Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles 2006

America's WETLAND sounds the clarion call of the catastrophic effects of Louisiana's vanishing coastline-not just for Louisiana but for the nation and the world. This vital landscape known as America's Wetland is currently disappearing at a rate of twenty-four square miles per year and could lose another five to seven hundred square miles in the next fifty years if no action is taken. New Orleans could become "America's Atlantis," one of the country's unique cultures lost forever. Bevil Knapp's beautiful, sometimes startling photographs and Mike Dunne's incisive commentary bring the urgency of this problem into full view. The book makes clear that as coastal erosion in Louisiana worsens at an alarming rate, the nation's economic and energy security is put at ever-higher risk and the environmental repercussions become unthinkable. Aerial photographs show how the oil and gas infrastructure is becoming increasingly exposed to the Gulf. Wells, pipelines, ports, roads, and levees that are key to delivering energy to the nation have been made vulnerable. Louisiana wetlands are the natural nursery ground for much of the country's seafood and the wintering habitat for more than five million waterfowl and migratory birds. Stunning photographs of owls, pelicans, egret, crab, crawfish, and alligators illustrate the vast array of wildlife whose home-if not very survival-is endangered by the possible collapse of this intricate ecosystem. America's WETLAND not only maps the causes and effects of Louisiana's diminishing coast but also outlines restorative and conservation initiatives such as tree planting, rebuilding fisheries, and setting aside wildlife refuges. With the active support of all Americans, there is still hope that this imperiled border of the country can be saved.

Flying cars, space travel for everyone, the elimination of poverty and hunger, and powerful new tools to combat disease, and even aging. These are some of the amazing predicted developments of nanotechnology, the coming science of designing and building machines at the molecular and atomic levels. Will this new scientific revolution be for better or worse? Some commentators have described utopias; others have prophesied disaster. Find out the likely reality from an expert, Dr. J. Storrs Hall, in this absorbing insider's guide to the near future. Dr. Hall-a leading researcher on the frontiers of nanotechnology who has designed for NASA-describes nanotechnology in a very accessible way, so that anyone can understand what it's about, what it could do, and what it can't do. He puts it into historical context, explaining how previous technological developments have affected us, how nanotechnology fits into the historical trends for technologies ranging from motors to medicine, and how the continuation of these trends, with nanotechnology as a strong determining factor, will have a profound impact on the future. In addition to describing his famous invention utility fog, Hall explains how nanotechnology will make possible many of the science fiction dreams of the past. But what hurdles, technological, political, or social, stand in the way? What dangers will this powerful new technology pose? How will it impact the environment? The true dangers are not what you may think, and are far different from the fears of today's alarmists. In a straightforward, balanced manner, Dr. Hall analyzes the benefits as well as the potential risks. Together with its sister science of biotechnology, nanotechnology has the potential to alter the very human race, change who we are. Can this possibly be good? No one knows for sure, but the basis for informed thought can be found in these exciting, stimulating pages, which will open the doors of the future to you.

Technology matters, writes David Nye, because it is inseparable from being human. We have used tools for more than 100,000 years, and their central purpose has not always been to provide necessities. People excel at using old tools to solve new problems and at inventing new tools for more elegant solutions to old tasks. Perhaps this is because we are intimate with devices and machines from an early age--as children, we play with technological toys: trucks, cars, stoves, telephones, model railroads, Playstations. Through these machines we imagine ourselves into a creative relationship with the world. As adults, we retain this technological playfulness with gadgets and appliances--Blackberries, cell phones, GPS navigation systems in our cars. We use technology to shape our world, yet we think little about the choices we are making. In Technology Matters, Nye tackles ten central questions about our relationship to technology, integrating a half-century of ideas about technology into ten cogent and concise chapters, with wide-ranging historical examples from many societies. He asks: Can we define technology? Does technology shape us, or do we shape it? Is technology inevitable or unpredictable (why do experts often fail to get it right?)? How do historians understand it? Are we using modern technology to create cultural uniformity or diversity? To create abundance or an ecological crisis? To destroy jobs or create new opportunities? Should "the market" choose our technologies? Do advanced technologies make us more secure or escalate dangers? Does ubiquitous technology expand our mental horizons or encapsulate us in artifice? These large questions may have no final answers yet, but we need to wrestle with them--to live them, so that we may, as Rilke puts it, "live along some distant day into the answers."

In 1905, Albert Einstein published five scientific articles that fundamentally changed the world-view of physics: The Special Theory of Reativity revolutionized our concept of space and time, E=mc² became the best-known equation in physics. On the occasion of the 100th aniversary of Einstein's "annus mirabilis" 1905, the UNESCO declared the year 2005 the "World Year of Physics", in order to draw attention to the impact of physics. The Max Planck Institute for the History of Science dedicates an exhibition to the easily most important scientist of the 20th century. The exhibition is accompanied by a two-volume catalogue . The elaborate, four-colour first volume (Albert Einstein - Chief Engineer of the Universe: Einstein's Life and Work in Context) mirrors the structure of the exhibition, containing detailed, easy-to-understand information on the three large exhibition areas - World-view and discovery - Einstein - his life - Einstein's world today. On the basis of Einstein's innovative theoretical work, the text explains changing historical world-views as well as the conditions under which science develops, shedding light on the bumpy path of Einstein's life and the political and social revolutions which formed its background. This bridge between scientific and cultural history opens up a perspective on Einstein's biography which goes far beyond the traditional picture of this exceptional science genius. The book concludes with a depiction of the effects of Einstein's work on today's science and culture. A DVD with animations and film sequences from the exhibition is enclosed. The second volume is a bilingual collection of source material (Documents of a Life's Pathway/Dokumente eines Lebensweges). Letters and manuscripts by Einstein as well as photographs of people and objects are reproduced in high quality and invite the reader to study the exhibition's sources more intensively.

Everybody knows Intel, it's one of the most recognizable brand names in the world. The Pentium Chronicles: The People, Passion, and Politics Behind Intel's Landmark Chips offers project manager Robert Colwell's first-hand account of the lessons he learned directing the team that designed and produced the most successful microprocessor in history, Intel-P6. Colwell presents the material in an engaging, accessible manner, revealing both the design and engineering and the management perspective. Engineers and project managers will find the topic of great interest, with lessons applicable to their own projects and careers.

An omnibus celebrating a great scientific mind and a legendary American original—including a live recording. Richard Feynman (1918-1988) thrived on outrageous adventures. In the phenomenal national bestsellers "Surely You're Joking, Mr. Feynman!" and "What Do You Care What Other People Think?" the Nobel Prize-winning physicist recounted in an inimitable voice his adventures trading ideas on atomic physics with Einstein and Bohr and ideas on gambling with Nick the Greek, painting a naked female toreador, accompanying a ballet on his bongo drums, solving the mystery of the Challenger disaster, and much else of an eyebrow-raising, hugely entertaining, and astounding nature. One of the most influential and creative minds of recent history, Feynman also possessed an unparalleled ability as a storyteller, a delightful coincidence celebrated in this special omnibus of his classic stories. Now packaged with an hour-long audio CD of the 1978 "Los Alamos from Below" lecture, Classic Feynman offers readers a chance to finally hear a great tale in the orator's own voice.

Walter Gratzer here offers a marvelous smorgasbord of stories taken from the history of nutrition, providing an engaging account of the struggle to find the ingredients of a healthy diet, and the fads and quackery that have waylaid the unwary.Gratzer recounts this history with characteristic crispness and verve. The book teems with colorful personalities, a veritable who's who of medical history, from Hippocrates to Pasteur, plus such intriguing figures such as Count Rumford, who argued that since plants got their food from water, soups would make the best meals for us. Gratzer highlights the brilliant flashes of insight as well as the sadly mistaken leaps of logic in the centuries-long effort to understand how the body uses food. We see the ingenious experiments used to reveal the workings of the stomach, the chemical analyses that uncovered the nature of proteins, carbohydrates, and vitamins, and the slow recognition that malnutrition lay behind such terrible diseases as scurvy, rickets, beriberi, and pellagra. Along the way, we read about the invention of the tin can (which originally had to be opened with a hammer and chisel), learn why ancient Egyptians had thicker skulls than Persians, and find out about today's fads and fancy diets--some dangerous, others just daft, such as the blood group diet, where you plan your meals around your blood type (people who are type 0 are supposed to eat more meat).Spiced with colorful anecdotes from the history of medicine and with sharp portraits of the scientists who advanced our understanding of diet and digestion, Terrors of the Table is a must read for anyone interested in food and health.

A Perfect Red recounts the colorful history of cochineal, a legendary red dye that was once one of the world's most precious commodities. Treasured by the ancient Mexicans, cochineal was sold in the great Aztec marketplaces, where it attracted the attention of the Spanish conquistadors in 1519. Shipped to Europe, the dye created a sensation, producing the brightest, strongest red the world had ever seen. Soon Spain's cochineal monopoly was worth a fortune. Desperate to find their own sources of the elusive dye, the English, French, Dutch, and other Europeans tried to crack the enigma of cochineal. Did it come from a worm, a berry, a seed? Could it be stolen from Mexico and transplanted to their own colonies? Pirates, explorers, alchemists, scientists, and spies -- all joined the chase for cochineal, a chase that lasted more than three centuries. A Perfect Red tells their stories -- true-life tales of mystery, empire, and adventure, in pursuit of the most desirable color on earth.

A handsomely illustrated history of a major botanical garden and public park.

Boston's Back Bay neighborhood is well known today for its upscale residences, high-rise office buildings, fine hotels, and excellent restaurants. Extending from Arlington Street to Massachusetts Avenue, and from the Charles River to the Amtrak and MBTA tracks, the neighborhood includes Commonwealth Avenue, Newbury Street, Boylston Street, the John Hancock and Prudential towers, Copley Square, and the Charles River Esplanade. The Back Bay today contributes heavily to Boston's image as a prosperous, modern city with a rich historical legacy. Before 1820, however, this region was a tidal marsh that appeared to early settlers as a large bay behind the town when it filled with high-tide water twice each day. Only one road, now Washington Street, extended across a narrow peninsula and connected Boston to the mainland. In the early nineteenth century, Boston expanded by filling in some shallow areas around the edge of the Back Bay. Two dams, constructed to generate power using the tides, cut off the area from the Charles River, dividing it into two basins: the "Full Basin" and the "Receiving Basin." This book focuses on filling the Back Bay's largest section, the Receiving Basin. By the 1850s, pollution of the former tidal marsh and severe overcrowding in Boston inspired plans to fill the Receiving Basin. Work on the landfill began in earnest in 1858 and was completed around 1890-and remains the largest residential and commercial landfill project ever carried out in the United States. Opening with a look at the geological history of the Back Bay and its life as a tidal marsh, this fascinating narrative examines the roles of planners, politicians, engineers, and contractors who made it possible to dump millions of tons of sand and gravel into the marsh. Innovative new technologies were needed to excavate, move, and grade the heavy loads, and to construct substantial buildings on very soft ground. Newman and Holton tap into a wide variety of primary sources including rare maps and plans, photography collections, corporate and railroad archives, political documents, deeds, mortgages, and bankruptcy records, all of which underscore the significance of the Back Bay landfill as a central component of Boston's development from a small town to a major metropolis in the nineteenth century.

Fred Hoyle was a Yorkshire truant who became the voice of British astronomy. For fifty years, he spoke out for astronomy in the newspapers, on government committees, at scientific meetings, in popular books and on the radio. He devised a never-ending history of the universe, and worked out how the elements were made. He founded a prestigious institute for theoretical astronomy and built a giant telescope, and if it rained on his summer holiday, he sat in his caravan and wrote science fiction novels for his legions of fans around the world.Fred Hoyle also claimed that diseases fall from the sky, that the big bang never happened, and that the Astronomer Royal should be abolished. When the outspoken Fred Hoyle spoke out for astronomy, some astronomers really wished he had kept his mouth shut.This book tells the behind-the-scenes story of Hoyle's widely acclaimed and deeply controversial role in the ideas, organization and public face of astronomy in post-war Britain. It chronicles the triumphs, acrimony, jealousies, rewards and bitter feuds of a field in turmoil, and meets the astronomers, contemplating cosmic questions, keeping secrets, losing their tempers, winkling information out of distant stars and, over tea on the lawn, discussing the finer points of libel law.Fred Hoyle's Universe draws on previously confidential government documents, recently released personal correspondence and interviews with Hoyle's friends, colleagues and critics, as well as with Hoyle himself, to bring you the man, the science, and the scandal behind the genial and genteel facade of the most exciting period in the history of astronomy.

On July 20, 1969, the world stood still to watch thirty-eight-year-old American astronaut Neil A. Armstrong become the first person ever to step on the surface of another heavenly body. Perhaps no words in human history became better known than those few he uttered at that historic moment. Upon his return to Earth, Armstrong was honored and celebrated for his monumental achievement. He was also -- as James R. Hansen reveals in this fascinating and important authorized biography -- misunderstood. Armstrong's accomplishments as an engineer, a test pilot, and an astronaut have long been a matter of record, but Hansen's unprecedented access to private documents and unpublished sources and his interviews with more than 125 subjects (including more than fifty hours with Armstrong himself) yield this first in-depth analysis of an elusive American celebrity still renowned the world over. In a riveting narrative filled with revelations, Hansen vividly re-creates Armstrong's career in flying, from his seventy-eight combat missions as a naval aviator flying over North Korea to his formative transatmospheric flights in the rocket-powered X-15 to his piloting Gemini VIII to the first-ever docking in space. These milestones made it seem, as Armstrong's mother, Viola, memorably put it, "as if from the very moment he was born -- farther back still -- that our son was somehow destined for the Apollo 11 mission." For a pilot who cared more about flying to the Moon than he did about walking on it, Hansen asserts, Armstrong's storied vocation exacted a dear personal toll, paid in kind by his wife and children. For the thirty-six years since the Moon landing, rumors have swirled around Armstrong concerning his dreams of space travel, his religious beliefs, and his private life. In a penetrating exploration of American hero worship, Hansen addresses the complex legacy of the First Man, as an astronaut and as an individual. In First Man, the personal, technological, epic, and iconic blend to form the portrait of a great but reluctant hero who will forever be known as history's most famous space traveler.

Astronomers are peering farther out in space—and back in time—than ever before nbsp; Chasing Hubble’s Shadows is an account of the continuing efforts of astronomers to probe the outermost limits of the observable universe. The book derives its Chasing Hubble's Shadows : The Search for Galaxies at the Edge of Time from something the great American astronomer Edwin Hubble once wrote: “Eventually, we reach the dim boundary—the utmost limits of our telescopes. There, we measure shadows, and we search among ghostly errors of measurement for landmarks that are scarcely more substantial.” The quest for Hubble’s “shadows”—those unimaginably distant, wispy traces of stars and galaxies that formed within the first few hundred million years after the Big Bang—takes us back, in effect, to the beginning of time as we are able to perceive it, when the first discrete stellar objects appeared out of what has lately come to be known as the “cosmic dark age.” The information that is being gleaned from these dim sources—chiefly with the aid of Hubble’s namesake, the Hubble Space Telescope—promises to yield clues to many cosmic puzzles, including the nature of the mysterious “dark energy” that is now believed to pervade all of space.

Evolution of Stars and Stellar Populations is a comprehensive presentation of the theory of stellar evolution and its application to the study of stellar populations in galaxies. Taking a unique approach to the subject, this self-contained text introduces first the theory of stellar evolution in a clear and accessible manner, with particular emphasis placed on explaining the evolution with time of observable stellar properties, such as luminosities and surface chemical abundances. This is followed by a detailed presentation and discussion of a broad range of related techniques, that are widely applied by researchers in the field to investigate the formation and evolution of galaxies. This book will be invaluable for undergraduates and graduate students in astronomy and astrophysics, and will also be of interest to researchers working in the field of Galactic, extragalactic astronomy and cosmology. comprehensive presentation of stellar evolution theory. introduces the concept of stellar population and describes "stellar population synthesis" methods to study ages and star formation histories of star clusters and galaxies. presents stellar evolution as a tool for investigating the evolution of galaxies and of the universe in general.