Are you a passionate amateur naturalist? Would you like to record videos of the microscopic world? Detect an insect's heartbeat? Separate molecules with electricity? Extract and purify DNA . . . in your kitchen? Now you can do all these things and more with this wonderful compendium of unique and exciting projects. Gathered here, in the most comprehensive, wide-ranging collection of projects available for the amateur biologist, are some of the finest experiments from Scientific American's popular "Amateur Scientist" column. Whether you'd like to find out how to measure the metabolism of an insect, learn museum secrets for preserving plants, or discover how to teach a sow bug to navigate a maze, you'll find the project to suit your needs. Filled with experiments from a wide range of specialties, including botany, genetics, behavioral studies, cellular biology, microscopy, microbiology, and entomology, this fascinating book also contains helpful hints and clear instructions on how to build experimental apparatus using simple household materials and affordable alternatives to more expensive scientific equipment. Whether you're a student, teacher, or dedicated amateur scientist, you'll find projects here to excite your interest as well as deepen your understanding of-and appreciation for-the natural world.

Exploring Mars: Secrets of the Red Planet by the Editors of Scientific American Our nearest planetary neighbor has been the subject of endless fascination and wide-ranging theories throughout history. Is there life on Mars? Was there ever life on Mars? What was the atmosphere like thousands or millions of years ago? From Percival Lowell, who built his own observatory so he could dedicate himself to studying the red planet, to NASA landing the car-sized Opportunity rover in 2012, this eBook, Exploring Mars: Secrets of the Red Planet, traces Scientific American's coverage of the observation and exploration of Mars. The first section outlines early 20th century theories about Mars, including the possibility of an intricate canal system built by an intelligent species. Once the space probes enter the picture, most of those ideas were debunked, but even more questions arose. The second section covers current missions, which found evidence of ancient oceans and a thicker atmosphere that has since been lost. The third section raises even more exciting possibilities with ambitious plans for future missions. In this book, you'll follow these advances in astronomy and planetary science as better and better technology brings us incrementally closer to unlocking the secrets of Mars.

This new version now contains answers to all the over 600 stimulating questions. Walker covers the entirety of naked-eye physics by exploring problems of the everyday world. He focuses on the flight of Frisbees, sounds of thunder, rainbows, sand dunes, soap bubbles, etc., and uses such familiar objects as rubber bands, eggs, tea pots, and Coke bottles. Many references to outside sources guide the way through the problems. Now the inclusion of answers provides immediate feedback, making this an extraordinary approach in applying all of physics to problems of the real world.· Hiding Under the Covers, Listening for the Monsters· The Walrus Speaks of Classical Mechanics· Heat Fantasies and Other Cheap Thrills of the Night· The Madness of Stirring Tea· She Comes in Colors Everywhere· The Electrician's Evil and the Ring's Magic· The Walrus Has His Last Say and Leaves Us Assorted Goodies

Explains how plants obtain food, endure inclement weather, fend off predators, and anticipate the future, and looks at photosynthesis, growth, movement, stress, regeneration, and cooperation with microbes

What are things made of? 'Everything is composed of small mollycules of itself, and they are flying around in concentric circles and arcs and segments,' explains Sergeant Fottrell in Flann O'Brien's The Dalkey Archive. Philip Ball shows that the world of the molecule is indeed a dynamic place.Using the chemistry of life as a springboard, he provides a new perspective on modern chemical science as a whole. Living cells are full of molecules in motion, communication, cooperation, and competition. Molecular scientists are now starting to capture the same dynamism in synthetic molecularsystems, promising to reinvent chemistry as the central creative science of the new century.

Once in a great while, as the New York Times noted recently, a naturalist writes a book that changes the way people look at the living world. John James Audubon’s Birds of America, published in 1838, was one. Roger Tory Peterson’s 1934 Field Guide to the Birds was another. How does such insight into nature develop? Pioneering a new niche in the study of plants and animals in their native habitat, Field Notes on Science and Nature allows readers to peer over the shoulders and into the notebooks of a dozen eminent field workers, to study firsthand their observational methods, materials, and fleeting impressions. What did George Schaller note when studying the lions of the Serengeti? What lists did Kenn Kaufman keep during his 1973 “big year”? How does Piotr Naskrecki use relational databases and electronic field notes? In what way is Bernd Heinrich’s approach “truly Thoreauvian,” in E. O. Wilson’s view? Recording observations in the field is an indispensable scientific skill, but researchers are not generally willing to share their personal records with others. Here, for the first time, are reproductions of actual pages from notebooks. And in essays abounding with fascinating anecdotes, the authors reflect on the contexts in which the notes were taken. Covering disciplines as diverse as ornithology, entomology, ecology, paleontology, anthropology, botany, and animal behavior, Field Notes offers specific examples that professional naturalists can emulate to fine-tune their own field methods, along with practical advice that amateur naturalists and students can use to document their adventures.

Biohackers explores fundamental changes occurring in the circulation and ownership of scientific information. Alessandro Delfanti argues that the combination of the ethos of 20th century science, the hacker movement and the free software movement is producing an open science culture which redefines the relationship between researchers, scientific institutions and commercial companies. Biohackers looks at the emergence of the citizen biology community "DIYbio", the shift to open access by the American biologist Craig Venter and the rebellion of the Italian virologist Ilaria Capua against WHO data-sharing policies. Delfanti argues that these biologists and many others are involved in a transformation of both life sciences and information systems, using open access tools and claiming independence from both academic and corporate institutions.

In this groundbreaking book, Adrian Bejan takes the recurring patterns in nature—trees, tributaries, air passages, neural networks, and lightning bolts—and reveals how a single principle of physics, the constructal law, accounts for the evolution of these and many other designs in our world. Everything—from biological life to inanimate systems—generates shape and structure and evolves in a sequence of ever-improving designs in order to facilitate flow. River basins, cardiovascular systems, and bolts of lightning are very efficient flow systems to move a current—of water, blood, or electricity. Likewise, the more complex architecture of animals evolve to cover greater distance per unit of useful energy, or increase their flow across the land. Such designs also appear in human organizations, like the hierarchical “flowcharts” or reporting structures in corporations and political bodies. All are governed by the same principle, known as the constructal law, and configure and reconfigure themselves over time to flow more efficiently. Written in an easy style that achieves clarity without sacrificing complexity, Design in Nature is a paradigm-shifting book that will fundamentally transform our understanding of the world around us.

Pulitzer Prize–winning biologist Edward O. Wilson imparts the wisdom of his storied career to the next generation. Edward O. Wilson has distilled sixty years of teaching into a book for students, young and old. Reflecting on his coming-of-age in the South as a Boy Scout and a lover of ants and butterflies, Wilson threads these twenty-one letters, each richly illustrated, with autobiographical anecdotes that illuminate his career—both his successes and his failures—and his motivations for becoming a biologist. At a time in human history when our survival is more than ever linked to our understanding of science, Wilson insists that success in the sciences does not depend on mathematical skill, but rather a passion for finding a problem and solving it. From the collapse of stars to the exploration of rain forests and the oceans’ depths, Wilson instills a love of the innate creativity of science and a respect for the human being’s modest place in the planet’s ecosystem in his readers.

The twentieth century was one of astonishing change in science, especially as pursued in the United States. Against a backdrop of dramatic political and economic shifts brought by world wars, intermittent depressions, sporadic and occasionally massive increases in funding, and expanding private patronage, this scientific work fundamentally reshaped everyday life. Science and the American Century offers some of the most significant contributions to the study of the history of science, technology, and medicine during the twentieth century, all drawn from the pages of the journal Isis. Fourteen essays from leading scholars are grouped into three sections, each presented in roughly chronological order. The first section charts several ways in which our knowledge of nature was cultivated, revealing how scientific practitioners and the public alike grappled with definitions of the “natural” as they absorbed and refracted global information. The essays in the second section investigate the changing attitudes and fortunes of scientists during and after World War II. The final section documents the intricate ways that science, as it advanced, became intertwined with social policies and the law. This important and useful book provides a thoughtful and detailed overview for scholars and students of American history and the history of science, as well as for scientists and others who want to better understand modern science and science in America.