"The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place." A bookto be read for pleasure as well as a practical identificationguide, The Edge of the Sea introduces a world of teeming life wherethe sea meets the land. A new generation of readers is discoveringwhy Rachel Carson's books have become cornerstones of theenvironmental and conservation movements. New introduction by SueHubbell. (A Mariner Reissue)

Water is everywhere. It covers almost 70 percent of Earth's surface. It forms the oceans and flows as rushing rivers. The atmosphere not to mention clouds is a vast storehouse of water in the form of the gas called water vapor. Billions of tons of water are locked up as the enormous ice caps that sit on the top and bottom of the world. If all of that icy water were to melt, it would cause a rise in sea level of about 260 feet (80 meters). Coastal cities the world over would be flooded beyond repair.

First published by Houghton Mifflin in 1962, Silent Springalerted a large audience to the environmental and human dangers ofindiscriminate use of pesticides, spurring revolutionary changes inthe laws affecting our air, land, and water. "Silent Spring becamea runaway bestseller, with international reverberations . . . Itis] well crafted, fearless and succinct . . . Even if she had notinspired a generation of activists, Carson would prevail as one ofthe greatest nature writers in American letters" (PeterMatthiessen, for Time's 100 Most Influential People of theCentury). This fortieth anniversary edition celebrates RachelCarson's watershed book with a new introduction by the author andactivist Terry Tempest Williams and a new afterword by theacclaimed Rachel Carson biographer Linda Lear, who tells the storyof Carson's courageous defense of her truths in the face ofruthless assault from the chemical industry in the year followingthe publication of Silent Spring and before her untimely death in1964.

Error-correcting codes constitute one of the key ingredients inachieving the high degree of reliability required in modern datatransmission and storage systems. This book introduces the readerto the theoretical foundations of error-correcting codes, with anemphasis on Reed-Solomon codes and their derivative codes. Afterreviewing linear codes and finite fields, the author describesReed-Solomon codes and various decoding algorithms. Cyclic codesare presented, as are MDS codes, graph codes, and codes in the Leemetric. Concatenated, trellis, and convolutional codes are alsodiscussed in detail. Homework exercises introduce additionalconcepts such as Reed-Muller codes, and burst error correction. Theend-of-chapter notes often deal with algorithmic issues, such asthe time complexity of computational problems. While mathematicalrigor is maintained, the text is designed to be accessible to abroad readership, including students of computer science,electrical engineering, and mathematics, from senior-undergraduateto gr

The ecological literature on marsupials is dominated byde*ive natural history, and there has hitherto been littleattempt at either synthesis or evolutionary interpretation. Thisbook attempts to provide such a synthesis, by drawing on both thede*ive data base and predictions from the burgeoningliterature on behavioural and evolutionary ecology. It documentsthe excellent potential the study of marsupials provides forresolution of theoretical questions of general importance inbiology. It does this in three ways. First, by describing theimpressive diversity of marsupial life history strategies andtrophic roles. Second, by careful comparison with the eutherians,the scope of the marsupial radiation is used to analyse the role ofdevelopmental constraints and adaptive radiation in determining thediversification of higher taxa. Lastly, it is suggested that theaccessibility of marsupial young during their obligatory pouch lifefacilitates measurement, manipulation and assessment of kinship notpossible in other mammalia

There has been an explosive growth in the field ofcombinatorial algorithms. These algorithms depend not only onresults in combinatorics and especially in graph theory, but alsoon the development of new data structures and new techniques foranalyzing algorithms. Four classical problems in networkoptimization are covered in detail, including a development of thedata structures they use and an analysis of their running time.Data Structures and Network Algorithms attempts to provide thereader with both a practical understanding of the algorithms,described to facilitate their easy implementation, and anappreciation of the depth and beauty of the field of graphalgorithms.

How do plant and animal populations change genetically toevolve and adapt to their local environments? How do populationsgrow and interact with one another through competition andpredation? How does behaviour influence ecology and evolution?Introduction to Population Biology covers all these areas and more.Taking a quantitative and Darwinian perspective, the basic theoryof population processes is developed using mathematical models. Toallow students of biology, ecology and evolution to gain a realunderstanding of the subject, key features include: ? step-by-stepinstructions for spreadsheet simulations of many basic equations toexplore the outcomes or predictions of models ? worked examplesshowing how the equations are applied to biological questions ?problem sets together with detailed solutions to help the readertest their understanding ? real-life examples to help the readerrelate the theory to the natural world

In his bestselling The Moral Animal, Robert Wright applied theprinciples of evolutionary biology to the study of the human mind.Now Wright attempts something even more ambitious: explaining thedirection of evolution and human history–and discerning wherehistory will lead us next. In Nonzero: The Logic of Human Destiny, Wright asserts that, eversince the primordial ooze, life has followed a basic pattern.Organisms and human societies alike have grown more complex bymastering the challenges of internal cooperation. Wright'snarrative ranges from fossilized bacteria to vampire bats, fromstone-age villages to the World Trade Organization, uncovering suchsurprises as the benefits of barbarian hordes and the usefulstability of feudalism. Here is history endowed with moralsignificance–a way of looking at our biological and culturalevolution that suggests, refreshingly, that human morality hasimproved over time, and that our instinct to discover meaning mayitself serve a higher purpose. Insightful, wi