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Eaten by a Giant Clam: Great Adventures in Natural Science
The inspiring exploration stories of natural scientists in the field from the 18th, 19th, and 20th centuries
The history of natural science is often a case of truth being stranger than fiction, as is evidenced by these 22 rollicking tales of men and women risking life and limb in the name of science and the cause of the broadening of human knowledge. Among the tales are Maria Sibylla Merian, who, with her daughter, traveled to Surinam in 1699 to study the life cycle of local spiders, plants, and moths; brilliant Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus and his travels in Lapland; Alexander von Humboldt and his travels down the Amazon; fossil collector Mary Anning, who found the first connected skeleton of an Ichthyosaurus ; George Forrest, one of the first explorers of China's mountain ranges in Yunnan; and Roy Chapman, the American paleontologist upon whom Indiana Jones is based and who was the first to find dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.
The history of natural science is often a case of truth being stranger than fiction, as is evidenced by these 22 rollicking tales of men and women risking life and limb in the name of science and the cause of the broadening of human knowledge. Among the tales are Maria Sibylla Merian, who, with her daughter, traveled to Surinam in 1699 to study the life cycle of local spiders, plants, and moths; brilliant Swedish botanist Carl Linnaeus and his travels in Lapland; Alexander von Humboldt and his travels down the Amazon; fossil collector Mary Anning, who found the first connected skeleton of an Ichthyosaurus ; George Forrest, one of the first explorers of China's mountain ranges in Yunnan; and Roy Chapman, the American paleontologist upon whom Indiana Jones is based and who was the first to find dinosaur eggs in the Gobi desert.
344 pages, Hardcover
First published September 1, 2010
About the author
Joseph Cummins
57 books32 followersJoseph Cummins is the author of numerous books, including Anything for a Vote: Dirty Tricks, Cheap Shots and October Surprises in U.S. Presidential Elections; A Bloody History of the World, which won the 2010 Our History Project Gold Medal Award; and the forthcoming Ten Tea Parties: Patriotic Protests That History Forgot. He lives in Maplewood, New Jersey, with his wife and daughter.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
September 24, 2014
Terrific book. Essays on natural history explorers, from botanists, to insect collectors, to archeologists and dinosaur fossil hunters. Each was short enough to hold my interest and be amazed at the men and women of science.
I only wish that the book had included maps and photos. I a, not conversant with the areas of China and Sumatra and India and Africa they describe. A simple map of the noted areas would have been great. Pictures of these explorers would have been nice.
But, perhaps, the purpose of the book was to give us a taste of the different topics, one we could explore on our own should we want to.
I only wish that the book had included maps and photos. I a, not conversant with the areas of China and Sumatra and India and Africa they describe. A simple map of the noted areas would have been great. Pictures of these explorers would have been nice.
But, perhaps, the purpose of the book was to give us a taste of the different topics, one we could explore on our own should we want to.
March 11, 2013
Inspiring what some people have the drive to do
December 15, 2013
Contains small but interesting biographies of famous (and not so famous) naturalists throughout history and those with whom they conspired.
March 23, 2015
Reading this made me want to grab a pack and start walking across the globe. If you're into learning about nature and history this is a great read.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews