A Scientist in the City by James Trefil

A Scientist in the City by James Trefil

In his previous books, A Scientist At The Seashore and Meditations At Sunset, James Trefil used commonplace settings in the natural world as a point of departure for probing the mysteries of nature. In A Scientist In The City, Trefil takes the opposite tack, looking at the quintessential man-made environment of the city as a way of examining the forces that define our world. What does the heating system of a building or the construction of a bridge tell us about the development of a city? What does the amplified environmental stress of city life on plants and animals suggest about the wild? How have scientific advances in building materials and an understanding of the structure of the atom helped to shape the cities of today? From an explanation of the evolution and influence of plate glass to reinforced steel to an analysis of the future of the skyscraper, A Scientist In The City offers a fascinating study of the promise and the consequences of technology in our everyday urban lives. In addition, Trefil goes on to explore how the new technologies being developed today will help to determine the changing forms that cities will take in the future. A Scientist In The City is the kind of book that will open our eyes to the man-made world around us, and show us some of the scientific reasons for why we live the way we do.

James Trefil is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University. He has made contributions to research in elementary particle physics, fluid mechanics, medical physics (including cancer research), and the earth sciences and has written extensively about science for the general audience. He has recently completed a term as General Councilor of the American Physical Society and was awarded the prestigious Gemant Prize of the American Institute of Physics for his efforts to present science to the general public.

Robert M. Hazen is the Clarence J. Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University and Staff Scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington Geophysical Laboratory. He performs research on materials at high pressure and is studying the hypothesis that life arose in a deep, high-pressure environment. He is the author of more than 230 articles and 16 books on science, history, and music. A Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, he has received numerous awards for his science writing.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9780385261098
ISBN 10	0385261098
Title	A Scientist in the City
Author	James Trefil
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group Inc
Year published	1994-12-01
Number of pages	288
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.
Note	Unavailable