Reviews (2)

Great book--I don't drive anywhere in Colorado without it.
This is a very handy book. It's arranged by road name and by stretch of road--if you find yourself on, say, I-70 westbound from Denver, go to the table of contents and you'll quickly find something like "I-70, Denver to Dillon Reservoir." Go to that section and you'll find a small map, geological diagrams, and probably a photograph. There's also an introductory chapter that gives an overview of Colorado geology and geological history, as well as very clear explanations of geological terms.

Driving on Colorado highways you see some pretty amazing rock formations, and visitors to the state are always asking about them. This book will tell them (and you) anything you might want to know, and explain it clearly. I keep my copy in the car, and consult it often.

Very useful handbook for those interested in landscapes
I like to travel throughout Colorado and have found this book to be very useful in understanding the form and geologic history of the landscape I am travelling through. The book is well illustrated and detailed enough to be useful, at least for the person with a non-professional interest in geology. My major regret is that it is not available on CD or tape so that it could be more efficiently used with only one person in the car! ... Read more

Book Description

Logical, analytical approach to the solution of groundwater and seepage problems and to understanding the design and analysis of earth structures that impound water. Coverage of previously unavailable Russian work, appendixes of concepts in advanced engineering mathematics, numerous worked-out and solved examples with over 200 problems of varying difficulty. Preface. List of Symbols. Appendixes.
... Read more

Reviews (1)

Classic book. Great civil engineering view of groundwater
Required reading, if a bit dated, on groundater and seepage -- giving the engineer's perspective on groundwater. A different point of view, different definitions, and a bunch of practical solutions that geohydrologists might not be aware of. Recommended. ... Read more

Reviews (15)

From La Canada, CA
This is the book for anyone interested in Meteorites, Meteoritics, History of Meteoritics, and hunting for and identifying Meteorites. Richard Norton has written a very readable book which does not require a scientific background to fully understand the subjects. The Parts of the book are: "Falls, Finds and Craters", "What is a Meteorite?", "Meteorite Hunters", and "Origins". Each part can be read separately and stands alone. I started reading with the section about the pioneer meteorite hunter H.H. Nininger to whom Meteoritics owes so much. When in doubt as to the meaning of a scientific term, Mr. Norton has helpfully attached a Glossary. If you want to verify, test, or etch a meteorite, turn to the Appendices for instructions. For more written sources on Meteoritics, see the book's "References" section. Dorothy Norton has illustrated beautifully in a manner which is most helpful for understanding the text. The book, in addition to being a delight to read, (once I started reading I could not put it down), does a real service to the advancement of Meteoritics.

Why Not Find The Time To Look For Meteorites?
Here's the book you'll need to take along, as meteorites are much easier to find when you know their characteristics and the places where they stand out from other rocks. I've held onto my own copy of Rocks From Space for some time, although I have not gone out hunting for meteorites yet, because this is the book that entices me to make time for it. There are a lot of good quality photographs printed here on slick magazine paper, and some are in color. The book is what it's supposed to be, but if I was going to improve it for someone planning to pack it for a hike across the Utah salt flats, I would suggest that the next edition be on a lighter weight paper. This guide fills you in on the famous meteors (In the sky) and meteorites (Striking the earth) which fell in earth's recorded history. These are great fun to learn about, as there's nothing like a surprise from outer space to brighten up everyone's day. And while meteorites can even impress us as being pretty weird in the modern era, wait until you read about the one that fell in Alsace, France in 1492. It drew so much curiosity and awe that even King Maximilian of Germany came to see it. Many people took souvenir pieces from it over the centuries, but its last 122 pounds are protected by being in a local museum. Another fall Norton records came in 1992, when a car belonging to a young lady was struck. Excited collectors soon made generous offers for both the car and the meteorite. Not too long ago an old meteorite from Mars was sliced open to reveal what many scientists suspect is evidence of past life on that planet. The possibility was considered strong enough that it prompted President Clinton to go on national television to announce it; so if you use this book, you may even help confirm one of the greatest mysteries of all time.

A fine basic review of a little known field
My primary interest in the area of meteoritics is impact strucures. This book offers a fair discussion of that field, but is primarily concerned with meteorites and those who hunt, collect, and sell them. In these respects, Norton's presentation is unparalleled. The book is an easy, enjoyable read and may be perused by persons with no background in meteoritics. The biographical sketches of Ninenger and Haag alone give unique worth to the book.
The only real reservation keeping this book from a five star rating is its Apprndix C, listing suspected impact craters. Several of the listed items appear nowhere else in the impact literature I have reviewed and the listed size of many features varies from other calculations. But, then, I should do so good.

Second Edition Worth Buying
Those readers who bought the original First Edition might wish to know whether they should invest in the Second Edition. The answer is Yes. The Second Edition is sufficiently updated to warrant purchase, and includes discussion on new topics that have become important since the 1993/1994 writing of the First Edition. Additions include expanded discussion of the Shoemaker-Levy impact on Jupiter, discussion on the disputed finding of bacteria fossils in Mars meteorites, and discussion on the Mars Pathfinder mission. Here and there, clarifications and expansions on the First Edition's text bring the reader up to date.

Great Book
I thought the book was very good for someone like myself with a beginners interest in meteorites. There is a great deal of information, where meteorites come from, what they are made of, how they have gotten here. It did a geat job of peaking my interest in meteorites, I am planning a field tiip shortly and have ordered other books on the subject. So I would say the book did it's job of creating an interest on the subject of meteorites. I only gave it a four because I expected more from the section on meteorite hunters. ... Read more

Book Description

Thousands of people die every year from floods, volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, hurricanes and typhoons.Yet compared to what the Earth endured in prehistoric times-lethal volcanic winters, deadly asteroid collisions-our civilization has developed against a backdrop of relative geological calm. Will this calm last? A Brief Guide to the End of the World looks at the frightful prospects that await us in the 21st century and beyond.Bill McGuire, a leading expert in the field of geological hazards, admits that the omens are less than encouraging. Only 10,000 years after the last Ice Age, the Earth is sweltering in some of the highest temperatures it has ever seen.Overpopulation and the relentless exploitation of natural resources, combined with rising temperatures and sea levels induced by greenhouse gases, are increasing the likelihood of natural catastrophes, from continuing El Ninos, to large-scale glacial melting, to mega-tsunami. Even more disturbing is the near certainty that we are headed towardanother asteroid or comet collision on the scale of the one that wiped out the dinosaurs. In this provocative and immensely readable guidebook, McGuire discusses when these catastrophic events are likely to take place, how they will effect our global society, and what we can do to increase our chances of survival--from emissions reductions, to massive geo-engineering schemes, to the colonization of space. Illustrated with photographs and diagrams, and backed by meticulous research, A Brief Guide to the End of the World sheds new light on the extraordinarily vulnerability of our planet, and on our capacity to withstand the dramatic changes Mother Nature has in store for us in the distant--or not so distant--future. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Chicken Little was right
There's a lot to worry about here, and frankly I'm worried. The main disaster that I didn't know about until I read this intriguing little book is the volcanic "super-eruption." Take your standard volcanic blast and multiply it by something like a thousand and one begins to get the picture. Not only that, but a super-eruption isn't necessarily going to happen around the old fault lines or Vulcan sites. No, a super-eruption with enough power to usher in a "volcanic winter" can happen suddenly without warning virtually anywhere.

The really scary thing about super-eruptions is that not only can't they be predicted, they can't be prevented. In this sense they are worse than an earth-crossing asteroid or unleashed Oort Cloud comets. We might be able to see a meteor coming our way and with current technology nudge it off its course or blast it into smaller pieces, but there is absolutely nothing we can do about a super-eruption. Even if the super-eruption takes place halfway around the world, its effects, possibly leading to a civilization-ending volcanic winter, will be felt everywhere. With the social disruption, the disease, and the cold and starvation, the living (to recall a phrase from the Cold War) may very well envy the dead.

McGuire, who is Benfield Greig Professor of Geophysical Hazards at University College London, recalls for our delectation, "perhaps the greatest volcanic explosion ever" that took place at Toba in northern Sumatra 73,500 years ago. It qualified as a Volcanic Explosivity Index 8 (VEI 8) event, which means it was about one thousand times as powerful as the VEI 5 1980 blast at Mount St. Helens. It tore a hole in the ground one hundred kilometers across and sent an estimated 3,000 cubic kilometers (that's kilometers)of debris into the atmosphere, enough "to cover virtually the whole of India with a layer of ash one metre thick." (pp. 98-103) A volcanic winter of perhaps six years followed with "up to 5,000 million tonnes of sulphuric acid aerosols" in the air, enough to "cut the amount of sunlight reaching the surface by 90 per cent." (p. 104) An ice age followed, perhaps triggered by the mammoth eruption. McGuire goes on to speculate that so many humans died world wide that humanity went through a "population bottleneck" that almost sent us the way of the dinosaurs. (pp. 105-107)

McGuire, who sometimes refers to himself as "Disasterman" (p. 131), also looks at "The Threat from Space" (Chapter 5). He separates the asteroids from the comets and guesses that our chance of being killed during an asteroid or comet walloping is "750 times more likely than winning the UK lottery." To me, the really scary "from outer space" scenario is a hoard of comets being dislodged from their normal orbits to fly toward mother earth, so many that we would have no ability to ward them off.

Global warming and the coming ice age are also topics explored by the good professor. Earthquakes and tsunamis have their chapter and there is an Epilogue (in which he notes, e.g., that come the year 2100 "an extraordinary 50 per cent or so of the people in Japan and western Europe will be 60" years old or older). There are a couple of appendices showing "threat" and geological timescales, and a modest index. The chapter on global warming, I must say, left me somewhat confused. Clearly McGuire believes human activity is a factor in making the nineties the hottest decade ever recorded, but whether our pollution will melt the ice caps or help to usher in an ice age is not clear.

Some other items of interest in this very readable book:

There was a geological episode in the earth's history referred to as "the Cryogenian" in which the earth was covered by "a carapace of ice a kilometre thick." McGuire calls this "Snowball Earth" and when it finally melted 565 million years ago, the Cambrian explosion of life followed. (p. 69-71)

An earthquake in the Tokyo-Yokohama region similar in intensity (8.3 on the Richter Scale) to that which struck in 1923--a reprise, McGuire says, is "thought to be only decades away"--would cripple the Japanese economy and have disastrous world wide effects. (pp. 123-131)

The so-called "Contraction & Convergence" plan "to reduce greenhouse gas emissions" that would require monitoring and billing polluters for their emissions on a per capita basis: to me, this requirement would reveal the true cost of various enterprises and would help us to move toward renewable production and ecologically sound business practices.

Not to be picky, but on page 18 McGuire reports that Hurricane Andrew of 1992 "brought to bear on the city" of Miami "wind speeds of up to 300 kilometres per second." That's about 670,000 miles per hour! (I suspect he meant wind speeds of 300 kilometres per HOUR.)

Bottom line: fascinating, a little flippant at times, but a full-out good read by a man who knows what he is talking about. ... Read more

Book Description

This second volume in the Long-Term Ecological Research Network Series provides a standardized set of protocols for measuring soil properties. Its goal is to facilitate cross-site synthesis and evaluation of ecosystem processes. It is the first broadly based compendium of methods and will be an invaluable resource for ecologists, agronomists, and soil scientists. ... Read more

Book Description

Book Description

Mathematicians, scientists, engineers, and students can turn to this dictionary for definitive coverage of all branches of mathematics, both pure and applied. Featuring 3,600 terms, the book defines terms and expressions in algebra, number theory, operator theory, logic, complex numbers, finite mathematics, topology, and other areas--each with definition identified by the field in which it is primarily used. Included are numerous cross references and an appendix with tables of integrals and derivatives. ... Read more

Book Description

Today more than three quarters of a billion people go hungry in a world where food is plentiful. A distinguished scientist here sets out an agenda for addressing this situation. Initially published in 1997 in the United Kingdom, the book is now available in the first edition produced for the Western hemisphere. In it, the author has updated information to reflect current economic indicators. This volume includes a foreword written for the previous edition by Ismail Serageldin of the World Bank. The original Green Revolution produced new technologies for farmers, creating food abundance. A second transformation of agriculture is now required--specifically, Gordon Conway argues, a "doubly green" revolution that stresses conservation as well as productivity. He calls for researchers and farmers to forge genuine partnerships in an effort to design better plants and animals. He also urges them to develop (or rediscover) alternatives to inorganic fertilizers and pesticides, improve soil and water management, and enhance earning opportunities for the poor, especially women. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Incomplete analysis of an important problem
Gordon Conway presents to us a problem: an unacceptably large number in absolute terms suffers from staggering levels of poverty, malnutrition, and hunger. He acknowledges that there is enough food in the world to meet aggregate demand, and he indicates that he is not Malthusian or even Neo-Malthusian. The main problem, and theme of his book, is that certain high-population, low-income areas lack the purchasing power and access to technology and capital necessary to support a "doubly green revolution" to bring the successes of agricultural technology to all peoples. His normative analysis is that the costs of this are acceptable given humanitarian concerns and practicality for industrialized countries that would benefit from trade liberalization and some level or agricultural/economic convergence. He also believes that market forces alone are insufficient to fixing the problems he has outlined, and encourages nation-states and inter-government organizations to pursue policies that include stabilization of legal rights, subsidies for research in technologies to provide food and capital for the poor (especially women and ethnic minorities), and even redistribution of property.

I consider it a possibility that not enough time has gone by since the Green Revolution started showing diminishing returns to make judgments on the immense inequality of distribution. I would like to point out that most of the world lived in poverty for thousands of years, and only within the past century have we been able to make any significant progress at this level and perhaps the inequalities may smooth out over time if trade is liberalized.

Ultimately, Conway presents a well-researched book and some interesting ideas and alternatives to reach these ideas. I think that he could have explored market solutions more deeply and that this significantly weakens his book. His devotion to the poor and willingness to use governments to interefere significantly with trade and agriculture is disheartening. However, the topic is very interesting and the ultimate goal of increasing food production to meet aggregate demand and basic human needs is noble and important to all of us and generations to come.

Shows what can be done, how to do it, and why.
Participation in agricultural production, it has been repeatedly demonstrated, is the only clear guarantee of participation in food consumption.

The author's central theme is that it is possible to raise yields three-fold on most smallholder farms worldwide by practicing sustainable agriculture. As an architect of the original Green Revolution he can acknowledge its failings (and its successes) better than most. The book's title refers to a need to move beyond the original Green Revolution to a new and more environmentally friendly agenda.

The basic goals outlined in the book are:

-Increase crop yields of small-scale farmers threefold per farm.

-Do so at very low cost by making maximum use of indigenous resources: physical, biological, and human -thereby allowing even the very poor to benefit from improved methods.

-Improve the health of families living on small farms by raising nutrition levels.

-Expand access to food, energy, and water.

-Expand access to economic resources.

Disregard the neo-communist rhetoric of the first reviewer and buy this book - easily earns 8 stars on a scale of 1 to 5.

Now it includes the ecology, but where is the justice?
The original "Green Revolution" was presented by the Ford and Rockefeller foundations as a way to put off imminent starvation worldwide, buying time while humanity tackled the problem of population increase. While crop yields surely increased in the 1960s-1980s (though much less since then), efforts to limit population growth (outside China) mostly faltered. Worse, many of the chemical-intensive practices of the GR proved to be ecologically unsound. Worse still, the focus on yields and population effectively erased the question of food ACCESS from mainstream debates. While we have had food stocks adequate to feed every human on the planet for many decades, we have lacked the will and mechanisms to insure the poor access to that food. Indeed, millions of formerly self-sufficient smallholder farmers have "become" poor in the GR era because they no longer have access to land, nor access to sufficient cash.

This book rightfully states that future green-revolutionaries will need to pay far more attention to the environment, to ensure ecologically sustainable production in the future; and that agricultural scientists will need to work in genuine partnership with farmers (though previous efforts at so-called "partnerships" by such organizations as the World Bank or International Rice Research Institute have been laughably one-sided and dominated by elites). This is (nowadays, at least) relatively uncontroversial. But until and unless we make large political changes regarding food distribution -- food justice, if you will -- we're just rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic, as far as the poor are concerned.

More production, more ecologically done -- you bet. Population control -- crucial. Greater participation of farmers in agricultural decision-making -- essential. Food justice -- politically difficult, but indispensible. This book tackles elements of the food problem, but leaves a few things out as well. ... Read more

Book Description

Richard Alley, one of the world's leading climate researchers, tells the fascinating history of global climate changes as revealed by reading the annual rings of ice from cores drilled in Greenland. In the 1990s he and his colleagues made headlines with the discovery that the last ice age came to an abrupt end over a period of only three years. Here Alley offers the first popular account of the wildly fluctuating climate that characterized most of prehistory--long deep freezes alternating briefly with mild conditions--and explains that we humans have experienced an unusually temperate climate. But, he warns, our comfortable environment could come to an end in a matter of years.

The Two-Mile Time Machine begins with the story behind the extensive research in Greenland in the early 1990s, when scientists were beginning to discover ancient ice as an archive of critical information about the climate. Drilling down two miles into the ice, they found atmospheric chemicals and dust that enabled them to construct a record of such phenomena as wind patterns and precipitation over the past 110,000 years. The record suggests that "switches" as well as "dials" control the earth's climate, affecting, for example, hot ocean currents that today enable roses to grow in Europe farther north than polar bears grow in Canada. Throughout most of history, these currents switched on and off repeatedly (due partly to collapsing ice sheets), throwing much of the world from hot to icy and back again in as little as a few years.

Alley explains the discovery process in terms the general reader can understand, while laying out the issues that require further study: What are the mechanisms that turn these dials and flip these switches? Is the earth due for another drastic change, one that will reconfigure coastlines or send certain regions into severe drought? Will global warming combine with natural variations in Earth's orbit to flip the North Atlantic switch again? Predicting the long-term climate is one of the greatest challenges facing scientists in the twenty-first century, and Alley tells us what we need to know in order to understand and perhaps overcome climate changes in the future. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

2003 review
I am giving this book a three star rating, I believe that it was a five star rating when first published. My copy shows a copyright of 1994 and a fifth printing in 2000. I enjoyed the historic and background geology information provided by the author. It was good evening reading. I did have problems in locating the sites listed. Colorado has grown a bit since 1994. I prefer the detailed format in the falcon guides. They do not have the background Voynick's book does but they get you to most of the sites. In all cases I would like to see the authors show the dates they visited recommended sites.

Rocky Mountain HIGH!
Several years ago, I made a swing through Colorado and, as always, collected rocks and minerals [mainly for my class that I teach at a California high school]. This book was at my side and served me well, leading to many beautiful specimens [and two blown tires-it was an excellent trip]. I never failed to find a site and all sites were better than average quality. Warning: many of these sites are at high elevation and may involve a little hiking [I'm out of shape and stayed to the sites close to the roads and still had quite a haul]. As always, please collect respectfully and only in places where it is legal to collect. ... Read more

Book Description

A concise up-to-date guide to all aspects of environmental pollution and cleanup.
Human invention and innovation have brought about tremendous improvements in the quality of life of millions of people around the world today-but progress has its price. Environmental pollution is rapidly attacking the Earth's ecosphere. While advances have been made and new disciplines have emerged to identify, monitor, regulate, and compensate for environmental pollutants, it will take the combined efforts of numerous specialists to solve the problem. It will also take the efforts of an informed public that, through its voting and buying habits, has the power to determine whether or not the threat to our environment can be contained.
This 2-volume encyclopedia provides all readers, regardless of scientific background or training, with a working knowledge of contemporary issues in environmental pollution and cleanup. Based on Wiley's critically acclaimed, 8-volume Encyclopedia of Environmental Analysis and Remediation, this compact A-to-Z reference features the same breadth and quality of coverage-and clarity of presentation-found in the original. It includes:
* Over 200 self-contained, thoroughly cross-referenced articles on essential aspects of environmental pollution and cleanup.
* Coverage of key topics in hazardous waste, air pollution control, biosphere pollution, health effects, nuclear waste, environmental law and regulation, water reclamation, and more.
* Integrated coverage of both legal and policy issues and technological and environmental concerns.
* Hundreds of photographs, figures, charts, and tables that help illustrate major points, explain difficult material, and summarize important data.
* Bibliographic entries keyed to the text that list sources of additional information on selected topics.
This book is an ideal reference for high school and college students and a convenient resource for scientists, environmental consultants, and anyone who needs clear, reliable, up-to-date information on environmental pollution and cleanup. ... Read more

Book Description

Please use extracts from reviews of first edition

Key Features
* Updated and thoroughly revised edition
* additional material on geophysical/acoustic tomography
* Detailed discussion of application of inverse theory to tectonic, gravitational and geomagnetic studies ... Read more

Book Description

Including more than 8,000 essential terms and definitions in the earth sciences, this comprehensive dictionary offers professionals, teachers, students, and general readers with an interest in earth science a complete and handy source for the latest terminology used in the fields of climatology, geochemistry, geodesy, geography, geophysics, hydrlogy, mapping, meterology, oceanograhy, and paleontology. Userful appendices are also provided. ... Read more

Book Description

Today we are on the verge of discoveries that should soon revealthe deepest secrets of the universe. In Alpha & Omega, Charles Seifetakes us to the front lines of the cosmological revolution to synthesize thediscoveries of scientists at observatories and laboratories around the world whoare actually peering into both the cradle of the universe and its grave. Thecast of characters includes galaxy hunters and microwave eavesdroppers, gravitytheorists and atom smashers, all of whom are on the trail of dark matter, darkenergy, and the growing inhabitants of the particle zoo. Seife’s lucidexplanations of scientific theories and current research make cutting-edgescience both crystal clear and wonderfully exciting. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Good introduction for non-science types
A fine and clear review of the development of cosmological theory from Ptolemy to the present, definitely written for the curious non-scientist.
Seife has a good feeling for how strange the universe is, and for how unsettling it can be to contemplate it. He takes your hand and leads you through the stories of discovery with respect, but assuming you know little to nothing about the subject.
I had trouble putting it down.

Trying to elucidate a difficult subject
Science writer Charles Seife, author of the award-wining Zero: The Biography of a Dangerous Idea (2000), begins with two chapters on pre-modern cosmology followed by a chapter on Hubble's discovery of the expansion of the universe using the new 100-inch telescope placed atop Mount Wilson in 1917. Seife sees Hubble's discovery as "The Second Cosmological Revolution." In Chapter Four we learn, thanks in part to the Hubble Space Telescope, that the Hubble constant is not so constant after all and is indeed larger today than it was in the past. Conclusion: the universe is not only expanding, but is accelerating in its expansion. Seife calls this "The Third Cosmological Revolution." The chapter is subtitled, "The Universe Amok."

Maybe the universe is indeed running amok, or maybe it's the astrophysicists and cosmologists themselves who are possessed. Too much data too soon may have untoward consequences, especially when one is feeling about in the dark with limited instruments focused on an immensity perhaps beyond human comprehension.

First there is the problem of the so-called dark matter. With the curvature of the universe at one, meaning that it will expand forever and eventually after many an eon die a cold and lonely death, there will be no big crunch, no bounce, and no time reversal. This is okay. However, when cosmologists go looking for the correct amount of matter and energy to support this flat curvature they come up a little short. About ninety percent short, in fact. In other words nearly all that there is, is not only invisible to our perception, it is completely mysterious except that it does indeed influence gravitationally the rest of the stuff in the universe. As Seife explains, the stars in a galaxy as they rotate around the galactic center are not moving in concert with Newtonian (or Einsteinian) motion; instead the stars furthest from the center are moving at about the same speed as those near the center, an impossibility.

What to do about this? Cosmologists have postulated some "dark matter" surrounding galaxies like a halo. With just the right amount of dark matter (again approximately a whopping nine times that observed) the speed of the stars is nicely accounted for. There is another solution: reject Newtonian/Einsteinian dynamics. That (as radical an idea as one would like to entertain) has been tried and, as Seife notes, it has failed. (See p. 100) Furthermore, as Seife observes in "Darker Still" (Chapter 7), this invisible stuff cannot be all ordinary (baryonic) matter. It has to be of some "exotic" variety that we can't identify.

Okay, let's put the dark matter conundrum on hold and look at the next problem: something from nothing. It appears that, due to the uncertainty principle from quantum mechanics, there is no such thing as nothing. That is, matter is probabilistically jumping in and out of existence down near the Planck level in the "foam" regardless of how complete the vacuum. Indeed, some theorists have imagined whole universes popping randomly out of...what? It would appear that underneath, beneath, inside of--what?--there is, like an unfelt cauldron beneath our feet or inside the very fabric of space/time, something unimaginably immense and/or unimaginably tiny.

This "zero point energy" is now being postulated as the source of Einstein's cosmological constant (lambda) that is expanding the universe. Lambda was once thought to be an error; now "omega sub lambda" is thought to equal 65% of the matter/energy in the universe. Hello!

Seife's book suffers from that familiar plague on the house of popular science writers: trying to explain mathematical ideas without using mathematics, and trying to explain particle physics and quantum mechanics to people who haven't been trained in those sciences. One must rely on analogy and metaphor. Naturally using such devices things can make things even fuzzier than they already are. Also there is some inexactness in Seife's expression employed for what he calls "the sake of clarity."

Sometimes Seife's metaphors reduce to something close to meaningless, as in his ice cream-flavor-slurping hydrogen atoms from page 179. Such metaphors can send chills down the spine of some scientists, and they can mislead. A slightly different example is his statement that "the Heisenberg uncertainty principle forces nature to create and destroy...particles that appear out of nowhere...in the deepest vacuum." (p. 185) Not to disparage the uncertainty principle, but it is "nature" that is doing the forcing and not the other way around. Heisenberg's uncertainty principle is a way of explaining to ourselves what is observed (or not observed, as the case may be).

At other times Seife leaps from the uncertainty of a strained metaphor to runaway dramatics, as on page 183 where we find this: "once scientists figure out what really is, they will have unraveled the deepest mystery in physics today...[they will] understand...[what] drove the big bang itself...They will see beyond even the era of the quark-gluon plasma...to a time when the quantum vacuum held the fate of the universe in its grasp."

As for Seife's several attempts at witticism, I will give him a Cheshire cat's smile and applause to extend for the entire half-life of a virtual particle in the foam of space.

Okay, okay. Writing science that is both fair to the science and explicable to nonscientists is no easy task. I don't think Seife is as successful here as he was in "Zero," especially because the writing gets a little beclouded in the latter parts of the book but also because I have the sense that Seife is not as comfortable with physics as he is with mathematics. What is clear is just how removed even well-educated and knowledgeable laypersons are from the cutting edge of physics. Still this is an attractive book that added to my knowledge of cosmology.

Interesting book that gets ahead of itself
'Extra! Extra! Scientists have solved the universe's biggest mystery!' Eh? Such a claim would invite derision in most circles, but this is not too distant from the claim that the book uses as a launching statement when it suggests that researchers in the past decade have managed to precisely map out the future of the universe. This is quite inaccurate and the book is thus obviously unable to support it. Unfortunately, the claim also colours the book's entire outlook, which is crammed with overstatements and a writing style that is not balanced enough for a subject of such depth.

In the author's defence, he does not dwell overly on the unsupportably tidy claim that his book makes in the beginning. He is much more in his element when he backs away from it and explains what's currently theorised about spacetime's structure, geometry, and properties and why scientists think so. He has a good grasp of general relativity and an ability to explain it well, but he also works in good discussions of some of the more difficult-to-grasp ideas that involve string theory as well as some of the odder contortions of spacetime geometry. The book's greatest strength is that it helps a reader to visualise and make some sense out of theories that otherwise are expressed only in the form of cumbersome and quite difficult mathematics. Worth taking a look at, at least for the book's middle chapters where most of the explanation takes place.

difficult concepts explained in a simple manner
Ever since I read Charles Seife's excellent book "Zero: A Biography of a Dangerous Idea" I have been excited to read whichever book he might publish next. I finally got my change with "Alpha & Omega: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe". The title tells us exactly what the book is about: The Search for the Beginning and End of the Universe. In this book Seife informs us about what scientists know about how the universe began, and what they think they know about how the universe will one day end. Charles Seife has a rare talent for taking extremely complex and difficult scientific concepts and explaining them in a way that those concepts are understandable to a lay-reader.

Charles Seife examines what the accepted scientific view of the beginning of the universe was, and he shows how that view has evolved over time until scientists had more data to give a clearer picture of the origins of the universe. Seife also tells us how scientists have figured out how the universe is likely to end. He tells us what scientists know, and more importantly, how they know it. This is very important because it shows the advances made in scientific knowledge as well as because of the fact that it explains the knowledge on a more basic level that makes sense. The theories become more real and less of an alien concept to someone like me who does not have a depth of knowledge in science.

Even though Seife went to great lengths to explain the science in the simplest language possible without losing the depth of the information presented, some of it still went over my head a bit. Seife's volume can be best used as a primer and as introduction to the topic. He has a smooth writing style that makes the book very easy to read even with the difficult concepts presented. This is another excellent book by Charles Seife and I would recommend it to anyone interested in the scientific explanations for the origins of the universe.

Very Enjoyable and Worthwhile Book
How do you explain the cosmos? It depends on when you live. Mr. Seife makes this point in a very enjoyable manner in the first chapters of this book. Unfortunately for all of us (at least those of us without advanced degrees in physics, etc.), we live in a time when the explanations are very technical, and involve concepts that seem implausible, if not just plain impossible.

They're not, of course - and that's why we need books like this that help us to make sense of these concepts, while not making us feel like morons because we need the help to understand them. This book does a very good job of doing that.

Mr. Seife really loves his subject, and writes about it with great zeal. The writing, while sometimes (by necessity) very technical, is never dry or dull. I missed the humor that I found in Stephen Hawking's books of this nature. By the same token, this book is much better written, and in many ways much more enlightening, than Hawking's "The Theory of Everything: The Origin and Fate of the Universe" which often left me confused as to where all of the pieces fit.

The key, it seems to me, is that Mr. Seife stays focused on his task at hand: giving the reader the tools necessary to understand current cosmological theories. He doesn't digress into discussions of theories and areas designed to simply boggle the mind, as Stephen Hawking sometimes does. Speaking of Stephen Hawking, I am curious how you can write a book of this type, in this time, and not cite Hawking. Mr. Seife manages to do that. I wonder if there's something below the surface there.

This was a most enjoyable book, and I'd recommend it to anyone who wants to increase his or her understanding of our cosmos. But, don't forget to bring your thinking cap. ... Read more

Reviews (5)

Best book to learn about lightning and related subjects
Within my awareness, this is the best author on the physics of lightning (voltage, current, charge, speed, event sequence, frequency of occurrence, length/width of channel, temperature, etc). Related subjects such as injuries, death rate, damage, protection, thunderstorms, harnessing power, etc are also discussed. The book could use updating with data acquired in the last 16 years (1986-2002). An improvement to the book could be more info on lightning protection. Another book by Uman, 'Lightning', is less general and more technical about the physics of lightning.

Interesting book.
I recommend this book to all who have any interest in natural science. I was personally surprised at how interesting of a read this book was. Ulman did well brining to "light" topics that have plagued me about lightning since my childhood. He also satiated my engineering taste for technical aspects of the electrical phenomena. Photographs and diagrams add well to the text and support the facts presented without overburdening the reader with too much information.

Well Done.
Martin Umans book of, what I would call an intro to lightning (if there is such a thing). I dont claim to be a scientist or know much about the weather, however I found many of Umans boo fascinating as his writing was clear and easy to understand. Some of the technical aspects were a little above me, yet learning about the different kinds of lightning, what lightning does and what is typical to expect from lightning I found very...well....enlightening (sorry about the pun). I found it to be a fun book that was a delight to read.

Lightning Explained Simply
Dr. Uman's book is excellent! It gives clear, concise answers about what we know (and don't know) about Lightning in the form of question and answer essays. Includes special topics, such as Ball Lightning as well as ways to keep yourself safe during electrical storms. Extensive bibliography -- very useful for any laymen who is interested in the subject.

A brilliant book! It makes your world a little bit bigger!!
Clear, concise, entertaining. Uman takes on the 50 most common questions about lightning and gives explanations in plain English. It's rather like a whiteboard conversation with a skilled teacher. Backed up by his vastly more technical monograph (published separately, more a 1st year graduate student book) Uman can give you new eyes for an everyday experience. This is a quick read and an excellent choice for introducing young adults into science ... Read more

Book Description

This book is the last of three volumes in which the recent knowledge of the extent and chronology of Quaternary glaciations has been compiled on a global scale. This information is seen as a fundamental requirement, not only for the glacial community, but for the wider user-community of general Quaternary workers. In particular the need for accurate ice-front positions is a basic requirement for the rapidly growing field of palaeoclimate modelling. In order to provide the information for the widest-possible range of users in the most accessible form, a series of digital maps was prepared.

The glacial limits were mapped in ArcView, the Geographical Information System (GIS) used by the work group. Included with the publication is a CD with digital maps, showing glacial limits, end moraines, ice-dammed lakes, glacier-induced drainage diversions and the locations of key sections through which the glacial limits are defined and dated. Where controversial interpretations are possible, such as for High Asia, they are indicated. All information on Quaternary glaciations worldwide is presented for the first time in a uniform format, including the mountain glaciations of regions such as Costa Rica, Ethiopia or Taiwan. The digital maps in this volume cover Latin America, Asia, Africa, Australasia, Antarctica. Both overview maps and more detailed maps at a scale 1: 1,000,000 are provided.

Also available:
Part I: Europe, ISBN 0-444-51462-7
Part II: North America, ISBN 0-444-51592-5 ... Read more