In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox...entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, however, remain a...
In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. Tha...
In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. That is, until Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, an English aristocrat, moved to Constantinople and noticed the Turkish practice of "ingrafting" or inoculation, which, she wrote, made "the small- pox...entirely harmless." Convinced by what she witnessed, she allowed her six-year-old son to be ingrafted, and the treatment was a complete success--the young Montagu enjoyed lifelong immunity from smallpox. Lady Montagu's discovery would, however, remain a...
In the seventeenth century, smallpox reigned as the world's worst killer. Luck, more than anything else, decided who would live and who would die. Tha...
Death, for bacteria, is not inevitable. Protect a bacterium from predators, and provide it with adequate food and space to grow, and it would continue living--and reproducing asexually--forever. But a paramecium (a slightly more advanced single-cell organism), under the same ideal conditions, would stop dividing after about 200 generations--and die. Death, for paramecia and their offspring, is inevitable. Unless they have sex. If at any point during that 200 or so generations, two of the progeny of our paramecium have sex, their clock will be reset to zero. They and their progeny are granted...
Death, for bacteria, is not inevitable. Protect a bacterium from predators, and provide it with adequate food and space to grow, and it would continue...
Many philosophers doubt that one can provide any successful explanation of those qualities characterizing how things look, feel, or seem to a perceiving subject. To do so one would need to be able to explain qualitative facts in non-qualitative terms, and attempts to construct such an explanation seem doomed to failure. In this book Austen Clark presents an analysis of sensory qualities that refutes such skepticism and offers the possibility of a solution to the problem of qualia. Drawing on work in psychophysics, psychometrics, and sensory neurophysiology, he analyzes the character and...
Many philosophers doubt that one can provide any successful explanation of those qualities characterizing how things look, feel, or seem to a perceivi...
Based on a detailed analysis of newly declassified documents, this book reveals the full and fascinating story of Anglo-American nuclear relations from 1957 to 1962. This period saw the creation of a close and exclusive relationship of nuclear collaboration between Britain and the United States: an agreement was formed on atomic cooperation, facilities for U.S. nuclear submarines were established in the U.K., and U.S. missiles (including Thor and Polaris) were sold for use in the British strategic submarine force. Ian Clark argues that this partnership, though special, was fraught with...
Based on a detailed analysis of newly declassified documents, this book reveals the full and fascinating story of Anglo-American nuclear relations fro...
Clark's American Bandstand has been televised since the late '50s. Now he puts his intimate knowledge of rock 'n' roll on display in a witty and entertaining tale of murder and intrigue among the rock world's movers and shakers.
Clark's American Bandstand has been televised since the late '50s. Now he puts his intimate knowledge of rock 'n' roll on display in a witty and enter...
Why did Britain decide in 1947 to build an atomic bomb? What plans were there for using it? Employing the previously inaccessible confidential records of the British government in the decade after World War II, including those of the Chiefs of Staff, this book provides the first detailed assessment of the technical, political, and economic factors behind British nuclear policy. The authors argue that British thinking on nuclear deterrence was distinctive and made a unique contribution to early theorizing on nuclear weapons, and compare the strategic thought of Britain and the United...
Why did Britain decide in 1947 to build an atomic bomb? What plans were there for using it? Employing the previously inaccessible confidential records...
Since September 11th, the threat of a bioterrorist attack--massive, lethal, and unpreventable--has hung in the air over America. Bracing for Armageddon? offers a vividly written primer for the general reader, shedding light on the science behind potential bioterrorist attacks and revealing what could happen, what is likely to happen, and what almost certainly will not happen. The story opens with a riveting account of a bioterrorism scenario commissioned by the U.S. government. Using this doomsday tableau as a springboard, Clark reviews a host of bioterrorist threats (from agroterrorism...
Since September 11th, the threat of a bioterrorist attack--massive, lethal, and unpreventable--has hung in the air over America. Bracing for Armageddo...
