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Qu'est-ce que l'effet de serre?: ses conséquences sur l'avenir du climat
By Michel Petit. 2003
Provoqué par les activités humaines, l'effet de serre additionnel est-il en train de modifier notre climat de façon irréversible? Spécialiste…
de la question, Michel Petit en fournit ici un exposé accessible à tous. On découvrira de quelle façon le phénomène se fait déjà sentir, en quoi le risque d'un changement climatique important est réel et quelles sont ses principales conséquences sur notre environnement. Notre mode actuel de développement économique et social est fondé sur l'utilisation de l'énergie des combustibles fossiles. Les émissions de gaz à effet de serre qui en résultent entraînant un changement climatique, notre modèle de développement est donc fondamentalement non durable. L'ouvage décrit avec précision les divers scénarios élaborés par les scientifiques pour évaluer les risques de l'effet de serre. Les incertitudes dont ces modèles sont entachés sont elles aussi soigneusement décrites. L'auteur montre l'ampleur de l'effort qu'il nous faudra fournir pour contenir le changement climatique dans des limites raisonnables. Il présente les approches possibles pour économiser l'énergie tout en apprenant à la produire en grandes quantités sans faire appel aux combustibles fossiles. -- 4e de couvEmpire of the stars: obsession, friendship, and betrayal in the quest for black holes
By Arthur I Miller. 2005
Examines the history of astrophysics in the early twentieth century when the concept of black holes was hotly debated by…
a young graduate student from India and a leading British scientist. Discusses their professional rivalry and its repercussions on their personal lives and the scientific community. 2005Einstein's heroes: imagining the world through the language of mathematics
By Robyn Arianrhod. 2005
Combines history, biography, and science to portray the ways in which Einstein's respect for Isaac Newton, Michael Faraday, and James…
Clerk Maxwell helped formulate his theories of relativity. Discusses Maxwell's equations for electricity and magnetism and the relevance of mathematics in building models of physical discovery. 2005The loss of the S.S. Titanic: its story and its lessons
By Lawrence Beesley. 2000
The personal record of one of the 705 survivors of the Titanic disaster in 1912. His eyewitness account is augmented…
by those of other passengers who were spared, contributing to a general report of events and behavior the night the ship sank within three hours of colliding with an iceberg. 1912Rocket boys: a memoir (Coalwood Ser. #1)
By Homer H Hickam. 1998
Retired NASA engineer reminisces about boyhood in West Virginia during the Sputnik era, when his first rocket launch burned down…
his mother's garden fence. He and his friends improved their models, ultimately winning the 1960 National Science Fair. The movie October Sky is based on this book. 1998Beasts of Eden: walking whales, dawn horses, and other enigmas of mammal evolution
By David Rains Wallace. 2004
Naturalist examines ancient mammal fossils and the paleontological battles about evolution that followed their discoveries. Discusses such scientists as Georges…
Cuvier, Richard Owen, Edward D. Cope, George Gaylord Simpson, and Stephen Jay Gould and describes their ideas and controversies. 2004The book of the year: a brief history of our seasonal holidays
By Anthony F Aveni. 2003
Anthropology professor traces the origins and history of modern customs and traditions that are part of our annual seasonal calendar.…
Explains how various cultures, ancient festivals, and myths contributed to these observances and how they evolved as societal needs changed. 2003Made in America: from Levis to Barbie to Google
By Nick Freeth. 2005
Concise alphabetical profiles of some two hundred iconic U.S. products. Provides a brief history, manufacturing and stock information, and facts…
for items such as Brillo, Budweiser, Campbell's Soup, Coca-Cola, Cracker Jack, Heinz ketchup, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Kool-Aid, Listerine, McDonald's, Microsoft Windows, Schwinn bicycles, Starbucks, teddy bears, and Zippo lighters. 2005Biography of Charles Hatfield (1875-1958), part con man, part scientist, and self-proclaimed rainmaker. Focuses on the deal Hatfield made with…
San Diego councilmen to conjure enough rain to fill the city's reservoir. Describes the subsequent January 1916 flood, the city's worst ever, that led to accusations against Hatfield. 2005The planets
By Dava Sobel. 2005
Author of Galileo's Daughter (RC 48871) describes the origins and oddities of the planets in our solar system. Each planet…
inspires the author's reflections on art, culture, or astrology, as well as scientific knowledge. In her essay on the sun Sobel opines on the birth of the universe. 2005Nine primatologists discuss the social interactions, communications skills, mating behavior, and survival techniques of great apes and other primates. The…
essays, growing out of a 1997 conference on evolution, offer clues and speculations about human development. 2001A satirist and a physician compile strange-but-true facts about the human body. Answers questions such as "Can carrots improve your…
vision?" "What are goose bumps?" "Does warm milk really put you to sleep?" and "Does marijuana help glaucoma?" Strong language. Bestseller. 2005The ape in the tree: an intellectual and natural history of Proconsul
By Alan Walker. 2005
Anthropologists describe their adventures in East Africa hunting for the fossils of Proconsul, the last common ancestor between apes and…
humans. Discusses the original Proconsul skeleton discovered by Mary Leakey. Hypothesizes about the origins and life histories of various species of the ancient ape. 2005Dancing at the Dead Sea: tracking the world's environmental hotspots
By Alanna Mitchell. 2005
Award-winning environmental reporter examines human-induced ecologic destruction as possible early indication of a sixth mass extinction. Records her three-year tour…
of Earth's most beleaguered areas in South America, the Middle East, the Arctic, Iceland, Madagascar, and the Galapagos Islands, where climate change, species loss, and deforestation threaten biodiversity. 2004Biography of a German Jewish scientist whose discoveries embodied both the beneficial and the destructive capacities of science. Discusses the…
intellect of Fritz Haber (1868-1934), who moved confidently between laboratory, factory, and battlefield, who invented famine-preventing agricultural processes, and who developed poisonous gas later used in Nazi concentration camps. 2005Profiles Henrietta Swan Leavitt (1868-1921), who worked at the Harvard College Observatory in the male-dominated field of astronomy. Explains her…
meticulous recording of "variables"--stars that wax and wane--and her contributions to the theory of an expanding universe. 2005Les savants fous: d'Archimède à nos jours, une histoire délirante des sciences
By Laurent Lemire. 2011
"Un mathématicien qui réserve toujours deux chambres à l'hôtel - une pour lui, une pour son fantôme ; un schizophrène…
qui reçoit le prix Nobel d'économie ; un médecin qui préconise la marche à reculons pour régler les problèmes sociaux ; un autre qui s'acharne à démontrer que le Christ était un paranoïaque issu d'une famille alcoolique ; un moine qui invente des machines volantes dans une geôle du Moyen Âge ou un physicien qui disparaît dans une autre dimension... Voici une histoire des sciences relue sous l'angle des savants fous. D'Archimède à nos jours, ces personnages fantasques, bizarres et surprenants, ont tout bousculé, fait rire ou scandalisé, mais chacun a participé, à sa manière, à la grande aventure collective de la Science. Quelques-uns s'y sont même définitivement perdus... -- 4e de couvBeyond the stony mountains: nature in the American west from Lewis and Clark to today
By Daniel B Botkin. 2004
Ecologist retraces the footsteps of early-nineteenth-century explorers Lewis and Clark and compares the natural history they documented to its condition…
in the early twenty-first century. Describes environmental changes including the damming of rivers and the disappearance of ecosystems and wildlife species. 2004Extreme weather: a guide & record book
By Christopher C Burt. 2004
Meteorologist surveys the nature and history of extreme weather phenomena in the United States and abroad. Offers concise explanations of…
such climatic events as droughts, floods, thunderstorms, hail, tornadoes, hurricanes, and fog. Provides temperature and precipitation records for more than three hundred U.S. cities dating back to the 1800s. 2004Splendid solution: Jonas Salk and the conquest of polio
By Jeffrey Kluger. 2004
This history of the 1950s battle to develop a polio vaccine focuses on Jonas Salk's successful dead-virus inoculation. Discusses social…
effects of infantile paralysis from 1916 to mid century, the controversy over live-virus vaccines, Walter Winchell's public denouncement of Dr. Salk, and Salk's 1954 vindication. 2004