The book outlines principal milestones in the evolution of the atmosphere, oceans and biosphere during the last 4 million years in relation with the evolution from primates to the genus Homo – which uniquely mastered the ignition and transfer of fire. The advent of land plants since about 420 million years ago ensued in flammable carbon-rich biosphere interfaced with an oxygen-rich atmosphere. Born on a flammable Earth surface, under increasingly unstable climates descending from the warmer Pliocene into the deepest ice ages of the Pleistocene, human survival depended on both—biological adaptations and cultural evolution, mastering fire as a necessity. This allowed the genus to increase entropy in nature by orders of magnitude. Gathered around camp fires during long nights for hundreds of thousandth of years, captivated by the flickering life-like dance of the flames, humans developed imagination, insights, cravings, fears, premonitions of death and thereby aspiration for immortality, omniscience, omnipotence and the concept of god. Inherent in pantheism was the reverence of the Earth, its rocks and its living creatures, contrasted by the subsequent rise of monotheistic sky-god creeds which regard Earth as but a corridor to heaven. Once the climate stabilized in the early Holocene, since about ~7000 years-ago production of excess food by Neolithic civilization along the Great River Valleys has allowed human imagination and dreams to express themselves through the construction of monuments to immortality. Further to burning large part of the forests, the discovery of combustion and exhumation of carbon from the Earth’s hundreds of millions of years-old fossil biospheres set the stage for an anthropogenic oxidation event, affecting an abrupt shift in state of the atmosphere-ocean-cryosphere system. The consequent ongoing extinction equals the past five great mass extinctions of species—constituting a geological event horizon in the history of planet Earth.
This new edition introduces more problem-solving strategies and new conceptual and challenge problems. Also, each Chapter Review has been enhanced with Learning Goals to reinforce the mastery of concepts for students.
This laboratory manual contains 42 experiments for the standard sequence of topics in general, organic, and biological chemistry.
The book guides students through basic chemistry problem solving with engaging visuals and a focus on developing the math skills necessary to be successful in the course.
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Basic Chemistry
Basic Chemistry, Books a la Carte Edition
Essential Laboratory Manual for General, Organic and Biological Chemistry
The main objective in writing this text is to make the study of chemistry an engaging and a positive experience for students by relating the structure and behaviour of matter to real life.
The eText pages look exactly like the printed text, and include powerful interactive and customization functions. This is the product access code card for MasteringChemistry with Pearson eText and does not include the actual bound book.
Health, Environmental, and Green Chemistry Notes throughout the text relate chemistry chapters to real-life topics in health, the environment, and medicine that are interesting and motivating to students.