Richter's Scale

Richter's Scale PDF Author: Susan Elizabeth Hough
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400884446
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

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Book Description
By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology. Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder. In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.

Richter's Scale

Richter's Scale PDF Author: Susan Elizabeth Hough
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400884446
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 352

Get Book Here

Book Description
By developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology. Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder. In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in A Beautiful Mind.

Volcanoes in Human History

Volcanoes in Human History PDF Author: Jelle Zeilinga de Boer
Publisher: Princeton University Press
ISBN: 1400842859
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 316

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Book Description
When the volcano Tambora erupted in Indonesia in 1815, as many as 100,000 people perished as a result of the blast and an ensuing famine caused by the destruction of rice fields on Sumbawa and neighboring islands. Gases and dust particles ejected into the atmosphere changed weather patterns around the world, resulting in the infamous ''year without a summer'' in North America, food riots in Europe, and a widespread cholera epidemic. And the gloomy weather inspired Mary Shelley to write the gothic novel Frankenstein. This book tells the story of nine such epic volcanic events, explaining the related geology for the general reader and exploring the myriad ways in which the earth's volcanism has affected human history. Zeilinga de Boer and Sanders describe in depth how volcanic activity has had long-lasting effects on societies, cultures, and the environment. After introducing the origins and mechanisms of volcanism, the authors draw on ancient as well as modern accounts--from folklore to poetry and from philosophy to literature. Beginning with the Bronze Age eruption that caused the demise of Minoan Crete, the book tells the human and geological stories of eruptions of such volcanoes as Vesuvius, Krakatau, Mount Pelée, and Tristan da Cunha. Along the way, it shows how volcanism shaped religion in Hawaii, permeated Icelandic mythology and literature, caused widespread population migrations, and spurred scientific discovery. From the prodigious eruption of Thera more than 3,600 years ago to the relative burp of Mount St. Helens in 1980, the results of volcanism attest to the enduring connections between geology and human destiny. Some images inside the book are unavailable due to digital copyright restrictions.

Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements

Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements PDF Author: Thomas Foken
Publisher: Springer Nature
ISBN: 3030521710
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 1761

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Book Description
This practical handbook provides a clearly structured, concise and comprehensive account of the huge variety of atmospheric and related measurements relevant to meteorologists and for the purpose of weather forecasting and climate research, but also to the practitioner in the wider field of environmental physics and ecology. The Springer Handbook of Atmospheric Measurements is divided into six parts: The first part offers instructive descriptions of the basics of atmospheric measurements and the multitude of their influencing factors, fundamentals of quality control and standardization, as well as equations and tables of atmospheric, water, and soil quantities. The subsequent parts present classical in-situ measurements as well as remote sensing techniques from both ground-based as well as airborn or satellite-based methods. The next part focusses on complex measurements and methods that integrate different techniques to establish more holistic data. Brief discussions of measurements in soils and water, at plants, in urban and rural environments and for renewable energies demonstrate the potential of such applications. The final part provides an overview of atmospheric and ecological networks. Written by distinguished experts from academia and industry, each of the 64 chapters provides in-depth discussions of the available devices with their specifications, aspects of quality control, maintenance as well as their potential for the future. A large number of thoroughly compiled tables of physical quantities, sensors and system characteristics make this handbook a unique, universal and useful reference for the practitioner and absolutely essential for researchers, students, and technicians.

The Way of the Cell

The Way of the Cell PDF Author: Franklin M. Harold
Publisher:
ISBN: 0195163389
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 320

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Book Description
Schrodinger's riddle -- The quality of life -- Cells in nature and in theory -- Molecular logic -- A (almost) comprehensible cell -- It takes a cell to make a cell -- Morphogenesis: where form and function meet -- The advance of the microbes -- By descent with modification -- So what is life? -- Searching for the beginning.

St. Art

St. Art PDF Author: Gil McElroy
Publisher: Charlottetown, P.E.I. : Confederation Centre Art Gallery & Museum
ISBN:
Category : Art
Languages : en
Pages : 92

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Book Description


The Humboldt Current

The Humboldt Current PDF Author: Aaron Sachs
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1101201614
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 516

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Book Description
A masterly and beautifully written account of the impact of Alexander von Humboldt on nineteenth-century American history and culture The naturalist and explorer Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) achieved unparalleled fame in his own time. Today, however, he and his enormous legacy to American thought are virtually unknown. In The Humboldt Current, Aaron Sachs traces Humboldt's pervasive influence on American history through examining the work of four explorers—J. N. Reynolds, Clarence King, George Wallace, and John Muir—who embraced Humboldt's idea of a "chain of connection" uniting all peoples and all environments. A skillful blend of narrative and interpretation that also discusses Humboldt's influence on Emerson, Whitman, Thoreau, Melville, and Poe, The Humboldt Current offers a colorful, passionate, and superbly written reinterpretation of nineteenth-century American history.

Mythos

Mythos PDF Author: Joseph Campbell
Publisher: HarperElement
ISBN: 9781862045279
Category : Social Science
Languages : en
Pages : 256

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Book Description
In psychological terms, award-winning author Joseph Campbell explains how myths emerge from the unconscious of every culture and discusses the purpose of these myths. Full color.

Genetics and Molecular Biology

Genetics and Molecular Biology PDF Author: Robert F. Schleif
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Medical
Languages : en
Pages : 724

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Book Description
In the first edition of Genetics and Molecular Biology, renowned researcher and award-winning teacher Robert Schleif produced a unique and stimulating text that was a notable departure from the standard compendia of facts and observations. Schleif's strategy was to present the underlying fundamental concepts of molecular biology with clear explanations and critical analysis of well-chosen experiments. The result was a concise and practical approach that offered students a real understanding of the subject. This second edition retains that valuable approach--with material thoroughly updated to include an integrated treatment of prokaryotic and eukaryotic molecular biology. Genetics and Molecular Biology is copiously illustrated with two-color line art. Each chapter includes an extensive list of important references to the primary literature, as well as many innovative and thought-provoking problems on material covered in the text or on related topics. These help focus the student's attention of a variety of critical issues. Solutions are provided for half of the problems. Praise for the first edition: "Schleif's Genetics and Molecular Biology... is a remarkable achievement. It is an advanced text, derived from material taught largely to postgraduates, and will probably be thought best suited to budding professionals in molecular genetics. In some ways this would be a pity, because there is also gold here for the rest of us... The lessons here in dealing with the information explosion in biology are that an ounce of rationale is worth a pound of facts and that, for educational value, there is nothing to beat an author writing about stuff he knows from theinside."--Nature. "Schleif presents a quantitative, chemically rigorous approach to analyzing problems in molecular biology. The text is unique and clearly superior to any currently available."--R.L. Bernstein, San Francisco State University. "The greatest strength is the author's ability to challenge the student to become involved and get below the surface."--Clifford Brunk, UCLA