Condition Notes: Excellent, unmarked copy with little wear and tight binding. We ship in recyclable American-made mailers. 100% money-back guarantee on all orders.

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Bibliographic Details

Title: The Curves of Life (Dover Books Explaining Science)
Publisher: Dover Publications
Publication Date: 1979
Language: English
ISBN 10: 048623701X
ISBN 13: 9780486237015
Binding: paperback
Condition: Near Fine
Weight: 0.648 pounds

About this title

Synopsis

The open-ended curve of the spiral gives a sensation of continuous motion — of life, in fact. In The Curves of Life, Sir Theodore A. Cook (1867–1928), English author and editor, finds that the spiral or helix may lie at the core of life's first principle — that of growth. The spiral is fundamental to the structure of plants, shells, and the human body; to the periodicity of atomic elements and to an animal's horns; to microscopic DNA (the double helix) and to the Andromeda nebula.
The Curves of Life portrays the significance of the spiral in 426 illustrations, from a Narwhal's tusk to D�rer's plan for a cylindrical helix. From the spiral in nature, science, and art, the author suggests ideas on the essence of beauty and man's response to it. "One of the chief beauties of the spiral as an imaginative conception is that it is always growing, yet never covering the same ground, so that it is not merely an explanation of the past, but is also a prophecy of the future."
Martin Gardner, mathematician and author, said of The Curves of Life, "This is the classic reference on how the golden ratio applies to spirals and helices in nature."

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Roundabout Books is a bookstore for book people: an independent, locally-owned bookstore in the Pioneer Valley of Western Massachusetts. Our physical shop is located in the old Diamond-Electric Soap Factory at 85 Pierce Street, just two blocks off Federal Street in Greenfield. We offer an extensive, organized, and thoughtful collection of used and new books at excellent prices. We hope you will find our store welcoming and that our love of books shows through in our work. If you are here in-person, come wander and browse an expansive collection of all genres, including poetry, science, history, literature in translation, and university presses. Enjoy our historic industrial building transformed, and envisioned as accessible and environmentally sustainable for the future. Please stop in or give us a call if you have questions for us!

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Roundabout Books, Inc.
16 West St., Greenfield, MA, 01301, U.S.A.

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