Vinnie Jones' Toughest Cops brings together stories from the two ITV4 series of the same name in a fascinating, thrilling and often shocking read – in which we meet and get under the skin of the men and women who have dedicated their lives to serve and protect in ten of the most dangerous beats in the world. Vinnie takes the reader into the jungles of Colombia – where Sub-Lieutenant John Orejuela of the Special Ops Commando Unit leads a secret mission to take out a terrorist camp – and goes on patrol in the Californian suburb of Compton, following the cops caught up in a deadly cat-and-mouse game with the gangs of South Central LA. He recounts the struggles of officer Andre Steyn of the Flying Squad against car-jackings and armed robberies in the desperate streets of Durban, South Africa and joins the few good men trying to police the back-alleys and no-go zones of New Orleans, where the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina has seen a tidal wave of violent crime flood the city. Vinnie forged a reputation as a tough guy on the football pitch, and in America he now has a successful career in the cut-throat film business. But even he is in awe of the men and women who are trying to police the most dangerous areas on the planet. If on the pitch he followed Orwell's assertion that 'football is war minus the shooting', here he's discovering what life is like for those dealing with a real war – with real shooting.

The New Naturalist editors believe this to be the greatest general work on the subject ever written. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com Professor Alistair Hardy is truly obsessed by animals of the sea - devotedly enthusiastic about the nature of their adaptations and life histories, brilliantly critical in the examination of their mysteries, acutely lucid (and at the same time highly artistic) in his de*ions of them in his arresting plates. To describe the relatively unknown and mysterious world of plankton is a task that the greatest of marine zoologists might boggle at. Yet the plankton is to the sea what vegetation is to the land. The study of plankton is a complex discipline which few amateur naturalists have had the privilege to enjoy. Never before has such a synthesis of knowledge been attempted in a community of animals so mysterious, yet so important. Professor Hardy has grasped this problem in a new and exciting way; and at least the common reader can discern the pattern of life that dominates two-thirds of the world’s surface.

The true story of a young police officer’s imprisonment for a crime he did not commit It was Michael Bunting's life ambition to follow in his father's footsteps and become a police officer. But six years after his family watch him pass out and begin his life's dream, he is serving a sentence for a crime he didn't commit. This is his story. Beaten almost senseless as he tried to arrest a violent criminal, the 23-year-old PC was left with head injuries and blurred vision that took him months to recover from. Back at work he was astounded to learn that his attacker had filed a complaint against him and that the Police Discipline and Complaints Department were following up the allegation. Two years later he was found guilty of common assault against his assailant and received a prison sentence that left him living his devastated life amongst the criminals he had previously sought to keep off the streets. Hard-hitting and at times heart-breaking the book is a graphic account of life behind bars for a policeman in one of England's hardest prisons. An extract from A Fair Cop: "The prisoner arrived once more with the trolley and placed the plate of food on to my hatch. 'Bunting,' he shouted pleasantly. I wasn't fooled. 'Thanks,' I said, as I walked across the cell to collect it. As I put my hand out to reach for the plate he snatched it away. He held it up to the hatch and peered through at me. 'PC Bunting, isn't it?' he asked, and then took a deep breath to muster as much saliva from the back of his throat as he could. With one swift movement he spat a big glob in to the middle of the food. The white phlegm floated around in brown gravy. 'Hey lads, I'm feeding the pig,' he said. With this, two other prisoners came to my cell hatch. They looked at me, sniggering. They then spat in my food too. The first prisoner put the plate on the hatch and gestured for me to come closer. 'You're in our territory now, you f***ing filth, and we're gonna f***ing carve you up.'

A deliciously different travelogue In 2005, Cathy and Jason threw in successful careers as TV presenters and producers to become olive farmers in Italy. With their one year old daughter and Italian dictionary in tow, they found themselves in the middle of a European nowhere untouched by modernity. They were on a steep learning curve in more-or-less everything – finding out how to prune an olive tree so that a sparrow can pass through its branches, learning what beauty products are de rigeur in the changing rooms of a local Italian football team, being trained, by a local Italian choir, how to sing in English but with an Italian accent – and learning the rigorous rules of when one is allowed to consume a cappuccino. Armed with their indefatigable love of food, they headed off many a potentially tricky situation by cooking their way out of it, a sure route to the heart of any Italian. They discover that olive farming is dominated by the big boys and desperate to turn their new home into a way of making a living they cast around for ideas of how they can do so. A flash of inspiration led them to launch an 'Adopt-an-Olive-Tree' scheme. For a fee buyers could adopt a tree, receive produce from it and even go and visit it to give it a hug. The scheme became hugely popular with trees selling out way ahead of expectations. A contract with Selfridges followed and suddenly Cathy and Jason's dream is realised. Or nearly anyway. It's a hard slog and they meet every challenge with fortitude and humour but what they hadn't expected was that the biggest challenge would be the quiet of the countryside. Soon they find themselves hankering for the sounds and stench of the city and facing a difficult decision on what they should do next.

A hard-hitting memoir about a woman’s search to understand the man who raped her Joanna Connors was thirty years old when she was raped at knifepoint by a stranger. Many years later she realised she had to confront the fear that had ruled her life ever since that day. She needed, finally, to understand. So she went in search of her rapist’s story, determined to find out who he was, where he came from, what his life was like – and what leads a person to do something as destructive as what he did to her. ‘More chilling than a horror film and more thought-provoking than an HBO doc’ Cosmopolitan ‘Brutally affecting’ Guardian ‘Riveting’Mail on Sunday

The Lake District contains some of the most spectacular landscapes in Britain with superb walking areas. These can be explored with these 20 walks, all of which are 5 miles or under in length and can easily be completed in less than 3 hours. This guide, produced in co-operation with the Ramblers and featuring Ordnance Survey mapping, is the perfect way to really appreciate the landscapes of the Lake District. INCLUDES: ? 20 easy to follow walks which can be completed in 3 hours and under. ? Each walk has a detailed 1:25 000 Ordnance Survey map with the route clearly marked plus a detailed de*ion of the route. ? The walks have been chosen with issues like parking and refreshments in mind to make life easy for families. ? Packed with colour photographs of scenes you will see along the walk. The perfect guide for afternoon walks near to Keswick, Windermere, Coniston, Grasmere and Ambleside.

Inside this little book lie the secrets of Britain’s only ever Scrabble World Champion.

Lose yourself in the clouds with bestselling and prize-winning biographer and science writer Richard Holmes in this glorious history of hot-air ballooning. Hot-air balloons have drifted through Richard Holmes’s work for many years. And now, in this heart-lifting book he tells the story of these ineffably romantic floating machines and the reckless invention of the adventurers who flew them. His subject is flight itself and the pioneer generation of rival aviators. Ballooning offered a new vision of the earth. The world pondered for the first time reliable weather prediction, observation of the stars from an aerial point of view and the exploration of remote continents. Those in previous centuries who dreamt of flight believed it would open up the secrets of heaven. In fact, as Richard Holmes shows, it revealed the secrets of the world beneath.

A shocking exposé of the terrible secrets at the heart of the Pitcairn Island community – a tale of systematic child abuse and rape which stretches back over 40 years. Pitcairn Island – home to the descendants of the mutineers of the Bounty – has long been thought of as a tropical paradise. Wild and remote, it is Britain’s most isolated outpost and a fantasy destination for many. But in 1999, British police, alerted by unsettling reports of a rape, descended on the island. Their investigation developed into a major enquiry which revealed that Pitcairn was the site of widespread and horrific sexual abuse instigated by the island men on girls as young as twelve. Scarcely a man on the island was untainted by the allegations, and almost none of the women had escaped, though most residents feigned ignorance, even when their own daughters were abused. Abusers included the magistrates and police officers as well as brothers and uncles. Few of the victims were able to leave the island; those who did never went back. Kathy Marks was one of only six journalists permitted to live on the island while she reported on the ensuing trial and witnessed Pitcairn's domestic workings first-hand. In this riveting account she documents a society gone badly astray, leaving lives shattered, codes broken and a paradise truly lost.

How Understanding Flocks, Schools and Colonies Can Make Us Better at Communicating, Decision Making and Getting Things Done. The modern world may be obsessed with speed and productivity, but twenty-first century humans actually have much to learn from the ancient instincts of swarms. A fascinating new take on the concept of collective intelligence and its colourful manifestations in some of our most complex problems, Smart Swarm introduces a compelling new understanding of the real experts on solving our own complex problems relating to such topics as business, politics, and technology. Based on extensive globe-trotting research, this lively tour from National Geographic reporter Peter Miller introduces thriving throngs of ant colonies, which have inspired computer programs for streamlining factory processes, telephone networks, and truck routes; termites, used in recent studies for climate-control solutions; schools of fish, on which the U.S. military modelled a team of robots; and many other examples of the wisdom to be gleaned about the behaviour of crowds-among critters and corporations alike. In the tradition of James Surowiecki's The Wisdom of Crowds and the innovative works of Malcolm Gladwell, Smart Swarm is an entertaining yet enlightening look at small-scale phenomena with big implications for us all.

The soil is one of the great unsung disappearing resources, with over 100m tonnes being destroyed every year. This edition is exclusive to newnaturalists.com The soil is the work place of farmers and gardeners, but it is also a fascinating environment inhabited by insects that can leap into the air to a record height, multilegged scavengers that are vital to the decomposition of plant matter and the long, thin, entwining strands of thousands of species of fungi. Although soil plays a vital role in the functioning of the world, it has often been overlooked, mainly because it contains a huge range of different fields, all of which have become specialities in their own right. This book brings together specialists in these fields to give a broad overview of the staggering advances that have been made since Sir John Russel's The World Of Soil was published in this series in 1947. The first two chapters introduce the physical structure of the soil. The next four chapters deal with the specific animals and plants and how they exploit this environment. The final four chapters describe how these animals interact and how man has used and abused the soil in his striving to gain more and more from this resource.

The electrical problems of the present day lie largely in the economical transmission of power and in the radical improvement of the means and methods of illumination. To many workers and thinkers in the domain of electrical invention, the apparatus and devices that are familiar, appear cumbrous and wasteful, and subject to severe limitations. They believe that the principles of current generation must be changed, the area of current supply be enlarged, and the appliances used by the consumer be at once cheapened and simplified. The brilliant successes of the past justify them in every expectancy of still more generous fruition.??The present volume is a simple record of the pioneer work done in such departments up to date, by Mr. Nikola Tesla, in whom the world has already recognized one of the foremost of modern electrical in-vestigators and inventors. No attempt whatever has been made here to emphasize the importance of his researches and discoveries. ??Great ideas and real inventions win their own way, determining their own place by intrinsic merit. But with the conviction that Mr. Tesla is blazing a path that electrical development must follow for many years to come, the compiler has endeavored to bring together all that bears the impress of Mr. Tesla's genius, and is worthy of preservation. Aside from its value as showing the scope of his inventions, this volume may be of service as indicating the range of his thought. There is intellectual profit in studying the push and play of a vigorous and original mind.?

Amit az olvasó a kezében tart, a F?ld kül?nb?z? pontjain feltárt lel?helyekr?l és a bennük található leletekr?l szól. Kül?nleges ablakot nyit elfeledett világokba, amiket a legt?bb ember nehezen tud elképzelni. Ezek a helyek olyan k?rülmények k?z?tt j?ttek létre, amik k?vetkeztében halált hoztak a figyelmetlenekre, legyenek azok kicsik vagy hatalmasak. Ebben a k?nyvben végigmegyünk kül?nb?z? f?ldt?rténeti korokon, mik?zben megtudjuk, hogy ezek a csapdák hogyan keletkeztek, hogyan m?k?dtek, és a bennük elpusztultak maradványaiból rekonstruáljuk a rég elfeledett él?lényeket.

E u?or s? te ba?i cu pumnul ?n piept c? iube?ti Rom?nia. E simplu s?-?i cumperi un fular ?n culorile tricolorului – ro?u, galben ?i albastru – ?i s? ie?i ?n pia?? de 1 Decembrie, la un pahar de vin gratis. E comod s? te cer?i ?n diferite grupuri pe Facebook cu ?nenoroci?ii care nu iubesc trupul patriei mam? ?i-l p?ng?resc“. E la ?ndem?n? s?-?i lipe?ti pe man?et? o etichet? care url? c? ?rom?nii sunt frumo?i“. E confortabil s? te ?mp?unezi cu reu?itele altor rom?ni, al?ii dec?t tine – fie c? vorbim despre filme rom?ne?ti premiate ?n lume, fie c? vorbim despre o echip? de fotbal sau ni?te liceeni olimpici la matematic?. E ideal s? spui, de acas?, din fotoliul t?u, scuip?nd o coaj? de s?m?n?? pe covor: ?E buni, domle, e rom?ni de-ai no?tri!“ Dar, de fiecare dat? c?nd e?ti tentat s? spui asta, pune-?i ?i ?ntrebarea: c?nd am f?cut, cu adev?rat, ceva real ?i personal PENTRU Rom?nia?

Egy csodálatos fantáziával és íráskészséggel megáldott fiatal n? került a budapesti Moravcsik-féle elmeklinikára. Akkor végezte ott éppen klinikai gyakorlatait dr. Brenner József fiatal orvos, Csáth Géza néven országos hír? novellista és zenekritikus. Rendkívül sokoldalú tehetség: zenél és zenét szerez, felfedez? érték? zenekritikát ír, ráérez a legújabb festészeti ízlésre, s útt?r?je a novellam?fajnak. Akármibe fog, mindig és mindenben megel?zi kora gondolkodását, ízlését, m?veltségét. ?gy van ez orvostudományi munkásságával is. A nagy tekintély?, de konzervatív iskolát képvisel? Moravcsik professzor égisze alatt a szakmában még igazán sehol el nem ismert freudi módszereket alkalmazza betege pszichés védelmi mechanizmusainak f?ltárásában, megismerésében. A korszak magyar tudományosságát a teljes nyitottság jellemezte az új t?rekvések iránt. Még a konzervatív Moravcsik és orvosgárdája is elt?rte, s?t segítette kezd? orvosa freudista kísérleteit. Egy zseniális adottságokkal rendelkez? elmebeteg, egy zseniális fiatal orvos és lélekbúvár író, valamint egy minden újra fogékony tudományos k?rnyezet szerencsés találkozása eredményeképpen született meg Az elmebetegségek pszichikus mechanizmusa.

Более 100 разнообразных диет ? Безопасные способы похудения ? Советы по питанию и подбору диеты ? Наглядные таблицы с меню Избавиться от лишних килограммов – это просто! Важно лишь правильно подобрать диету, подходящую именно вам, – и результат не заставит себя ждать. Вы будете худеть, великолепно выглядеть и прекрасно себя чувствовать! В этой книге собрано множество вариантов традиционных и современных диет, правила и секреты оптимального питания, которые позволят стройнеть без особых усилий и закрепить полученные результаты. Диета для ленивых, кальциевая, рисовая, безуглеводная диеты, гречневая, кефирная, голливудская, кремлевская, средиземноморская диеты, диеты Аткинса, Дюкана и другие – выбирайте свой вариант! Наглядные и удобные таблицы с меню для каждой диеты сделают процесс похудения еще менее хлопотным! Bolee 100 raznoobraznyh diet ? Bezopasnye sposoby pohudenija ? Sovety po pitaniju i podboru diety ? Nagljadnye tablicy s menju Izbavit'sja ot lishnih kilogrammov – jeto prosto! Vazhno lish' pravil'no podobrat' dietu, podhodjashhuju imenno vam, – i rezul'tat ne zastavit sebja zhdat'. Vy budete hudet', velikolepno vygljadet' i prekrasno sebja chuvstvovat'! V jetoj knige sobrano mnozhestvo variantov tradicionnyh i sovremennyh diet, pravila i sekrety optimal'nogo pitanija, kotorye pozvoljat strojnet' bez osobyh usilij i zakrepit' poluchennye rezul'taty. Dieta dlja lenivyh, kal'cievaja, risovaja, bezuglevodnaja diety, grechnevaja, kefirnaja, gollivudskaja, kremlevskaja, sredizemnomorskaja diety, diety Atkinsa, Djukana i drugie – vybirajte svoj variant! Nagljadnye i udobnye tablicy s menju dlja kazhdoj diety sdelajut process pohudenija eshhe menee hlopotnym!

Not many years ago the group Insecta was held even by Zoologists to include numberless small creatures—centipedes, spiders, mites, etc.—which further study has shown to present essential differences of structure, and in popular language any fairly minute animal is still an insect, just as any insect is popularly a “fly”—or, in the United States, a “bug.” Scientifically the use of the term Insect is now much restricted, though still extensive enough in all conscience, since it includes many more than a quarter of a million known species. Zoologists recognise a large group of animals characterised by having no internal skeleton but a more or less firm external coating of a peculiar substance called chitin, often strengthened by calcareous deposits, which necessitates the presence of joints in their bodies, and especially in their limbs if they are to move freely, just as medieval suits of armour required to be jointed. These are the Arthropoda. One subdivision of this group consists of aquatic animals, breathing by gills, and known as Crustacea. Crabs, lobsters, shrimps and “water-fleas” are familiar examples, and with the exception of the so-called land-crabs the only Crustaceans habitually found on land are wood-lice. The other Arthropoda are air-breathing, and since their characteristic breathing organs are branching tubes known as tracheae, the term Tracheata is sometimes used to include them all. They fall naturally into three divisions, the Myriapoda, the Insecta and the Arachnida, and it is in this last-named division that we shall find the spiders. The Myriapoda are the centipedes and millipedes, and having said this we may dismiss them, for insects and arachnids are strictly limited as to legs; and no myriapod can ever be mistaken for a spider. The Arachnida are so varied in structure that it is not easy to give characteristics common to them all, and to any general statement there are bound to be exceptions, but for practical purposes it may be said that while an insect, when mature, has only six legs, and a pair of feelers or antennae of quite different structure, Arachnids have normally eight legs, and their feeling organs are not antennae but leg-like “pedipalps.”

Боли в руках, ногах, коленях периодически испытывают многие, а с возрастом болевые ощущения усиливаются. В этой книге представлена подробная информация о заболеваниях, которые становятся причиной неприятных симптомов. Вы вновь ощутите радость от движения без боли! ? Клинические симптомы, диагностика и лечение заболеваний: артрит, остеоартроз, синдром усталых ног, подагра и др. ? Народные методы лечения: настои, отвары, компрессы, ванны ? Лечебная гимнастика, массаж и самомассаж, рефлексо- и парафинотерапия ? Рецепты здорового питания ? Очищение организма и профилактика заболеваний ? ?Скорая помощь? для снятия боли. Boli v rukah, nogah, kolenjah periodicheski ispytyvajut mnogie, a s vozrastom bolevye oshhushhenija usilivajutsja. V jetoj knige predstavlena podrobnaja informacija o zabolevanijah, kotorye stanovjatsja prichinoj neprijatnyh simptomov. Vy vnov' oshhutite radost' ot dvizhenija bez boli! ? Klinicheskie simptomy, diagnostika i lechenie zabolevanij: artrit, osteoartroz, sindrom ustalyh nog, podagra i dr. ? Narodnye metody lechenija: nastoi, otvary, kompressy, vanny ? Lechebnaja gimnastika, massazh i samomassazh, reflekso- i parafinoterapija ? Recepty zdorovogo pitanija ? Ochishhenie organizma i profilaktika zabolevanij ? ?Skoraja pomoshh'? dlja snjatija boli.

sszefoglaló knyvem olyan témát mutat be, amivel már tbb ismeretterjeszt írásban találkozhatott az olvasó, ám ezúttal olyan részletekkel és érdekességekkel találkozunk, amit eme knyvek alig, vagy egyáltalán nem taglalnak. E szerzeményben végigkvetjük a Fld mélyérl induló izzó anyagot, a kérgen át a felszínig, ahol tüzet és pusztítást zúdít mindenre és mindenkire a kzelben. Bemutatom, hogy mi lesz a kihlt lávából, és milyen formákat hoz létre. Ezen külnleges természeti képzdmények kialakulását és fejdését vesszük górcs alá. Megismerkedünk pár külnleges tzhányóval, amik pusztításuk révén rendkívüli hatással voltak nemcsak krnyezetükre, hanem az emberiségre is. Olyan ismereteket mutatunk be, amelyek meglepetést okozhatnak az olvasóknak.

Micrographia is a historic book by Robert Hooke, detailing the then thirty-year-old Hooke's observations through various lenses. Published in September 1665, the first major publication of the Royal Society, it was the first scientific best-seller, inspiring a wide public interest in the new science of microscopy. It is also notable for coining the biological term cell. Observations: Hooke most famously describes a fly's eye and a plant cell (where he coined that term because plant cells, which are walled, reminded him of a monk's quarters). Known for its spectacular copperplate engravings of the miniature world, particularly its fold-out plates of insects, the text itself reinforces the tremendous power of the new microscope. The plates of insects fold out to be larger than the large folio itself, the engraving of the louse in particular folding out to four times the size of the book. Although the book is best known for demonstrating the power of the microscope, Micrographia also describes distant planetary bodies, the wave theory of light, the organic origin of fossils, and various other philosophical and scientific interests of its author. Publication: Published under the aegis of The Royal Society, the popularity of the book helped further the society's image and mission of being "the" scientifically progressive organization of London. Micrographia also focused attention on the miniature world, capturing the public's imagination in a radically new way. This impact is illustrated by Samuel Pepys' reaction upon completing the tome: "the most ingenious book that I ever read in my life." Hooke also selected several objects of human origin; among these objects were the jagged edge of a honed razor and the point of a needle, seeming blunt under the microscope. His goal may well have been as a way to contrast the flawed products of mankind with the perfection of nature (and hence, in the spirit of the times, of biblical creation). About Author: Robert Hooke (1635 – 1703) was an English natural philosopher, architect and polymath.His adult life comprised three distinct periods: as a scientific inquirer lacking money; achieving great wealth and standing through his reputation for hard work and scrupulous honesty following the great fire of 1666, but eventually becoming ill and party to jealous intellectual disputes. These issues may have contributed to his relative historical obscurity. He was at one time simultaneously the curator of experiments of the Royal Society and a member of its council, Gresham Professor of Geometry and a Surveyor to the City of London after the Great Fire of London, in which capacity he appears to have performed more than half of all the surveys after the fire. He was also an important architect of his time – though few of his buildings now survive and some of those are generally misattributed – and was instrumental in devising a set of planning controls for London whose influence remains today. Allan Chapman has characterised him as "England's Leonardo".Robert Gunther's Early Science in Oxford, a history of science in Oxford during the Protectorate, Restoration and Age of Enlightenment, devotes five of its fourteen volumes to Hooke.Hooke studied at Wadham College during the Protectorate where he became one of a tightly knit group of ardent Royalists led by John Wilkins. Here he was employed as an assistant to Thomas Willis and to Robert Boyle, for whom he built the vacuum pumps used in Boyle's gas law experiments. He built some of the earliest Gregorian telescopes and observed the rotations of Mars and Jupiter. In 1665 he inspired the use of microscopes for scientific exploration with his book, Micrographia. Based on his microscopic observations of fossils, Hooke was an early proponent of biological evolution. He investigated the phenomenon of refraction, deducing the wave theory of light, and was the first to suggest that matter expands when heated and that air is made of small particles separated by relatively large distances. He performed pioneering work in the field of surveying and map-making and was involved in the work, though his plan for London on a grid system was rejected in favour of rebuilding along the existing routes. He also came near to an experimental proof that gravity follows an inverse square law, and hypothesised that such a relation governs the motions of the planets, an idea which was subsequently developed by Newton.

On the Origin of Species, published on 24 November 1859, is a work of scientific literature by Charles Darwin which is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life. For the sixth edition of 1872, the short title was changed to The Origin of Species. Darwin's book introduced the scientific theory that populations evolve over the course of generations through a process of natural selection. It presented a body of evidence that the diversity of life arose by common descent through a branching pattern of evolution. Darwin included evidence that he had gathered on the Beagle expedition in the 1830s and his subsequent findings from research, correspondence, and experimentation. Various evolutionary ideas had already been proposed to explain new findings in biology. There was growing support for such ideas among dissident anatomists and the general public, but during the first half of the 19th century the English scientific establishment was closely tied to the Church of England, while science was part of natural theology. Ideas about the transmutation of species were controversial as they conflicted with the beliefs that species were unchanging parts of a designed hierarchy and that humans were unique, unrelated to other animals. The political and theological implications were intensely debated, but transmutation was not accepted by the scientific mainstream. The book was written for non-specialist readers and attracted widespread interest upon its publication. As Darwin was an eminent scientist, his findings were taken seriously and the evidence he presented generated scientific, philosophical, and religious discussion. The debate over the book contributed to the campaign by T. H. Huxley and his fellow members of the X Club to secularise science by promoting scientific naturalism. Within two decades there was widespread scientific agreement that evolution, with a branching pattern of common descent, had occurred, but scientists were slow to give natural selection the significance that Darwin thought appropriate. During the "eclipse of Darwinism" from the 1880s to the 1930s, various other mechanisms of evolution were given more credit. With the development of the modern evolutionary synthesis in the 1930s and 1940s, Darwin's concept of evolutionary adaptation through natural selection became central to modern evolutionary theory, and it has now become the unifying concept of the life sciences. Summary of Darwin's theory: Darwin's theory of evolution is based on key facts and the inferences drawn from them, which biologist Ernst Mayr summarised as follows: ? Every species is fertile enough that if all offspring survived to reproduce the population would grow (fact).? Despite periodic fluctuations, populations remain roughly the same size (fact).? Resources such as food are limited and are relatively stable over time (fact).? A struggle for survival ensues (inference).? Individuals in a population vary significantly from one another (fact).? Much of this variation is inheritable (fact).? Individuals less suited to the environment are less likely to survive and less likely to reproduce; individuals more suited to the environment are more likely to survive and more likely to reproduce and leave their inheritable traits to future generations, which produces the process of natural selection (inference).? This slowly effected process results in populations changing to adapt to their environments, and ultimately, these variations accumulate over time to form new species (inference).