Science Nature Books

I bought a copy for all my g'kids. I love rocks and loved reading the book with them. Everybody does need a rock and kids need to be shown how to appreciate finding the right one.

I just got a FREE copy with my Cheerios box! I LOVE this book! I laughed with my 10 year old as we read it, and I will make my 13 year old son read it and we shall reflect on our rock hunting days of old in our beloved Tennessee creeks... :) I want a hardback of this book!

Thank You Byrd Baylor. I teach a class of adults in recovery. This book has a wonderful message. Everybody in the class chose a rock that appealed to them, a discussion presented inspiring feedback, that was meaningful. Nature has a way of touching our hearts. Nature has a way of growing our spirit.

I bought this book for use in an early childhood classroom for 3 to 5 year old children, and the children and I just love it! It's a relaxing story to use and lends itself well to a variety of themes and activities. I wish I had this one when my own children were small. They would have LOVED it!

I teach 6th grade and one of the things we learn about is rocks. I bought this book based on the reviews, but after reading it I felt compelled to write one too. I try to get my students excited about rock collecting. This book is so simple, yet so inspiring. It begins by saying "I'm sorry for kids who only have tricycles, bicycles, horses, elephants, goldfish, three-room playhouses, fire engines, wind-up dragons and things like that - if they don't have a rock for a friend." It then goes on to list 10 simple rules for finding your rock...not just any rock. A rock that you will keep forever. The rules include where to find your rock and remember "You should choose your rock when everything is quiet. Don't let dogs bark at you or bees buzz at you." The book concedes, "Don't get a rock that is too big. You'll always be sorry. It won't fit in your right hand and it won't fit in your pocket. A rock as big as an apple is too big. A rock as big as a horse is MUCH too big." This is the perfect book to get your rock collectors started and excited about geology.

This is a great stand a lone book for homeschooling families. It is affordable and full of great information. I did add to it by visiting websites and the library.

This is an excellent source for science review which highlights key items for science at grade level.

I bought this to homeschool my 4th grader. I have some of the other Complete Book of... books, and this is my least favorite. I am having to find library books and online material to suppliment everything. This might work for things like extra credit activities, but it isn't really working out for us as a main source of science material like I had hoped.

These books are FANTASTIC if you enjoy working with your kids and helping them learn new material or material that is not being taught at your school. They are easy to read and full of great activities. It's a great review for parents if you forgot some of the projects you did as a kid.

I purchased about five of these different books and they are all great for taking them on the road when the kids are bored.

And the price is right! Great deal!!

I'm thrilled with my purchase of "The Complete Book of Science". It is very comprehensive, with excellent, colour pictures to brighten the book up for young students, and also to clarify the lessons. The topics are clearly explained at the right level for the Grade 5-6 age group. The worksheets are also excellent, and fun to do.
I live in Australia, but I buy most of my educational books from America, because they are of a far higher quality than those that we can get "Down Under". I have home-schooled my son using American books, and as a tutor, I also use them to teach my private students.
I would recommend "The Complete Book" series to anyone, and in particular this science edition.

Mr. Fagan has written an easily read account of climate and its effects on history. He makes the story interesting and wanting the reader to forge ahead into the book. He unfortunately starts off the prologue and spottily throughout the book with a false premise. He believes that man has caused much of the global change in climate since 1860, which is of course completely false. If he had only followed the logic he uses throughout the book, an opposite conclusion would be more appropriate, that climate change is just that-change and will happen whether man is on the earth or not. With this notable exception, the book is a good read. Don't get drowned by all the numbers thrown around from chapter to chapter. Skip over the decimals surrounded by numerals and enjoy the book.

Brian Fagan does an excellent job, with the knowledge we have today, of illustrating what lights paleoclimatology may be able to shine on today's global warming, with sufficient warnings for the humans that are causing it.

Specifically, the flight to the Sunbelt, especially the Desert Southwest, with its low-density sprawl and little mass transit, on the one hand, and demand for air conditioning, on the other, continuing to fuel anthropogenic global warming, Fagan would be excused if he didn't serve up a whole plateful of Schadenfreude crow for the largely conservative denizens of this part of the U.S. to digest.

He didn't, but he could. Why?

Based on paleoclimatology, it appears likely that this part of the country will experience the same long-term drought that wracked the Anasazi at Chaco Canyon, then later at Mesa Verde. Of course, the nearly 20 million of Southern California's Southland, the almost 5 million of the blot called Phoenix and the moving toward 1.5 million inexplicably in the Las Vegas area are a lot more thirsty for water than the Anasazi were.

But, move beyond the U.S. The droughts of sub-Saharan Africa that started in the early 1980s are also likely to get worse in the 21st century. So, too, are problems in China, especially north China.

Beyond this, Fagan documents the variety of ways in which civilizations of this time, from 900-1300 AD or so, called the Medieval Warm Period by British paleoclimatology pioneer Hubert Lamb, tried to deal with climate change of their era, or fell apart when they were able to deal no longer.

With excellent explanatory sidebars on climatic patterns, chapter-by-chapter maps of civilizations under discussion and more, Fagan details the power of climatic change, with a sobering bit of reality for our times.

Brian Fagan explores the story of climate change between 800 and 1300 C.E. and the impact of that climate change on different regions of the world. Unlike Europe, most other regions of the world suffered from drought, not bountiful harvests during that period. Understandably, Fagan is inclined to rename the so called Medieval Warm Period into the Medieval Drought Period.

Fagan usually does a good job of explaining how proxies such as tree rings, ice borings, and deep-sea and lake cores can be used to deduce the climatic evolution during a given period in a certain area. Direct methods (instrument records and historical documents), climatic forcings (such as volcanic eruptions), and computer modeling are other techniques used to study ancient climatic change. Today's world can particularly benefit from the lessons that Fagan draws from the implosion of both lowland Maya civilization and Angkorian empire.

Unfortunately, Fagan's narration is at times confusing due to the use of side stories that slows down reading without adding too much value to his narration. Worse, Fagan makes bold, controversial statements at the beginning and end of his book that are apparently built on his exploration of climate change between 800 and 1300 C.E. and its impact on different regions of the world.

For example, Fagan states that global warming since the end of the Little Ice Age (from roughly 1300 to 1860 C.E.) is caused in large part by human activity (pp. xvi-xvii, 230). That statement flies in the face of what Fagan explores in the rest of his book. Many non-human made factors play a significant role in influencing climate change. Furthermore, Fagan quotes Al Gore and his documentary "An Inconvenient Truth" on global warming as an impartial authority on the subject without mentioning at the same time the nine significant errors found in that documentary. Fagan could benefit from reading the ruling rendered by High Court Judge Michael Burton in 2007 in London on that subject if he has not yet done it. Similarly, Fagan could find another perspective on global warming by watching the hard-hitting documentary "The Great Global Warming Swindle," which is on sale on Amazon.com.

To summarize, what the international community needs, is impartial facts instead of propaganda, and workable, economically feasible solutions instead of undue pessimism about the future of humanity.

Brian Fagan has written an interesting, very readable book. Those who are concerned about global climate change will love it. Those who are unconcerned will hate it. Those who are looking for a well-reasoned scientific argument will come away disappointed.

In 1992, Al Gore published a political treatise on global warming called Earth in the Balance: Ecology and the Human Spirit. Gore's argument was much the same as the Prophet Jonah's argument to the Assyrians: change your evil ways or perish. Gore supported his argument with statistics and with examples of earlier civilizations that outstripped their resources and perished. Although Gore did not claim to be writing a book of science, his book was highly acclaimed in its time.

Sixteen years later, the debate has moved on and the Great Warming adds very little to it. Fagan claims to be conducting a scientific inquiry, yet his conclusions are based more on politics and less on science than Gore's political treatise. If footnotes water the garden of knowledge, this book is an arid desert. Fagan's poor choice of where to irrigate does not help.

Here is one example: "Violence was a fact of life in medieval Europe and an integral part of politics." (P. 23.) It seems rather obvious that in a society where rent and taxes are paid by providing military service to an overlord, there will be violence. Fagan overstates his case here though. He does footnote that but not his sweeping statement that the Medieval Warm Period was less warm than today. (P. 16-17.) It does not help his credibility when he later contradicts himself, admitting that this question "is still a matter of much debate." (P. 232.) If medieval agriculture was possible during the Medieval Warm Period in places that are too cold to support crops today, such as the Swiss Alps, Trondheim (which is well north of Oslo in Norway), and even Greenland, as he notes, then why is global warming necessarily harmful? He cites numerous contrary examples from other parts of the world, but one is tempted to recall an old adage: it is an ill wind that blows no good. Whatever the change in climate, it seems to help some and hurt others. His book is full of examples.

Fagan has a tendency to make sweeping statements without proof. Some of them are clearly wrong. His lack of footnotes hurts him seriously because it causes one to question other facts within his realm of expertise that might be correct. For example, he claims that the "Capetian kings (of France), whose dynasty began in 987. . . created an ideology that proclaimed they were chosen by God." (P. 24.) This is a ridiculous statement and it is easily disproved. Hugh Capet did indeed found the Capetian dynasty when he became king in 987 but he and his heirs hardly invented the concept of the divine right of kings to rule. The preceding dynasty, the Carolingians, were named for Charlemagne, who had been crowned by the Pope in 800 as the first Holy Roman Emperor. That is as good as it gets for divine right in medieval Christendom. The Carolingians' predecessors, the Merovingian kings of the Franks, also claimed divine right. It took papal sanction for the first Carolingian king to depose the last Merovingian king. In many cultures of the ancient world as far back as the Pharaohs and perhaps even before them, rulers often claimed either to be gods or to have been descended from the gods.

Fagan speaks glowingly of expanding trade in the ninth century and how Charlemagne controlled important trade routes across the North Sea. This claim no doubt would come as news to the Vikings, who sacked Paris twice in the ninth century before unsuccessfully laying siege to it in 885-886. In the ninth century, the Vikings sacked coastal cities all over the North Sea, in the Irish Sea, and even as far south as Spain. They were strong enough to settle in many of the places they attacked, such as England, Scotland, and Ireland (and later, Normandy). Dublin was actually founded by the Norsemen in the middle of the ninth century. There was little trade across the North Sea in the ninth century. If anyone controlled such trade as there was, it was the Norsemen and not Charlemagne or his successors.

Fagan's French geography is questionable: "Some parts of France, such as Brittany, were in shambles. . . . Only the western, Celtic-speaking regions escaped invasion. . ." (P. 24.) Brittany is of course both the westernmost part of France. In the ninth and tenth centuries, it was perhaps the most Celtic part.

Fagan also gets into trouble by overemphasizing climate in English history after the Medieval Warm Period: "the greatest fear of England's Tudor monarchs was urban unrest caused by grain shortages." (P. 32.) Henry VII founded the Tudor dynasty by defeating his predecessor in battle and thereby ending the Wars of the Roses. His greatest fear appears to have been a renewal of civil war after his death. That may have been true also for his son and successor, Henry VIII, who left detailed instructions in his will about the succession. Henry VIII is well-known for founding the Protestant Church of England and for his many marriages. Although he concerned himself deeply in all the affairs of his realm, grain shortages do not seem to have been his biggest concern. His son, Edward VI, was a boy king with a brief reign. Mary, who attempted to restore the Catholic Church, was certainly more afraid of the Protestants than she was of grain shortages. Elizabeth was concerned about plots by Catholics within her realm, by her cousin Mary Queen of Scots, and by Philip, King of Spain. Most of Fagan's readers will have heard of the Spanish Armada, sent by Philip. That completes the Tudor dynasty so one has to wonder which Tudor monarchs Fagan meant, and where he got his information.

Fagan might be on firmer ground in discussing geological and archaeological evidence of drought in the American southwest, in the Yucatan peninsula, in Peru, in Cambodia, and in China. He seems much more comfortable here than in dealing with reported history. Even in discussing China, which has had a bureaucratic tradition for two thousand years, he relies almost solely upon archaeology and geology. He suggests that the Chinese histories tend to focus on matters other than climate. Maybe he is right, although neighboring Korea and Japan have kept records dating back more than a thousand years showing the dates when the cherry trees blossomed in the spring.

His discussion of the influence of climate on Pacific trade winds and on the monsoon is interesting, and he makes a good case for how changes in the monsoon and the trade winds led to the settlement of the Pacific islands and to the downfall of the Pueblo, the Mayans, and the Khmer (although the last one occurred after the end of the Medieval Warm Period). His argument that climate change led to the depredations of the Mongols is interesting but speculative. Since other invaders such as the Khitan, the Seljuk Turks, and the Magyars had invaded civilized lands from the Eurasian steppes over a period of several hundred years before the election of Chinggis Khan as Great Khan in 1206, and the Arabs had expanded out of Arabia in the seventh century, well before the Medieval Warm Period, his conclusion is certainly an oversimplification.

All in all this is a "good read" and perhaps even useful for its discussion of the complex relationship among the monsoon, trade winds, ENSO, La Nina, and the ITCZ. However, I cannot call it a good book.

Climate change is a regular item in the news. Most articles and books look at the future - few address the past. While the human condition is a large consideration, real effects are not often dwelt on. Brian Fagan makes up for both these lacks in this finely researched and comprehensive study. In a framework centred on a millennium in the past, he takes us on a global tour of what is known as The Medieval Warm Period. Lasting for half a millennium, about 850 C.E. to 1300 C.E, Fagan shows us the importance of understanding the global nature of climate and its interconnected elements.

In Europe, the era was later named the High Middle Ages. Flourishing trade, wine grown in the British Isles and shipped to France [!] and the mighty cathedrals erected typified the period. Elsewhere, conditions weren't as salubrious. In the North American Southwest, drought brought to a close the civilisation of Chaco Canyon and toppled the great Mayan Empire. In Asia, the great Ankor Wat, built to symbolise a vast and rich realm, was abandoned to the jungle. China's peasant population, always at the edge of survival, was driven from their lands in many places by alternating extended droughts and torrential rainfalls stripping the soil. Even the Mongol Horde was prompted to move in what proved nearly catastrophic for Europe, driven by the need for grazing lands.

Enduring climate change has been a human consideration from the beginning. Even our evolutionary roots lie in the drying of Africa and the subsequent emergence of the savannah. In one sense, climate is what brought us the role of the one bipedal ape. The development of agriculture made us yet more vulnerable to shifts in climate, Fagan reminds us. Dependence on rainfall is the foundation of raising crops, alleviated only a little by irrigation canals. Irrigated farming plays a major role in this book, with the South American and other civilisations struggling with problems of water management. Those lacking such amenities, such as California Indians, suffered drastically when the severest droughts in thousands of years killed off natural food supplies.

Fagan's talent as a writer is equalled by his feeling for the human condition. In each region he describes, it's more than weather changes that he's concerned with. It's what that meant to the local population and how it reacted. The author uses a deft ploy to capture the reader's interest at the beginning of each section. He sets up a local scene with imaginary, but carefully defined, participants. The situation reflects the weather and social conditions, indicating how those interact to produce behaviours and adjustments.

At first glance, this book may seem merely a "history" with little meaning for today's conditions or those of the future. However, it is far from that - being instead a diagnosis for what is to come. Fagan concludes by reminding us of past population dislocations resulting from the great droughts. That pressure is certain to emerge again, and he asks how ready we are to deal with it. Although climate change is "normal", as the events of the Medieval Warm Period demonstrate, the population today is vastly larger than it was then. With the human contribution to warming accelerating the process, it will be billions of people affected by what is to come. In the earlier time, some people, such as the Chaco Canyon residents, had the ability to adjust, our capacity to follow their example is curtailed by our high density centres. This book is an overdue warning of what we, or our grandchildren, will be facing. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This book was very easy to understand, straight forward, great pictures! It took a lot of guess work out of beginning bee keeping. It is a must for anyone interested in apiculture! Great reference for years to come.

If you're thinking of raising bees, this is the book to get. I had purchased three other "recommended" books, but this one leaves them in the dust. EVERYTHING is included: a little bit of bee biology, the parts of the hive, advantages and disadvantages of equipment materials and types, techniques for caring for the bees, and reassurances that your fears are experienced by all new beekeepers. I had already decided what equipment to get and have now revised my purchase order based on the information in the book. I suspect the quality of the book is a tribute to the author and not the publisher. The author's web site is full of useful information also.

This book is probably the most important book for anyone new to the hobby. Lots of great information on the entire aspect of beekeeping. It isn't for the person who already knows the general idea of beekeeping though.

It was the first book I read about beekeeping and have found that the only other beekeeping books I would need would be books on detailed information on either medicating or raising queens or something of that nature.

This book has been very helpful, inasmuch as I am a new beekeeper.

It is very thorough and easy to read.

This is the best for those interested in backyard beekeeping. Written with humor and a great deal of information about bees and beekeeping. You can't go wrong here. It's a real gripper; couldn't put it down. If you weren't interested in beekeeping before, you will be after reading this book. Also, you will certainly get a better understanding of this most important pollinator. This book has everything you may need to know to give you a really good start with the most captivating hobby ever. Also included are great resources to help you get started.

I really thought that this book would appeal to my 2 year old, who I am potty training. I was wrong. This book is really more for a 5 year old or possibly older. After all, what school age kid doesn't think that farting is hilarious. The pictures are great, but the story isn't appealing for small kids.

I was dissappointed with this book. While it starts out ok, it quickly deteriates. Imagine, telling children to go ahead, let that fart out. Not that I think a child can't fart, but, what about some common courtesy to those around that may have to smell that fart. This book was also too technical for children or at least not written to a reasonable level. Not Recommended, keep looking, there are better books on the subject, ones that will review the subject in an educational but entertaining manner.

This is a great book! The entire family will enjoy it! My husband and I even laugh at it. It's great and the kids LOVE it!

This is a very educational book. Enjoyable to read and kids understand what is being expressed.

We love this book!!! After my daughter-in-law got over the initial shock of the books' title, my son read it to our 17-month old granddaughter--and we all enjoyed the book tremendously!! Right now, our grandbaby thinks it is hilarious to fart, and "The Gas We Pass..." teaches that every living thing passes gas. I enjoyed the addition of the scientific-fart-trivia, as well--That was an excellent idea to explain why the body passes gas, and what happens when we eat various foods. Our little sweetie is just now getting familiar with the potty chair,and this book will certainly be a "must read" as she gets more involved with training.

A book that the primary children will love with great illustrations and information about the sea.

I used to watch the series on PBS when I was younger! It's great to see my daughter getting into this now! She loves the series of books and DVD's I purchased for her and just can't get enough of them!

My 8 year old loves The Magic School Bus series of books (he does not like the show). He read this to me for reading but we also use them for science. In this book we look at the bottom of the ocean and each of its phases - shore, intertidal zone, continental shelf, continental slope, deep ocean, trench, mountain, island, reef. It has just enough ridiculous to make it fun. Recommended for ages 6-9 years and reading level 3rd grade.

The magical Ms. Frizzle takes her class to the ocean in "The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor." The bus transforms itself as needed, from a submarine to a surfboard and the class clothing changes with it from scuba gear to Ms. Frizzle's beachball sandels. The bus travels the continental shelf to the deep ocean floor and on to tropical coral reefs, with numerous excursions for children to examine the details.

The illustrations are filled with facts, labeled wildlife and wise-cracking children. The information is easy to swallow as well as interesting and the humor relies on lame sarcasm and a silly lifeguard -- kids should love it.

These books are very complex. A lot of little "notations" accros the pages. My daughter is a little overwhelmed by it. More suitable for an 8 or 9 year old

Although the book looks very good and most interesting, it did NOT come with the box cover, as advertised. False advertising - I would suggest not ordering it from Amazon.

This book is absolutely amazing and lifechanging because of all the important information that is in this book. You just have no idea how bad we treat the world and how close we are to destroying our lives all so we can have selfish comforts on a daily basis.

A nonsensical belief that we can solve the environmental crisis by avoiding self change. Never in our history have their been a more deluded and narcissistic generation clambering to take the helm. We're in serious trouble.

This is a great book that makes us all more aware of the situation we find ourselves in presently aboard spaceship earth. We simply can not conduct business the way that we have in the past. The earth is not a business in liquidation. The green trends that are occuring now and that are gaining momentum are fascinating.
This is a global book with a global focus, we are all in this together.
How much time is needed? Who can know for sure but the sooner we all start, the better.

A practical comprehensive compendium of the types of practices we will need to nourish if we are to live in a Bright Green sustainable and just future. More a catalog than an essay, it is divided into sections such as Stuff, Shelter, Cities, Community, Business, Politics and Planet, giving examples of sustainable work being done in each area as well as references to relevant books and web sites. There is a strong emphasis on the potential for well-designed technologies to improve the lot of all human beings. The book is basically a collection of the types of things you will find at the [...] website.

About halfway through this book I had a feeling of deja vu in that I was reading Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer but this time this young man with a loose screw(and an alcohol problem) for a brain collected poisonous snakes barehanded.

This book is not the page turner that Into the Wild was but I found myself thinking how many people this young man hurt by dying so foolishly. I know there must be many people, both personally and in his field, that knew this man had a screw loose but couldn't pinpoint his mental problem. Many probably did try to warn him but it was no use.

Maybe its a reflection of the soceity we live in. ESPN glorifies "extreme sports" in which people risk their health and lives pursuing some ridiculous sport. This man was probably no different. He probably thought he was impressing his friends and co-workers by repeatedly picking up dangerous poisonous snakes barehanded when his coworkers probably thought, as I do, this this guy was a little nutty.

My heart goes out to the people that was close to this young man. His coworkers knew this would happen sooner or later.

As far as the book, it simply was a little bit on the boring side. If the book had been more about the travel adventures of pursuing poisonous snakes in exotic countries(like Redmond O'Hanlons books)rather than dealing with the boring academic side I would have rated it higher.

Jamie James has written a fascinating account of the life (and unfortunately, premature death) of Joe Slowinski, and woven into the narrative details about herpetology in general and various snake species in particular. Joe was charismatic, brilliant, and impulsive. His sad, tragic end is not made easier to accept but becomes more understandable against the backdrop of Joe's entire life. Both he and Steve Irwin brought an infectious enthusiasm to the study of herpetology, and both their lives were tragically cut short. They will both be sorely missed.

This is an excellent account of a very sad event. The author goes in to detail about Dr. Slowinskis life as well as his tragic death. The events leading up to the end are an exciting story regarding herpetology and world travel. I would highly recommend this book for anyone interested in herpetology, anthropology or travel. For all of us that work with snakes it is a warning and "wake up call" as to what NOT to do. Buy it....well worth the price.
Larry Cartmill, Ph.D.
Huntington, WV

When I first heard about Joe Slowinski's bizarre and tragic death by snakebite in Burma, I was fascinated and wanted to learn more. The moment I saw this book, I grabbed it---an impulse move that was a lot safer than Joe's impulsive grab into the snake bag containing the krait.

This book is riveting, being simultaneously a character study, an adventure story, a peek into the world of academic science, and a biology primer. It succeeds in all categories, making it almost impossible to put down and haunting afterwards. The author's writing is concise yet accurate and descriptive.

As a trained biologist and a herpetologist on the hobbyist level, I appreciated Joe's fascination with snakes. I am a turtle person myself (oddly, nothing much is said about the turtle people in the prestige rankings among herpetologists) but have also had a snake. I can verify that herp meetings that feature snakes have had nearly all male attendance, as Mr. James states. Snakes exert a draw for a certain type of person, exemplified in Joe Slowinski, that other reptiles don't. They have magic.

Like all possessed geniuses, Joe Slowinski would not have been easy to live with, but he contributed immensely to the life around him. It is so tragic that he did not get to fulfil his lifespan. I think the last 2 sentences in Mr. James's "Sources and Methods" afterword sums it up so well: "..it's the great gap at the end I regret most of all. It's a peculiar kind of sadness to feel sorely the loss of someone I never met."

Highly recommended, for readers of all ages and backgrounds.

The Snake Charmer is one of two books I plucked from Dr. Al Mohler's suggested reading list for dads. It is a book that is rather unlike any I've read before. It is a biographical account of the life of Joe Slowinski, one of the world's great herpetologists. Slowinski dedicated his life to studying snakes and, in particular, poisonous snakes.

In 2001, Slowinski led an expedition of biologists and botanists as they traveled through the jungles of Burma. It was there that he was bitten by a many-banded krait, the most deadly snake in Asia and one of the most deadly snakes in the world. A world away from any kind of hospital or clinic, Slowinski knew that his chances of survival were slim. It was this quote, provided by Dr. Mohler, which gave me an interest in reading the book:

"As his friends gathered around, Joe calmly explained what was happening to him. No one in the world knew more about the venom of Bungarus multicinctus than Joe Slowinski. He described the effects of a slowly deepening paralysis: The snake's venom works on several different parts of the nervous system simultaneously, blocking the nerve impulses that transmit instructions to the muscles, including those required to maintain life. There will be no pain, he told them. "First my eyelids will drop; I won't be able to hold them up." Soon he would lose the ability to speak and move his limbs, he said. Within a few hours, his respiratory system would shut down: The paralyzed central nervous system would be unable to instruct the diaphragm to breathe, causing a swift death by asphyxiation...

"As the morning wore on, Joe's physical condition deteriorated precisely as he had predicted it would. In stark contrast to the hysteria that prevailed after Joe was bitten by the cobra when he was filming with the National Geographic team, the scene at the schoolhouse in Rat Baw was wonderfully calm, even solemn. Joe lay down on his sleeping bag in his tent, with Moe Flannery and Guin Wogan lying next to him to provide human warmth and comfort. The men quietly gathered nearby. Joe asked someone to find an Ace bandage he could wrap around his right forearm to slow the traffic of blood and lymph in his hand, though by now the toxin had passed throughout his body. There was nothing more to be done except wait and see how serious the bite was."

Written by Jamie James, The Snake Charmer is a good and interesting account of the life of this man. He is a man who is hard to like--he was brash and immature and obnoxious; he was committed to understanding nature through a Darwinian lens and had only venom for creationists. Yet he was a man who loved God's creatures and who fought to understand and preserve them. Woven into the book are many interesting facts about some of God's least-understand and most-feared creatures. This book is an easy read and a perfect selection for a warm summer day outdoors.

This book is a great visual tool to help with the concepts. I used it and found it very helpful for remembering the concepts easier. It is a great book!!

This "practice" (workbook) paperback accompanies the Hewitt text, 'Conceptual Physics' and is not worth the additional expense. It's hokey illustrations and approach are left-overs from the '90's "simplified approach" to teaching college level "conceptual physics." I keep a copy of this "workbook" on my shelves to remind me never to use it, or any of the similarly illustrated "laboratory manuals," that accompany the Hewitt texts for "college level" physics and physical science courses.