Provides novice and experienced hikers with information on terrain, climate, safety, clothing, and equipment, and includes firsthand accounts of hiking adventures

The Dayhiker's Handbook: An All-Terrain, All-Season Guide

Sports & Outdoors

Long, John

Hodgson, Michael

Hiking & Camping

McGraw=Hill

Everyone loves a good thriller. Like some of the best books in that genre. Attacked! will hook you from the first page. But this is no complex tale of international intrigue or terrorist plots. Instead, it's a spellbinder with a decidedly outdoor/adventure bent, filled with gripping, real-life stories of animal attacks and human survival. Personally selected by award-winning yarn-spinner John Long, each tale of man-eating tigers, sharks, rogue elephants, bears, and other wild creatures will both terrify and amaze you.

Attacked!: By Beasts of Prey and Other Deadly Creatures, True Stories of Survivors

Science & Math

Biological Sciences

International Marine/Ragged Mountain Press

Gear advice, terrain-specific tips, and real-world scenarios make this a unique hiking guide. This revised and expanded edition features Hodgson and Long's hiking stories from their worldwide treks, and climate- and terrain-specific advice.

The Complete Hiker, Revised and Expanded

Scientists have recovered more than a billion fossils, but no discovery has been more breath-taking than the fossils recently found in northern China, findings which prove that several families of dinosaurs had feathers, or feathery hair-like coverings, adorning their bodies. Now in the beautifully designed Feathered Dinosaurs, paleontologist John Long and illustrator Peter Schouten provide a stunning visual record of these extraordinary prehistoric creatures, illuminating the evolutionary march from primitive, feathered dinosaurs through to the first true flying birds. Schouten, an acclaimed natural history artist, has created 80 full-color paintings that capture the striking physical traits of these feathered dinosaurs. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of the lifestyles of modern birds and mammals, plus the extant scientific data regarding how these dinosaurs might have looked and behaved, Schouten has produced not only the most beautiful but also the most accurate visual representations of these animals in print. Equally important, John Long, a noted paleontologist and widely published science author (with some 24 books to his credit), provides an engaging companion text that places these feathered dinosaurs within the larger family of dinosaurs--for instance, outlining their relationship to T. Rex and Velociraptor, species well known to Jurassic Park fans--and discusses the factual information that can be deduced from their fossil remains, in effect providing an insightful natural history of this remarkable group. A true marriage of art and science, Feathered Dinosaurs presents an unprecedented visual record of one of the most significant breakthroughs in the history of vertebrate paleontology--the discovery that many predatory dinosaurs were cloaked with feathers, perhaps just as colorful and fanciful as those of their living relatives.

Feathered Dinosaurs: The Origin of Birds

Schouten, Peter

Oxford University Press

This extraordinary book is the first-person account of John Long's two unforgettable "summers" on the southern continent. Told in a highly accessible and entertaining style, Mountains of Madness is the account of his three-month long fossil hunt. As the story unfolds, we learn of both the highs of scientific discovery as well as the grueling yet essential routines that must be practiced every day just to stay alive in one of the harshest environments on our planet. Alternating with the author's wonder at the intense beauty of his surroundings are his immense frustration and boredom that stem from being completely at the mercy of the elements. Throughout the course of the expedition, danger is never far off in this inhospitable land. Despite having been trained in the art of building snow caves and practiced in the skill of traversing glaciers, Long tells of two brushes with death in just one afternoon. The hair-raising escape from a deep crevasse is fraught with tension-only to be followed by yet another encounter with sudden disaster when the crash of an avalanche buries Long deep in the snow. Table of Contents <ul>
<li>Front Matter</li>
<li>A Strange and Hostile Land</li>
<li>Of Heroes, Rocks, and Fossils</li>
<li>Survival Training: Tekapo, New Zealand</li>
<li>Arrival in Antarctica</li>
<li>Antics on Ice</li>
<li>A Very Good Christmas</li>
<li>Dry Valleys, Sand Dunes, and Rivers</li>
<li>Back to the Great White South</li>
<li>Cape Evans and Cape Royds</li>
<li>A Flight of Discovery</li>
<li>On Mr. Darwin's Glacier</li>
<li>The First Worst Day of My Life</li>
<li>Dancing on the Gorgon's Head</li>
<li>Up the McCleary Glacier</li>
<li>A Room at the Fish Hotel</li>
<li>The Skua</li>
<li>The Ascent of Mt. Gudmundson</li>
<li>Over the Mulock Glacier</li>
<li>Mt. Ritchie and Deception Glacier</li>
<li>Onwards to Escalade Peak</li>
<li>'I'm Dreaming of a White Christmas'</li>
<li>On the Snout of the Alligator</li>
<li>Long Day's Journey into Night</li>
<li>Skating Away on the Thin Ice of a New Year</li>
<li>Working on the Portal</li>
<li>At the Crucible of Shark Evolution</li>
<li>Pick-Up Day Problems</li>
<li>Base Blues and Arrival Home in Australia</li>
<li>So Much for the Afterglow</li>
<li>Reflections from the Ice</li>
<li>Epilogue</li>
<li>Appendices</li>
<li>References and Source Material</li>
<li>Acknowledgments</li>
<li>Index</li>
<li>Color Plates</li>
</ul>

Mountains of Madness: A Scientist's Odyssey in Antarctica

Bowden, Tim

History

Joseph Henry Press

What happens when we let robots play the game of life? The challenge of studying evolution is that the history of life is buried in the past—we can’t witness the dramatic events that shaped the adaptations we see today. But biorobotics expert John Long has found an ingenious way to overcome this problem: he creates robots that look and behave like extinct animals, subjects them to evolutionary pressures, lets them compete for mates and resources, and mutates their ‘genes’. In short, he lets robots play the game of life. In Darwin’s Devices, Long tells the story of these evolving biorobots—how they came to be, and what they can teach us about the biology of living and extinct species. Evolving biorobots can replicate creatures that disappeared from the earth long ago, showing us in real time what happens in the face of unexpected environmental challenges. Biomechanically correct models of backbones functioning as part of an autonomous robot, for example, can help us understand why the first vertebrates evolved them. But the most impressive feature of these robots, as Long shows, is their ability to illustrate the power of evolution to solve difficult technological challenges autonomously—without human input regarding what a workable solution might be. Even a simple robot can create complex behavior, often learning or evolving greater intelligence than humans could possibly program. This remarkable idea could forever alter the face of engineering, design, and even warfare. An amazing tour through the workings of a fertile mind, Darwin’s Devices will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about evolution, robot intelligence, and life itself.

Darwin's Devices: What Evolving Robots Can Teach Us About the History of Life and the Future of Technology

Computers & Technology

Computer Science

Basic Books

What happens when we let robots play the game of life? The challenge of studying evolution is that the history of life is buried in the past—we can’t witness the dramatic events that shaped the adaptations we see today. But biorobotics expert John Long has found an ingenious way to overcome this problem: he creates robots that look and behave like extinct animals, subjects them to evolutionary pressures, lets them compete for mates and resources, and mutates their ‘genes’. In short, he lets robots play the game of life. In Darwin’s Devices, Long tells the story of these evolving biorobots—how they came to be, and what they can teach us about the biology of living and extinct species. Evolving biorobots can replicate creatures that disappeared from the earth long ago, showing us in real time what happens in the face of unexpected environmental challenges. Biomechanically correct models of backbones functioning as part of an autonomous robot, for example, can help us understand why the first vertebrates evolved them. But the most impressive feature of these robots, as Long shows, is their ability to illustrate the power of evolution to solve difficult technological challenges autonomously—without human input regarding what a workable solution might be. Even a simple robot can create complex behavior, often learning or evolving greater intelligence than humans could possibly program. This remarkable idea could forever alter the face of engineering, design, and even warfare.  An amazing tour through the workings of a fertile mind, Darwin’s Devices will make you rethink everything you thought you knew about evolution, robot intelligence, and life itself.

Darwin's Devices

The Evolution Revolution

The last decade has seen remarkable new discoveries regarding the evolution of life based on the fossil record—from new information about the earliest multi-celled animals to a new candidate for the ancestor of insects to landmark findings about the region and lifestyle of dinosaurs. This book aims to integrate all of these new findings in an overall evolutionary context, starting with new ideas on the evolution of life on this planet and progressing through the entire fossil record.

McNamara, Kenneth J.

Long, J.

McNamara, K.

wiley

Close Calls: Climbing Mishaps & Near-Death Experiences

Travel

Specialty Travel

UNKNO

The Secret History of Sharks: The Rise of the Ocean's Most Fearsome Predators

Ballantine Books

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Books by Long, John