Fire Trucks

Rising from a humble background in rural southern Ireland, John Tyndall became one of the foremost physicists, communicators of science, and polemicists in mid-Victorian Britain. In science, he is known for his important work in meteorology, climate science, magnetism, acoustics, and bacteriology. His discoveries include the physical basis of the warming of the Earth's atmosphere (the basis of the greenhouse effect), and establishing why the sky is blue. But he was also a leading communicator of science, drawing great crowds to his lectures at the Royal Institution, while also playing an active role in the Royal Society. Tyndall moved in the highest social and intellectual circles. A friend of Tennyson and Carlyle, as well as Michael Faraday and Thomas Huxley, Tyndall was one of the most visible advocates of a scientific world view as tensions grew between developing scientific knowledge and theology. He was an active and often controversial commentator, through letters, essays, speeches, and debates, on the scientific, political, and social issues of the day, with strongly stated views on Ireland, religion, race, and the role of women. Widely read in America, his lecture tour there in 1872-73 was a great success. Roland Jackson paints a picture of an individual at the heart of Victorian science and society. He also describes Tyndall's importance as a pioneering mountaineer in what has become known as the Golden Age of Alpinism. Among other feats, Tyndall was the first to traverse the Matterhorn. He presents Tyndall as a complex personality, full of contrasts, with his intense sense of duty, his deep love of poetry, his generosity to friends and his combativeness, his persistent ill-health alongside great physical stamina driving him to his mountaineering feats. Drawing on Tyndall's letters and journals for this first major biography of Tyndall since 1945, Jackson explores the legacy of a man who aroused strong opinions, strong loyalties, and strong enmities throughout his life.

This 12-chapter text presents a concise first course in microeconomics which is suitable for both MBA and upper level undergraduate programmes. No previous knowledge of economics is assumed. MBA Economics covers the key areas of microeconomics - how the interactions of producers and consumers in product markets produce powerful tendencies towards efficiency and equality when self-interest is harnessed within purely competitive markets, as well as how rent-seeking activity can alter this conclusion and how human-capital investments can increase the productivity and wages of workers. As economics is presented to students as an element in arguments, only the economics necessary to support the arguments need to be presented. This feature makes MBA Economics substantially leaner than the standard text in microeconomics, thereby making it far more accessible. - - Written by an experienced textbook author. - No previous knowledge of economics is assumed. - Step by step analysis of key modules. - Concise introduction to microeconomics for MBA and undergraduate students.