Search Results: Science & Nature from The Real Book Shop

When anglers from Ireland and England meet and discuss the different kinds of nymphs, duns and spinners, they can, with the use of this book, be quite certain precisely what it is they are talking about. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com
J. R. Harris is an angler and a scientific naturalist – a happy combination, and one which is by no means unique, for angler-naturalists are among the pillars of the British natural history.
Anglers, of all human groups devoted to a hobby or a sport, are perhaps the most strongly obsessed with their occupation and with all that belongs to it. Indeed, the fact that sporting fish feed primarily upon insects and can be caught by devices which simulate these insects, has been the basis for a scientific literature and an equally astonishing display of invention in fly-tying.
Nevertheless, while anglers have always been interested in the scientific basis of simulation of the insects as lures for fish, none of the many books on angling that have been… Read More

Contains 2 CDs of birdsong, music and spoken word. Asked about his forthcoming book, Anthony replied," Having worked myself up from The Observers Book of Birds and pawnshop opera glasses to Swarovski ELs (and abject poverty) it is has been a cathartic experience to survey a life directed by birdwatching. Looking back and writing about what happened has given me a chance to don rose-coloured binoculars and make sure that, with the passage of time and the onset of a failing memory, truth did not get in the way of a good story. The book is about the moments that punctuated days either in the company of birds or in the company of a class of humanity that both Darwin and Linnaeus overlooked - Homo orno, the birdwatcher. Somewhere in the middle of it all is a deeper meaning - expressed best by Mrs McGeehan who observed the process from the sidelines and has charted, in several pithy epistles, my descent into a Life of Birds."The ideal gift for any birdwatcher or nature lover.

This book is a brief description of the lives, times, ideas, discoveries, trial and tribulations of the principal scientists of their day, from Biblical times to the present. Its aim to provide students and the general reader with an overview of the evolution of science and scientific thought, thus putting modern science into context.
It is also the author's aim to provide an opportunity to laugh at the absurdities of mankind, to weep at the misfortunes of mankind and to rage at the cruelties and injustices of the world.
The author is a retired NHS general practioners and the philosophy contained within this book is a distillation of experience at the sharp end of medical practice.
There is an appendix containing scientific facts and tables, and a comprehensive index thus making the book a useful reference work for all those studying the history of science.

Wonderfully illustrated and informative book about how to watch birds. With photo/drawing/diagramatical illustrations and explanations on every page. Become an expert in no time!

What are the rocks in my area, how are they distributed and arranged, what do they contain and what are their relative ages? This book sets out to help a beginner solve these problems.

A comprehensive new reference work on the trees of the world, with fully illustrated A-Z directory.
The Firefly Encyclopedia of Trees covers the entire world of trees with outstanding text and abundant illustrations and photography. Forests and woods cover 30% of the world's land surface. This book describes the forest ecosystem and the four major forest types of the world: boreal, temperate, subtropical, tropical.
The main part of the encyclopedia is the A-Z directory of the world's trees:
Other interesting features of the encyclopedia include:
The Firefly Encyclopedia of Trees features the familiar as well as the exotic. The Baobab, for instance, can store tens of thousands of gallons in water in its light, fleshy wood, remains leafy during droughts, and provides a natural source of water for people and animals alike.

Beautifully illustrated and with all the information you need about when to plant etc, all in easily accessible format. Lovely.

In the Footsteps of Eve, with its carefully reasoned argument, challenges the conventional wisdom of half a century. It suggests that the true cradle of our species lies the fossil-rich limestone of South Africa rather than East African sites where Louis and Mary Leakey revolutionised modern paleoanthropology and where Don Johanson made the discovery of the ancient skeleton immortalised as Lucy. Dr.Lee Berger, a leader of the new generation of scientists whose recent discoveries have reshaped our ideas about human genesis, is an expert and engaging guide who offers a detailed yet always clear and readable overview of the quest for our origins, from Darwin to the present day. He makes a persuasive case for redrawing our ancient family tree. The reader joins him in deep caves where miner's head-lamp illuminate the long-buried bones that are the clues in the detective story that spanes more than three million years, and laboratories where patient researchers spend years assembling tiny shardes into the… Read More

Old text book.
Original publisher's green cloth boards. Fascinating, with numerous b/w illustrations and old-fashioned diagrams.

Handy pocket sized guide to everything you need to know to identify minerals, rocks and fossils, when you are out and about. Well illustrated in colour, throughout.

Really good copy of this classic book, dealing with salmon and trout in the context of river management, environmental issues and legislation of the time.

Large glossy book. Ideal gift for the gardener in your life. This is a new breed of plant book, written by a team of leading plant experts, botanists, nursery owners and plant hunters.

First edition. No DJ issued. Marcus Sparling was Assistant to Roger Fenton, Esq. in taking the Crimea photographs. This book provides a rare insight into the chemical knowledge of the mid-eighteen hundreds, surrounding the new sciences of photography, food chemistry and street lighting. Marbled paper-covered boards with leather spine and corners and gilt raised bands to spine. Marbled end papers and edges. Illustrations and diagrams throughout. CONDITION: spine very worn, particularly at ends. Spine partially detached at top back. Moderate wear to boards. Very light foxing to prelims. Pastedowns bright. Title page bright. Occasional finger marks in text block but otherwise clean and well-bound.

Collectable book in the 'New Naturalist' series. Explaining and discussing the sea shore of Britain. Well illustrated throughout with b/w drawing diagrams, b/w photographs and colour photographs.

They're everywhere. Silent and invisible to the naked eye, they're on everything we touch, eat, breathe -- on every single inch of our skin. And despite the remarkable advances of science, germs are challenging medicine in ways that were unimaginable just a decade ago. Due to an explosion of infections never before reported in modern history and a new germ horror story surfacing every week, it's no small wonder that we're frightened -- and that antibacterial soaps are a billion-dollar business. Now, renowned microbiologist Philip Tierno cuts through the media hype with the compulsively readable "Secret Life Of Germs, revealing exactly where the greatest threats may be hiding. "The Secret Life Of Germs provides an inside view of this fascinating and elegantly ordered microscopic world -- from the common cold, E. coli, and Lyme disease to encephalitis, mad cow disease, and anthrax. It takes readers on a historical survey of the culprits of disease and explores the effect that they -- and the scientists… Read More

Space Odyssey has two foci: cosmology and the space program. It sums up current knowledge: what's out there, where it came from, and where it's going. It traces the origin and development of the universe as we know it today, and explores how the space program hopes to solve remaining mysteries of the cosmos, in the coming decade and throughout the next century.

What forces have shaped the lunar surface? What are its rock formations? This book offers answers to these questions and gives a concise description of the lunar surface, its problems and theories of origin, from a geological standpoint. Originally published before Man set foot on the Moon.

Collectable Pan paperback.Colourful description of true underwater dives and the natural world beneath the sea, in the early days of the aqualung.

The New Forest is hardly the sort of wild or remote place where you would expect to get lost, especially if you are an experienced traveller, but Douglas Botting managed it. `There were no sounds of civilization to give us a bearing on the outside world, no distinguishable landmarks, just trees, and more trees, and clearings, thickets, groves, gullies leading nowhere in particular, and trees again.' As he explains in this warm and lyrical book, it does not do to underestimate wild Britain. He makes a wonderful job of showing you around, taking you from the broad-leaf woodlands of southern England to the wind-lashed basalt and granite cliffs of the Outer Hebrides. Whether he is celebrating the rolling Yorkshire Dales of his childhood, where the lapwings cried and the bluebottles huzzahed in the cowpats, or engaging with the earth-shattering intricacies of plate tectonics, Douglas Botting is always readable and entertaining. The book also describes in detail where to go fishing, climbing, cycling,… Read More

First edition thus (1937) With 60 drawings by G. E. Collins. Introduction by Sir William Beach-Thomas. Charming early twentieth century nature book.