Book Description
"In Darwin and the Barnacle...ideas light up like matches on each page."—John Leonard, Harper's
A scientific detective story that illuminates the remarkable saga of Darwin's greatest achievement. Pairing Charles Darwin and a rare species of barnacle as her unlikely protagonists, Rebecca Stott has written an absorbing work of history that guides readers through the treacherous shoals of nineteenth-century biology. Beginning her scientific detective story in the 1820s, even before Darwin's Beagle voyage, Stott examines the mystery of why Darwin waited over two decades between formulating his pivotal theory of natural selection and publishing it. Lavishly illustrated, filled with riddles and concepts that challenge our notion of Victorian science, Darwin and the Barnacle is a thrilling account of how genius proceeds through indirection—and how one small item of curiosity contributed to history's most spectacular scientific breakthrough.
Customer Reviews:
Darwin and the Barnacle.......2004-01-03
Stott brings Darwin to life! An extraordinary story, so well crafted it brings a wonderful sense of humanity to the history of science. Primarily, `Darwin and the Barnacle' brings into focus the central essence of Darwin as a human being. It presents Darwin's raw excitement with life, seemingly ignited while strolling studiously (almost romantically) along the foreshores. Which in turn encouraged him to undertake his famous tour of discovery upon the Beagle.
The sensitivity of the author helped develop in me an understanding of and interest in Charles Darwin as a person. I was moved by learning more about the man and how he lived his life; by the grief he experienced as his beloved daughter died, how his wife and he read to one another, about his ill health, his day to day activities and about his dedication if not dogged determination of his scientific observations.
In reading this book I came to understand how much time and energy Darwin dedicated in undertaking his labourious investigations into barnacles, how this hard work paved the way for honing his monumental work on the `Origin of the Species'. Yet for me it is not a defence of evolution, but rather its Darwin who is placed under the microscope. It was literally as if Stott breathed life back into Darwin - which suddenly took on more importance than the revolutionary achievements that he is so well regarded for. `Darwin and the Barnacle' is a great book I only wish I had read this book when I was a geological student.
The Barnacle Makes Charles Darwin.......2003-07-09
Charles Darwin's contribution to science looms ever larger, as his work on evolution continues to be confirmed as elucidating the foundation of life on Earth. His account of his travels on the _Beagle_ are still enjoyed by readers looking to see how he began his insights, and his writings on the evolution of species and humans are of course well known and epochal. Less appreciated these days is that Darwin did not always write on the big subject, but he disciplined himself by writing on the small. In _Darwin and the Barnacle: The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough_ (Norton), Rebecca Stott has taken one important aspect of Darwin's long career, with the idea that the barnacles, in many ways, were the making of Darwin as a scientist. Much of this information is not particularly new and is covered, though in less depth, in the many Darwin biographies. However, Stott's attention to Darwin's barnacle work, his family issues of the time, and his growth as a biologist focuses welcome attention on an important part of his life and career.
After his return from the _Beagle_ voyage (and his first collection of a barnacle specimen), besides writing up his journals and discoveries from his voyage, Darwin formed his first ideas about the origin of species and evolution. He wrote up his ideas, but refrained from publishing; he not only knew how controversial evolution would be, but he realized he needed to issue these ideas after having more basic biological knowledge. So for eight years, from 1846 until 1854, Darwin worked on barnacles. He had to dissect hundreds of them under the microscope. He had to work with both the adult forms and the free-swimming larval forms. He corrected misconceptions and made startling discoveries about their sex lives. As a result, his eventual volumes on barnacles were the sum of all knowledge in the field, and continue to be used by specialists. His home in Kent became the world capital of barnacle studies, with specimens and scientific visitors constantly coming in and out. He gained new ways of writing in scientific jargon, but also ways of carefully building up an argument, using his own doubts on an issue to gather evidence to present a solution. He gained first hand knowledge of zoology and embryology. He had a firmer concept than almost any biologist of what a species was, and what the relationship between species was. Natural and sexual selection, ever on his mind, were confirmed in his studies on all the myriad variations of the humble barnacle. After his eight years toiling among the _Cirripedia_, he began his work on his _Origin_, and it was a grander and more confident work than it would have been had barnacles not been his companions all those years.
Stott's accomplished retelling of the barnacle stories is accompanied by descriptions of Darwin's extensive medical problems over the same years, and his treatment by a quack's "water cure." There are stories about his visit to the Crystal Palace with his family. There are also accounts of his loving relationship with his wife, and his exemplary capacity as a father. These years also included the sad death of his beloved daughter Annie. Most important, however, is how the barnacle years transformed Darwin. While he is reviled by many because of his clash with their religious opinions, Stott has concentrated on the celebrated characteristics of Darwin the scientist as formed and manifested by his laborious conquest of an uncontroversial corner of natural history. She has done students of Darwin the service of showing how important he was for the barnacle, and how very important the barnacle was for his scientific development.
Disappointing Treatment of a Very Interesting Subject.......2003-07-06
I was prepared to really like this book. It is centered on Darwin's study of barnacles and their contribution to his evolutionary thinking. In some ways the author sort of got there, but along the way she often got off the track and uses some strange analogies in the process. There were several typos that were disturbing. Perhaps the worst is that we are told on page 21 that the marine segmented worm Aphrodita aculeata has stinging hairs (it does not! - see Sue Hubbell's excellent book "Waiting for Aphrodite"), and that it is parasitic (it is a carnivore, as Hubbell also noted). In stating that Aphrodita has stinging hairs Rebecca Stott was repeating an error that has come down to us through a book published in 1558 by Rondelet! Also "aculeata" does not mean, "stinging", but spiny! One would think that by now this misinformation would not continue to be repeated. However, the main problem is that the author rambles a bit too much and covers a lot of ground not pertinent to the subject. In fact she covers a lot of the ground in regard to Darwin's personal problems that is better explored in several other recent books. This is not a fatal flaw, but the book would have been more original if the focus had been kept on the barnacles rather than on background material that nearly every biographer of Darwin has investigated. As for the book being "lavishly illustrated," I am wondering what the writers of the dust jacket blurb meant! I would not have described it in that manner at all! Maybe "adequately illustrated" would have been better!
This book is worth reading and does give us some of the details left out of other books on Darwin, but the author has not answered the questions about Darwin's barnacles I would have liked to have had answered.
Extremely Disappointing.......2003-06-23
This book has several problems, the most noticeable one being that it doesn't even live up to its own subtitle- "The Story of One Tiny Creature and History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough." I think that, based on that subtitle, it is a reasonable assumption that the book is going to link Darwin's study of barnacles to his theory of evolution by natural selection. Well, I read all 261 pages of this book and let me state categorically that the author never makes the connection. We get a lot of information about barnacles, no doubt about it. We find out about barnacles that secrete their own shells, barnacles that burrow into other creatures' shells, barnacles that attach themselves to flesh, etc. We also get to know about hermaphroditical, bisexual, and unisexual barnacles. But the author never goes into specifics regarding why these variations developed, nor does she explain how the study of barnacles helped Darwin to further develop, or fine tune, "History's Most Spectacular Scientific Breakthrough." (A debatable assertion, by the way, but hyperbole in modern publishing is so prevalent that I guess we're not supposed to take these things too seriously.) I kept reading and reading and said to myself that the author must have a purpose in barraging us with all of this barnacle minutiae. Must be she'll have a chapter near the end where she'll explain the specific biological/environmental reasons for the variations and show how this helped Darwin to clarify his thinking. Well, sorry to say there is no such chapter in the book. It was sort of like reading a mystery and the author never tells you how the detective solved the crime. Another problem that this book has is that the narrative flow is disturbed by some very bizarre analogies. If you think that I might possibly be going overboard with my choice of the word bizarre, consider the following: a developing fetus in Emma Darwin (Charles's wife) is compared to a barnacle attaching itself to a host; and Charles undergoing an examination of his stomach is compared to a dissected barnacle being studied under a microscope. There are many more examples scattered throughout the book. All of them made me wince. So, does this book have any saving graces? Yes, it does. We learn about what an incredibly hard job Darwin took on when he decided to devote years of his life to studying barnacles, due to the seemingly endless variations he encountered, not to mention the problems involved in dissecting and studying such tiny creatures (even though I just mentioned it). We learn that Darwin didn't work on his own: he corresponded with many other naturalists, some who would generously loan him barnacle specimens and fossils from their own collections. He also had people all over the world gathering barnacle specimens for him, which they would send to him by post. In this case, as in so many others, the myth of the lone genius working in seclusion is shown to be just that- a myth. Ms. Stott is also careful to balance Darwin the scientist and Darwin the man- we learn about his self-doubts, health problems, and of his relationship to his wife and numerous children. Unfortunately, none of this is sufficient to overcome the problem of an author not accomplishing what she set out to do. Cruel as it might sound, you'd be much better off reading any collection of essays by Stephen Jay Gould.
A Prequel to the 'Origin of Species.'.......2003-06-19
Read 'Darwin and the Barnacle' as a prequel, if you will, to Darwin's 'Origin of Species'. It was Darwin's work on barnacles that prepared him for 'Origin'--the one book for which he will be eternally known, and wherein he articulated his theory of species evolution by natural selection.
Following Dava Sobel's 'Longitude,' the past few years have provided us with a flood of books on the theme of "the lone man of genius and his scientific discovery that changed the world." With rare exceptions, however, many of these have been less than profound or failed to make the case for the true relevance of their topic. Stott's 'Darwin and the Barnacle,' however, is a fine exception, and a book of a wholly different order. She forgoes the typical formula (misunderstood scientific hero fights haughty, blinkered scientific establishment to prove out his discovery that is destined to change the world). Instead, Stott's story provides a balance between exceptional narrative (the drama of scientific discoveries that truly do change the world, after all, makes great subjects for narrative), and solid, informed research.
Best of all, Stott avoids the "lone scientific genius" syndrome, by demonstrating that Darwin, as he worked on his barnacles, became the center of a world-wide scientific network that took advantage of nineteenth-century social and technological advances (a postal system, railways), institutional developments (burgeoning scientific societies, and scientific professionalization), and European imperialism (colonized outposts, and voyages of scientific discovery).
History of science is too often either popular (though shallow) drama, or thorough (though impenetrable) scholarship. `Darwin and the Barnacle' is the best of both worlds, with the pitfalls of neither. Substantial and entertaining, well written and well researched.
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Time-Resolved Laser Raman Spectroscopy
D. Phillips
Manufacturer: Routledge
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
 Analytic
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General
| Spectroscopy
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Analytic
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ASIN: 3718603438 |
Book Description
The Study Guide provides the student with significant supplementary study materials. For each chapter, it contains key concepts, review materials, example problems worked out in full detail, exercises with answers, and self-test questions with answers.
Book Description
Employers want to fill their top management posts with candidates of the highest caliber and their rigorous selection procedures often include a range of psychometric, or aptitude, tests. This study aid provides essential preparation for new graduates or managers facing skills tests, whether as part of selection or assessment procedures. Fully revised and updated, it contains more than 500 practice questions and sample tests relevant to the selection tests used by many top organizations. Covering both numerical and verbal skills, it contains answers with explanations, helping candidates to improve their speed, accuracy and confidence. With correct training and practice, a candidate can improve their expected score with the help of this fully revised, new edition of the bestselling title.
Customer Reviews:
Its a good book but not the best.......2001-11-01
I found it very good in explaining what are the tests and how are they beneficial for the people who are going to take it and as well as who are going to give the tests.
It would have been more useful if it had more practice questions.
But i know you would enjoy reading it.
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Study Guide for Essentials of Business Statistics
Gerald Keller , and
Brian Warrack
Manufacturer: Wadsworth Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
General
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| Business & Investing
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ASIN: 0534214053 |
Book Description
This classic adventure story -- first published in
1902 -- gains new life in a blockbuster motion picture epic
from Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films and remains
a timeless novel of love, honor, and courage.
A Soldier's Shame...
It is 1882 and British officer Harry Feversham has it all: a loving fiancée, the camaraderie of fellow soldiers, a bright future in a nation at the height of its imperial power. But before he is deployed to battle in Africa, he resigns -- and receives white feathers, symbols of cowardice, from three friends...and then a fourth from his fiancée.
A Love Lost...
Ethne Eustace has pushed Harry out of her life, but not out of her mind. Still, when another suitor comes calling she makes a decision that could destroy Harry...and alter her life forever.
A Heroic Redemption...
His world in tatters, Harry goes undercover in Africa to win back the respect of his comrades. From the bustling markets of Cairo to the sizzling sands of Omdurman prison, he fights with everything he has to bring honor back to his name...and Ethne back to his heart.
Download Description
This classic adventure story - first published in 1902 - gains new life in a blockbuster motion picture epic from Paramount Pictures and Miramax Films and remains a timeless novel of love, honor, and courage. A Soldier's Shame... It is 1882 and British officer Harry Feversham has it all: a loving fiancée, the camaraderie of fellow soldiers, a bright future in a nation at the height of its imperial power. But before he is deployed to battle in Africa, he resigns - and receives white feathers, symbols of cowardice, from three friends...and then a fourth from his fiancée. A Love Lost... Ethne Eustace has pushed Harry out of her life, but not out of her mind. Still, when another suitor comes calling she makes a decision that could destroy Harry...and alter her life forever. A Heroic Redemption... His world in tatters, Harry goes undercover in Africa to win back the respect of his comrades. From the bustling markets of Cairo to the sizzling sands of Omdurman prison, he fights with everything he has to bring honor back to his name...and Ethne back to his heart.
Customer Reviews:
Great old time story.......2007-07-27
This is a classic story about honor and personal courage. I like to be reminded of how important these aspects were to people in the 19th century. It is a good story.
In this case, the movie is better........2006-01-28
"The Four Feathers" is a book I've been meaning to read ever since I saw the 2002 movie. I expected there to be differences from the book and movie, but nothing of this magnitude. I enjoyed the movie, so I thought I'd enjoy the book. Instead, I found the movie to be much more compelling than the book, which, in comparison, was a sappy soap opera. The book - I felt - focused more on Durrance's blindness and Ethne's self-imposed obligation to him. I at times completely forgot about Harry Feversham and what he was trying to accomplish. I felt the book's summary was very misleading; I felt the movie took the more interesting aspects of the book and expounded upon them. Even when you discard any thought of the movie, and you try to rate the book itself, it falls short. In the movie, I knew why Harry did what he did. While reading this book, I was still left wondering why. If I look at it as a romance novel, then it was well written. If I look at it as a war-type novel, then it totally missed the mark. I "sorta" recommend.
Great character detail, poor military action..........2005-12-09
The four feathers is a tale of the meaning of Victorian virtues of heroism. The tale takes on a very Clausewitzian stance on the difference between physical courage, shown in Durrance, and moral courage, shown in Harry Feversham. Harry is disgraced for he refused to face combat in Sudan in the late 1880's. He is sent white feathers by his comrades and given one by his to be fiancé, Ethne. He then takes a path of redemption to regain honour in the eyes of his friends and woman. Overall, this novel is an excellent show of the difference between moral and physical courage, and with deep psychological development in the characters.
This novel is one of the most intriguing character development novels, perhaps even rivaling Heart of Darkness. The characters of Harry, Durrance, and Ethne are all so engaging and enticing that you cannot but help to get engrossed within this novel. Yet that is where the engagement ends. The front cover of this novel is indeed very deceptive. The work is predominately, as one reviewer already noted, a psychological and emotional journey. This book is not an action war novel in the likes of Cornwell, Clancy, Smith, O'Brian, Forrester, and other military writers. The reader used to these kinds of action-packed works with a great balance between character development (Sharpe and Harper, or Aubrey and Dr. Maturin being the most famous character pairs)and historical military action will find this novel sorely lacking. The novel retains a hint of allusion to action such as breaking of squares and night-actions and the like, yet the reader seeking a vivid mental imagery finds the material lacking in description. The descriptions of POW life and the House of stone were haunting, yet seem misplaced within a Victorian war novel. The action (or allusion to it, as is predominately the case) in the novel is sorely to further the admittedly outstanding character development of Harry, Durrance, Sutch, Ethne, and other distinguished characters.
Overall an excellent character development story, yet to those looking for action and a historical analysis of actual battles and fighting, look to the aforementioned authors instead.
A Classic Tale of Love, Honour and Redemption.......2005-12-04
I found this book to be a classic tale of honour and redemption, dealing with love and perceived cowardness. This book is about a young man, Harry Ferversham, who is brought up in an old military family, thinks he is a coward and is about to be married to a girl who's father disproves of the military. As a result, he decides to quite the military. The trouble comes when he finds out that his unit is about to be shipped off to war, just before he quits, but he decides to quite anyways. Three of his friends in his military unit send him white feathers of cowardness, and when his fiancée finds out, she breaks off her engagement, and gives him a fourth feather.
Harry, with his life in tatters decides to go and attempts to do heroic acts for his friends, in the hope that if they redeem their feathers, his fiancée, Ethne Eustace, will withdraw hers.
Meanwhile, Jack Durrance, one of Harry's other friends, finds out that Harry and Ethne's relationship has been broken off, but not why it was broken off. He tries to court Ethne, as he was in love with her before, but she has now decided that she made a mistake with sending Harry away, and doesn't love Jack. Before she can tell him this, Jack gets blinded, and she decides to pretend to love him so that she can care for him.
Interestingly, this story is told, after the feathers have been given, primarily from the viewpoints of Ethne and Jack, which allow the reader to find out what's happening only as those characters do, and it also allows us to see Jack and Ethne's thoughts towards each event as they slowly piece together what is and has happened with Harry.
A warning note is, like many of my fellow reviewers have stated, there is very little action in the book, unlike in the movie adaptations, as many of the events are just mentioned as a backdrop. But, this is not a bad thing, as this story does not need any major action scenes, and they would probably hurt this story, which is more of personal struggles, of love and honour, than battles.
This story has some 19th Century ideals, such as colonialism, and the fact that there is only one non-white character in the book, who, while he plays a fairly major supporting role, is not that well developed, nor is he a very strong character. Despite all of this, I really enjoyed its tale of honour and redemption, and if this book is taken as a product of it's time, it is really quite amazing. The book also gives the reader a great view of upper-class English life in this time period.
The Four Feathers.......2005-12-01
The Four Feathers by A.E.W. Mason is a riveting tale that relates the natural human need for redemption through a story that realistically depicts the complex interrelationships between love, friendships, trust, and courage.
Harry Feversham, a young man who finds himself born into a historic family of proud British military men, wants nothing more than to be free of such a heritage. Whereas his forefathers fought and died with great courage, Harry is petrified of risking his life for his country and mentally labels himself a coward. Nevertheless, he has little choice but to follow in his father's footsteps.
When Harry's regiment is finally summoned to go to war in the Sudan, Harry's fear of his own cowardice overcomes his fear of his father, and he accordingly resigns his commission. Once three of Harry's closest companions uncover the reason for his decision to resign, they decide to each send him a single white feather to signify his cowardice.
What ensues is a story of Harry's heroic attempts at redemption, not only from his friends and from his father, but also from the girl of Harry's dreams, who, being present at the time Harry receives the feathers, adds her own to the original three.
Throughout the exciting events and plot twists of The Four Feathers, Mason presents to readers a reality of human emotions and impulses which cannot draw comparison. The characters of The Four Feathers explore the complexities of humanity, loyalty, friendships, love, courage, and justice in such a fashion that each reader can relate to in his or her own individual way, making each turning of the page even more personal and captivating than the last. The three most primary characters of The Four Feathers, Harry, Ethne Eustace, and Jack Durrance, become involved in a triangle of love, loyalty, and misleading each other about how each feels about the other two in order to try and preserve these traits.
Mason's novel, The Four Feathers, is highly recommended for all those seeking an exciting romantic adventure to capture their attention for hours on end. There is no question that Mason's work is one of the masterpieces of twentieth century literature.
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The Four Feathers
A E W Mason
Manufacturer: Thomas Nelson & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000M87XOG |
Average customer rating:
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The Four Feathers
E. W. A. Mason
Manufacturer: IndyPublish
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 1428049215 |
Average customer rating:
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Four Feathers
A E W Mason
Manufacturer: JOHN MURRAY (ENGLAND)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000VVWP3S |
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