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Books > Biography > Science, technology & engineering
Thoroughly revised and expanded from the 2012 edition (twice the
number of pages, almost double the number of illustrations) this
book pays tribute to the man and his diverse works and
achievements. James Hutton (1726-1797) was one of the first
environmentalists, a man ahead of his time. He developed a grand
theory of the Earth in which he tried to make sense of a lifetime
of observation and deduction about the way in which our planet
functions. For example, he connected temperature with latitude. His
measurements, with rudimentary thermometers, of temperature changes
between the base and summit of Arthur's Seat, were remarkably
accurate and he studied climate data from other parts of the world.
A leading figure in the eighteenth-century Scottish Enlightenment,
he was also an innovative farmer, successful entrepreneur and a man
with endless intellectual curiosity. The year 2026 will be the
tercentenary of his birth. There will be many special events
leading up to and in that year organised by The James Hutton
Institute, Scotland's premier environmental and agricultural
research organisation.
Unlocking the Sky tells the extraordinary tale of the race to design, refine, and manufacture a manned flying machine, a race that took place in the air, on the ground, and in the courtrooms of America. While the Wright brothers threw a veil of secrecy over their flying machine, Glenn Hammond Curtiss -- perhaps the greatest aviator and aeronautical inventor of all time -- freely exchanged information with engineers in America and abroad, resulting in his famous airplane, the June Bug, which made the first ever public flight in America. Fiercely jealous, the Wright brothers took to the courts to keep Curtiss and his airplane out of the sky and off the market. Ultimately, however, it was Curtiss's innovations and designs, not the Wright brothers', that served as the model for the modern airplane.
The best-selling author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs
returns. In 2012, Nobel Prize winning scientist Jennifer Doudna hit
upon an invention that will transform the future of the human race:
an easy-to-use tool that can edit DNA. Known as CRISPR, it opened a
brave new world of medical miracles and moral questions. It has
already been deployed to cure deadly diseases, fight the
coronavirus pandemic of 2020, and make inheritable changes in the
genes of babies. But what does that mean for humanity? Should we be
hacking our own DNA to make us less susceptible to disease? Should
we democratise the technology that would allow parents to enhance
their kids? After discovering this CRISPR, Doudna is now wrestling
these even bigger issues. THE CODE BREAKERS is an examination of
how life as we know it is about to change - and a brilliant
portrayal of the woman leading the way.
The battles that women had to fight to enter the medical profession
have been well-documented by historians. A Painful Inch to Gain
takes a more personal approach, focusing on the stories of
individual women medical students. Drawing as far as possible on
their own words, Eileen Crofton (who herself qualified as a doctor
during the Second World War) looks at what made these young women
want to pursue a career in medicine in the first place. They knew
they faced considerable obstacles. In the face of male hostility,
how could they ensure that they got as thorough a medical training
as the men? And how could they pay for this training, let alone
feed and clothe themselves? With no role models, how were they to
conduct themselves? What should they wear? How were they to balance
the demands of their profession with their expectations of love and
marriage? Finally, having qualified as doctors, what was to be
their role in their chosen profession?
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
Unlike some other reproductions of classic texts (1) We have not
used OCR(Optical Character Recognition), as this leads to bad
quality books with introduced typos. (2) In books where there are
images such as portraits, maps, sketches etc We have endeavoured to
keep the quality of these images, so they represent accurately the
original artefact. Although occasionally there may be certain
imperfections with these old texts, we feel they deserve to be made
available for future generations to enjoy.
'Since I was a child, I've been interested in dead bodies. When I
was eight years old, I dug up the remains of my pet budgie Zazbut.
He had been buried for about eight weeks in a patch of grass
outside our house in Dasmarinas, a fortified village in Manila, in
the Philippines. 'The first exhumation was the beginning of my
intrigue with death, which has persisted. As a journalist, I've
written about graveyards, funerals and death doulas. I always visit
the local cemetery wherever I am in the world. But one thing that
has largely been hidden from me in this death trip is the dead
body.' Dissection might not be a normal topic to contemplate but
when both your paternal grandparents donate their bodies to science
it does intermittently cross your mind. This is the story of how
Jackie Dent's grandparents-Ruby and Julie-gave their bodies to
science when they died. No one in her family seems to know why, or
what really happened with their bodies afterwards. Were they avid
science buffs? Was it to save on cremation costs? How do scientists
tackle the practicalities and ethics of cutting up the dead for
research? And who are body donors generally? Weaving the personal
with the history of anatomy and the dissected, Jackie Dent explores
the world of whole-body donation - all the while looking for
answers as to what happened to her grandparents.
A TIME magazine Must-Read Book of the Year Ever wonder what your
therapist is thinking? Now you can find out, as therapist and New
York Times bestselling author Lori Gottlieb takes us behind the
scenes of her practice - where her patients are looking for answers
(and so is she). When a personal crisis causes her world to come
crashing down, Lori Gottlieb - an experienced therapist with a
thriving practice in Los Angeles - is suddenly adrift. Enter
Wendell, himself a veteran therapist with an unconventional style,
whose sessions with Gottlieb will prove transformative for her. As
Gottlieb explores the inner chambers of her own patients' lives - a
self-absorbed Hollywood producer, a young newlywed diagnosed with a
terminal illness, a senior citizen who feels she has nothing to
live for, and a self-destructive twenty-something who can't stop
hooking up with the wrong guys - she finds that the questions they
are struggling with are the very questions she is bringing to
Wendell. Taking place over one year, and beginning with the
devastating event that lands her in Wendell's office, Maybe You
Should Talk to Someone offers a rare and candid insight into a
profession that is conventionally bound with rules and secrecy.
Told with charm and compassion, vulnerability and humour, it's also
the story of an incredible relationship between two therapists, and
a disarmingly funny and illuminating account of our own mysterious
inner lives, as well as our power to transform them.
* PRE-ORDER YOUR COPY TODAY * The compelling and moving memoir of
forensic psychiatrist Dr Duncan Harding
In this unique and unprecedented study of birding in Africa,
historian Nancy Jacobs reconstructs the collaborations between
well-known ornithologists and the largely forgotten guides, hunters
and taxidermists who worked with them. Drawing on ethnography,
scientific publications, private archives and interviews, Jacobs
asks: How did white ornithologists both depend on and operate
distinctively from African birders? What investment did African
birders have in collaborating with ornithologists? By distilling
the interactions between European science and African vernacular
knowledge, this work offers a fascinating examination of the
colonial and postcolonial politics of expertise about nature. It is
also a riveting history of the discovery of certain bird species.
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