Nature is both beautiful and magical. It has a variety of animals, plants of different shapes, and all kinds of strange stones that we don't seem to notice.
The "Into the Wonderful Nature" series has now published four volumes, namely "Little Animals in the City", "Crazy Dinosaurs and Weird Fossils", "Strange Stones" and "Plants with Special Functions". Since the contents of the first two volumes have been shared, this time I will mainly share the contents of the last two volumes.
1, "Strange Stones"
"Strange Stones" is a work by French writer Martial Karloff. In this picture book, the author mainly talks about the various strange stones in nature that are often ignored by people. From his narrative, we can understand how each different stone is formed, as well as the little knowledge and stories related to the stone. I believe that after reading these interesting popular science, you will never underestimate stones again.
Granite Maybe you see it often, but did you know that granite was actually buried thousands of meters deep underground? It took millions of years for these granites to become visible on the ground due to weathering and erosion, and they also changed from large pieces to small rocks.
"Granite is the most widely used building stone in the world. Initially, Europeans used it to make huge rough stone pillars, the Romans used it to pave roads, and the Chinese used it to build parts of the Great Wall ; the Peruvian Incas paid unimaginable hardships to transport the quarries from far away Thousands of pieces of granite were used to build the city of Machu Picchu at an altitude of about 2,400 meters. "
We often see marble as a building material. It is very hard and usually has color and texture, and even sculptors can carve on it. Marble is widely distributed and has a long history of mining and use. As early as the time when Caesar lived, people in ancient Rome began to use marble as a building material.
There is a little story about marble. In 1818, Fournier and Norman used the carbon dioxide produced by the reaction of marble and hydrochloric acid to drive away the air in the meat jar, which could prevent the meat from rotting and deteriorating.
This book also talks about a unique stone, which is an animal fossil. After animals die, their bodies are quickly covered with fine-grained sediments, and over time common animal fossils are formed. These fossils can preserve animal carcasses very completely, such as the East African wasp preserved in amber.
In fact, humans also start from fossils when studying dinosaurs. People even understand the eating habits of dinosaurs through the study of Tyrannosaurus rex fecal fossils, which can also prove that Tyrannosaurus rex did not swallow the whole prey like modern carnivorous reptiles. Of course, there are many strange stones in this book, such as basalt, sandstone and mudstone, limestone, mica schist, coal, asphalt, diamond, quartz, semi-precious stones, calcite and so on. The author explains the origin of these stones, and there are many interesting little facts and stories waiting for you to discover.
2, "Plants with Special Functions"
"Plants with Special Functions" is the work of French botanist Lionel Inard. In this book, we can follow the author to learn about some interesting plants. Each of them has special functions, and they also play an important role in our daily life. The drinks we drink, the candies we eat, the fabrics we wear, and even the perfumes we use are all closely related to them. Do you also think they are magical?
If you know about essential oils, you should have heard of rosemary essential oil. It is distilled from rosemary and has a pure natural fragrance. This fragrance is actually the taste of rosemary itself.However, reading this book, it is surprising to find that rosemary can also use toxic biochemicals emitted from its roots to remove plants that are taking over their territory! This is amazing!
Rosemary symbolizes love, marriage and death. In ancient times, people used them to weave garlands and burn them on the graves of the deceased. It is said that the fresh smoke emitted can help the souls of the deceased on their way to the other world.
According to legend, Queen Isabella of Hungary also used rosemary essential oil, which made rosemary essential oil popular. She said that after using this elixir, she almost returned to youth from the age of 70.
Most people have eaten mint candies, which give people a refreshing feeling. This is because people add menthol to the candy. Menthol is a crystal extracted by humans from mint. People not only use menthol in candies, but also add it to toothpaste, shampoo and cooling oil. These things are undoubtedly very useful to our lives.
What you might not expect is that Emil Afsan made mints to improve the taste, and then found ways to improve the appearance of the candy. He kept stirring the syrup while it was still hot, and finally formed caramel-colored stripes. In this way, Cambrai's "folly candy" was born, which also invisibly promoted the development of the candy industry.
The Lebanese cedar is a symbol of Lebanon. It is also painted on the Lebanese flag and is also featured on Lebanese coins and banknotes. Why does such a kind of cedar receive such attention from the Lebanese people? In fact, this is related to the beautiful appearance and long age of cedar trees. In a protected area in Lebanon, people found some cedar trees that are nearly 3,000 years old. This tree is indeed very old!
The first Lebanese cedars in France were introduced by Bernard de Gahier, a botanist and director of the Royal Botanic Gardens in Paris. During the trip, because the original flower pots were broken, he used hats instead of flower pots to bring the cedars to Paris. The cedars have continued to grow well, and they are still growing in Paris today.
If you don’t read this book, you may think you know the special functions of certain plants, but you may not know the little knowledge and stories mentioned in the book. It can be said that this is an interesting popular science book about plants. If you like plants, this book will definitely bring you many surprises!
is written at the end:
"Into the Wonderful Nature" is a series of books in the Into the Wonderful Nature. Each volume has a theme, which can help children understand some strange phenomena in nature in more detail. Whether it is small animals in the city, some fossils, strange stones, or plants with special functions, these are the secret language of nature.
This set of books is the key to unlocking the secret language of nature, allowing children to get in touch with and understand nature more deeply. The point is that the book not only popularizes science about animals, plants, stones, and fossils, but also tells many short stories related to history or human life, which invisibly adds to the interest of the book.
Finally, I look forward to the continued publication of the series of books "Into the Wonderful Nature"!
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