Engineering design teams sometimes have need of a material that may not exist because the combination of required properties is difficult to achieve. One solution is to develop a new material having the required set of properties needed in the application. During the author's 40-year career he has successfully worked on many such problems. The uniquely useful and valuable book, Polymeric Thermosetting Compounds: Innovative Aspects of Their Formulation Technology, presents twenty of those design problems and the solutions, which resulted in patents and spin-off applications. Author Ralph Hermansen, with years of experience of hands-on experience, is an expert in formulating epoxies, polyurethanes, and other polymers into compounds that have unique properties, and here he shares his knowledge and experience of attaining novel solutions to very challenging problems. He covers polymeric compounds such as coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, transparent plastics, and others. Chapters describe the design problem and define which key properties are sought in the new material. The author shares his thinking about how to approach the formulating problem and describes the experimental procedures used to eventually solve the problem. Patent information is shared as well. Once a new family of polymeric compounds is developed, that technology can be used to attack new unsolved materials problems, or "spin-offs," and real-life examples are provided to help readers see new applications of the technologies described in the earlier chapters. The book will be of interest to a diverse group of people. Industry professionals already in the business of selling specialty compounds may be able to add new products to their catalogs with little research cost or time by using the information in the book. Formulators, trying to develop a new compound to challenging requirements, may gain insight into how to make a breakthrough. The information in the book will be very valuable to companies needing these novel solutions. And younger people wondering what a career in materials science would be like get a first-hand commentary from someone who has done it.

Down from the Trees: Man's Amazing Transition from Tree-Dwelling Ape Ancestors covers the evolution of man from tree-dwelling ape to Homo sapiens as he is today. Using easy-to-read language, the author takes complex, jargon-filled material and extracts the essence of the topic and coveys it in a clear and engaging manner. He approaches the subject of human evolution from three different disciplines: fossil evidence and its interpretation, evolutionary theory and its applicability, and genetic evidence and its ability to unlock prehistoric information. The third discipline has advanced unbelievably in the last few years, and this book includes the most up-to-date research. There is nothing more interesting to humans than the story of their origins. The evolutionary process of a tree-dwelling ape becoming a walking, talking man who has developed the technology to walk on the moon, transplant hearts, or modify living things is no trivial story. This book provides a fascinating and comprehensive view of what science has learned of human evolution.

"From the Preface: "
This book is written for those people with an interest in the formulation of plastics and elastomers, and with an interest in applying computer programming to that technical area. This particular double interest is not that uncommon among formulators, because the same kind of challenge and sense of creative accomplishment that makes formulating so enjoyable also applies to computer programming. It is my hope that this book will allow the readers to write useful programs for their own interests, sooner, and with less effort. The methodology presented is the result of my own trial and error attempts over a period of years.
Computer programs, which are written to facilitate various formulating steps, can make formulating easier, faster, better, and less expensive. This book discusses how such programs can be written and includes actual source code for the sample programs.

Engineering design teams sometimes have need of a material that may not exist because the combination of required properties is difficult to achieve. One solution is to develop a new material having the required set of properties needed in the application. During the author's 40-year career he has successfully worked on many such problems. The uniquely useful and valuable book, Polymeric Thermosetting Compounds: Innovative Aspects of Their Formulation Technology, presents twenty of those design problems and the solutions, which resulted in patents and spin-off applications. Author Ralph Hermansen, with years of experience of hands-on experience, is an expert in formulating epoxies, polyurethanes, and other polymers into compounds that have unique properties, and here he shares his knowledge and experience of attaining novel solutions to very challenging problems. He covers polymeric compounds such as coatings, adhesives, encapsulants, transparent plastics, and others. Chapters describe the design problem and define which key properties are sought in the new material. The author shares his thinking about how to approach the formulating problem and describes the experimental procedures used to eventually solve the problem. Patent information is shared as well. Once a new family of polymeric compounds is developed, that technology can be used to attack new unsolved materials problems, or "spin-offs," and real-life examples are provided to help readers see new applications of the technologies described in the earlier chapters. The book will be of interest to a diverse group of people. Industry professionals already in the business of selling specialty compounds may be able to add new products to their catalogs with little research cost or time by using the information in the book. Formulators, trying to develop a new compound to challenging requirements, may gain insight into how to make a breakthrough. The information in the book will be very valuable to companies needing these novel solutions. And younger people wondering what a career in materials science would be like get a first-hand commentary from someone who has done it.

Down from the Trees: Man's Amazing Transition from Tree-Dwelling Ape Ancestors covers the evolution of man from tree-dwelling ape to Homo sapiens as he is today. Using easy-to-read language, the author takes complex, jargon-filled material and extracts the essence of the topic and coveys it in a clear and engaging manner. He approaches the subject of human evolution from three different disciplines: fossil evidence and its interpretation, evolutionary theory and its applicability, and genetic evidence and its ability to unlock prehistoric information. The third discipline has advanced unbelievably in the last few years, and this book includes the most up-to-date research. There is nothing more interesting to humans than the story of their origins. The evolutionary process of a tree-dwelling ape becoming a walking, talking man who has developed the technology to walk on the moon, transplant hearts, or modify living things is no trivial story. This book provides a fascinating and comprehensive view of what science has learned of human evolution.