Books with author Sylvia A. Johnson

Silkworms are not actually worms at all. They are the caterpillars of a large white moth. Many moth caterpillars produce silk thread inside their bodies, but the thread of the silkworm is so fine and strong that human beings use it to make a beautiful fabric. In countries like Japan, people raise millions of silkworms on farms and take their thread to be processed into silk cloth. Readers of this book will find out how silk farmers process silk and what role this amazing thread plays in the life cycle of the silkworm moth.

Can the conquest of one city change the world? In 1519, two powerful empires - Spain and Mexica (Aztec) - were hungry for expansion in central Mexico. Led by emperor Motecuzoma II, the Mexica people had subdued their native enemies and now controlled a sprawling territory with the great city of Tenochtitlán at the center. Then the Spanish conquistador Hernán Cortés led an attack on the Mexica empire. Although the Spaniards had horses and guns, both unknown in the Americas, the Mexica outnumbered them five hundred to one. The Spaniards had no chance of success without the help of native allies unhappy with Mexica rule. What followed was a desperate war that lasted two years, cost thousands of lives, and left Tenochtitlán in ruins. In 1521 Cortés declared Mexico a colony of New Spain. In so doing, he laid the groundwork for the expansion of European power throughout the Americas and changed the world forever. The Spanish conquest of Mexico is one of world history's pivotal moments.

"I cannot think that the world, as we see it, is the result of chance; & yet I cannot look at each separate thing as the result of design." English naturalist Charles Darwin wrote this in 1860, a year after publishing his theory of evolution. His words show the personal struggle of a man forced by his own observations to answer the fundamental question―Where do we come from?―in a revolutionary new way. Darwin's internal battle reflects a broader public struggle―the attempt to reconcile scientific fact with religious faith. Shaking the Foundation: Charles Darwin and the Theory of Evolution follows this battle, from the supporting theories of fellow scientists, to the opposing voices of clergymen, to twenty-first-century supporters of Intelligent Design. Through quotations from letters and other contemporary sources, you'll meet the personalities and ideas involved in the debate. You'll also examine some of the legal cases that brought evolution into the U.S. courtroom. These cases include the famous Scopes trial in 1925 and the Kitzmiller v. Dover Area School District case in 2005, which tested a school policy requiring the teaching of Intelligent Design. Through these and other debates, you'll learn more about the struggle over one of life's most profound questions.