San Antonio College Library

Few would question the truism that humankind is the crowning achievement of evolution; that the defining thrust of life's history yields progress over time from the primitive and simple to the more advanced and complex; that the disappearance of .400 hitting in baseball is a fact to be bemoaned; or that identifying an existing trend can be helpful in making important life decisions. Few, that is, except Stephen Jay Gould who, in his new book Full...

To the nature lover, Mexico is a biological paradise, possessing the greatest natural diversity in North America. With only one-fourth the land area of the United States, it possesses as many plant species (some twenty thousand) and many more kinds of animals than its northern neighbor. Yet the tourist attractions of Mexico that are known to most visitors are the cities, the beaches, and the archeological sites. Little is available to guide the visitor...

"It has been said of Erasmus Darwin that no one from his day to ours has ever rivalled him in his achievements in such a wide range of fields. The most striking of Darwin's many talents was his extraordinary scientific insight in physics, chemistry, geology, meteorology, and all aspects of biology?his deepest insight being his evolutionary theory of life. Two of his books, the Zoonomia, which made him famous as the leading medical mind of the 1790s,...

"Biology today promises everything from better foods or cures for common diseases to the alarming prospect of redesigning life itself Looking at the organisms that have made all this possible gives us a new way of understanding how we got here - and perhaps of thinking about where we're going. Instead of a history of which great scientists had which great ideas, this story of passionflowers and hawkweeds, of zebra fish and viruses, oilers a bird's...

"Throughout much of history, a critical driving force behind global economic development has been the response of society to the scarcity of key natural resources. Increasing scarcity raises the cost of exploiting existing natural resources and creates incentives in all economies to innovate and conserve more of these resources. However, economies have also responded to increasing scarcity by obtaining and developing more of these resources. Since...

There are few areas of modern life that are burdened by as much information and advice, often contradictory, as our diet and health: eat a lot of meat, eat no meat; whole-grains are healthy, whole-grains are a disaster; eat everything in moderation; eat only certain foods -- and on and on. In One Hundred Million Years of Food, biological anthropologist Stephen Le explains how cuisines of different cultures are a result of centuries of evolution, finely...

Since its first publication, How to Build a Habitable Planet has established a reputation as an accessible yet scientifically impeccable introduction to the origin and evolution of Earth, from the Big Bang through the rise of human civilization. Now Harvard geochemist Charles Langmuir has worked with the original author to revise and expand the book for a new generation of readers for whom active planetary stewardship is becoming imperative. Interweaving...

Evaluates Theodore Roosevelt's role in launching modern conservationism, identifying the contributions of such influences as James Audubon and John Muir while describing how Roosevelt's exposure to natural wonders in his early life shaped his environmental values. "In this groundbreaking epic biography, Douglas Brinkley draws on never-before-published materials to examine the life and achievements of our "naturalist president." By setting aside more...

"Taking into account the doubling of the world's population and massive geopolitical changes, this classic reference work has almost tripled in size. The first new edition since 1952 has greater inclusion of developing nations, as reflected by over 5,000 entries from Brazil alone. Entries include political divisions (states, provinces, capitals), the physical world (oceans, mountains, volcanoes), and special places (military bases, dams, national...