Author: Luis de la Puente
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 710

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Author: William Eamon
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426206852
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 372

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In the tradition of Galileo's Daughter and Brunelleschi's Dome, this exciting story illuminates the captivating world of the late Renaissance—in this case its plagues, remedies, and alchemy—through the life of Leonardo Fioravanti, a brilliant, remarkably forward-thinking, and utterly unconventional doctor. Fioravanti's marvelous cures and talent for self-aggrandizement earned him the adoration of the people, the scorn of the medical establishment, and a reputation as one of the age's most colorful, combative figures. Written by Pulitzer-prize nominated historian William Eamon, The Professor of Secrets entices readers into a dangerous scientific underworld of sorcerers and surgeons. Meticulously researched and engagingly written, this gripping narrative will appeal to those interested in Renaissance history, the development of science, and the historical thrillers so popular today.

Author: María M. Portuondo
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 0226675378
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 358

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The discovery of the New World raised many questions for early modern scientists: What did these lands contain? Where did they lie in relation to Europe? Who lived there, and what were their inhabitants like? Imperial expansion necessitated changes in the way scientific knowledge was gathered, and Spanish cosmographers in particular were charged with turning their observations of the New World into a body of knowledge that could be used for governing the largest empire the world had ever known. As María M. Portuondo here shows, this cosmographic knowledge had considerable strategic, defensive, and monetary value that royal scientists were charged with safeguarding from foreign and internal enemies. Cosmography was thus a secret science, but despite the limited dissemination of this body of knowledge, royal cosmographers applied alternative epistemologies and new methodologies that changed the discipline, and, in the process, how Europeans understood the natural world.

Author: A. Peter Klimley
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 143910431X
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 474

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Marine biologist Pete Klimley swims with the sharks. He was one of the first scientists to free-dive among sharks, and he has spent nearly thirty years studying shark behavior, sometimes swimming in schools of several hundred sharks. From his firsthand observations he has learned that sharks are not the vicious man-eaters that we imagine, but fascinating animals with complex behaviors. Most people who think of sharks at all think immediately of great white sharks. But there are more than four hundred species of shark. Dr. Klimley has studied several species, most notably the great white and the hammerhead. (He describes the great white as the athlete among sharks, and the hammerhead as the Ph.D. of the shark world.) In The Secret Life of Sharks Dr. Klimley reveals the significant discoveries he made about hammerhead navigation and great white eating habits. By studying hammerheads gathered around underwater seamounts, Dr. Klimley learned that hammerheads rely on sophisticated tracking of ocean-floor magnetism to navigate. His long-term study of great white sharks off the California coast demonstrated that these huge sharks prefer to eat seals and sea lions because of the energy contained in their fatty bodies. They are selective eaters, not the man-eaters we expect, and they sometimes go weeks between meals. But Dr. Klimley did observe a ritualized behavior that great whites practice in order to avoid deadly disputes over prey that one shark has captured and another wants. Although we have learned a great deal about shark behavior, says Dr. Klimley, there is much that we do not know. Unfortunately we are destroying these magnificent creatures of the deep through overfishing and degradation of the oceans. Already some populations of sharks have declined steeply. Vividly written by one of the foremost authorities on sharks, The Secret Life of Sharks is a fascinating account of some of the world's most magnificent animals.

Author: Guischard DEAGEANT
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 298

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Author: Sofia Quintero
Publisher: Ember
ISBN: 044024062X
Category : Young Adult Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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Ambitious high school senior Efrain Rodriguez dreams of escaping the South Bronx for an Ivy League college like Harvard or Yale. But how is his family going to afford to pay for a prestigious university when Moms has to work insane hours to put food on the table as it is? And Efrain wouldn’t dare ask that good-for-nothing father of his who has traded his family in for younger models. Left with few options, Efrain chooses to do something he never thought he would. He embarks on a double life—honor student by day, drug peddler at night—convinced that by temporarily capitulating to society’s negative expectations of a boy like him, he can eventually defy them. Sofia Quintero makes a stunning debut writing for young adults with this gritty, complex, and real exploration of the life of an urban teen whose attempt to leave one world behind for a better one could cost him everything.

Author: D. J. R.
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category :
Languages : en
Pages : 1006

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Author: Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 280

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"North American Spies takes a fresh look at the history of espionage in the United States and Canada since 1898. A new generation of scholars and journalists use the latest verifiable evidence to tackle some of the most important, yet least known, events in recent history. They argue in particular that Soviet secret agents may have been behind the theft of secret Churchill-Roosevelt correspondence in 1940; that President Truman's shadowy advisor, Admiral Souers, was the real architect of the CIA; and that Britain generated a home-bred McCarthyism similar to that in the U.S." "This book features the first history of the Defense Intelligence Agency, includes a chapter on American spy fiction, and concludes with a guide to further study. Contributors are Catherine B. Fletcher, Danny D. Jansen, Rhodri Jeffreys-Jones, Richard B. Laidlaw, Andrew Lownie, Graeme S. Mount, Patrick Mescall, Karen Potter, Robert E. Spears, Jr., and David Walker."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Author: Orville T. Murphy
Publisher: State University of New York Press
ISBN: 1438413971
Category : Political Science
Languages : en
Pages : 624

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This is the first complete study of Charles Gravier, Comte de Vergennes, one of the most distinguished diplomats and statesmen of eighteenth-century France. Vergennes represented France as a diplomat in Germany, Constantinople, and Stockholm, and was Louis XVI's Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Orville Murphy traces Vergennes' career as he steadily rose from the provincial nobility of the robe to the ranks of the court aristocracy; from the post of an obscure diplomat to the lofty position of Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs. Murphy, however, has written much more than an interesting biography. The book develops a link between diplomatic personalities, the foreign policies of the French kings Louis XV and Louis XVI, and the contemporary social, economic, and political problems during much of the eighteenth century. Indeed, Vergennes and his policies are central to any study of the American Revolution, the underlying causes of the French Revolution, and of the subsequent "Age of Revolutions" in Europe.

Author: Luis de la Puente
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Meditation
Languages : en
Pages : 274

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