Behind the shiny door of Hazel Robinson's London home, things aren't as good as they look. Her plastic surgeon husband, Richard, has embarked on his latest charitable mission to Haiti, leaving the heavily pregnant Hazel to cope with a failing business and a problem son. This psychological drama is about the darker side of modern parenthood.
"Any reader of science fiction or viewer of Star Trek will be awake to the dream that there may be life elsewhere in our universe that isn't like life here on Earth. Maybe, like E.T., it has new letters in its genetic alphabet! Maybe it's made of silicon! Maybe it gets around on wheels! Or maybe it doesn't. In The Equations of Life, biologist Charles Cockell makes the surprising argument that the Universe constrains life, making its evolutionary outcomes quite predictable--in short, if we were to find, on some distant planet, something very much like a ladybug eating something very much like an aphid that had itself just been feeding on the sap of something very much like a flower, we shouldn't at all be surprised. Considering the vast pantheon of creatures that have existed on Earth, from pterodactyls to sloths, it is tempting to think that the possibilities for life are limitless, and that a ladybug is a marvelous oddity. But as Cockell reveals, the forms and shapes of life are guided by a limited sets of rules. There is just a narrow set of mathematical solutions to the challenges of existence. Any natural environment usually has multiple challenges to survival in it, each associated to a physical equation."--Publisher information
The puzzles of life astound and confuse us like no other mystery. But in this revolutionary new book, Charles Cockell reveals how nature is far more understandable and predictable than we think. Refining Darwin's theory of natural selection, Cockell puts forward a remarkable and elegant account of why evolution has taken the paths it has. From animals to atoms, he shows that it is not biology, but physics, that is the true touchstone for understanding life in all its extraordinary forms." -- Back of book
Keep your enemies close, and your wives closer. As their husbands clash over an international crisis, the first ladies of France and America find themselves alone together in a side room. Friends, or enemies? When the stakes are so high, can they trust each other? Can they trust their husbands?
This volume contains the first modern critical editions of Concilium (1525) and Rychsztag (1526), two vernacular verse dialogues by the Zurich-based Zwinglian author Utz Eckstein, together with translations of both into English prose
Follow a young boy as he travels with Marco Polo and encounters new adventures.
Describes the concept of voting and the different ways people vote around the world.
Explores the main world settlements througout history, including here they were located, daily life, culture, ad historical significance.
Ivar is tired of sitting on the sidelines making sails while other men experience adventure on the high seas. He decides to take matters into his own hands and stows away on Leif Erikson's ship. Find out what adventures await Ivar and Leif on their expedition to explore new lands.