Gasp! The Swift and Terrible Beauty of Air
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.57 (984 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1593760256 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 240 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-09-07 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
From a baby’s first breaththat universal and fundamental entry into life outside the wombair is taken for granted. Joe Sherman’s The Book of Air is an entertaining investigation of air and the discoveries of how it works in the body and in our world.Inhale, and learn about the difference between your aerobic capacity and Lance Armstrong’s; exhale, and follow the observation and science of the atmosphere from Aristotle to Nobel laureate Paul Crutzen; hold your breath and investigate why over the last two centuries air has transformed from something marvelous into something menacing. In The Book
But even as air was being studied, Sherman says, global forces were making it less breathable. He explains the way the body processes oxygen (and looks at why some babies have difficulty taking their first breath). Then he explores scientists' growing understanding of air through the centuries, from Aristotle, who believed that the Earth literally exhaled vapors that, when trapped below Earth's surface, became metals, to the 18th-century French chemist Lavoisier, who unseated phlogiston in favor of oxygen as the part of air that caused fire. . All rights reserved. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. Sherman also provides an overview of regulatory attempts to create a healthier environment, from the efforts of Victorian-era feminists who promoted pure air to the troubled history of the Clean Air Act in the U.S. From Publishers Weekly Writing in an informal, sometimes charming tone, Sherman
Stephen A. Haines said Take a deep breath. When you do, after reading this book you will be vividly aware of what is passing through your nostrils and into your lungs. You will have learned where the air you're breathing orginated, what assaults it's been subject to, and what you may have to do to improve it. The air you, and your children, breathe needs attention. This passionately written account examines the history of air, the people who have investigated it and the problems we're confronting in keeping it breathable. Although the story grows increasingly grim as it progresses, Sherman finds ways of offering some hope and solutions.Air means breathing and Sherman la. How We Got To Understand Air, And To Ruin It Rob Hardy Among the big problems with air is that it is invisible (with luck) and that we don't have to pay for it. We get to regard with specific attention the food we buy, and if you don't like the tap water you pay for, you can always spring for bottled. Air, on the other hand, is taken for granted, and you usually don't even think of even one of the 19,000 breaths you take every day. Like any other big subject we don't think about, air is hugely complicated, but in _Gasp! The Swift and Terrible Beauty of Air_ (Shoemaker & Hoard), Joe Sherman has covered the topic fully in many different ways. He writes, "Understanding air, which is b. One clean breath Michael Levitin Oxygen may not strike you as a lively protagonist for a book. Think again. In a masterfully inventive biography of air, Joe Sherman weaves between geology and history, myth and science, to retrace our understanding of life's most precious gas. From the Ionian philosophers of ancient Greece to the eccentric chemists and scientists who tested daringly with air through the Renaissance, Enlightenment and Industrial eras, Sherman invokes a lively, little known chapter in Western history. He also explores myths in Hindu, Maori and Viking culture, showing the ways societies tried to make sense of the invisible gas that surrounded and