Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones
Dragons’ Teeth and Thunderstones

Author: Ken McNamara

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2020-08-06

Total Pages: 289

ISBN-13: 178914289X

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For at least half a million years, people have been doing some very strange things with fossils. Long before a few seventeenth-century minds started to decipher their true, organic nature, fossils had been eaten, dropped in goblets of wine, buried with the dead, and adorned bodies. What triggered such curious behavior was the belief that some fossils could cure illness, protect against being poisoned, ease the passage into the afterlife, ward off evil spirits, and even kill those who were just plain annoying. But above all, to our early prehistoric ancestors, fossils were the very stuff of artistic inspiration. Drawing on archaeology, mythology, and folklore, Ken McNamara takes us on a journey through prehistory with these curious stones, and he explores humankind’s unending quest for the meaning of fossils.

Language Change and Nineteenth-Century Science
Language Change and Nineteenth-Century Science

Author: Catherine Watts

Publisher: Taylor & Francis

Published: 2023-06-05

Total Pages: 236

ISBN-13: 1000891712

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Have you ever looked at a word and thought: ‘I wonder where that came from’? You might well find the answer in this book, which considers the origin and formation of some of the many thousands of new words that were coined in English during the nineteenth century in the broad field of ‘science’. Changes in society are often accompanied by the need to find names for such changes which, in turn, has an impact on how the language develops as a result. The British Industrial Revolution ushered in a new era of language change, which led to many new coinages in the English language reflecting scientific knowledge as it developed. Many of these neologisms belong to specialist vocabulary, but others do not, and it is these lay coinages which form the focus of this book and are located within their social, cultural and historical backgrounds. Aimed at postgraduate students of the English language and all those interested in the history of the English language, this work explores new worlds and offers an original and fascinating etymological journey through nineteenth-century science in its broadest sense.

Geology's Significant Sites and their Contributions to Geoheritage
Geology's Significant Sites and their Contributions to Geoheritage

Author: R. M. Clary

Publisher: Geological Society of London

Published: 2024-07-23

Total Pages: 471

ISBN-13: 1786206005

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The contributions in this book explore several geologically significant sites and, in doing so, acknowledge and explore not just the geological exposures themselves, but also the people and issues that are fundamentally intertwined with the history of our science and its impact on our society. Through selective examples of outcrops and locales integral to the history of geology, we explore the evolution of modern geology, as well as the geodiversity and geoheritage of our planet. While the volume is far from comprehensive, the chapters contained herein detail a range for geoheritage value, scale of geoheritage sites and potential for geoheritage opportunities that will promote a broader, richer understanding of the complexity of the geoheritage of Earth. Importantly, many chapters offer a cautionary tale of sites almost lost to posterity and submit their take-away lessons for community mobilization towards geoheritage site protection.

Edward Lhwyd
Edward Lhwyd

Author: Brynley Roberts

Publisher: University of Wales Press

Published: 2022-06-15

Total Pages: 350

ISBN-13: 1786837838

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The Environmental Uncanny
The Environmental Uncanny

Author: Brian A. Irwin

Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing

Published: 2024-06-27

Total Pages: 273

ISBN-13: 1350417394

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The Environmental Uncanny argues that the increasing destitution of our world is the result of a certain forgetfulness: we have forgotten that the basis of our knowledge is not calculative reason, but our participation in the natural world. The modern built environment is exemplary of this forgetfulness, and induces an uncanniness that can help us to understand the nature of our environmental crisis. This book offers a unique interdisciplinary perspective on the global environmental crisis. Ranging from traditional phenomenology, including substantial discussion of both Merleau-Ponty and Heidegger, to philosophy of biology, to architectural and urban design theory, to landscape photography, it makes illuminating connections to paint a multifaceted picture. Tracing the root causes of dwindling biodiversity, deforestation and suburban sprawl, we can find how might we mark the path back toward a mode of rich inhabitation in a contemporary age. In charting out how it is that we are losing our world, Irwin offers a thought as to how we might regain it.

Unearthing the Underworld
Unearthing the Underworld

Author: Ken McNamara

Publisher: Reaktion Books

Published: 2023-07-06

Total Pages: 296

ISBN-13: 1789147492

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A geological saga that digs deep, revealing how even the most ordinary rocks can be stepping stones to the hidden history of our planet. Unearthing the Underworld reveals the hidden world of rocks—the keepers of secrets of past environments, changing climates, and the pulse of life over billions of years. Even the most seemingly ordinary stone can tell us much about the history of this planet, opening vistas of ancient worlds of ice, raging floods, strange unbreathable atmospheres, and prehistoric worlds teeming with life. Remarkably, many types of rocks owe their existence to living organisms—from the remains of bodies of dead animals to rocks formed from rotting ancient forests, or even created by the activity of fungi, bacteria, and viruses. Anything but dull and uninteresting, rocks are intriguing portals that illuminate the secret underworld upon which we live.

Folklore and Zoology
Folklore and Zoology

Author: Floe Foxon

Publisher: CRC Press

Published: 2024-09-03

Total Pages: 99

ISBN-13: 1040112625

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A scientific excursion into folklore, zoology, and cryptozoology, this text highlights a field, often called a pseudoscience, which seriously considers the possible existence of hidden or unknown animals not recognised in conventional zoology. Folklore and Zoology accessibly reviews the science of DNA samples; film and photograph analysis; hair and footprint examination; and the statistics behind such alleged animals as Sasquatch and the Yeti, Nessie and Champ, the Griffin and the Thunderbirds, and the possible survival of the thylacine, ivory-billed woodpecker, eastern cougar, and others. With over 400 references, Folklore and Zoology is among the most complete scientific review of cryptozoology to date, with discussion of the history and future, and successes and failures of this controversial and fascinating field, offering a fresh synthesis of a highly interdisciplinary literature. This book is ideal reading for students and academics interested in and studying zoology, palaeontology, and folklore courses.

Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan
Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan

Author: Paul Kekai Manansala

Publisher: Lulu.com

Published: 2006-10-01

Total Pages: 530

ISBN-13: 1430308990

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"Quests of the Dragon and Bird Clan" examines how the seafaring trading people known as the "Nusantao" from Insular Southeast Asia influenced world history. This is a "blook," a book based on a weblog (blog). The decision to publish the book came after requests to make the information in the blog available in an easier-to-read and more portable format. The advantage of the printed work is that the blog entries are arranged in easy-to-manage chronological order with out the need for the clicking through the blog archives. The glossary entries are also in alphabetical order for easy look-up, and a word index and table of contents further increase the readiblity of the blog/book. Important supplementary articles have also been included in the appendices. A must-read for those who think there is more to history than what we find in "mainstream" publications.