Designed to give quick access to the most widely sought information, this reference book presents a wealth of facts through diagrams, charts, illustrations, maps, timetables and other graphics in addition to text. "The Natural World" invites you to see how crystals grow, locate the earth's zoological regions, find chronologies of evolution and extinction, or notice the differences between major dog and cat breeds. "Science and Technology" shows you how kites fly and describes and illustrates electricity, magnetism, gravity and simple machines. "Communication" illustrates alphabets from Egyptian hieroglyphics to Assyrian cuneiform characters to Mayan glyphs, and depicts the symbl systems used in astronomy, weather forecasting, underwater communication and sign language. In "Religion and Philosophy" you can look up the twelve tribes of Israel, the deities and sacred texts of various religions, a floor plan of a mosque, the Hindu calendar and a diagram of the Noble Eightfold Path of Buddhism.