Smithsonian Institution Secretary, Charles Doolittle Walcott

Smithsonian Institution Secretary, Charles Doolittle Walcott
Author: Ellis Leon Yochelson
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 636
Release: 2001
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780873386807

Geological Survey, as secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, as a founding member of the National Research Council, and as president of the National Academy of Sciences.".

Charles Doolittle Walcott, Paleontologist

Charles Doolittle Walcott, Paleontologist
Author: Ellis Leon Yochelson
Publisher: Kent State University Press
Total Pages: 570
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780873385992

This biography of geologist Charles Doolittle Walcott (1850-1927) documents his career and life from birth to his retirement from the US Geological Survey in 1907, when he became Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution.

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History

Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History
Author: Stephen Jay Gould
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 350
Release: 1990-09-17
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393245209

"[An] extraordinary book. . . . Mr. Gould is an exceptional combination of scientist and science writer. . . . He is thus exceptionally well placed to tell these stories, and he tells them with fervor and intelligence."—James Gleick, New York Times Book Review High in the Canadian Rockies is a small limestone quarry formed 530 million years ago called the Burgess Shale. It hold the remains of an ancient sea where dozens of strange creatures lived—a forgotten corner of evolution preserved in awesome detail. In this book Stephen Jay Gould explores what the Burgess Shale tells us about evolution and the nature of history.

A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves

A Most Improbable Journey: A Big History of Our Planet and Ourselves
Author: Walter Alvarez
Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
Total Pages: 223
Release: 2016-11-15
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0393292703

"A thrilling synthesis from a brilliant scientist who discovered one of the most important chapters in our history." —Sean B. Carroll Big History, the field that integrates traditional historical scholarship with scientific insights to study the full sweep of our universe, has so far been the domain of historians. Famed geologist Walter Alvarez—best known for the “Impact Theory” explaining dinosaur extinction—has instead championed a science-first approach to Big History. Here he wields his unique expertise to give us a new appreciation for the incredible occurrences—from the Big Bang to the formation of supercontinents, the dawn of the Bronze Age, and beyond—that have led to our improbable place in the universe.

Fossils of the Burgess Shale

Fossils of the Burgess Shale
Author: Simon Conway Morris
Publisher: Natural Resources Canada
Total Pages: 35
Release: 1985
Genre: Burgess Shale (B.C.).
ISBN: 0660119013

This publication, designed for the public, describes the discovery of the Burgess shale, recent work on its formation, and the flora and fauna found in it. The major animal groups are described and illustrated. The scientific significance of the shale is explained.

Darwin's Doubt

Darwin's Doubt
Author: Stephen C. Meyer
Publisher: Harper Collins
Total Pages: 605
Release: 2013-06-18
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0062071491

When Charles Darwin finished The Origin of Species, he thought that he had explained every clue, but one. Though his theory could explain many facts, Darwin knew that there was a significant event in the history of life that his theory did not explain. During this event, the “Cambrian explosion,” many animals suddenly appeared in the fossil record without apparent ancestors in earlier layers of rock. In Darwin’s Doubt, Stephen C. Meyer tells the story of the mystery surrounding this explosion of animal life—a mystery that has intensified, not only because the expected ancestors of these animals have not been found, but because scientists have learned more about what it takes to construct an animal. During the last half century, biologists have come to appreciate the central importance of biological information—stored in DNA and elsewhere in cells—to building animal forms. Expanding on the compelling case he presented in his last book, Signature in the Cell, Meyer argues that the origin of this information, as well as other mysterious features of the Cambrian event, are best explained by intelligent design, rather than purely undirected evolutionary processes.

Life's Solution

Life's Solution
Author: Simon Conway Morris
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 488
Release: 2003-09-04
Genre: Science
ISBN: 1139440802

The assassin's bullet misses, the Archduke's carriage moves forward, and a catastrophic war is avoided. So too with the history of life. Re-run the tape of life, as Stephen J. Gould claimed, and the outcome must be entirely different: an alien world, without humans and maybe not even intelligence. The history of life is littered with accidents: any twist or turn may lead to a completely different world. Now this view is being challenged. Simon Conway Morris explores the evidence demonstrating life's almost eerie ability to navigate to a single solution, repeatedly. Eyes, brains, tools, even culture: all are very much on the cards. So if these are all evolutionary inevitabilities, where are our counterparts across the galaxy? The tape of life can only run on a suitable planet, and it seems that such Earth-like planets may be much rarer than hoped. Inevitable humans, yes, but in a lonely Universe.