The solution, says Daniel Clery in this deeply researched and revelatory book, is to be found in the original energy source: the Sun itself. There, at its center, the fusion of 620 million tons of hydrogen every second generates an unfathomable amount of energy. By replicating even a tiny piece of the Sun’s power on Earth, we can secure all the heat and energy we would ever need. Nuclear fusion scientists have pursued this simple yet extraordinary ambition for decades. Skeptics say it will never work but, as A Piece of the Sun makes clear, large-scale nuclear fusion is scientifically possible―and has many advantages over other options. Fusion is clean, green and virtually limitless and Clery argues passionately and eloquently that the only thing keeping us from proving its worth is our politicians’ shortsightedness. The world energy industry is worth trillions of dollars, divert just a tiny fraction of that into researching fusion and we would soon know if it is workable. Timely and authoritative, A Piece of the Sun is a rousing call-to-arms to seize this chance of avoiding the looming energy crisis.

Product Description: The air we breathe is twenty-one percent oxygen, an amount higher than on any other known world. While we may take our air for granted, Earth was not always an oxygenated planet. How did it become this way? Donald Canfield--one of the world's leading authorities on geochemistry, earth history, and the early oceans--covers this vast history, emphasizing its relationship to the evolution of life and the evolving chemistry of the Earth...read more

Product Description: A multidisciplinary field, encompassing both geophysics and civil engineering, geomechanics deals with the deformation and failure process in geomaterials such as soil and rock. Although powerful numerical tools have been developed, analytical solutions still play an important role in solving practical problems in this area...read more

This textbook presents the chemistry of the environment using the full strength of physical, inorganic, and organic chemistry, in addition to the necessary mathematics and physics. It provides a broad yet thorough description of the environment and the environmental impact of human activity using scientific principles. It gives an accessible account while paying attention to the fundamental basis of the science, showing derivations of formulas and giving primary references and historical insight. The authors make consistent use of professionally accepted nomenclature (IUPAC and SI), allowing transparent access to the material by students and scientists from other fields. This textbook has been developed through many years of feedback from students and colleagues. It includes more than 400 online student exercises that have been class tested and refined. The book will be invaluable in environmental chemistry courses for advanced undergraduate and graduate students and professionals in chemistry and allied fields.

Product Description: An Introduction to Forensic Geoscience provides fundamental training in geoscience as developed through the lens of its forensic applications. It incorporates a range of topics including geophysical methods of grave detection, the mineralogy of art, identification of microfossils, and comparison of soil trace evidence samples...read more

Product Description: Using a systems analysis approach and extensive case studies, Environmental Remote Sensing and Systems Analysis shows how remote sensing can be used to support environmental decision making. It presents a multidisciplinary framework and the latest remote sensing tools to understand environmental impacts, management complexity, and policy implications...read more

Product Description: A severe thunderstorm morphs into a tornado that cuts a swath of destruction through Oklahoma. How do we study the storm's mutation into a deadly twister? Avian flu cases are reported in China. How do we characterize the spread of the flu, potentially preventing an epidemic? The way to answer important questions like these is to analyze the spatial and temporal characteristics--origin, rates, and frequencies--of these phenomena...read more

Product Description: This textbook provides an intuitive yet mathematically rigorous introduction to the thermodynamics and thermal physics of planetary processes. It demonstrates how the workings of planetary bodies can be understood in depth by reducing them to fundamental physics and chemistry...read more

[This is the Library Edition in vinyl case.] In Powering the Future, Nobel laureate Robert B. Laughlin transports us two centuries into the future, when we've ceased to use carbon from the ground. Boldly, Laughlin predicts no earth-shattering transformations will have taken place. Six generations from now, there will still be soccer moms, shopping malls, and business trips. Firesides will still be snug and warm. How will we do it? Not by discovering a magic bullet to slay our energy problems but through a slew of fascinating technologies, drawing on wind, water, and fire. Powering the Future is an objective yet optimistic tour through alternative fuel sources, set in a world where we've burned every last drop of petroleum and every last shovelful of coal.

In a straightforward manner and with plenty of illustrations, this textbook approaches important design issues in rock mechanics from a mechanics of materials foundation. It addresses rock slope stability in surface excavations, shaft and tunnel stability, and entries and pillars. The book also covers three-dimensional caverns with an emphasis of backfill and cable bolting and addresses the geometry and forces of chimney caving. Appendices contain supplementary information about rock, joint, and composite properties, rock mass classification schemes, and useful formulas. Designed as a course book, it contains numerous exercises and examples to familiarize the reader with practical problems in rock mechanics through various design analysis techniques and their applications. The appendices provide supplementary information about rock, joint, and composite properties, rock mass classification schemes, useful formulas, and an extensive literature list. A solutions manual, containing all worked solutions is also available (ISBN 9780415457255). Intended for rock mechanics courses to undergraduate and first year graduate students in mining and civil engineering; also suited as an introduction to rock mechanics for other engineers.

Product Description: In this truly unique celebration of mining, breathtaking aerial photographs by award-winning photographers Jim Wark and Richard Woldendorp accompany ground-level pictures of mines, mine-side oddities, and mine communities. Informed but breezy narratives by mining experts John Trudinger and Karlheinz Spitz identify and explain the images...read more

The complexities of designing piles for lateral loads are manifold as there are many forces that are critical to the design of big structures such as bridges, offshore and waterfront structures and retaining walls. The loads on structures should be supported either horizontally or laterally or in both directions and most structures have in common that they are founded on piles. To create solid foundations, the pile designer is driven towards finding the critical load on a certain structure, either by causing overload or by causing too much lateral deflection. This second edition of Reese and Van Impe’s course book explores and explains lateral load design and procedures for designing piles and pile groups, accounting for the soil resistance, as related to the lateral deflection of the pile. It addresses the analysis of piles of varying stiffness installed into soils with a variety of characteristics, accounting for the axial load at the top of the pile and for the rotational restraint of the pile head. The presented method using load-transfer functions is currently applied in practice by thousands of engineering offices in the world. Moreover, various experimental case design examples, including the design of an offshore platform pile foundation are given to complement theory. The rich list of relevant publications will serve the user into further reading. Designed as a textbook for senior undergraduate/graduate student courses in pile engineering, foundation engineering and related subjects, this set of book and CD-ROM will also benefit professionals in civil and mining engineering and in the applied earth sciences.