Cold has long had negative connotations-cold-hearted, cold feet, cold comfort, the cold war. Humans struggle to isolate themselves from it, hiding in overheated houses, taking winter holidays in hot climates. Cold kills the old and vulnerable. Christopher Robin-style wheezles and sneezles flourish in cold weather. Swine flu is expected to tighten its grip this winter. "Cold! If the thermometer had been an inch longer we'd all have frozen to death," wrote Opie Read in "Mark Twain and I".rnDrawing on his experience of living in Anchorage, Alaska, Bill Streever, a biologist, takes the reader on a celebratory tour of the science, history, geography and ecology of cold temperatures. Humans, he writes, "fail to see cold for what it is: the absence of heat, the slowing of molecular motion, a sensation, a perception, a driving force."
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机译：长期以来，感冒具有消极的含义，冷漠，脚冷，舒适，冷战。人类努力使自己与外界隔离，躲藏在过热的房屋中，在炎热的气候中度过寒假。感冒杀死了老弱者。克里斯托弗·罗宾（Christopher Robin）风格的风笛和轻笑在寒冷的天气中盛行。猪流感有望在今年冬天收紧。奥比·雷德（Opie Read）在《马克·吐温和我》（Mark Twain and I）中写道：“冷！如果温度计再长一英寸，我们都将被冻死。”根据他在阿拉斯加安克雷奇的生活经验，生物学家比尔·史特雷弗读者将进行一次关于低温的科学，历史，地理和生态学的庆祝之旅。他写道，人类“没有意识到冷是什么：没有热量，分子运动的减慢，感觉，感知，驱动力。”
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