Mark D Denny

Gliding for Gold: The Physics of Winter Sports

As anyone from cold climates knows, living with lots of ice and snow can lead to a special appreciation of sports such as skiing, sledding, and skating. Prolific physics popularizer Mark Denny’s take on winter athletics lays out the physical principles that govern glaciated game play.After discussin...

Float Your Boat!: The Evolution and Science of Sailing

An estimated 4.1 million people in the United States participate in recreational sailing. Yet the large library of sailing literature leaves many of them high and dry. On one side are technical guides for America’s Cup boat-builders; on the other, simplistic books for weekend sailors with little int...

Lights On!: The Science of Power Generation

Power generation is a relatively recent concern because humans had little need for sustained power until the dawn of the Industrial Revolution. Today, modern civilization is wholly dependent on the production and distribution of power. Without it, our way of life would be extinguished.In Lights On!,...

Their Arrows Will Darken the Sun: The Evolution and Science of Ballistics

The science of ballistics has a long history and starts with one question: How does a projectile move through the air? Even before physicists worked that one out, military engineers had been tinkering with ballistic devices for centuries. The trebuchet of the Middle Ages has given way to rocket powe...

The Science of Navigation: From Dead Reckoning to GPS

In today’s world of online maps and travel directions delivered wirelessly to hand-held devices, getting from place to place requires little thought from most of us—which is a good thing, since accurate navigation can be tricky. Get your bearings with Mark Denny—an expert at explaining scientific co...

Encyclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores (Encyclopedias of the Natural World)

Tidepools and rocky shores are among the most physically stressful environments on earth. When the tide is high, waves can sweep over plants and animals at velocities as high as 60 miles per hour, while at low tide, the same organisms dry up and bake in the sun. Yet despite this seeming inhospitalit...

Engineering Animals: How Life Works

The alarm calls of birds make them difficult for predators to locate, while the howl of wolves and the croak of bullfrogs are designed to carry across long distances. From an engineer's perspective, how do such specialized adaptations among living things really work? And how does physics constrain e...

Blip, Ping, and Buzz: Making Sense of Radar and Sonar

Have you ever wondered how stealth planes achieve "invisibility," how sunken ships are found, or how fishermen track schools of fish in vast expanses of ocean? Radar and sonar echolocation—a simple matter of sending, receiving, and processing signals.Weaving history with simple science, Mark Denny d...

Mark Denny

Mark W. Denny (born 1951) is a professor of biology at Stanford University. His research on the intertidal zone of wave-swept shores has led to increased understanding of ...

Ingenium: Five Machines That Changed the World

Blip, Ping & Buzz: Making Sense of Radar and Sonar

Encyclopedia of Tidepools and Rocky Shores

Chance in Biology: Using Probability to Explore Nature

Air and Water: The Biology and Physics of Life's Media

Air and Water: The Biology and Physics of Life's Media

Biology and the Mechanics of the Wave-Swept Environment

Biology and the Mechanics of the Wave-Swept Environment