Quest: The Essence of Humanity

Book Description

An intriguing work of history, philosophy, and popular science that explores the human desire to quest.

Scientists continually look for the genetic factors that make humans so very different in appearance and behaviour from most animals - the genes that are uniquely human. Respected biochemist and author Charles Pasternak argues that such genes do not exist. Instead, he suggests that it is our desire to quest - for food and shelter, for knowledge, for wealth, for adventure - coupled with our unique physical abilities to do so that have controlled our evolution and have led humans to develop away from closely related animals.

In this intriguing work of history, philosophy, and popular science, Pasternak uses his extensive biological knowledge to discuss man's nature and achievements, his genetic makeup, and his evolution.

Customer Reviews:

This is a great book!.......2006-09-08

I love this book - I'm almost finished with it. In every chapter, I've been highlighting things. For me, this was easily understandable, not being a scientist myself, although I work with them everyday.
The whole idea, to me, was fascinating - you can't stop the progress of "man", once our species had speech, a bigger brain, hands to grasp, and upright posture. Sometimes, progress is not good, but it cannot be stopped - man will always "quest" for something new.
I often think these things are bad - cloning - why do we need any more people in the world? But, our species will do it, nonetheless!

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Quest - the Essence of Humanity
Charles Pasternak
Manufacturer: WILEY JOHN
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000K7LZFC

Book Description

Quantum Kinetics in Transport and Optics of Semiconductors deals with the quantum kinetics for transport in low-dimensional microstructures and for ultrashort laser-pulse spectroscopy. The nonequilibrium Green function theory is described and used for the derivation of the quantum kinetic equations. Numerical methods for the solution of the retarded quantum kinetic equations are discussed and results are presented for quantum high-field transport and for mesoscopic transport phenomena. Quantum beats, polarization decay and non-Markovian behaviour are treated for femtosecond spectroscopy on a microscopic basis.

Customer Reviews:

A very useful book on Keldysh techniques.......1999-05-28

I recommend this book to anyone who wants an introduction to nonequilibrium Green function techniques. It is much more readible and up-to-date than Kadanoff and Baym's "Quantum Statistical Mechanics".

Thin-Film Deposition: Principles and Practice

Average customer rating:

Good book for a beginner in thin film deposition

Thin-Film Deposition: Principles and Practice
Donald L. Smith
Manufacturer: McGraw-Hill Professional
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0070585024

Book Description

Thin film deposition is a broad and burgeoning field, with applications ranging from razor blade coatings to quantum-well lasers. However, much of the available thin film literature is based on empirical knowledge, and focuses only on specific processes or applications. This volume rectifies that situation, offering a complete description od the theory and technology of thin film deposition. The book's broad perspective gives readers the tools to objectively evaluate and choose the appropriate thin film process for a specific application. This indispensable volume also includes a complete list of symbols and an extensive index.

Customer Reviews:

Good book for a beginner in thin film deposition.......2004-03-26

I recommend this book to anyone who is interested in process technologies that are used in chipmaking. The chapters are organized well and points are explained in a clear concise way. I am a chemistry major and this book helped me get started in my first job in a chipmaking company.

Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces

Average customer rating:

One of the best resources
Good book
Good Review, Poor Writing/Editing
An excellent text book for surface chemist
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Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces
Richard I. Masel
Manufacturer: Wiley-Interscience
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0471303925

Book Description

Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces

As with other books in the field, Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces describes what occurs when gases come in contact with various solid surfaces. But, unlike all the others, it also explains why. While the theory of surface reactions is still under active development, the approach Dr. Richard Masel takes in this book is to outline general principles derived from thermodynamics and reaction rate theory that can be applied to reactions on surfaces, and to indicate ways in which these principles may be applied. The book also provides a comprehensive treatment of the latest quantitative surface modeling techniques with numerous examples of their use in the fields of chemical engineering, physical chemistry, and materials science. A valuable working resource and an excellent graduate-level text, Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces provides readers with:
* A detailed look at the latest advances in understanding and quantifying reactions on surfaces
* In-depth reviews of all crucial background material
* 40 solved examples illustrating how the methods apply to catalysis, physical vapor deposition, chemical vapor deposition, electrochemistry, and more
* 340 problems and practice exercises
* Sample computer programs
* Universal plots of many key quantities
* Detailed, class-tested derivations to help clarify key results

The recent development of quantitative techniques for modeling surface reactions has led to a number of exciting breakthroughs in our understanding of what happens when gases come in contact with solid surfaces. While many books have appeared describing various experimental modeling techniques and the results obtained through their application, until now, there has been no single-volume reference devoted to the fundamental principles governing the processes observed.

The first book to focus on governing principles rather than experimental techniques or specific results, Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces provides students and professionals with a quantitative treatment of the application of principles derived from the fields of thermodynamics and reaction rate theory to the investigation of gas adsorption and reaction on solid surfaces. Writing for a broad-based audience including, among others, chemical engineers, chemists, and materials scientists, Dr. Richard I. Masel deftly balances basic background in areas such as statistical mechanics and kinetics with more advanced applications in specialized areas.

Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces was also designed to provide readers an opportunity to quickly familiarize themselves with all of the important quantitative surface modeling techniques now in use. To that end, the author has included all of the key equations involved as well as numerous real-world illustrations and solved examples that help to illustrate how the equations can be applied. He has also provided computer programs along with universal plots that make it easy for readers to apply results to their own problems with little computational effort.

Principles of Adsorption and Reaction on Solid Surfaces is a valuable working resource for chemical engineers, physical chemists, and materials scientists, and an excellent text for graduate students in those disciplines.

Customer Reviews:

One of the best resources.......2007-09-29

This book is great. it is ideal for classes in kinetics and adsorption. It was very helpful for my graduate level courses in kinetics and chemical reactions. It is also ideal for those doing research in solid state and adsorption phenomena as well as catalysis and surface chemistry

Good book.......2003-03-21

It's a textbook for a course I'm taking, and I find it a good enough book... Useful, if not the most exciting thing I've ever read ;)

Good Review, Poor Writing/Editing.......2002-07-12

This text goes over most of the key concepts of surface reactions, but the large number of typos make it hard to read.

An excellent text book for surface chemist.......1999-08-27

This is a very comprehensive book on surface chemistry. It explains basic concept and related experimental results very well. The only thing I don't like is that he spent too much on his own theory on chemisorption, which still needs experimental proof. Nevertherless, this is a must if you intend to do some reserch on surface catalytic reactions.

e.......1999-03-02

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Theory and Application of Quantum Molecular Dynamics

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Theory and Application of Quantum Molecular Dynamics
John Z. H. Zhang
Manufacturer: World Scientific Publishing Company
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 9810233884

Book Description

This book provides a detailed presentation of modern quantum theories for treating the reaction dynamics of small molecular systems. Its main focus is on the recent development of successful quantum dynamics theories and computational methods for studying the molecular reactive scattering process, with specific applications given in detail for a number of benchmark chemical reaction systems in the gas phase and the gas surface. In contrast to traditional books on collision in physics focusing on abstract theory for nonreactive scattering, this book deals with both the development and the application of the modern reactive or rearrangement scattering theory, and is written in a fashion in which the development of the reactive scattering theory is closely coupled with its computational aspects for practical applications for realistic molecular reactions. The volume includes such topics as methods for calculating rovibrational states of molecules, fundamental quantum theory for scattering (nonreactive and reactive), modern time-independent computational methods for reactive scattering, general time-dependent wave packet methods for reactive scattering, dynamics theory of chemical reactions, dynamics of molecular fragmentation, semiclassical description of quantum mechanics, and also some useful appendices.

Book Description

Much data has been collected from experiments on the kinetios of radical reactions in different solids, but to date, this has not been presented in book format in a thorough and comprehensive way. This book makes the experimental data accessible for all chemists involved in these reactions. Various models of the tunnel atom transfer are analyzed in order to explain the kinetic isotope effect in solid phase reactions and photoinitiated radical reactions are inspected for the kinetic non-equivalence of particles and factors affecting their reactivity. Topics covered include:
* kinetic description of reactions with dispersion particles in reactivity
* the influence of space-orientation factors on reactivity in cage reactions
* the influence of molecular dynamics on the kinetics of elementary reactions
* the effect of structural-physical modification on kinetics of cage radical reactions

Book Description

Bertram is not a believer in luck. An unambitious accountant, his plans for his second marriage are typically quiet: St. Luke’s then two weeks in Bournemouth. But he comes to the attention of Dreuther, the director of his company, who changes Bertram’s plans for him: wedding and honeymoon in Monte Carlo, on board his private yacht. Inevitably Bertram visits the casino, and loses. But then his system starts working, and his trouble really begins.

Customer Reviews:

Quick and Fun.......2005-06-06

This slight Graham Greene novel is really more of a long short story--I read virtually the entire thing on a two-hour flight to New York City. But Greene is still able to infuse his story and characters with the moral significance that infuses all of his work. What happens in this novel really seems to *matter* in a way that it wouldn't in the hands of another author. Greene was great at making the most innocuous of situations feel full of portent; it's as if the character's moral fate will be decide once and for all by whether or not they take that last trip to the gaming table, or have that last drink, or go through with that meaningless one-night stand. It's this quality of Greene's that make his "entertainments" so satifsying to literature lovers: they have all of the attributes of the most thrilling page-turner, but the reader doesn't have to feel like he needs to sacrifice a love for style and substance in order to enjoy it.

Not one of Greene's most profound works, but very entertaining.

"Human beings are capable of the most simple errors.".......2003-02-03

Bertram is a middle-aged accountant employed by a large firm when he comes to the attention of the company director, Dreuther. Bertram has a nice quiet, modest wedding planned followed by a honeymoon in Bournemouth--this is all that he and his fiance, Cary can afford, but when Druether hears of their plans, he offers to send them--at his expense--to Monte Carlo. The plan is that Bertram and Cary will marry in romantic Monte Carlo, and then board Dreuther's yacht for an extended honeymoon around the coast of Italy. Bertram pressured to provide a honeymoon that is the equivalent of the one endured in Paris with his first wife, "Dirty," accepts Druether's offer.

The plan goes horribly wrong when Dreuther fails to arrive in Monte Carlo as arranged. Bertram and Cary rapidly run out of money, and Bertram, with his fascination with numbers, develops a system for playing roulette. Their relationship and their love is tested--first by the poverty they are immediately reduced to, and then by Bertram's winning streak as his "system" at the roulette wheel begins to work. But as Bertram carts off big winnings from the table, he discovers he is about to lose something very, very precious.

This slight novel (just over 120 pages) fascinated me to the very last page. Greene analyses human nature using the seductiveness of money, and shows how the corrupting and insatiable hunger for money destroys love, faith, character, and prudence. The amoral Dreuther is one of the most fascinating literary characters I've discovered in recent years (he reminds me very much of a character from a Balzac novel), and his role in this novel is both chilling and sublime--displacedhuman

Clever Story.......2002-10-07

Obviously Graham Greene is a great storyteller. There's a lot of sarcasm in his writing, which I love. This is about a mediocre accountant, Bertram, marrying for the second time to a women much younger than himself. They are both stranded in Monte Carlo, and much to his new wife's chagrin, he becomes obsessed with a gambling system which starts to work for him. "Loser Takes All" has a good twist at the end. Actually, I was surprised by the end of this book, not only by what happened, but how the tone seemed to change completely. I fully expected something different.

Maybe the story itself didn't interest me all that much. I wouldn't say it was fantastic or anything. It was all right. Still, this was the first Graham Greene book I've read, and I'm sure it won't be the last.

A Clever Thought Experiment.......2002-06-15

Graham Greene's 1955 novella, "Loser Takes All," is a clever thought experiment in which love, morality, and ethics are all brought to bear on the early days of a married relationship. One of Greene's most appealing moves in the book is his delineation of character. The people who populate the novella are character types struggling to become characters - to find individuality and meaning in a world whose sole virtue seems to be money.

"Loser Takes All" begins in Monte Carlo. An English couple, Bertram, a fortyish accountant with a dead end career; and Cary, his twentyish fiance are on the verge of marriage - but they've been sidetracked. Initially planning on a small church service, Bertram is called into a meeting with his abstracted and unapproachable boss, Dreuther. Although Bertram isn't well-off, Dreuther talks him into moving his marriage plans to Monte Carlo, where Dreuther will rendezvous with them, and bring them back to England on his yacht. The action of the novella shows how this change of plans affects absolutely everything in Bertram and Cary's lives.

This is a short work, but it is packed with important and compelling themes. Greene was an absolute craftsman of language and situation, and the major themes that his longer works explore are found even in this short entertainment. Human relationships are central to the novella - the central relationship between Bertram and Cary is affected by Bertram's relationship with Dreuther, Dreuther's with 'another' of the firm's shareholders, Blixon. Greene asks how sympathies are constructed and maintained in good times and in bad.

Money and chance are also extremely important to the overarching theme of gambling and roulette. Characters like Bertram and character types like Phillippe and Bird's Nest illustrate the tensions in viewing life's progression as a matter of necessity or one of chance. Again, "Loser Takes All" is a short work, and is valuable as a kind of synopsis of the issues Greene's impressive literary corpus consistently engages with. The three star rating is because, in the context of Greene's body of work alone, "Loser Takes All" is a good piece, but not a great one.

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Graham Greene classics - 7 winners on one ticket

The Heart of the Matter ; Stamboul Train ; A Burnt-out Case ; The Third Man ; The Quiet American ; Loser Takes All ; The Power and the Glory
Graham Greene
Manufacturer: Heinemann/Octopus
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Greene, Graham | Classics | British | World Literature | Literature & Fiction | Subjects | Books
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The Human Factor (Everyman's Library)

ASIN: 0905712013

Customer Reviews:

Graham Greene classics - 7 winners on one ticket.......2007-04-22

Seven winners on one ticket - worth a gamble.

Library of Congress listing:

LC Control Number: 77378966
Type of Material: Book (Print, Microform, Electronic, etc.)
Personal Name: Greene, Graham, 1904-1991.
Uniform Title: Novels. Selections
Main Title: The heart of the matter ; Stamboul train ; A burnt-out case ; The third man ; The quiet American ; Loser takes all ; The power and the glory / Graham Greene.
Published/Created: London : Heinemann/Octopus, 1977.
Description: 856 p. ; 24 cm.
ISBN: 0905712013 :
CALL NUMBER: PZ3.G8319 He 1977 FT MEADE

Loser Take All (Harlequin Presents, No 896)

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Loser Take All (Harlequin Presents, No 896)
Rosemary Hammond
Manufacturer: harlequin
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Harlequin Presents | Series | Romance | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0373108966

Heirate nie in Monte Carlo [Loser Take All]

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Heirate nie in Monte Carlo [Loser Take All]
Graham Greene
Manufacturer: Rowohlt Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
ASIN: B000VI3J86

Product Description

German-language Translation.

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LOSER TAKE ALL
GRAHAM GREENE
Manufacturer: William Heinemann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

Average customer rating:

Loser Take All

Manufacturer: Contemporary Arts Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0804469911

Loser Take All - The Comic Art of Woody Allen

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Loser Take All - The Comic Art of Woody Allen
Maruice Yacowar
Manufacturer: Ungar
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000NJ2WW2

LOSER TAKE ALL : The Comic Art of Woody Allen [first print] 1st Ed.

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LOSER TAKE ALL : The Comic Art of Woody Allen [first print] 1st Ed.
Maurice [Woody Allen] YACOWAR
Manufacturer: Frederick Ungar Publishing
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000LL4KYA

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The meaning of Woody's movies.

Loser Take All: The Comic Art of Woody Allen
Maurice Yacowar
Manufacturer: Contemporary Arts Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0826405517

Customer Reviews:

The meaning of Woody's movies........2002-08-15

It might be a lot deeper than you think. Woody Allen is a fantastic artist and this book explores the artistic side of his movies. The meaning behind what you see on the screen and hear from the characters.

For example, do you think Allen's first film "Take the Money and Run" was just a silly spoof? Yacowar would have us believe differently. Right from the name of the main character, there is meaning. Quoting from the book: "The film pretends to be a documentary about the criminal hero, Virgil Starkwell (Allen). His Christian name evokes Allen's familiar associations with virginity and bookishness; his surname alludes to Charles Starkweather, a famous marauder of the later 1950s." And that's only the beginning, we learn that the movie is full meanings and messages that we may have never thought of.

That's what this book did for me and why I enjoyed it so much. It is very thought provoking. Of course, I kind of feel like Allen may have been answering this kind of examination of his movies in "Stardust Memories" when someone asks him, "What were trying to say in this picture?" Woody's answer, "I was just trying to be funny." You can decide for yourself.

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LOSER TAKES ALL

Manufacturer: Penguin Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: B000H3S854

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