Galvani's Spark chronicles the gradual understanding of the nerve impulse which is the basis of all thoughts, sensations and actions. The story begins with Luigi Galvani's chance observation of a spark from a friction machine causing a frog's leg to twitch from across the room. The accurate recording and the understanding of the properties of the nerve fiber membrane that makes the impulse possible became the objectives of neuroscientists for over 200 years. The author, Alan J. McComas finely interweaves the stories, the challenges, and the controversies of the most prominent figures in neuroscience, from the histological descriptions of nerve cells by Cajal to the discovery of a three-dimensional structure of ion channels in cell membranes by MacKinnon. Along the way he details the first recordings of the impulse with a cathode ray oscilloscope by Gasser and Erlanger, Adrian's discovery that stimulus intensity is coded by the frequency of nerve impulses, and Hodgkin and Huxley's brilliant voltage clamp experiments, amongst many others. The recognition by Galvani that muscles and nerves have an electrical component triggered the field of neurophysiology and in turn has produced some of the greatest discoveries in neuroscience. 16 investigators of the nerve impulse went on to win or share Nobel prizes and this book not only emphasizes their work but also traces their brilliant careers. For anyone interested in the nervous system and the history of neuroscience, Galvani's Spark: The Story of the Nerve Impulse is essential reading.

Galvani's Spark describes the gradual understanding of the nerve impulse. Proceeding from a chance observation on a frog leg, to studies on squid giant axons and bacteria, this book concludes with the increasing realization that ion channells are responsible for a variety of clinical disorders.

How encounters with strongly electric fish informed our grasp of electricity. Spark from the Deep tells the story of how human beings came to understand and use electricity by studying the evolved mechanisms of strongly electric fish. These animals have the ability to shock potential prey or would-be predators with high-powered electrical discharges. William J. Turkel asks completely fresh questions about the evolutionary, environmental, and historical aspects of people’s interest in electric fish. Stimulated by painful encounters with electric catfish, torpedos, and electric eels, people learned to harness the power of electric shock for medical therapies and eventually developed technologies to store, transmit, and control electricity. Now we look to these fish as an inspiration for engineering new sensors, computer interfaces, autonomous undersea robots, and energy-efficient batteries.

A Turtle asked an Eagle to teach her how to fly. The Eagle advised her not to try, as she was not fit for it; but she insisted. The Eagle took her in his claws, raised her up, and dropped her: she fell on stones and broke to pieces.

Musaicum Books presents to you a unique Short Story Collection, formatted to the highest digital standards and adjusted for readability on all devices. Table of Contents Introduction Leo Tolstoy: A Short Biography "Tolstoy the Artist" and "Tolstoy the Preacher" by Ivan Panin "Count Tolstoi and the Public Censor" by Isabel Hapgood Short Stories & Collections The Kreutzer Sonata The Forged Coupon Hadji Murad The Dekabrists: A Romance A Morning of a Landed Proprietor After the Dance Alyosha the Pot My Dream There Are No Guilty People The Young Tsar A Lost Opportunity "Polikushka" The Candle Twenty-Three Tales Sevastopol Sketches Master and Man Father Sergius A Russian Proprietor and Other Stories An Old Acquaintance Fables and Stories for Children Stories from Physics Stories from Zoology Stories from Botany Texts for Chapbook Illustrations Stories from the New Speller Diary of a Lunatic Recollections of a Billiard-Marker Three Parables The Cutting of a Forest Yermak, the Conqueror of Siberia Two Hussars Albert The Cossacks: A Tale of 1852 Nikolai Palkin and Other Stories Scenes from Common Life Meeting a Moscow Acquaintance at the Front Memoirs of a Marker From the Memoirs of Prince D. Nekhlyudov Domestic Happiness My Husband and I Who Should Learn Writing of Whom? Count Lev Nikolayevich Tolstoy or Leo Tolstoy (1828-1910) was a Russian writer who is regarded as one of the greatest authors of all time. Born to an aristocratic Russian family in 1828, he is best known for the novels War and Peace (1869) and Anna Karenina (1877) which are often cited as pinnacles of realist fiction.

"Stories for Children" by Leo graf Tolstoy (translated by Leo Wiener). Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.