Life’s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants
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Life’s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants

SKU: 9780691209494

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Full Title

Life\'s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants
Author(s)

Steven Vogel
Edition
ISBN

9780691209494, 9780691024189, 9780691085043
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

This entertaining and informative book describes how living things bump up against non-biological reality. “My immodest aim,” says the author, “is to change how you view your immediate surroundings.” He asks us to wonder about the design of plants and animals around us: why a fish swims more rapidly than a duck can paddle, why healthy trees more commonly uproot than break, how a shark manages with such a flimsy skeleton, or how a mouse can easily survive a fall onto any surface from any height. The book will not only fascinate the general reader but will also serve as an introductory survey of biomechanics. On one hand, organisms cannot alter the earth’s gravity, the properties of water, the compressibility of air, or the behavior of diffusing molecules. On the other, such physical factors form both constraints with which the evolutionary process must contend and opportunities upon which it might capitalize. Life’s Devices includes examples from every major group of animals and plants, with references to recent work, with illustrative problems, and with suggestions of experiments that need only common household materials.

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Life’s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants
-75%
Availability: In Stock

Life’s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants

SKU: 9780691270593

Original price was: $21.95.Current price is: $5.49.

Access Life’s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants Now. Discount up to 90%

Categories: ,

Additional information

Full Title

Life\'s Devices The Physical World of Animals and Plants
Author(s)

Steven Vogel
Edition
ISBN

9780691270593, 9780691270586
Publisher

Princeton University Press
Format

PDF and EPUB

Description

An entertaining and informative book that explores how living things contend with nonbiological reality Life on Earth is subject to the pull of gravity, the properties of air and water, and the behavior of diffusing molecules, yet such physical factors are constraints that drive evolution and offer untold opportunities to creatures of all sizes. In this lively introduction to the science of biomechanics, Steven Vogel invites you to wonder about the design of the plants and animals around us. You will learn why a fish swims more rapidly than a duck can paddle, why healthy trees more commonly uproot than break, how sharks manage with such flimsy skeletons, and why a mouse can easily survive a fall onto any surface from any height. With an illuminating foreword by Rob Dunn, this Princeton Science Library edition of Life’s Devices includes examples from every major group of animals and plants along with illustrative problems and suggestions for experiments that require only common household materials.

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