Includes bibliographical references and index.

Machine generated contents note: Introduction: THE RULER, THE CLOCK, -- AND THE THERMOMETER xi -- Chapter 1: 98.6 1 -- Constant Temperature 4 -- Into the Sahara 10 -- Into the Antarctic 18 -- When Things Go Wrong 25 -- Shocks from Heat 33 -- Chapter 2: MEASURE FOR MEASURE 41 -- The First Sparks 42 -- The Thermometer's Four Inventors 48 -- The Count from Massachusetts 58 -- Steam Power 64 -- Thermodynamics' Three Laws 71 -- Entropy and Life 76 -- Chapter 3: READING THE EARTH 80 -- Copernicus's Harmony 86 -- The Minister, the Lawyer, and the -- Fossil Fish Expert 92 -- Cycles of Ice 97 -- The Tundra's Bloom 102 -- El Nifo, Old and New 107 -- Greenhouse Effect: The Basic Science 111 -- Greenhouse Effect: The History 118 -- Greenhouse Effect: The Politics 126 -- Chapter 4: LIFE IN THE EXTREMES 131 -- Barton and Beebe's Bathysphere 132 -- Clambake I: Hydrothermal Vents 140 -- Some Like It Hot 148 -- Snowball Earth 154 -- The Third Branch of Life 161 -- Melting the Earth 165 -- Extraterrestrial Life 172 -- Life Under Two Miles of Ice 177 -- Chapter 5: MESSAGES FROM THE SUN 183 -- At the Core 184 -- Cosmic Gall 189 -- A Thermal Aside: Gamow, Rutherford, -- and Nuclear Barriers 196 -- A Star Is Born 200 -- Black Holes and Little Green Men 205 -- The Founding Elements: Hydrogen -- and Helium 212 -- Three-Degree Photons, Two-Degree -- Neutrinos 215 -- The Big Bang and the Big Crunch 222 -- Chapter 6: THE QUANTUM LEAP 227 -- Faraday's Perfect Gases 229 -- The Last Liquid 234 -- Superconductivity 241 -- Duality, Exclusion, and Uncertainty 248 -- The Low-Temperature World 255 -- Einstein's Refrigerator 259 -- Chandra's Journey 265 -- Into the Future 272.