Michael Bowker – författare

Catalysis is one of the most important technologies in our modern world. We depend on it to produce materials, such as plastics, from oil; we depend on it to produce fuel to power our cars; we depend on it to remove the pollutants emitted from the engines of those cars; we even depend on it for the functioning and growth of our own bodies. It is therefore very important that we ask ourselves the question, 'what is catalysis?' and this book does exactly that, concentrating on the most important type of catalysis for industry, namely heterogeneous catalysis. The book is split into 3 sections, dealing with the fundamentals of adsorption and reaction at surfaces, the nature of heterogeneous catalysts and their synthesis, and the applications of this technology in the modern world. This book will be useful for teachers, undergraduates, and as an introductory book for graduates specialising in catalysis and surface science.

At first glance, the events in this audiobook may seem equal parts science fiction and legal thriller. Unfortunately, this is a true story of blinding greed, cruel deceit, unfortunate circumstance, and powerful human tragedy. It has villains and heroes, but it does not yet have a good ending. Something''s wrong in Libby, Montana. Residents are dying at a rate sixty times higher than the national average from a battery of insidious diseases, and they will continue to suffer for decades to come. The cause: a so-called miracle mineral that generations of families felt thankful for, until they discovered that the "miracle" was too good to be true -- and that the town''s disturbing mortality rate was hardly an accident. The scope of the treachery goes far beyond Libby. Even before the dust had settled following the September 11 terrorist attacks, those who live and work in lower Manhattan were voicing well-founded concerns about air quality around Ground Zero. Tests conducted at the site yielded conflicting results -- and possibly evidence of a continuing corporate and governmental cover-up that mirrors a pattern of deception threatening not only the physical health of millions of Americans but the financial stability of our economy. In 1989, the EPA banned the manufacture, importation, processing, and distribution of commercial asbestos -- but the ban didn''t hold. Asbestos is big business, rivaling tobacco in its profitability. By 1991, powerful corporate lobbyists succeeded in having the ban overturned. Today, asbestos remains an ingredient in more than three thousand products on sale in the United States and many more that are exported to developing nations around the globe.