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Resultaten voor 'walter alvarez'
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A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
Big History, the field that studies the entire known past of our universe to give context to human existence, has so far been the domain of historians. In A Most Improbable Journey, Walter Alvarez-best known for his "Impact Theory" explaining dinosaur extinction-makes a compelling case for a new, science-first approach to Big History. He brings a scientist's view to the human story, from the creation of our universe and our planet, the rise of life, the movement of our continents and its effect on human migration, to humanity's ascendance. Alvarez's observations and stories will give readers a new appreciation of the events that have led to the human situation. Through entertaining, bite-sized chapters, A Most Improbable Journey will send readers out in a thousand directions to learn more.
€ 25,50 -
T. rex and the Crater of Doom
Sixty-five million years ago, a comet or asteroid larger than Mount Everest slammed into the Earth, inducing an explosion equivalent to the detonation of a hundred million hydrogen bombs. Vaporized detritus blasted through the atmosphere upon impact, falling back to Earth around the globe. Disastrous environmental consequences ensued: a giant tsunami, continent-scale wildfires, darkness, and cold, followed by sweltering greenhouse heat. When conditions returned to normal, half the plant and animal genera on Earth had perished. This horrific chain of events is now widely accepted as the solution to a great scientific mystery: what caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Walter Alvarez tells the story behind the development of the initially controversial theory.
€ 21,50 -
Mountains of Saint Francis
Walter Alvarez and his team made one of the most astonishing scientific discoveries of the twentieth century--that an asteroid smashed into the Earth 65 million years ago, exterminating the dinosaurs. Alvarez had the first glimmer of that amazing insight when he noticed something odd in a rock outcrop in central Italy. Alvarez now returns to that rich terrain, this time to take the reader on an distant past. We encounter the volcanoes that formed the Seven Hills of Rome; the majestic limestone Apennine mountains that started to develop millions of years ago under water; the evidence that the Mediterranean Sea completely evaporated to a sunken desert, perhaps several times; and the proof that continental plates once overran one another to form telling, all major geologic episodes are as dramatic as the great impact that killed the dinosaurs, even when they happen over eons and without huge creatures to witness them.
€ 46,50