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that some science books are written by female scientists. That sends a good
subliminal message -- both to girls (and to their parents). 
Now, for some shameless promotion...
 This is the cover of "The 3rd Planet... exploring earth from space". It's my 3rd children's book, my second with Tam O'Shaughnessy. [By the way, Tam is now a Professor at GSU, specializing in reading interventions for students at risk for reading failure.] In "3rd Planet", Tam and I tried to illustrate what scientists are learning about our planet by virtue of being able to study it from space. [That's one of the things I'll be trying to convey today]
 This is the view of Earth that the Apollo astronauts had, as they stood on the moon and looked back at our planet
 - [Lovell] grand oasis in the great vastness of space.
 - even at a glance you can see that our planet is very different from all the other planers in the solar system. Our planet is covered with water. None of the other planets has even a drop of water on its surface. It's water that supports life, and makes Earth a living planet.
 - the view of Earth from space has revolutionized our understanding of our planet. In just the 25 or so years since this photo was taken, scientists  have come to appreciate that the Earth is a very complex system. That its oceans, atmosphere, biosphere, and interior are all linked to each other. You can't understand one in isolation, you have to study them together as a system. Furthermore, it's now clear that civilization is having a measurable impact, [[strikethrough]] on that system [[/strikethrough]] for better or worse, We're now an influential component of our planet. To study earth as a global system requires a global perspective -- the perspective from space.
 [To give you a preview of the view [read preface]] "The 3rd Planet aims to communicate the potential of this perspective -- how much it has taught us, and how much we have yet to learn... It presents the view of Earth through the window of the space shuttle.
 [closer to earth... see planet in more detail... same view as orbiting instruments] 
[READ PREFACE]