Download or read book The Sirens of Mars written by Sarah Stewart Johnson and published by Crown. This book was released on 2020-07-07 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Sarah Stewart Johnson interweaves her own coming-of-age story as a planetary scientist with a vivid history of the exploration of Mars in this celebration of human curiosity, passion, and perseverance.”—Alan Lightman, author of Einstein’s Dreams WINNER OF THE PHI BETA KAPPA AWARD FOR SCIENCE • NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY The New York Times Book Review • Times (UK) • Library Journal “Lovely . . . Johnson’s prose swirls with lyrical wonder, as varied and multihued as the apricot deserts, butterscotch skies and blue sunsets of Mars.”—Anthony Doerr, The New York Times Book Review Mars was once similar to Earth, but today there are no rivers, no lakes, no oceans. Coated in red dust, the terrain is bewilderingly empty. And yet multiple spacecraft are circling Mars, sweeping over Terra Sabaea, Syrtis Major, the dunes of Elysium, and Mare Sirenum—on the brink, perhaps, of a staggering find, one that would inspire humankind as much as any discovery in the history of modern science. In this beautifully observed, deeply personal book, Georgetown scientist Sarah Stewart Johnson tells the story of how she and other researchers have scoured Mars for signs of life, transforming the planet from a distant point of light into a world of its own. Johnson’s fascination with Mars began as a child in Kentucky, turning over rocks with her father and looking at planets in the night sky. She now conducts fieldwork in some of Earth’s most hostile environments, such as the Dry Valleys of Antarctica and the salt flats of Western Australia, developing methods for detecting life on other worlds. Here, with poetic precision, she interlaces her own personal journey—as a female scientist and a mother—with tales of other seekers, from Percival Lowell, who was convinced that a utopian society existed on Mars, to Audouin Dollfus, who tried to carry out astronomical observations from a stratospheric balloon. In the process, she shows how the story of Mars is also a story about Earth: This other world has been our mirror, our foil, a telltale reflection of our own anxieties and yearnings. Empathetic and evocative, The Sirens of Mars offers an unlikely natural history of a place where no human has ever set foot, while providing a vivid portrait of our quest to defy our isolation in the cosmos.

Download or read book If You Lived Here I d Know Your Name written by Heather Lende and published by Algonquin Books. This book was released on 2006-03-29 with total page 294 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Part Annie Dillard, part Anne Lamott, essayist and NPR commentator Heather Lende introduces readers to life in the town of Haines, Alaska . . . subtly reminding readers to embrace each day, each opportunity, each life that touches our own and to note the beauty of it all.” —The Los Angeles Times Tiny Haines, Alaska, is ninety miles north of Juneau, accessible mainly by water or air—and only when the weather is good. There's no traffic light and no mail delivery; people can vanish without a trace and funerals are a community affair. Heather Lende posts both the obituaries and the social column for her local newspaper. If anyone knows the going-on in this close-knit town—from births to weddings to funerals—she does. Whether contemplating the mysterious death of eccentric Speedy Joe, who wore nothing but a red union suit and a hat he never took off, not even for a haircut; researching the details of a one-legged lady gold miner's adventurous life; worrying about her son's first goat-hunting expedition; observing the awe-inspiring Chilkat Bald Eagle Festival; or ice skating in the shadow of glacier-studded mountains, Lende's warmhearted style brings us inside her small-town life. We meet her husband, Chip, who owns the local lumber yard; their five children; and a colorful assortment of quirky friends and neighbors, including aging hippies, salty fishermen, native Tlingit Indians, and volunteer undertakers—as well as the moose, eagles, sea lions, and bears with whom they share this wild and perilous land. Like Bailey White's tales of Southern life or Garrison Keillor's reports from the Midwest, NPR commentator Heather Lende's take on her offbeat Alaskan hometown celebrates life in a dangerous and breathtakingly beautiful place. Heather Lende's new book, Of Bears and Ballots: An Alaskan Adventure in Small-Town Politics is available now.

Download or read book AASL Standards Framework for Learners 10 Pack written by American Association of School Librarians and published by STA - Standards ALA ALA Editions AASL. This book was released on 2017-10-10 with total page 8 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An advocacy brochure on library standards to be sold in packs of 12 for school librarians to hand out to teacher, principals, administrators. Content comes from AASL Standards publication.

Download or read book The Rock from the Sky written by Jon Klassen and published by Candlewick Press. This book was released on 2021-04-13 with total page 96 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Look up! From the Caldecott Medal–winning creator of the hat trilogy comes a new deadpan gem. There is a spot. It is a good spot. It is the perfect spot to stand. There is no reason to ever leave. But somewhere above there is also a rock. A rock from the sky. Here comes The Rock from the Sky, a hilarious meditation on the workings of friendship, fate, shared futuristic visions, and that funny feeling you get that there’s something off somewhere, but you just can’t put your finger on it. Merging broad visual suspense with wry wit, celebrated picture book creator Jon Klassen gives us a wholly original comedy for the ages.

Download or read book Hanukkah in Alaska written by Barbara Brown and published by Henry Holt and Company (BYR). This book was released on 2013-10-22 with total page 36 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An Alaska family celebrates Hanukkah with a stubborn moose in their backyard and the Northern Lights as the best-ever menorah. Hanukkah in Alaska is unlike anywhere else. Snow piles up over the windows. Daylight is only five hours long. And one girl finds a moose camped out in her backyard, right near her favorite blue swing. She tries everything to lure it away: apples, carrots, even cookies. But it just keeps eating more tree! It's not until the last night of Hanukkah that a familiar Jewish holiday tradition provides the perfect—and surprising—solution.

Download or read book Travel and Adventure in the Territory of Alaska written by Frederick Whymper and published by . This book was released on 1869 with total page 366 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book On the Trail of the Jackalope written by Michael P. Branch and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2022-03-01 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The never-before-told story of the horned rabbit—the myths, the hoaxes, and the entirely real scientific breakthroughs it has inspired—and how it became a cultural touchstone of the American West. Just what is a jackalope? Purported to be part jackrabbit and part antelope, the jackalope began as a local joke concocted by two young brothers in a small Wyoming town during the Great Depression. Their creation quickly spread around the U.S., where it now regularly appears as innumerable forms of kitsch—wall mounts, postcards, keychains, coffee mugs, shot glasses, and so on. A vast body of folk narratives has carried the jackalope’s fame around the world to inspire art, music, film, even erotica! Although the jackalope is an invention of the imagination, it is nevertheless connected to actual horned rabbits, which exist in nature and have for centuries been collected and studied by naturalists. Around the time the two young boys were creating the first jackalope in Wyoming, Dr. Richard Shope was making his first breakthrough about the cause of the horns: a virus. When the virus that causes rabbits to grow “horns” (a keratinous carcinoma) was first genetically sequenced in 1984, oncologists were able to use that genetic information to make remarkable, field-changing advances in the development of anti-viral cancer therapies. The most important of these is the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine, which protects against cervical and other cancers. Today, jackalopes are literally helping us cure cancer. For fans of David Quammen’s The Song of the Dodo, Jon Mooallem’s Wild Ones, or Jeff Meldrum's Sasquatch, Michael P. Branch's remarkable On the Trail of the Jackalope is an entertaining and enlightening road trip through the heart of America.

Download or read book Bibliographic Formats and Standards written by OCLC. and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Describes the manual, Bibliographic Formats and Standards, 2nd. ed., a revised guide to machine-readable cataloging records in the WorldCat. Describes conventions. Describes and provides an example of input standards tables. Addresses revisions of the manual as well as ordering and distribution. Includes acknowledgements. Provides a link to the table of contents.

Download or read book The Climate of Alaska written by Martha Shulski and published by University of Alaska Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 226 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Examines the climate of Alaska and its diversity through narrative and maps, tables, and charts. Focuses on climatological features such as temperature, humidity, precipitation, and atmospheric pressure.--(Source of description unspecified.)

Download or read book Alaska and Its Resources written by William Healey Dall and published by . This book was released on 1870 with total page 716 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Alaska s Brooks Range written by John M. Kauffmann and published by The Mountaineers Books. This book was released on 1992 with total page 196 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A richly drawn, in-depth profile of one of the world's last unspoiled wildernesses.

Download or read book In Pursuit of Alaska written by Jean Morgan Meaux and published by University of Washington Press. This book was released on 2013-07-15 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This collection of Alaskan adventures begins with a newspaper article written by John Muir during his first visit to Alaska in 1879, when the sole U.S. government representative in all the territory's 586,412 square miles was a lone customs official in Sitka. It closes with accounts of the gold rush and the 1909 Alaska-Yukon-Pacific Exposition in Seattle. Jean Meaux has gathered a superb collection of articles and stories that captivated American readers when they were first published and that will continue to entertain us today. The authors range from Charles Hallock (the founder of Forest and Stream, a precursor of Field and Stream) to New York society woman Mary Hitchcock, who traveled with china, silver, and a 2,800 square foot tent. After explorer Henry Allen wore out his boots, he marched barefoot as he continued mapping the Tanana River, and Episcopal Archdeacon Hudson Stuck mushed by dog sled in Arctic winters across a territory encompassing 250,000 miles of the northern interior. Although the United States acquired Alaska in 1867, it took more than a decade for American writers and explorers to focus attention on a territory so removed from their ordinary lives. These writers-adventurers, tourists, and gold seekers-would help define the nation's perception of Alaska and would contribute to an image of the state that persists today. This collection unearths early writings that offer a broad view of American encounters with Alaska accompanied by Meaux's lively and concise introductions. The present-day adventurer will find much to inspire exploration, while students of the American West can gain new access to this valuable trove of pre-Gold Rush Alaska archives. For more information go to: http://www.inpursuitofalaska.com

Download or read book Here is Alaska written by Evelyn Stefansson Nef and published by New York : C. Scribner's Sons. This book was released on 1943 with total page 184 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An introduction to the history, natives, geography, cities, and modern problems of the largest state.

Download or read book Exploring and Mapping Alaska written by Alekseĭ Vladimirovich Postnikov and published by University of Alaska Press. This book was released on 2015-06-15 with total page 545 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Russia first encountered Alaska in 1741 as part of the most ambitious and expensive expedition of the entire 18th century. During the next 126 years the struggle to develop and refine geographic knowledge of the vast region comprising northeastern Asia, the North Pacific, and Alaska met with many obstacles, including inclement weather, the chain of supply over great distances, the need to train expert navigators and cartographers, and false leads due to spurious voyage accounts. For much of this era, critical geographic knowledge was kept as a state secret in Russia and not shared, even with the very navigators and cartographers who were developing much needed maps and navigational aids. Despite this, a rich cartographic heritage developed to be carried forward into the American era. The traditional Russian cartographic methods were applied to new discoveries in Siberia and beyond. Early fur traders and explorers utilized this system which for a time co-existed with the new cartographic methodology utilized in Europe and adopted for use by the Russia of Peter the Great. It became an age of scientific exploration. Great Britain, France, Spain, but especially Russia, sent expeditions. An increasingly complete knowledge of the coasts of North America, with forays into the interior, emerged. Postnikov describes the explorations and richly illustrates how the resulting maps evolved and contributed to the world’s knowledge of one of the last great regions of the world to be explored.

Download or read book Small Libraries in Alaska written by Alaska State Library and published by . This book was released on 1977 with total page 72 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Alaska is a Library written by Nancy Lesh and published by . This book was released on 1984 with total page 192 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Updated and expanded information given at the Alaska Library Association in Sitka, March 5-7, 1984, which focussed on the Alaska Library Network and its components, with special emphasis on collection development and resource sharing through networking.

Download or read book Living on Thin Ice written by Steven C. Dinero and published by Berghahn Books. This book was released on 2016 with total page 201 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Chapter 7 - The Youth Are the Future -- Chapter 8 - We Don't Know Where We Are Anymore -- Postscript -- Bibliography -- Index