Ice Age by John Gribbin: Book Cover

    Ice Age by John Gribbin, Mary Gribbin

    BUY IT NEW

    • Limited Time Offer! Everyone receives the Member Price on books.
      See Details
    • This item is currently out of stock.
    • Add To List uiAction=GetAllLists&page=List&pageType=list&ean=9780760734063&productCode=BK&maxCount=100&threshold=3

    BUY IT USED

    5 copies from $10.94

    See All Available

    (Hardcover - Only From B&N Books)

    • Pub. Date: August 2002
    • 104pp

    Reader Rating: (3 ratings)

    See All Detailed Ratings

      Buy it Used: 5 copies from $10.94 See All Available
       
      • Overview
      • Editorial Reviews
      • Customer Reviews

      Product Details

      • Pub. Date: August 2002
      • Publisher: Barnes & Noble
      • Format: Hardcover, 104pp

      Synopsis

      On July 24, 1837, naturalist Louis Agassiz stunned the learned members of the Swiss Society of Natural Sciences by addressing them not with the anticipated lecture on fossil fishes, but with a passionate presentation on the existence of Ice Ages. No one was convinced. Agassiz even went so far as to drag reluctant members of the Society up into the mountains to see the evidence—the scars left on hard rock by the process of glaciation. (Many skeptics present tried to explain these away as the product of the wheels of passing carriages!) Extraordinary as it may seem, it took another 140 years before the Ice Age theory was fully proven and understood.

      John and Mary Gribbin tell the remarkable story of how we came to understand the phenomenon of Ice Ages. They focus on the key personalities obsessed with the quest for answers to tantalizing questions. How frequently do Ice Ages occur? How do astronomical rhythms affect the Earth's climate? Have there always been two polar ice caps? Is it true that tiny changes in the heat balance of the Earth could plunge us back into full Ice Age conditions?

      With startling new material on how the last major Ice Epoch could have hastened human revolution, Ice Age explains why the Earth was once covered in ice—and how that made us human.

      About the Authors:
      John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge and is currently visiting Fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. His many books include In Search of Schrödinger's Cat, The Little Book of Science, The Birth of Time, Hyperspace, Q is for Quantum,and Stardust.

      Mary Gribbin studied psychology at the University of Sussex and is best known as a writer of science books for young readers. She works in education in East Sussex.

      Together John and Mary Gribbin have written several science books, including Richard Feynman: A Life in Science.

      More Reviews and Recommendations

      Customer Reviews

      Ice Ageby Anonymous

      Reader Rating:
      See Detailed Ratings

      July 11, 2005: At first glance, this slim 100-page book looks as if it is written for children, but don't let that fool you it is a gem of science writing - truly, one of the 'best works of science exposition and history.' The husband and wife author team, John and Mary Gribbin, have written numerous other science and history books, and I'm sure I will be reading more of them. The writing style in Ice Age is a model of lucidity and interest, without sacrificing any important technical material. Oddly enough, this little book follows through on a major revelation I received from reading the much-touted science book 'A Short History Of Nearly Everything,' in which Bill Bryson casually mentions that our Earth is currently in an Ice Age. Everything else in Bryson's book was mundane stuff I already knew about, but this one statement, without any explanation or elaboration, struck me like lightning. For the past couple of years, I have felt frustrated trying to get the rest of the story. Gribbins' 'Ice Age' has exceeded all my hopes. The very first sentence electrified me: 'By the standards of the geological past, we live in an Ice Age.' That bold statement is then followed by a fascinating history of our increasing understanding of the Earth, its climate, and its inhabitants. Maybe most of you were already aware that we are living in an Ice Age epoch, and you are clucking at my ignorance. But whether you're more informed than I or just as ignorant, 'Ice Age' is a great little book to read.

      Ice Ageby Anonymous

      Reader Rating:
      See Detailed Ratings

      March 09, 2003: In my opinion, this was a good book. The main reason I say this, is because I could understand it without giving myself a headache. Many so-called science books seem to go off on these tangents, where I?m sure a person who majored in that field might find quite a bit of interest in them. For everyone else though, the words just start to become gibberish. This book (thankfully) was not like that. My sneaking suspicion is that it has to do a lot with the second author: Mary Gribbin. In the back of the book, it says that she writes books for young readers. If I had to take a guess, I would say that saved the book from disaster. As I said, it was not a hard book to read, and since I knew nothing or very little of Ice Ages to begin with, that is saying a lot. The other thing is that the book focused mainly on the who, and the why, and the how. The infamous what was not being continuously beaten into my head (a fact I am most grateful for). While explanations on the what were given, endless numbers and their precise meaning were avoided. Instead, the authors talked about the importance of this information and the principles behind it. In this way, the book guided rather than shoved me through a large amount of science without really letting me notice. I would then say that this is a book to be recommended. The upper part of this paragraph explains a lot of my reasons for doing so, but beyond that, the book was in fact interesting. I enjoyed my time reading it, and in some places, was greatly amused. Though I doubt I would have picked this book up on my own (without it being about geology, and me in the need of a geology book), I am glad I did. Amusement aside, I learned from this book. And that more than anything, is why I?d recommend it.


      More Customer Reviews