4Real Forums: John Emsley & Living Books

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Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science
4Real Forums : Exploring God's Creation in Nature and Science

Topic: John Emsley & Living Books

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Mary G
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Posted: April 04 2006 at 7:08am \| IP Logged

Has anyone used any of John Emsley's books to teach science. MacBeth, you mention The 13th Element but what about his others:

Nature's Building Blocks
The Elements of Murder
Molecules at an Exhibition

Any input?

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MaryG
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MacBeth
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Posted: April 04 2006 at 10:24am \| IP Logged

I have Molecules at an Exhibition. I like it very much, as it includes many details about common molecules. But like most popular science writers, he is writing for adults, and he does not shy away from se* and, of course, population problems. I found some chapters more useful than others, and when I have "assigned" a reading, it is by chapter, not as a whole book.

My slightly-more-detailed review of the book is here.

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MacBeth in NY
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Mary G
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Posted: April 04 2006 at 11:57am \| IP Logged

Thanks MacBeth -- I had seen that and gotten the book out of hte library -- thought it'd be a useful resource book, but as you say with assignments by chapter.

Have you seen the others? The "Nature's Building Blocks" looks really interesting!

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MaryG
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my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!

Mary G
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Posted: April 11 2006 at 7:06am \| IP Logged

FYI -- I got Nature's Building Blocks: An A-Z Guide to the Elements from the library and now I'm off to order it from Amazon.

This book is great because it goes through all the elements, alphabetically, and gives information about different aspects of each. He gives the pronunciation of each element and the name in other languages. He gives a bit about whether it's in humans, medical uses, historical significance, economics of the element (how does it impact the economies of different countries), how it impacts the environment, the chemical factors (where it is on the periodic table, melting point, etc) and then an "element of surprise" -- some fun fact about it.

This is a great reference -- one of those you'd pick up and read a bit about gold or radon or whatever.

VERY COOL

(of course, I'm pretty non-science oriented but even dh with his PhD in biology thought it looked pretty cool).

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MaryG
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my website that combines my schooling, hand-knits work, writing and everything else in one spot!

MacBeth
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Posted: April 11 2006 at 10:32am \| IP Logged

Thanks for the review, Mary!

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MacBeth in NY
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