In this book by a well-known Russian scientist, written at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries, surrounding phenomena are presented in an engaging narrative form, and their physical and biological meaning is explained. The book will enrich the reader’s knowledge and allow them to see the unusual in what we encounter every day. The stories will interest not only children, but adults as well.
Содержание:
Animal stories
01. Hydra
02. About the organs of digestion
03. Globefish (ball-shaped creature)
04. How an amoeba, a globefish, and a hydra differ from each other
05. About animal breathing
06. About the organs of the circulatory system
07. Why animals breathe
08. How a plant resembles animals
09. How a hydra resembles a plant
10. About hydroids and jellyfish
11. Sexual and asexual reproduction
12. About animal eggs
13. About transformations of animals
14. About corals
15. About coral formations
16. About changes in animals
17. About the skeleton, about organs of movement, and about the brain
18. What we learned about animals
Air stories
01. Wind and air
02. How air can be compressed and how compressed air presses
03. How to find out that ordinary air presses on everything around it
04. How air differs from stone and water, and why it presses equally in all directions
05. Why air presses and what “blue sky” is
06. About the force of air pressure
07. How people found the force of air pressure
08. Why air pressure on Earth changes constantly
09. About how warm air rises upward
10. Why warm air rises upward and cools
11. What happens to the air’s water gas when it rises upward
12. About wind and clouds
13. Where the wind blows from and where it blows to
14. How air moves during wind
15. How the air animals exhale differs from ordinary air
16. How to obtain carbon dioxide
17. About carbon dioxide gas and oxygen
18. How oxygen differs from carbonic acid, and where it comes from in plants
19. About nitrogen
20. How air warms the Earth
21. What we learned about air
Water stories
01. Where mountain streams come from
02. Why high mountains are covered with snow
03. How snow in the mountains turns into ice
04. How ice changes its shape
05. About ice rivers and ice rocks
06. How water contracts when it cools, and expands again when it freezes
07. How stone mountains crumble and how water carves gorges through them
08. About river sediments
09. How rivers change Earth’s surface
10. About dissolving different substances in water and about crystals
11. More about how different substances dissolve in water
12. How to obtain completely pure water without impurities
13. About mineral water and how gases dissolve in water
14. How water decorates caves
15. About the color of water
16. About the azure grotto
17. About precipitation around springs and about rivers that flow into the sea
18. About the water cycle and salty sea water
19. About the work of the sea and why water is necessary for every animal
20. What we learned about water
Earth stories
01. About the change of mountains
02. Rocky debris slopes
03. About the fact that rocks are composed of minerals, and how water and air build other rocks from some rocks
04. About the structure of the Earth, about internal heat and hot springs
05. About eruptions of molten rocks and about volcanoes
06. About how the ancient Roman cities of Herculaneum and Pompeii perished
07. A walk on Vesuvius
08. How high the temperature is inside the Earth
09. How mountains came to be on Earth and how they grow
10. About marine deposits, fossil animals and plants, and changes in the level of the world ocean
11. About the future of Earth and other planets
12. About how the accumulation of plants in the ground turns into coal
13. About burning wood without air and about swamp gas
14. About peat
15. How peat turns into coal, and coal into graphite and diamond
16. About the origin of diamonds
17. About simple substances and oxides
18. About ores and extracting metals from ores
19. About gold