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An original book focused on the anatomical features in halophytes from Romania. A very good tool for understanding the ecological value of adaptations in plants vegetating on saline habitats. It comprises 500 original photos taken on light microscope - all being original contribution. Coming with an English abstract. ...

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"Most of water on the earth is salty and yet most of the land is not. Over the millennia, salts have been washed from rocks and soils into the oceans where they have accumulated. Where the oceans meet the land then saline areas can form that have an unusual flora, one that tolerates salt concentrations lethal to most of our plant species. These salt-tolerant plants are called halophytes. Halophytes were recognised in the late 1700s, but it took a further hundred years or so before their scientific study began. Since then, there has been a small but steady increase in the numbers of scientific publications on the biochemistry, physiology, ecology and potential economic uses of halophytes. In recent years, the need to feed a burgeoning world population has focussed attention on limitations to agricultural production and the part halophytes might play in our ability to raise crops on saline soils. The saline fringes of the oceans constitute a small proportion of the world’s land surface and are not particularly important agriculturally. However, these saline fringes are not the only salt-affected soils on the world’s land surface. Sal...

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Sustainability of the environment implies both wishful thinking and ignorance – ignorance of the reality that natural systems are complex and unfathomable by scientists, and that repetition of research outputs depend on repetition of initial and all subsequent conditions. Scientific insights provide knowledge, but it is partial in most cases, and when applied is often subject to conflicting objectives, which in turn produce conditions that affect outcomes - thus our best efforts to predict natural outcomes are usually flawed. We further display our ignorance in seeking social sustainability while we behave inequitably towards groups other than ‘us’ and invoke spurious reasoning to justify further research. The effect of ignorant self-interest is played out daily in our largest intervention in the natural environment – agriculture, which is why agriculture provides perhaps the best model for consideration of the ideal of sustainability. From ancient Asian wisdom through modern global forces and technology to the central environmental issue of food production, we have identified some necessary conditions for sustainability. Yet, ou...

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Table of Contents Author and Publisher Information iii Acknowledgements ix Author’s Foreword xi Chapter 1 Stepping Back to Survey the Landscape 1 Chapter 2 The Unacknowledged Debt to Asia: A Different Agricultural and Environmental Reality 13 Agriculture’s Legacy 14 Agricultural Origins 15 Contact with the West 23 Religion, Nature and Agriculture 26 ‘Indianised’ Agriculture 31 Secular Approaches 34 Common Heritage 38 Chapter 3 Global Development Forces on Agriculture and the Environment 41 Agricultural Environments 43 Global Development Forces 51 Sustainable Development and Traditions 56 Sustainability: A Local or Foreign Influence? 59 Practical Alternatives 61 24 Sustainability: Elusive or Illusion? Wise Environmental Intervention Policy Implications 63 Chapter 4 Technology and Food Needs: GMOs for GFN: Genetically Modified Organisms and Global Food Needs 69 Global Food Needs 72 GMO Technologies 74 Revisiting the Green Revolution 76 Issues and Risks 79 Making a Decision 81 Chapter 5 Re-conceiving Food Security & Environmental Protection 87 Feeling Secure 89 The IFPRI World Food Situation 91 Conventional Consideratio...

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Excerpt: Advertisement. The story of ?Catherine,? which appeared in Fraser?s Magazine in 1839-40, was written by Mr. Thackeray, under the name of Ikey Solomons, Jun., to counteract the injurious influence of some popular fictions of that day, which made heroes of highwaymen and burglars, and created a false sympathy for the vicious and criminal....

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Excerpt: It was about the beginning of September, 1664, that I, mong the rest of my neighbors, heard in ordinary dis course that the plague was returned again in Holland; for it had been very violent there, and particularly at Amsterdam and Rotterdam, in the year 1663, whither, they say, it was brought, some said from Italy, others from the Levant, among some goods which were brought home by their Turkey fleet; others said it was brought from Candia; others from Cyprus. It mattered not from whence it came; but all agreed it was come into Holland again....

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Excerpt: We present the narrative of this report and the recommendations that flow from it to the President of the United States, the United States Congress, and the American people for their consideration. Ten Commissioners--five Republicans and five Democrats chosen by elected leaders from our nation?s capital at a time of great partisan division--have come together to present this report without dissent....

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CONTENTS List of Illustrations and Tables ix Member List xi Staff List xiii?xiv Preface xv 1. ?WE HAVE SOME PLANES? 1 1.1 Inside the Four Flights 1 1.2 Improvising a Homeland Defense 14 1.3 National Crisis Management 35 2. THE FOUNDATION OF THE NEW TERRORISM 47 2.1 A Declaration of War 47 2.2 Bin Ladin?s Appeal in the Islamic World 48 2.3 The Rise of Bin Ladin and al Qaeda (1988?1992) 55 2.4 Building an Organization, Declaring War on the United States (1992?1996) 59 2.5 Al Qaeda?s Renewal in Afghanistan (1996?1998) 63 3. COUNTERTERRORISM EVOLVES 71 3.1 From the Old Terrorism to the New: The First World Trade Center Bombing 71 3.2 Adaptation?and Nonadaptation? . . . in the Law Enforcement Community 73 3.3 . . . and in the Federal Aviation Administration 82 3.4 . . . and in the Intelligence Community 86...

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“I like the idea of mental synthesis very much ... I quite agree that language evolved in a way that facilitates synthesis and transmission of the synthesized mental image. ... I don't think there can be much doubt, purely conceptually, that language was a late arrival. Whatever mutation provided the key to it would have had no selectional advantage at all, and would have just been a useless “organ,” if it could not have linked up to pre-existing thought systems.” —NOAM CHOMSKY, Professor Emeritus of Linguistics, MIT “Boston University’s Andrey Vyshedskiy brings a neuroscientist’s perspective to the discussion of human mental history in On the Origin of the Human Mind.” —Scientific American Mind (July 2009) “I found the Mental Synthesis theory stimulating and provocative. The author puts forward an explanation for the evolution of the human mind based on predator detection that led to increased visual mental analysis which set the stage for visual mental syntheses. The author presents an impressive array of recent research on the brain with up to date references that are highly relevant to his case and the origin of mi...

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Introduction While studying the neuroscience of consciousness, I was struck with certain facts about mental imagery that seemed to shed some light on the process of the evolution of the human mind. The origin of the human mind remains one of the greatest mysteries of all times. The last 150 years, since Charles Darwin proposed that species evolve under the influence of natural selection (Darwin C, 1859), have been marked by great discoveries. Molecular biology described the genetic principles underlying species evolution and identified specific changes in the human genome since our lineage split off from the chimpanzee line about six million years ago (Somel M, 2013). Great paleontological discoveries have filled that span of six million years of human evolution with a number of intermediate species that display both human- and ape-like characteristics. However, the discussion of the evolution of the human intellect and specific forces that shaped the underlying brain evolution is as vigorous today as it was in Darwin’s times. At the center of the predicament about the origin of the human mind lies the question of human uniqu...

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Introduction 1 Part 1. Neuroscience of imagination 5 Chapter 1. Object encoding in the brain 6 Chapter 2. Neuronal synchronization 26 Chapter 3. Imagining new objects 32 Chapter 4. External manifestations of mental synthesis 39 Chapter 5. Humans versus animals 80 Chapter 6: Overall Discussion of Part 1 108 Part 2. Evolution of the Human Mind 135 Chapter 7. Introduction: a quick guide to paleoanthropology 136 Chapter 8. Cognitive evolution through the prism of paleontological evidence 160 Chapter 9. Evolutionary pressure drives better predator detection 191 Chapter 10. Overall Discussion of Part 2 219 Part 3. The “last” mutation 254 Chapter 11. The role of the prefrontal cortex in the process of mental synthesis 256 Chapter 12. Evolution of the prefrontal cortex 277 Conclusions 327 A wish list of experiments 339 Appendix 367 Acknowledgments 400 Bibliography 401 Illustrations credits 428 About the author 430 ...

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From hunters and gatherers through agro-cities, State-religious Empires infiltrated by migrating Tai persons with a wet glutinous rice technology, evolved to produce a sustainable agriculture. Rice culture determined administrative structures in a pragmatic society which regularly produced a saleable surplus. Ayutthaya’s ascendancy, continuing today, consolidated the importance of rice agriculture to national security and economic well-being, as Chinese and European influence benefited agribusiness and initiated the demand which would expand agriculture through population increase until accessible land was expended. The resulting central interest in the spoils of agriculture more than its producers pervaded decision-making until recently, and was supported by narrow economic development advocates. As agriculture declined in relative financial importance, it continued to provide the benefits of employment, crisis resilience, self-sufficiency, rural social support, and cultural custody. Technical and economic globalisation forces which assumed a cultural uniformity were eventually revealed to require modification, but had meanwhile a...

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Table of Contents Chapter 1 - Uniquely Agricultural Golden Cradle The Land of the Thai Soils Water Resources Climate Other Natural Resources Regional Origins Intensification Industrialisation National and Global Responsibilities Current Situation Ingredients of Thai Agriculture Summary Chapter 2 - Agricultural Origins From Gathering to Growing Neolithic to Iron Age Domination of Rice Early Thai Agriculturists Khmer Agriculture Pagan Agriculture Southern Thailand Summary Chapter 3 - Arrival of Tai Agriculture Chinese Tai Muang F Integrating Technologies Tai Agriculturists Migrating Farmers Tai in Thailand Tai Traits Environmental Traditions Tai and Buddhist Environments Summary Chapter 4 - Expansion of Thai Agriculture from 1200 C Agricultural Organisation Agricultural Administration Integrating Irrigation Systems Agricultural Domination Tai to Thai Agriculture 5 Agricultural Life Summary Chapter 5 - Emerging Agribusiness: Ayutthaya to the Early Twentieth Century Agriculture, Environment and Morality Export Rice Cash Crops Foreign Influence Administering the Peasants State Irrigation Development Traders and Early Agrib...

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What this Book is About There is a commonly held view that the incidence and scale of disasters is increasing in the modern world although some disagreement on whether the incidence of events, such as Tsunamis, earthquakes, fires, floods etc., that can give rise to disasters is increasing. The view is understandable, both population and their built environment are increasing so more is at risk and this trend of increased risk will continue while populations continue to rise. As the World Bank Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) enumerates this: ‘Natural disasters are becoming more costly: in constant dollars, disaster costs between 1990 and 1999 were more than 15 times higher ($652 billion in material losses) than they were between 1950 and 1959 ($38 billion at 1998 values) The human cost is also high: over the 1984–2003 period, more than 4.1 billion people were affected by natural disasters. The number affected has grown, from 1.6 billion in the first half of that period (1984–93) to almost 2.6 billion in the second half (1994-2003), and has continued to increase. Although disasters caused by natural events occur throughout...

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List of figures, table & Abbreviations ix Acknowledgements x What this Book is About 1 Chapter 1 - Key Concepts 7 Disaster Risk Reduction 7 Risk 10 Fast and Slow Onset Disasters 11 Resilience 12 Systems Thinking 13 Self-organising Systems 18 A System for Disaster Risk Reduction 21 Evaluation of Natural Disasters 22 Chapter 2 –Components of Disasters and NRM 27 Economic Analysis – Five Forms of Capital 27 The Significance of Context 31 Ecosystems Functional Analysis ...

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The concept of science and the sciences. Fundamental and historical development in the sciences. Great ideas that revolutionize our scientific world. The story of the cell and Biology. The birth of modern Biology. The rise of the modern University and experimental stations. The cell as the basic building block of life. The origin of life. The development of microbiology and microscopy. The germ theory of diseases, vaccines, and antibiotics. The vector insects and infectious diseases. The virus, viral diseases, and vaccines. The principle of vegetation and the basic requirements of plants. William Harvey, the heart and the circulatory system. Carl Linneaus and the development of modern taxonomy in biology. Charles Darwin and the development of evolution in biology. Gregor Mendel and the development of genetics and the laws of heredity....

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THE GREATEST FUNDAMENTAL INVENTIONS CREATED BY MOTHER NATURE THE ATOM AND ITS CAPACITY TO STORE AND RELEASE UNIVERSAL ENERGY BY MEANS OF PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESSES THE CELL AND ITS CAPACITY TO SUSTAIN INDEPENDENT LIFE BY MEANS OF UNIQUE BIOLOGICAL PROCESSES THE PROCESS OF PHOTOSYNTHESIS AND ITS CAPACITY TO TRANSFORM SOLAR (LIGHT) ENERGY INTO CHEMICAL AND FOOD ENERGY BY MEANS OF BIOCHEMICAL PROCESSES LIGHT AND ITS CAPACITY TO TRANSPORT ENERGY AND CHANGE OUR UNIVERSE BY TRANSFORMING DARKNESS INTO LIGHTNESS BY THE MIRACLE OF ILLUMINATION THE PHENOMENON OF ELECTROMAGNETISM AND ITS CAPACITY TO PRODUCE THE DYNAMIC ELECTRIC CURRENT THAT ENERGIZES AND POWERS OUR UNIVERSE AND THE MOST FUNDAMENTAL OF ALL OF NATURE’S INTUITIVE CREATIONS IS THE PROCESS OF UNIVERSAL TRANSFORMATION, WHERE PHYSICAL, CHEMICAL AND BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION TRANSFORM MATTER, ENERGY, SPACE, TIME AND LIFE ITSELF ...

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INTRODUCTION 1 ABSTRACT ON THE CONCEPT OF PERSPECTIVE AND SENSE OF DUTY 4 THE CONCEPT OF SCIENCE 5 FUNDAMENTAL AND HISTORIC DEVELOPMENTS IN THE SCIENCES 7 ABSTRACT ON THE ATOM AND ITS ENERGY 11 GREAT IDEAS THAT REVOLUTIONIZED OUR SCIENTIFIC WORLD 16 DEMOCRITUS (470 - 380 BC) Greek Philosopher 16 NICHOLAS COPERNICUS (1473 - 1543) Polish Astronomer 17 GALILEO GALILEI (1564 - 1642) Italian Mathematician and Astronomer 18 RENE DESCARTES (1596 - 1650) French Mathematician and Philosopher. 19 ISAAC NEWTON (1642 - 1727) English Scientist and Mathematician 20 ANTOINE LAVOISIER (1743 - 1794) French Chemist 23 JOHN DALTON (1766 - 1844) English Chemist 24 JONS J. BERZELIUS (1779 - 1848) Swedish Chemist 25 HUMPHRY DAVY (1778 - 1829) English Chemist 25 AMEDEO AVOGADRO (1776 - 1856) Italian Physicist 26 DMITRI MENDELEEV (1834 - 1907) Russian Chemist 26 FRIEDRICH A. KEKULE (1829 - 1896) German Organic Chemist 27 JACOBUS VAN’T HOFF (1852 - 1911) Dutch Physical Chemist 28 WILLIAM H. WOLLASTON (1766 - 1828) English Chemist and Physicist 28 EDWARD FRANKLAND (1825 - 1899) English Chemist 29 SVANTE A. ARRHENIUS (1859 -...

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Excerpt: Preface By Way Of Criticism. These studies are collected from the monthly press. One appeared in the New Quarterly, one in MacMillan?s, and the rest in the Cornhill Magazine. To the Cornhill I owe a double debt of thanks; first, that I was received there in the very best society, and under the eye of the very best of editors; and second, that the proprietors have allowed me to republish so considerable an amount of copy....

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Contents PREFACE BY WAY OF CRITICISM. ........................................................................................... 4 CHAPTER I ? VICTOR HUGO?S ROMANCES ........................................................................ 15 CHAPTER II ? SOME ASPECTS OF ROBERT BURNS.......................................................... 34 CHAPTER III ? WALT WHITMAN............................................................................................. 63 CHAPTER IV ? HENRY DAVID THOREAU: HIS CHARACTER AND OPINIONS........... 84 CHAPTER V ? YOSHIDA-TORAJIRO..................................................................................... 107 CHAPTER VI ? FRANCOIS VILLON, STUDENT, POET, AND HOUSEBREAKER.........117 CHAPTER VII ? CHARLES OF ORLEANS ............................................................................ 141 CHAPTER VIII ? SAMUEL PEPYS .......................................................................................... 170 CHAPTER IX ? JOHN KNOX AND HIS RELATIONS TO WOMEN .................................. 190...

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Excerpt: Reprinted from Fraser?s Magazine. The cloud which for the space of a month hung gloomily over the civilized world, black with far worse evils than those of simple war, has passed from over our heads without bursting. The fear has not been realized, that the only two first-rate Powers who are also free nations would take to tearing each other in pieces, both the one and the other in a bad and odious cause. For while, on the American side, the war would have been one of reckless persistency in wrong, on ours it would have been a war in alliance with, and, to practical purposes, in defence and propagation of, slavery. We had, indeed, been wronged....

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Excerpt: Chapter 1. The Foreigner At Home. ?This is no my ain house; I ken by the biggin? o?t.? Two recent books* one by Mr. Grant White on England, one on France by the diabolically clever Mr. Hillebrand, may well have set people thinking on the divisions of races and nations. Such thoughts should arise with particular congruity and force to inhabitants of that United Kingdom, peopled from so many different stocks, babbling so many different dialects, and offering in its extent such singular contrasts, from the busiest over-population to the unkindliest desert, from the Black Country to the Moor of Rannoch. It is not only when we cross the seas that we go abroad; there are foreign parts of England; and the race that has conquered so wide an empire has not yet managed to assimilate the islands whence she sprang. Ireland, Wales, and the Scottish mountains still cling, in part, to their old Gaelic speech. It was but the other day that English triumphed in Cornwall, and they still show in Mousehole, on St. Michael?s Bay, the house of the last Cornish-speaking woman. English itself, which will now frank the traveller through the most of...

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Contents CHAPTER I: THE FOREIGNER AT HOME ..................................................................................... 5 CHAPTER II: SOME COLLEGE MEMORIES................................................................................ 14 CHAPTER III: OLD MORTALITY .................................................................................................. 20 CHAPTER IV: A COLLEGE MAGAZINE ...................................................................................... 28 CHAPTER V: AN OLD SCOTCH GARDENER ............................................................................. 36 CHAPTER VI: PASTORAL .............................................................................................................. 41 CHAPTER VII: THE MANSE .......................................................................................................... 48 CHAPTER VIII: MEMOIRS OF AN ISLET .................................................................................... 53 CHAPTER IX: THOMAS STEVENSON ? CIVIL ENGINEER...................................................... 58 CHAPTER X: TALK AND TALKERS ....................

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Excerpt: Welcome to the fifth volume of Best of Four. We hope you enjoy reading it as much as we have enjoyed bringing it to you. The purpose of Best of Four is to bring the best writing produced in English 004 each fall semester to the widest audience possible. Our students have important stories to tell and powerful voices to be heard. The students who read these essays will learn that they too have permission to state what is important to them in a public voice....

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Contents How to Use This Magazine .............................................................................................................. 3 High School to College Andrew Makhoul ........................................................................................ 4 Ignoring Problems Creates More! Ashley Morris................................................................................ 5 Hang in There Brad Hart ................................................................................................................. 6 Nate Brandi Saveri ........................................................................................................................... 7 The Best Birthday Is the Sixteenth Brent Heimbach ......................................................................... 9 Sharing the Bread of Angels Christa Sist ......................................................................................... 10 Tragedy in the Night Danielle Gehman .......................................................................................... 11 My Grandfather David Smith ..............................................

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Introduction: Benjamin Franklin was born in Milk Street, Boston, on January 6, 1706. His father, Josiah Franklin, was a tallow chandler who married twice, and of his seventeen children Benjamin was the youngest son. His schooling ended at ten, and at twelve he was bound apprentice to his brother James, a printer, who published the ?New England Courant.? To this journal he became a contributor, and later was for a time its nominal editor....

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The 2000 year history of the atom and chemistry, from the Classic Greek Era to the present, is described in 800 pages, depicted with some 300 pictures and illustrations. This history of the atom and chemistry discusses the lives of about 180 chemists and physicists, through the evolution of several stages of development, representing the most important scientific accomplishments. The most significant discoveries in chemistry and physics are presented chronologically to illustrate their contributions to the creation of the chemical sciences during the last 21 centuries....

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INTRODUCTION It is a genuine pleasure and challenge for me to try to express the full extent of my emotions and reasons for writing this book on the STORY OF THE ATOM AND THE SCIENCES, with special reference to the CHEMICAL SCIENCES. In one sentence, I can distill the essence of the purpose for this study by simply stating that it has been a labor of love that transcended the written word because sentiments and ideas belong in the realm of the ethereal and the philosophical as well as in the domain of LITERATURE and SCIENCE. Ever since a young and impressionable student attending a country school in a community of a few hundred people, began to be introduced to the world of knowledge over 65 years ago, the sciences became to me what water is to fish, air is to birds and earth is to humanity. The introduction to the mathematical, physical, chemical and biological sciences felt like reading a beautiful poem or listening to a romantic melody. In essence, it was truly a joyful experience, full of the enigmatic, the mysterious and the fantastic, beyond my wildest imagination. The words used in the title of this book, were car...

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TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION 1 THE STORY OF THE ATOM AND CHEMISTRY 7 THE CAVE MAN 7 ABSTRACT ON THE CONCEPT OF PERSPECTIVE AND SENSE OF DUTY 8 THE MIGRATORY AND THE SEDENTARY MAN 9 ABSTRACT ON THE ATOM AND ITS ENERGY 11 THE CLASSIC GREEK AND ROMAN PHILOSOPHERS 17 EMPEDOCLES (492-432 BC) Greek Philosopher 20 Proposed the four basic elements: earth, water, air and fire. DEMOCRITUS (470-380 BC) Greek Philosopher 22 The founder of the atomic theory of antiquity. CLAUDIUS PTOLEMY (100-170) Greek Astronomer 24 Proponent of the geocentric theory of our solar system with the Earth and not the Sun at its center. ABSTRACT ON THE GENESIS OF AN ORDERLY AND SYSTEMATIC UNIVERSE 25 THE ALCHEMY OF ANTIQUITY AND THE MIDDLE AGES 32 THE METAL INDUSTRY OF ANTIQUITY 33 Mercury, Copper, Bronze, Iron and Steel. GEBER (721-815) Arabian Alchemist 38 One of the first scholars and alchemists of the Islamic world. OMAR KHAYYAM (12th Century). Persian Scientist and Astronomer 38 Brilliant astronomer and alchemist of the 12th Century. BERNARDO TREVISAN (1406 -1490) Italian Alchemist 39 One of the most famous alchemists of th...