Diatoms to Dinosaurs: The Size and Scale of Living Things

by Christopher McGowan

Book Overview

InDiatoms to Dinosaurs, Chris McGowan takes the reader on a fascinating journey through the natural world, and examines life in all its various forms. He imparts the excitement of discovery and the... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1559633042
• ISBN13: 9781559633048
• Release Date: August 1994
• Publisher: Island Press
• Length: 301 Pages
• Weight: 1.30 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.0" x 7.0" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

Intriguing.

The book is about muscles and skeletons, hearts, fluids and brains. Quite a large chunk of the book is about flight. I found the most captivating chapter was "Tiffany wings and kite strings". It is all about tiny fliers: microfilm model airplanes and microscopic flying insects. It reveals that the mechanism that insects use to fly is different to birds. After reading this, you may think twice about squishing the next harmless little insect that flies right by you. The section on drag was surprisingly very interesting.Although it introduces familiar animals, it goes into enough detail to provide substantially new and rewarding information about these creatures, which you almost certainly won't be aware of. There are loads of great diagrams, which really make this book very enjoyable to read. The book is straightforward and I relished reading it.A very very similar book is called "Cats' Paws and Catapults". It also contains many examples of design, although it is from an engineering perspective, and the focus is on comparing the design of evolution with that of technological invention. I think Diatoms to Dinosaurs is a much more interesting read - it is predominantly concerned with nature, not with technology. This book is simply more profound, but both books are very good.

No fireworks but comprehensive

This book covers a great many zoological issues connected with scale as succinctly as possible offering a fairly comprehensive treatment. It includes scalar descriptions in terms of physiology, intelligence, lifespan, flight and swimming (among others) and whearas the style may be staid, palaeontologists will find much to refer to in this book which is based on solid foundations rather than guesswork and opinions. A must for students, researchers and communicators on the subject.

Unlimited wonders of Life

An excellent exploration of the mysteries of living things.We are surrounded by wonders. From the tiny phytoplankton with 7.5 micrometers in size, to the giant brachiosaurus weighing 78 tons, life manages to find its way, showing us facts that are just almost impossible to believe.This is one of those books you can trust because is written for somebody who knows what he is writing about. Explores quite interesting subjects ranging from the movement of the wings doves and bats, to the heart rate of mice, and the naps of elephants. There are also very good illustrations in it.Definitely, a very nice and productive reading for everybody, especially for those Lovers of Nature.We need a wide mind to understand the wide wonders of Life.

Physics of biology: limits of animal size and speed.

McGowan has put together a nice book about basic limitations that physics sets on animal size, e.g. how insect respiratory system limits insect size, or how big a bird can fly, or how body shape, swimming speed and Reynolds numbers compare with plankton and whales. Even though the subtitle claims that the book is about "living things", there is nothing about plants, which is a pity because e.g. trees are extreme in size. McGowan's writing is lucid and the level is good for reading: there are a couple of equations and about hundred simple charts and figures (B & W, nothing fancy) which give good extra information to the text. You might also want to check Knut Schmidt-Nielsen's book "Scaling: Why Is Anaimal Size So Important".