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Theoretical Systems in Biology: Hierarchical and Functional Integration : 3-Volume Set
Manufacturer: Elsevier
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Binding: Hardcover
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ASIN: 008041995X |
Book Description
Hardbound. The extraordinary development of all branches of biology together with the recent breakthroughs in computer science undoubtedly explain the renewed interest in the theoretical aspects of biology. In each book in this three volume set, the author has concentrated on the mathematical methodology likely to lead to a general formalization of current physiological knowledge. It is hoped that this approach should, within the conceptual framework presented, reveal the relationships that exist between neighbouring domains of the natural world. Indeed one of the essential objectives of Theoretical Systems in Biology is precisely the search for possible relationships between the various biological disciplines. This three volume set is a translation, with extensive revisions and updates, of the French edition entitled Traité de physiologie théorique. The work has an interdisciplinary approach, covering all aspects of classi
Book Description
Islands have always been fascinating places, their separateness evoking a sense of mystery and inspiring a yearning for exploration. California's islands are unique evolutionary laboratories, places where plants and animals have grown and interacted in isolation for millions of years. This comprehensive book discusses both the human and the natural history of the islands of California, including all eight Channel Islands, Año Nuevo, the Farallons, and the islands of San Francisco Bay. It is also useful as a field guide for visitors, and details on reaching the islands are contained in the first chapter.
The authors explore the formation of the islands; discuss the history of human habitation, beginning with the Native Americans who first visited the islands 12,000 years ago; and provide a thorough introduction to the marine and terrestrial biotas of the islands. The authors also discuss past damage and ongoing threats to island ecosystems, including devastation caused by the introduction of non-native animals and plants. Large herbivorous animals in particular have caused considerable damage, since island plants evolved in the absence of herbivores and therefore have no defenses against them.
At present all of California's islands are managed by conservancies and public agencies such as the National Park Service and State Park system, and various environmental organizations are working with them to return the islands to their original condition.
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- So Much More than a book on the Sutter Buttes
- One beautifully written natural history book
- A Natural History with Passion
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Inland Island: The Sutter Buttes
Walt Anderson
Manufacturer: Natural Selection
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
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ASIN: 096107227X |
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As a mountain range, the Sutter Buttes of California stands apart, an island of upland in the great sea of lowland flanked by the Sierra Nevada and the Coast Ranges. Its softly rounded hills and angular pinnacles are cloaked in grasses, shrubs, and trees in patterns that reflect nature's design, not man's. Naturalist Walt Anderson provides an insiders view of this special mountain, telling stories with both insight and humor. The rocks, plants, animals, and the ecosystems they collectively form are given personal faces through Walts insights and unabashed humor. Humans are also a part of the natural history of this place, and their roles, from prehistoric to modern, are discussed.
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So Much More than a book on the Sutter Buttes.......2005-06-04
As a Professional Biologist I approached Walt Anderson's book with a critical eye to accuracy and detail. As a natural history student I approached his book with a curiosity about the Sutter Buttes, a place I have not yet visited (but now plan to).
In both instances I was thoroughly satisfied and excited by what I found. Clearly, Walt Anderson is a gifted writer and teacher. His subtle use of wit makes the reading most enjoyable. I felt as though the author and I might be standing on a hillside in the Buttes while he offered his observations, filtered through is obvious joy of knowing this special place.
His ability to introduce the natural history novice to advanced concepts and terms, while maintaining a sophistacted and scholarly treatment of the subject that will satisfy even the most critical naturalist, reflects his talent as a writer and teacher. In fact, I am now using his book as a resource for a book I am presently working on about another special place. Thanks Walt for the deep research and reporting.
Sure, this book is filled with fascinating facts about the Sutter Buttes, from its geological formation through minutia about the life histories of wild residents of the Buttes, but the book is much more than a dry treatise on the natural history of the Sutter Buttes. Rather, it is a journey through this special place in the natural world with a most talented guide. Don't miss this most complete and enjoyable tour from the perspective of one who truly knows this place.
One beautifully written natural history book.......2005-05-10
Jean Campbell's review of "Inland Island: The Sutter Buttes" is right on. This is an incredibly beautiful natural history book, both in its design and its text, and the drawings and color photographs are also marvelous!
Even the forwards (by David Cavagnaro and Craig Childs) are wonderful and informative.
I think this book will become the most-read natural history of The Buttes, but it is also in large part a natural history of much of northern California. I recommend it highly to all naturalists and environmentalists....it's a gem....
A Natural History with Passion.......2005-01-19
Inland Island: The Sutter Buttes is one of the best natural histories that I have seen for going beyond mere descriptions of parts (flora, fauna, and geography) and imparting a true sense of place. Without question, a sense of place requires a detailed description of all the parts for these are its building blocks. Walt Anderson catalogues these parts for the Sutter Buttes as well as can be found in any number of monographs of local natural histories. However, the parts are just the parts and its not until we become aware of their interactions through stories of living actions that a sense of how everything comes together to give a place its character begins to emerge. Here, Walt Anderson excels in giving us several stories such as Red Tail Hawks catching ground squirrels and Turkey Vultures pelting him with excrement as he lectures to a class. He does this with tongue-in-cheek humor and with the warm sentiment that conveys a deep and abiding passion for the whole of the place as well as for all its parts. I believe that a sense of place is primal in finding the deep satisfaction that can come from connecting with the natural world. Walt Anderson does this for us with uncommonly good writing and an obvious passion. His passion sets this book apart from others.
Book Description
Bakker's classic of ecological science now includes three new chapters on Southern California which make the book more useful than ever. Striking new photographs illustrate the diversity of life, climate, and geological formation.
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A personal guide to California.......2002-04-25
I did not know what to expect when I was assigned this book to read. Considering myself as someone with a scientific background, I did expect the book to be dry reading because of its subject. As is it turns out, I was pleased to be wrong about that expectation. The author seems to understand the various types of readers. She is enticing enough to keep the non-scientific reader's attention as well as including enough information to satisfy the needs of scientists. What I like about this book is that since I live in an area that borders various ecological communities, I have used this book as my own private, nature guide when I am exploring the beauty that is California.
Required Reading for Californians New and Old.......2002-04-22
As a naturalist often bored by nature writing, I am stunned by An Island Called California. I first read it two decades ago, and I've just rediscovered it. Bakker's survey of the ecosystems of this massive and diverse state is lyrical, lively, and full of ecological anecdotes. This is the minimum reading to learn what it is we mean when we say "California". Read it. Your eyes will be opened up. Your view of the state will never be the same. Wish I had the money to send a copy to each member of the California state house and senate.
Bakker sees diversity in California landscapes.......1999-07-14
I've nearly worn out my copy of this book which is a guide to nearly every kind of major natural environment to be found in the Golden State. Bakker describes -- in readable prose -- the animals and plants which make up California wildlands. Her subjects are sometimes as broad as the chaparral-covered hills and sometimes as narrow as a single Joshua Tree. She celebrates life in all its diversity. No reader or traveler to natural California should be without this book.
Book Description
Santa Catalina. If ever an island were created that could please everyone, this would be it. Avalon, calm and serene, is a haven for yachting enthusiasts and visitors alike. All in all, Catalina has something for everyone's taste.
Located less than 20 miles off the southern California coast, Santa Catalina welcomes visitors with a picturesque coastline, ample anchorages, clear water, great scuba diving, and fresh air.
Customer Reviews:
Great introduction to Catalina.......2003-08-01
This book gives a nice introduction to the natural history of Santa Catalina Island, just a mere 23 miles off the Southern California coast. It includes lots of great photos and also information on the geology and biology of the island, with a few historical tidbits to boot. If you're curious about Catalina, this will whet your appetite!
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: California&HI: California, Hawaii, and Midway Island (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
Loren Mac Arthur
Manufacturer: St. Martin's Griffin
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Alaska & the Pacific Northwest: Alaska, Oregon, Washington (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Southwest: Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: South Central (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Mid-Atlantic: Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, West Virginia (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
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Audubon Guide to the National Wildlife Refuges: Rocky Mountains: Idaho, Colorado, Montana, Utah, Wyoming (Audubon Guides to the National Wildlife Refuges)
ASIN: 0312206895 |
Amazon.com
The state of California, which comprises more ecosystems than most nations of the world, contains nearly three dozen national wildlife refuges, from the seal-dotted Farallon Islands to the sidewinder-friendly Coachella Valley National Wildlife Refuge in the heart of the Mojave Desert. Of these refuges, 19 are open to the public. Hawaii, which has suffered so much ecological devastation in the last century, has a vast complex of public and closed reserves taking in the tropical rainforest of Mauna Kea and far-flung, remote coral atolls. Naturalist Loren MacArthur guides his readers through these all-too-uncommon places, providing notes on the reserves' histories and rosters of inhabitants, from the rare Hawaiian duck to the abundant bald eagles of the Klamath Basin. Nature aficionados planning a journey to the Far West will want to have this eminently useful guidebook close at hand--and you could do far worse than to plan a vacation around the places about which MacArthur writes. --Gregory McNamee
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The California Islands: Proceedings of a multidisciplinary symposium
Dennis Power
Manufacturer: Santa Barbara Museum of Natural History
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding
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ASIN: 0936494018 |
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During the course of this century, gauge invariance has slowly emerged from being an incidental symmetry of electromagnetism to being a fundamental geometrical principle underlying the four known fundamental physical interactions. The development has been in two stages. In the first stage (1916-1956) the geometrical significance of gauge-invariance gradually came to be appreciated and the original abelian gauge-invariance of electromagnetism was generalized to non-abelian gauge invariance. In the second stage (1960-1975) it was found that, contrary to first appearances, the non-abelian gauge-theories provided exactly the framework that was needed to describe the nuclear interactions (both weak and strong) and thus provided a universal framework for describing all known fundamental interactions. In this work, Lochlainn O'Raifeartaigh describes the former phase.
O'Raifeartaigh first illustrates how gravitational theory and quantum mechanics played crucial roles in the reassessment of gauge theory as a geometric principle and as a framework for describing both electromagnetism and gravitation. He then describes how the abelian electromagnetic gauge-theory was generalized to its present non-abelian form. The development is illustrated by including a selection of relevant articles, many of them appearing here for the first time in English, notably by Weyl, Schrodinger, Klein, and London in the pre-war years, and by Pauli, Shaw, Yang-Mills, and Utiyama after the war. The articles illustrate that the reassessment of gauge-theory, due in a large measure to Weyl, constituted a major philosophical as well as technical advance.
Customer Reviews:
A Unique Book.......2007-04-25
If you're reading this, then you undoubtedly know all about the usual mathematical symmetries: translational, rotational, etc., and you also know that they are responsible for the conservation of momentum, energy, angular momentum, etc.
But maybe you've never heard of gauge symmetry, and how it accounts for the conservation of electric charge and, indeed, why Nature demands electrodynamics in the first place.
Well, this wonderful book explains how it all came about, from Weyl's brilliant but ill-fated 1918 theory to the modern gauge theories of Yang-Mills, Utiyama and beyond. Gauge symmetry is deceptively simple, but it's what lies behind the most profound idea of modern physics: that Nature is invariant under a local rescaling of scalar and spinorial wave functions. It's the real power behind quantum electrodynamics, the Higgs hypothesis, much of quantum field theory, and perhaps even gravitation. The real question: why does Nature place such emphasis on this kind of obvious, run-of-the-mill symmetry?
After reading O'Raifeartaigh's book, you'll be in a better position to appreciate the fact that, for whatever reason, Nature loves simplicity, and that simplicity is nothing less than beauty and truth.
A sorely needed book.......2002-07-29
Once thought of as merely a mathematical curiosity, the concept of gauge invariance now plays the dominant role in theoretical particle physics. Gauge invariance is not a really difficult concept in which to understand, but it does have some hidden subtleties that can seem rather obscure in the context of modern quantum field theories. The reader of this book will walk away with a deeper appreciation of the history of gauge invariance, due to the inclusion of original articles written by some of the early contributors to the theory. These contributions were attempts to generalize Einstein's theory of gravitation, and, just as in that theory, made use of concepts from differential geometry. Ideas from the mathematical theory of groups were also used, setting the stage for later developments in particle physics. One can only wonder of course what these individuals would have thought about modern theories of gravitation and particle interactions, making use of highly esoteric and complex mathematical constructions. Their thinking at the time was itself thought of as very exotic, but it pales in comparison with the level of abstraction that now permeates elementary particle physics in the language of superstring and M-theory.
The author has written additional papers on the history of gauge theory,which can easily be found via an online search, and this book could be considered an excellent introduction to them. He addresses more modern developments in gauge theories as they relate to the early history, such as superstring theory. Readers who study this book, will not only come away with a deeper appreciation of the underlying concepts in gauge theory, but will be prepared to appreciate in greater detail these modern developments, being as they are the best current hope for understanding the nonperturbative region in quantum field theories and string theories.
Thought provoking!.......2002-06-26
I picked this book up when it first came out and gave it a quick read. Now, five years later, having just read it again, I cannot believe that it was not as indelible in my mind then as it is now. A combination of original papers, peppered with O'Raifeartaigh's informed remarks and hindsight, produces an eligant book that follows a timeline that begins with the greatest minds in physics of the last century. The fits and starts of physicists such as London, Fock, Schrodinger, and Klein, though viewed as disparate attempts at the time, give way to an understanding of analogous formulations, and the suggestion of something powerful and underlying. This, of course, being gauge invariance, has equipped the modern physicist with tools that has produced the most striking conclusions: QED and electroweak theory to name a few. The way in which these notions arose, I suspect, is not common knowledge. Just as understanding a breakthrough may only require the reading of a few seminal papers by a few people, the foundation of a good theory often is the result of many people and many false starts. O'Raifeartaigh uses excellent judgement in what to include, and what not to, in his book. It does, incidentally, start with Kuluza-Klein, and run all the way though the 50's to Yang and Mills theory of isotopic spin and gauge invariance (conservation).
A knowledge of tensor analysis (the index (i.e., f_i,j) type), group theory, and differetial geometry is assumed. Topology would broaden the experience.
The papers speak for themselves.......1998-03-25
A powerhouse collection of papers in modern Physics! O'Raifeartaigh's introduction and commentary brings each paper's contribution into sharp focus (with benefit of hindsight, of course).
The papers by Weyl and Kaluza are startling in their simplicity and boldness. If you haven't read them yet, these two alone justify buying the book.
The book does assume familiarity with General Realitivity and tensor analysis. I would highly reccomend Lawden's "An Intoduction to Tensor Calculus, Relativity and Cosmology", or Misner's very complete "Gravitation".
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Bleak House Part 1 Of 2
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Books on Tape, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Audio Cassette
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ASIN: 073662127X |
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Part One Of Two Parts
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Bleak House: Parts 1 & 2 (Classic Books on Casettes Collection)
Charles Dickens
Manufacturer: Audio Book Contractors, Inc.
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ASIN: 1556857977 |
Books:
- Therapeutic Potential of Melatonin: 2nd Locarno Meeting on Neuroendocrinoimmunology, Locarno, May 5-8, 1996 (Frontiers of Hormone Research)
- Thinking About Biology: An Introductory Biology Laboratory Manual (2nd Edition)
- Ticks and Tick-Borne Pathogens
- Travertine
- Twin Towers: The Life of New York City's World Trade Center
- Validation of Exceptional Longevity (Odense Monographs on Population Aging Vol. 6)
- Venice Against the Sea: A City Besieged
- Why We Believe What We Believe: Uncovering Our Biological Need for Meaning, Spirituality, and Truth
- A Book of One's Own: Developing Literacy Through Making Books
- A Guidebook for Teaching Biology (Guidebook for Teaching Series)
Books Index
Books Home
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- Junie B., First Grader: Dumb Bunny
- Know Your Enemy
- How to Get Hung: A Practical Guide for Emerging Artists
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- The Acacias of South Africa
