Inventing For Dummies (R)

Abraham Blum

Plant Breeding for Water-Limited Environments

This volume will be the only existing single-authored book offering a science-based breeder's manual directed at breeding for water-limited environments. Plant breeding is characterized by the need to integrate information from diverse disciplines towards the development and delivery of a product defines as a new cultivar. Conventional breeding draws information from disciplines such as genetics, plant physiology, plant pathology, entomology, food technology and statistics. Plant breeding for water-limited environments and the development of drought resistant crop cultivars is considered as one of the more difficult areas in plant breeding while at the same time it is becoming a very pressing issue. This volume is unique and timely in that it develops realistic solutions and protocols towards the breeding of drought resistant cultivars by integrating knowledge from environmental science, plant physiology, genetics and molecular biology.

Rutger Van Santen, Djan Khoe, Bram Vermeer

2030: Technology That Will Change the World

Imagine living in 1958, and knowing that the integrated circuit--the microchip--was about to be invented, and would revolutionize the world. Or imagine 1992, when the Internet was about to transform virtually every aspect of our lives. Incredibly, this book argues that we stand at such a moment right now--and not just in one field, but in many. In 2030, authors Rutger van Santen, Djan Khoe, and Bram Vermeer interview over two dozen scientific and technological experts on themes of health, sustainability and communication, asking them to look forward to the year 2030 and comment on the kind of research that will play a necessary role. If we know what technology will be imperative in 2030, the authors reason, what can we do now to influence future breakthroughs? Despite working in dissimilar fields, the experts called upon in the book - including Hans Blix (Head of the UN investigation in Iraq), Craig Venter (explorer of the human DNA), and Susan Greenfield (a leading world authority on the human brain), among many others - all emphasize the interconnectedness of our global networks in technology and communication, so tightly knit that the world's major conflicts are never isolated ...

Jeffrey Hammond

Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties

Jeffrey Hammond s "Little Big World: Collecting Louis Marx and the American Fifties "is the story of a middle-aged man s sudden compulsion to collect the toys of his childhood: specifically themed playsets produced by the Louis Marx Toy Company. Hammond never made a conscious decision to become a collector of any kind, so he was surprised when his occasional visits to web sites turned into hours spent gazing at, and then impulsively purchasing, the tiny plastic people and animals in the Civil War set, the Fort Apache set, Roy Rogers Ranch, and Happi-Time Farm just a few of the dozens of playsets the Marx Company produced. Hammond interweaves childhood memories with reflections on what they reveal about the culture and values of cold war America, offering an extended meditation on toys as powerful catalysts for the imagination of both children and adults. Never sentimentalizing his childhood in an effort to get his old toys back, Hammond exposes the dangers of nostalgia by casting an unsettling light on the culture of the fifties and the era s lasting impact on those who grew up in it. Writing in a lovably quirky voice, Hammond not only attempts to understand his personal ...