In this attractively illustrated volume, eminent biologist Sir Richard Southwood offers a remarkable survey of life in all its forms, ranging from the earliest single-celled bacteria, to the evolution and extinction of animals such as the dinosaurs, to the variety of life today.
The book follows the major geological periods--such as the Cambrian, Ordovician, Silurian, and Devonian--explaining how great planetary changes such as the movement of the continents, the rising and falling of sea level, and the periods of glaciation, affected the forms of life on Earth. Beginning with the...

The treatment and Handling of Wastes provides an account of the environmental problems posed by the different types of waste material, the current state of technology for dealing with them, and what science and technology promises for the future. The book opens by providing a background to the general ecological, economic and legislative principles that apply to waste management and disposal. The second part of the book takes a view of what may be possible in future waste disposal programmes. The contributors are all leading scientists or industrialists who have to achieve safe economic and...

A son wants to talk to his mother in a neighbouring village - it's a two day walk each way.

A plumber makes house calls all morning only to return to his shop to pick up messages for the afternoon.

A rural farmer wants to know what crop prices are in the market to see when best to sell his crops - he has to take a day out to visit the market only to find out that the prices are too low midweek.

This was Africa before mobile phones arrived: a lot of walking and not much talking. In the main, fixed line phones were provided by a monopoly provider and were...