Earth Science Technology

Although we usually think of technology as something unique to modern times, our ancestors began to create the first technologies millions of years ago in the form of prehistoric tools and weapons. Over time, eight key technologies gradually freed us from the limitations of our animal origins.

The Arthur C. Clarke award-winning author of Children of Time brings us an extraordinary space opera about humanity on the brink of extinction, and how one man's discovery will save or destroy us all.The war is over. Its heroes forgotten. Until one chance discovery . . . Idris has neither aged...

Dig into geology with this curricular high-interest, low-learning level series. An engaging exploration of rocks, minerals, and fossils will keep struggling learners interested and make learning easy. Featured infographics and SilverTips for Success guide listeners in reviewing key concepts from the books to reinforce comprehension and even gives them test-taking tips. This volume includes The Rock Cycle and Sedimentary Rocks.

Apologia’s Physical Science course has everything that students need to complete this course and successfully transition into high school biology, chemistry, and physics. Exploring Creation with Physical Science, 4th Edition teaches an introduction to properties of matter, atomic structure, the periodic table, chemical bonds, reactions, motion, forces, energy, waves, sound, light, electricity, magnetism, Earth’s structure, weathering, atmosphere, chemistry and physics in the life sciences, and finally physical science research.

The most transformative hundred years in human history has no name. Between 1830 and 1930, humanity invented anesthesia, electric light, the telephone, powered flight, motion pictures, radio, X-rays, germ theory, quantum mechanics, and general relativity. It abolished slavery, enfranchised women, built the transcontinental railroad, dug the Suez and Panama Canals, and reorganized every institution from the nation-state to the corporation. No other century comes close. And yet this century has no brand, no handle, no place in cultural memory. Ask anyone to name it and watch the hesitation. ...

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infested Siberia. He came up with a radical vision of nature, that it was a complex and interconnected global force and did not exist for man's use alone. Ironically, his ideas have become so accepted and widespread that he has been nearly forgotten.

Terry Tempest Williams's mother told her: "I am leaving you all my journals, but you must promise me you won't look at them until after I'm gone." Fans of Williams's iconic and unconventional memoir, Refuge, well remember that mother. She was a member of a large Mormon clan in northern Utah who developed cancer as a result of the nuclear testing in nearby Nevada. It was a shock to Williams that her mother had kept journals. But not as much of a shock as what she found when the time came to read them.

Reveals the cutting edge of New Science and shows how established science disallows inquiry that challenges the status quo--even when it produces verifiable results Contains 43 essays by 19 researchers denoting cutting-edge, heretical, or suppressed scientific research, including Immanuel...

Effie didn’t intend to bring death and destruction to Earth. But when Enforcers close in, Special Agent EAFY584 crashes her stolen starship into an uncharted solar system, and the only habitable planet is one its inhabitants call Earth. Good news: she can pass for a human teenager. Bad news: standard Enforcer protocol is to sterilize any world where a fugitive might be hiding. Now Effie has to warn an entire civilization that extinction is coming. There’s just one problem, nobody believes her. She tells the government she’s an alien. She tells them an invasion fleet is on its way. All...

For fans of Dennis E. Taylor, John Scalzi, and Andy Weir—a first contact story where the aliens don’t want our planet. They want our cigarettes. Charles Haley is unemployed, nearly broke, and desperate enough to accept a job offer he can barely hear over construction noise. He misses the part about artificial intelligence and alien species. All he catches is that someone wants him to run an import/export business. The product? Medical devices from beyond the stars that can cure any disease—including his fourteen-year-old daughter Suzy’s fatal bone condition. The price? Marlboros and...

A preeminent geneticist hunts the Neanderthal genome to answer the biggest question of them all: what does it mean to be human? What can we learn from the genes of our closest evolutionary relatives? Neanderthal Man tells the story of geneticist Svante Pbo’s mission to answer that question, beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in his sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2009.

Robots may one day rule the world, but what is a robot-ruled Earth like? Many think the first truly smart robots will be brain emulations, or ems. Scan a human brain, then run a model with the same connections on a fast computer, and you have a robot brain, but recognizably human. Train an em to do some job and copy it a million times; an army of workers is at your disposal. When they can be made cheaply, within perhaps a century, ems will displace humans in most jobs.

When it comes to climate change, the media, politicians, and other prominent voices have declared that "the science is settled." In reality, the long game of telephone from research to reports to the popular media is corrupted by misunderstanding and misinformation. Core questions - about the way the climate is responding to our influence, and what the impacts will be - remain largely unanswered. The climate is changing, but the why and how aren't as clear as you've probably been led to believe.

Ambassadors from Earth relates the story of the first unmanned space probes and planetary explorers - from the Sputnik and Explorer satellites launched in the late 1950's to the thrilling interstellar Voyager missions of the '70's - that yielded some of the most celebrated successes and spectacular failures of the space age. Jay Gallentine delivers a quirky and unforgettable look at the lives and legacy of the Americans and Soviets who conceived, built, and guided those unmanned missions to the planets and beyond.

Tornadoes are funnel-shaped clouds that can cause massive destruction on the ground. Their winds can swirl faster than 260 miles per hour! In addition to factual information, youngsters will learn about how such extreme weather affects the lives of people in areas where these atmospheric storms are common. Using clear wording, Gail Gibbons explains how tornadoes form, the scale used for classifying them, and what to do in case one should be near you.

The only planet to support life, Earth has a lot going for it. Think you know everything there is to know about our home planet? Think again. Discover more about the blue planet we call home.

Today, we take for granted that a telescope allows us to see galaxies millions of light years away. But before its invention, people used nothing more than their naked eye to fathom what took place in the visible sky. So how did four men in the 1500s - of different nationality, age, religion, and class - collaborate to discover that the Earth revolved around the Sun? With this radical discovery that went against the Church, they created our contemporary world. Heaven on Earth is an intimate examination of this scientific family.

What can smell like bubblegum, glow neon green at night, be poisonous and yet still eaten by humans, and even help create rain? The answer is mushrooms! From their hidden networks underground to the fruiting body above, mushrooms can do incredible things. But don't call them plants - mushrooms are fungi. They're more closely related to animals like you!

Discover the surprising case for how conservatism can help us achieve the epic sci-fi future we were promised. America was once the world’s dream factory. We turned imagination into reality, from curing polio to landing on the Moon to creating the internet. And we were confident that more...

For fans of John Scalzi’s wry humor and Becky Chambers’ warmth, The Prospector is a first contact story where the alien isn’t here to conquer—he’s here to loot the gift shop. In this present-day science fiction novel, Earth confronts an alien invasion. But not from a marauding army. It’s just one guy who got a bad tip. Jacob is a Prospector. He makes a living discovering lost civilizations on long dead-worlds and selling off their cultural relics. And now he’s chasing a hot lead about a world where the population has only recently perished due to climate change. The artifacts ...