Download or read book The Invention of Nature written by Andrea Wulf and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-10-04 with total page 586 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism. "Vivid and exciting.... Wulf’s pulsating account brings this dazzling figure back into a dazzling, much-deserved focus.” —The Boston Globe Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten. In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, The Invention of Nature reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism—and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.
Download or read book Inventing Niagara written by Ginger Strand and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2008-05-06 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Strand reveals the hidden history of America's most iconic natural wonder, Niagara Falls, illuminating what it says about our history, our relationship with the environment, and ourselves.
Download or read book The Keartons written by John Bevis and published by Uniformbooks. This book was released on 2016-05-17 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Biomimicry written by Janine M. Benyus and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-08-11 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Repackaged with a new afterword, this "valuable and entertaining" (New York Times Book Review) book explores how scientists are adapting nature's best ideas to solve tough 21st century problems. Biomimicry is rapidly transforming life on earth. Biomimics study nature's most successful ideas over the past 3.5 million years, and adapt them for human use. The results are revolutionizing how materials are invented and how we compute, heal ourselves, repair the environment, and feed the world. Janine Benyus takes readers into the lab and in the field with maverick thinkers as they: discover miracle drugs by watching what chimps eat when they're sick; learn how to create by watching spiders weave fibers; harness energy by examining how a leaf converts sunlight into fuel in trillionths of a second; and many more examples. Composed of stories of vision and invention, personalities and pipe dreams, Biomimicry is must reading for anyone interested in the shape of our future.
Download or read book Hedy s Folly written by Richard Rhodes and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2012-08-07 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Pulitzer Prize-winning author Richard Rhodes delivers a remarkable story of science history: how a ravishing film star and an avant-garde composer invented spread-spectrum radio, the technology that made wireless phones, GPS systems, and many other devices possible. Beginning at a Hollywood dinner table, Hedy's Folly tells a wild story of innovation that culminates in U.S. patent number 2,292,387 for a "secret communication system." Along the way Rhodes weaves together Hollywood’s golden era, the history of Vienna, 1920s Paris, weapons design, music, a tutorial on patent law and a brief treatise on transmission technology. Narrated with the rigor and charisma we've come to expect of Rhodes, it is a remarkable narrative adventure about spread-spectrum radio's genesis and unlikely amateur inventors collaborating to change the world.
Download or read book Inventing the Indigenous written by Alix Cooper and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2007-03-19 with total page 153 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Drawing on cultural, social, and environmental history, as well as the histories of science and medicine, this book shows how, amidst a growing reaction against exotic imports -- whether medieval spices like cinnamon or new American arrivals like chocolate and tobacco -- early modern Europeans began to take inventory of their own "indigenous" natural worlds.
Download or read book Nature as Muse written by Christoph Heinrich and published by . This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Featuring rarely seen paintings from the collection of Frederic C. Hamilton of Denver, supplemented by works from the Denver Art Museum, this book presents a broad-ranging history of Impressionist landscape--from the pioneering artists who painted in the forest of Fontainebleau and such paragons and teachers as Courbet, Corot, Daubigny, Boudin, and Manet through the central figures of Impressionism--Pissarro, Monet, Renoir, Sisley, and Morisot--and ultimately to Caillebotte, Cézanne, and van Gogh, whose works marked the start of a new era.
Download or read book The Invention of Nature written by Andrea Wulf and published by John Murray Press. This book was released on 2016 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE 2015 COSTA BIOGRAPHY AWARD WINNER OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY SCIENCE BOOK PRIZE 2016 'A thrilling adventure story' Bill Bryson 'Dazzling' Literary Review 'Brilliant' Sunday Express 'Extraordinary and gripping' New Scientist 'A superb biography' The Economist 'An exhilarating armchair voyage' GILES MILTON, Mail on Sunday Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is the great lost scientist - more things are named after him than anyone else. There are towns, rivers, mountain ranges, the ocean current that runs along the South American coast, there's a penguin, a giant squid - even the Mare Humboldtianum on the moon. His colourful adventures read like something out of a Boy's Own story: Humboldt explored deep into the rainforest, climbed the world's highest volcanoes and inspired princes and presidents, scientists and poets alike. Napoleon was jealous of him; Simon Bolívar's revolution was fuelled by his ideas; Darwin set sail on the Beagle because of Humboldt; and Jules Verne's Captain Nemo owned all his many books. He simply was, as one contemporary put it, 'the greatest man since the Deluge'. Taking us on a fantastic voyage in his footsteps - racing across anthrax-infected Russia or mapping tropical rivers alive with crocodiles - Andrea Wulf shows why his life and ideas remain so important today. Humboldt predicted human-induced climate change as early as 1800, and The Invention of Nature traces his ideas as they go on to revolutionize and shape science, conservation, nature writing, politics, art and the theory of evolution. He wanted to know and understand everything and his way of thinking was so far ahead of his time that it's only coming into its own now. Alexander von Humboldt really did invent the way we see nature.
Download or read book The Invention of Sustainability written by Paul Warde and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-12 with total page 421 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A groundbreaking study of how sustainability became a social and political problem, and how to think about it today.
Download or read book Inventing Nature written by Matthias Gross and published by . This book was released on 2003 with total page 240 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Theorists and practitioners in the burgeoning field of ecological restoration are departing from the ideal of passive, hands-off interaction with our environment in favor of active attempts to invent, design, or restore ecosystems. In Inventing Nature Matthias Gross argues--on the basis of his analysis of diverse restoration efforts in North America--that a new understanding of the relationship between human actors and nature is needed. No longer merely a laboratory for scientists, no longer sacred space to be left alone, in the context of ecological restoration physical surroundings must be understood as our partner and peer in the project of community-building. Inventing Nature offers a way past the social constructivist versus realist debate in the environmental social sciences that is both scholarly rigorous and practically engaged.
Download or read book The Invention of Nature written by Instaread and published by Instaread. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf | Summary & Analysis Preview: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a biography of Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian naturalist born in 1769. Humboldt had an older brother, Wilhelm. Their father died when they were young, and their mother was emotionally detached from her sons. Alexander and Wilhelm received exacting educations. Alexander became interested in exploration and science, but his mother pressured him to become a civil servant, so he attended a mining academy to become a mine inspector while conducting his own botanical research. He invented new tools for miners, published books on subterranean plants and rocks, and experimented with the effect of electricity on the nervous system. Wilhelm introduced Alexander von Humboldt to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the renowned author, and they formed a close friendship based on a mutual interest in the intersection of science and art. Humboldt gained an appreciation for aesthetic perspective from Goethe, and Goethe received the latest in scientific information from Humboldt… PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Invention of Nature: • Summary of book • Introduction to the Important People in the book • Analysis of the Themes and Author’s Style
Download or read book Inventing the World written by Meredith Small and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An epic cultural journey that reveals how Venetian ingenuity and inventions—from sunglasses and forks to bonds and currency—shaped modernity. How did a small, isolated city—with a population that never exceeded 100,000, even in its heyday—come to transform western civilization? Acclaimed anthropologist Meredith Small, the author of the groundbreaking Our Babies, Ourselves examines the the unique Venetian social structure that was key to their explosion of creativity and invention that ranged from the material to social. Whether it was boats or money, medicine or face cream, opera, semicolons, tiramisu or child-labor laws, these all originated in Venice and have shaped contemporary notions of institutions and conventions ever since. The foundation of how we now think about community, health care, money, consumerism, and globalization all sprung forth from the Laguna Veneta. But Venice is far from a historic relic or a life-sized museum. It is a living city that still embraces its innovative roots. As climate change effects sea-level rises, Venice is on the front lines of preserving its legacy and cultural history to inspire a new generation of innovators.
Download or read book Views of Nature written by Alexander von Humboldt and published by . This book was released on 1902 with total page 488 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Mimic Makers written by Kristen Nordstrom and published by Charlesbridge Publishing. This book was released on 2021-07-13 with total page 48 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Young readers will be captivated by the contemporary inventors and inventions featured, and inspired to incorporate biomimicry into their own designs.” —Miranda Paul, author of One Plastic Bag and Water is Water Who's the best teacher for scientists, engineers, AND designers? Mother nature, of course! When an inventor is inspired by nature for a new creation, they are practicing something called biomimicry. Meet ten real-life scientists, engineers, and designers who imitate plants and animals to create amazing new technology. An engineer shapes the nose of his train like a kingfisher's beak. A scientist models her solar cell on the mighty leaf. Discover how we copy nature's good ideas to solve real-world problems! WINNER AAAS/Subaru SB&F Prize for Excellence in Science Books A National Science Teacher Association Best STEM Book “Mimic Makers reveals marvels of engineering inspired by nature with images that invite careful observation and explanations that are expressive, but never over simplified.” —Kim Parfitt, AP Biology and Environmental Science teacher, curriculum developer for Howard Hughes Medical Institute Biointeractive, and recipient of the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science and Math Teaching. “Amazing! . . . Love that the book features the scientists and inventors, and that there is a diverse set of them. —Janine Benyus, co-founder of the Biomimicry Institute
Download or read book Inventing the Individual written by Larry Siedentop and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2014-10-20 with total page 443 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Here, in a grand narrative spanning 1,800 years of European history, a distinguished political philosopher firmly rejects Western liberalism’s usual account of itself: its emergence in opposition to religion in the early modern era. Larry Siedentop argues instead that liberal thought is, in its underlying assumptions, the offspring of the Church. “It is a magnificent work of intellectual, psychological, and spiritual history. It is hard to decide which is more remarkable: the breadth of learning displayed on almost every page, the infectious enthusiasm that suffuses the whole book, the riveting originality of the central argument, or the emotional power and force with which it is deployed.” —David Marquand, New Republic “Larry Siedentop has written a philosophical history in the spirit of Voltaire, Condorcet, Hegel, and Guizot...At a time when we on the left need to be stirred from our dogmatic slumbers, Inventing the Individual is a reminder of some core values that are pretty widely shared.” —James Miller, The Nation “In this learned, subtle, enjoyable and digestible work [Siedentop] has offered back to us a proper version of ourselves. He has explained us to ourselves...[A] magisterial, timeless yet timely work.” —Douglas Murray, The Spectator “Like the best books, Inventing the Individual both teaches you something new and makes you want to argue with it.” —Kenan Malik, The Independent
Download or read book Summary Analysis of the Invention of Nature written by Instaread and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2016-01-28 with total page 38 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: PLEASE NOTE: This is a summary and analysis of the book and NOT the original book. The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf | Summary & Analysis Preview: The Invention of Nature by Andrea Wulf is a biography of Alexander von Humboldt, a Prussian naturalist born in 1769. Humboldt had an older brother, Wilhelm. Their father died when they were young, and their mother was emotionally detached from her sons. Alexander and Wilhelm received exacting educations. Alexander became interested in exploration and science, but his mother pressured him to become a civil servant, so he attended a mining academy to become a mine inspector while conducting his own botanical research. He invented new tools for miners, published books on subterranean plants and rocks, and experimented with the effect of electricity on the nervous system. Wilhelm introduced Alexander von Humboldt to Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, the renowned author, and they formed a close friendship based on a mutual interest in the intersection of science and art. Humboldt gained an appreciation for aesthetic perspective from Goethe, and Goethe received the latest in scientific information from Humboldt... Inside this Instaread Summary & Analysis of The Invention of Nature: * Summary of book * Introduction to the Important People in the book * Analysis of the Themes and Author's Style About the Author With Instaread, you can get the summary and analysis of a book in 15 minutes. We read every chapter, summarize and analyze it for your convenience.
Download or read book Inventing Wine A New History of One of the World s Most Ancient Pleasures written by Paul Lukacs and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2013-10-21 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Meticulously researched history…look[s] at how wine and Western civilization grew up together." —Dave McIntyre, Washington Post Because science and technology have opened new avenues for vintners, our taste in wine has grown ever more diverse. Wine is now the subject of careful chemistry and global demand. Paul Lukacs recounts the journey of wine through history—how wine acquired its social cachet, how vintners discovered the twin importance of place and grape, and how a basic need evolved into a realm of choice.
