From Bigfoot and the bonobo to the Central Asian wildman and winged humanoid, this volume presents over 1000 A-to-Z entries on every reported cryptid - i.e. legendary animal unknown to science - from around the world. Each entry traces the history of sightings and known habitats, including details such as: popular name; distribution; etymology; significant encounters; scientific name; present status; physical description; possible identifications; behaviour; variant names; habitat; and sources and secondary entries. Cryptozoological categories include: hominid dwarfs, giants and Neanderthaloids; giant bats and insects; lake and sea monsters; relic elephants; semimythical beasts; and unknown bears, birds, cats, snakes and crocodilians.

Molecules have for a long time been of central importance in chemistry as the basis on which all new products and materials have been designed, developed and interpreted. Since the discovery and characterization of active biomolecules, biology has also been transformed into a molecular science. With the new developments of molecular devices, single-molecule spectroscopy, time-resolved x-ray diffraction and the study of mass-selected clusters in molecular beams, materials science and electronics may move in the same direction. The understanding of molecules and the dynamics of their transition between isolated and assembled states rests on three pillars: structure, activity and function. Enormous progress has been made in the experimental study of molecules by diffraction and spectroscopic analysis, directed at all three of the basic aspects. In the process molecular scientists have developed efficient working models in terms of which to design and interpret their experiments. A vital feature of such models is an understanding of intra- and intermolecular cohesion and assembly, or chemical bonding. One challenging aspect is that the working models of chemistry are notoriously difficult to reduce to the fundamental theories of the physical sciences. The Indaba 5 meeting, held in South Africa during August 2006, was aimed at the progress that is being made to achieve first-principle understanding of molecular science: structure and dynamics (that includes bonding), activity and function. An interdisciplinary international team of experts came together to document and to probe various aspects of these fundamental questions and their startling conclusions confirm the need for afresh look at the physical sciences with a view to better understand the mysteries and magic of molecules. This book explores the common ground to guide chemists, biologists, crystallographers, spectroscopists and theorists into a deeper recognition of their individual relevance towards painting a holistic picture of scientific endeavour. This effort to stimulate interest in multidisciplinary research is rare, if not unique.

This volume deals with the situation in the academic study of religion at the turn of the last century, focusing especially on the founding fathers of the subject in the Scandinavian countries. An attempt is also made to compare the study of religion now with the situation 100 years ago.

The first book to assess critically mystery in children's literature, this collection charts a development from religious mystery through rationally solved detective fictions to insoluble supernatural and horror mysteries. Written by internationally recognised scholars in the field, these thirteen original essays offer challenging and innovative readings of both classic and popular mysteries for children. This volume will be essential and stimulating reading for anyone with an interest in children's literature or in mystery fiction.

This work is an engaging exploration of the process of historical research, following historians as they search for solutions to the greatest mysteries of all time. Most people see historians as denizens of dusty stacks of documents, producing dry prose. This book shows that historians are closer to Sherlock Holmes and Indiana Jones. Examples from ancient times to modern, from Neanderthals and Noah's Ark to Amelia Earhart and JFK, show how historians work out disputes and solve mysteries. Award-winning author Paul Aron takes readers on a journey through great historical mysteries through the ages. Entertaining in themselves, the stories also show that history is not merely living, but lively. The reader who comes to the book thinking history is boring will leave with a changed outlook with regard to both the subject matter and the process of writing history. Each chapter is a carefully and thoroughly researched presentation not of popularized accounts, but of valid historical scholarship. Chronologically arranged the essays show the historical process in action.For each disputed historical point, theories arise, become standard wisdom, and then are revised as additional information becomes available. This book reveals the mechanics of that process, including spirited debate, swashbuckling archeology, and the application of modern science to ancient questions.

This book is an account of murder and politics in Africa, and an historical ethnography of southern Annang communities during the colonial period. Its narrative leads to events between 1945 and 1948 when the imperial gaze of police, press and politicians was focused on a series of mysterious deaths in south-eastern Nigeria attributed to the 'man-leopard society'. These murder mysteries, reported as the 'biggest, strangest murder hunt in the world', were not just forensic but also related to the broad historical impact of commercial, Christian and colonial aid relations on Annang society.

Surveys the lives and works of some 90 contemporary women mystery writers, who are among the most popular authors read today.

A comprehensive overview of modern particle physics, which seeks to be accessible to anyone with a true passion for wanting to know how the universe works. We are introduced to the known particles of the world we live in. An explanation of quantum mechanics and relativity paves the way for an understanding of the laws that govern particle physics. These laws are put into action in the world of accelerators, colliders and detectors found at institutions such as CERN and Fermilab that are in the forefront of technical innovation. Real world and theory meet, with the use of Feynman diagrams to solve the problems of infinities and deduce the need for the Higgs boson.The volume offers insight from an eyewitness and participant in some of the greatest discoveries in 20th-century science. From Einstein's theory of relativity to the elusive Higgs particle, the text should interest anyone interested in the world of quarks, leptons and gauge theories.The work also contains many thumbnail sketches of particle physics personalities, including contemporaries as seen through the eyes of the author. Illustrated with pictures, these candid sketches present views of the characters that populate the field.

The discipline of Egyptology has been criticised for being too insular,with little awareness of the development of archaeologies elsewhere. It has remained theoretically underdeveloped. For example the role of Ancient Egypt within Africa has rarely been considered jointly by Egyptologists and Africanists. Egypt's own view of itself has been neglected; views of it in the ancient past, in more recent times and today have remained underexposed. Encounters with Ancient Egypt is a series of eight books which addresses these issues. The books interrelate, inform and illuminate one another and will appeal to a wide market including academics, students and the general public interested in Archaeology, Egyptology, Anthropology, Architecture, Design and History. Mysterious Lands covers two kinds of encounters. First, encounters which actually occurred between Egypt and specific foreign lands, and second, those the Egyptians created by inventing imaginary lands. Some of the actual foreign lands are mysterious, in that we know of them only through Egyptian sources, both written and pictorial, and the actual locations of such lands remain unknown. These encounters led to reciprocal influences of varying intensity. The Egyptians also created imaginary lands (pseudo-geographic entities with distinctive inhabitants and cultures) in order to meet religious, intellectual and emotional needs. Scholars disagree, sometimes vehemently, about the locations and cultures of some important but unlocated actual lands. As for imaginary lands, they continually need to be re-explored as our understanding of Egyptian religion and literature deepens. Mysterious Lands provides a clear account of this subject and will be a stimulating read for scholars, students or the interested public.

Brain Mystery Light and Dark examines scientific models of how the brain becomes conscious and argues that the spiritual dimension of life is compatible with the main scientific theories. Keyes, who invented the Triune Brain Theory, shows us that the belief in the unity of mind and brain does not necessarily undermine aesthetic, religious, and ethical beliefs.

Religion in ancient Greece had a strong public character and was, in many respects, a way of integrating the individual into the community. Within this public religion, there were special cults - 'mysteries'. These were selected voluntarily by each person in the polis, allowing them to deal with the gods on an individual basis. Privacy was needed for the practice of the mysteries, and this was secured by an initiation ceremony that brought each person to a new spiritual level, and a higher degree of awareness in relation to the gods. With the lack of written evidence that exists for the mysteries, archaeology has proved central to explaining their significance, and this welcome volume showcases new research on the archaeology, ritual and history of Greek mystery cults. Contributions range through Greece and Greek Asia Minor, and from the Bronze Age to the Roman imperial period. While the main focus is on major sites such as Eleusis and Samothrace, a conscious effort has been made to incorporate the large number of lesser known mysteric cults and deities.Written by an international team of acknowledged experts, Greek Mysteries makes an important contribution to understanding a phenomenon central to Greek religion and society.

Most readers of contemporary poetry would agree with literary critic Helen Vendler that "there is no significant poet whose work does not mirror, both formally and in its preoccupations, the absence of the transcendent"--that no major modern poet writes religious poetry. Indeed, the very idea that a vital Christian poetry might arise within our thoroughly secular culture seems almost inconceivable. Is it possible that a body of Christian poetry is now being produced whose literary merit is equal to its religious conviction? David Impastato's splendid anthology, Upholding Mystery, answers that question with a resounding and surprising "yes." From Andrew Hudgins' often humorous narratives to Geoffery Hill's darkly impassioned lyrics, from Denise Levertov's incisive personal and political insights to Wendell Berry's lovely evocations of the divine presence in nature, Upholding Mystery offers readers a wide range of both poetic and spiritual satisfactions. Featuring only poets who are currently writing--including such well-known poets as Richard Wilbur, Annie Dillard, Daniel Berrigan, Les Murray, and Louise Erdrich, along with the impressive though less-known voices of David Craig, Scott Cairns, and David Brendan Hopes--this superb anthology provides generous selections of work that is admirable equally for the stature of its verse and for its illumination of the Christian ethos. By limiting the number of poets included, this collection allows readers to gain a thorough familiarity with each poet's work and to see how each struggles with, celebrates, and embodies a vision of the sacred throughout a personal body of verse. In addition, editor David Impastato provides brief, accessible, extremely helpful introductions that highlight the specifically Christian concerns of the poems, and he organizes the book into sections dealing with such topics as The Cross, Transformation, Injustice, Presence, Praise, The Mystical Body, and so on, thereby giving the reader a coherent theological journey as well as the pleasurable experience of the individual poems. Here, then, is a contemporary encounter with Christian mystery, in poetry that is as vibrant, as compelling, and as meaningful as any being written today. David Impastato has done an invaluable service in showing that the transcendent is indeed alive and well in the hands of contemporary poets, despite reports to the contrary, and in gathering a dazzling array of poems that will appeal in equal measure to religious and literary readers alike.