Justus von Liebig: The Chemical Gatekeeper (Cambridge Science Biographies)

Book Description

One of the founding fathers of organic chemistry and also a great teacher, Liebig (1803-73) enjoyed a close relationship with Britain, whose scientific education, medical practice and agriculture he transformed. Brock's fresh interpretation of Liebig's stormy career shows how he moved chemistry into the socio-political marketplace, demonstrating chemistry's significance for society in food production, nutrition and public health. Through popular lectures and his readable Chemical Letters, Liebig also commented on issues such as scientific methodology and materialism. This is the first English-language biography of Liebig since 1901.

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Justus von Liebig's Chemistry.......2000-06-24

Baron Justus von Liebig was one of the most important chemists of the nineteenth century. He was, for instance, one of the founders of organic chemistry and largely responsible for the increasingly important study of biochemistry and bacteriology. His early work on agricultural chemistry revolutionized both British and American agriculture. His work on animal chemistry, combined with his agricultural work, to establish an influential theory of disease. William Brock's book is an admirably clear, understandable, and interesting study of von Liebig's life and career. His chapters are arranged topically, "Liebig and the Doctors," for instance. This makes reading on particular topics much easier than it would otherwise be. His footnotes and bibliography are well presented, thorough, and do not clutter up the text. Those interested in either the history of science or the cross-cultural influences between Germany and Victorian Britain will find this study both informative and very interesting, even if they are not scientists themselves.

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"One of the most original and illuminating of books on human evolution." — Alison Jolly Princeton University

Human Evolution from Eden to Extinction?

"A major achievement . . . rich and bursting at the seams." — Elspeth Huxley

"A deeply personal, challenging, and important book." — Roger Lewin The New Scientist

"With the eyes of an artist and the mind of a scientist, Kingdon gazes into the past." — Times Literary Supplement

"A provocative and lively saga of human origins." — Publishers Weekly

"Thought-provoking, information-packed fare for general readers as well as paleoanthropology buffs. — Kirkus Reviews

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Techno-man terminates terrestrials.......2004-11-12

Once characterised as the "tool-making" ape, human beings have shown an astounding propensity for technology. We unconsciously deal with technology every day, thinking we know its definition. We communicate instantly, pay debts electronically, and even post book reviews that millions can read. Jonathan Kingdon takes a deeper view of "technology". He considers it differently, suggesting "stones", "spears" and "fire" are more meaningful in our heritage than is electronics. It has, he contends, allowed our species to spread across the globe into every habitable niche. It also allows us to engage in a level of destructiveness unmatched by any other creature. The evolutionary roots of this behaviour are thoughtfully explained and rendered in this excellent study.

According to Kingdon, our use of technology helped drive our own evolution in ways Darwin never envisioned. The use of spears helped spur our exodus out of Africa in search of new food prey. Walking upright made the task increasingly easy. Shattered stones, shaped for precise use, became food processors - devices no leopard had at its disposal. Our prominent canine teeth, no longer needed, were reduced in size. Fire, that fearsome affair on savannah or woodland, was tamed to provide foods more easily and effectively digested. Our stomachs declined in size while the added proteins enhanced our brain. Fire also likely shaped our early social arrangements, bringing together the foundations of the kind of groups we're familiar with today.

Physical attributes responded to changes in habitat, diet and environment. The human face, drastically changed from its earlier primate visage. The human skull, once thickly ridged in our precursors, developed thinner bones, allowing changes in eye movement, extended our nose even as the capacity to detect smells declined. Our noses are more likely the result of needing to take in more air while moving or respiring in hot climates. Less chewing of food reduced the need for heavy jaw muscles, giving the brow more flexibility. Our expanding brains thus found room to grow. You can watch the process with every newborn child. Food - its finding, gathering and processing - is the pivot for much of our development.

Kingdon shows how the quest for food led to our emigration along traceable paths - riverine valleys, forested shorelines and wooded [but not forested] areas. The route of migration out of Africa followed a "Southern Route" along Arabia, India and into Southeast Asia. The recent find of Homo floresienses shows how diverse that movement could make us. We learned to follow animal tracks to water where prey resided, which also improved our bipedal capability. Extended range became increasingly the norm, but while it was once to our advantage, in today's world it foreshadows disaster.

The earliest indication what the future would bring was the Australia-Pacific region. It's only become known in recent years that the Island Continent was once home to many species of large fauna. Three-metre tall kangaroos, huge wombat-like browsers and killer birds once roamed Australia. Within a few millennia these all disappeared - shortly after our relatives crossed there from Asia. Similar extinctions occurred in the Western Hemisphere with similar timing. Over three-quarters of large mammals disappeared after humans entered North and South America. "Contrary to the sentimental image of a life in harmony with nature", Kingdon says, humans exploited fully whatever resources they encountered.

Old, genetically ingrained habits, he reminds us, die hard. We are still approaching our surroundings as if there was plenty to go around. If we deplete it, we retain the notion that there's somewhere else to go. And, having filled the planet, it's clear there's nowhere else to go. Kingdon discounts the optimists who think the "Green Revolution" is a solution to our rising population's food needs. He cites Japan, a nation struggling for self-sufficiency in rice by applying the best technology available, has likely "reached the limits of what rice can produce". Clearly, he urges, it is time to understand our past and seek more realistic strategies for the future. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

Unusual but plausible ideas on origins of human biodiversity.......1998-10-09

Jonathan Kingdon is an English biologist who was born and raised in Kenya. He is an expert on East African animals, including that most fearsome of African-born predators, man. Here he examines human evolution, especially the relatively recent diversification of our species into countless ethnic groups. How did the major races originate? And what role did tool-making play in our evolution? Kingdon is inspired by a deep love of human variability, as his lovely pencil drawings of the people he has encountered around the world make clear. Everybody talks about "celebrating diversity" these days, but in practice that usually means the opposite: trying to prevent anybody from noticing the kaleidoscopic biodiversity of the human race. Kingdon dissents from this anti-knowlege, anti-human dogma.

One of his most interesting speculations is that modern black Africans (as opposed to the older, lighter-skinned aboriginal pygmies and bushmen) actually originated outside Africa. He believes that modern humans first originated in Africa, then spread throughout the Old World. These were probably brown rather than black in color, because most people don't need the extreme degree of sun resistance that black skin provides -- only mad dogs and Englishmen go out in the midday sun. Everybody else has enough sense to take a siesta when the sun is high. However, one lifestyle would require tremendous sun-resistance: beachcombing. Collecting clams, fish, and other water's edge life requires being out in the sun whenever low tide occurs. Kingdon hypothesizes that around the Indian Ocean a race of beachcombers became adapted via natural selection to the sun, then returned to conquer Africa and drive the native pygmies, bushmen, and hottentots into the margins of Africa. In support, he cites the odd fact that small remant populations of very black African-looking people are found here and there many thousands of miles to the east of Africa: e.g., the "negritoes" of the Maldive Islands (south of Calcutta), Malaysia, and the Phillipines, as well as the larger blacks of Melanesia in the Pacific. There is little archaeological evidence to support this theory, but that would not be surprising since ocean levels are much higher today than during the Ice Ages. Hopefully, the Human Genome Diversity Project lead by Cavalli-Sforza will produce definitive evidence pro or con on this ingenious but currently far-from-proven notion.

Steve Sailer

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Self-Made Man Human Evolution from Eden to Extinction?
Kingdon, Jonathan
Manufacturer: John Wiley & Sons
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K7JC2K

Product Description

Relativistic quantum electrodynamics, which describes the electromagnetic interactions of electrons and atomic nuclei, provides the basis for modeling the electronic structure of atoms, molecules and solids and of their interactions with photons and other projectiles. The theory underlying the widely used GRASP relativistic atomic structure program, the DARC electron-atom scattering code and the new BERTHA relativistic molecular structure program is presented in depth, together with computational aspects relevant to practical calculations. Along with an understanding of the physics and mathematics, the reader will gain some idea of how to use these programs to predict energy levels, ionization energies, electron affinities, transition probabilities, hyperfine effects and other properties of atoms and molecules.

Book Description

If a heavy particle ion (atom, molecule, muon) collides with another in the gas phase at speeds approaching the speed of light, the time-dependent Dirac equation equation must be used for its description, including quantum electro-dynamic, special relativity and magnetic coupling effects.
In this book we study one electron in the variety of rearrangement collisions: radiative and non-radiative capture, ionization, capture by pair (one electron, one positron) production and antihydrogen production. Our relativistic continuum distorted-wave theory accounts extremely well for the simultaneous behaviour of the electron with respect to the nuclear charges of the projectile and the target.
This is the first book developed in this subject. Containing many diagrams and tables, and fully referenced, it goes beyond chapters in previous books. The relativistic continuum distorted-wave theory developed by the authors group, is shown to be fully Hermitean. Detailed mathematics are provided in nine appendices.

Atomic and Molecular Collision Theory (Nato Advanced Study Institutes Series, .Series B, Physics, V. 71)

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Atomic and Molecular Collision Theory (Nato Advanced Study Institutes Series, .Series B, Physics, V. 71)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Collision Theory for Atoms and Molecules (NATO Science Series: B:)

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Collision Theory for Atoms and Molecules (NATO Science Series: B:)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Electron-Molecule Collisions (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)

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Electron-Molecule Collisions (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)

Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Introduction to the Theory of Collisions of Electrons with Atoms and Molecules (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)

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Introduction to the Theory of Collisions of Electrons with Atoms and Molecules (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)
S.P. Khare
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0306472414

Book Description

An understanding of the collisions between micro particles is of great importance for the number of fields belonging to physics, chemistry, astrophysics, biophysics etc. The present book, a theory for electron-atom and molecule collisions is developed using non-relativistic quantum mechanics in a systematic and lucid manner.
The scattering theory is an essential part of the quantum mechanics course of all universities. During the last 30 years, the author has lectured on the topics presented in this book (collisions physics, photon-atom collisions, electron-atom and electron-molecule collisions, "electron-photon delayed coincidence technique", etc.) at many institutions including Wayne State University, Detroit, MI, The University of Western Ontario, Canada, and The Meerut University, India. The present book is the outcome of those lectures and is written to serve as a textbook for post-graduate and pre-PhD students and as a reference book for researchers.

Photons and Continuum States of Atoms and Molecules: Proceedings of a Workshop Cortona, Italy, June 16-20, 1986 (Springer Proceedings in Physics)

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Photons and Continuum States of Atoms and Molecules: Proceedings of a Workshop Cortona, Italy, June 16-20, 1986 (Springer Proceedings in Physics)
N. K. Rahman , and C. Guidotti
Manufacturer: Springer-Verlag
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Polarization and Correlation Phenomena in Atomic Collisions: A Practical Theory Course (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)

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Polarization and Correlation Phenomena in Atomic Collisions: A Practical Theory Course (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)
Vsevolod V. Balashov , Alexei N. Grum-Grzhimailo , and Nikolai M. Kabachnik
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0306462664

Book Description

Polarization and Correlation Phenomena in Atomic Collisions: A Practical Theory Course bridges the gap between traditional courses in quantum mechanics and practical investigations. The authors' goal is to guide students in training their ability to perform theoretical calculations of polarization and correlation characteristics of various processes in atomic collisions.
The book provides a concise description of the density matrix and statistical tensor formalism and presents a general approach to the description of angular correlation and polarization phenomena. It illustrates an application of the angular momentum technique to a broad variety of atomic processes.
The book contains derivations of the most important expressions for observable quantities in electron-atom and ion-atom scattering, including that for polarized beams and/or polarized targets, in photo-induced processes, autoionization and cascades of atomic transitions.
Spin-polarization and angular distributions of the reaction products are described, including the angular correlations in different types of coincidence measurements. The considered processes exemplify the general approach and the number of examples can be easily extended by a reader. The book supplies researchers, both theoreticians and experimentalists with a collection of helpful formulae and tables, and can serve as a reference book.
Based on a highly regarded course at Moscow State University and elsewhere, the book provides real guidance on theoretical calculations of practical use.

Theory of Electron-Atom Collisions: Part One: Potential Scattering (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)

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Theory of Electron-Atom Collisions: Part One: Potential Scattering (Physics of Atoms and Molecules)
Philip G. Burke , and Charles J. Joachain
Manufacturer: Springer
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Book Description

The authors aim to hone the theory of electron-atom and electron-ion collisions by developing mathematical equations and comparing their results to the wealth of recent experimental data. This first of three parts focuses on potential scattering, and will serve as an introduction to many of the concepts covered in Parts II and III. As these processes occur in so many of the physical sciences, researchers in astrophysics, atmospheric physics, plasma physics, and laser physics will all benefit from the monograph.

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Humor we can all relate to

Easy and very funny read

FUNNY and TOUCHING: A MOST ENJOYABLE READ!

Desperate House Dad
Scott Tenkman
Manufacturer: Wings ePress
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 159705884X

Product Description

Desperate House Dad a hilarious, feel-good story about a familys decision to have the father stay at home to care for the children. It also touches upon the social stigma attached to being a stay-at-home dad, as well as the moms difficult emotions in having to miss out on being a stay-at-home mom. The journey begins with a day care incident that pushes the young family into the tough decision of having one of the parents stay at home to raise their children. For financial reasons, the father is the one who decides to stay at home, thus beginning the tough transition from working on his career to caring for their children. It then delves into the reaction from family and friends since there is still a social stigma attached to being a stay-at-home dad. It then follows the family through the day-to-day grind of watching one child, their decision to have another, the birth of their second child, caring for two children, and the difficulty of going back into the workplace after nine years of staying at home. It also adds slide splitting humor into the decision of buying a mini-van, joining a stay-at-home dads club, taking a child to church , visiting the pediatrician, getting the kids pictures taken, and having a vasectomy. I am sure that, after having read Desperate House Dad, readers will have laughed, cried, and related to all the experiences shared in raising children.

Customer Reviews:

Humor we can all relate to.......2007-08-07

I thought this book was well written. The author does a good job presenting humorous situations we can all relate to. Not being an avid book reader, I was able to easily read this book, laughing along the way. I recommend this book to any Dad that is active in their childs lives, and the wives that are married to them.

Easy and very funny read.......2007-06-22

The Desperate House Dad is the funniest book I've ever read. From the incident in the drug store to the neighborhood party, in addition to many other hilarious and embarassing moment's, its definitely a two thumbs up book! For those of you that are single and think this book is just for couples with kids you are wrong, buy it, it'll be the best money you ever spent on a good time, you will definitley laugh out loud, LOL!

FUNNY and TOUCHING: A MOST ENJOYABLE READ!.......2007-06-03

DESPERATE HOUSE DAD reads like real life, but is actually fictional. It's a story about a man, Paul Logan, who decides to be a stay-at-home dad, while his wife, Jenny, continues to work and support their family. Through diaper changing, boredom, lack of adult company, doctor visits, and constant ribbing from the male species for being the primary care giver, Paul trudges on to welcome another child. At times, Paul's patience is stretched to the limit. But the unforgettable moments, such as when his youngest son takes his first steps, are what make the entire stay-at-home dad experience worthwhile and satisfying for him. The book is sometimes over the top and quite frankly, one of the funniest books I've ever read. For those brave men out there who have chosen the path of the stay-at-home dad, this is a must read. For those brave women who have trusted their husbands to stay at home with their children, this is a must read, too.

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Desperate House Dad

Desperate House Dad
Scott Tenkman
Manufacturer: Lulu Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 1411626303

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Desperate House Dad.......2005-05-23

This book is laugh outloud funny. It is the story of the adventures and misadventures of a guy with courage to put the well being of his kids before his own career. Every parent should read this book but it's an absolute MUST READ for anyone who has ever been a stay at home parent. This is the best kind of parenting book -- one written by someone who has actually done it.

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