the origin of life on Earth and the likelihood that it has arisen on other planets