Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities | 誠品線上

Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities

作者 Vaclav Smil
出版社 PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.
商品描述 Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities:【比爾蓋茲推薦書單:歷年推薦】捷克裔加拿大科學家溯及帝國和文明的成長,闡明我們雖可繪製生物個體演化的生長圖,但社會和

內容簡介

內容簡介 【比爾蓋茲推薦書單:歷年推薦】A systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.Growth has been both an unspoken and an explicit aim of our individual and collective striving. It governs the lives of microorganisms and galaxies; it shapes the capabilities of our extraordinarily large brains and the fortunes of our economies. Growth is manifested in annual increments of continental crust, a rising gross domestic product, a child's growth chart, the spread of cancerous cells. In this magisterial book, Vaclav Smil offers systematic investigation of growth in nature and society, from tiny organisms to the trajectories of empires and civilizations.Smil takes readers from bacterial invasions through animal metabolisms to megacities and the global economy. He begins with organisms whose mature sizes range from microscopic to enormous, looking at disease-causing microbes, the cultivation of staple crops, and human growth from infancy to adulthood. He examines the growth of energy conversions and man-made objects that enable economic activities—developments that have been essential to civilization. Finally, he looks at growth in complex systems, beginning with the growth of human populations and proceeding to the growth of cities. He considers the challenges of tracing the growth of empires and civilizations, explaining that we can chart the growth of organisms across individual and evolutionary time, but that the progress of societies and economies, not so linear, encompasses both decline and renewal. The trajectory of modern civilization, driven by competing imperatives of material growth and biospheric limits, Smil tells us, remains uncertain."

作者介紹

作者介紹 Vaclav Smil is currently a Distinguished Professor in the Faculty of Environment at the University of Manitoba in Winnipeg, Canada. His interdisciplinary research interests encompass a broad area of energy, environmental, food, population, economic, historical and public policy studies, and he had also applied these approaches to energy, food and environmental affairs of China.He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada (Science Academy) and the first non-American to receive the American Association for the Advancement of Science Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology. He has been an invited speaker in more than 250 conferences and workshops in the USA, Canada, Europe, Asia and Africa, has lectured at many universities in North America, Europe and East Asia and has worked as a consultant for many US, EU and international institutions.

商品規格

書名 / Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities
作者 / Vaclav Smil
簡介 / Growth: From Microorganisms to Megacities:【比爾蓋茲推薦書單:歷年推薦】捷克裔加拿大科學家溯及帝國和文明的成長,闡明我們雖可繪製生物個體演化的生長圖,但社會和
出版社 / PENGUIN GROUP (USA) INC.
ISBN13 / 9780262042833
ISBN10 / 0262042835
EAN / 9780262042833
誠品26碼 / 2681841723006
頁數 / 664
注音版 /
裝訂 / H:精裝
語言 / 3:英文
尺寸 / 22.9X15.2X4.1CM
級別 / N:無

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