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The Crucible Of Creation
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Book Synopsis The Crucible of Creation by : Simon Conway Morris
Download or read book The Crucible of Creation written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press. This book was released on 1998 with total page 286 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paleontologist Simon Conway Morris provides a guided tour of the world's richest treasure trove of fossils--a fantastically rich deposit of bizarre and bewildering Cambrain fossils, located in Western Canada. 4 plates. 90 linecuts.
Book Synopsis Life's Solution by : Simon Conway Morris
Download or read book Life's Solution written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2003-09-04 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The assassin's bullet misses, the Archduke's carriage moves forward, and a catastrophic war is avoided. So too with the history of life. Re-run the tape of life, as Stephen J. Gould claimed, and the outcome must be entirely different: an alien world, without humans and maybe not even intelligence. The history of life is littered with accidents: any twist or turn may lead to a completely different world. Now this view is being challenged. Simon Conway Morris explores the evidence demonstrating life's almost eerie ability to navigate to a single solution, repeatedly. Eyes, brains, tools, even culture: all are very much on the cards. So if these are all evolutionary inevitabilities, where are our counterparts across the galaxy? The tape of life can only run on a suitable planet, and it seems that such Earth-like planets may be much rarer than hoped. Inevitable humans, yes, but in a lonely Universe.
Book Synopsis The Nation's Crucible by : Peter J. Kastor
Download or read book The Nation's Crucible written by Peter J. Kastor and published by Yale University Press. This book was released on 2008-10-01 with total page 325 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1803 the United States purchased Louisiana from France. This seemingly simple acquisition brought with it an enormous new territory as well as the country’s first large population of nonnaturalized Americans—Native Americans, African Americans, and Francophone residents. What would become of those people dominated national affairs in the years that followed. This book chronicles that contentious period from 1803 to 1821, years during which people proposed numerous visions of the future for Louisiana and the United States. The Louisiana Purchase proved to be the crucible of American nationhood, Peter Kastor argues. The incorporation of Louisiana was among the most important tasks for a generation of federal policymakers. It also transformed the way people defined what it meant to be an American.
Book Synopsis Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History by : Stephen Jay Gould
Download or read book Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History written by Stephen Jay Gould and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 1990-09-17 with total page 350 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."—James Gleick, New York Times Book Review High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.
Book Synopsis Fossils of the Burgess Shale by : Simon Conway Morris
Download or read book Fossils of the Burgess Shale written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Natural Resources Canada. This book was released on 1985 with total page 35 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This publication, designed for the public, describes the discovery of the Burgess shale, recent work on its formation, and the flora and fauna found in it. The major animal groups are described and illustrated. The scientific significance of the shale is explained.
Download or read book Nonzero written by Robert Wright and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2001-04-20 with total page 529 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied the principles of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind. Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining the direction of evolution and human history–and discerning where history will lead us next. In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, ever since the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern. Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex by mastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright's narrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, from stone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering such surprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the useful stability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moral significance–a way of looking at our biological and cultural evolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality has improved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning may itself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, witty, profound, Nonzero offers breathtaking implications for what we believe and how we adapt to technology's ongoing transformation of the world.
Book Synopsis The Rise of Animals by : Mikhail A. Fedonkin
Download or read book The Rise of Animals written by Mikhail A. Fedonkin and published by JHU Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 352 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An essential resource for paleontologists, biologists, geologists, and teachers, The Rise of Animals is the best single reference on one of earth's most significant events.
Book Synopsis I Have Landed by : Stephen Jay Gould
Download or read book I Have Landed written by Stephen Jay Gould and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2011-10 with total page 431 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Gould’s final essay collection is based on his remarkable series for Natural History magazine—exactly 300 consecutive essays, with never a month missed, published from 1974 to 2001. Both an intellectually thrilling journey into the nature of scientific discovery and the most personal book he ever published.
Book Synopsis The Fossils of the Burgess Shale by : D. E. G. Briggs
Download or read book The Fossils of the Burgess Shale written by D. E. G. Briggs and published by . This book was released on 1994 with total page 258 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Since its discovery in 1909 by Charles Doolittle Walcott, then Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, the Burgess Shale in the Canadian Rocky Mountains has fascinated both scientists and the public with its plethora of weird wonders - life forms of the past so unfamiliar they cannot easily be assigned to known taxonomic groups. This century's most significant invertebrate fossil discovery, the Burgess Shale provides an unprecedented window into the explosive evolution during the Cambrian period that began about 540 million years ago, one of the most enigmatic episodes in the history of life. This book provides the first comprehensive set of illustrations of the extraordinary life forms revealed in the Burgess Shale. In addition to the more common fossilized hard skeletons, the Burgess Shale preserved the soft parts of these organisms, which provide a key to understanding the early evolution of the major groups of animals that inhabit the earth today. The Fossils of the Burgess Shale shows much remarkable detail - including digestive tracts and other internal organs - of creatures preserved in particles of mud fine enough to penetrate every crack and unevenness. The book begins with the history of exploration and research in the Burgess Shale, the geologic setting and preservation of the fossils, and a discussion of the Cambrian radiation, the period when almost all the major phyla of animals evolved. These introductory chapters are followed by 199 high-quality photographs and line drawings with detailed species accounts that describe important features of each specimen, as well as the ecology and taxonomy of each group. A complete list of all currently accepted species described from the Burgess Shale and a comprehensive bibliography follow the illustrations. The Fossil of the Burgess Shale is a compendium of fascinating Cambrian treasures that offer a rare glimpse into the nature of early life on our planet. They have figured prominently in recent evolutionary debates. The National Museum of Natural History, which houses more than 65,000 fossils collected by Walcott from the Burgess Shale, will open a new exhibition of the specimens in 1995.
Book Synopsis Now My Eyes Have Seen You by : Robert Fyall
Download or read book Now My Eyes Have Seen You written by Robert Fyall and published by InterVarsity Press. This book was released on 2002-07-15 with total page 209 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: For Robert Fyall, the mystery of God's ways and the appalling evil and suffering in the world are at the heart of Job's significant contribution to the canon of Scripture. This New Studies in Biblical Theology volume offers a holistic reading of Job, with particular reference to its depiction of creation and evil, and finds significant clues to its meaning in the striking imagery it uses.
Book Synopsis The Runes of Evolution by : Simon Conway Morris
Download or read book The Runes of Evolution written by Simon Conway Morris and published by Templeton Foundation Press. This book was released on 2015-06-30 with total page 525 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did human beings acquire imaginations that can conjure up untrue possibilities? How did the Universe become self-aware? In The Runes of Evolution, Simon Conway Morris revitalizes the study of evolution from the perspective of convergence, providing us with compelling new evidence to support the mounting scientific view that the history of life is far more predictable than once thought. A leading evolutionary biologist at the University of Cambridge, Conway Morris came into international prominence for his work on the Cambrian explosion (especially fossils of the Burgess Shale) and evolutionary convergence, which is the process whereby organisms not closely related (not monophyletic), independently evolve similar traits as a result of having to adapt to similar environments or ecological niches. In The Runes of Evolution, he illustrates how the ubiquity of convergence hints at an underlying framework whereby many outcomes, not least brains and intelligence, are virtually guaranteed on any Earth-like planet. Conway Morris also emphasizes how much of the complexity of advanced biological systems is inherent in microbial forms. By casting a wider net, The Runes of Evolution explores many neglected evolutionary questions. Some are remarkably general. Why, for example, are convergences such as parasitism, carnivory, and nitrogen fixation in plants concentrated in particular taxonomic hot spots? Why do certain groups have a particular propensity to evolve toward particular states? Some questions lead to unexpected evolutionary insights: If bees sleep (as they do), do they dream? Why is that insect copulating with an orchid? Why have sponges evolved a system of fiber optics? What do mantis shrimps and submarines have in common? If dinosaurs had not gone extinct what would have happened next? Will a saber-toothed cat ever re-evolve? Cona Morris observes: “Even amongst the mammals, let alone the entire tree of life, humans represent one minute twig of a vast (and largely fossilized) arborescence. Every living species is a linear descendant of an immense string of now-vanished ancestors, but evolution itself is the very reverse of linear. Rather it is endlessly exploratory, probing the vast spaces of biological hyperspace. Indeed this book is a celebration of how our world is (and was) populated by a riot of forms, a coruscating tapestry of life.” The Runes of Evolution is the most definitive synthesis of evolutionary convergence to be published to date.
Book Synopsis The Creation of the World and Other Business by : Arthur Miller
Download or read book The Creation of the World and Other Business written by Arthur Miller and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2015-12-01 with total page 98 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A master dramatist’s humorous retelling of the biblical creation story as a parable for our time Breathing new life into timeless biblical tales, Arthur Miller charmingly reimagines the Book of Genesis from the temptation of Adam and Eve to the fraternal tragedy of Cain and Abel. In the beginning, God, generally satisfied with his creation, is nonetheless perplexed by Adam and Eve—why won’t they multiply? It takes wily Lucifer to interest them in anything more than playing handball in the Garden of Eden, but their new knowledge comes at a price. The first family is exiled from paradise—just as Lucifer is banned from heaven—and a fallen, morally ambiguous state becomes the destiny of humankind. Though The Creation of the World and Other Business was Arthur Miller’s first Broadway comedy, it is full of the searching insight and sparkling dialogue that distinguish his best dramas.
Book Synopsis Colonial Crucible by : Alfred W. McCoy
Download or read book Colonial Crucible written by Alfred W. McCoy and published by Univ of Wisconsin Press. This book was released on 2009-05-15 with total page 706 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At the end of the nineteenth century the United States swiftly occupied a string of small islands dotting the Caribbean and Western Pacific, from Puerto Rico and Cuba to Hawaii and the Philippines. Colonial Crucible: Empire in the Making of the Modern American State reveals how this experiment in direct territorial rule subtly but profoundly shaped U.S. policy and practice—both abroad and, crucially, at home. Edited by Alfred W. McCoy and Francisco A. Scarano, the essays in this volume show how the challenge of ruling such far-flung territories strained the U.S. state to its limits, creating both the need and the opportunity for bold social experiments not yet possible within the United States itself. Plunging Washington’s rudimentary bureaucracy into the white heat of nationalist revolution and imperial rivalry, colonialism was a crucible of change in American statecraft. From an expansion of the federal government to the creation of agile public-private networks for more effective global governance, U.S. empire produced far-reaching innovations. Moving well beyond theory, this volume takes the next step, adding a fine-grained, empirical texture to the study of U.S. imperialism by analyzing its specific consequences. Across a broad range of institutions—policing and prisons, education, race relations, public health, law, the military, and environmental management—this formative experience left a lasting institutional imprint. With each essay distilling years, sometimes decades, of scholarship into a concise argument, Colonial Crucible reveals the roots of a legacy evident, most recently, in Washington’s misadventures in the Middle East.
Book Synopsis Darwin's Lost World by : Martin Brasier
Download or read book Darwin's Lost World written by Martin Brasier and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2010-03-11 with total page 357 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Darwin made a powerful argument for evolution in the Origin of Species, based on all the evidence available to him. But a few things puzzled him. One was how inheritance works - he did not know about genes. This book concerns another of Darwin's Dilemmas, and the efforts of modern palaeontologists to solve it. What puzzled Darwin is that the most very ancient rocks, before the Cambrian, seemed to be barren, when he would expect them to be teeming with life. Darwin speculated that this was probably because the fossils had not been found yet. Decades of work by modern palaeontologists have indeed brought us amazing fossils from far beyond the Cambrian, from the depths of the Precambrian, so life was certainly around. Yet the fossils are enigmatic, and something does seem to happen around the Cambrian to speed up evolution drastically and produce many of the early forms of animals we know today. In this book, Martin Brasier, a leading palaeontologist working on early life, takes us into the deep, dark ages of the Precambrian to explore Darwin's Lost World. Decoding the evidence in these ancient rocks, piecing together the puzzle of what happened over 540 million years ago to drive what is known as the Cambrian Explosion, is very difficult. The world was vastly different then from the one we know now, and we are in terrain with few familiar landmarks. Brasier is a master storyteller, and combines the account of what we now know of the strange creatures of these ancient times with engaging and amusing anecdotes from his expeditions to Siberia, Outer Mongolia, Barbuda, and other places, giving a vivid impression of the people, places, and challenges involved in such work. He ends by presenting his own take on the Cambrian Explosion, based on the picture emerging from this very active field of research. A vital clue involves worms - burrowing worms are one of the key signs of the start of the Cambrian. This is fitting: Darwin was inordinately fond of worms.
Download or read book The Finest Creation written by Jean Rabe and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2005-09 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They were the Finest Creations - mystically forged creatures of perfection sent by the creators to aid the Fallen (mankind) during their mortal existence. Though they resemble ordinary horses they are highly intelligent, capable of communicating telepathically and completely moral. They are assigned to bond with individuals of great potential and then protect them from harm while guiding them along a path of virtue. This is as it has been for years unto creation ... but when a young Finest is separated from its mentor before it has been invested with its assignment, the result of an ambush by evil forces bent on corrupting men, the young equine accepts the charge of two orphans to its care not realizing that man's potential may rest in their future.... And that the path forward is already being diverted by an evil mastermind whose manipulation of court politics and affairs of state might instigate a new dark age upon the light of civilization.
Book Synopsis Fire in the Crucible by : John Briggs
Download or read book Fire in the Crucible written by John Briggs and published by St Martins Press. This book was released on 1988 with total page 382 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the quality that sets geniuses apart from other people, examines their methods of work, and shares examples from the lives of creative individuals
Download or read book Born to Fly written by Margaret Silf and published by Augsburg Books. This book was released on 2020-04-28 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sometimes, it can feel as though we are living in the worst of times--a world of chaos, uncertainty, and breakdown. But could this also be the best of times--a crucible of change in which a wiser and more spiritually mature future is being forged? The stars are most clearly visible in the deepest darkness. The butterfly emerges out of the worst meltdown of the chrysalis. In Born to Fly, Margaret Silf helps us to explore what it would mean for each of us to be such an emerging butterfly--to be an agent of spiritual transformation in our own lives and in the world around us. What kind of future do we desire for ourselves, for those who follow after us, and for the whole of creation? And, if the choices we make today are shaping that future, how might we learn to make those choices more wisely? The second part of the book takes us on a gentle journey in five stages through the process of transformation mapped out for us by the caterpillar as it changes from a pesky garden grub, taking what it wants without regard for the rest of creation, to a butterfly, giving life wherever it lands. Born to Fly is designed to be read for personal reflection and inspiration, or alongside fellow readers, with suggestions for further discussion. It is a companion book to Margaret Silf's Hidden Wings.
