Health & Well-being
Showing front cover and 2 sample pages
Ghost Uranium deposit on Niue
By NE Whitehead and P Aharon
"Naturally occurring" radioactivity on Niue Is.
(Scientific Monograph) This 145-page monograph came out of 35+ years of research on the soils of Niue Island. The body of work as a whole was too copious to be published by international journals, though research papers had been published on sections of it. It contains supplementary data to those papers and shows that the high levels of radioactivity on Niue have a natural origin with no known effect on the health of inhabitants. It will be distributed to academic libraries, universities, Pasifika repositories and will be of international interest to the scientific community. The job required meticulous checking by the author of its teeming details, and careful building of maps, diagrams charts and tables. Briar's Books designed the cover and laid the content out for printing locally. A PDF of the monograph was uploaded to Research Gate where it has generated significant interest.
The Rise of the Guardian Elite
Sean Devine
Beware! - the Elite
500 copies, written by a NZ scientist and academic inveighing against the rise of an elite class of people - megaphone in hand - who refuse to engage with policy makers having views other than their own. (Prescient as it happens.) 128pages. Cover (by Briar's Books). The author drew on his experience in economics, science policy, business and management to present his views. Significant changes were needed in layout and style. After considering traditional publishing routes, the author chose to self-publish and do his own publicity and distribution.
Earthquakes & Animals
Dr Motoji Ikeya
A physicist writes
An academic book: 290 pages for a Japanese Professor of Physics - in English. The Professor's spoken English was good but the book was intended for an international readership and needed a complete rewrite. Almost all its many diagrams and photos had to be redone or edited over about 10 months. My husband - a scientist - came to the rescue when the science baffled me. The publishers based in Singapore say it is one of their most popular titles. The professor believed he could account scientifically for many of the unusual phenomena reported before large earthquakes. The cover design combined a photo taken after the Kobe earthquake and a postcard of the legendary earthquake-causing catfish said to reside under Japan. Bringing legend and science together on the cover seemed a propos..
My Genes Made Me Do It!
Dr N E Whitehead
The Science of homosexuality
This academic book of almost 300 pages has a complex index and long chapter references, numerous diagrams and footnotes. It has had multiple print runs and been converted into an e-book for sale on Amazon, and international download from the author's website. It has also been translated into seven languages, most recently Arabic and Turkish. Conclusion: Homosexuality not genetic. The author chose self-publishing after traditional publishers began refusing the book for political reasons.