In celebration of summer, Assouline evokes the beauty of thegarden in a remarkable gift-volume. Including more than threecenturies of drawings culled from the rare books library of theCooper-Hewitt National Design Museum, each page in Botanicalsexplodes with rich colours and lifelike details. Exquisite flowers,delicate fuits, and exuberant butterflies are among the jewels ofnature that come to life in this unique compendium. Featured areworks by leading botanical artists, including Maria Sibylla Merian,a rfevolutionary female entomologist and natural historian of theseventeeth century; E.A. Seguy, whose art nouveau-era work servesas inspiration for many contemporary creative directors anddesigners; and Dr Robert John thornton, a British visionaryrenowned for his inerest in botany. Botanicals is extraordinary, aremarkable objet d'art in the spirit of the season. AUTHOR: LeslieK. Overstreet is the curator of Natural-History Rare Books at theSmithsonian Institution. She has published bibliographical artic
The multidisciplinary field of quantum computing strives toexploit some of the uncanny aspects of quantum mechanics to expandour computational horizons. Quantum Computing for ComputerScientists takes readers on a tour of this fascinating area ofcutting-edge research. Written in an accessible yet rigorousfashion, this book employs ideas and techniques familiar to everystudent of computer science. The reader is not expected to have anyadvanced mathematics or physics background. After presenting thenecessary prerequisites, the material is organized to look atdifferent aspects of quantum computing from the specific standpointof computer science. There are chapters on computer architecture,algorithms, programming languages, theoretical computer science,cryptography, information theory, and hardware. The text hasstep-by-step examples, more than two hundred exercises withsolutions, and programming drills that bring the ideas of quantumcomputing alive for today's computer science students andresearchers.
Rosemary and Peter Grant and those assisting them have spendtwenty years on Daphne Major, an island in the Galapagos studyingnatural selection. They recognize each individual bird on theisland, when there are four hundred at the time of the author'svisit, or when there are over a thousand. They have observed abouttwenty generations of finches -- continuously. Jonathan Weiner follows these scientists as they watch Darwin'sfinches and come up with a new understanding of life itself.
Many people who have ever owned a pet will swear that their dogor cat or other animal has exhibited some kind of behavior theyjust can't explain. How does a dog know when its owner is returninghome at an unexpected time? How do cats know when it is time to goto the vet, even before the cat carrier comes out? How do horsesfind their way back to the stable over completely unfamiliarterrain? And how can some pets predict that their owners are aboutto have an epileptic fit? These intriguing questions about animal behavior convincedworld-renowned biologist Rupert Sheldrake that the very animals whoare closest to us have much to teach us about biology, nature, andconsciousness. Filled with captivating stories and thought-provoking analysis, Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home is agroundbreaking exploration of animal behavior that will profoundlychange the way we think about animals, and ourselves. After fiveyears of extensive research involving thousands of people who ownand work with animals, Shel
