Biography: science, technology and medicine Books

Book SynopsisNow available in paperback with a new preface by the author, this acclaimed biography will appeal to historians of technology and science, as well as to scientists and engineers who wish to learn more about this remarkable man.Trade ReviewHow was it that a man who had no formal education after the age of sixteen could apply operational calculus to technological problems in a way that other eminent mathematical physicists had not? Why was a charged layer of the ionosphere named after him? The best way to gain an insight into the life and work of this eccentric genius will be to delve into this delightful book. International Journal of Electrical Engineering Educators A good book by a careful, historically minded engineer... A lively, informative narrative of Heaviside's life and work. Nahin has exhaustively resurveyed archives and contemporary sources and is very much at home in historical discussions of Victorian physics. IsisTable of ContentsContents: Preface to the Johns Hopkins Edition Preface to the Original Edition A Note of Mathematics A Note of References A Note on Money Acknowledgements 1 The Origins of Heaviside ( A Description of mid-19th century Victorian England.) The Man The Nature of His Work The Grim World of Heaviside's Youth Notes and References 2 The Early Years (The young Heaviside, his family circumstances, and his education.) The Beginning A Lucky Marriage First (and Last) Job A Lifetime Decision Tech Note: Where Is the Fault? Notes and References 3 The First Theory of the Electric Telegraph (Historical discussion of Professor William Thomson's 1854 diffusion theory, the starting point of Heaviside's work.) Thomson and Stokes The Law of Squares The Atlantic Cable The Speed of the Current Phase Distortion Tech Note: How Thomson Thought Electricity "Soaks" into an Infinitely Long Cable Notes and References 4 Heaviside's Early Telegraphy Work (An account of the introduction effects into cable analysis, and the nature of Heaviside's mode of working.) A Full-Time Student The Telegraph Papers The Problem of Signal Rate Assymmetry A "Mathematical Monster" Arithmatic Drudgery Tech Note: Why a Cable Is Slower in One Direction than in the Other Notes and References 5 The Scienticulist (An introduction to William Henry Preece, Engineer-in-Chief of the British Post Offics and Heaviside's great nemesis.) Heaviside's Nemesis Subdividing the Electric Light The Age of the "Practical Man" A Public Debate Why Preece Prevailed (for a While) A Clash of Personalities Preece's Ability The Telephone Affair Heavisides Refuses to Be Shackled Tech Note: Preece's Analysis of the Electric Light Notes and References 6 Maxwell's Electricity (The state of knowledge at Maxwell's death om 1879.) Introduction The Men before Maxwell Action-at-a-Distance The Luminiferous Ether Faraday and Lines of Force William Thomson Maxwell The Displacement Current Post-script: Just What Is Electricity, Anyway? Tech Note 1: A Technically Nice, Often Taught, but Historically False "Explanantion" of the Displacement Current Tech Note 2: Action-at-a-Distance, Fields, and Faraday's Electronic State Notes and References 7 Heaviside's Electrodynamics (How Heaviside formulated the field equations and what he did with them.) The Conversion of a Skeptic The Electrician The Importance of Mr. Biggs Getting Off to a Bad Start Reformulating Maxwell's Equations A Friend in Germany More Germans: Foppl, Boltzmann, and Planck Energy and Its Flux Moving Charges A Friend at Cambridge Faster-than-Light Dr. Heaviside, F.R.S. Tech Note 1: The Duplex Equations Tech Note 2: The Localization of Electromagnetic Field Energy Tech Note 3: Heaviside's Derivation of hte Electromagnetic Energy Flow Vector in Space Tech Note 4: Poynting;s Physics (and Oliver's Objection) Notes and References 8 The Battle With Preece (The story of the " KR-Law" and Preece's efforts to suppress Heaviside's influence.) High-Tech Hardware, Low-Tech Theory Early Mathematical Analysis The Peculiar Experiments of David Hughes Preece's " KR-Law" and Heaviside's Attack Oliver Lodge's Oscillating Leyden Jar "Experience" versus "Theory" Heaviside's Vindication A Change of Scene-and Fame Back in Print-in Style! His Friends Try to Help More Battles Tech Note1: The Skin Effect Tech Note 2: The " KR-Law" Tech Note 3: Preece and Lodge on Lightning Tech Note 4: Heaviside and S. P. Thompson on the Distortionless Circuit Notes and References 9 The Great Quarterionic War (The development of vectors by Heaviside and by Gibbs, and the debate with Tait.) More Debates Peter Tait, the Warrior of Victorian Science William Hamilton and Quarterions Before 1890-The Calm Before the Storm The Vector Analysis of Josiah Willard Gibbs Tait Throws Down the Gauntlet The Battle The Aftermath Off to War-Again Tech Note 1: Numbers and Vecotrs-Real, Complex and Hypercomplex Tech Note 2: Hamilton's Insight at the Brougham Bridge Tech Note 3: Quarterions Are Complex! Notes and References Strange Mathematics (Operational calculus.) "Rigorous Mathematics In Narrow, Physical Mathematics Bold and Broad" The Operator Concept Heaviside's Operators The Expansion Theorem The Royal Society Affair The Aftermath of the Rejection A New Friend at Cambridge Tech Note 1: Heaviside's Resistance Operators Tech Note 2: The Problem with the p and 1/ p Operators Tech Note 3: The Meaning of Heaviside's Fractional Operator, and Impulses Tech Note 4: Heaviside and Divergent Series Notes and References 11 The Age-of-the-Earth Controversy (The debate between Perry and Kelvin, and Heaviside's support of Perry via his operational methods.) Historical Origin of the Debate The Problem of Fossils Kelvin's Theory perry's Rebuttal of Kelvin's Theory Perry's Theory of Discontinuous Diffusivity Kelvin's Defense and Perry's Reply The End of the Debate An Assessment of the Debate A Final Word Tech Note 1: Heaviside's Operator Solution of Kelvin's Original One-Dimensional Problem Tech Note 2: Heaviside's Operator Solution of Perry's Problem of Discontinuous Diffusivity Notes and References 12 The Final Years of the Hermit (The Personal life of Heaviside after 1900, when essentially all his scientific work was done.) A "Gentleman" with a Pension Life in the Country Another Change at The Electrician The Passing of the Century-and of a Friend and a Foe The Catches up t Heaviside-and Leaves Him Behind Oliver Puts His Name on the Atmosphere Increasing Trouble with Life Life at Homefield Death Takes and Past-and the Present The End of the Hermit A Last Look Notes and References 13 Epilogue (An evaluation of Heaviside's impact since his death.) The Legend Grows Heaviside Profiled in TimeMagazine! Formulas Under the Floor Last Words Notes and References Index Credits

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Book SynopsisMany people know that Tesla was a scientific genius, instrumental in developing modern electricity and communications. What, perhaps, they don’t know is that he was born during a lightning storm; spoke eight languages; and claimed to have invented a death ray that could destroy 10,000 planes from 250 miles away. This book presents an electrifying exploration of his life, work and fame, with 50 irresistible facts converted into infographics to reveal the scientist behind the science.

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Book SynopsisA preeminent geneticist, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in medicine, hunts the Neanderthal and Denisovan genomes to answer the biggest question of them all: how did our ancestors become human?Neanderthal Man tells the riveting personal and scientific story of the quest to use ancient DNA to unlock the secrets of human evolution. Beginning with the study of DNA in Egyptian mummies in the early 1980s and culminating in the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome in 2010, Neanderthal Man describes the events, intrigues, failures, and triumphs of these scientifically rich years through the lens of the pioneer and inventor of the field of ancient DNA, Svante Pääbo. We learn that Neanderthal genes offer a unique window into the lives of our ancient relatives and may hold the key to unlocking the mysteries of where language came from as well as why humans survived while Neanderthals went extinct. Pääbo redrew our family tree and permanently changed the way we think about who we are and how we got here. For readers of Richard Dawkins, David Reich, and Hope Jahren, Neanderthal Man is the must-read account of how he did it.Trade Review"Neanderthal Man opens with this episode [when Paabo and his team first sequenced Neanderthal DNA], and it's a nice touch by Paabo, bringing us straight to the moment when his long, painstaking effort to tease ancient DNA out of hominin fossils yielded its first dramatic results." --David Quammen, Harper's "Paabo has provided us with a fabulous account of three decade of research into ancient DNA, culminating in 2010 with the publication of the Neanderthal genome... Paabo's book has to be compared to The Double Helix (1968), James Watson's brilliant but controversial account of how the structure of DNA was discovered. When taken together they provide an insight into how bio-molecular science has both changed and remained much the same during the last half-century. Both are strong personal accounts of scientific discovery, exposing how science is driven as much by passion, ambition, and competition as by rational thought and the sharing of knowledge. In both books the reader is gripped by life stories of far greater interest than those in may novels before being plunged into passages of near-unintelligible science (despite much simplification) that are nevertheless strangely enthralling." --Steven Mithen, New York Review of Books "I came for the cavemen, but I stayed for the geeky nail-biter of a story about doing historic science in a climate of fierce international competition and rapid technological innovation... Truth be told, DNA sequencing is pretty wonky stuff, but perhaps it's Paabo's own passionate investment in the undertaking that makes his story so exciting to read about; Neanderthal Man does for paleogenetics something like what Steven Spielberg did for the legislative process in Lincoln... [T]his book is a vibrant testimonial to what might be the greatest creation of modern humans: the scientific method." --Laura Miller, Salon "Much of Paabo's book is devoted to the details of the difficulties [of extracting DNA from ancient bones], and how they were overcome by an awesome combination of technology, ingenuity and persistence. It's a story of how modern high-concept science is done, shot through with the crackle of problem-solving and the hum of project tension, with occasional riffs of annoyance about major scientific journals and people who want dinosaur DNA." --The Independent (UK) "If Paabo weren't such a good storyteller, the book might have bogged down with descriptions of things like the different techniques of polymerase chain reaction, and all it takes to build a clean lab. But he's a clever enough writer to keep the reader's attention with a fast-paced story and wonderful details." --23andMe blog "This is a fascinating story of how modern science and especially computer technology is opening vistas onto our prehistoric history." --The Explorers Journal "Paabo provides a fascinating look at how his personal life intersected with the founding of a scientific field that has revolutionized evolution." --Science News "In Neanderthal Man, Svante Paabo offers readers a front-row seat to the still-unfolding understanding of this enigmatic human ancestor by recounting his own years of work... Paabo quite candidly relays the doubts and challenges that accompanied more than a decade of discovery--a labor that elevated Neanderthals from troglodyte brutes inhabiting a dead-end branch of the human family tree to a complex species that interbred with other hominins, including Homo sapiens. Never one to shy away from provocative statements or even-more-provocative research, Paabo gives what appears to be an honest and open account of his pioneering studies of Neanderthal genetics." --The Scientist "Evolutionary biologists are, general, pretty interesting people to talk to, but rarely would you describe their lives as thrilling. The notion of combining an autobiography with a popular science book may therefore not seem especially compelling. However, in this case both the author and the science are quite extraordinary, and inextricably linked." --Evening Standard (UK) "Paabo's tale describes a process approaching the Platonic Idea of contemporary science: a lot of very smart people collaboratively working their butts off, persisting through mistakes and failures and numbingly repetitive but essential tasks and political machinations and technological inadequacies because they believe the Truth is Out There. And finally finding it. Others have not yet weighed in, and this being top-level and therefore monumentally competitive science, contrarians may well emerge. But if the Neanderthal genome project was anything like what Paabo describes, we are damn lucky." --Tabitha Powledge, Genetic Literacy Project "Paabo passionately chronicles his personal story, from graduate school through the culmination of the Neanderthal project 30 years later, and the scientific implications of this exciting research... In accessible prose, Paabo presents the science so that laypersons will understand the nature and import of his work. But it's his discussion of the scientific process that steals the show... He discusses what it took to build a case tight enough to convince even the most skeptical of colleagues and he goes on to demonstrate that scientific knowledge is cumulative and ever-evolving." --Publishers Weekly, starred review "Svante Paabo's Neanderthal Man is the incredible personal story of one man's quest for our human origins using the latest genome sequence tools. Paabo takes us through his exciting journey to first extract DNA from ancient bones then sequence it to give us the first real glance at our human ancestors, and showing ultimately that early humans and Neanderthals interbred to produce modern humans. This is science at its best and reinforces that contained in each of our genomes is the history of humanity." --J. Craig Venter, Chairman and President, J. Craig Venter Institute "Svante Paabo, a major architect in the study of paleo-DNA, has written a personal, insightful and sometimes very frank book about his relentless quest to understand the human family tree. The first scholar to extract genetic material from Neanderthals, Paabo writes candidly about the seemingly insurmountable trials and tribulations he had to overcome to give us intriguing new insights into human origins." --Donald Johanson, Founding Director of the Institute of Human Origins, Arizona State University, and author of Lucy: The Beginnings of Humankind "This is the fascinating account of Svante Paabo's efforts to sequence Neanderthal nuclear DNA... [H]is personal story, from graduate to world-renowned scientist, make this a very enjoyable book... The study of Neanderthals has kept palaeontologists occupied for more than a century, but Paabo convinces us that decoding their DNA will provide insights into how different we are from them and what makes us so unique." --BBC Focus "[An] engaging book... Neanderthal Man is devoted--and devoted is definitely the word--to the years-long ancient DNA project to sequence the Neanderthal genome. Paabo and his far-flung team did that to an accuracy that exceeds most of the contemporary genomes being sequenced today... Before I read Neanderthal Man, I thought I knew something about contamination of ancient DNA. In fact, though, I had no clue. No matter how well informed you are about genetics, Svante Paabo will teach you things." --Tabitha Powledge, PLOS Blogs / On Science Blogs "[A] revealing glimpse into the inner workings of scientific research... Since Neanderthals are our closest evolutionary relatives, the author's work in decoding Neanderthal DNA gives scientists a way to understand how we differ genetically from them and offers the opportunity to learn what genetic changes have made humans unique on this planet." --Kirkus Reviews "The tale Paabo tells is largely one of technological improvement enabling the elimination of contamination and speeding up the sequencing process. Secondarily, it's about creating scientific foundations and multinational scientific cooperation to pursue the promises of research into ancient DNA, including that of nonhuman species as well as hominins." --Booklist "It is a rare thing to read about an important development in science by its principal innovator, written in the spirit and style in which the research unfolded. Neanderthal Man is a dispatch from the front, and if you want to learn how real science is really done, I suggest you read it." --Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University "[A]n excellent glimpse into how modern science proceeds as a global, social activity... Paabo has to navigate through collaborators and competitors (including people who spend time in both categories), guardians of the bones he wants to grind into dust, touchy issues of nationalism, and more. In the process, he helps found a new research institute and builds a team dedicated to studying ancient DNA. If anyone doubts that science is a social activity, the doubt won't survive reading this book... Paabo paints a picture of how a major scientific advance rose out of a mix of politics, persuasion, careful management, and struggles with technology and technique. For that alone, it's valuable." --Ars Technica "If there is one name associated with ancient DNA, it is Svante Paabo... Paabo pioneered and has largely led the field for the past three decades. His book, Neanderthal Man, is perfectly timed, beautifully written and required reading--it is a window onto the genesis of a whole new way of thinking." --Nature

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Book SynopsisNewton’s Notebook is a biography with a difference. It provides a full and detailed account of Sir Isaac Newton’s life and discoveries, but is written, designed and illustrated to look like a personal notebook.By mining the rich sources of Newton’s own journals and books, and incorporating a variety of quotations and illustrations, Newton’s Notebook brings its subject to life more vividly than any ordinary biography. It reveals the man behind the theories and examines Newton’s personal and family life as well as the amazing impact of his ideas and the world’s reaction to them.

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Book SynopsisAlan Turing is regarded as one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. But who was Turing, and what did he achieve during his tragically short life of 41 years? Best known as the genius who broke Germany''s most secret codes during the war of 1939-45, Turing was also the father of the modern computer. Today, all who ''click-to-open'' are familiar with the impact of Turing''s ideas. Here, B. Jack Copeland provides an account of Turing''s life and work, exploring the key elements of his life-story in tandem with his leading ideas and contributions. The book highlights Turing''s contributions to computing and to computer science, including Artificial Intelligence and Artificial Life, and the emphasis throughout is on the relevance of his work to modern developments. The story of his contributions to codebreaking during the Second World War is set in the context of his thinking about machines, as is the account of his work in the foundations of mathematics.Trade ReviewThis book is highly entertaining and informative * Zentralblatt Math, Teodora-Liliana Radulescu *Fans drawn to the Turing biopic ... should move on to this lively biography of the scientific genius who cracked Enigma * Independent *[T]hanks to Professor Copelands book we can walk with Alan Turing through his finest hours. * Jim Young, Glycosmedia *This book is entertaining and informative ... Highly recommended. * S.M. Frey, CHOICE *Table of Contents1. Click to Open ; 2. Turing's Universal Machine ; 3. Sinking Hilbert ; 4. The Intuitive Mathematician ; 5. Breaking Enigma ; 6. Tunny - Hitler's BlackBerry ; 7. The Colossus of Computers ; 8. ACE- A Month's Work in a Minute ; 9. The Manchester "Electronic Brain" ; 10. Artificial Intelligence ; 11. The Imitation Game ; 12. Educating Machinery ; 13. Computer Chess ; 14. Artificial Life ; 15. Epilogue

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Book SynopsisThomas Harriot (1560-1621) was a pioneer in both the figurative and literal sense. Navigational adviser and loyal friend to Sir Walter Ralegh, Harriot took part in the first expedition to colonize Virginia. Not only was he responsible for getting Ralegh''s ships safely to harbor in the New World, once there he became the first European to acquire a working knowledge of an indigenous language (he also began a lifelong love of tobacco, which may have been his undoing). Harriot''s abilities were seemingly unlimited and nearly awe-inspiring. He was the first to use a telescope to map the moon''s craters, and, independently of Galileo, discovered and recorded sunspots. He preceded Newton (whose fame eclipsed his) in his discovery of the properties of the prism. He was arguably the best mathematician of his age, and one of the finest experimental scientists of all time. Yet Harriot has traditionally remained a tantalizingly elusive character. He had no close family to pass down records, and Trade ReviewWhile other historians less literate in science and mathematics might have written Harriot's biography in a different manner, she has provided to us a well-written guide to this mysterious scientist who measured everything during the six productive decades of his life. * Larry E. Tise, East Carolina University and Philadelphia, North Carolina Historical Review *"As Robyn Arianrhod's important biography makes abundantly clear, Harriot truly deserves the title "Renaissance Man"Robyn Arianrhod's diligent research establishes Harriot's reputation as a harbinger of modernity, but perhaps history has left us a more specific clue as to the true nature of his legacy." Times Literary Suppliment"In a largely harmonious meld of biography and science writing, Arianrhod furthers the drive to resurrect the reputation of English mathematician Thomas Harriot (1560-1621).The author, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, writes with the authority of a distinguished professor, placing Harriot's achievements in the context of his era and of the evolution of science... A significant achievement that builds on previous works and takes the next step in establishing Harriot's genius." --Kirkus, *Starred* Review[A] readable and important book which can only be recommended to introduce Thomas Harriot to a wider audience. * Thomas Sonar, Braunschweig, zbMATH *I learned much from the many enjoyable hours I spent reading this captivating book. In embarking on this wellcrafted literary work you will soon develop a confident sense that either Harriot is with you in the room, or you are with him on the high seas on Sir Walter Raleigh's Tiger. The elegant writing gracefully guides us past mathematical and scientific hurdles in a joyful time-traveling page-turner that never slows down. When you get to the last page and look back, you will feel that you know the man, a fellow so energetic and so guided by formidable curiosity that you wonder how such a person could possibly have disappeared from history. You will remember this book as a time journey in reverse with the wind in your sails all the way through. * Joseph Mazur, The Mathematical Intelligencer *Robyn Arianrhod's biography of Thomas Harriot (1560{1621) is well researched and well written, and it will be read with pleasure by scholar and layperson alike. * William R. Shea, Mathematical Reviews Clippings *this is a marvelous book because of the engaging way it is told, very much unlike a dull biography with an enumeration of facts. Moreover it is also well documented by additional material to be found in the last 100 pages of the book ... On this canvas Arianrhod paints the bubbling emergence of the Scientific Revolution to which Harriot was a silent contributor. * Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society *"Arianrhod's seamless blend of storytelling and science puts Harriot into full historical context. Though he inhabited a world of court intrigues, plague, and political upheaval, Harriot's unflagging intellectual curiosity set him apart then, and makes him more than worthy of respect now, as this fascinating biography amply proves." --Publishers Weekly"At long last a first-rate biography of Thomas Harriot. Though unknown to many, Harriot's scientific work casts a long shadow, and for 'Harrioteers,' as his fans are known, Robyn Arianrhod's beautifully written and deeply researched book is the one we've been waiting for. A triumph and a must read!" --Jimmy Soni, author of Mind at Play"Explorer, navigator, astronomer, linguist, mathematician, and natural scientist, Thomas Harriot was all of these and more. His accomplishments rivaled Galileo and Kepler, but his reluctance to publish doomed him to relative obscurity. With beautiful prose, astute historical understanding, and impeccable mastery of a near-inexhaustible array of fields, Robyn Arianrhod resurrects the life and works of this enigmatic Renaissance man. The world of an Elizabethan sage who was an intimate of the greatest soliders, scholars, and poets of the age springs to life in Arianrhod's pulsating narrative." --Amir Alexander, UCLA, author of Infinitesimal"Robyn Arianrhod restores Harriot to his rightful place alongside Galileo and Kepler in the pantheon of pioneering early modern scientists and shows how, as one friend put it, he was 'robbed of glory.' Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science is a wonderful combination of biography, history, and popular science that pulses with the spirit of its time." --Jessie Childs, author of God's TraitorsThe story of Thomas Harriot's life and works, was it not so well documented by such a respected scholar as Dr. Arianrhod, could easily be thought a work of pure fiction - and extravagant, scarcely believable fiction at that. Yet it is all true. That Dr. Arianrhod has devoted the time and effort in bringing him back to us through this absolutely captivating biography is something for which we should all be deeply grateful, and in similar gratitude, we owe it to the memory, indeed, the unrelentingly curious and inquiring spirit, of Thomas Harriot himself, to read it. * The Well-Read Naturalist *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1: Harriot's London Chapter 2: Sea Fever Chapter 3: The Science of Sea and Sky Chapter 4: Practical Navigation (and Why the Winds Blow) Chapter 5: America at Last Chapter 6: Preparing for "Virginia" Chapter 7: Roanoke Island Chapter 8: After Roanoke Chapter 9: War, and a New Calendar Chapter 10: New Chances Chapter 11: Setback Chapter 12: Royal Refraction Chapter 13: Spirals and Turmoil Chapter 14: Changing of the Guard Chapter 15: Algebra, Rainbows, and Tragedy Chapter 16: Solving the Rainbows Chapter 17: Conversations with Kepler Chapter 18: Atomic Speculations Chapter 19: Searching the Skies Chapter 20: Gravity Chapter 21: Mathematics, Jamestown, Guiana Chapter 22: The End of an Era Chapter 23: All Things Must Pass Epilogue: Resurrecting Harriot

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Book SynopsisNominated for the CWA Dagger Award 2023A wonderful book' - Guardian Truth, murder and the birth of the lie detectorHenry Wilkens burst through the doors of the emergency room covered in his wife's blood. But was he a grieving husband, or a ruthless killer who'd conspired with bandits to have her murdered?To find out, the San Francisco police turned to technology, and a new machine that had just been invented in Berkeley by a rookie detective, a visionary police chief, and a teenage magician with a showman's touch.John Larson, Gus Vollmer and Leonarde Keeler hoped the lie detector would make the justice system fairer but the flawed device soon grew too powerful for them to control. It poisoned their lives, turned fast friends into bitter enemies, and as it conquered America and the world, it transformed our relationship with the truth in ways that are still being felt.As new forms of lie detection gain momentum in the present day, Tremors in the Blood reveals the incredible truth behinTrade Review"A gripping and densely reported account of a little-known period of history, with implications for how we understand science to this day. I was hooked." Sirin Kale, feature writer for The Guardian "Katwala manages to bring history alive in this riveting delve back into the archives, placing you right at the heart of one of the most consequential – and controversial – inventions in criminal history." Chris Stokel-Walker, author of TikTok Boom and YouTubers "A gripping, forensically detailed account that reads more like a mystery than history." Angela Saini, author of Superior and Inferior “A wonderful book … tells the story of the lie detector, from the first, gripping murder case for which it was conceived, up to its use today in the justice system.” – Guardian “Certainly demonstrates how easily the polygraph can be manipulated…deploys its twists and maintains suspense with some skill….Katwala tells his various tales with admirable lucidity….rich with colourful incidental detail.” Telegraph “Tremors in the Blood, a cautionary tale about the limits of technology and the fallibility of humans, is as dramatic as any thriller”. Times “With a cinematic narrative style that often reads more like a thriller than a work of history…Katwala charts how the (polygraph) machine tore apart the lives of the men who invented it, and explores how it led to the deaths of many more who failed to pass its test.” New Statesmen “A thrilling, page-turning near-novelisation of the development of what we now know as the polygraph…Katwala’s meticulous archival research, centred around two high-profile US murder cases – those of Henry Wilkens and Joseph Rappaport – is worthy of any thriller.” The Spectator

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Book SynopsisIn 1573, the alchemist Anna Zieglerin gave her patron, the Duke of Braunschweig-Wolfenbüttel, the recipe for an extraordinary substance she called the lion's blood. She claimed that this golden oil could stimulate the growth of plants, create gemstones, transform lead into the coveted philosophers' stone—and would serve a critical role in preparing for the Last Days. Boldly envisioning herself as a Protestant Virgin Mary, Anna proposed that the lion's blood, paired with her own body, could even generate life, repopulating and redeeming the corrupt world in its final moments. In Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood, Tara Nummedal reconstructs the extraordinary career and historical afterlife of alchemist, courtier, and prophet Anna Zieglerin. She situates Anna's story within the wider frameworks of Reformation Germany's religious, political, and military battles; the rising influence of alchemy; the role of apocalyptic eschatology; and the position of women within these contexts. Together with her husband, the jester Heinrich Schombach, and their companion and fellow alchemist Philipp Sommering, Anna promised her patrons at the court of Wolfenbüttel spiritual salvation and material profit. But her compelling vision brought with it another, darker possibility: rather than granting her patrons wealth or redemption, Anna's alchemical gifts might instead lead to war, disgrace, and destruction. By 1575, three years after Anna's arrival at court, her enemies had succeeded in turning her from holy alchemist into poisoner and sorceress, culminating in Anna's arrest, torture, and public execution. In her own life, Anna was a master of self-fashioning; in the centuries since her death, her story has been continually refashioned, making her a fitting emblem for each new age. Interweaving the history of science, gender, religion, and politics, Nummedal recounts how one resourceful woman's alchemical schemes touched some of the most consequential matters in Reformation Germany.Trade Review"This is a major feat of historical revision for a subject that has too long been the object of mockery and scorn . . . Tara Nummedal's new microhistory demonstrates with scholarly acumen and stylistic élan just how wrong assumptions [about alchemy] are. In a dazzling work of cultural imagination, she eschews all the 'turning lead into gold' nonsense and quickly gets to the conceptual heart of who alchemists were, what they actually believed, and what roles they played in early modern society. Building on deep archival work and sophisticated argumentation, she fashions a truly engaging and revealing microhistory focused on the tragic story of one sixteenth-century practitioner, Anna Zieglerin."" * Preternature *"[A] gripping microhistory that situates alchemy within the histories of imperial politics, Reformation culture, Renaissance self-fashioning, courtly patronage, gender, the body, and sixteenth-century eschatology...With its intriguing storytelling, Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood is particularly attractive for scholars and students new to the complexities of early modern alchemy. Nummedal maintains a light touch, weaving discussions of sixteenth-century science, magic, religion, and imperial politics into what remains an enthralling tale throughout. She is to be commended for producing a book that does so much to highlight alchemy’s connections to a broad range of Reformation-era developments and that has a chance to bring its history to a wider audience." * Renaissance and Reformation *"Captivating and creative from the earliest pages...Nummedal has skillfully interwoven the history of science and religion, as well as political, social, gender, and court histories via an insightful look into the alchemical theories and practices of the age...[An] erudite and well-written study. Nummedal has produced a fun page-turner and the reader—whether a scholar of any aspect of early modern history or a general reader interested in good stories and good histories—will benefit from this wonderful presentation of alchemy and political intrigue in the courts of the Holy Roman Empire." * The Journal of Modern History *"In this masterful study, Tara Nummedal exposes a previously vilified figure of local German history to sympathetic new scrutiny and in the process, opens a window onto the fantastic worldview of her subject…By employing archival and manuscript evidence along with the older historiography, Nummedal manages to piece together the fascinating story." * American Historical Review *"In Alchemy and Authority, Nummedal made clear how alchemy was deeply integrated into early modern economics and court culture. In this latest effort, Nummedal has accomplished the same goal except on a vastly more ambitious scale, bringing the relevance of alchemy into the politics, religion, diplomacy, court culture, and gender roles of the Holy Roman Empire in the sixteenth century . . . Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood is a remarkable historiographical study . . . In short, Nummedal has contributed a stunning achievement that ideally will reach a wide and diverse audience far beyond historians of science." * Ambix *"[A]an entertaining book, with long stretches reading like a thriller…Anna Zieglerin lived her existence as an alchemist so authentically, was so dedicated body and soul to the matter that not only the substances but also she herself became a victim of the flames. The fact that she is now transmuted into a book and can live on in this way is a testament to Nummedal’s achievement." * Annals of Science *"Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood is perfect for historians and general readers alike. It is written in a vivid and accessible language, and by adopting a nonjudgmental style of reporting Nummedal decisively differs from her predecessors: she refuses to make value judgments about Anna's wondrous and outrageous claims and brand the alchemist a simple charlatan. Instead, she presents the story of a complex and tragic individual, who came up with a unique theory of heavenly alchemy." * Magic, Ritual, and Witchcraft *"Drawing upon diverse sources, Nummedal situates Anna and her alchemy within the social contexts of gender, religion, and politics in Reformation Germany to weave an impressive historical narrative of a woman attempting to understand the natural world and her place within it...Nummedal succeeds in reframing Anna Zieglerin as a woman with agency who intentionally fashioned herself into a courtly alchemist within strict early modern European gender boundaries. Nummedal’s Anna is a lens through which the twentyfirst-century reader can view the history of alchemy and its relationship to Christianity, the body, and politics." * Isis *"Nummedal’s analysis offers particular insights into the history of women’s bodies, the intersections between natural knowledge and politics, and the relationship between self-fashioning and fantasy...The book is meticulously researched and displays the author’s talents for archival sleuthing (which were already known from her first book). Beyond this, it is eminently readable and takes what is strange, foreign, and ripe for misunderstanding, making it comprehensible and relatable." * Journal of the History of Medicine *"The book is superbly written and clearly contextualized, and thus easily accessible even to non-experts. However, more experienced scholars will also benefit from this elegant study. All in all, Anna Zieglerin and the Lion’s Blood adds considerably to our understanding of the complexity of sixteenth-century religiosity, which was easily able to accommodate alchemical practices...Because of the ways in which it considers the religious implications of alchemical practice, Nummedal’s study is a worthwhile read not only for historians of science but also for Church historians and religious scholars." * Renaissance Quarterly *"Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood is as gripping as a good novel yet so much more than merely an interesting yarn. Tara Nummedal is completely conversant with the milieu in which she locates her story and is very adept in fitting this episode into the broader narratives of sixteenth-century religion, science, and court life." * Philip Soergel, University of Maryland *"Anna Zieglerin and the Lion's Blood is at once a story of one particular woman and a broader discourse on gender and the body, the history of alchemy, the central role of apocalyptic thinking in early modern Germany, and, most interestingly, the nature of historical truth. A remarkable story, expertly told." * Alisha Rankin, Tufts University *Table of ContentsCast of Characters A Note on Names Introduction. A Witch's Chair? Chapter 1. The Shadow of Gotha Chapter 2. The Road to Wolfenbüttel Chapter 3. Courting Julius and Hedwig Chapter 4. The Lion's Blood Chapter 5. A New Virgin Mary Chapter 6. Unraveling Chapter 7. Toad Poison and Other Fictions Conclusion. Afterlives Chronology of Events Notes Bibliography Index Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Bracingly honest and deeply comforting.” — A People magazine Book of the Week "Little Matches is gripping and true in all ways, and I am so glad to have spent time in the company of Maryanne and Caitlin. This is a fine, affecting memoir that will stay with me for a very long time." — Meg Wolitzer, author of The Female Persuasion and The Interestings “This luminous, harrowing memoir is a tale of a mother’s devotion and grief, yes, but when I closed Little Matches, tears standing still in my eyes, I was left with a sense that I had met not one but two remarkable spirits, my world enlarged.” — Dani Shapiro, author of Inheritance and Hourglass “A brave exploration into the power and depth of what it means to love and be loved, and the grief that is both the cost and measure of that love. It is a book about hope, revealing the light that continues to connect us to all those we’ve loved.” — Laura Lynne Jackson, NYT bestselling author of Signs and The Light Between Us “Here is love in ink, and you will feel it: a book about life, including death. O’Hara’s great achievement is showing us that inside of human connection, everything has a home—despair, hope, fear, beauty, decay. It turns out that death poses no threat to love.” — B. J. Miller, author of A Beginner’s Guide to the End "The bravest and most generous of memoirs, Little Matches is the diary of your dearest friend, intimate and universal, an exquisitely written poem of deepest love, grief, and devotion. This is a journey of the soul. I feel haunted by these pages and profoundly blessed to have read them.” — Lisa Genova, author of Still Alice and Every Note Played “To the stalwart scientists and physicians who go to battle in service of the seriously sick, who peer into microscopes and imagine the unseeable deep within to discover cures, I urge you to pick up your heads and look through the lens of Maryanne O'Hara's Little Matches to fully understand your power, to know what is at stake in your pursuits to transform hope to joy, tears to laughter, and to feel the weight of what happens if we fail.” — Patrick R. Connelly, PhD, Senior Vertex Fellow, Vertex Pharmaceuticals "Maryanne O’Hara has written an extraordinary book, beautiful, heartbreaking, and so full of life on every page that I was reminded that loving deeply is full of risk and the only way to live. This is the most meaningful book I’ve read in a very long time." — Jane Bernstein, author of The Face Tells the Secret and Rachel in the World “A raw yet comforting journal of grief, pain, and sparks of hope.” — Kirkus Reviews “In this vividly written memoir novelist O’Hara shares a painful but ultimately beautiful account of her daughter Caitlin’s life with cystic fibrosis. . . . Her compelling story will resonate with anyone seeking a light in the darkest depths of grief.” — Library Journal

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Book SynopsisThis is a beautiful book, full of ideas that could help restore America?s genius for freedom and promise.??Thomas Moore,New York Timesbestselling author ofCare of the SoulA lifelong Emerson lover, teacher, and spiritual seeker reveals how American philosopher Ralph Waldo Emerson?s twelve essential teachings hold the answer to living an authentic and fulfilling life, one that is in harmony with our souls.In this wise, illuminating book, award-winning author Mark Matousek reveals how Emerson?s timeless wisdom can help us with the problems we?re facing today. America?s ?original Stoic? confronted many of the issues before us, from polarization to fake news, from crooked politicians and rampant materialism, to the scourge of racism.Matousek explains that Emerson?s path of self-reliance can radically improve your quality of life. The mentor and friend of Henry David Thoreau, Emerson (aka the Oracle of Concord) was America?s first self-help author, and his nation?s conscience for half a century. Like the Stoics before him, he emphasized self-knowledge and mindfulness as paths to happiness; also, self-reliance, cooperation, non-conformity, originality, adaptability, and receptiveness.As Americans are once again discovering the power of Stoicism, Matousek shows why Emerson?s vision is precisely the medicine we need today. The principles of Waldo?s philosophy are universal and require no spiritual faith to put into practice. Each person creates her own reality Obstacles are teachers in disguise Your character is your destiny Wonder and awe are the keys to the kingdom Nonconformity is the greatest virtue Nature is the doorway to God Life without self-knowledge is not worth living Emerson encourages us to throw-off conventions and platitudes, explore ourselves in depth, tell the truth about what we find there, and awaken to our greatest potential.Trade Review“Matousek’s book resurrects an Emerson who was writing to be heard.” — Wall Street Journal "This beautifully written book on Emerson offers great principles and notions for living through these difficult times. It restored my enthusiasm, confidence, compassion, and willingness to resist authority. It made me braver to be myself, to embrace paradox and be proud all the ways I have refused to conform. It’s a guide for living outside binaries. It's a book of great vitality, vision and liberation." — V (formerly Eve Ensler) author of Reckoning “If Ralph Waldo Emerson were alive today, he'd be exactly the man for our times - spiritually independent, psychologically savvy, and full of the common sense we need to infuse our culture with wisdom and moral courage. I am so grateful to Mark Matousek for this user-friendly book and for diving deep into Emerson's works. I keep the book on my bedside table and dip into it whenever my heart needs a lift.” — Elizabeth Lesser, author of the New York Times bestseller, Broken Open “It is a filial love story, a profound appreciation of Ralph Waldo Emerson’s great mind and spirit. This is not only a touching account of the work of a great man by whom too many people today are intimidated, but also a narrative of achieving intimacy with ideas, thoughts, and feelings that had been absent from Matousek’s lived experience." — Andrew Solomon, author of The Noonday Demon and Far From the Tree "In this compelling exploration applying deep wisdom to everyday life, Matsousek has masterfully curated a way to live with more freedom, connection, and meaning in our lives. Weaving fascinating stories about Ralph Waldo Emerson, personal accounts, and the ancient perspective of Stoicism, this journey will invite you to get to know three individuals in a powerful way--Waldo, Matousek, and yourself--opening your mind to helpful insights and new ways of living in our challenging world. A fascinating and helpful historical review as current today as it is universal in its applications across time." — Daniel J. Siegel, M.D., New York Times bestselling author of IntracConnected, Mindsight, and Aware "In Lessons from an American Stoic, Matousek is more than an outstanding biographer of the legendary Emerson. He joins the lineage of Emerson by adding his own hard-earned wisdom and care. In translating Emerson’s insights to our modern world, Mark has done a great service for the soul of America. This is a great book. It will open your heart, expand your mind, and help you live more truly, more fully, and more lovingly." — Mark Nepo, author of The Half-Life of Angels and Falling Down and Getting Up “Emerson's spirit is exactly what we need to recognize now in our broken country community. I will sing the praises of him, and this book, to everyone I know.” — Marie Howe, author of What the Living Do "Through the crystalline clarity of his writing, Matousek has managed to make Emerson utterly accessible to all of us. This is must-reading for Emerson lovers and anyone looking for deep rooted wisdom to accompany their life journey." — Gail Straub, author of Women and Water "This book is a master class in Emerson, and Mark Matousek is your ideal companion to the timeless and transformative insights of America’s premier thinker. Lessons from an American Stoic showed me a new way of looking at my life, and how I might live it more profoundly if I allowed the wisdom of Emerson to guide me." — Rabbi Rami Shapiro, author of Holy Rascals: Advice for Spiritual Revolutionaries "I have been guided by Emerson’s essays and journals for decades, and I’m always astonished by his fresh way of imagining human life and his original way of putting his ideas into words. Mark Matousek's soft and fluid language is perfect for introducing you to Emerson or reminding you to read him again. This is a beautiful book, full of ideas that could help restore America’s genius for freedom and promise.” — Thomas Moore, New York Times bestselling author of Care of the Soul “In this insightful exploration of Emerson's teachings, Matousek gracefully navigates the intricate pathways of transcendental wisdom, offering readers a luminous guide to the essence of American spirituality." — Rupert Spira, author of You Are the Happiness You Seek "Those looking for commonsense guidance to a more self-directed life will find it here." — Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA Mind Over Matter is a biography of the Nobel-prize winner Philip W. Anderson, a person widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential physicists of the second half of the twentieth century. Anderson (1923-2020) was a theoretician who specialized in the physics of matter, including window glass and metals, magnets and semiconductors, liquid crystals and superconductors. More than any other single person, Anderson transformed the patchwork subject of solid-state physics into the deep, subtle, and coherent discipline known today as condensed matter physics. Among his many world-class research achievements, Anderson discovered an aspect of wave physics that had been missed by all previous scientists going back to Isaac Newton. He became a public figure when he testified before Congress to oppose its funding of an expensive project intended exclusively for particle physics research. Over the years, he published many articles designed to influence a broad audience about issues where science impacted public policy and culture. Anderson grew up in the American mid-west, was educated at Harvard, and rose to the pinnacle of his profession during the first decade of his thirty-five career as a theoretical physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Almost uniquely, he spent many years working half-time as a professor at the University of Cambridge and at Princeton University. The outspoken Anderson enjoyed broad influence outside of physics when he helped develop and champion the concepts of emergence and complexity as organizing principles to help attack very difficult problems in technically challenging disciplines.Trade ReviewA Mind Over Matter is an important book of interest not only to physicists but also to many historians and philosophers of science. Apart from providing a comprehensive review of Anderson's life and science. * Helge Kragh, Metascience *A lucid biography of one of the great twentieth-century scientists, and also a skeleton-key for readers interested in the physics of complex systems. * David Kordahl, 3 Quarks Daily *Zangwill's well-written and engaging A Mind Over Matter is an important book of interest not only to physicists but also to many historians and philosophers of science. * Helge Kragh, Metascience *Zangwill has done an admirable job in capturing the character of Anderson, accurately depicting his flaws as well as his enormous strengths. Moreover, the book is very well written [...]. It should clearly be of great interest to anyone who has done research in the area of condensed matter physics, or has seriously studied that subject. But it should also be of interest to many others, including people with a broad interest in the history of science and the evolution of physics in the second half of the twentieth century. * Bertrand Halperin, Harvard University *The book is great, extremely interesting and well written. It should appeal to thinking scientists and academics quite widely, and it captures the spirit of a leading figure in theoretical physics. In particular I like the discussion of Anderson's 'style' of doing theoretical physics in line with his whole ethos and what he thinks science is about. * Volker Heine, Cambridge University *Well-researched, nicely balanced and refreshingly non-hagiographic. * Anthony Leggett, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign *Table of ContentsPrologue 1: Introduction 2: Son of the Heartland 3: Making Waves 4: First Fruits 5: A Solid Beginning 6: Breaking Symmetry 7: Disorderly Conduct 8: Law in Disorder 9: The Love of His Life 10: The Cantabrigian 11: Hidden Moments 12: From Emergence to Complexity 13: The Pope of Condensed Matter 14: The Problem of a Lifetime 15: Four Facts about Science 16: Conclusion Acknowledgments

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Book SynopsisThe Life and Work of James Bradley: The New Foundations of 18th Century Astronomy is the first major work on the life and achievements of James Bradley for 190 years. This book offers a new perspective and new interpretations of previously published materials, together with various insights about recently researched sources.This book is a complete account of the life and work of Bradley as discerned from surviving documents of his working archive, as well as other documents and records. In addition, it offers a new interpretation of Bradley''s work as an astronomer, not merely from his observations of Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites and annual aberration and the nutation of the Earth''s axis, but also his corroborative work with pendulums and other horological work with George Graham. It also explores the little amount documented about his private life including a degree of speculation about his personal relationships.This work on 18th century astronomy is intended for studentsTable of ContentsPreface Table of contents Introduction: Contexts and connections 1: The King's observator 2: May it please your Honours 3: An ingenious young man 4: A new discovered motion 5: And yet it moves 6: The laws of nature 7: On the figure of the Earth 8: The triumph of Themistocles 9: If such a man could have enemies... 10: Observations beyond compare 11: Fundamenta Astronomiae Conclusion: The man who moved the world

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Book SynopsisThis is the first scholarly biography of Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) in any language. Based upon a wealth of archival material, it weaves his life and science into some 100 years of Russian history and offers a fundamental reinterpretation of his scientific style and his famous research on conditional reflexes.Trade ReviewA shining example of an academic biography. * Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History *Well written, thoroughly researched and extremely readable, the cost represents good value for money and Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science deserves a place on all good library shelves. * Sue Howarth, The Biologist *magisterial biography * London Review of Books *David Todes has spent more then twenty years with his subject, and has evidently approached his task with the same dedication that Pavlov kept up through his many decades in the lab. Tode's sources range from the whimsical and self-revealing "journal" with which Pavlov wooed his future wife in 1879 to NKVD surveillance reports on his mood more than half a century later, from documents on the student Pavlov's very first research into nervous control of the organs to taped interviews with his co-workers several decades after his death. The result is history of science at its intricate best. * Stephen Lovell, The Times Literary Supplement *Ivan Pavlov: A Russian Life in Science Science is an exceptional scientific biography, but it is also a vivid portrait of its time and place. Todes wears his exhaustive research lightly, never burdening the reader with unnecessary or undigested detail. Unlike Pavlov's dogs, teased and drained into a state of perpetual appetite, the reader is left fully sated. * Australian Book Review *Well written, thoroughly researched and extremely readable... * Biologist *Daniel P. Todes achieves a level of mastery that transforms biography into history... an exemplary work of scholarship * Science, Stephen T. Casper *a colossal work of scholarship and imagination * Raymond Tallis, Book of the Year 2014, Times Literary Supplement *Profoundly researched, densely detailed and likely to be definitive * Nature *Table of ContentsPreface ; Introduction ; PART ONE: The Seminarian Chooses Science (1849-1874) ; 1. The Pavlovs of Riazan' ; 2. Seminarian in the 'Sixties ; 3. St. Petersburg University ; PART TWO: Wilderness Years (1875-1890) ; 4. The Reluctant Physician ; 5. Serafima Vasil'evna Karchevskaia ; 6. Time of Troubles ; 7. In From the Cold ; PART THREE: Man of Tsarist Science (1891-1904) ; 8. A NonChekhovian Type ; 9. The Pavlovs of St. Petersburg ; 10. Professor of Physiology ; 11. The Physiology Factory: Forces of Production ; 12. The Physiology Factory: Relations of Production ; 13. Favorite Dogs ; 14. A Convincing Synthesis ; 15. Dacha Life ; 16. A European Reputation ; 17. Targeting the Psyche ; 18. The Nobel Prize ; PART FOUR: Nobelist in the Silver Age (1905-1914) ; 19. Amid Russia's Political Crisis ; 20. Family Life ; 21. Pavlov's Quest ; 22. The Factory Retooled ; 23. Battle of the Titans ; 24. Women Coworkers and the Physiology of Emotion ; 25. Mariia Kapitonovna Petrova ; PART FIVE: War and Revolution (1914-1921) ; 26. War ; 27. Revolution ; 28. Cataclysm ; 29. Where Are You, Freedom? ; 30. To Leave My Homeland ; PART SIX: Prosperous Dissident (1922-1929) ; 31. The Pavlovs of Leningrad ; 32. A Great Journey ; 33. Laboratory Revival ; 34. Lecturing the Bolsheviks and Leaving the Academy ; 35. The Commissar and the Dialectician ; 36. Freud, the Flood, and the Physiology of Personality ; 37. Two Books and a Beast ; 38. Types, Temperament, and Character ; 39. Work and Play in City and Countryside ; 40. On the Eve of the Great Break ; PART SEVEN: Icon of Soviet and World Science (1929-1936) ; 41. International Celebrity ; 42. Stalin Times ; 43. Pavlov's Communists ; 44. Koltushi: Pavlov's Science Village ; 45. Psychiatry ; 46. Gestalt Pavlov-Style ; 47. Year of Climaxes ; 48. At the Summit: The International Physiology Congress ; 49. Final Days ; Epilogue ; Glossary ; Bibliography

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“In sum, this is a beautiful, concise study that will be of interest to historians of science, aesthetics, and communication. The central argument . . . is striking in its weaving of different sources and fields into a coherent vision.” * Ambix *“Alexander Wragge-Morley's enjoyable volume provides a compelling interpretation of how members of the Royal Society of London represented nature in their works through aesthetic thinking in the seventeenth century.” * Renaissance Quarterly *"Wragge-Morley successfully melds a readable narrative of the Scientific Revolution in England with an original historical interpretation of the foundations and methods of empirical science underlying the work of its key figures. . . . Despite explicating the subtle interactions of 17th-century empirical discoveries and emerging empirical methods, philosophy, and theology, the work is remarkably free of unnecessary jargon or pedantic argument. It should be in every library with strengths in intellectual history, European history, or the history and philosophy of science. . . . Essential." * CHOICE, 2020 Outstanding Academic Title *"[A] critical intervention. Although historians of science have long recognized the importance of rhetoric to the early Royal Society, they have tended to view its theological, aesthetic and affective element at odds with the development of empiricism. Aesthetic Science demonstrates instead the centrality of aesthetic experience to the construction of natural historical texts and images. . . . In each chapter, the book’s unfurling argument is led by a number of questions and problems, followed by explanations of how the physico-theologians approached them, and observations on the implications of these strategies. The pleasing logic of this structure (and the careful taking stock at each stage of the argument) creates a sense of thoroughness, lending extra credibility to the book’s insightful claims. The book feels little need to assert its argument, instead proceeding from fastidious and original analysis of often familiar source material to offer conclusions that, when they arrive, seem almost self-evident. Aesthetic Science asks us to re-entangle notions of belief, beauty and knowledge in ways that should have a profound impact on how we approach the study of early modern science." * Archives of Natural History *"With this engaging book, Alexander Wragge-Morley joins a body of new scholarship that draws attention to the nuanced history of the early Royal Society, addressing practices and discursive activities that have fallen outside of the scope of a more traditional history of institutions. Arguing against the classical reading of the early Royal Society as exemplifying a new dispassionate and objective study of nature in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Wragge-Morley instead demonstrates the importance of subjective and affective states in shaping the epistemological framework of the Society's activities. . . . [The] ambitious book covers a wide range of topics that have been broadly overlooked in the history of the early Royal Society, from the formative influence of physico-theology to the role of rhetoric and experiences of pleasure in the creation and transmission of knowledge. . . . Wragge-Morley successfully offers the reader a history that captures the clear interplay between theology, rhetoric, natural history and even briefly archaeology and architecture. As a contribution to the history of science, this work powerfully demonstrates the continuity of knowledge practices across disciplines whose boundaries have often remained too fixed, adding further nuance and interest to this active field of contemporary scholarship." * Nuncius *"Thought-provoking, useful, and ambitious... An engaging piece of scholarship, thanks to Wragge-Morley's fluid prose, many concrete examples, and careful selection of evidence... Aesthetic Science is going to become a staple for history of science postgraduates and specialists alike." * Journal of British Studies *"An ambitious and provocative argument for the interrelation of empirical science and aesthetic taste. . . . Aesthetic Science advances a necessary intervention, compelling us to grapple with the inextricably theological, affective, and yet universalizing grounds of natural philosophy. Wragge-Morley's argument for the conjoined origins of empirical science and aesthetic taste advances a revelatory corrective to anybody who continues to take Kant at his word." * Eighteenth-Century Studies *“Splendid. . . . In this thoughtful study, Wragge-Morley investigates the role of subjective experiences in the search for rational knowledge; building on recent secondary literature, he recommends recruiting the aesthetic as a powerful analytical tool for exploring the understandings of early modern thinkers across a wide range of disciplines.” * Isis *“A thought-provoking book that is highly recommended and that will generate much scholarship on the role of emotions, aesthetics, and sensibility in early modern natural philosophy.” * Journal of Modern History *"Wragge-Morley boldly challenges a long-standing orthodoxy about the Royal Society's attachment to plain language in scientific description. The work is original, moves across the disciplines, and is an important contribution to the poetics of early modern science and to the debate about objectivity." -- John Brewer, Eli and Edythe Broad Emeritus Professor in Humanities and Social Sciences, California Institute of Technology"This is an important and exciting book. Aesthetic Science shows how members of the early Royal Society engaged with the problem of representation while supporting an ideology of empirical science. Historians have spilled much ink on documenting the emergence of empiricism in the early modern period, yet they have failed to note that empiricist natural philosophers were acutely aware of the limits of representation. Wragge-Morley surveys an impressive cast of characters, and what emerges is a new interpretation of what the early Royal Society was up to. The story told is rich, complex, and thoroughly convincing." -- Dániel Margócsy, author of Commercial Visions: Science, Trade, and Visual Culture in the Dutch Golden Age"Riveting and consequential. This is a book that transforms our understanding of Royal Society science while providing an alternative genealogy of modern aesthetics. Wragge-Morley reveals how physico-theology, long treated as a merely apologetic discourse, shaped contexts of discovery. As he brilliantly demonstrates, physico-theological assumptions effectively required natural phenomena like snowflakes to be analyzed as ruins, vestiges of an originally perfect design. Making new sense of the diversity of Royal Society projects, Wragge-Morley recovers a still-vital tradition of aesthetic thinking governed by physico-theological rather than Kantian assumptions. His aesthetic approach to his materials makes the most compelling argument of all: a demonstration that the imbrication of metaphysics, theology, and early modern scientific practice can only be revealed through a history of experience." -- Joanna Picciotto, University of California, BerkeleyTable of ContentsIntroduction 1 Physico-Theology, Natural Philosophy, and Sensory Experience 2 An Empiricism of Imperceptible Entities 3 In Search of Lost Designs 4 Verbal Picturing 5 Natural Philosophy and the Cultivation of Taste Conclusion: Embodied Aesthetics Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This clever book is a biography of a person—Wilhelm Homberg (1653–1715); an institution—the Académie Royale des Sciences; and a discipline—the biography of chymistry from 1670 to 1730. Lawrence M. Principe has thus accomplished the trifecta of intellectual history, using a significant but largely understudied individual to analyze an equally understudied period—the history of chymistry between Robert Boyle and Antoine Lavoisier. . . . I highly recommend this work and congratulate Principe for his latest achievement." * Isis *"The Transmutations of Chymistry is the work of a master in his field, full of insights and very well written. Its production values are high, with both footnotes and a full bibliography, and the fifteen-page 'Note on Sources' at the end is a gold mine of information for researchers not only in chymistry but in Parisian science under Louis XIV. It is a considerable achievement." * Annals of Science *"With this brilliant investigation, well-documented and written with enthusiasm, Lawrence Principe transforms our understanding of chemistry in the eighteenth century." * Revue d'histoire des sciences (Translated from French) *"Telling three stories in one volume is the great achievement of this fascinating and erudite book. The biography of a dedicated savant who managed to engage the Duc d’Orléans in his laboratory work, interwoven with the story of the prestigious French Academy of Sciences, provides a vivid snapshot of the long history of chemistry: a unique moment when the alchemical quest for gold merged with the ambition to establish chemistry on the sound theoretical foundations of natural philosophy. With its punning title, this book undoubtedly transmutes the old clichés about the death of alchemy and the birth of modern chemistry." -- Bernadette Bensaude-Vincent, Université Paris 1-Panthéon-Sorbonne"This is a fascinating study of the improbable life of a great but comparatively unheralded chemist: Guillaume Homberg. The book traces the continuing influence of Homberg in eighteenth-century French chemistry through two focal interests: his concern to raise chemistry above the artisanal level to that of a true natural science, and his interest and even passion for chrysopoeia, alchemical metallic transmutation. Through Principe’s biographical details of Homberg’s peregrinations, his interactions with chemists and natural philosophers throughout Europe, and his own research and writings, the reader is fully immersed in European chemical thought and practice of the year 1700." -- Seymour Mauskopf, Duke University"Wilhelm Homberg has long been known as an important figure in the history of chemistry. By examining Homberg’s alchemical preoccupations and those of his contemporaries, Principe not only manages to throw a brilliant new light on this Enlightenment thinker, but to reveal a rich alchemical subtext underlying eighteenth-century chemistry in general." -- William R. Newman, author of Newton the Alchemist"With his peerless knowledge of the archives and obvious taste and talent for unraveling the arcana of the complex social relations and challenges of science at the turn of the eighteenth century, Principe keeps readers on tenterhooks in his study of the three lives—human, disciplinary, and institutional—of German chemist Wilhelm Homberg. He renders the full measure of this atypical figure, revealing him as a key player in the world of chemistry at the Académie Royale des Sciences. This masterful study offers a chance to reassess Homberg’s place within and influence on French chemistry in the Enlightenment." -- Patrice Bret, Centre Alexandre-KoyréTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. A Merchant of the Marvelous Chapter 2. A Batavian in Paris Chapter 3. Essaying Chymistry Chapter 4. A New Chymical Light Chapter 5. Chrysopoeia at the Académie and the Palais Royal Chapter 6. Chymistry in Homberg’s Later Years: Practices, Promises, Poisons, and Prisons Chapter 7. Homberg’s Legacy Epilogue: Homberg and the Transmutations of Chymistry at the Académie Note on Sources Sources Cited Index

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Book SynopsisThérèse Vanier, founder of L''Arche in the UK, was also a distinguished doctor who worked with Cecily Saunders at the world-renowned St Christopher''s Hospice in London, and a tireless contributor to Christian ecumenism and interfaith understanding.This biography draws on the memories of nearly fifty people who knew her, as well as her own published and unpublished writings, to offer a tribute to Thérèse and a critical assessment of her lasting legacy in the three areas of her work.Includes photo section.Trade Review'Therese's life was sheer grace to those who met her and knew her. This beautiful tribute speaks of a life of service to Jesus Christ, and captures how the light of Christ shone through her in her deep faithfulness, tireless work for justice and presence in love to those most vulnerable.' -- Most Revd and Rt Hon Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury `This life of Therese Vanier is truly inspiring. Her commitment to the sick and dying, to those with intellectual disabilities and to Christian unity shine out from every page. Her story offers real hope for the renewal of humanity.' -- Cardinal Vincent Nichols `In this precious volume we encounter a pioneer of great intelligence, grace and humility as she walks the path through experiences of both light and darkness. Those who knew Therese, will find themselves in her company once again; those who did not, will come to feel they did, and all will discover more than one cause for personal reflection and profound gratitude.' -- Balfour Mount OC QC

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Book SynopsisJeanne Marie Laskas has written for GQ, Esquire and the New York Times. She is director of The Writing Program at the University of Pittsburgh, and she lives on a farm in Pennsylvania with her family. She is the author of six books including Hidden America and The Exact Same Moon.Trade ReviewThis is classic David and Goliath, and Jeanne Marie Laskas - one of my favourite writers on earth - makes it as exciting as a great courtroom drama. A riveting, powerful human tale... and a masterclass on how to tell a story -- Charles Duhigg * New York Times *A gripping medical mystery and a dazzling portrait of the young scientist no one wanted to listen to. Bennet Omalu's struggle to force the NFL to reckon with head injuries should give us all hope - and pause. A fabulous, essential read. -- Rebecca Skloot, author of 'The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks'Bennet Omalu forced football to reckon with head trauma. The NFL doesn't want you to hear his story, but Jeanne Marie Laskas makes it unforgettable. This book is gripping, eye-opening, and full of heart. -- Emily Bazelon, author of 'Sticks and Stones'

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Book Synopsis The riveting true story of the women who launched America into space. In the 1940s and 50s, when the newly minted Jet Propulsion Laboratory needed quick-thinking mathematicians to calculate velocities and plot trajectories, they didn''t turn to male graduates. Rather, they recruited an elite group of young women who, with only pencil, paper, and mathematical prowess, transformed rocket design, helped bring about the first American satellites, and made the exploration of the solar system possible. For the first time, Rise of the Rocket Girls tells the stories of these women -- known as human computers -- who broke the boundaries of both gender and science. Based on extensive research and interviews with all the living members of the team, Rise of the Rocket Girls offers a unique perspective on the role of women in science: both where we''ve been, and the far reaches of space to which we''re heading. If Hidden Figures has you itching to learn more about the women who worked in the space program, pick up Nathalia Holt''s lively, immensely readable history, Rise of the Rocket Girls. -- Entertainment Weekly

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Book SynopsisIsambard Kingdom Brunel changed the world as we know it. He was responsible for building the Great Western Railway main line, introducing regular steamship travel across the Atlantic, building the first tunnel under a major river, and constructing docks, harbours and bridges that enabled Britain to expand and grow as the powerhouse of the world. Without his foresight and imagination, it is possible that nineteenth-century Britain might have been very different. There have been many books written about the man himself, but this book concentrates upon the structures, buildings and legacy of Brunel, introducing the reader to this great engineer and embarking upon a tour around Britain that reveals the many locations with a Brunel connection.

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Book SynopsisShe highlights the human side of what many view as that most arcane and otherworldly of intellectual endeavors, mathematics, which indeed answers to such diverse factors as religion, ego, and depression.Trade ReviewA masterful biography. American Scientist 2006 An important and impressively documented contribution to the history of nineteenth-century mathematics. -- Craig G. Fraser Mathematical Reviews 2006 A thoroughly enjoyable read. -- J. W. Anderson The London Mathematical Society Newsletter 2006 This is an exceptional example of scholarly research. -- Gail Kaplan Convergence 2007 Parshall has already established herself as a leading expert on Sylvester and his milieu, carefully reconstructing the trajectory of Sylvester's professional life on the basis of copious documentary evidence, describing Sylvester's more important mathematical results in his career context, and writing for broad audiences with no detailed mathematical exposition or technical analysis of Sylvester's mathematics... Highly recommended. Choice 2007 A well-written and thorough account of its subject... a wealth of useful and well-researched information that is difficult to find elsewhere. -- Robin Wilson Historia Mathematica 2006 This well-written, thoroughly researched biography will become the definitive study of Sylvester. -- Jeremy Gray British Journal for the History of Science 2008Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Myth, the Mathematician, the ManChapter 1. Born to "the Faith in Which the Founder of Christianity Was Educated"Chapter 2. A Price of DissentChapter 3. The Hollow Walls of AcademeChapter 4. Actuary by Day...Mathematician by NightChapter 5. Into the Invariant-Theoretic UnknownChapter 6. A New BeginningChapter 7. At War with the MilitaryChapter 8. The Uneasy YearsChapter 9. Exploring Familiar Ground on Unfamiliar TerritoryChapter 10. Tackling New Challenges in a Home Away from HomeChapter 11. A Bittersweet VictoryChapter 12. The Final TransitionEpilogueNotesReferencesIndex

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Book SynopsisTrade Review‘The Exceptions tells the infuriating, inspiring story of the sexism faced by female scientists at M.I.T. — and how they fought back… Thanks to Zernike, we see the personal toll unconscious bias takes — not just in time lost or talent discarded, but on the greater good. Maybe the reason we’re still running for the cure is because systemic discrimination continues to run even faster. The good news is, Zernike’s book will inspire a host of non-renegades to do something about it. Rules are indeed made to be broken. Have at it.' -- Bonnie Garmus * New York Times *'What Nancy Hopkins achieved is exceptional - in science of course, but more broadly in society. What Kate Zernike has achieved in this brilliant book is also excpetional - a condemnation of the treatment of women in science and a riveting story about the drive to purse science' -- Siddhartha Mukherjee, author of the Pulitzer Prize-winner The Emperor of All Maladies'Excellent and infuriating' * New York Times *'A story I wouldn't believe except that it's true, told by the reporter who broke it first' -- Angela Duckworth, author of Grit'A gripping page-turner backed up with extensive research by Zernike, The Exceptions traces how Nancy Hopkins and a group of astounding women at MIT came together to catalyse change. Their story is angering, at times depressing and, above all, inspiring, but this book also remains timely in reminding us that we have not made as much progress as we think we have and that there is still much work to be done. As when Zernicke first broke the story for The Boston Globe in 1999, creating waves across the international scientific community, I hope this book will inspire the next generation of scientists to continue shaping a fair and inclusive culture in research' -- Alain Goriely, Royal Society Science Book Prize

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Book SynopsisChris McNab has worked as an author and editor for over 20 years. Over the course of his career, he has written more than 100 titles, many on historical and military topics as well as popular culture. His titles for Arcturus include: A History of War, and business biographies of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. In addition to his writing work, Chris has made regular contributions on radio and television.

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Book SynopsisChris McNab has worked as an author and editor for over 20 years. Over the course of his career, he has written more than 100 titles, many on historical and military topics as well as popular culture. His titles for Arcturus include: A History of War, and business biographies of Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates and Elon Musk. In addition to his writing work, Chris has made regular contributions on radio and television.

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Book SynopsisThe first history of women astronomers in English to cover individuals from antiquity to the modern day. Features 30 in-depth biographies and 99 brief portraits of women astronomers, space explorers, and astrophysicists.

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Book SynopsisIsaac Newton and the England he knew: the people, places and events that shaped history's greatest scientist.

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Book SynopsisAn investigation into the lives of some of the more remarkable women in the history of scientific discovery.

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Book Synopsis"We''ve been invited to witness a bonfire of marijuana by the Taliban. Anyone interested?"Amid the missionaries, mercenaries and misfits drawn to the world''s most dangerous and volatile hotspots stands Dr John Parker.From Cholera to Ebola is a captivating collection of true stories 25 years in the making.Whether challenging the bureaucracy of refugee camps to cradling children as they died, Dr Parker operated far from his comfort zone, from the norms of medical practice and from the decencies of humanity.His is a life that swung from heartbreaking hopelessness to sheer ecstasy as he battled PTSD to chase his next ''fix'' over increasingly dangerous missions."There are some things you cannot be taught; you have to live them."

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Book Synopsis"In me, there is the red of miry clay, the brown of spring floods, the gold of ripening tobacco. All of these hues are me; I am, in the deepest sense, colored.” From these fertile soils of love, land, identity, family, and race emerges The Home Place, a big-hearted, unforgettable memoir by ornithologist and professor of ecology J. Drew Lanham.Dating back to slavery, Edgefield County, South Carolina—a place "easy to pass by on the way somewhere else"—has been home to generations of Lanhams. In The Home Place, readers meet these extraordinary people, including Drew himself, who over the course of the 1970s falls in love with the natural world around him. As his passion takes flight, however, he begins to ask what it means to be "the rare bird, the oddity.”By turns angry, funny, elegiac, and heartbreaking, The Home Place is a remarkable meditation on nature and belonging, at once a deeply moving memoir and riveting exploration of the contradictions of black identity in the rural South—and in America today.Trade ReviewForeword Reviews Best Book of 2016 and Nautilus Silver Award Winner Praise for The Home Place “A groundbreaking work about race and the American landscape, and a deep meditation on nature, selfhood, and the nature of home. It is thoughtful, sincere, wise, and beautiful. I want everyone to read it.”—Helen Macdonald, author of H Is for Hawk “Consider The Home Place required reading—it’s a thoughtful and relevant-as-ever look at race and identity in the great outdoors.”—Outside “A lyrical story about the power of the wild, The Home Place synthesizes J. Drew Lanham’s own family history, geography, nature, and race into a compelling argument for conservation and resilience.”—National Geographic "By surrendering the world to imperial and industrial standards, we chop away at the very surroundings that allow us to live. Yet the dominant common sense asks us to divide our loyalties: Either we support racial justice or we support the environment. There can be no more important task in the world today than to upend this rotten dichotomy, to heal the manufactured rift between environmentalism and the fight for social justice. Lanham's memoir—'a colored man's love affair with nature'—offers us one way to begin." —Chronicle of Higher Education, "Best Scholarly Books of the Decade" “When you’re done with The Home Place, it won’t be done with you. Its wonders will linger like everything luminous. You might find yourself hoping for a world where every family has a J. Drew Lanham in it.”—Minneapolis Star Tribune “A beautifully rendered and deeply personal story of the complex geographies of home, and displacement . . . The Home Place is a deft examination of how we come to define ourselves in a world that, in turn, is relentlessly trying to define who we are—and how we can take those definitions over and make our own.”—Sierra “There are no fireworks here—simply the musings of an African-American naturalist who, throughout his lifetime, has trained himself to marvel at the minor. Trust me, that is enough. . . . Of the many powerful lessons J. Drew Lanham bestows upon readers, perhaps this last one is his best: proof that human nature, like Mother nature herself, can still surprise us with its grace.”—Los Angeles Review of Books "J. Drew Lanham's The Home Place is a stunning read, a masterpiece, a soft rebellion that touches the deepest of our instincts." —Marine Ornithology “An extraordinary and trailblazing perspective on nature and race, told by a southern black man who became a natural scientist and a bird watcher. J. Drew Lanham’s colorful and long-awaited memoir deeply enriches our understanding of American culture and the environmental movement, rising as it does from the silence of an entire people. This is a captivating and crucial biology and a volume that I'll proudly add to my bookshelf.”—Janisse Ray, author of Ecology of a Cracker Childhood “Wisdom and generosity fill the pages of The Home Place. This memoir and story of a familial ecosystem is anchored firmly in the Piedmont clay of South Carolina that J. Drew Lanham's enslaved ancestors worked and would later come to own—and love. A man ‘born of forests and fields,’ Lanham thinks deeply about the land writ large and our connections to it as well as to each other. His honest and insistent words encourage us to cultivate a broader, deeper perspective that recognizes ties between race and environment in deliberate ways.”—Lauret Savoy, author of Trace “The Home Place teems with life—notably the author’s own remarkable one. This wise and deeply felt memoir of a black naturalist’s improbable journey travels the hallways of academia, the fields and forests of ornithological study, and the dusty clay roads of the rural south where it all began with grace, humility, and an abiding appreciation for this exquisite world.”—William Souder, author of Under a Wild Sky “Your world will change while reading this beautiful, deep, and generous book. A book by a scientist that goes far beyond science, a book by a black man that looks issues of race in the eye but then transcends them, a book by a loving son who, in the end, finds a new identity, The Home Place is really about what it means to be human, and in particular what it means to be human in relationship to the land. It is a love song to family, soil, trees, birds, and wildness itself. Read it and be enlarged.”—David Gessner, author of All the Wild That Remains “Rapturous and illuminating . . . A shrewd meditation on home, family, nature, and the author’s native South.”—Kirkus “Insightful . . . Encouraging readers to pay closer attention to nature, J. Drew Lanham gathers the disparate elements that have shaped him into a nostalgic and fervent examination of home, family, nature, and community.”—Publishers Weekly

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Book SynopsisA dynamic and fresh exploration of the naturalist Mark Catesby—who predated John James Audubon by nearly a century— and his influence on how we understand American wildlife.In 1722, Mark Catesby stepped ashore in Charles Town in the Carolina colony. Over the next four years, this young naturalist made history as he explored deep into America’s natural wonders, collecting and drawing plants and animals which had never been seen back in the Old World. Nine years later Catesby produced his magnificent and groundbreaking book, The Natural History of Carolina, the first-ever illustrated account of American flora and fauna. In Nature’s Messenger, acclaimed writer Patrick Dean follows Catesby from his youth as a landed gentleman in rural England to his early work as a naturalist and his adventurous travels. A pioneer in many ways, Catesby’s careful attention to the knowledge of non-Europeans in America—the enslaved Africans and Native Americans who had their own sources of food and medicine from nature—set him apart from others of his time. Nature’s Messenger takes us from the rice plantations of the Carolina Lowcountry to the bustling coffeehouses of 18th-century England, from the sun-drenched islands of the Bahamas to the austere meeting-rooms of London’s Royal Society, then presided over by Isaac Newton. It was a time of discovery, of intellectual ferment, and of the rise of the British Empire. And there on history’s leading edge, recording the extraordinary and often violent mingling of cultures as well as of nature, was Mark Catesby. Intensively researched and thrillingly told, Nature’s Messenger will thrill fans of exploration and early American history as well as appealing to birdwatchers, botanists, and anyone fascinated by the natural world.Trade Review“In Nature’s Messenger, Catesby is the avatar of an age of explosive discovery and exchange. Catesby was an important scientist whose work prefigured and informed the better known achievements of Audobon and Lenneaus. Thanks to Nature’s Messenger, Catesby’s legacy can now be perused.” -- The Times Literary Supplement"In this enlightening biography, nature writer Dean traces the life of British naturalist Mark Catesby (1683–1749), whose The Natural History of Carolina, Florida, and the Bahama Islands was among the first European accounts of the flora and fauna of the Americas and influenced John James Audubon. An informative account of an important if lesser-known naturalist." -- Publishers Weekly“Nature's Messenger delivers on the promise of its title and subtitle with a tale of adventure in Colonial America and the Caribbean. The messenger is surpassed by his message in this story of a great book — one created by a talented, if enigmatic and largely forgotten, lover of Southern nature.” * The Chattanooga Times Free Press *Praise for A Window to Heaven"A stupendous chronicle. A book whose scope, themes, and drama are worthy of Denali itself." -- Kevin Fedarko, author of THE EMERALD MILE"No matter how many times the Denali story gets told, it never gets old. The trick is to make it new. Outdoors writer Patrick Dean has done just, casting the climb in new light. The story reverberates today. Dean presents Stuck as an imperfect but still commendable model for our own times. We should pay attention." -- David A. James * The Anchorage Daily News *"A rich and sensitive portrait. With grace and clarity Dean reveals Hudson Stuck as a missionary-explorer who was both fully of his time and able to recognize some of its deepest prejudices. Wonderful." -- Niel Shea * National Geographic *

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Book SynopsisThe remarkable (The Telegraph) life story of legendary cardiac surgeon and scientist Magdi Yacoub, an outsider who succeeded against the odds, now available in paperback Veteran journalists Simon Pearson and Fiona Gorman follow the remarkable life of heart surgeon Magdi Yacoub from his formative years in Egypt, through spectacular success at Cairo University, to his long and distinguished career in Britain. Although at times he clashed with the medical establishment in London, Yacoub pioneered great advances in heart surgery. He was knighted in 1992, and in 2014, he was awarded the highest honor in the gift of the Queen, the Order of Merit.Written with unprecedented access and drawing on extensive interviews and research, the biography recounts how Yacoub transformed the treatment of children with congenital heart disease. He performed some of the first heart transplants in Britain and the first heart-lung transplants in Europe. At London's Harefield Hospital, he created the greatest heart transplant center in the world. Among his patients are men and women who are still thriving more than thirty-five years after he gave them new hope. This story is also about science, the development of new medical techniques, and a deeper understanding of how the human body works. Today, at an age when most people have long since retired, Yacoub is still pushing the boundaries of scientific understanding and surgical know-how. He is also taking heart surgery to places that until now have had little access to cardiac treatment, developing centers of excellence across Africa, including in Egypt, where his hospital in Aswan has an international reputation, and a new center is rising in Cairo.Yacoub's life is one of triumph and tragedy, success and failure, fierce criticism and high praiseit is also an enthralling journey through the worlds of scientific research and medical politics and ethics at the highest levels.

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Book Synopsis Follow the remarkable journey of a trailblazing American leader, Dr. Antonia Novello, the first woman and the first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Antonia Novellois a vanguard in the United States and Puerto Rico, whose enduring commitment to service has left an indelible mark on the world of public health. With a distinguished career spanning more than four decades, including serving as the US Surgeon General and the New York State Commissioner of Health during 9/11, her story highlights an unwavering dedication to improving the well-being of individuals and communities.? Dr. Novello?sstory is one of challenges faced and overcome, of resilience and perseverance, and of shattering glass ceilings and opening doors for future generations of leaders. With honesty and openness, she shares her early battles with childhood illness and her desire to overcome stereotypes, while also chronicling her meteoric rise through various roles in the field of health care, leading to her service as the nation?s top medical officer. From her struggles to her celebrations to her tireless advocacy for the health of young people, each chapter offers a glimpse into the resilience and wisdom that have shaped her life, unveiling the profound lessons she has gathered along the way. InDuty Calls,readers will learn about: Dr. Novello?searly life and her struggles with congenital megacolon Her medical school and internship experiences How she became the first female/first Hispanic Surgeon General of the United States Dr. Novello?swork as the New York State Commissioner of Health during 9/11 Her efforts to vaccinate and provide health care resources to her home in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria Wisdom and insights Dr. Novellogained through her life experiences, as well as her advice for the next generation (and everyone else!)

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