Book Description
The national best seller--an unparalleled collection of timeless writings by one of the most beloved and original thinkers of the twentieth century.
The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard Feynman, from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science-a life like no other.
From Feynman's ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will fascinate anyone interested in the world of ideas. Newcomers to Feynman will be moved by his wit and his deep understanding of the natural world and of the human experience; longtime admirers will discover many treasures available nowhere else.
Amazon.com
Why do we do science? Beyond altruistic and self-aggrandizing motivations, many of our best scientists work long hours seeking the electric thrill that comes only from learning something that nobody knew before. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, a collection of previously unpublished or difficult-to-find short works by maverick physicist Richard Feynman, takes its title from his own answer. From TV interview transcripts to his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize, we see his quick, sharp wit, his devotion to his work, and his unwillingness to bow to social pressure or convention. It's no wonder he was only grudgingly admired by the establishment during his lifetime--read his "Minority Report to the Space Shuttle Challenger Inquiry" to see him blowing off political considerations as impediments to finding the truth.
Feynman had a fantastic sense of humor, and his memoirs of his Manhattan Project days roil with fun despite his later misgivings about nuclear weapons. Though one or two pieces are a bit hard to follow for the nontechnical reader, for the most part the book is easygoing and engaging on a personal rather than a scientific level. Freeman Dyson's foreword and editor Jeffrey Robbins's introductions to each essay set the stage well and are respectful without being worshipful. Though Feynman has been gone now for many years, his work lives on in quantum physics, computer design, and nanotechnology; like any great scientist, he asked more questions than he answered, to give future generations the pleasure of finding things out. --Rob Lightner
Customer Reviews:
Great enjoyment in audio version.......2007-08-26
This is not the place to start with Feynman. I have read many of his works, such as "Surely You're Joking" and the "Genius" bio about him. Yes, I suppose I am a partial victim of Feyman's self-promotion and colorful life that lends itself to so much entertaining material. I don't care. What he says speaks to me in many ways, even when he steps into religion and other areas in which he is no formal expert.
Because of my familiarity with Feynman, I often knew more or less what was coming on some of the topics. However, I wanted to try the audio book because much of the content is Feynman telling stories or giving a lecture meant more to be heard than read. Here I believe the production really scores. Feynman's conversational style, even for complicated topics, is very effective. The narrator even vaguely sounded a bit as Feynman would (at least as I recall), minus the NY accent.
A counter-example may be the report on the Challenger disaster, with Feynman's famous keen analysis that is better read than heard. There is a bit more repetition than I would have preferred. Perhaps that was unavoidable while still retaining the integrity of the chapters. It's a little difficult to skim a tape.
The audio book accomplished what I wanted: it refreshed my recollection of Feynman and his work, it entertained in the parts where it meant to entertain, it educated when he wanted to educate, and it prompted much contemplation while on the road, which is ultimately what Feynman the teacher wanted from his audiences.
A great piece of work..........2007-08-15
This is the first book I have ready by Feynman, and I must admit, I am yearning to read more of his work.
While the book is a compilation of his speeches over the years, the topics covered are as relevant today as the time when the speeches were delivered. Many of the things Feynman spoke about in the 50's and 60's have come true today -especially the miniature devices that he mentions in his talks.
The breadth of topics is excellent as well - he touches on Religion and Science, Teaching of Science, The Room at the Bottom (miniaturization), and offers very simple, yet profound views on what is, and what can be.
It takes guts to admit that such an accomplished man may have blind spots and bodies of knowledge he knows nothing about; Feynman is not afraid to make such statements. This is not only the sign of a genius, but also of one who has intellectual honesty, and the willingness to face things for what they are. I wish more teachers, professors, engineers, doctors, and scientists would be that forthcoming.
Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings.......2007-07-16
Feynman reminds me that the basis for an interesting human being is that person's pursuit of curiosity.
As Salvador Dali said, "Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings", this aphorism applies so very well to Feynman.
The chapters in the book I enjoyed the most were "The Pleasure of Finding Things Out", "What is Science?" "Cargo Cult Science: Some Remarks on Science, Pseudoscience, and Learning How to Not Fool Yourself" and "The Relation of Science and Religion".
It is always wonderful to read intelligent people express their ideas and thoughts so that one can learn from them and check one's own!
These short works gave me a glimpse of someone wonderfully human. Feynman is capable of great introspection and expressions of truth as he sees them. He jokes about his ignorance and then proceeds to "rush in where fools fear to tread". That is his strength and weakness. Here is a certified genius that sees the world around him in ways we are aware of but usually keep to ourselves since we do not have his chutzpah.
On page 245, Richard P. Feynman discusses the relation of Science to Religion where he writes "In this age of specialization, men who thoroughly know one field are often incompetent to discuss another." I heartily agree with him but wonder why he does not apply this dictum to himself.
First of all I will not dispute his genius status. I do not know him well enough, but will accept Freeman J. Dyson's opinion of Feynman "half genius and half buffoon". Freeman J. Dyson's forward to the book "This Side Idolatry" was the best chapter in the book.
Feynman's originality and greatness are in his physics and mathematics; his other pursuits have authority because of his Nobel Prize.
In this "short works" Richard P. Feynman's proletarian background and weakness in the humanities rear their unruly head from time to time.
Let me give you just one example: on pages 172-173 he writes, "What is science? Of course you all must know, if you teach it. That's common sense. What can I say? If you don't know, every teacher's edition of every textbook gives a complete discussion of the subject. There is some kind of distorted distillation and watered-down and mixed-up words of Francis Beacon from centuries ago, words which then were supposed to be the deep philosophy of science. But one of the greatest experimental scientists of the time who was really doing something, William Harvey (1578-1657, discovered the body's circulatory system), said that what Bacon said science was, was the science that a lord chancellor would do. He spoke of making observations, but omitted the vital factor of judgment about what to observe and what to pay attention to.".
I do not see why Feynman has this animus towards Francis Bacon. He is well respected by historians of science and they see Bacon in a positive light.
W.P.D. Wightman in his book, "The Growth of Scientific Ideas", Yale University Press, New Haven CT, 1953, page 61 had this to say about Francis Bacon* "but his comparisons are applicable to all the problems of nature. The gist of the message is that we must seek out the common natures of the things we are comparing, and thus, remembering that "all true and fruitful natural philosophy hath a double scale or ladder, ascendant and descendent, ascending from experiments to the invention of causes, and descending from causes to the invention of new experiments', we may knit all nature together into one coherent assemblage of events.".
*Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
"Advancement of Learning"
"Novum Organum"
"New Atlantis"
According to the "The Works of Marx K. & Engels F", Kyiv, 1955, Volume 2, page 135, Karl Marx had this opinion of Francis Bacon "the real progenitor of English materialism and current experimental science".
Quote from Feynman "William Harvey (1578-1657, discovered the body's circulatory system), said that what Bacon said science was, was the science that a lord chancellor would do.".
The "lord chancellor's view" in my opinion is indispensable in the development of abstract ideas and general principles.
Compare the science of ancient China, Egypt and Greece and you will see the foolishness of ignoring the "lord chancellor's view".
It was the ancient Greeks (6thh century B.C.) who for the first time in human history abstracted the concept of straight line, circle, radius, and angle and so on from the practical surveying geometry of the Egyptians. Fortunately for science the Greeks had a distain for physical labor, only slaves did that! This does not mean that applied science is any way less important. We need both, as Francis Bacon in his book "Advancement of Learning" propose.
The diversity of intellects, outlooks and experiences of billions of human beings over the years have enabled us to stumble onto the scientific method. I applaud all honest efforts to advance our limited knowledge by people such as Richard P. Feynman and Francis Bacon.
great book.......2007-01-03
This is THE best book I have read all year. Excellent insight into science, government, and religion. The arguments within the book are great ammunition for discussions in any of these areas.
interesting and entertaining.......2006-10-03
Although the forward by Dyson did seem a little too worshipful, I can't blame him for writing kind things about his friend and mentor.
This was the first of Feynman's works I've read (actually I listened to it, as an audiobook). I enjoyed his descriptions of his pranks and work at Los Alamos. I also very much enjoyed hearing his thoughts on the value of science and what science is. The talk at the Galileo symposium was great.
On a human level, it was interesting learning about how he interacted with other people, especially other physcists. I went to Caltech as an undergrad, but unfortunately that was after Feynman passed away. Reading this now, I appreciate how well he fit with the culture there. He didn't beleive in worshiping other people or accepting the opinions of anyone as dogma.
As a scientist, I know why the great physicists at Los Alamos appreciated this quality in the young Feynman. We need to be challenged, to hear criticism of our work. (Of course not everyone would have been able to meaningfully challenge Bohr's or Bethe's ideas about physics. I know I wouldn't have been able to. But Feynman could, and he didn't just sit quietly out of reverence like many other physicists who were there with them.)
His musing on nonscientific questions were interesting, even though I do not agree with all of them. In his own spirit of inquiry, his ideas pose interesting questions precisely when you don't take them as dogma. I particularly like his humility about addressing nonscientific topics.
Book Description
How Apollo commander Stafford defused the Cold War in space by leading the way to Soviet/US cooperation.
What an amazing career—Tom Stafford attained the highest speed ever reached by a test pilot (28,547 mph), carried a cosmonaut's coffin with Soviet Secretary Leonid Brezhnev, led the team that designed the sequence of missions leading to the original lunar landing, and drafted the original specifications for the B-2 stealth bomber on a piece of hotel stationery. But his crowning achievement was surely his role as America's unofficial space ambassador to the Soviet Union during the darkest days of the Cold War.
In this lively memoir written with Michael Cassutt, Stafford begins by recounting his early successes as a test pilot, Gemini and Apollo astronaut, and USAF general. As President Nixon's stand-in at the 1971 Soviet funeral for three cosmonauts, he opened the door to the possibility of cooperation in space between Russians and Americans. Stafford's Apollo-Soyuz team was the first group of Americans to work at the cosmonaut training center, and also the first to visit Baikonur, the top-secret Soviet launch center, in 1974. His 17 July 1975 "handshake in space" with Soviet commander Alexei Leonov (who became a lifelong friend) proved to the world that the two opposing countries could indeed work successfully together.
Stafford has continued in this leadership role right up to the present, participating in designing and evaluating the Space Shuttle, Mir, and the International Space Station. He is truly an American hero who personifies the broadest spirit of exploration and cooperation. 30 b/w photographs.
Customer Reviews:
We Have Capture C.......2007-03-15
The book arrived within the scheduled delivery time in excellent condition.
Thank you,
Mark & Francine Keehnel
Good Job General!.......2004-08-13
A good read for the space enthusiast. Stafford really doesn't flood us with too many details in this book but his insight especially after ASTP is quite fascinating. I would have like to have more information on the two Gemini missions and the Apollo 10 mission personally but this book goes beyond the arena of so many other books on the glory days of the space program and takes us into the area only for the privileged few that make space policy. Stafford's influence and pure guts to facedown the Russians beginning with the ASTP flight and continuing on through the ISS is quite reveling. It is also interesting to get Stafford's perspective on the Mir / Shuttle flights after reading Walt Cunningham's book (who's opinion is diametrically opposed to Stafford's along with both of their relationships with George Abby). All in all this was slightly abbreviated for me, I feel it could have used more details but still a good read.
Congress - Read Carefully, Take Notes, & Listen to Stafford.......2004-01-04
I have read several of the astronaut books, and this one was quite a bit different. I liked the insights Stafford gave on the current space program. Congress, please take note and listen to America's most experienced astronaut.
In some of my other reviews, I mention that I grew up on the back gate of NASA JSC most of my life, and I am also an engineer. Our senior design project in 1994 at Texas A&M involved designing a Single Stage to Orbit launch vehicle. Why did only Lockheed-Martin receive funding for this, and why did Congress cancel the X-33 in 2001? I'm waiting for a team to take the X-Prize before the January 1, 2005 deadline (see www.x-prize.com) , and open up some moments for the privatization of space. Let's go back now.
What I liked the best out of this book was how the Soviet space program was paralleled with the U.S. Space Program, and how Alexei Leonov and Tom Stafford became lifelong friends. It is interesting how the security has changed, where placing a phone call can now be done by a cell phone.
Stafford has much of his Air Force career covered here too, and bits and pieces of Annapolis. I really enjoyed the chapters on him being a test pilot, and an instructor, especially as General Stafford mentions about being stationed in Germany (flying in dense fog regularly makes for a more experienced pilot), and flying out of Ellsworth in South Dakota. I did like how he applied to Harvard Business School, was accepted, and found out 3 days later that NASA selected him for Group 2. There were several details and insights into the Gemini and Apollo days in here, and I read this book fairly quickly. My brother gave it to me for Christmas, and I am grateful that he did.
The last third of the book was about his career after leaving the space program. Commanding the Test Pilot School at Edwards AFB - General Stafford boosted morale so much there (a good story about painting barracks) that the enlistment rate increased 80% at Edwards with Stafford at the helm (good people skills), and a little about running a consulting company.
I can tell that General Stafford is a good Administrative person, and I did like his insights on what happened to the Shuttle program (started off simple, got complicated, breakdowns in communication, too many chiefs, not enough Indians), and why haven't we been back to the moon. I would love to build a nuclear powered rocket or a smaller launch vehicle to get to the Space Station. When are we going back to space?
An Astronaut Apart.......2003-12-20
This is a very fine book that is sure to benefit all readers interested in America's adventure in space. Tom Stafford is one of America's most significant astronauts, although he is less well known than some of the others. While Stafford's four spaceflights--Gemini VI, Gemini IX, Apollo 10, and Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP)--made critical contributions to the development of American space capability in the pioneering era of the 1960s and 1970s, his efforts since the 1970s as the unofficial ambassador to the Soviet Union for space and his key roles in defining space policy in the United States have been even more critical to the evolution of human space flight. One senior NASA official has said, and I agree with the assessment, that Stafford's efforts have shaped every important policy issue affecting human spaceflight for the last quarter century. In these arenas of Stafford's career this book makes important contributions to understanding. Stafford, furthermore, has a credible and exceptionally capable space writer to assist him in putting this book together. Michael Cassutt is the author of many other books, including one with Deke Slayton. Both Stafford and Cassutt deserve credit for presenting a complex person and complex era clearly and concisely.
This book may also become a benchmark in the historiography of human spaceflight because of its insights into the American/Soviet relationship in space. There have been since the 1950s no two spaceflight programs that have been more closely tied than those of the United States and the Soviet Union/Russia, sometimes as rivals and at other instances as cooperative efforts. Stafford has played a key role in both the rivalry and the cooperation. This autobiography discusses the push and pull of these two programs and demonstrates that even as competition reigned in the 1970s a thawing was taking place that led eventually to the cooperative construction of the International Space Station (ISS) at the end of the twentieth century. Because of Stafford's close association with Soviet leaders and cosmonauts beginning in 1971, as well as during the ASTP program, in the early 1990s he was privy to many of the negotiations and served as a means of back channel communication between Russian and U.S. leaders that led to bringing Russia into the ISS program. That story cannot be adequately told without Stafford's account of what took place in the negotiations.
This book provides a valuable first-person account of significant aspects of human spaceflight since the 1970s. It has appeal not only to specialists as a record of a principal actor in the arena, but also to spaceflight enthusiasts who want intimate accounts by astronauts.
Pretty good.......2003-02-10
Where this book provides more info from others of its ilk:
- some decent "beginning" tales. I was hopeful that this would continue in such detail to give a full picture of the man. More on this later.
- Some excellent Gemini tales, particularly about himself, Grissom, and Schirra.
- Lots of post Apollo stuff, and interesting ASTP, ISS, and shuttle info. I personally was unaware of stafford's importance in the 90s in organizing various committeees to discuss NASA futures, and ISS, and think it's a shame that he declined the oppportunity to become NASA Admin.
- some more detail about alexei leonov, the great russian cosmonaut (and soviet space program in general) is sprinkled throughout the book, as he and Tom are very good buddies. There's an attempt to present their careers in parallel perspective - sometimes successfully, sometimes not. One nice piece is the Bondarenko bit - this has been reported by Oberg and others, but placed neatly in context here. Nice.
Where this book is no better
- most of the apollo era. Not much new here, little new insight.
Where this book fails to fully satisfy
- No deep insights or understandings or Mr Stafford himself. I'd wager he's a friendly-on-the-surface (certainly seems to get along with almost everyone) but hard-to-get-to-know-beyond type of fellow. Which is fine is all you want is space wonk stuff and policy info, which this book genrally delivers - but frustrating if you really want to understand the man, his families, and his friends. The bits about Faye and the astronaut wives felt tacked on - as if the authors had read Gene Cernan's book and decided "well we gotta follow suit here"...but did so half-heartedly.
- you have to put up with the usual par-for-the-course slightly egotistical way of looking at things. This is by no minds Mr Stafford's sole demesne - all the astronaut's possess this, perhaps rightfully so. I guess that only strongwilled strongego fellers could prosper in the space program. Esp. if they became 3 star generals later. But it does sometimes get to one while reading along (eg when he makes the offhand remark about how NASA folks were impressed by how long his client list was)
- a little too unwilling to pass judgement (and hence even hint at his feelings) on fellow astronauts. An example is where he recounts the issues with Apollo 7 crew and OTHER people's opinions without really expressing his own. Oddly, the major exception is Gus Grissom, whom Tom seems to like but also points out a few misjudgements on his part.
- a little too stiff in general. Even if he didn't tell us, I could tell he was "general-speaking". More and more I wish Pete Conrad had lived to write his memoirs. Those would have been foul-mouthed and crazy. Ah well.
In short I think it needed say 75 more pages sprinkled all about that delved more deeply into the man. Whether this is the fault of Mike Cassutt (who also co-wrote Deke!, which I thought went a bit deeper but also descended even more evilly into "list making"), or Tom's own reticence, or my own critical eye. I dunno.
Still a decent book. I'd probably place it towards the top-middle of the pack. I found Slayon, Cernan, Kranz or Kraft (you really only need one), more informative.
Book Description
This digital document is an article from Air & Space Power Journal, published by U.S. Air Force on September 22, 2003. The length of the article is 1103 words. The page length shown above is based on a typical 300-word page. The article is delivered in HTML format and is available in your Amazon.com Digital Locker immediately after purchase. You can view it with any web browser.
Citation Details
Title: We Have Capture: Tom Stafford and the Space Race.
Author: Merrick E. Krause
Publication:
Air & Space Power Journal (Refereed)
Date: September 22, 2003
Publisher: U.S. Air Force
Volume: 17
Issue: 3
Page: 118(2)
Distributed by Thomson Gale
Amazon.com
Did you know that neither temperature nor hunger sparks bird migration? That many species migrate at night? That some birds migrate more than 5,000 miles in a single, uninterrupted flight? "We are such stodgy, rooted creatures," observes the author of this fascinating book. "To think of crossing thousands of miles under our own power is as incomprehensible as jumping the moon. Yet even the tiniest of birds perform such miracles."
For anyone curious about the lives of migratory birds (and, incidentally, those of bird-obsessed humans), this book is a great nest of information. The author has traveled all over the world banding and observing birds and talking to the experts--amateur birders and ornithologists who have made many of the important discoveries about bird biology. From Alaska to Lake Erie to the limestone forests of Jamaica, Weidensaul reaches not only for the scientific particulars but for the universal stories and humanizing, descriptive turns of phrase that keep this book from bogging down in statistics and jargon. By book's end the reader is unable to resist the heart of this compelling story, a plea for the conservation of habitat to keep these miraculous creatures on--or at least circling--the earth. --Maria Dolan
Book Description
Bird migration is the world's only true unifying natural phenomenon, stitching the continents together in a way that even the great weather systems fail to do. Scott Weidensaul follows awesome kettles of hawks over the Mexican coastal plains, bar-tailed godwits that hitchhike on gale winds 7,000 miles nonstop across the Pacific from Alaska to New Zealand, and myriad songbirds whose numbers have dwindled so dramatically in recent decades. Migration paths form an elaborate global web that shows serious signs of fraying, and Weidensaul delves into the tragedies of habitat degradation and deforestation with an urgency that brings to life the vast problems these miraculous migrants now face. Living on the Wind is a magisterial work of nature writing.
Customer Reviews:
Outstanding and thoroughly enjoyable popular science work on birds .......2007-06-16
_Living on the Wind_ by Scott Weidensaul is a very ambitious book, one in which the author tried to convey both the science and the drama of bird migration in the Western Hemisphere, traveling for six years from Alaska to Argentina and speaking to experts as well as viewing close up an amazing variety of birds from the Arctic tundra to Central American rain forests.
The book is divided into three sections. "Southbound" focused on the fall migration as well as topics on migration in general.
Weidensaul stressed that one shouldn't view migration as moving away from something unpleasant, such as the cold, but rather as moving towards something beneficial, mainly an area where food is plentiful. Viewing migration as a simply north-south issue clearly shows a North American bias; birds in southern South America fly north to their wintering grounds, tropical birds fly relatively short distances but on migrations nonetheless in response to among other things the ripening of fruits or the blossoming of flowers, and many ocean birds undergo complex and intricate perambulations of entire oceans on an annual basis (the greater shearwater breeds in the South Atlantic but covers a 13,000 mile route every nine months, a route that includes going up past South America to Canada, then over to Europe in autumn, and then returning down the coast of Africa). Not all North American birds winter in the Americas; the bristle-thighed curlew nests in western Alaska but winters as much as 5,000 miles away in such Pacific islands as Tahiti, while the bar-tailed godwit winters 6,800 miles away from its Alaskan home in New Zealand (flying nonstop for up to five days).
The reader learns some birds are "complete migrants" (they entirely vacate their breeding grounds at the end of nesting season) and some are "partial migrants" (a portion of the population remains year-round). Most birds other than hawks migrate at night, partially to avoid predators (like hawks), to free up daytime hours for finding food, because the atmosphere is less turbulent at night, and because the chillier and damper night air can help cool overheated migrating birds and work to stem moisture loss. Thanks to human activity, many birds winter farther north than they once did, whether due to backyard birdfeeders in the case of finches or specially maintained refuges for waterfowl; this phenomenon is known as "shortstopping."
The author spent a good deal of time discussing how birds find their way on migrations. A fascinating discussion, migration involves a genetic program, a time of migratory restlessness when the daylight diminishes to a certain point and the urge to fly in a certain direction sets in, coupled in some species with a innate time-distance or time-and-direction (or vector navigation) program, a set of genetic instructions that instruct the bird to fly a certain direction for a specific length of time, change heading, and then precede on another for a preset period of time. Those directions are determined mainly by celestial and magnetic orientation but research has shown that infrasound (extremely low-frequency waves of the sort generated by ocean surf, which can travel for thousands of miles) may play a role as well.
Modifying this program though are a "hierarchy of orientation clues," which serve to refine a bird's navigation on subsequent flights, often enabling a bird to find specific breeding and wintering grounds with stunning accuracy. Clues such as learning geographic landmarks, olfactory, infrasound, and local magnetic clues help the migrating bird.
The second section, "Hiatus," focused on birds and their wintering grounds, from stay-at-home year-round resident birds alongside frozen Hudson Bay to birds of steamy rainforests and the Argentine pampas. Many birds like warblers and tanagers really are tropical birds to begin with; an oriole might spend four months in its temperate breeding range but seven months in the tropics, while some Canadian warblers spend less than three months there. Some birds migrate only as far south as southern Canada or the northern U.S. to winter. Others, such as the northern finches, follow an erratic and very unpredictable pattern of migration known as an irruption, a pattern tied to seed production in their normal range that in bad years may send birds as far south as the Gulf Coast.
The author discussed research on how faithful birds are to their wintering sites, debates over whether or not they are benefited by disturbed habitat, how flexible they are on their wintering grounds with regards to food and habitat, and how some species have completely different diets and habits on their wintering grounds (in some species the males and females will winter in different areas).
Threats to wintering birds were well discussed, covering such topics as the use of pesticides in Latin American countries (tens of thousands of Swainson's hawks have died from pesticides in Argentina), habitat destruction, changes in coffee-growing practices (shade-grown coffee plantations still have a great deal of habitat for birds but sun-coffee or technified farms are "biological deserts"), and disease (wetland destruction has forced waterfowl and shorebirds into overloaded federal and state refuges, what one researcher called "bird ghettos").
The third section, "Northbound," tracked the surge of migrants through the American Southwest, Great Plains, and the Gulf Coast. Topics of discussion often center on threats to migrating birds, including loss of hardwood forests along the Gulf Coast, a vital source of nutrients for migrating birds (increasingly usurped by industrialized pine plantations and beach homes), the loss of native grassland (a trend that is "nearly apocalyptic;" Iowa only has one-tenth of one percent left, while Minnesota has one percent left) which has caused grassland birds to decline faster, longer, and over a wider area than any other type, and the tremendous threats to breeding woodland birds due to forest fragmentation, opening up formerly deep woods to predators such as cats and also cowbirds, which are rapidly expanding their ranges and numbers and are a huge threat to eastern birds with no experience with brood parasites.
A keeper for birders.......2007-04-16
The detail and fluidity of this book amazes me. The author's passion for his love of birds shines through on every page. It's a work of love.
I didn't begin to "bird" until my days in New Jersey (2000-2004) when I'd drive to the beautiful Jersey Shore and watch water fowl and migratory eagles, falcons and osprey nest along the banks of the braggish waters. I've been fascinated by raptors ever since, and the chapter "River of Hawks" had me longing for more.
The author traveled all over North and South America, mixing in some travelogue with his more scientific paragraphs. His descriptions of Patagonia, AZ (p. 59) and Monterey, CA (p. 93) were right on target even for the non-birder.
The time he spent researching, traveling, meeting with locals is astounding. He traveled to Mexico, Argentinia, Alaska, Canada, Jamaica and various places within the United States to watch the birds himself.
The book ends on a melancholy note, citing the need to preserve and conserve what natural habitat we have left in the world, not just for our feathered friends, but for fish and humans. No work on nature would be complete without a passage of hope that natural nesting areas and a habitat free of toxins will prevail.
This book is a must-read. Like a few other reviewers have stated, my only recommendation would be perhaps a picture, even a black-white picture, of the many birds mentioned in this book.
Vivid and poetic language.......2004-11-10
The information on bird migration is absolutely engrossing. However, the language Weidensaul uses is even more enjoyable. I kept the computer dictionary next to me while reading the book to check the beautiful language used to describe bird behavior and their habitats. This book is inspiring and thought provoking even for non-birders like me (I am likely classified as a computer geek).
A Wonderful BookI.......2003-04-30
If you enjoy nature reading you will love this book. I am not a birder, but nevertheless found this book to be an eloquent and fascinating read. Weidensaul introduces and explores a world that occurs around us every day but that few of us know anything about. He writes extremely well. Overall, a wonderful book.
Tales of migration that read like a Crichton novel..........2001-06-06
This is absolutely one of the best non-fiction books I have ever read. Not only backyard birding enthusiasts, but anyone who has ever had even a passing interest in birds will love this book. Scott writes about birds in an understanding yet scientific manner that lends itself to wonderful readability while providing vast amounts of information. Beginning in Alaska, moving down the hemisphere to the pampas of Argentina, and back again, he takes the reader on a amazing journey that literally follows the paths taken by millions of birds each year. He combines personal field experiences with well assembled accounts of scientific research and ornithological history to paint a vivid picture of the swirling patterns of avian movement across the globe. If you have ever looked twice at a bird passing overhead, I highly reccomend picking up this valuable addition to any naturalist's library.
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ASIN: 1566702844 |
Book Description
Any mention of the "greenhouse effect" tends to ignite controversy. While the rising atmospheric concentrations of greenhouse gases-especially carbon dioxide- are certainly among the most pressing issues today, theoretical and perceived consequences have been subject to conjecture and misinformation. That raging debate has obscured an important fact: scientists and engineers are hard at work on methods to reduce CO2 emissions, and devise practical methods for their remediation. Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology sheds light on the most recent advancements, documented by two of the world's leading researchers on CO2. Aware of the complexity and still-unknown factors behind climatic change, the authors consider the need to make CO2 mitigation viable for both environmental and economic gain. To that end, Professor Halmann offers new insights into interesting chemical pathways for the conversion of CO2 to useful products. Steinberg adds real-life engineering solutions, applicable to heavy CO2-producing industrial processes, and improving efficiency of energy conversion. Exciting theories and pilot projects are also testing the potential for CO2 utilization, conversion, reduction, and disposal. Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology reports on the use of biomass, such as ocean fertilization and "energy farms," to put CO2 to practical and safe use. Professional and academic readers involved with CO2 research will find Greenhouse Gas Carbon Dioxide Mitigation: Science and Technology an invaluable roadmap for information and inspiration-a way to move beyond argument, and into action.
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