Books by Simon Quellen Field
Non-fiction
Culinary Reactions
When you're cooking, you're a
chemist! Every time you follow or modify a recipe, you are experimenting with
acids and bases, emulsions and suspensions, gels and
foams. In your kitchen you denature proteins, crystallize compounds, react
enzymes with substrates, and nurture desired microbial life while suppressing
harmful bacteria and fungi. And unlike in a laboratory, you can eat your
experiments to verify your hypotheses.
In Culinary Reactions, author Simon Quellen Field turns
measuring cups, stovetop burners, and mixing bowls into graduated cylinders,
Bunsen burners, and beakers. How does altering the ratio of flour, sugar,
yeast, salt, butter, and water affect how high bread rises? Why is whipped
cream made with nitrous oxide rather than the more common carbon dioxide? And
why does Hollandaise sauce call for “clarified” butter? This easy-to-follow
primer even includes recipes to demonstrate the concepts being discussed,
including:
· Whipped
Creamsicle Topping—a foam
· Cherry Dream
Cheese—a protein gel
· Lemonade with
Chameleon Eggs—an acid indicator
and many more.
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Gut
Reactions
How much do you really know about how the human body works
and how it reacts to food, exercise, nutrition, and the environment?
While most people have read about at least one fad diet, they're left wondering about the greater biochemistry,
psychology, sociology, and physiology of the obesity crisis in the United
States.
Gut Reactions by chemist Simon Quellen Field shows readers how their bodies
react to food and the environment and how their brains affect what and how much
they eat.
It reveals why some diets work for some people but not for
others, based on genetics, previous weight history, brain chemistry,
environmental cues, and social pressures.
It explores how dozens of hormones affect hunger and satiety
and interact with the brain and the gut to regulate feeding behavior.
And it explains the addictive nature of foods that interact
with the same dopamine and opioid receptors in the brain as cocaine, heroin,
amphetamines, and nicotine.
Whether you're looking to lose weight, put on muscle
mass, or simply understand how your metabolism or gut microbiome impact your
food cravings, Simon Quellen Field has the scientific answers for you.
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Gonzo Gizmos
Step-by-step instructions to building more than 30
fascinating devices are included in this book for workbench warriors and grown-up
geeks.
Detailed illustrations and diagrams explain how to construct
a simple radio with a soldering iron, a few basic circuits, and three shiny
pennies. Instructions are included for a rotary steam engine that requires a
candle, a soda can, a length of copper tubing, and just 15 minutes.
To use optics to roast a hot dog, no electricity or stove is
required, just a flexible plastic mirror, a wooden box, a little algebra, and a
sunny day.
Also included are experiments most science teachers probably
never demonstrated, such as magnets that levitate in midair, metals that melt
in hot water, a Van de Graaff generator made from a pair of empty soda cans,
and lasers that transmit radio signals.
Every experiment is followed by an explanation of the
applicable physics or chemistry.
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Return of Gonzo Gizmos
This fresh collection of more than 20 science projects—from
hydrogen fuel cells to computer-controlled radio transmitters—is perfect for
the tireless tinkerer.
Innovative activities include taking detailed plant cell
photographs through a microscope using a disposable camera; building a rocket
engine out of aluminum foil, paper clips, and kitchen matches; and constructing
a geodesic dome out of gumdrops and barbecue skewers.
Organized by scientific topic, each chapter includes explanations
of the physics, chemistry, biology, or mathematics behind the projects.
Most of the devices can be built using common household
products or components available at hardware or electronic stores, and each
experiment contains illustrated step-by-step instructions with photographs and
diagrams that make construction easy.
No workbench warrior, science teacher, or grown-up geek
should be without this idea-filled resource.
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Boom!
Black powder, the world's first chemical explosive, was
originally developed in the seventh century, during China's Tang dynasty. It
was a crude mixture at first, but over time chemists discovered the optimum proportion
of sulfur, charcoal, and nitrates, as well as the best way to mix them so that
the particles of each component were tiny and homogenous, resulting in a
complete and powerful reaction.
Author and chemistry buff Simon Quellen Field takes readers
on a decades-long journey through the history of things that go boom, from the
early days of black powder to today's modern plastic explosives. Not just the
who, when, and why, but also the how. How did Chinese alchemists come to create
black powder? What accidents led to the discovery of high explosives? How do
explosives actually work on a molecular scale? And
though most people have a vague understanding that dynamite is more powerful
than gunpowder, what does it mean to be more powerful?
Boom! The Chemistry and History of Explosives goes back to
the original papers and patents written by the chemists who invented them, to
shed light on their development, to explore the consequences of their use for
good and ill, and to give the reader a basic understanding of the chemistry
that makes them possible.
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Why is Milk White
When it comes to chemistry, most kids have more questions than
answers. Why do you get cavities when you eat too much sugar? How does sun
block protect your skin from getting a sunburn? What makes soda so fizzy? And
why do you need antifreeze in your car?
Teenager Alexa Coelho quizzed her neighbor, chemist Simon Field,
with hundreds of perplexing questions, and now she has the answers. Field
covers a wide variety of concepts from simple to complex, but always with
straightforward, easy-to-understand explanations.
And for those readers who want to see chemistry in action, Why
Is Milk White? also includes a dozen unique experiments to try at home.
Lift latent fingerprints from a “crime scene” using super glue (for a glass or
smooth surface) or iodine (for paper). Hollow out the zinc interior of a penny
using muriatic acid, leaving only a thin copper shell. Conduct a paper
chromatography experiment to separate food coloring into its component dyes. Or
use easy-to-find chemicals to create plastic “slime,” Silly Putty, or a
bouncing ball. This book is the perfect resource for budding scientists
everywhere.
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Electronics
For Artists
With today's modern technology--LEDs, servomotors, motion
sensors, speakers, and more--artwork can incorporate elements of light, sound,
and motion for dramatic effects.
Author and educator Simon Quellen Field has developed a
primer for creative individuals looking for new ways to express themselves
though electronically enhanced art.
Following step-by-step examples of basic circuitry and
programming, readers can develop the skills necessary to enhance their works of
art.
The book also features art projects to try, including a
bouquet of glowing flowers, an LED metronome, a talking computer, a sessile
robot, and a simple wheeled robot.
A variety of artistic works created by Field's students and
based on these open-ended lessons are also included to provide creative sparks
for the readers.
For those interested in programming their circuits, Field
explores the basics of Energia, a free software package, and provides simple
programs to create flashing light patterns, computer-controlled motors, and LCD
text displays.
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ST
Applications Guide Programming in C
This is a complete
guide to designing and writing ST application programs. Practical examples show
how to use GEM routines to develop professional-looking applications. Explore
topics such as disk files, menus, icons, the mouse, sliders, dialog boxes,
programming desk accessories, music and more. All programs and examples are
written in the C programming language.
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ST Applications Machine Language
Atari ST Machine Language is your guide to 68000
machine language on the ST. Written for both the experience machine language
programmer and those who have only programmed in high-level languages such as
C, BASIC, or Pascal, this book is really two books in one. The main body of the
book carefully takes you down the path to learning 68000 machine language on
the Atari ST. Supplementing the main thread of the book are self-contained
discussions of important basic concepts.
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Fiction
Raven
When she's not on the medication
that keeps her sane, Raven is highly intelligent.
But during one of her lucid periods, she discovers that she
is transmitting radio signals from an implanted device in her spine.
Is this what causes her symptoms? Who is tracking her? And
why?
She and her new friends race to find out because the
medications are killing her, and she doesn't have a
lot of time left.
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What Tigers Know About
Entropy
Randall Story isn’t from around
here.
He knows he can get home. He just has to
work to make the world a better place, a little bit at a time.
But a lifetime of work is now threatened by people who have
learned how to extract energy from the order of the universe.
They seem to be unaware that every watt they extract makes
the world descend a little more into chaos.
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No Future in Dying
What if someone from the future could send messages into the
head of someone in our time?
And what if the only possible recipient was a schizophrenic
who was used to hearing voices, and everyone he knows is used to him hearing
voices?
And when he starts getting rich from lottery and horse-racing
wins and stock tips, he gets the interest of the police, the mob, and the SEC?
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Bloodlines
June Clemson's mother Rachel is laundering 22 million reasons
to keep her past a secret, even from her daughter.
But when June's innocent DNA test reveals relatives she didn't know existed, she puts her life and that of everyone
she meets in grave danger.
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A Memory of Elephants
Wade Bennet was shot in the arm while rescuing the kidnapped
daughter of a crime boss.\
But that is only the beginning of his problems.
The daughter is now missing after maybe shooting her father
with a gun taken from the kidnappers Wade killed.
At every turn, new evidence brings to light new mysteries,
and no one can be trusted.
And that is just the beginning of Wade's problems.
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Six Chambers, One Bullet
Sandra is in the business of finding people.
Unfortunately, the man she found was murdered shortly after
being found.
She is on the run, hiding from her murderous client, and now
from the police, who think she is killing people.
But Sandra is in the business of finding people. She knows
how to hide.
And she knows that she must find her client in order to get
her life back.
Or just save it.
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A Quiet Place to Die
California's north coast is quiet, lonely, and rugged, and
not a place well known for murder.
But when an investigator looking into a possible suicide is
murdered, Jimmy Davis interrupts his retirement and takes the case. But as soon
as he gets to the scene, the main suspect also turns up dead.
Connecting the three deaths is all the more
difficult because everyone in the small community seems to be guilty. The
pretty singer was dating the married suspect, and her footprints are at the
cliff where he fell. The daughter of the first victim has several motives, as
do most of the other locals who knew the three dead men.
A new approach to the investigation is needed, or the next
investigator may end up dead as well.
A new approach is exactly what Jimmy Davis brings, but he
also brings a gun.
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A Simple Piece of Mind
Jerry has half a brain, and half a mind to use it.
After his accident left him missing large parts of his brain,
a computer chip was implanted to try to connect the pieces that were left. This
left him, in his words, funny.
He lives with other funny people in a clinic for people like
him, each of them with a unique take on life, given to them by their special
gifts.
But when Jerry meets a funny little man who is very much out
of this world, his own abilities begin to grow.
And Jerry is getting better every day...
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A Twisted Garden
What would it be like to be genetically engineered?
To have your genes selected from thousands of the most
successful athletes, scientists, businessmen, and scholars from all over the
world?
Jack Wright knows, because that's
just what was done to him. Growing up with the expectations of greatness, all
his successes taken for granted, all his accomplishments attributed to his
genes, he can run faster than any Olympian, but will never get a medal, since
genetic enhancements are considered unfair competition, like performance
enhancing drugs.
In a world where broad spectrum antiviral drugs have made
most illnesses things of the past, including all sexually transmitted diseases,
relationships form quickly and easily, without fear, except for Jack.
Living alone, the scars of growing up as a lonely superman leave
him particularly at a loss when his path intersects with two women, whose
secrets get them all involved with murder, gang warfare, illegal drug trading,
and a mystery that Jack is uniquely suited to solve.
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In the Time of Falling Water
Alice is trying to work out a series of puzzles her father
had left her, which promise to show how he met her mother, who died when Alice
was a baby.
Alice's father is away in Africa, leaving her with her
great-Aunt Hellen alone on the big farm.
Alice and her father built
treehouses and zip lines together and collected goats, alpacas, and chickens,
which Alice takes care of daily.
Jamie lives next door with his grandfather and helps Alice
figure out the puzzles, as they search the farm for places her father hid the
next puzzle piece.
But as each puzzle shows more of the picture of Alice's
mother, Alice becomes more troubled by the revelations.
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