disasters

Early one spring morning, everything changes. Leo's world is shaken -- literally -- and he finds himself stranded in the middle of San Francisco as it crumbles and burns to the ground. Does Leo have what it takes to survive this devastating disaster?.

"Explore the settlement of Jamestown in 1607 and what led to its near demise. Personal accounts and vivid photos help readers examine causes and effects of the disaster, from lacking food and supplies to worsening relations with American Indians"--Provided by publisher.

"Two thousand years ago, Chinese scientists were looking for a medicine that would make them live forever. Instead, they blew up their lab and discovered gunpowder. Alfred Noble blew up his laboratory twice before he discovered the formula for dynamite. Learn about the Apollo 13 and 'Challenger' explosions and the strange space explosions caused by top secret Starfish Prime. These stories may sound twisted, but they're all true tales from science!"--Back cover.

"London was once covered in a fog so polluted that it killed 12,000 people. The Aleppo earthquake killed 230,000 people, and a wall of water mysteriously wiped out the whole town of Burnam-on-the-Sea. All of these were catastrophic disasters, but they led to important discoveries in science. Learn about how the earth turned to liquid in New Zealand, and what happens when a tsunami meets a nuclear reactor. These stories may sound twisted and strange, but they are all true tales from science!"--Back cover.

Discover how the great Irish potato famine resulted in 1 million deaths between 1845 and 1852 and led to a huge wave of emigration.

Learn about what keeps planes in the air and the actions, either intentional or unintentional, that bring them crashing to the ground.

Decades before the American Revolution, Benjamin Franklin lamented that English settlers were constantly fleeing over to the Indians -- but Indians almost never did the same. Tribal society has been exerting an almost gravitational pull on Westerners for hundreds of years, and the reason lies deep in our evolutionary past as a communal species. The most recent example of that attraction is combat veterans who come home to find themselves missing the incredibly intimate bonds of platoon life. The loss of closeness that comes at the end of deployment may help explain the high rates of post-traumatic stress disorder suffered by military veterans today. Combining history, psychology, and anthropology, TRIBE explores what we can learn from tribal societies about loyalty, belonging, and the eternal human quest for meaning. It explains the irony that -- for many veterans as well as civilians -- war feels better than peace, adversity can turn out to be a blessing, and disasters are sometimes remembered more fondly than weddings or tropical vacations. TRIBE explains why we are stronger when we come together, and how that can be achieved even in today's divided world.

Throughout history infectious diseases have been mankind's biggest killers. The Black Death, the Spanish Flu, and AIDS account for over one million deaths. When a new threat like Ebola, SARS, or Zika seems imminent we send our best and bravest doctors. Dr. Ali Khan is a public health first responder. He has found that while rogue microbes will always be a problem, outbreaks on a pandemic scale are often caused by people who make mistakes, don't listen to health warnings and precautions, and politicize emergencies. This book is a firsthand account of disasters like anthrax, bird flu, and others and how we could do more to prevent their return.

On April 18, 1906, disaster struck San Francisco. A young man grabbed his camera and started documenting the destruction and death surrounding him. Fearlessly going to the center of the devastation, the man captured scenes of fires, collapsing buildings, and people fleeing for their lives--scenes that no one else had a chance to record. His photographs were preserved in a family photo album, unseen by the public for over a hundred years.