The acclaimed author of Motoring with Mohammed brings us a compelling adventure into the remarkable world of the orchid and the impossibly bizarre array of international characters who dedicte their lives to it.The orchid is used for everything from medicine for elephants to an aphrodisiac ice cream. A Malaysian species can grow to weigh half a ton while a South American species fires miniature pollen darts at nectar-sucking bees. But the orchid is also the center ...

Building on the success of this book's first edition, Dr. Eric Hansen and Dr. Mack Roach have updated, revised, and expanded the Handbook of Evidence-based Radiation Oncology, a portable reference that utilizes evidence-based medicine as the basis for practical treatment recommendations and guidelines. Organized by body site, concise clinical chapters provide easy access to critical information. Important "pearls" of epidemiology, anatomy, pathology, and clinical presentation are ...

Forests are under tremendous pressure from human uses of all kinds, and one of the most significant threats to their sustainability comes from commercial interests. This book presents a comprehensive examination of the interactions between the forest products sector and the sustainability of forests.It captures the most current sustainability concerns within the forestry sector and various sustainability-oriented initiatives to address these. Experts from around the world analyze i...

Changes in production, demand, supply, and trade patterns; the impact of green building and bioenergy on industry practices and policy infrastructure; and new economies with production advantages and large consumption bases all present challenges and opportunities in the forest sector. With contributions from leading experts in academia and profess

Eric Hansen survives a cyclone on a boat off the Australian coast, cradles a dying man in Calcutta, and drinks mind-altering kava in Vanuatu. He helps a widower search for his wife's wedding ring amid plane-crash wreckage in Borneo and accompanies topless dancers on a bird-watching expedition in California. From the Maldives to Sacramento, from Cannes to Washington Heights, Eric Hansen has a way of getting himself into the most sacred ceremonies and the most candid conversations.

Outfitted with a pair of ratty sand shoes and a knapsack full of trade goods, Eric Hansen set off to cross the rainforest of Borneo, one of the last places on earth largely untouched by Western civilization. For seven months Hansen hunted wild pig, gathered roots, and lived among tribes whose longhouses were still decorated with the headhunting swords of their ancestors, completing one of the great adventures of our time.

How can science realize its potential and help us tackle global inequality, environmental change and crippling poverty? How can more appropriate technologies be developed for those most in need? Science has long promised much -- new crops, new medicines, new sources of energy, new means of communication -- but the potential of new technologies has frequently bypassed the poorest people and the poorest countries.In Science and Technology for Development, James Smith explores the com...

Journalist Susan Casey joins a strange band of surfer-scientists on a remote island off the California coast for some close encounters with the jaws of the world’s most mysterious and fearsome predators in this New York Times bestseller.Susan Casey was in her living room when she first saw the great white sharks of the Farallon Islands, their dark fins swirling around a small motorboat in a documentary. These sharks were the alphas among alphas, some longe...

This guide is designed to be a simple approach to a complex tradition dating back nearly a thousand years - the art of Bonsai! As a beginner, this ebook will help you to soon master your skills of growing and maintaining your very own bonsai, covering every topic from varying styles and shaping techniques to propagating and appropriate display.

Robert Long and his family - wife Catherine, and children Christan (17) and Robin (14) - live in complete isolation, in a hut two days' walk south of Haast in South Westland. Robert has lived there for nearly 30 years; Catherine for 20 and the kids all their lives. Their only contact with the outside world is a helicopter or plane once a month, and two trips a year to the 'outside world'. This is the story of how and why Robert - known locally as 'Beansprout' - came to live at Gorge River,...

Titanic. Just the name evokes tales of the doomed ship that have captivated people of all ages for more than 100 years.Early readers will enjoy this exciting account of the world's most famous disaster-at-sea and the discovery of it's remains many years later.Step 4 books are perfect for independent readers who are confident with simple sentences and are just starting to tackle paragraphs.

Every day, we are presented with a range of “sustainable” products and activities—from “green” cleaning supplies to carbon offsets—but with so much labeled as “sustainable,” the term has become essentially sustainababble, at best indicating a practice or product slightly less damaging than the conventional alternative. Is it time to abandon the concept altogether, or can we find an accurate way to measure sustainability? If so, how can we achieve it? And if not, how can we best pr...