Book Description
A vibrant collection of essays on the cosmos from the nation's best-known astrophysicist.
Loyal readers of the monthly "Universe" essays in Natural History magazine have long recognized Neil deGrasse Tyson's talent for guiding them through the mysteries of the cosmos with stunning clarity and almost childlike enthusiasm. Here, Tyson compiles his favorite essays across a myriad of cosmic topics. The title essay introduces readers to the physics of black holes by explaining the gory details of what would happen to your body if you fell into one. "Holy Wars" examines the needless friction between science and religion in the context of historical conflicts. "The Search for Life in the Universe" explores astral life from the frontiers of astrobiology. And "Hollywood Nights" assails the movie industry's feeble efforts to get its night skies right.
Known for his ability to blend content, accessibility, and humor, Tyson is a natural teacher who simplifies some of the most complex concepts in astrophysics while simultaneously sharing his infectious excitement about our universe.
Customer Reviews:
Educational, eloquent, entertaining.......2007-10-15
Reading this book isn't a big investment in time. With a few dozen short chapters covering different topics, you can read it in spurts (like I did) when you've got a few minutes to spare.
A great primer on a variety of astronomical topics, written for the layperson.
Educational and entertaining.......2007-10-02
I have long known Tyson to be an excellent speaker and purveyor of scientific ideas with a Saganesque ability to convey the excitement of scientific findings with a bit more hipness and swagger to his talks than Sagan. This book is an excellent read through and through. I couldn't beat the feeling as I sat on the roof of a 14 story building in Curitiba, Brazil watching the sunset alone on the summer solstice (their winter solstice) while reading the section on Stick-In-The-Mud-Science and watching the long shadows creep across the sky and have Tyson explain to me all the celestial happenings around me (this really happened). Quite a magical read. The author presents complex scientific ideas in short, readable, cohesively-themed articles. Each article is on a topic familiar to us, upon which he expands towards scientific ideas which may be unfamiliar to us. There is enough overlap in the independent sections that the read feels like one is being 'taught' rather than just reading information. And Tyson is first and foremost a great educator. Although I did find myself trying to remember something from a previous chapter and flipping back through, I feel like I have learned a great deal about astrophysics from a book that was downright entertaining.
An enjoyable read for those with an interest in science and astronomy.......2007-09-27
The qualities that make Neil deGrasse Tyson so annoying on Nova Science Now are absolute positives when it comes to the written word. He is an intelligent and entertaining writer with an uncanny ability to reduce complex scientific concepts to bite sized chunks even I could (mostly) understand.
Death by Black Hole by Neil DeGrasse Tyson.......2007-09-19
An astrophysicist for the American Museum of Natural History, director of the world famous Hayden Planetarium, and columnist for Natural History magazine, Neil DeGrasse Tyson brings to the non-scientific world the ideal book for those fascinated with space, the cosmos, black holes, and all the questions and wonders therein. Death by Black Hole is the perfect book for the reader who wants answers to questions about the universe in a simple and clearly defined way so that even if they know next to nothing about science and it's jargon, Tyson makes it easily understandable.
While I was hoping for something a little more in depth in the style of Brian Greene's The Fabric of the Cosmos or Lee Smolin's The Trouble With Physics, Death by Black Hole nevertheless provides quick and simple answers to many questions everyday readers without a science background have about physics, the universe, space, and most matters dealing with the cosmos. The book is a selection of his columns in Natural History that are organized in a somewhat textbook fashion. Tyson starts with the idea of science and nature in its basic form, how humanity views Earth, the solar system, the universe. Along with this discussion, Tyson also gives minor history lessons on the development of different ideas in physics and astronomy, what people came up with what big ideas and how the progression led to the development of the big theories of our current time with string theory and relativity. Going on from here, Death by Black Hole address the crucial steps that led to the formation of the universe and its development over the many billions and billions of years, again explaining how it is that scientists know what they do and what instruments were used, as well as the history of who invented and used said instruments.
It is then that Tyson finally turns to the subject matter of the title of the book in the section "When the Universe Turns Bad: All the Ways the Cosmos Wants to Kill Us." Here he addresses the complex and still relatively unknown subjects of chaos theory, dark matter (which constitutes over 90% of all matter in the universe, while we still know next to nothing about it), and finally black holes. Tyson takes the reader on a hypothetical journey with what would happen if one were to be sucked into a black hole and how as they approached the event horizon, they would become stretched until the elasticity point of their skin was surpassed and the body would be torn into thousands then millions of little pieces.
With many questions now answered, in the next section Tyson discusses how science is viewed by the media, Hollywood, and people around the world in general. The final section addresses the concept of science and religion, again taking the reader on a historic journey through the development of first religion, then science, and the struggle that has ensued for centuries. It is the perfect end to a book on science, as Tyson lectures the importance of supporting fact and reality in a time when there are many who believe more in faith, even when all the evidence is to the contrary.
For more book reviews, and other writings, go to www.alexctelander.com
Conversational Cosmology 101 - Superb!.......2007-09-19
New York Planetarium director and astrophysicist Tyson has been writing a column for "Natural History" magazine for some 11 years - that makes about 132 short essays. Tyson says this monthly chore is "one of the most exhausting and exhilarating things I do." Forty-two of these essays appear in this volume, "mildly edited for continuity and to reflect emergent trends in science."
He divides these essays into seven sections:
1. THE NATURE OF KNOWLEDGE - The challenges of knowing what is knowable in the universe.
2. THE KNOWLEDGE OF NATURE - The challenges of discovering the contents of the cosmos.
3. WAYS AND MEANS OF NATURE - How nature presents herself to the inquiring mind.
4. THE MEANING OF LIFE - The challenges and triumphs of knowing how we got here.
5. WHEN THE UNIVERSE TURNS BAD - All the ways the cosmos wants to kill us.
6. SCIENCE AND CULTURE - The ruffled interface between cosmic discovery and the public's reaction to it.
7. SCIENCE AND GOD - When ways of knowing collide.
"Natural History" is the same magazine Stephen J. Gould wrote 300 essays for, overlapping with Tyson for seven years. In both cases, the authors excelled in making their respective fields (evolutionary biology and cosmology) easily readable for the general public, adding to their already impressive credentials.
From page 33: "This universality of physical laws tells us that if we land on another planet with a thriving alien civilization, they will be running on the same laws that we have discovered and tested here on Earth - even if the aliens harbor different social and political beliefs. Furthermore, if you wanted to talk to the aliens, you can bet they don't speak English or French or even Mandarin Chinese. You don't even know whether shaking their hands - if indeed they have hands to shake - would be considered an act of war or of peace. Your best hope is to find a way to communicate using the language of science."
The format provides for benign redundancy as the Big Bang, formation of galaxies, creation of the chemicals in the periodic chart, and predictable physics versus chaos of interactions are looked at over and over from differing perspectives. This book is highly entertaining and I recommend it for anyone who wants to buff up their knowledge of astronomy (cosmology, astrophysics...) or for the confirmed science nut like me. First rate!
Book Description
Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change by Martin Silberberg has become a favorite among faculty and students. Silberberg’s 4th edition contains features that make it the most comprehensive and relevant text for any student enrolled in General Chemistry. The text contains unprecedented macroscopic to microscopic molecular illustrations, consistent step-by-step worked exercises in every chapter, an extensive range of end-of-chapter problems which provide engaging applications covering a wide variety of freshman interests, including engineering, medicine, materials, and environmental studies. All of these qualities make Chemistry: The Molecular Nature of Matter and Change the centerpiece for any General Chemistry course.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent College-Level Introductory Chemistry Book.......2007-07-16
Although this book essentially starts from scratch, I'd recommend it to people who have already had high school chemistry. If you haven't had that, you should still do okay, but you may have to spend some extra time and effort since some of the most basic concepts are only skimmed over. They spend much more time on the material that you probably didn't cover in depth in high school chemistry.
First off, I would say that the book's content is excellent. It is an introductory (sort of) textbook, but it covers most of its topics in plenty of depth (at least as much as you would expect from an introductory general chemistry textbook). Also, the book does a great job at explaining the material in a clear fashion and it provides tons of illustrations. It is a very visual text and the author is obviously aware of the fact that visualizing chemical structures is extremely useful in understanding many of the concepts. This is especially useful in the section on covalent bonding.
The book also provides tons of useful exercises at the end of each chapter. The exercises range from very easy to fairly challenging, but they never seem too frustrating. Generally, I'd say that the exercises leaned more towards "easy" and are mostly just straight-forward applications of the material. Note: If you're having trouble, check out the ChemSkill Builder site. The exercises help a lot and it gives you useful feedback.
Whether it's for a class or for self-study, I would pick this book over any other.
great book, great explanations.......2007-06-17
along with chemistry the central science by brown, this is a great book. i think using both books in tandem is well worth it.
chemistry book.......2006-11-06
It is a very good text book and it was cheaper than the bookstores at the university.
book condition good.......2006-08-07
This book is in very good shape. It is a paper back version but the contents are exactly the same as a hardback version. The pages and chapters are the same. The cover of the book has slightly curled edges due to it being used. Other than that, the book is in good condition.
My Story with Chemistry and Silberberg.......2005-06-13
I am a chemistry major, that does not translate to "I like chemistry" but more along the lines that it was the only feasible premedical degree major.
I never did chemistry in High School and suffered tremendously with the thought of majoring in a science that I was unfamiliar with. What if I hated it? What if I wasnt any good at it? these were questions that haunted me prior to starting my degree. When I did commence, I found textbooks to be very costly and wanted the best for my money.
I realized that the price of a textbook does not make it good, nor the length of it. In saying so I started my chemistry studies with two books, one known as Basic Concepts of Chemistry by Malone, published by Wiley and the second was this. Chemistry the Molecular Nature of Matter and Change by Silberberg, published by Mcgraw Hill.
The first book helped establish an understanding of the fundamentals of chemistry, it was an excellant transition from the layman's english into the scientific paradigm. However when one is doing undergraduate chemistry especially in a premedical degree, it ends up not only being a study but a competition.
I found both these books to take me, an Individual who knew absolutely nothing about chemistry without any prior education in the science to someone who is now relaxed even with Organic Chemistry.
My liking and my understanding of chemistry came directly from these two books. I still treasure them to this day and would suggest anyone in my position to get these books.
I have seen and in detail read over 13 general chemistry books from Cheng to Atkins and even Zumdahl. I would deem these two (Malone and Silberberg) to be the best of all of them. However I do suggest that you peruse through various textbooks in a library prior to buying as an author's writing style matters a lot.
Most people who have an issue with Silberberg see him as being too pleonastic however I would think that he gives substantially beneficial explanations to all those concepts which can potentially render an individual confused and perplexed. Another complaint people lodge with Malone is that his style is too generalized and basic....however one is supposed to be a primer and the second to give and individual a robust understanding of a variety of ideas in Chemistry which are used over and over. Therefore both are appropriately written for the purpose they serve.
Amazon.com
The largely blue collar citizens of Kansas can be counted upon to be a "red" state in any election, voting solidly Republican and possessing a deep animosity toward the left. This, according to author Thomas Frank, is a pretty self-defeating phenomenon, given that the policies of the Republican Party benefit the wealthy and powerful at the great expense of the average worker. According to Frank, the conservative establishment has tricked Kansans, playing up the emotional touchstones of conservatism and perpetuating a sense of a vast liberal empire out to crush traditional values while barely ever discussing the Republicans' actual economic policies and what they mean to the working class. Thus the pro-life Kansas factory worker who listens to Rush Limbaugh will repeatedly vote for the party that is less likely to protect his safety, less likely to protect his job, and less likely to benefit him economically. To much of America, Kansas is an abstract, "where Dorothy wants to return. Where Superman grew up." But Frank, a native Kansan, separates reality from myth in What's the Matter with Kansas and tells the state's socio-political history from its early days as a hotbed of leftist activism to a state so entrenched in conservatism that the only political division remaining is between the moderate and more-extreme right wings of the same party. Frank, the founding editor of The Baffler and a contributor to Harper's and The Nation, knows the state and its people. He even includes his own history as a young conservative idealist turned disenchanted college Republican, and his first-hand experience, combined with a sharp wit and thorough reasoning, makes his book more credible than the elites of either the left and right who claim to understand Kansas. --John Moe
Book Description
With a New Afterword by the Author
The New York Times bestseller, praised as "hilariously funny . . . the only way to understand why so many Americans have decided to vote against their own economic and political interests" (Molly Ivins)
Hailed as "dazzlingly insightful and wonderfully sardonic" (Chicago Tribune), "very funny and very painful" (San Francisco Chronicle), and "in a different league from most political books" (The New York Observer), What's the Matter with Kansas? unravels the great political mystery of our day: Why do so many Americans vote against their economic and social interests? With his acclaimed wit and acuity, Thomas Frank answers the riddle by examining his home state, Kansas-a place once famous for its radicalism that now ranks among the nation's most eager participants in the culture wars. Charting what he calls the "thirty-year backlash"-the popular revolt against a supposedly liberal establishment-Frank reveals how conservatism, once a marker of class privilege, became the creed of millions of ordinary Americans.
A brilliant analysis-and funny to boot-What's the Matter with Kansas? is a vivid portrait of an upside-down world where blue-collar patriots recite the Pledge while they strangle their life chances; where small farmers cast their votes for a Wall Street order that will eventually push them off their land; and where a group of frat boys, lawyers, and CEOs has managed to convince the country that it speaks on behalf of the People.
Customer Reviews:
don't have to read the book.......2007-10-09
I don't care what state you live in, a democratic agenda (modern) is the most economically disadvantaged direction you can choose anywhere in the USA. Therefore I do not need to read the book to know that even with the sad state of the republican party today, it is preferable to the democratic party. However i plan on reading this book to understand what can possibly make the author write such a book directed at a state. (know your enemy)
don't waste your money.......2007-09-20
Do not buy this book. I came prepared to love it, I was really looking forward to an insightful, informed, inside view of this remarkable political 180 of our times. That is simply not this book. It may be well researched, but it is so poorly written that it is nearly impossible to find out. Negative, back-biting, harsh, judgemental, bad-mouthing, blame-the-other-guy psuedo "politics" IF you can call it "policits". Politically themed finger pointing is more like it.
The Land of Oz.......2007-09-15
The author writes a somewhat satirical look at middle America 's political affliations. He has two major thesis. The first being that by the Democrats trying to copy Republicans-and money interests have turned their backs on blue collar workers. These workers have only the social issues to make their political choices. The second part of the thesis ,is that the money interests of the backlash movement (as he calls conservative Republicans) have just payed lip service to ending abortion and gay marriage etc.
So the effect of this is to have a reverse French Revolution in which the common man votes Republican and against his/her economic interests. So farming communities shrivel up,unions die,people go without health care.
Frank a native Kansan explores with humor and interviews peeople of the backlash movement.He bemoans the fact that populism -a left wing philospohy born in the mid west is dead. William Jennings Bryan a fundamentalist Christion was a liberal Democratic Senator from Nebraska.He explores this transformation and his diagnosis would make Clinton supportors and free market libertarians both angry. Since he offend both ends of the sprecta his observations should be taken seriously.
Certainly their are flaws in his thesis. if the Republican party is only paying lip service to social issues ,why are Democrats so afraid of their Supreme Court picks. If Clinton was in the pay of moneyied interests why was the right so moblized against Hillary's health care plan ?
This is a provacative book that explains Red and White state differences and the psycholgy of political self delusion (Blue collar people voting for big moneu interests)
thought-provoking, albeit hackneyed, look at America's Third Estate.......2007-08-02
Looking at Kansas today, it seems hard to believe that the archetypal American Heartland was once a hotbed of left-wing populism. "What's the Matter With Kansas?" shows us a bizarre socio-political landscape where a rural-suburban proletariat ardently defends corporate privilege in hopes that there will be an abortion ban or flag-burning amendment in it for them somewhere down the line.
Given Thomas Frank is a native Kansan, the detached tone he takes in his survey is disappointing. At many points, he comes across as preachy and high-minded to the point that you almost understand why the people of Kansas are so wary of "liberal elites". Rather than focusing on the lack of corporate accountability and excess that bring about the layoffs and cutbacks that hurt working class Americans, Frank takes swings at NAFTA and the many other trade policies that helped make the economic salad years of the 1990s possible.
While it becomes clear that in many cases the white Protestant gun-owning Average Joe is making a mistake when he votes Republican, Frank makes a grave mistake when he turns his nose up at the social and religious values this stratum of society holds so dear. He overlooks the fact that liberals are guilty of this same indulgence of principles. If it's so irrational for a churchgoing factory worker in Kansas to vote for a Republican corporate shill in order to protect his Second Amendment rights, why does it make any more sense for a Harvard-educated six-figure-earning professional to vote Democratic and have his taxes hiked up for the sake of protecting the Roe v. Wade decision?
Frank also overlooks the fact that Kansas was reliably Republican for years before the conservative backlash of the 1980s. Kansas was a Red State back when the GOP was still the party of Dwight Eisenhower, Nelson Rockefeller and Gerald Ford (and the people who would eventually make up the neo-conservative Republican coalition were still Conservative Democrats).
As a moderate Republican who happens to support affordable higher education, I was particularly offended by Frank's portrayal of Kansas' "Mod Squad" as arrogant corporatists. All in all, Thomas Frank has raised a lot of important questions, but his survey of the state he grew up in seems sadly detached and out-of-touch.
Well-written, entertaining but fails to live up to the title.......2007-07-08
Thomas Frank stated purpose is to tell how Conservative won the hearts of the working class, the middle class and the rich all at the same time. His answer is that rich, Republican elites throw up red herring issues (abortion and gay marriage are two that he mentions frequently) that bamboozle the working poor and the middle class into supporting them and their greater cause of Free Market Capitalism and International Free Trade even though Capitalism and treaties such as NAFTA inevitably beat the little guy into a pulp (his thought, not mine).
Yep. That's about it, although Mr. Frank says it much better than I just did. He also never goes into detail about why Capitalism and Free Trade are both evil (he just assumes you agree, I suppose), although he is very critical of Bill Clinton for supporting NAFTA throughout the book. Big business, especially Wal-Mart, are also to blame for de-populating the Kansas countryside. Apparantly, Wal-Mart has some larger agenda in which they plan to drive their customers away from the stores they build in the country...
Seriously, the book would have been helped by further explanation as to why Mr. Frank is such an opponent of Capitalism. He has another book on just that subject, according to a tiny bit of research on my part. It might be a help if readers read that book first, especially in light of Mr. Frank's view that all politics is based in economics: "Most of us think of politics as a Machiavellian drama in which actors make alliances and take practical steps to advance their material interests." (p. 121)
Mr. Frank's fails to properly tell us "How conservatives wone the heart of America" because he does not really believe, deep down, that people will vote in ways that he sees that are economically disadvantageous (Free Trade, etc.) unless they are tricked into doing so. People really believing in other issues and voting for them are foreign to his way of thinking.
This teacher gives it a C-. Thomas Frank really fails to adaquately address the thesis of the book, as expressed by the title. Interesting readiing, nonetheless.
Book Description
The Biology of Belief is a groundbreaking work in the field of New Biology. Author Dr. Bruce Lipton is a former medical school professor and research scientist. His experiments, and those of other leading-edge scientists, have examined in great detail the processes by which cells receive information. The implications of this research radically change our understanding of life. It shows that genes and DNA do not control our biology; that instead DNA is controlled by signals from outside the cell, including the energetic messages emanating from our positive and negative thoughts. Dr. Lipton's profoundly hopeful synthesis of the latest and best research in cell biology and quantum physics is being hailed as a major breakthrough showing that our bodies can be changed as we retrain our thinking.
Customer Reviews:
Wonderfully interesting.......2007-10-17
I'm studying hypnosis so I've been trying to understand the science behind healing and the subconscious. This book definitely gave me what I want. I'm not much of a "science bug". This book was written in a way that I could understand it. Some of the heavier science parts could be read more than once for a total understanding but I didn't feel the need to do that. Mr Lipton certainly ties it all together in the end. I recommend this book to anyone.
Great Validation for My own conclusions.......2007-10-13
I ran a school of holistic health for eleven years in California. I was ecstatic to find this book. It validates my own theories that I have adopted over the years through studying holistic alternative medicine based on ancient knowledge. I have been able to overcome genectic patterns that many of my family members have accepted and embodied.
I also watched a video of Dr Lipton and find him and his work to be enlightening and highly empowering. My hat is off to Dr Lipton for taking a stand against modern prescription drug companies. These companies want us to buy into the germ theory and genetics and give our power away to drugs.
I offer retreats in Sedona, Arizona, and am a clinical hypnotherapist. Many people who visit and are on drugs for high blood pressure, depression, and other medications. I reccomend that they seek out naturopathic assistance to reclaim their health. Medications are not an answer and Dr Lipton supports that theory. His book is an excellent resource and guide to reclaim your health and build a new health beleif.
In all my years in the holistic health field (more than thirty) I have always found the body to be able to heal itself once you remove the beliefs blocking health.
A Gift of Choice.......2007-10-11
Readers who are not scientifically disposed may feel disinclined to slog through the long and rather dry explanations of cellular biology that Dr. Lipton presents, but those who manage to do so will be rewarded with information that can open their mind to a new way of perceiving and experiencing our world. Above all else, Dr. Lipton's research points out that we are not slaves to genetic programming. He explains that the cell membrane, which behaves like a programmable computer chip, allows us to have a far greater say about how we experience our bodies and the world than we may have understood before. What does this mean on a practical level? We can choose not to participate in so-called "genetic" diseases that may have shown up in our family history by consciously embracing thoughts and emotions that give the body a different message.
Dr. Lipton likens the body to a country that is populated by trillions of conscious cells that are governed by the mind. We each have the responsibility to ask ourselves what kind of government we are running. One that places the cell population in a state of constant fear, or one that assures the cell population that all is well? Fear causes the cells to stop reproducing and retreat into a protective mode while messages of peace and well-being promote their growth and healthy replacement. Dr. Lipton does not tell his readers to merely start thinking happy thoughts. He addresses the subject of the powerful subconscious as an emotionless data bank that processes 20,000,000 bits of environmental stimuli per second compared to the conscious mind which processes 40 bits of information per second. As Dr. Lipton points out, it is the subconscious which must be reprogrammed if we are to see real change in our lives. This means moving outside group consciousness, closing our minds to the media and thinking for ourselves. Is this easy? No. Is it worth it? Undoubtedly.
While Dr. Lipton does offer some practical advice on conscious parenting, we felt that he leaves the reader hanging in a disappointing epilogue entitled "Spirit and Science" and an addendum that serves as an advertisement for a Kinesiology based program called PSYCH-K. In the epilogue, Dr. Lipton argues that the earth will ultimately be transformed into a paradise of love. He predicts that this will take place through a non-Darwinian type of evolution that he calls the "survival of the most loving." This serves as a disappointing ending to readers who were looking forward to a "how to" chapter that would give them more practical applications for the material that was presented.
Lee & Steven Hager are the authors of Quantum Prodigal Son: Revisiting Jesus' Parable of the Prodigal Son from the Perspective of Quantum Mechanics
Biology meets Spirituality.......2007-10-01
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN DAVIS here,
A book of the highest existential order.
DOCTOR PETER TEIMAN DAVIS
Sweden
Not as groundbreaking as it suggests.......2007-09-19
I certainly applaud the author, especially one from such a science-oriented background, for writing this book. He attempts to "prove" the power of the mind with scientific studies, etc. On some levels he succeeds; there are certainly some surprising and interesting studies he cites.
However, the book is entirely too filled with tedious, dry scientific discussion that, in my opinion, really didn't need to be there. He could've greatly shorted that part of the book. Also, I can't help but raise and eyebrow at parts of the book where the author says things like "I discovered the secret of life." His "secret" is something that, if you've been involved at all in "alternative medicine" for any amount of time, you'd already know. Also, I think that comment was entirely inaccurate. I didn't come out of this feeling there was any ground-breaking, belief-shattering discovery. Compelling, yes, powerful, yes, but come on, don't go overboard.
In the end, he provides very little that you can actually do to change your biology, other than "think positive thoughts" and similar things. Again, something energetic healers have known for decades, if not centuries. Almost as an afterthought, he has a section at the end, about two pages, where he mentions an exciting new science based on energetic psychology, that can greatly change peoples long-standing beliefs, and reprogram their subconcious, leading to true change. THAT is what I was lead to believe THIS book was about. So, overall, I would skip this book and get another book that actually expands on this idea.
Book Description
The student-friendly style of the book makes the content accessible without sacrificing either breadth or depth of coverage. The text's informal writing style, emphasis on problem solving, and state-of-the-art media package make this book an ideal fit at schools with large class sizes and a wide range of student abilities and backgrounds. The authors' goal was to create a complete package (text + media + supplements) which would challenge the better-prepared students and provide support to the lesser prepared students, giving ALL students a chance to succeed. 4e welcomes a new co-author Fred Senese, Frostburg State University, the creator of the award-winning General Chemistry Online and Ask Antoine (the most hit general chem web resource in the world with over 15 million hits/year). In addition to creating the new Brady/Senese website, he has also worked with Jim Brady to do significant revisions in the text.
Customer Reviews:
excellent text.......2005-01-17
This textbook is an excellent way to learn chemistry. It provides very nice graphics to explain the text. This text makes learning chemistry very enjoyable and interesting. Senese and Brady did a wonderful job with this book. I highly recommend it.
this text does stand out from the pack..........2004-03-13
...in a number of ways. The chapter on stoichiometry is the first one I flip to when I'm evaluating a new text. This book does a better job of providing a conceptual foundation for the mole concept than any other book I've seen. It shows the rationale behind the concept by working a few simple problems with and without moles. The problem setups emphasize strategic thinking by asking students to identify the 'critical link' that connects given information with the problem's goal. The "Is the answer reasonable" checks given with each problem are more detailed and more helpful than in other texts; they help students develop a sense for what is and isn't reasonable in the answer, using alternative back-of-the-envelope solutions that often provide additional insight into the nature of the problem.
The chapter on atomic structure is the only one I've seen that uses the central idea of quantum mechanics (wave-particle duality) as its central theme. It elegantly uses the de Broglie relation to tie wave and particle behaviors together, in the process naturally explaining where quantum numbers come from and why changes in electron confinement in a reaction can lead to color changes.
The thermodynamics chapter is also quite innovative, discarding the idea of entropy as a measure of disorder and instead stressing its connection with the number of ways a state can be realized. A simple model of heat flow from a hot object to a cold object makes the connection between probability and process spontaneity clear.
The approach for explaining and predicting molecular shapes is much better than that used in other texts, where students end up memorizing a large table of molecular shapes. This text starts by showing how electron domains arrange themselves the central atom, and then visualizes how the molecular geometry changes as bonding domains are replaced with nonbonding domains, one at a time. Students see the underlying idea without getting lost in a mass of detail and special cases.
I also like the "Thinking it through" problems at the end of each chapter, that emphasize critical and strategic thinking rather than simply getting a numerical answer. Ebbing and Chang don't have this feature. The "Test of facts and concepts" are cumulative tests that students can use to synthesize material from several chapters; I haven't seen another text with this feature, either.
a chemistry book for all science purposes.......2004-03-12
THIS BOOK IS A GREAT GUIDE FOR ANY STUDENT WHO WANTS TO LEARN CHEMISTRY AND ALSO A GREAT GUIDE FOR THOSE WHO WANT TO PREPARE3 THEM SELVES FOR WHAT'S AHEAD AT UNIVERSITY.
Best in itself.......2003-09-11
I have read older editon of this textbook. Older 3rd edition (1988). But it still stands tall among couple of other chemistry books on my shelf. No other book can match the style and elegance of Brady's book IMHO.
There are a lot of books out there maybe more detailed. But Brady's is the one that explain why certain concept is important, how they were discovered and by whom they were developed. Instead of starting explaining each key concenpts in Chemistry, Brady's always start with how previous researchers reached the theory at that time period. And how we can relate them in terms of our current understanding of this wonderful of chemistry.
If Brady didn't lose any his touch, I am 100 % sure and can gaurantee this newer edition will follow its earlier edition's tradition. Even if your course doesn't require this book as a text, go grap one. If you can't afford newer one, go buy old edition. They are still a classic and in fact I am still using 1988 edition.
Very conceptual, not very mathematical.......2001-11-29
When I used this textbook, I was looking for a mathemtical/engineering approach to chemistry. This textbook, however, explains concepts with examples but little or no scientific proofs. I found myself filling in proofs from other courses like thermodynamics and science of materials. Overall, a very thorough book, but heavy on the memorization, and light on math and graphs.
Customer Reviews:
Fluid Mechanics.......2005-11-05
This book is very vague in some of the proofs that it contains, however if you have a good understanding of differential equations and some thermodynamics it is fairly easy to follow along, it does make a lot of assumptions that it doesnt explain, so there will be times when you are left scratching your head about a statement they have made, would be nice if it included an index to reference material within the book, i have found it useful in my work (biochemical engineering), however it is not a book i would recommend buying unless you have a working knowledge of the area or someone who does to help you
Biological fluid dynamics - first of its kind.......2005-06-16
A honest truth is that, to can understand the concept in this book, you must need the help of an expert like your professor or TA. The material is hard to follow, many of the proofs are incomplete/ or lack adequate steps. The assumptions are not explicity made, which will lead you to ponder on one problem for many hours.
But the book has a very nice mixture of engineering concepts (fluid dynamics) and its biological relavance, the first of its kind. Although conceptiouly it is very hard, the mathematical models presented are phenomenal and are presented with great care. To be sucessfully in the course, you must need a good balance in both attending the lectures as well as reading the book.
Book Description
This completely reorganized edition of the classic reference provides detailed information on the underlying physics and operational characteristics of all major bipolar, unipolar, special microwave, and optoelectronic devices. Integrates nearly 1,000 references to important original research papers and review articles, more than 650 high-quality technical illustrations, and 25 tables of material parameters for device analysis.
Customer Reviews:
Great fundamentals book.......2007-03-09
This book had all of the information for a good foundation. It is easy to read.
3rd Ed a good book, but less like Sze, more like Ng..........2006-11-10
This is a fairly good book; however, it is more like a 3rd edition of the Complete Guide to Semiconductor Devices by the second author Ng than the expected updated edition of Sze's classic. Many of the figures are the same as in Ng's book, and although more topics are covered than in Sze's 2nd Ed, the theory of what is covered is often less in-depth. This is a nice book to have, especially if you do not have a copy of Ng's book, but I would not get rid of your 2nd edition of Sze yet. I am giving it 3 stars not because it is a bad book, but I truly believe there is a great deal of similarity between this 3rd Ed of Sze and the 2nd Ed of Ng's book, and I feel a little disappointed.
still a bible.......2005-11-03
This book is not for undergrad. But if you want to be a guru, you still find this book very useful.
A classic work.......2002-09-08
If there should at all be one point against this book, then it is that it is a priced high (at least in my country). However I found that the text was worth the investment. This book is one of those must-haves for every electronics engineer.
The text is presented in a way that will appeal to any student as well as working professionals, and the least one can say is that it is extremely well-written. This text is an indispensable one.
A classic textbbok for semiconductor physics.......2001-12-19
As well known, this book is one of the classic books for semicoductor physics. It provides a lot of information in various devices, although some probably is outdated. However, as I know, the author was trying to tell the readers why and how semiconductor devices become what we see today. Because only we know about what the pioneers thinked, we can further modify or invite new semiconductor devices. I must agree that this book is not so easy to follow and read, but, don't froget, this book is devoted for advanced semiconductor physics course. It assumes the reader is already familiar with some foundamental semiconductor knowledge!
Book Description
Are boys and girls really that different? Twenty years ago, doctors and researchers didn’t think so. Back then, most experts believed that differences in how girls and boys behave are mainly due to differences in how they were treated by their parents, teachers, and friends.
It's hard to cling to that belief today. An avalanche of research over the past twenty years has shown that sex differences are more significant and profound than anybody guessed. Sex differences are real, biologically programmed, and important to how children are raised, disciplined, and educated.
In Why Gender Matters, psychologist and family physician Dr. Leonard Sax leads parents through the mystifying world of gender differences by explaining the biologically different ways in which children think, feel, and act. He addresses a host of issues, including discipline, learning, risk taking, aggression, sex, and drugs, and shows how boys and girls react in predictable ways to different situations.
For example, girls are born with more sensitive hearing than boys, and those differences increase as kids grow up. So when a grown man speaks to a girl in what he thinks is a normal voice, she may hear it as yelling. Conversely, boys who appear to be inattentive in class may just be sitting too far away to hear the teacher—especially if the teacher is female.
Likewise, negative emotions are seated in an ancient structure of the brain called the amygdala. Girls develop an early connection between this area and the cerebral cortex, enabling them to talk about their feelings. In boys these links develop later. So if you ask a troubled adolescent boy to tell you what his feelings are, he often literally cannot say.
Dr. Sax offers fresh approaches to disciplining children, as well as gender-specific ways to help girls and boys avoid drugs and early sexual activity. He wants parents to understand and work with hardwired differences in children, but he also encourages them to push beyond gender-based stereotypes.
A leading proponent of single-sex education, Dr. Sax points out specific instances where keeping boys and girls separate in the classroom has yielded striking educational, social, and interpersonal benefits. Despite the view of many educators and experts on child-rearing that sex differences should be ignored or overcome, parents and teachers would do better to recognize, understand, and make use of the biological differences that make a girl a girl, and a boy a boy.
Customer Reviews:
Good companion to Boys Adrift.......2007-09-21
I read Boys Adrift first, then came back and read this one. It is a good companion to the Boys Adrift and gives me a better understanding of where Dr Sax is coming from. As a parent I will change some discipline action now that I understand that my daughter will understand if I say I am 'disappointed' in her behavior. And my sons may just need to have privileges removed for bad behavior. Excellent explanation on what kind of discipline works for different age groups. Great book, well written, easy to follow and very enlightening.
Should be required reading for parents and teachers.......2007-07-25
I didn't want to believe that boys and girls are different. I came from a "we are all the same" bias but Leonard Sax convinced me otherwise. He managed to do so while being respectful to both genders.
This book is engaging and well researched. As promised by the author, in chapter 1, he backs up all his statements about how girls and boys are different with documented studies from peer-reviewed studies. But don't let me give you the wrong impression that this is a dry read. On the contrary, "Why Gender Matters" is a compelling read. It is filled with interesting stories and great suggestions for parents.
Dr. Jenn Berman
www.DoctorJenn.com
Author of The A to Z Guide to Raising Happy, Confident Kids
Really interesting information........2007-06-27
I am finding this book very helpful and accurate as I raise a son and a daughter.
Fascinating.......2007-06-27
More genuinely new and relevant information in this volume than in anything I've read in a long time. Have already bought about 10 copies to give as gifts and will certainly buy more - absolutely eye opening and revelatory, a must for any parent or teacher.
Sex Differences are Hard-Wired........2007-06-08
This brilliant and highly readable book demolishes the 70's fantasy
that sex differences are socially constructed. Dr. Sax, both a family physician and psychologist, writes compellingly and with sly humor on a number of interesting topics such as aggression, sex, discipline, and drugs. "Why Gender Matters" is thoroughly researched and guaranteed to challenge conservatives as well as liberals. Many members of both the medical and educational establishments really dislike this book so Sax must be doing something right!
Average customer rating:
- Comprehensive but poor
- Broad coverage, but lacking detail
- corrected printing has appeared
- at last, an update for Ashcroft & Mermin's book
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Condensed Matter Physics
Michael Marder
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Solid State Physics
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Principles Of Condensed Matter Physics
ASIN: 0471177792 |
Book Description
A modern, unified treatment of condensed matter physics
This new work presents for the first time in decades a sweeping review of the whole field of condensed matter physics. It consolidates new and classic topics from disparate sources, teaching "not only about the effective masses of electrons in semiconductor crystals and band theory, but also about quasicrystals, dynamics of phase separation, why rubber is more floppy than steel, electron interference in nanometer-sized channels, and the quantum Hall effect."
Six major areas are covered---atomic structure, electronic structure, mechanical properties, electron transport, optical properties, and magnetism. But rather than defining the field in terms of particular materials, the author focuses on the way condensed matter physicists approach physical problems, combining phenomenology and microscopic arguments with information from experiments. For graduate students and professionals, researchers and engineers, applied mathematicians and materials scientists, Condensed Matter Physics provides:
* An exciting collection of new topics from the past two decades.
* A thorough treatment of classic topics, including band theory, transport theory, and semiconductor physics.
* Over 300 figures, incorporating many images from experiments.
* Frequent comparison of theory and experiment, both when they agree and when problems are still unsolved.
* More than 50 tables of data and a detailed index.
* Ample end-of-chapter problems, including computational exercises.
* Over 1000 references, both recent and historically significant.
An Instructor's Manual presenting detailed solutions to all the problems in the book is available from the Wiley editorial department.
Customer Reviews:
Comprehensive but poor.......2004-06-25
I admire anyone who attempts to teach all of condensed matter physics in one book. That being said, being comprehensive and being comprehendible are two very different things. While being the former it sacrifices the latter. Marder does not do a good job of explaining the physical concepts needed to build a better understanding of advanced material. In addition, his end-of-chapter problems can be relatively uninformative and tedious i.e. you are left asking why did I just do this problem? Inevitably I find myself going back to Ashcroft & Mermin's wonderful but dated book. Hopefully one day they will publish a new edition...
Broad coverage, but lacking detail.......2003-10-05
I used Marder's book (the corrected printing) during a solid state physics course this past Spring 2003 semeseter. While I have to commend Marder at his attempt to provide a great deal of breadth on the enormous field of condensed matter, I think he fell short on the details and pedagogy that are necessary for someone new to the subject. Too often, I found myself (and the others I worked with) having to refer to Ashcroft & Mermin's text to complete HW problems assigned out of Marder's book. Also, his notation in certain chapters was unnecessarily confusing, especially the chapter(s) on phonons. I have since read most of the book by Taylor & Heinonen, and I found it to be of much more use than Marder's book. T&H's book is very well written and the concepts flow smoothly from one to the next. In fact, many of the things I struggled to understand last semester were so clearly explained in their text, that I wondered how I could have been so confused! Marder's book has been praised by others as a modern improvement to the A&M standard, but up-to-date topics are of little use if the first-timer has difficulty understanding the nuances of core ideas (e.g., transport, band-structure, and electron-phonon interactions). My opinion is that a good library should include A&M's text for those fundamentals that never go away (crystal structure, semiconductors, etc.) and a book such as T&H's or Chaikin & Lubensky's for the more modern topics ("soft" condensed matter, mesoscopic physics, etc.).
corrected printing has appeared.......2001-05-08
Note that a corrected printing (not 'new edition') came out in February 2001. Make sure you get this version, which is identified on the cover.
at last, an update for Ashcroft & Mermin's book.......2000-06-16
The classic solid state / condensed matter text by Ashcroft and Mermin (A&M) is now 25 years old. It's a very accessible and elegantly written book, but condensed matter is a fast-moving subject, and it's embarassing that A&M is still used today. The alternatives have all been too specialized, too formal, and/or too leadenly written in comparison.
This book by Marden may finally replace A&M. Like Ashcroft and Mermin, Marden is a member of the Cornell mafia. Some parts of the book practically echo A&M, and the writing style is at least as friendly to the beginning grad student ("Now it will be protested that atoms without dipole moments do not have dipole moments. This is true. However...") But the large number of new developments of the last 25 years are discussed or at least mentioned. In addition to the same-old band structure, magnetism, etc., liquids are covered (a surprising omission in A&M), as are surfaces, soft matter, optical properties of materials, etc. The book is fairly logically structured and works well as a text, except that there is way too much material here to cover in a year.
The first printing is full of errors, listed on a web page created by the author. You may want to wait until the second printing before plunking down $95 (too high for impoverished grad students). Top and bottom margins are practically nonexistent. Photographs and shaded 3D drawings are poorly reproduced and murky; they appear to have been printed on a smeary $79.95 inkjet printer and then reproduced.
Book Description
The authors explain their theory that sub-atomic particles from exploded stars have more effect on the climate than manmade CO2. Their conclusion stems from Svensmark's research which has shown the previously unsuspected role that cosmic rays play in creating clouds. During the last 100 years cosmic rays became scarcer because unusually vigorous action by the Sun batted away many of them. Fewer cosmic rays meant fewer clouds--and a warmer world. The theory, simply put here but explained in fascinating detail, emerges at a time of intense public and political concern about climate change. Motivated only by their concern that science must be trustworthy, Svensmark and Calder invite their readers to put aside their preconceptions about manmade global warming and look afresh at the role of Nature in this hottest of world issues.
Customer Reviews:
Cosmic rays can explain warm periods and cold in variable climates........2007-10-12
As a person who has done some research on global warming I had some questions about contradictions that I have found in other books. Such as why the Antarctic is cooling while the Arctic is melting. The blame man made CO2 gases cannot explain why this should be as CO2 gases are evenly spread in both hemispheres. This book gives a credible explanation.
During the Little Ice age artists doing landscapes and out door paintings almost invariably showed cloudy skies. Extreme weather events of pouring rains and cooling temperatures in the Northern Hemisphere were the norm with warmer intervals and fluctuating temperatures through out this period. Researchers have attributed the clouds and storms as a result of the cooling but in this book a plausible theory is put forth that the clouds and their formation were the cause of the cooling, not a symptom. The warmer spells could be attributed to times of a much more active sun, much like we have now, which interfered with the formation of clouds thus warming the earth.
An outstanding book........2007-09-24
Introducing a new theory about climate changing and global warming, the book brings lots of new information about the Earth, the Solar System and our galaxy, the Milky Way, their behavior and relationship with the climate on our planet. An interesting reading that busters the myths about carbon gas emissions and its consequence.
Interesting perspective indeed.......2007-07-31
I read this book not because I like controversial theories but just because I wanted to have a new perspective on climate change. The idea of cosmic rays affecting cloud formation is very interesting indeed since water vapor is the major player in the albedo of the planet and is the largest contributor to the greenhouse effect. Latest investigations though, shows that in the last 20 years cosmic rays have increased, and temperatures in earth continue rising but I wonder if 20 years can settle this debate since I'm not sure changes in some variable are reflected immediately in temperature. I agree that anthropogenic changes have affected earth climate, but I'm not very convinced that is the sole reason. We need to learn more about climate because, for instance, the ices ages cannot be explained just by the Milankovich cycles. In my opinion there is something else and we need to continue monitoring all the variables involved in order to have a better understanding of this important issue.
Astrophysics that creates goose bumps........2007-07-25
Authors present a fresh theory about solar cosmic rays effect on global temperatures. Hypothesis suggests that cosmic rays from exploding stars create low terrestrial cloud formations that cover 60% of Earth and that this, far more than industrial carbon dioxide production, determines global temperatures. Earth is basically still too large for industrial pollution to be the driving force of world temperature. The story illustrates well the introduction and evolutionary acceptance of a new idea that is contrary to an existing conventional wisdom that is already considered "politically correct." Although the authors conclude that their observations could be all wrong, this book will, in my opinion, become a new cornerstone to astrophysics and the establishment of governmental policy that will influence space policy and future nuclear research.
A Simplistic Extraterrestrial Hypothesis Accounting for Climate Change.......2007-07-21
Swedish astrophysicist Henrik Svensmark has collaborated with veteran British science journalist Nigel Calder in this book, "The Chilling Stars: The New Theory of Climate Change", which emphasizes Svensmark's hypothesis that a declining trend in cosmic rays entering the solar system is tied directly with decreasing cloud cover on Earth, resulting in global warming via solar radiation. While this is an intriguing hypothesis, it is also, regrettably, a rather simplistic one, which ignores the complex interaction of energy exchange between the world's oceans and Earth's atmosphere; an interaction that's been recognized by meteorologists, other climatologists, oceanographers, and geologists. Nor does it take into account the strong possibility that increased carbon dioxide - and aerosol - emissions from artificial, man-made sources have had an important impact on this complex interaction between the oceans and atmosphere, and have contributed deleteriously to global warming. Instead of this book, I strongly recommend Chris Mooney's recently published "Storm World: Hurricanes, Politics, and the Battle Over Global Warming" which does an admirable job in discussing the complex roles that both the oceans and the atmosphere play in affecting not only our daily weather, but more importantly, long-term trends in Earth's climate. There are other, more notable, instances where extraterrestrial matter has had a profound impact on not only Earth's climate, but also its biodiversity, as evidenced by the terminal Cretaceous asteroid impact (the "K/T impact event") approximately 65 million years ago which wiped out much of Earth's biota, including many marine organisms, and especially, on land, the non-avian dinosaurs (Moreover, it is quite probable that most of Earth's mass extinctions may have had extraterrestrial origins via asteroid impacts.). Regrettably for Henrik Svensmark, cosmic radiation isn't one of these notable instances.
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- Dragon's Gate (Golden Mountain Chronicles, 1867)
- Dragon of the Red Dawn (A Stepping Stone Book(TM))
- Educational Research: Planning, Conducting, and Evaluating Quantitative and Qualitative Research (2nd Edition)
- Einstein: His Life and Universe
- Electrical Power and Controls
- Electronic Design Automation for Integrated Circuits Handbook 2 Vol Set (Electronic Design Automation for Integrated Circuits Hdbk)
- Eragon / Eldest (Inheritance, Books 1 & 2)
- Evolution of American Urban Society, The (6th Edition)
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