Prices: Planet Books

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  Frozen Planet: A World Beyond Imagination

  The ultimate portrait of the earth's Polar Regions. In 2012 the Discovery Channel will broadcast Frozen Planet, the long-awaited third installment in the BBC Earth series of which Blue Planet: Seas of Life and Planet Earth: As You've Never Seen It Before won multiple Emmy awards. Frozen Planet is the companion book to the TV series. It follows the world's best wildlife photographers as they capture animal behavior and landscapes never seen before, including Antarctica's active volcanoes and the previously restricted Russian Arctic. Custom-designed HD cameras allowed undisturbed observation. Traveling by nuclear submarine, military helicopter, icebreaker and snowmobile, the filmmakers endured piercing polar winters and the dangerous summer "melt" to record what may be the dying days of Earth's frozen regions. Frozen Planet has seven sections: Pole to Pole Spring: Life Wakes Up Summer: Life Multiplies Autumn: Life Retreats Winter: Life Closes Down On Thin Ice Tales from the Poles It follows four polar residents that reveal the health of the planet and what the future may hold: the polar bear and arctic fox in the north; the Adelie penguin and wandering albatross in the south. "Behind the scenes" segments describe the making of the TV series. Some of the fascinating stories are: Icebergs the size of New York skyscrapers The first record of killer whales hunting in packs 80,000 smelly macaroni penguins on Bird Island A very rare blond fur seal pup Satellite tagged wandering albatrosses raising their chicks King penguins catching a wave A lone white wolf eyeing a photographer Grass-eating polar bears The creeping glaciers of Svalbard Adelie penguin chicks learning to swim Killer whales using their tails to wash seals off ice flows Canada's Barrenlands coming to life in the spring A polar bear stalking a film crew Scuba diving with beluga whales in the Russian Arctic The elusive Greenland shark Sales of the companion book to the Blue Planet television series topped 6 million dollars. Frozen Planet promises to be an equal or greater success. The important topic, the expected demand from Discovery Channel viewers and an excellent price make it an essential purchase.

  $26.99

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  Nature's Great Events: The Most Amazing Natural Events on the Planet

  Nature’s Great Events is the lavishly illustrated counterpart to the Discovery Channel’s landmark wildlife documentary, Nature’s Most Amazing Events. Using groundbreaking filming techniques and state-of-the-art scientific technologies, the book and the documentary on which it is based are epic in every sense, charting six seasonal events that transform entire ecosystems and the life experiences of the thousands of animals within them, from the largest mammals to the smallest microorganisms. The six events include the flooding of the Okavango Delta in Botswana, which turns sprawling swaths of desert into an elaborate maze of lagoons and swamps; the melting of 10 million square kilometers of ice in the Arctic, which imperils polar bears across the region; the migration of the Serengeti, where life is on the edge for both predator and prey and where lions and wildebeest battle to survive; the great salmon run in British Columbia, where rivers teem with thousands of fish—and where grizzlies and wolves eagerly await them; the explosion of sea life in Alaska’s coastal waters, where countless animals from far and wide brave killer whales to feed; and the greatest marine spectacle on the planet, the annual tide of sardines along South Africa’s east coast, where the greatest concentration of predators—including sharks and dolphins—come to feast. These events are among the processes most important to the survival of life on the planet. Tracking them at every stage with over 400 remarkable photographs throughout, the book follows individual animals as they live and die during these events, often capturing the drama from their unique point of view. The result is an awe-inspiring and truly novel work that brings these events into more brilliant focus than ever before.

  $29.16

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  Infinite Worlds: An Illustrated Voyage to Planets beyond Our Sun

  Merely a decade ago there were no known planets orbiting sunlike stars outside our own solar system. In the past ten years, however, fast-paced developments in astronomy have revealed over 140 extrasolar planets--with more discoveries surely on the way. Though it will be years before we have direct images of these far-flung worlds, this lavishly illustrated book gives us an idea of what they might look like. A fascinating exploration of the cosmos written for a wide audience, Infinite Worlds brings together Lynette Cook's internationally renowned astronomical artwork, the latest and most dramatic images from the world's top observatories, and up-to-the-minute scientific findings on subjects ranging from the big bang and stellar evolution to a possible universe filled with countless planets and life forms. The newly discovered planets are boggling astronomers' minds with their bizarre characteristics, including an unimagined diversity of sizes and orbits. In Lynette Cook's scientifically based illustrations--many newly created for this book--we glimpse the landscapes and atmospheres that might adorn these planets. Ray Villard's text elegantly describes the state of astronomy today, imagines where it will take us in the coming years, ponders the chances of success for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI), and explores the survivability of life in an evolving and accelerating universe.

  $42.25