Scientists, in general, tend to be reticent in calling attention to their contributions to science. Satisfaction comes from the solution of a problem rather than from any public acclaim they may receive. Once a paper is presented, there is generally reluctance to present it again. The true scientist is never satisfied with past results, and is constantly attacking new problems. He is an entrepreneur in the finest sense of the word, and at the same time a religious zealot in his dedication to his work, and a visionary in his concentration on the unknown. It is, therefore, not surprising that scientists and churchmen have many characteristics in common; that churchmen through the ages have made significant contributions to the advance of science; and that scientists and churchmen, individually, are 'warm' human beings more concerned with their work and others than with themselves.

Amonп the major results of the Upper Mantle Project, two are especially significant. First, it has been clearly demonstrated that the earth is not radially symmetric: important lateral inhomogeneities exist in the uppermost 700 kilometers. Second, it is now clear that large-scale motions of the upper parts of the earth are taking place now and have taken place in the past.

Recent environmental problems and natural disasters have given cause for increasing concern over the future habitability of our planet. It is becoming increasingly apparent that a clear understanding of the Earth's past evolution can provide the key to its possible future development. The Earth: Its Birth and Growth explores the evolution of the Earth over 4.6 billion years using basic reasoning and simple illustrations to help explain the underlying physical and chemical principles and major processes involved.

Geomagnetism has always been at the forefront among the various branches of geophysics. At the end of the 16th century William Gilbert determined that the Earth is a big magnet, implying that it has a magnetic field; in the 1830s Carl Friedrich Gauss was able to formulate a procedure to measure the field completely and analyzed its characteristics with the spherical harmonic analysis, a method still used in the era of satellites and computers. Nevertheless, as recently as in the sixties, geophysics textbooks devoted only a thin chapter to geomagnetism, and limited their discussion mostly to prospecting methods, while many geologists’ curriculum practically left it out altogether. The essential contribution provided by the study of ocean floor magnetic anomalies and by paleomagnetism in the development of global tectonic models, made geomagnetism popular in the geological community, which nonetheless continued, and still continues, to view it as a highly specialist discipline. <...>