A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals About the Past and Future of Our Species, Planet, and Universe - Hardcover

Segre, Gino

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0670031011 ISBN 13: 9780670031016

Publisher: Viking / Penguin, 2002

Synopsis

Theorizes that temperature is the most revealing method of measurement, considering such topics as the fixed internal temperature of most mammals, the significance of hydrothermal vents on the ocean floor, and the problem of superconductivity in quantum physics. 25,000 first printing.

About this title

Review:

Length and mass are measurements we understand intuitively, but temperature is fleeting and elusive. Why is it so hard to measure compared with other fundamentals? Why do living things require such a narrow range of temperatures to go about their business? How cold is deep space, anyway? Physicist Gino Segre knows how to keep interest flowing along; even when he's explaining the intricacies of small-scale physics, he takes time to ground it in real life. His scope is wide--from the beginning (and ending) of the universe to the history of life on Earth, little falls outside his purview. Yet the book touches on so many subjects of immediate interest to 21st-century humans (high fevers, sports medicine, and the next scheduled Ice Age, to name a few) that it's compelling even to those who don't care about the Big Questions. --Rob Lightner

About the Author:

Gino Segrč is professor of physics and astronomy at the University of Pennsylvania. An internationally renowned expert in high-energy elementary-particle theoretical physics, Segrč has served as director of Theoretical Physics at the National Science Foundation and received awards from the National Science Foundation, the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, and the Guggenheim Foundation. This is his first book.

About this edition

• Publisher: Viking / Penguin
• Publication date: 2002
• ISBN 10: 0670031011
• ISBN 13: 9780670031016
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 320