Kenneth Mallory

I have become deeply fascinated by the excellent Scientists in the Field series, so much so that I've accidentally bought duplicates for my library...oops. They're all so beautifully written! Such amazing photographs! Such clear explanations! And this one is no exception.

Kenneth Mallory does an excellent job of explaining how Rich Lutz and other scientists are exploring the effects and progression of deep-sea volcanos. The pictures show the mysterious creatures that live and die around these show more boiling vents of water and chemicals as well as the strange rock formation formed by lava deep underwater.

As always, my favorite part of the Scientists in the Field book is the introduction to a real scientist - Rich Lutz. His education and interest as a scientist is nicely woven throughout the text as well as how he started studying deep-sea volcanos.

Verdict; This is an inspiring and fascinating story for budding scientists or anyone interested in the mysterious deep in the ocean.

ISBN: 0618332057; Published October 2006 by Houghton Mifflin; Borrowed from the library; Purchased for the library show less

I have always been fascinated by hammerhead sharks and often wondered what caused the development of their unusually shaped head that other fish did not develop. Because of this book, I've come up with a theory, but won't share it here. I learned many things about hammerheads that I didn't know and it made me want to learn even more about these fascinating, unusual creatures.

The book “Swimming with Hammerhead Sharks” is a fantastic transitional, nonfiction book. The main reason I thought it was such a great book was because of all the extra features that go along with the text. The book includes photographs, tables, captions, maps, labeled illustrations, an index, and suggestions for further reading. This keeps the book extremely organized and easy to follow. Another reason is because the book describes complicated topics such as magnetic attraction and show more tracking devices in ways that younger readers could understand. For instance, “The sensors also transmit information about heading, dive-depth, water temperature, and the like, so we can not only track movement but also learn about behavior and the environment that they’re orienting in.” Although this still seems fairly complicated, the accompanying features make it understandable, while likely teaching children new vocabulary at the same time. This book challenges readers to look further than the text to clarify information, which is a very important skill for children to learn. Lastly, the book attempts to fight the stereotype of sharks as primitive and vicious killers. The big idea of the book is to highlight the sophisticated social behaviors of hammerhead sharks. show less

Have you ever wondered why hammerheads have such strangely shaped heads? What if I told you it was to sense small magnetic field fluctuations that pass like phantoms through everything. They tell it how close it is to rock or that a fish is hiding beneath the sand below.That's kinda crazy, I know. It takes a curious mind to find these things, be they fact or fiction. At the behest of New England Aquarium, Kenneth Mallory seeks out a curious mind. The book begins with the author's first show more encounter with a single shark in the summer of his youth, but ends with him wreathed by about fifty. The book is told over roughly a years time. Mallory is writing a piece on Hammerhead and associated with the New England Aquarium who are developing an IMAX picture called Island of Sharks.

The lion's share of the book concentrates on the work Peter Klimely. The is undoubtedly the best part of the book. It describes the scientific process as exploration. Klimley has discovered that hundreds of hammerhead females converge on small underwater mountains off the coast of Costa Rica termed sea mounts. Why to they do that? Uncertainty is clearly the providence of Peter's work. However, it is not the uncertainty those most people face -- it is a more invigorating one. As with all the scientist in the field series the primary brunt of the book is interacting with field scientists that are trying to make sense of their world. The process of science is not heavily watered down in these books. They simply cut away background detail while still mentioning many scientific tools. Interested parties could google the tools names if they wanted a more in depth idea of how they work. So, detail is within arm reach, but not forced on the reader. The book also has numerous photos the elaborate the text. Diagrams of common hammerhead species are giving common and latin names, measurements, and range and distribution. In the second part of the book diagrams of diving gear are present. The text alos describe how these systems work and why certain ones are used instead of others.

The second portion of the book is less interesting. It covers the author and IMAX's field crew as they attempt to capture the large number of hammerheads converging on the sea mount. El Nino complicates the filming however. Ultimately, Mallory is caught up in the current as we swims, but allowed to see over fifty Hammerhead gather and swim past him and the crew. This portion did not seem to fit with the main part of the text. Perhaps I would have been best to have Klimely also present. The authors himself was required to wait until a certain amount of filming was done before he could approach the mount. It felt like the reader and the author had to sit out this part of the book. I wonder what we missed. show less