Note: Color illustrations.
From Booklist
Part of the Macmillan Science Library series, Biology serves students from middle school to the undergraduate level. It provides 432 signed entries on a broad range of topics pertaining to biology, including basic concepts (Antibody, Genetic code, Nervous systems, Wetlands); history of the science (Crick, Francis; History of medicine); related fields (Agronomist, Emergency medical technician); and issues (Environmental health, Genetic control and development) as well as topics of interest to young adults, such as smoking, birth control, alcohol, and STDs. Emphasis is on molecular genetics, human physiology, and biodiversity. The articles range in length from a few paragraphs to a few pages. They appear in alphabetical order, and each concludes with see also references as well as suggestions for further reading, including Web sites.
Helpful reference tools appear in the front matter of each volume, among them a geologic timescale, a metric conversion table, and diagrams of a typical plant and animal cell. Some 550 words appear in bold type in the text and are defined in the page margins as well as in a glossary. Each of the volumes contains a topic outline and index, and a cumulative index is found in volume 4.
The eye-pleasing layout features many colorful photographs and diagrams that will appeal to casual browsers, and the articles contain more than enough information to meet the needs of students. This informative set is h Read more...

Computer algebra systems have revolutionized the use of computers within mathematics research, and are currently extending that revolution to the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. But the power of such systems goes beyond simple algebraic or numerical manipulation. In this practical resource Roman Maeder shows how computer-aided mathematics has reached a level where it can support effectively many of the computations in science and engineering. Besides treating traditional computer science topics, he demonstrates how scientists and engineers can use these computer-based tools to do scientific computations. A valuable text for computer science courses for scientists and engineers, this book will also prove useful to Mathematica users at all levels. Covering the latest release of Mathematica, the book includes useful tips and techniques to help even seasoned users.
Review
"This is an excellent introductory textbook in computer science via Mathematica. I recommend it for use in computer science classes for science and engineering students." Computing Reviews
Contents
Preface
About This Book
I Computers and Science
1.1 From Problems to Programs
1.2 Computers
1.3 Programming Languages
1.4 Computer Science
2 Mathematica's Programming Language
2.1 Arithmetic and Logic
2.2 Definitions
2.3 Simple Program Structures
2.4 Structure of Expressions
2.5 Help with Problems
2.6 Exercises
3 Iteration and Recursion
3.1 The Greatest Common Divisor
3.2 The Read more...

Computer algebra systems have revolutionized the use of computers within mathematics research, and are currently extending that revolution to the undergraduate mathematics curriculum. But the power of such systems goes beyond simple algebraic or numerical manipulation. In this practical resource Roman Maeder shows how computer-aided mathematics has reached a level where it can support effectively many of the computations in science and engineering. Besides treating traditional computer science topics, he demonstrates how scientists and engineers can use these computer-based tools to do scientific computations. A valuable text for computer science courses for scientists and engineers, this book will also prove useful to Mathematica users at all levels. Covering the latest release of Mathematica, the book includes useful tips and techniques to help even seasoned users.
Review
"This is an excellent introductory textbook in computer science via Mathematica. I recommend it for use in computer science classes for science and engineering students." Computing Reviews
Contents
Preface
About This Book
I Computers and Science
1.1 From Problems to Programs
1.2 Computers
1.3 Programming Languages
1.4 Computer Science
2 Mathematica's Programming Language
2.1 Arithmetic and Logic
2.2 Definitions
2.3 Simple Program Structures
2.4 Structure of Expressions
2.5 Help with Problems
2.6 Exercises
3 Iteration and Recursion
3.1 The Greatest Common Divisor
3.2 The Read more...

Amazon.com
Carl Sagan muses on the current state of scientific thought, which offers him marvelous opportunities to entertain us with his own childhood experiences, the newspaper morgues, UFO stories, and the assorted flotsam and jetsam of pseudoscience. Along the way he debunks alien abduction, faith-healing, and channeling; refutes the arguments that science destroys spirituality, and provides a "baloney detection kit" for thinking through political, social, religious, and other issues.
From Publishers Weekly
Eminent Cornell astronomer and bestselling author Sagan debunks the paranormal and the unexplained in a study that will reassure hardcore skeptics but may leave others unsatisfied. To him, purported UFO encounters and alien abductions are products of gullibility, hallucination, misidentification, hoax and therapists' pressure; some alleged encounters, he suggests, may screen memories of sexual abuse. He labels as hoaxes the crop circles, complex pictograms that appear in southern England's wheat and barley fields, and he dismisses as a natural formation the Sphinx-like humanoid face incised on a mesa on Mars, first photographed by a Viking orbiter spacecraft in 1976 and considered by some scientists to be the engineered artifact of an alien civilization. In a passionate plea for scientific literacy, Sagan deftly debunks the myth of Atlantis, Filipino psychic surgeons and mediums such as J.Z. Knight, who claims to be in touch with a 35,000-year-old entity called Ra Read more...
