John Scotney Livres

Culture Smart! provides essential information on attitudes, beliefs and behavior in different countries, ensuring that you arrive at your destination aware of basic manners, common courtesies, and sensitive issues. These concise guides tell you what to expect, how to behave, and how to establish a rapport with your hosts. This inside knowledge will enable you to steer clear of embarrassing gaffes and mistakes, feel confident in unfamiliar situations, and develop trust, friendships, and successful business relationships. Culture Smart! offers illuminating insights into the culture and society of a particular country. It will help you to turn your visit-whether on business or for pleasure-into a memorable and enriching experience. Contents include: customs, values, and traditions historical, religious, and political background life at home leisure, social, and cultural life eating and drinking do's, don'ts, and taboos business practices communication, spoken and unspoken Culture Smart has come to the rescue of hapless travellers. Sunday Times Travel ... the perfect introduction to the weird, wonderful and downright odd quirks and customs of various countries. Global Travel ...full of fascinating- as well as common-sense-tips to help you avoid embarrassing faux pas. Observer ...as useful as they are entertaining. Easyjet Magazine ...offer glimpses into the psyche of a faraway world. New York Times

Today the theory of evolution by natural selection and the science of genetics are the twin keys to our understanding of how life on earth came about. Yet when an English naturalist called Charles Darwin first published his ideas in 1859 in a book called On the Origin of Species the world was horrified at the notion of a changing creation without the intervention a Creator. By contrast, when a few years later an obscure Moravian monk, Gregor Mendel, published the results of his experiments in genetics the world failed to notice John Scotney's new book explains just what these two great men had discovered and follows the amazing development of this seminal idea from the decade when it turned the world on its head to the present time and the unravelling of the human genome. It describes how the first dinosaur fossils were believed to be the bones of giants and how little by little the ongoing story of living creatures has been assembled until we can see the thread of life running from single-cell microorganisms to primates like ourselves, and why most ancient creatures died out and some survive to this day. Indeed we still carry vestiges of former life forms in our bodies and it is said that ancient seas flow in our blood. Anatomy, taxonomy, chemistry, geology, archaeology, and embryology have all had a part in this remarkable detective story, and even the Cold War became involved when the followers of Mendel in the West were confronted by those of Lamarck in China and Russia. Modern evolutionary theory is shown to be a synthesis of many scientific fields and the product both of years of tireless work and of sudden imaginative leaps. The Theory of Evolution conveys the excitement of this fundamental discovery and gives an insight into the way scientific enquiry and debate continue to shape our world. SIMPLE GUIDES: SCIENCE Simple Guides: Science are user-friendly introductions to the great scientific discoveries of the world. Written by experts in the field, they offer the general reader simple and engaging descriptions of key developments and breakthroughs in different fields of science and technology. Simple Guides: Science are written in a clear, informal style, using plain, non-technical language to provide accessible introductions to complex scientific theories. Organized both by theme and chronologically, the books link the major breakthroughs to the lives of their discoverers and inventors. The clear structure and design enable the general reader to grasp essentials easily. These guides will appeal to readers with no specific scientific knowledge, yet with a thirst to know more about the world we live in. The scientific developments and theories are brought to life by descriptions of their social contexts; not only the breakthroughs are described, but also their impact on society and the human story behind the scientists.

The island of Ireland is famous for its timeless beauty, the variety of its landscape, its quiet towns and lively cities, the poetic and literary genius of so many of its citizens, its music and folklore, and its colorful and bloody history. What is also true is that the Irish people have in many ways changed in recent years, while retaining the scars and proud memories of their past, and their thriving national culture. Twenty-first century Ireland, North and South, is the product not only of its history and culture, but also of massive political change, remarkable efforts to heal centuries-old animosities, a metamorphosis in social and religious attitudes, and the dramatic peaks and troughs of a transformed economy. Until the late twentieth century Southern Ireland's economy was essentially rural, tied to the UK; the North, a place of heavy industry. Then came the so-called Celtic Tiger, springing forward into a largely new type of economy that reaped colossal rewards. New industries arose, old industries disappeared. This was followed by financial collapse in the first decade of this century, worse than almost any country in Europe. Helped by its friends, and, at least in the South, by governmental and popular acceptance of savage austerity measures, Ireland survived. Today the Republic is a major target for US and European investment. Businesspeople and visitors who don't know Ireland will find this book an invaluable introduction to the people, the country, and the economic opportunities it offers; while if you think you know Ireland and the Irish you will find plenty here to broaden and deepen that knowledge, and also plenty that will surprise you.