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From the jetliner and the snowmobile to the pacemaker and the BlackBerry, Canadians have long been at the forefront of innovation and invention. Canadians are behind a variety of cutting-edge products, life-saving medicines, innovative machines, and fascinating ideas. Although our inventions have typically been created with little fanfare, financing, or expectation of return, they have often gone on to play important roles in day-to-day life. Our "greatest invention" is probably insulin, which millions of people depend on for life and health.

Once people encounter the natural world and become aware of its intricacy, fragility, beauty, and significance, they will recognize the need for conservation. The fascinating development of natural history studies in North America is portrayed through the life stories of 22 naturalists.

"Writing with uncanny skill, Louise de Kiriline Lawrence leads us gently into the world of birds. Her perception, intuition and experience give her insights that she here freely shares with us all. "I knew this remarkable lady for years, and had previously read her Mar, but on re-reading it, I was struck with the sensitive, magical way she reveals the behaviour of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers. "At her doorstep, at almost everyone’s doorstep, there is a wondrous, beautiful world, if we will only be patient and observant. In Mar, Mrs.

Marc Garneau, Roberta Bondar, Julie Payette, Robert Thirsk, Chris Hadfield, and more recently, Guy Laliberté, the founder of Cirque de Soleil, all have one thing in common: they’re some of the very few Canadians who have been in space. The launch of a spaceship is terribly exciting. That’s why thousands of people come to watch. They laugh, cheer, and applaud as the rocket rises. They see the smoke, steam, and white-hot fire as millions of litres of fuel burn in seconds. They feel the chest-thumping impact of the sound.

"When it rains, it pours," especially when it comes to best-selling author Doug Lennox’s Now You Know Extreme Weather. Global warming, killer hurricanes, murderous tornadoes, melting permafrost – weather concerns us all, and now with this tightly packed compenium of questions and answers, everyone can get the lowdown on things like: What makes a perfect storm perfect?Where’s the world’s hottest place?Why was Hurricane Katrina so destructive?

Earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis and tidal waves, fires, mine cave-ins, bridge collapses, ship sinkings, airplane crashes, explosions, and plagues — natural and human-engineered calamity and catastrophe have many forms and guises. In Now You Know Disasters, Q & A ringmaster Doug Lennox showcases the what, why, when, where, who, and how of everything that's gone tragically and terribly wrong, past and present. How does a tsunami occur? Why do Canadian engineers wear iron rings? Who was Richter in the Richter scale?

This fascinating work begins with a scientific appraisal of time and its relationship with 3D space. It explains in clear, understandable language, the complex theories of such famous men as Newton, Einstein, and Stephen Hawking. Is time infinite, or does it have a beginning and an end? Do Black Holes and White Vortices distort time, or penetrate it? The authors also analyse and evaluate puzzling, well documented reports of time travel and reincarnation, and strange cases of deja vu.

Historical Distillates examines the history of the Chemistry Department at the University of Toronto from its beginnings in 1843, when it was housed in simple quarters in the Parliament Buildings on Front Street and had just one faculty member. During the founding era (1843-1920) three British gentlemen professors guided the department through four homes; between 1920 and 1960 three Canadian heads built a highly influential department. Since 1960 eight chairmen have effectively managed a growing and diverse department while it ventured into exciting new fields and emerging sub-disciplines.

Ebb and Flow was named one of 2007's "best science books" by Peter Calamai, science editor of the Toronto Star [Dec. 30, 2007]. He calls it a "wonderful resource book…. Tom Koppel seems to have visited or read about every place with unusual tides and water currents, yet he wears this scholarship lightly." Tides have shaped our world. They have carved out shorelines, transformed early life on Earth, and altered the course of human civilization. Tides frustrated Alexander the Great and Julius Caesar, and aided General MacArthur.

How has the Ontario Agricultural College contributed to Canadian education? What role has the college played in the development of agriculture since it was founded in 1874? This history of Canada’s oldest agricultural college revolves around these two questions. It shows that the college’s mandate has changed in its attempt to serve both education and agriculture. The Ontario Agricultural College was established to enshrine science in farming, but it also became the testing and extension arm of the provincial ministry of agriculture.