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Palgrave Macmillan

Middle World

The Restless Heart of Matter and Life

  • Book
  • © 2007

Overview

Authors:
  1. Mark Haw
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Part of the book series: Macmillan Science (MACSCI)

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Table of contents (13 chapters)

  1. Front Matter

    Pages i-v
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  2. Tiny Things that Never Stand Still

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 1-12

  3. The Accidental Discovery of the Middle World

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 13-36

  4. Gardens of Delight, Orchards of Determinism

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 37-49

  5. From Industrial Revolution… to Rice Pudding

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 50-64

  6. Statistics by Giants

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 65-85

  7. Fiction and Philosophy, Time and Reality

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 86-93

  8. A Theory of the Brownian World

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 94-109

  9. From Rubber Balls to Atoms

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 110-123

  10. From Matter to Life

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 124-127

  11. The Middle World Chain Gang

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 128-149

  12. Engines of Life

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 150-168

  13. Masters of Middle World

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 169-180

  14. The Restlessness of Matter and Life

    • Mark Haw
    Pages 181-188

  15. Back Matter

    Pages 189-197
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Keywords

About this book

Between the microscopic world of quarks and atoms, and the macroscopic (observable) one of pebbles and planets, there is another world, strangely neglected by science. It is inhabited by things like pollen, DNA and viruses. Physicist Mark Haw tells the story of how scientists finally saw the restless middle world, having ignored it for so long.

Reviews

'A delightful story of an overlooked and underappreciated science and the scientists who made it. The writing never falters.' - Mark Buchanan, author of Nexus

'Haw's excellent descriptions ensure that concepts normally encountered only at degree level are just part of a riveting story'. -Chemistry World

'An accessible and racy account...there is something for everyone in this highly enjoyable little book.' - Nature

'It's a phenomenal book. It's slender and makes for an easy read, yet still it explains fundamental concepts well, in terms of the experiments that led to their discovery. There's a reason we make biology students take physics and chemistry, and it's because their essential ideas are all tightly interlinked and this book makes a good case that viewing molecules as inhabitants of that Middle World is a powerfully unifying perspective.'

PZ Myers, Pharyngula Blog (www.scienceblogs.com/pharyngula/)

About the author

MARK HAW is a Materials Scientist at the University of Nottingham, UK, having spent a decade researching Brownian motion at the University of Edinburgh and the Ecole des Mines, France. He has written Physics and Chemistry features for Nature and Physics World, published numerous short stories and penned three novels.

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