Professional Science Books - Page 6

The Weather of the Pacific Northwest

Cliff Mass

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 By: University of Washington Press Amazon Marketplace: 10 new & used starting at $19.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Outdoors & Nature -> Environment -> Weather
Subjects -> Science -> Earth Sciences -> Meteorology -> General
Subjects -> Science -> Earth Sciences -> Meteorology -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Pacific Northwest experiences the most varied and fascinating weather in the United States, including world-record winter snows, the strongest non-tropical storms in the nation, and shifts from desert to rain forest in a matter of miles. Local weather features dominate the meteorological landscape, from the Puget Sound convergence zone and wind surges along the Washington Coast, to gap winds through the Columbia Gorge and the "Banana Belt" of southern Oregon. This book is the first comprehensive and authoritative guide to Northwest weather that is directed to the general reader; helpful to boaters, hikers, and skiers; and valuable to an expert meteorologist.In "The Weather of the Pacific Northwest", University of Washington atmospheric scientist and popular radio commentator Cliff Mass unravels the intricacies of Northwest weather, from the mundane to the mystifying. By examining our legendary floods, snowstorms, and windstorms, and a wide variety of local weather features, Mass answers such interesting questions as: Why does the Northwest have localized rain shadows? What is the origin of the hurricane force winds that often buffet the region? Why does the Northwest have so few thunderstorms? What is the origin of the Pineapple Express? Why do ferryboats sometimes seem to float above the water's surface? Why is it so hard to predict Northwest weather?Mass brings together eyewitness accounts, historical records, and meteorological science to explain Pacific Northwest weather. He also considers possible local effects due to global warming. The final chapters guide readers in interpreting the Northwest sky and in securing weather information on their own. Cliff Mass, Professor of Atmospheric Sciences at the University of Washington and weekly guest on KUOW, is the preeminent authority on Northwest weather. He has published dozens of articles on Northwest weather and leads the regional development of advanced weather prediction tools.

Your Inner Fish: A Journey into the 3.5-Billion-Year History of the Human Body (Vintage)

Neil Shubin

Amazon Price: $11.16 List Price: $13.95 Not yet published By: Vintage

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Evolution -> General
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Evolution -> General AAS
Subjects -> Science -> Biological Sciences -> Anatomy

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 78 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Could have used an Inner Editor 3 out of 5 stars.
3 of 3 people found this review helpful.

I should confess up front that my not loving this book is partly my own fault. Given Shubin's academic pedigree -- and it is impressive -- I expected the work to be more substantive. That he decided to write for a more general audience is not so much a problem as a simple disappointment.

But that's only part of my issue with the book. Simply put, it's poorly written. While literary style is not the forte of the majority of scientists, you'd expect them to have at least relied on a competent editor. Most offensive of all was his labored redundancy; important sentences were deemed so important that they were sometimes used -- essentially verbatim -- multiple times; if a point could be made in a short paragraph, Shubin used three.

Still, he has some interesting stories to tell, and while their connections to broader concepts are sometimes forced in rather painful transitions, the episode and ideas should hold the attention of most general readers.

Editorial Review:

Why do we look the way we do? Neil Shubin, the paleontologist and professor of anatomy who co-discovered Tiktaalik, the “fish with hands,” tells the story of our bodies as you've never heard it before. By examining fossils and DNA, he shows us that our hands actually resemble fish fins, our heads are organized like long-extinct jawless fish, and major parts of our genomes look and function like those of worms and bacteria. Your Inner Fish makes us look at ourselves and our world in an illuminating new light. This is science writing at its finest—enlightening, accessible and told with irresistible enthusiasm.

A Briefer History of Time

Stephen Hawking, Leonard Mlodinow

Amazon Price: $12.24 List Price: $18.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Bantam Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $9.90

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Astronomy -> Cosmology
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Physics -> General
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Physics -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 65 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

From One of the Most Brilliant Minds of Our Time
Comes a Book that Clarifies His Most Important Ideas

Stephen Hawking’s worldwide bestseller, A Brief History of Time, remains one of the landmark volumes in scientific writing of our time. But for years readers have asked for a more accessible formulation of its key concepts—the nature of space and time, the role of God in creation, and the history and future of the universe.

Professor Hawking’s response is this new work that will guide nonscientists everywhere in the ongoing search for the tantalizing secrets at the heart of time and space.…

Although “briefer,” this book is much more than a mere explanation of Hawking’s earlier work. A Briefer History of Time both clarifies and expands on the great subjects of the original, and records the latest developments in the field—from string theory to the search for a unified theory of all the forces of physics. Thirty-seven full-color illustrations enhance the text and make A Briefer History of Time an exhilarating and must-have addition in its own right to the great literature of science and ideas.

Godel, Escher, Bach: Un Eterno y Gracil Bucle

Douglas R. Hofstadter

Amazon Price: $17.95 List Price: $17.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Tusquets Amazon Marketplace: 11 new & used starting at $15.71

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> Computer Mathematics
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> General
Subjects -> Computers & Internet -> Computer Science -> Artificial Intelligence -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 244 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

¿Puede un sistema comprenderse a sí mismo ? Si esta pregunta se refiere a la mente humana, entonces nos encontramos ante una cuestión clave del pensamiento científico. Y de la filosofía. Y del arte. Investigar este misterio es una aventura que recorre la matemática, la física, la biología, la psicología y, muy especialmente, el lenguaje. Douglas R. Hofstadter, joven y ya célebre científico, nos abre la puerta del enigma con la belleza y la alegría creadora de su estilo. Sorprendentes paralelismos ocultos entre los grabados de Escher y la música de Bach nos remiten a las paradojas clásicas de los antiguos griegos y a un teorema de la lógica matemática moderna que ha estremecido el pensamiento del siglo XX : el de Kurt Gödel. Todo lenguaje, todo sistema formal, todo programa de ordenador, todo proceso de pensamiento, llegan, tarde o temprano, a la situación límite de la autorreferencia : de querer expresarse sobre sí mismos. Surge entonces la emoción del infinito, como dos espejos enfrentados y obligados a reflejarse mutua e indefinidamente. Gödel, Escher, Bach: un Eterno y Grácil Bucle, es una obra de arte escrita por un sabio. Versa sobre los misterios del pensamiento e incluye, ella misma, sus propios misterios. / Winner of the Pulitzer Prize, this book applies Godel's seminal contribution to modern Twenty years after it topped the bestseller charts, Douglas R. Hofstadter's Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid is still something of a marvel. Besides being a profound and entertaining meditation on human thought and creativity, this book looks at the surprising points of contact between the music of Bach, the artwork of Escher, and the mathematics of Gödel.mathematics to the study of the human mind and the development of artificial intelligence.

Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible

Jorge Cervantes

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Van Patten Publishing Amazon Marketplace: 29 new & used starting at $19.60

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> General AAS
Subjects -> Home & Garden -> Gardening & Horticulture -> Reference

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 54 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Awesome info... more than you need for your own meds... geared 2 Mass Producers 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Way too much info on how to grow 100 plants a month. I feel illegal just thinking about it.
I am just a normal person, Card Carrying Medical Marijuana Pt, who can't afford the $300 - $500 a month for Med grade Cannabis. ( My Pharm Meds are $1200... but my insurance Co. pays that scam! ). The Cannabis works ALLOT better!
I want to grow 1 plant every 3 months, like 99% of the legit patients. I would destroy any excess I overproduced... personally.

Obviously, this Author is beyond expert and is an authority on the subject. I would love a Medical Growers Bible for your "PERSONAL" Med crop. With a strict recommendation for personal use only. If you sell ANY, you are just a dealer... so, keep it clean... is the book " I " want. My personal opinion.
Regardless of your personal view.... respect the spirit of the law and intent of the society and community you live in. It is the flow.
Freedom Rocks!
215 and 420 set the rules. Just follow them and every one is happy.

Editorial Review:

With 512 full color pages and 1120 full color photographs and illustrations, Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor/Outdoor Medical Grower's Bible is the most complete cultivation book available. The Fifth Edition of the former Indoor Marijuana Horticulture: The Indoor Bible was originally published in 1983, when it immediately became a best seller. More than 500,000 copies of the Indoor Bible are in print in Dutch, English, French, German and Spanish. New greenhouse and outdoor growing chapters make this a book both indoor and outdoor growers will keep under thumb. The other 15 chapters (17 total) are all updated with the most current information, completely rewritten and significantly expanded. For example, Dr. John McPartland contributed an all new medical section - The books credits list more than 300 contributors and reads like a who's who in the world of cannabis cultivation.

The Complete Vision Board Kit: Using the Power of Intention and Visualization to Achieve Your Dreams

John Assaraf

Amazon Price: $16.32 List Price: $24.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Atria Books/Beyond Words Amazon Marketplace: 42 new & used starting at $12.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Business & Investing -> Management & Leadership -> Decision-Making & Problem Solving
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Self-Help -> Personal Transformation
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Behavioral Sciences -> Cognitive Psychology

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Few Materials -- Little Content 1 out of 5 stars.
9 of 15 people found this review helpful.

Assaraf's Vision Board Kit:
Wow, completely UNDERWHELMED...
This guy is living-off one story about his home, expanding it [to the hilt], running while he's "haute"; offering NO content, NO unique ideas, NO real platform of existing concepts/ ideas...
Don't waste your money; a HUGE disappointment.

I really liked the first 30-seconds of Assaraf [on The Secret], but outside that...he's a poor speaker, appears desperately running to maximize revenue from his only "story", while the overall content just is NOT there.

Assaraf is a Tony Robbins wannabe, with a weak/ no platform. The Vision Kit is a $5 value. If you've seen Assaraf in The Secret -- that's all he's got!

Editorial Review:

A vision board is a powerful tool that anyone can use to shape an ideal future through the power of intention and visualization. Learning how to vividly imagine your desired results--attracting your perfect soul mate, radiant health, abundant career opportunities, or building personal and community relationships to give back--is the first step on the path to making them happen. Break through unconscious, limiting beliefs and get ready to transform your future now. If you can envision it, you're halfway there! This book will explain and walk you through exactly how to create a vision board in conjunction with how to retrain your brain to actually start believing that you can achieve all your goals and dreams. Then, the universe will work its magic! This is a great personal gift and one your friends and family will love.

The Fabric of the Cosmos: Space, Time, and the Texture of Reality

Brian Greene

Amazon Price: $11.53 List Price: $16.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Vintage Amazon Marketplace: 100 new & used starting at $4.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Astronomy -> Astronomy
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Astronomy -> Cosmology
Subjects -> Professional & Technical -> Professional Science -> Physics -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 210 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

"The Entropic Arrow Of Time Is Double-Headed." 4 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

My educational background is largely in biology and chemistry, but I have always found physics the most intriguing of the sciences. I have studied and read a lot of physics books over the years, and having seen Brian Greene discuss some of the more confusing of the subjects in this book on television, was immediately convinced that I must read "The Fabric of the Cosmos". I truly applaud Greene's effort to produce such a comprehensive, up to date, and comprehensible book with no mathematics to speak of.

The book is largely a success, and covers the history of physics and physical thought, and brings the reader all the way through a groundbreaking explanation of string theory and M-theory. The book is quite well written and is generally easy to follow. I appreciated especially his explanations of the conflicts between general relativity and quantum mechanics, and the potential that string theory has in regards to a unified theory. I was somewhat unconvinced by his arguments about the symmetry of entropy in spacetime, though to be fair, I am unconvinced by some of Boltzmann's thinking on the issue, which is the ultimate origin of the philosophical predicament. Regardless of this and similar minor issues, I think most discussions are quite lucid and relatively logical and easy to follow.

The book falls down in a couple of ways: though relatively easy to read, it is extremely long. I have no problems with a lengthy tome, but this book sometimes labors under myriad examples and analogies which become redundant and very monotonous to read. Perhaps, for instance, the seemingly endless discussion of Newton's spinning bucket of water warranted a couple of pages, but here it just went on and on. The book could have been equally lucid and grasped just as well with many fewer extended analogies. It's obvious that Mr. Greene loves certain shows on television, as seemingly endless references to "The Simpsons" and "The X-Files" are common throughout the book. I hated this cutesy touch.

I happen to like math, but its absence here is wise as the book would obviously reach far fewer people if mathematical reasoning was added to the already cumbersomely long text. I did very much appreciate the notes in the back of the book which were very useful and delved somewhat deeper into subjects discussed in the text. On balance I recommend the book to people who want a basic introduction to historical and current physical thought, and who don't mind a degree of redundancy in the text.

Editorial Review:

From Brian Greene, one of the world’s leading physicists and author the Pulitzer Prize finalist The Elegant Universe, comes a grand tour of the universe that makes us look at reality in a completely different way.

Space and time form the very fabric of the cosmos. Yet they remain among the most mysterious of concepts. Is space an entity? Why does time have a direction? Could the universe exist without space and time? Can we travel to the past? From Newton’s unchanging realm in which space and time are absolute, to Einstein’s fluid conception of spacetime, to quantum mechanics’ entangled arena where vastly distant objects can instantaneously coordinate their behavior, Greene takes us all, regardless of our scientific backgrounds, on an irresistible and revelatory journey to the new layers of reality that modern physics has discovered lying just beneath the surface of our everyday world.

The Verbally Abusive Relationship: How to Recognize It and How to Respond

Patricia Evans

List Price: $7.95 By: Adams Media Corp Amazon Marketplace: 61 new & used starting at $0.01

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> By Topic -> Intelligence
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> Social Psychology & Interactions
Subjects -> Health, Mind & Body -> Psychology & Counseling -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 228 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

If you or someone you know answers "yes" to one or more of the following questions, this book is required reading:

Does your partner seem irritated or angry at you several times a week?
Does he deny being angry when he clearly is?
Do your attempts to discuss feelings of pain or emotional distress leave you with the feeling that the issue has not been resolved?
Do you frequently feel perplexed and frustrated by his responses, as though you were each speaking a different language?

Almost everyone has heard of or knows someone who is part of a verbally abusive relationship-if they're not involved in one themselves. In The Verbally Abusive Relationship, you'll find validation and understanding-it's "not all in your head"-and encouragement for your efforts to change the situation. In this expanded second edition, author Patricia Evans explores the damaging effects of verbal abuse on children and the family, and offers valuable insight and recommendations to therapists, as well as those who seek therapeutic support.

Salt: A World History

Mark Kurlansky

Amazon Price: $10.88 List Price: $16.00 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Penguin (Non-Classics) Amazon Marketplace: 110 new & used starting at $3.25

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> History -> Ancient -> Early Civilization
Subjects -> History -> World -> General
Subjects -> History -> World -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 106 Average rating: 3.5 of 5

Indiana Jones, this IS history 5 out of 5 stars.
1 of 1 people found this review helpful.

Remembering 2nd semester of Western Civ with a dynamic prof who loved to use the "spectrum of history" to link events...food, religion, war, hobbies, work. That is how this book is read and you must eat the whole salty pretzel to get the flavor. You must try not to quibble with a few sweeping generalizations and dwell on the great facts that link this history together. A great prequel or sequel to "COD"

well written and fun

Editorial Review:

Mark Kurlansky, the bestselling author of Cod and The Basque History of the World, here turns his attention to a common household item with a long and intriguing history: salt. The only rock we eat, salt has shaped civilization from the very beginning, and its story is a glittering, often surprising part of the history of humankind. A substance so valuable it served as currency, salt has influenced the establishment of trade routes and cities, provoked and financed wars, secured empires, and inspired revolutions. Populated by colorful characters and filled with an unending series of fascinating details, Kurlansky's kaleidoscopic history is a supremely entertaining, multi-layered masterpiece.

The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Daniel J. Levitin

Amazon Price: $17.13 List Price: $25.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Dutton Adult Amazon Marketplace: 69 new & used starting at $9.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Theory, Composition & Performance -> Appreciation
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The author of the New York Times bestseller and Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist This Is Your Brain on Music tunes us in to six evolutionary musical forms that brought about the evolution of human culture.

An unprecedented blend of science and art, Daniel Levitin's debut, This Is Your Brain on Music, delighted readers with an exuberant guide to the neural impulses behind those songs that make our heart swell. Now he showcases his daring theory of "six songs," illuminating how the brain evolved to play and listen to music in six fundamental forms—for knowledge, friendship, religion, joy, comfort, and love. Preserving the emotional history of our lives and of our species, from its very beginning music was also allied to dance, as the structure of the brain confirms; developing this neurological observation, Levitin shows how music and dance enabled the social bonding and friendship necessary for human culture and society to evolve.

Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitin's sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell, and David Byrne, along with classical musicians and conductors, historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The result is a brilliant revelation of the prehistoric yet elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at a wedding or cheer at a concert—or tune out quietly with an iPod.