History of science Books
Oxford University Press Deadly Companions
Book SynopsisEver since we started huddling together in communities, the story of human history has been inextricably entwined with the story of microbes. They have evolved and spread amongst us, shaping our culture through infection, disease, and pandemic. At the same time, our changing human culture has itself influenced the evolutionary path of microbes. Dorothy H. Crawford here shows that one cannot be truly understood without the other. Beginning with a dramatic account of the SARS pandemic at the start of the 21st century, she takes us back in time to follow the interlinked history of microbes and man, taking an up-to-date look at ancient plagues and epidemics, and identifying key changes in the way humans have lived - such as our move from hunter-gatherer to farmer to city-dweller -- which made us vulnerable to microbe attack. Showing how we live our lives today -- with increasing crowding and air travel -- puts us once again at risk, Crawford asks whether we might ever conquer microbes completely, or whether we need to take a more microbe-centric view of the world. Among the possible answers, one thing becomes clear: that for generations to come, our deadly companions will continue to shape human history.Oxford Landmark Science books are ''must-read'' classics of modern science writing which have crystallized big ideas, and shaped the way we think.Trade ReviewAdmirably clear and engaging. * BBC History *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction 1: How It All Began 2: Our Microbial Inheritance 3: Microbes Jump Species 4: Crowds, Filth, and Poverty 5: Microbes Go Global 6: Famine and Devastation 7: Deadly Companions Revealed 8: The Fight Back Conclusion: Living Together Glossary Notes and References Index
£11.39
Johns Hopkins University Press Alfred Wegener
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewA magnificent, definitive, and indefatigable tribute to an indefatigable man . . . Greene beautifully puts the record straight with a portrait of Wegener as a respected 'cosmic physicist.'—NatureIn this book Mott Greene has ably explained every detail of Wegener’s ideas and research and has created a well-deserved tribute to one of the most creative and energetic scientists of the twentieth century.—MetascienceA remarkably detailed and wonderfully well-written biography of Alfred Wegener . . . Includes insight into what makes a person such as Wegener a genius—what it was about him that led to an ability to create such a novel and correct view of nature. That is the true value of this exceptional book, to be able to feel as though one can literally experience the scientific genius that was Alfred Wegener.—ChoiceMott Greene's magnificent book reveals deep themes and connections to Wegener's many fruitful ideas and extraordinary scientific accomplishments, even as it examines the many distinct dimensions of thought and action that emanated from Wegener's apparently heedless embrace of all manner of risk-taking . . . Anglophone readers, especially, have never had such an opportunity to understand Alfred Wegener.—ScienceDirectThis biography is clearly a labor of love for its author. Greene worked on this book for more than twenty years, conducting archival research, visiting libraries and collections across Europe and in North America, and conducting interviews with key figures, including Wegener’s surviving family members . . . I came away with a renewed appreciation for Wegener as an engaged scientist who refused to let the boundaries of academic disciplines dampen his enthusiasm for scientific endeavor.—AAG Review of BooksMott Greene spent twenty years working on Alfred Wegener, a masterpiece in which he revolutionizes our understanding of Wegener, just as Wegener revolutionized our understanding of the Earth . . . a brilliant and compelling account of the life of one of the most talented, versatile, and remarkable scientists in history.—IsisGreene has created an important work that gives context to one of the most recent paradigm shifts in science . . . Greene tells the story with enough documentation to keep the story grounded in reality, yet uses his prose to maintain interest even after the 'eureka' moment, even after Wegener’s death on the ice.—Science & EducationTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments1. The Boy2. The Student3. The Astronomer4. The Aerologist5. The Polar Meteorologist6. The Arctic Explorer (1)7. The Atmospheric Physicist (1)8. The Atmospheric Physicist (2)9. At a Crossroads10. The Theorist of Continental Drift (1)11. The Theorist of Continental Drift (2)12. The Arctic Explorer (2)13. The Soldier14. The Meteorologist15. The Geophysicist16. From Geophysicist to Climatologist17. The Paleoclimatologist18. The Professor19. Theorist and Arctic Explorer20. The Expedition LeaderEpilogueNotesBibliographical EssayIndex
£25.17
Transworld Publishers Ltd Caesar's Last Breath: The Epic Story of The Air
Book Synopsis** GUARDIAN SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR 2017 **‘Popular science at its best’Mail on Sunday‘Eminently accessible and enjoyable’ObserverWith every breath, you literally inhale the history of the world. On the ides of March, 44 BC, Julius Caesar died of stab wounds in the Roman Senate, but the story of his last breath is still unfolding. In fact, you're probably inhaling some of it now. Of the sextillions of molecules entering or leaving your lungs at this moment, some might also bear traces of Cleopatra's perfumes, German mustard gas, particles exhaled by dinosaurs or emitted by atomic bombs, even remnants of stardust from the universe's creation. In Caesar’s Last Breath, New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean takes us on a journey through the periodic table, around the globe and across time to tell the epic story of the air we breathe.Trade ReviewAbsorbing, entertaining... provocative but compelling... eminently accessible and enjoyable. A real gas - in short! -- Robin McKie * Observer *Funny, clever and altogether effervescent... Kean writes superbly about science itself... A joy for any reader -- James McConnachie * The Sunday Times *There is no denying the pleasure and indeed the wealth of scientific information to be obtained from reading Caesar’s Last Breath. It will change forever the way I think about breathing. * Financial Times *Kean is the teacher you wish you'd had: genial, companionable and infectiously enthusiastic. This is an entertaining and accessible guide to the mysterious vapour of gases. Popular science at its best. -- Simon Humphreys * Mail on Sunday *It’s a helluva read. And it’s a gas. -- Tim Radford * The Guardian *An altogether excellent read, an invigorating and stylish mixture of chemistry, history and reportage that brings to light many of the untold stories of the air that surrounds and sustains us * Times Literary Supplement *This vibrant, fact-filled science book makes the chemistry of air riveting * Sunday Times Must Reads *Told with Kean’s trademark combination of goofy wisecracking and an exceptional knack for communicating the principles of science * Wall Street Journal *Fascinating stories, so insightful, informative, and disarmingly written. It gave this astronaut a new respect for the air around us all, and made me delightfully more aware of each breath I take. -- Col. Chris Hadfield, author of An Astronaut's Guide to Life on EarthBrims with such fascinating tales of chemical history that it'll change the very way you think about breathing.... Kean crams the book full of wild yarns told with humorously dramatic flair.... The effect is oddly intimate, the way all good storytelling is -- you feel like you're sharing moments of geeky amusement with a particularly hip chemistry teacher * San Francisco Chronicle *The most fun to be had from nonfiction is a good science book, with a writer of craft who can capture both the excitement and the elegance of science, the incredible fact that this is really how it works. Sam Kean is such a writer and Caesar's Last Breath is such a book. An enormous pleasure to read. -- Mark Kurlansky, author of CodSam Kean has done it again - this time clearly and entertainingly explaining the science of the air around us. He is a gifted storyteller with a knack for finding the magic hidden in the everyday. -- Daniel H. Pink, author of Drive
£9.99
Penguin Books Ltd The Anatomy of Melancholy
Book Synopsis''The best book ever written'' Nicholas Lezard, GuardianRobert Burton''s labyrinthine, beguiling, playful masterpiece is his attempt to ''anatomize and cut up'' every aspect of the condition of melancholy, from which he had suffered throughout his life. Ranging over beauty, digestion, the planets, alcohol, goblins, kissing, poetry and the restorative power of books, among many other things, The Anatomy of Melancholy has fascinated figures from Samuel Johnson to Jorge Luis Borges since the seventeenth century, and remains an incomparable examination of the human condition in all its flawed, endless variety.Edited with an introduction by Angus GowlandTrade ReviewThe best book ever written -- Nick Lezard * Guardian *The greatest work of prose of the greatest period of English prose-writing -- Llewelyn PowysBurton's masterpiece. It is one of the finest prose works in English . . . it is funny, a laugh-aloud book, one that seems to convey the character of its writer with a rare clarity. It is an ode to reading that overflows with allusions and quotations, making it a book that feels, at times, as if it is about the whole of human knowledge. In its wonderfully capacious digressiveness, it pulsates with a life force that is, in itself, a charm against the terrors, the fears and the loneliness of melancholy * The Guardian *This is the best popular edition ever produced of one of the most amusing books in our language, a masterpiece of scholarship. It belongs on the shelves of everyone who loves English literature and all those who aspire to do so * The Critic *
£21.25
Orion Publishing Co The Double Helix
Book SynopsisThe story of the most significant biological breakthrough of the century - the discovery of the structure of DNA.Trade ReviewThis timely reissue of Watso's feisty memoir gives a dramatic account of how the double helix was mapped. -- James Urquhart * FINANCIAL TIMES *An exhilarating memoir -- John Dugdale * GUARDIAN *
£9.49
Dover Publications Inc. The Thirteen Books of the Elements Vol. 3
Book SynopsisVolume 3 of three-volume set containing complete English text of all 13 books of the Elements plus critical apparatus analyzing each definition, postulate, and proposition in great detail. Covers textual and linguistic matters; mathematical analyses of Euclid''s ideas; classical, medieval, Renaissance and modern commentators; refutations, supports, extrapolations, reinterpretations and historical notes. Vol. 3 includes Books X-XIII: Commensurable magnitudes, solids, cones, cylinders.
£21.24
Harvard University Press The Botany of Empire in the Long Eighteenth
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£60.76
National Geographic Society 1001 Inventions The Enduring Legacy of Muslim
Book Synopsis1001 Inventions: The Enduring Legacy of Muslim Civilization takes readers on a journey through years of forgotten Islamic history to discover one thousand fascinating scientific and technological inventions still being used throughout the world today. Take a look at all of the discoveries that led to the great technological advances of our time; engineering, early medicinal practices, and the origins of cartography are just a few of the areas explored in this book. 1001 Inventions provides unique insight into a significant time period in Muslim history that has been looked over by much of the world. A time where discoveries were made and inventions were created that have impacted how Western civilization and the rest of the world lives today. The book will cover seven aspects of life relatable to everyone, including home, school, hospital, market, town, world and universe.Trade Review"...this heavily illustrated volume, edited by Salim T.S. Al-Hassani, stands on its own as an accessible history of the golden era that spanned from the 7th to the 17th century." --Boston Sunday Globe
£25.20
Princeton University Press Calculus Reordered
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£16.19
Princeton University Press Gods and Robots
Book SynopsisTrade Review"One of BookAuthority’s Three Best New Robotics Audiobooks To Read in 2019"
£14.39
Johns Hopkins University Press The Secret of Apollo
Book SynopsisTo begin to understand this apparent contradiction in terms, we must first understand the exacting nature of space technologies and the concerns of those who create them.Trade ReviewSoundly based on the secondary literature and on archival research in the United States and Europe and provides an excellent overview of the topic within Johnson's chosen boundaries... I can highly recommend Johnson's book to historians of both the Cold War military and civilian space programs. Journal of Military History Johnson has been inspired by engineering to write good history. -- Jon Agar British Journal for the History of Science 2004 A book for general readers interested in business and management issues in the space program. Choice 2003 Johnson's in-depth, nuts-and-bolts manual sheds much light on a seldom studied secret of our recent space history. Space Review 2006 Well written and engaging in style. Satellite Evolution Group 2007Table of ContentsContents: Introduction: Managment and the Conrol of Research Social and Technical Issues of Spaceflight Creating Concurrency From Concurrency to Systems Managment JPL's Journey from Missiles to Space Organizing the Manned Space Program Organizing ELDO for Failure ERSO's American Bridge across the Managment Gap Coordination and Control of High-Tech Research and Development
£23.85
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Magic of Reality
Book SynopsisWhat are things made of?What is the sun?Why is there night and day, winter and summer?Why do bad things happen?Are we alone?Throughout history people all over the world have invented stories to answer profound questions such as these. Have you heard the tale of how the sun hatched out of an emu''s egg? Or what about the great catfish that carries the world on its back? Has anyone ever told you that earthquakes are caused by a sneezing giant? These fantastical myths are fun - but what is the real answer to such questions?The Magic of Reality, with its explanations of space, time, evolution and more, will inspire and amaze readers of all ages - young adults, adults, children, octogenarians. Teaming up with the renowned illustrator Dave McKean, Richard Dawkins answers all these questions and many more. In stunning words and pictures this book presents the real story of the world around us, taking us on an enthralling journey through Trade ReviewIt's the clearest and most beautifully written introduction to science I've ever read. Again and again I found myself saying "Oh! So that's how genes work!" (or stars, or tectonic plates, or all the other things he explains). Explanations I thought I knew were clarified; things I never understood were made clear for the first time -- Philip PullmanI wanted to write this book but I wasn't clever enough. Now I've read it, I am -- Ricky GervaisThe Magic of Reality provides a beautiful, accessible and wide ranging volume that addresses the questions that all of us have about the universe...written with the masterful and eloquently literate style of perhaps the best popular expositor of science, Richard Dawkins, and delightfully illustrated by Dave McKean. What more could anyone ask for? -- Lawrence Krauss, author of Quantum Man, and A Universe from NothingFrom the first sentence it reads with the force and fluency of a classic ... a luminous, authoritative prose that transcends age differences * The Times *A charming and free-ranging history of science * The Sunday Times *
£27.00
Harvard University Press The Myth of Race
Book SynopsisAlthough eugenics is now widely discredited, some groups and individuals claim a new scientific basis for old racist assumptions. Pondering the continuing influence of racist research and thought, despite all evidence to the contrary, Robert Sussman explains why—when it comes to race—too many people still mistake bigotry for science.Trade ReviewNot only is this book a significant contribution to the view of race and racism in traditional ‘four-field’ anthropology in the U.S., but it is also important to the understanding of global notions of contemporary racism… The Myth of Race encourages us to understand where stereotypes and misinformation fit in our consideration of whether and how notions of biological race remain pervasive in today’s discourse and policy. -- Yolanda T. Moses * Times Higher Education *Explores how the faulty concept of race embedded in our culture affects where we live, go to school and work. It influences our choice in friends and our treatment in the healthcare and justice systems. -- Jeff Adachi * San Francisco Examiner *Sussman does a masterful job of tracing racist thought in western Europe and the U.S. from 15th-century polygenics through the eugenics of the 20th century to the continued racism and anti-immigration stances of today’s radical Right… Although the racists at whom Sussman directs his message are unlikely to read it or to credit it if they do, this book should be in every library, from high school through public to university, in hopes that it will affect some minds before they become completely shuttered by prejudice. -- L. L. Johnson * Choice *The idea of race, writes the author, is a cultural rather than biological reality. Tribes always believed that strangers were subhuman, but they could overcome their inferiority by joining the tribe—e.g., converting to Christianity or adopting Roman citizenship… Today, since racism is politically incorrect, Sussman maintains, supporters have migrated en masse to the anti-immigration movement… Sussman delivers a lucidly written, eye-opening account of a nasty sociological battle that the good guys have been winning for a century without eliminating a very persistent enemy. * Kirkus Reviews *Sussman, an anthropology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, explores and explodes the concept of race. He contends that, in the face of a longstanding scientific consensus that race possesses no biological basis, many people still mistakenly believe that traits like aggression, intelligence, and generosity can be traced to it. Noting that racial distinctions between humans have no biological basis is not new, Sussman makes his contribution by exposing the ways that academic ‘science’ is invoked to authorize an outmoded concept. He traces the history of ideas about race, moving briskly from the Spanish Inquisition to Linnaeus and Kant, and offering a detailed discussion of eugenics. Lest readers imagine this is all in the distant past, Sussman devotes his last three chapters to the funding mechanisms that keep racist research alive today. He shows that ‘science’ has been used in efforts to overturn civil rights legislation, and he examines the ways racist discourse has become intertwined with immigration policy. This book, which is both provocative and commonsensical, will be useful to scholars, but may also spark a broader conversation. * Publishers Weekly *Robert Sussman’s penetrating study of the major figures who constructed concepts of race lays bare the personal biases, enmity, and corruption that influenced the intellectuals and politicians who framed modern industrialized societies. It also reveals unexpected heroes whose clear-minded insights into human diversity presaged our modern understanding. The Myth of Race is a suspense-filled and richly scholarly tour de force. -- Nina G. Jablonski, Evan Pugh Professor of Anthropology, Pennsylvania State UniversityWhat is most remarkable is how Sussman manages to tie in past attitudes toward race with ongoing political developments. He demonstrates a seamless continuity of current attitudes with past ones in a way I have not seen attempted elsewhere, and in my view he succeeds brilliantly: the final chapters, in particular, make chilling reading. This is a book written straight from the heart, and it reads that way. -- Ian Tattersall, author of Race? Debunking a Scientific Myth
£17.95
Harvard University Press Alexander Wilson
Book SynopsisOn the bicentennial of his death, this beautifully illustrated volume pays tribute to the Scot who became the father of American ornithology. Alexander Wilson made unique contributions to ecology and animal behavior. His drawings of birds in realistic poses in their natural habitat inspired Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and other naturalists.Trade Review[Burtt and Davis] are in no doubt that their man is the one to deserve the title of ‘Father’ [of American ornithology]… And it is a strong case, convincingly made… This will be a very valuable resource for scholars, and the drawings themselves are attractive and persuasive evidence for the authors’ claims about Wilson’s originality and importance. The authors and publishers have done full justice to these illustrations in this handsome volume and they are beautifully laid out and reproduced. -- Jeremy Mynott * Times Literary Supplement *Burtt and Davis argue convincingly for Wilson’s contribution to modern scientific ornithology and celebrate Wilson as the man who inspired John James Audubon… This book…give[s] us Wilson’s wonderful illustrations—and a sense of the spirit of an extraordinary man whose curiosity reached far beyond the man-made world. -- Karin Altenberg * Wall Street Journal *Burtt and Davis include brief essays on the ornithologists whom Wilson read or corresponded with, providing a valuable overview of the burgeoning natural sciences of the early nineteenth century… They establish Wilson’s stature as a bird illustrator, and their handsome volume reproduces them beautifully… Burtt and Davis successfully make clear Wilson’s importance in establishing American ornithology on two firm pillars: international Linnaean binomial nomenclature and close observation of living birds as well as specimens… Wilson’s position as the founder of American ornithology was won with intense struggle from inauspicious beginnings, and it seems secure. -- Robert O. Paxton * New York Review of Books *It is as the author of American Ornithology—a nine-volume work that aimed to list every species in the U.S.—that Wilson will be remembered. Wilson’s books were revolutionary. He wrote his descriptions of birds from observing them in the field, rather than looking at stuffed birds in collections. It was an approach that helped promote the adoption of the scientific method in the U.S. He also penned his narrative so that readers would be able to identify birds themselves, making it the first field guide… Wilson’s life and his struggle to publish American Ornithology are fascinating. -- Peter Ranscombe * The Scotsman *Wilson was first to describe 26 species of North American birds, he has more birds named after him than any other American ornithologist, and John James Audubon, Charles Lucien Bonaparte, Thomas Nuttall, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and Elliot Coues all were inspired by him, yet most people, when asked who the father of American ornithology is, say, wrongly, Audubon. This well-illustrated study, the first to reproduce many of Wilson’s drawings and draft plates from American Ornithology, his nine-volume masterwork, sets the record straight. -- Chuck Hagner and Matt Mendenhall * Bird Watching *Wilson has more birds named after him than any other American ornithologist, including Audubon, and now, thanks to Burtt and Davis, he has a superb modern-day biography and critical assessment, one every scholarly birder should buy and read. It’s entirely right that we regularly remember to give Alexander Wilson the credit for inventing the school and ethos of American bird-study. -- Steve Donoghue * Open Letters Monthly *One of the objectives of this book is to publish all of Wilson’s previously unpublished illustrations… Wilson’s artwork is superb… The case Burtt and Davis make for Wilson being the true father of American ornithology is overwhelming, and in that sense they have succeeded admirably. -- Tim Birkhead * Times Higher Education *Alexander Wilson, the Scotsman who came to the United States in 1794…more than Audubon, deserves credit for having founded American ornithology, as biographers Edward Burtt and William Davis rightly insist. -- Christoph Irmscher * Weekly Standard *The book includes many letters to and from U.S. naturalists and dozens of beautifully reproduced and previously unpublished line drawings and paintings of birds that contributed to Wilson’s greatest tangible achievement, the encyclopedic nine-volume American Ornithology. Unlike most of his contemporaries, such as Audubon, Wilson argued for the need for field observation to truly understand and illustrate the character of wild creatures, and he traveled thousands of miles across a wild continent to accomplish this. This book is full of delightful anecdotes and excellent detailed drawings; it will do much to elevate the reputation of Wilson among those with an interest in birds, illustration, and history. -- D. Flaspohler * Choice *A Scottish emigré, Alexander Wilson (1766–1813) became the preeminent ornithologist of early America. His systematic approach to the study of birds and his nine-volume American Ornithology (1808–14) greatly influenced John James Audubon, in whose shadow Wilson has since remained… Burtt and Davis describe Wilson’s mentoring by such prominent figures as Thomas Jefferson, Meriwether Lewis, William Bartram, and the Philadelphia family of artists, the Peales… The authors show that it is Wilson, rather than Audubon, who deserves the sobriquet of the father of American ornithology… This excellent work is highly recommended for birders and for readers who appreciate American art or natural history. -- Henry T. Armistead * Library Journal *Before Audubon and Birds of America, there was Alexander Wilson and American Ornithology, a nine-volume work published between 1808 and 1814 that singlehandedly transformed the study of birds in the wild and presaged the field guides of today. In addition to being the first to adopt the Linnaean system of binomial nomenclature to classify North American birds, Wilson was also one of the first to base his findings primarily on the ‘observation and description of live birds.’ By 1812, the Scottish poet had documented nearly 80% of bird species in the United States, and developed the discipline of ‘economic ornithology,’ whereby bird types are valued according to a kind of cost–benefit analysis (i.e. one that takes into account whether a bird is prone to destroy certain crops, whether they can be consumed, etc.)… What makes this book of such great value is the third chapter: ‘Illustrating American Ornithology.’ Composing over half of the book, this section features every illustration from Wilson’s landmark publication. Alongside excerpts from Wilson’s own commentary, the authors painstakingly detail how each sketch developed into its final iteration. A must-have for any serious bird-watcher. * Publishers Weekly *A definitive work on the history of bird art, ornithology, and nature writing. Volumes have been written on Audubon as though he were the dean of American ornithology, but Burtt and Davis reveal Alexander Wilson as providing the foundation. -- Bernd Heinrich, author of The Nesting SeasonOur knowledge of New World birds stems deeply from the adventurous spirit of a talented rebel poet, Alexander Wilson. This richly illustrated, very special book brings him back to life as an engaging and influential character whose passion for birds primed ours. I couldn’t put it down. -- Frank Gill, author of Ornithology: Third Edition
£25.46
Penguin Books Ltd The Venetian Empire
Book SynopsisFor six centuries the Republic of Venice was a maritime empire, its sovereign power extending throughout much of the eastern Mediterranean an empire of coasts, islands and isolated fortresses by which, as Wordsworth wrote, the mercantile Venetians ''held the gorgeous east in fee''. Jan Morris reconstructs the whole of this glittering dominion in the form of a sea-voyage, travelling along the historic Venetian trade routes from Venice itself to Greece, Crete and Cyprus. It is a traveller''s book, geographically arranged but wandering at will from the past to the present, evoking not only contemporary landscapes and sensations but also the characters, the emotions and the tumultuous events of the past. The first such work ever written about the Venetian Stato da Mar', it is an invaluable historical companion for visitors to Venice itself and for travellers through the lands the Doges once ruled.
£10.44
The University of Chicago Press Victorian Popularizers of Science
Book SynopsisFocuses on the journalists and writers who wrote about science for a general audience in the second half of the nineteenth century. This title examines more than thirty of the popularizers of the day, investigating how they communicated with their audience. It offers insights into the role of women in scientific inquiry.Trade Review"The book is a substantial work of scholarship rather than a casual read, and it offers much for historians of science as well as students of popular writing." - Jon Turney, Times Higher Education "Bernard Lightman's excellent Victorian Popularizers of Science combines an unusually comprehensive sweep with strikingly meticulous research. In so doing, it makes a compelling case for the importance of the legions of self-conscious popularizers." - Gowan Dawson, Times Literary Supplement.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press The Beginnings of Western Science
Book SynopsisChronicling the development of scientific ideas, practices, and institutions from pre-Socratic Greek philosophy to late-medieval scholasticism, this title surveys the themes in the history of science, including developments in cosmology, astronomy, mechanics, optics, alchemy, natural history, and medicine.Trade Review"As entertaining and educational as that organized by the best tour operator." - Charles Burnett, New York Times Book Review "Solidly based on a competent knowledge of a huge variety of primary sources and secondary studies, engagingly written, and well produced, it provides us for the first time with an authoritative account of Western science from its beginnings to the height of medieval scientific achievement." - Richard C. Dales, American Historical Review"
£22.80
The University of Chicago Press From Mineralogy to Geology
Book SynopsisA fine treatment of this critical time in geology's history. Although it goes against our standard histories of the field, Laudan defends her views convincingly. Her style is direct, with carefully reasoned personal opinions and interpretations clearly defined. Jere H. Lipps, The Scientist
£28.50
The University of Chicago Press American Genesis
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£23.80
Harvard University Press The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium
Book SynopsisHow did Europeans three centuries apart respond to two mysterious beastsa living rhinoceros previously known only from ancient texts and a nameless monster's massive bones? Juan Pimentel shows that their reactions reflect deep cultural changes but also the enduring power of image and imagination to shape our understanding of the natural world.Trade ReviewSophisticated and provocative, this is an outstanding study of the possible ways of interpreting unknown beings through an examination of their multifaceted and presumed pasts, shedding light on the changing understanding of scientific forms over 300 years. -- Stéphane Van Damme, European University InstituteIn a series of brilliantly illuminating juxtapositions, between Renaissance and Revolution, between the worlds of the East and West Indies, and, above all, between the enterprises of analysis and description, Pimentel’s astute book shows how the work of imagination and of ingenious imagery has long played a decisive if neglected role in making natural knowledge. -- Simon Schaffer, University of CambridgePimentel’s inspired pairing limns how image and imagination shape our understanding of nature. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *[A] fascinating book…Pimentel rather brilliantly describes his book as a ‘historical essay with a tentative and slightly provocative character’ (for which praise must be shared with Peter Mason, for his excellent translation). And if that isn’t a wonderfully tempting hook for the reader, then what is? The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium is part detective story reconstructing the scientific process, and part historical study of how people reacted to the hitherto unknown and unusual. The parallels drawn by Pimentel are beautifully constructed and drip from the page like honey: a section describing the sea voyages of the fossils mirroring the political and intellectual shifts of the periods is especially effective…He has adeptly and eloquently brought back to life not only these two much-marvelled-at beasts but the minds of the people who sought to explain them and the worlds in which they lived. -- Simon Underdown * Times Higher Education *A dazzlingly strange and resolutely readable dual biography…The Rhinoceros and the Megatherium becomes as much an interrogation of history and science as it is a chronicle of these two animals’ stories. -- Colin Dickey * Los Angeles Review of Books *Pimentel is an agile and amiable companion through his rich materials…Each half of Juan Pimentel’s fantastic binomial rewards reading in its own right. -- Lorraine Daston * Times Literary Supplement *For the student of history, this will be a valuable contribution. -- J. E. Grinnell * Choice *One of the strengths of [Pimentel’s] book is the attention it gives to the relationship between imagination and images—pictures of things seen and then made available to those who have not seen. -- Steven Shapin * London Review of Books *
£22.46
Penguin Books Ltd Tide
Book SynopsisA Sunday Times ''Must Read'' book.Described by the Sunday Times as a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald, Tide is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes.From Cnut to D-Day, the history and science of the unceasing tide is explored for the first time.Half of the world''s population lives in coastal regions lapped by tidal waters. Yet how little most of us know about the tide - a key force on our planet that has altered the course of history and will transform our future.Our ability to predict and understand the tide depends on centuries of science, from the observations of Aristotle and the theories of Newton to today''s supercomputer calculations. This story is punctuated here by notable tidal episodes in history, from Caesar''s thwarted invasion of Britain to the catastrophic flooding of Venice, and interwoven with a rich folklore that continues to inspire art and literature today.With Aldersey-Williams as our guide to the most feared and celebrated tidal features on the planet, from the original maelstrøm in Scandinavia to the world''s highest tides in Nova Scotia to the crumbling coast of East Anglia, the importance of the tide, and the way it has shaped - and will continue to shape - our civilization, becomes startlingly clear.Trade ReviewA spring tide of colour and historical anecdote laps over the more austere mudflats of the actual science. So much so that I find myself looking forward to the next piece of technical exposition -- Tom Whipple * The Times *Imagine, if possible, a gently studious Bill Bryson crossed with an upbeat and relaxed WG Sebald. It is a superb book... a delight to read. It is profound and powerful, and should win prizes. -- James McConnachie * Sunday Times *This fascinating book deftly explores the dramatic history, critical importance, and scientific wonder of the tides. Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a marvelous guide who takes the reader on a sweeping and thought-provoking adventure into the heart of one of the most captivating, mysterious, and elemental forces of nature -- Eric Jay Dolin, author of Brilliant Beacons: A History of the American LighthousePrepare for a voyage with the best of companions - Hugh Aldersey-Williams is a storyteller supreme, and he's found a subject worthy of his talents -- Edward Dolnick, author of The Clockwork Universe: Isaac Newton, the Royal Society, and the Birth of the Modern WorldScience writing at its best ... fascinating and beautiful -- Matt Ridley on 'Periodic Tales'Immensely engaging and continually makes one sit up in surprise -- Richard Cohen on 'Periodic Tales' * Sunday Times *Aldersey-Williams is full of good stories and he knows how to tell them well -- Graham Farmelo on 'Periodic Tales' * Sunday Telegraph *Engaging and thoughtful... Like some of the most compelling biographers, Aldersey-Williams partly inhabits his subject * Literary Review on The Adventures of Sir Thomas Browne in the 21st Century *Exposes new facts and ideas every other page -- Horatio Clare * Observer *Aldersey-Williams's corrective meshes a history of the science with tide-related technologies and tidally sculpted events. It's an eloquent ebb and flow * Nature *
£11.69
Cambridge University Press The Theory of Sound
Book SynopsisJohn William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh (18421919), was an English physicist best known as the co-discoverer of the element argon. These highly influential volumes, first published between 1877 and 1878, contain Rayleigh's classic account of acoustics, which provided the foundations of modern acoustic theory.Table of Contents11. Aerial vibrations; 12. Vibrations in tubes; 13. Aerial vibrations in a rectangular chamber; 14. Arbitrary initial disturbance in an unlimited atmosphere; 15. Secondary waves due to a variation in the medium; 16. Theory of resonators; 17. Applications of Laplace's functions to acoustical problems; 18. Problem of a spherical layer of air; 19. Fluid friction; Appendix.
£29.99
HarperCollins Publishers Isaac Newton
Book SynopsisFrom one of the best writers on science, a remarkable portrait of Isaac Newton. The man who changed our understanding of the universe, of science, and of faith.Isaac Newton was the chief architect of the modern world. He answered the ancient philosophical riddles of light and motion; he effectively discovered gravity; he salvaged the terms time', space', motion' and place' from the haze of everyday language, standardized them and married them, each to the other, constructing an edifice that made knowledge a thing of substance: quantative and exact. Creation, Newton demonstrated, unfolds from simple rules, patterns iterated over unlimited distances.What Newton learned remains the essence of what we know. Newton's laws are our laws. When we speak of momentum, of forces and masses, we are seeing the world as Newtonians. When we seek mathematical laws for economic cycles and human behaviour, we stand on Newton's shoulders. Our very deeming the universe as solvable is his legacy.This was thTrade Review'The book has the magic of a wonderful laboratory experiment…A masterpiece of clarity – so difficult to write, so easy to read.' Michael Holroyd 'A fresh and brilliant portrait of his personality and life, the people who mattered to him, the influences which played on him, and the contexts of his achievements.' Oliver Sacks 'After reading Jim Gleick's beautifully written and intimate portrait of Newton, I felt as is I'd spent an evening by the fire with that complex and troubled genius.' Alan Lightman 'It's beautifully paced and very stylishly written: compact, atmospheric, elegant. It offers a brilliant and engaging study in the paradoxes of the scientific imagination' Richard Holmes
£10.44
Taylor & Francis Ltd Entropic Creation
Book SynopsisEntropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future ''heat death'', where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the ''entropic creation argument'', thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this boTrade Review’... an exemplary history of ideas, which taxonomizes and critiques a spectrum of arguments about thermodynamics and cosmology, clearly demarcating newer from older ways of thinking. Particularly fascinating is his account of the staying power of the conservative and theological connotations of thermodynamic cosmology into the Cold War, when it became part of Soviet orthodoxy that laboratory physics could not be applied to the infinite universe. The book will interest scholars of science and religion as well as historians of physics.’ British Journal for the History of Science ’Pour découvrir en détail les tenants et les aboutissants de ces débats, rien de tel que le livre érudit, novateur et passionnant d’Helge Kragh. [...] Kragh montre en effet que les liens historiques entre philosophie, religion et science sont complexes. C’est un autre mérite de ce très bon livre.’ Pour la Science ’Je ne peux que recommander ce livre riche, original et passionnant, à toute personne qui s'intéresse à l'histoire de la physique, et en particulier celle de la cosmologie, mais aussi aux philosophes et théologiens qui abordent aujourd'hui le débat 'science-foi'.’ Archives Internationales d'Histoire des SciencesTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Some Early Ideas on Decay and Creation; Chapter 3 Thermodynamics and the Heat Death; Chapter 4 The Entropic Creation Argument; Chapter 5 Concepts of the Universe; Chapter 6 Post-1920 Developments; Chapter 7 Shadows from the Past;
£51.29
Cambridge University Press Versuch einer Theorie der electrischen und optischen Erscheinungen in bewegten Korpern
Book SynopsisThe Dutch physicist Hendrik Antoon Lorentz (18531928) was a leading figure of theoretical physics of his time and won the Nobel Prize in 1902. In this 1895 work, he looks at electromagnetic phenomena (the propagation of light) in relation to moving bodies and optics.Table of ContentsEinleitung; Einige Definitionen und mathematische Bezeichnungen; 1. Die Grundleichungen für ein System in den Aether eingelagerter Ionen; 2. Electrische Erscheinungen in ponderablen Körpern; 3. Untersuchung der Schwingungen; 4. Die Bewegungsgleighungen des Lichtes für ponderable Körper; 5. Anwendung auf die optischen Erscheinungen; 6. Versuche, deren Ergebnisse sich nicht ohne weiteres erklären lassen.
£24.45
Penguin Books Ltd Pathfinders The Golden Age of Arabic Science
Book SynopsisIn Pathfinders: The Golden Age of Arabic Science, Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. Surveying the golden age of Arabic science, Jim Al-Khalili reintroduces such figures as the Iraqi physicist Ibn al-Haytham, who practised the modern scientific method over half a century before Bacon; al-Khwarizmi, the greatest mathematician of the medieval world; and Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a Persian polymath to rival Leonardo da Vinci. ''Jim Al-Khalili has a passion for bringing to a wider audience not just the facts of science but its history ... Just as the legacy of Copernicus and Darwin belongs to all of us, so does that of Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham'' Independent ''He has brought a great story out of the shadows'' Literary Review ''His command of Arabic and mathemaTrade ReviewBrings alive the bubbling invention and delighted curiosity of the Islamic world ... his command of Arabic mathematical physics invests his story with sympathy as well as authority -- Tim Radford * Guardian *A fascinating and user-friendly guide to this whole scientific movement -- Noel Malcolm * Seven, Sunday Telegraph *Jim Al-Khalili has a passion for bringing to a wider audience not just the facts of science but its history ... Just as the legacy of Copernicus and Darwin belongs to all of us, so does that of Ibn Sina and Ibn al-Haytham. To think otherwise, as this book so powerfully reveals, is to do disservice to the tradition to which they belong -- Kenan Malik * Independent *Spry, informative and timely ... Al-Khalili takes the reader through a brisk survey of the highlights of the period -- Stuart Kelly * Scotland on Sunday *A fascinating introduction to a neglected area. His approachable style and ability to distil extensive knowledge into simple narrative makes Pathfinders an absorbing read -- Siobhan Murphy * Metro *Enjoyable and informative ... provides ample evidence for the compatibility of Islam and science -- Sameer Rahim * Daily Telegraph *He has brought a great story out of the shadows * Literary Review *This captivating book is a timely reminder of the debt owed by the West to the intellectual achievements of Arab, Persian and Muslim scholars * The Times *
£13.49
Cornell University Press Standards and Their Stories
Book SynopsisStandardization is one of the defining aspects of modern life, its presence so pervasive that it is usually taken for granted. However cumbersome, onerous, or simply puzzling certain standards may be, their fundamental purpose in streamlining...Trade Review"Standards and Their Stories is an important, well-written, and extraordinarily provocative examination of a part of the world usually hidden from any sort of public view. The authors show how much of what we take for granted is the result of negotiation, compromise, and occasionally coercion. They do so by inventing a suite of new and innovative research methods. As a result, this book is likely to become not only 'the standard' for studies of this sort but also the starting point for new ways of investigating sociotechnical processes."—Lawrence Busch, Michigan State University"I sat down to read the book, read the first page, and paused while my face broke into a smile and a comfortable warm feeling came over my body. Yup, this was going to be a great book. Further reading confirmed the impression. Standards rule our lives. Yeah, standards, that dull, frustrating, topic studied by 'The Society of People Interested in Boring Things.' But this book proves that far from being dull, the stories behind standards are interesting, insightful, and revealing of the workings of bureaucracy. Standards are essential for different stuff made by different companies in different countries to work well together. Whether it is bananas or chocolate, application forms for terrorist training, or the sizes of people's rear ends (critical for airline seats), standards are essential part of life today (all these are covered in the book). This engaging book serves several purposes. It explains much of the history, rationale, and politics of standards. It shows why they have huge social impact, far beyond what most of us realize, often far beyond what was intended. And best of all, it is fun to read."—Don Norman, Northwestern University, author of The Design of Future Things
£20.79
Zone Books Hide and Seek: Camouflage, Photography, and the
Book Synopsis
£27.00
Stanford University Press From Energy to Information
Book SynopsisThis book offers an innovative examination of the interactions of science and technology, art, and literature in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Scholars in the history of art, literature, architecture, computer science, and media studies focus on five historical themes in the transition from energy to information: thermodynamics, electromagnetism, inscription, information theory, and virtuality. Different disciplines are grouped around specific moments in the history of science and technology in order to sample the modes of representation invented or adapted by each field in response to newly developed scientific concepts and models. By placing literary fictions and the plastic arts in relation to the transition from the era of energy to the information age, this collection of essays discovers unexpected resonances among concepts and materials not previously brought into juxtaposition. In particular, it demonstrates the crucial centrality of the theme of energy in moTrade Review"The essays in this remarkable collection are productively disruptive of disciplinary and historical boundaries, richly detailed, and elegantly argued. Written by some of the leading figures in the history of art, literary studies, and science studies (as well as a handful of emerging stars), these essays are virtuoso performances that will capture a wide audience in a number of disciplines and interdisciplinary fields."—David Horn, Ohio State University"Beyond the intrinsic merit of the essays in From Energy to Information, the collection also demonstrates the payoff of such work for our understanding of major issues in modernism and postmodernism."—Modernism/ModernityTable of ContentsILLUSTRATIONS CONTRIBUTORS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Introduction BRUCE CLARKE AND LINDA DALRYMPLE HENDERSON From Thermodynamics to Virtuality BRUCE CLARKE Part One. The Cultures of Thermodynamics Introduction 1. Time Discovered and Time Gendered in Victorian Science and Culture M. NORTON WISE 2. Dark Star Crashes: Classical Thermodynamics and the Allegory of Cosmic Catastrophe BRUCE CLARKE 3. Energetic Abstraction: Ostwald, Bogdanov, and Russian Post-Revolutionary Art CHARLOTTE DOUGLAS Part Two. Ether and Electromagnetism: Capturing the Invisible Introduction 4. Lines of Force, Swirls of Ether BRUCE J. HUNT 5. The Real and the Ethereal: Modernist Energies in Eliot and Pound IAN F. A. BELL 6. Vibratory Modernism: Boccioni, Kupka, and the Ether of Space LINDA DALRYMPLE HENDERSON Part Three. Traces and Inscriptions: Diagramming Forces Introduction 7. Representation on the Line: Graphic Recording Instruments and Scientific Modernism ROBERT M. BRAIN 8. Concerning the Line: Music, Noise, and Phonography DOUGLAS KAHN 9. Bodies in Force Fields: Design Between the Wars CHRISTOPH ASENDORF Part Four. Representing Information Introduction 10. On the Imagination's Horizon Line: Uchronic Histories, Protocybernetic Contact, and Charles Babbage's Calculating Engines DAVID TOMAS 11. Escape and Constraint: Three Fictions Dream of Moving from Energy to Information N. KATHERINE HAYLES Part Five. Voxels and Sensels: Bodies in Virtual Space Introduction 13. Authorship and Surgery: The Shifting Ontology of the Virtual Surgeon TIMOTHY LENOIR AND SHA XIN WEI 14. Eversion: Brushing against Avatars, Aliens, and Angels MARCOS NOVAK Part Six. Representation from Pre- to Post-Modernity Introduction 5. Puppet and Test Pattern: Mechanicity and Materiality in Modern Pictorial Representation RICHARD SHIFF 16. Dinosaurs and Modernity W. J. T. MITCHELL NOTES INDEX
£31.50
Princeton University Press From Dust to Life
Book SynopsisTrade Review"[T]here is much solid information to be gleaned from careful reading."--Publishers Weekly "A stellar read"--Nature "In this grand chronicle of the science behind the origins of our 4.6-billion-year-old Solar System, John Chambers and Jacqueline Mitton peruse everything from the giant collision thought to have formed our Moon to the nature of meteorites."--Rosalind Metcalfe, Nature "[This book] provides a truly comprehensive overview of our solar system's origins and is written in plain, jargon-free language."--Marcus Chown, New Scientist "Incredibly thorough and detailed, yet very accessible to non-scientists too... A compelling overview of the evolution of the Solar System."--Katia Moskvitch, BBC Sky at Night "This is not your average tour of our solar system. Using clear, relatively jargon-free language, Chambers and Mitton provide a comprehensive examination of our current understanding of its formation, which should readily appeal to the general reader who enjoys scientific detail without getting into equations."--Library Journal "Chambers and Mitton stay focused on the science in From Dust to Life: unlike other books that create narratives around the scientists, they discuss the science and the history of its development, rather than the individuals who made it possible. That's a worthwhile trade: while there have been, and are today, interesting people studying the formation of the solar system, the science is even more fascinating as we find out just how complex the process is to turn a cloud of gas and dust into a star and planets."--Jeff Foust, Space Review "Read From Dust to Life to gain a fascinating perspective on the current state of the science behind solar system formation."--David Dickinson, Astro Guys blog "This wild ride across the cosmos and through time covers a lot of territory but isn't merely a laundry list of observations. Instead, readers will find one lucid explanation piggybacked onto another... The authors ... make celestial mechanics comprehensible even to readers with more curiosity than scientific background... Best of all, the authors help readers glimpse the why of it all."--Science News "This book ... is accessible to a scientifically literate general reader... The author team is eminently qualified ... one is a well-known planetary scientist and the other an experienced science writer. The result of their efforts is a highly readable book."--Star Formation Newsletter "Chambers and Mitton present a well-researched, detailed, big-picture overview of the solar system that shows how all of people's observations of its contents contribute to a coherent model for its origin. The authors place the modern theory and latest observations in historical context by beginning each chapter with an overview of the development of these scientific ideas from their beginning."--Choice "This book is up-to date, thorough, and authoritative. It revels in the latest discussions and controversies... It is a joy to read and is accessible to any student with a scientific background... Read this book. Join the cosmogonists and help change the cosmogony/cosmology ratio."--David W. Hughes, Observatory "From Dust to Lifefurnishes a comprehensive overview of current models for the formation of the solar system."--Cait MacPhee, Times Higher EducationTable of ContentsList of Illustrations xi Preface xv 1 Cosmic Archaeology 1 A fascination with the past 1 A solar system to explain 3 Real worlds 9 Winding back the clock 12 Putting the pieces together 16 2 Discovering the Solar System 19 Measuring the solar system 19 From wandering gods to geometrical constructions 22 The Sun takes center stage 25 Laws and order 27 Gravity rules 29 The missing planet 31 Asteroids enter the scene 34 Rocks in space 36 Uranus behaving badly 37 Completing the inventory 40 3 An Evolving Solar System 43 A changing world 43 A nebulous idea begins to take shape 44 The nebular hypothesis in trouble 48 A chance encounter? 50 Nebular theory resurrected 54 4 The Question of Timing 56 Reading the cosmic clock 57 Early estimates: ingenious-but wrong 57 Geology versus physics 58 Radioactivity changes everything 61 Hubble and the age of the universe 63 How radioactive timers work 64 Meteorites hold the key 68 Dating the Sun 71 The age of the universe revisited 73 5 Meteorites 75 A dramatic entrance 75 Where do meteorites come from? 76 Irons and stones 80 Identifying the parents 83 Lunar and Martian meteorites 86 A rare and precious resource 87 What meteorites can tell us 88 6 Cosmic Chemistry 92 Element 43: first a puzzle then a clue 92 An abundance of elements 94 The first elements 96 Cooking in the stellar furnace 98 Building heavier elements 104 Supernovae 105 7 A Star Is Born 108 A child of the Milky Way 108 Where stars are born 110 First steps to a solar system 113 The solar system's birth environment 119 Essential ingredients 121 8 Nursery for Planets 123 An excess of infrared 123 Two kinds of disks 125 Inside the solar nebula 129 Getting the dust to stick 131 The influence of gas 134 How to build planetesimals 135 The demise of the disk 137 9 Worlds of Rock and Metal 140 Sisters but not twins 140 The era of planetesimals 141 Planetary embryos take over 144 The final four 147 Earth 148 Mercury 153 Venus 158 Mars 161 10 the Making of the Moon 168 The Moon today 169 What the Moon is made of 170 The Moon's orbit 172 The fission theory 174 The capture hypothesis 175 The coaccretion hypothesis 176 The giant impact hypothesis 177 Encounter with Theia 179 Earth, Moon, and tidal forces 181 Late heavy bombardment 183 11 Earth, Cradle of Life 186 The Hadean era 186 The tree of life 191 The building blocks of life 193 The rise of oxygen 196 A favorable climate 199 Snowball Earth 202 Future habitability 204 12 Worlds of Gas and Ice 205 Giants of the solar system 205 Building giants by core accretion 211 The disk instability model 214 Spin and tilt 215 Masters of many moons 217 Formation of regular satellites 219 The origin of irregular satellites 220 Rings 221 13 What Happened to the Asteroid Belt? 225 The asteroid belt today 225 Ground down by collisions? 226 Emptied by gravity? 229 Asteroid families 231 The missing mantle problem 233 Asteroids revealed as worlds 236 14 The Outermost Solar System 242 Where do comets come from? 242 Centaurs 246 Looking beyond Neptune 247 The Kuiper belt 248 Sedna 251 The nature of trans-Neptunian objects 252 Where have all the Plutos gone? 256 The Nice model 259 15 Epilogue: Paradigms, Problems, and Predictions 263 The paradigm: solar system evolution in a nutshell 264 Unsolved puzzles 267 Searching the solar system for answers 268 Other planetary systems 271 Future evolution of the solar system 273 Afterword to the 2017 edition 277 Glossary 291 Sources and Further Reading 305 Index 307
£18.00
Transworld Publishers Ltd The Disappearing Spoon...and other true tales
Book SynopsisWhy did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? Why did the Japanese kill Godzilla with missiles made of cadmium (Cd, 48)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie''s reputation? And why did tellurium (Te, 52) lead to the most bizarre gold rush in history?The periodic table is one of our crowning scientific achievements, but it''s also a treasure trove of passion, adventure, betrayal and obsession. The fascinating tales in The Disappearing Spoon follow carbon, neon, silicon, gold and every single element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, finance, mythology, conflict, the arts, medicine and the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. Why did a little lithium (Li, 3) help cure poet Robert Lowell of his madness? And how did gallium (Ga, 31) become the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Disappearing Spoon has the answers, fusing science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, discovery and alchemy, from the Trade ReviewKean has Bill Bryson's comic touch... a lively history of the elements and the characters behind their discovery * New Scientist *A wealth of fascinating stories with a dazzling cast of heroes and villains. Written with gusto and backed by a mind-boggling amount of research, this is a real page turner -- Robert Matthews * Daily Telegraph *One of the most readable and entertaining books about science yet published ... [Kean] is master of enlightening metaphors * Daily Express *The periodic table meets the best-seller list with Sam Kean's Disappearing Spoon, an engaging tour of the elements... with the éclat of raw sodium dropped in a beaker of water * The New York Times *the anecdotal flourishes of Oliver Sacks and the populist accessibility of Malcolm Gladwell * Entertainment Weekly *
£10.44
Random House USA Inc The Information A History a Theory a Flood
Book SynopsisFrom the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory. Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live.A
£16.80
Harvard University Press The History of Statistics
Book SynopsisStigler shows how statistics arose from the interplay of mathematical concepts and the needs of several applied sciences. His emphasis is upon how methods of probability theory were developed for measuring uncertainty, for reducing uncertainty, and as a conceptual framework for quantitative studies in the social sciences.Trade ReviewOne is tempted to say that the history of statistics in the nineteenth century will be associated with the name Stigler. -- Morris Kline * New York Times Book Review *An exceptionally searching, almost loving, study of the relevant inspirations and aberrations of its principal characters James Bernoulli, de Moivre, Bayes, Laplace, Gauss, Quetelet, Lexis, Galton, Edgeworth, and Pearson, not neglecting a grand supporting cast… The definitive record of an intellectual Golden Age, an overoptimistic climb to a height not to be maintained. -- M. Stone * Science *In this tour de force of careful scholarship, Stephen Stigler has laid bare the people, ideas, and events underlying the development of statistics… He has written an important and wonderful book… Sometimes Stigler’s prose is so evocative it is almost poetic. -- Howard Wainer * Contemporary Psychology *The book is a pleasure to read: the prose sparkles; the protagonists are vividly drawn; the illustrations are handsome and illuminating; the insights plentiful and sharp. This will remain the definitive work on the early development of mathematical statistics for some time to come. -- Lorraine J. Daston * Journal of Modern History *Stigler’s book exhibits a rare combination of mastery of technical materials, sensitivity to conceptual milieu, and near exhaustive familiarity with primary sources. An exemplary study. -- Lorraine DastonTable of ContentsIntroduction PART 1: The Development of Mathematical Statistics in Astronomy and Geodesy before 1827 1. Least Squares and the Combination of Observations Legendre in 1805 Cotes's Rule Tobias Mayer and the Libration of the Moon Saturn, Jupiter, and Enter Laplace's Rescue of the Solar System Roger Boscovich and the Figure of the Earth Laplace and the Method of Situation Legendre and the Invention of Least Squares 2. Probabilists and the Measurement of Uncertainty Jacob Bernoulli De Moivre and the Expanded Binomial Bernoulli's Failure De Moivre's Approximation De Moivre's Deficiency Simpson and Bayes Simpson's Crucial Step toward Error A Bayesian Critique 3. Inverse Probability Laplace and Inverse Probability The Choice of Means The Deduction of a Curve of Errors in 1772-1774
£32.36
HarperCollins Publishers Inc A Brief History of Earth
Book SynopsisPlacing twenty first-century climate change in deep context, A Brief History of Earth is an indispensable look at where we’ve been and where we’re going.Features original illustrations depicting Earth history and nearly 50 figures (maps, tables, photographs, graphs).Trade Review“A fantastic distillation of Earth's history, from one of the world’s leading geologists: Andrew H. Knoll has written an engrossing, witty, and eminently readable romp through our home planet’s 4.5 billion years, from trilobites and dinosaurs to human origins and our rapidly changing modern times.” — Steve Brusatte, New York Times bestselling author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs "Having spent decades at the forefront of discovery and research, Andrew H. Knoll has been one of our planet's leading scientists. In A Brief History of Earth, Knoll treats us to a 4.6-billion-year detective story revealing the origins and inner workings of our home in the solar system. In these pages you'll discover something profound: how our past, present, and future are grounded in Planet Earth." — Neil Shubin, author of Your Inner Fish and Some Assembly Required "Covers the arc of our planet’s history from its earliest formation to the present day in a succinct and deftly-written way." — Forbes “Charts the planet’s history in accessible style, from its beginning as ‘a small planet accreted out of rocky debris circling a modest young star’ through the development of minerals, geographical formations, atmosphere, and life forms large and small.” — Associated Press "Skillfully condenses the history of the Earth. ... An expert primer on the history of everything." — Kirkus Reviews "A sublime chronicle of our planet’s formation and beginnings, the perhaps unlikely yet awe-inspiring interactions that created life, diverse and abundant, and mass extinctions and recoveries. Knoll skillfully presents the extreme conditions, violence, and delicate fragility that mark the cycles and evolution of our home." — Booklist (starred review) "The type of book that is sorely needed at this moment in history. ... Knoll assembles facts from a wide variety of fields to tell our planet’s story in a clear and accessible narrative." — Scientific Inquirer “An eloquent call to action.” — CNN.com "In spite of its sweeping scale, the Harvard geologist and natural history professor’s primer not only makes the titular four billion years understandable – his accessible expertise makes it interesting." — Globe and Mail (Toronto)
£11.69
Johns Hopkins University Press North Atlantic Right Whales
Book SynopsisThe result is a single volume that offers a comprehensive understanding of North Atlantic right whales, the role they played in the many cultures that hunted them, and our modern attempts to help them recover.Trade ReviewAlthough the text is written for a technical audience, the lucid and fluid narrative is combined with sufficient engaging descriptions to make this work accessible to all audiences. Statistics about whale populations and whaling are present, but unlike many books on whaling that overwhelm readers with extensive tables, quantitative information is placed judiciously in the narrative to illustrate specific points. The figures are well-rendered and useful. Recommended.—ChoiceThe back cover states that the work is a masterpiece and I have to agree. Whatever you want to know about Atlantic whaling, its history and the eventual conservation of whales, this is the text to read.—The BiologistThis book’s highly detailed historical record without a doubt required an enormous effort to research, assemble, and present for a popular audience... Laist’s treatment of the right whale encompasses its entire history, from years of exploitation, to the first conservation concerns, to current threat-mitigation actions.—Irina S. Trukhanova, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Polar Science Center, Seattle, WA, Conservation BiologyTable of ContentsChapter Title Preface I A Right Whale Named Nantucket II What's In A Name? III Foraging with a Smile IV. Evolution V. The Origin of Whaling VI Medieval Whaling in Northern Europe VII Ghost Whalers VIII Basque Whaling in Terranova IX The Dawn of International Whaling X A Fitful Start for Colonial Whalers XI Long Island Whaling XII Cape Cod Whaling XIII Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape May XIV Whaling in North Carolina and the Southeastern United State XV Estimating Pre-Exploitation Population Size XVI A Second Chance XVII A Dedicated Recovery Program XVIII Nobody Wants to Hit a Whale XIX. Slow Speed Ahead XX Entanglement XXI Oh What A Tangled Web XXII Ten Thousand Right WhalesAcknowledgementsReferencesIndex
£45.33
Princeton University Press The First Fossil Hunters
Book SynopsisTrade Review"A historical and scientific detective story of first rank. . . . [Mayor's] results are as striking as they are entertaining."---Mott T. Greene, Science"Mayor tells a fascinating story of ancient encounters with fossils, setting modern palaeontology beside ancient art and literature."---Helen King, Times Literary Supplement"Refreshing. . . . Mayor presents her case with an engaging zeal, describing her sleuthing efforts at length. . . . By the end of the book, you will find yourself filled with enthusiasm for following Mayor's lead in breaking down interdisciplinary boundaries and thus enriching your understanding of the human experience."---Kate A. Robson Brown, Natural History"Merging the fields of paleontology, archaeology and classical literature, Mayor's research has uncovered striking correlations between modern fossil finds and many of the myths and folklore that sprang up in early Western civilization."---Bryn Nelson, Newsday"[Mayor] has done an admirable job in tracking down so many obscure references and easily persuades us that these early writers indeed recorded a palaeontological bonanza centuries before the first dinosaur remains were recognised by modern science."---Richard Fortey, London Review of Books"Adrienne Mayor has . . . done some digging deep into the past and found literary and artistic clues—and not a few huge fossils—that seem to explain the inspiration for many of the giants, monsters, and other strange creatures in the mythology of antiquity."---John Noble Wilford, New York Times"Mayor's chronicles do more that entertain; as she contends, they also show that people of Greek and Roman times had a broad understanding of fossils as organic remains of extinct organisms. . . . The First Fossil Hunters brings together mythology, art, geology, and paleontology in a convincing manner."---Tim Tokaryk, American Scientist"Blending the thrill of scientific discovery with the fascination of ancient folklore and legends, Mayor gives us a comprehensive overview of the ancient literature dealing with these findings. . . . In many ways, this book resembles a detective story. When the author gets on the track of something interesting, she follows it wherever it leads. . . . The First Fossil Hunters will be a revelation to anyone interested in ancient history. For me, it is one of the best books of recent years."---Walter L. Friedrich, Times Higher Education Supplement"A pleasure to read. . . . The insight into human behavior is enough to attract anthropologists and laypeople to read this fascinating account of paleontology in ancient times."---Deborah Ruscillo, American Journal of Archaeology"Mayor's thought-provoking book will mark a watershed in the approach to griffins and giants. . . . For both its innovative method and its results, this well-balanced and vividly written book belongs on the bookshelf of every historian of natural sciences."---Liliane Bodson, Isis"Clear, readable, and convincing. . . . A surprising account of material overlooked or misunderstood by both historians of science and interpreters of Greek myth." * Kirkus Reviews *"After reading Mayor's The First Fossil Hunters one thing is certain. You'll never look at classical mythology—or at the history of paleontology—the same way again."---Steve Voynick, Rock and Gem"Mayor takes palaeontologists and historians of palaeontology to task. At best there has been accidental ignorance and at worst wilful avoidance and misrepresentation of how much the Greeks and Romans knew about fossils. . . . Mayor proceeds to make her case with detailed 'chapter and verse' from the ancients. It is indeed impressive and generally very convincing."---Douglas Palmer, Geological Magazine"An interesting overview of a historical topic which has been little studied."---Richard Samuels, Magonia Review of Books
£15.29
Duke University Press Code
Book SynopsisIn Code Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan reconstructs how Progressive Era technocracy as well as crises of industrial democracy and colonialism shaped early accounts of cybernetics and digital media by theorists including Norbert Wiener, Warren Weaver, Margaret Mead, Gregory Bateson, Claude Lévi-Strauss, Roman Jakobson, Jacques Lacan, Roland Barthes, and Luce Irigaray. His analysis casts light on how media-practical research forged common epistemic cause in programs that stretched from 1930s interwar computing at MIT and eugenics to the proliferation of seminars and laboratories in 1960s Paris. This mobilization ushered forth new fields of study such as structural anthropology, family therapy, and literary semiology while forming enduring intellectual affinities between the humanities and informatics. With Code, Geoghegan offers a new history of French theory and the digital humanities as transcontinental and political endeavors linking interwar colonial ethnography in Trade Review“Straying away from the familiar itineraries of intellectual history, Bernard Dionysius Geoghegan invites us to take a path less trodden: a detour that allows the reader to revisit famous milestones in the development of cybernetics and digital media, and to connect them to scholarly debates stemming from fields of study as distant as structural anthropology, family therapy, and literary semiology." * The Duke Reader *“Bernard Geoghegan’s Code presents a strong history of how the humanities of the 20th century worked in close connection with communication and information sciences … a rich and insightful analysis.” -- Jussi Parikka * Leonardo Reviews *"Anyone interested in the political and ethical dimensions of cybernetics and contemporary social networking will be fascinated by Geoghegan's rich historical and interpretive account of these important and timely subjects. Highly recommended. Lower- and upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students and faculty. Students in two-year technical programs." -- J. W. Dauben * Choice *"Geoghegan’s rich and surprising account of the common inheritance shared by information theory and French Theory in the era of liberal technocracy, industrial capitalism, and colonial crisis will change how we think about the nature, risks, and possibilities of data analytics, critical theory, and the digital humanities now and for years to come." -- Carolyn Pedwell * Theory, Culture & Society *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Introduction. Codification 1 1. Foundations for Informatics: Technocracy, Philanthropy, and Communications Sciences 21 2. Pattern Recognition: Data Capture in Colonies, Clinics, and Suburbs 53 3. Poeticizing Cybernetics: An Informatic Infrastructure for Structural Linguistics 85 4. Theory for Administrators: The Ambivalent Technocracy of Claude Lévi-Strauss 107 5. Learning to Code: Cybernetics and French Theory 133 Conclusion. Coding Today: Toward an Analysis of Cultural Analytics 169 Notes 181 Bibliography 221 Index 245
£18.89
Cambridge University Press The Theory of Sound
Book SynopsisJohn William Strutt, third Baron Rayleigh (18421919), was an English physicist best known as the co-discoverer of the element argon. These highly influential volumes, first published between 1877 and 1878, contain Rayleigh's classic account of acoustics, which provided the foundations of modern acoustic theory.Table of ContentsPreface; 1. Sound due to vibrations; 2. Composition of harmonic motions of like period; 3. Systems with one degree of freedom; 4. Generalized co-ordinates; 5. Cases in which the three functions, T, F, V are simultaneously reducible to sums of squares; 6. Law of extension of a string; 7. Classification of the vibrations of bars; 8. Potential energy of bending; 9. Tension of a membrane; 10. Vibrations of plates.
£29.99
Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group Turings Cathedral
Book Synopsis
£13.11
Yale University Press Galileo Watcher of the Skies
Book SynopsisGalileo (1564-1642) is one of the most important and controversial figures in the history of science. Tackling Galileo as astronomer, engineer and author, the author places him at the centre of Renaissance culture. He traces Galileo through his early rebellious years onwards.Trade Review"In a quiverful of publications, David Wootton has made it his mission to help us view the Renaissance thought-world in new ways, and this elegant biography does not disappoint. The Galileo he portrays is no saint, either Catholic or secular, but is the more fascinating for revealing the great scientist's selfishness, anxiety and political ineptitude, together with all the intellectual blind alleys taken in struggles towards his eventual goal. Wootton vividly contrasts the religious and political claustrophobia of seventeenth-century Italy with the abstract beauty of the mathematics and geometry which so delighted his subject. This is an absorbing study worthy of the life-story it tells.”—Diarmaid MacCulloch -- Diarmaid MacCulloch"Wootton’s Galileo is many things: private unbeliever, reluctant empiricist and impetuous thinker. This brilliant book traces Galileo’s difficult negotiations of academic jealousies, court politics and ecclesiastical scrutiny, allows us to imagine the excitement and danger of looking through a telescope in Venice, and gives fresh insights into the mind and the man as father and son. A remarkable achievement."—Justin Champion -- Justin Champion"Wootton's biography has much to recommend it. It is engagingly written and offers fresh insights into Galileo's intellectual development."—James Hannam, Standpoint Magazine * Standpoint Magazine *"Wootton. . . argues persuasively in this well researched, intellectual biography that Galileo was a Copernican long before his discovery of the moons of Jupiter proved that not all heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth."—Manjit Kumar, Sunday Telegraph * Telegraph *"Urgent. . . will garner. . . immediate interest and controversy."—Literary Review * Literary Review *"Wittily challenging... Wootton boldly presents his book as an intellectual biography which cannot be isolated from contemporary attitudes to tradition and innovation, and which cannot focus on Galileo's ideas without considering his personality and personal relations."—Claudio Vita-Finzi, Times Literary Supplement -- Claudio Vita-Finzi * Times Literary Supplement *"Wootton [is] a deeply erudite historian by trade and a passionate revisionist by temperament...Read Wooton to meet a Galileo who was always estranged froom vital aspects of his social and cultural world--and used that estrangement, as great intellectuals do, to fuel his intellectual progress."—Anthony Grafton, Bookforum -- Anthony Grafton * Bookforum *"Fascinating reading. . . . With this highly adventurous portrayal of Galileo's inner world, Wootton assures himself a high rank among the most radical recent Galileo interpreters. . . . Undoubtedly Wootton makes an important contribution to Galileo scholarship."—John F. Haught, America -- John F. Haught * America *"A deeply erudite historian by trade and a passionate revisionist by temperament. . . . Read Wootton to meet a Galileo who was always estranged from vital aspects of his social and cultural world-and used that estrangement, as a great intellectuals do, to fuel his intellectual progress."—Anthony Grafton, Bookforum -- Anthony Grafton * Bookforum *"I heartily recommend [this book]…. Wootton aims at an intellectual biography and the results are often magnificent, especially when it comes to explaining the science."—Jonathon Wright, Catholic Herald -- Jonathon Wright * Catholic Herald *"...vivid and compelling… [An] engaging subtle and arresting story."—Eileen Reeves, Times Higher Education -- Eileen Reeves * Times Higher Education *"Engaging and accessible."—James Wilsdon, Financial Times -- James Wilsdon * Financial Times *"Wootton writes a fascinating book…. As a whole, the book is absolutely first rate, and well worth reading and re-reading."—Revd Jeremy Craddock, Church Times -- Revd Jeremy Craddock * Church Times *“Wootton has written a thoughtful biography full of Renaissance detail in which he shows Galileo as a towering figure of genius, a man whose science was conditioned by his character, and who character enabled him to formulate a unique view of the Universe and man’s place in it…..This must be the definitive Galileo biography for the general reader.”—Barry Kent, The Observatory Magazine Vol.131 -- Barry Kent * The Observatory Magazine Vol.131 *“This book is not just a superb biography of Galileo but a good introduction to the centuries-old debate over religious and scientific views of truth.”—Contemporary Review * Contemporary Review *“Wootton’s insights are unnervingly convincing…”—Nick Wilding, London Review of Books -- Nick Wilding * London Review of Books *"[This book] demonstrates an awesome command of the vast Galileo literature. . . . Wootton excels in boldly speculating about Galileo's motives and the overall trajectory of his life. . . . [An] engaging account."—Owen Gingerich, The New York Times Book Review -- Owen Gingerich * The New York Times Book Review *"Wootton has written a lively book that is interesting to read, and one can concentrate on the fascinating details from the extensive research."—Noel M. Swerdlow, American Scientist -- Noel M. Swerdlow * American Scientist *"[This book] demonstrates an awesome command of the vast Galileo literature. . . . Wootton excels in boldly speculating about Galileo's motives and the overall trajectory of his life. . . . [An] engaging account."—Owen Gingerich, The New York Times Book Review -- John Derbyshire * The New Criterion *"[This book] demonstrates awesome command of the vast Galileo literature. . . . Wootton excels in speculating about Galileo's motives and in the overall trajectory of his life. . . . [An] engaging account."—The New York Times Book Review * The New York Times Book Review *" . . . a thought-provoking picture of him [Galileo]. . . . To read this account of how his ideas clashed witht he accepted ones is to appreciate that he is one of the world's great secular heroes."—Rob Hardy, The Commercial Dispatch -- Rob Hardy * The Commercial Dispatch *Selected as a Choice Outstanding Academic Title for 2011 in the Astronautics and Astronomy category -- Choice Outstanding Academic Title * Choice *“Wootton’s writing achieves its goals well and a thorough examination and understanding of the large number of Galileo’s papers that have survived has allowed the author to deliver an absorbing account. . .Containing exhaustive notes and an excellent bibliography, Watcher of the Skies is a highly readable account of the life and career of the controversial, impulsive, often rebellious and ever-ambitious astronomer, author and scientist.”—Brian Jones, BBC Sky at Night Magazine -- Brian Jones * BBC Sky at Night Magazine *
£16.14
Oxford University Press Physics
Book SynopsisFor many centuries, Aristotle''s Physics was the essential starting point for anyone who wished to study the natural sciencesThis book begins with an analysis of change, which introduces us to Aristotle''s central concepts of matter and form, before moving on to an account of explanation in the sciences and a defence of teleological explanation. Aristotle then turns to detailed, important, and often ingenious discussions of notions such as infinity, place, void, time, and conintuity. He ends with an argument designed to show that the changes we experience in the world demand as their cause a single unchanging cause of all change, namely God.This is the first complete translation of Physics into English since 1930. It presents Aristotle''s thought accurately, while at the same time simplifying and expanding the often crabbed and elliptical style of the original, so that it is very much easier to read. A lucid introduction and extensive notes explain the general structure of each sectionTrade Reviewthe editions deserve great credit for the enthusiasm of their approach ... The introductions by eminent scholars put the thoughts of the author and the history of the time into clear perspective. Oxford should be given credit for making the classics accessible for all rather than just crib notes for students. * Jonathan Copeland, Lincolnshire Echo *
£9.49
Oxford University Press Michael Faraday
Book SynopsisMichael Faraday is one of the best known scientific figures of all time. Known as the discoverer of electro-magnetic induction, the principle behind the electric generator and transformer, he has frequently been portrayed as the ''father'' of electrical engineering from whence much of his popular fame derives. This Very Short Introduction dispels the myth that Faraday was an experimental genius working alone in his basement laboratory, making fundamental discoveries that were later applied by others. Instead, it portrays Faraday as a grand theorist of the physical world profoundly influencing later physicists such as Thomson (Kelvin), Maxwell, and Einstein. Frank A.J.L. James explores Faraday''s life from his origins in eighteenth-century Westmorland and Yorkshire, his religious and scientific background, to the growth of his fame in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. As well as introducing his scientific research, he also puts Faraday in the various institutional contexts in whicTable of Contents1. Beginnings ; 2. A career in science ; 3. Science and practice ; 4. Electricity ; 5. Magnetism, matter, and space ; 6. Faraday as a celebrity ; 7. Faraday in the 20th Century ; References ; Further Reading
£9.49
Columbia University Press Waking Dreaming Being
Book SynopsisCognitive science joins with Asian contemplative traditions and philosophy to bring revolutionary meaning to the human experience.Trade ReviewIn a game-changing book that is both an intellectual tour de force and the courageous statement of a life's ideal, Thompson brilliantly demonstrates how Indian philosophical thought can join forces with the neurosciences to create a new science of the conscious mind. A must-read for anyone who believes that the future of philosophy is crosscultural. -- Jonardon Ganeri, University of Sussex and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Evan Thompson, a philosopher with a deep knowledge of Indo-Tibetan contemplative traditions and modern neuroscience, has written a brilliant and comprehensive book on the nature of awareness and the self. Waking, Dreaming, Being is a dazzling synthesis. Thompson takes on some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of mind and addresses them with remarkable creativity and clarity. This volume is a must read for any serious student of the mind and consciousness. -- Richard J. Davidson, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of The Emotional Life of Your Brain Drawing on multiple sources of knowledge, all tested by first-person experience and critical analysis, Thompson presents an illuminating neurophenomenological account of what it's like to be a conscious human being. -- Stephen LaBerge, author of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming Waking, Dreaming, Being powerfully demonstrates how bringing cognitive science, philosophy, and Buddhism into a critical engagement can open innovative ways of exploring the 'hard problem' of consciousness. The blending of philosophical rigor and scientific knowledge with meditative insights, with the author's own remarkable life as the larger background, makes the book a real joy to read. This book will be an invaluable help to anyone who is interested in knowing how the fundamental questions of self, consciousness, and human existence can be explored in a way that combines the best of both East and West. -- Thupten Jinpa, author of Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy With extensive training in Buddhism, brain science, and phenomenology, Evan Thompson is uniquely positioned to reveal how different perspectives on the mind can be mutually illuminating. He begins with the Buddhist insight that there are many forms of consciousness--far more than traditionally recognized in the West--and he shows that these can be associated with deferent brain processes. The result is a richly original and integrated account of human mental life. Whether you are a curious newcomer or a seasoned expert, you have much to learn from this stunning synthesis of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge science. -- Jesse Prinz, author of The Conscious Brain and Beyond Human Nature [an] excellent book. New York Times Book Review Extraordinary and exciting claims... beautiful ideas. Cosmos and Culture Contemplative and groundbreaking, Waking, Dreaming, Being is a welcome addition to college library philosophy shelves. Midwest Book Review Waking, Dreaming, Being is an exceptional and intriguing contribution to the exploration of consciousness as a multidimensional self and makes a convincing argument for the usefulness of philosophical, experiential, and scientific approaches to understanding consciousness. -- Marissa Krimsky Buddhadharma A rich, thought-provoking and poetic tour of a wide variety of phenomena of consciousness... Constructivist Foundations A magnificent tome. Big Think This is a ground-breaking exploration of conciousness and the self as they occur across the states of waking, falling asleep, dreaming, lucid dreaming, deep dreamless sleep, out-of-body experiences and dying. Evan Thompson's rich, beautifully written book interweaves lucid prose with relevant personal anecdotes, bringing the latest neuroscience together with ancient contemplative wisdom to offer valuable insightr into the nature of conciousness and the self. -- Miri Albahari Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews This remarkable book addresses deep philosophical questions from a unique perspective. Choice Waking Dreaming Being will soon be considered a landmark and a tipping point in consciousness investigations.Journal of Mind and Behavior Journal of Mind and Behavior A lucid and comprehensive account of the self as a subject of experience and agent of action. -- George T. Hole Philosophical Practice A fine book by an extraordinary author. Journal of Consciousness StudiesTable of ContentsForeword by Stephen Batchelor Prologue: The Dalai Lama's Conjecture Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Seeing: What Is Consciousness? 2. Waking: How Do We Perceive? 3. Being: What Is Pure Awareness? 4. Dreaming: Who Am I? 5. Witnessing: Is This a Dream? 6. Imagining: Are We Real? 7. Floating: Where Am I? 8. Sleeping: Are We Conscious in Deep Sleep? 9. Dying: What Happens When We Die? 10. Knowing: Is the Self an Illusion? Notes Bibliography Index
£17.09
Granta Books 1493: How Europe's Discovery of the Americas
Book SynopsisTwo hundred million years ago the earth consisted of a single vast continent, Pangea, surrounded by a great planetary sea. Continental drift tore apart Pangaea, and for millennia the hemispheres were separate, evolving almost entirely different suites of plants and animals. Columbus's arrival in the Americas brought together these long-separate worlds. Many historians believe that this collision of ecosystems and cultures - the Columbian Exchange - was the most consequential event in human history since the Neolithic Revolution. And it was the most consequential event in biological history since the extinction of the dinosaurs. Beginning with the world of microbes and moving up the species ladder to mankind, Mann rivetingly describes the profound effect this exchanging of species had on the culture of both continents.
£12.34
The University of Chicago Press Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the
Book SynopsisThe age of the baroque - a time of great strides in science and mathematics - also saw the construction of some of the world's most magnificent buildings. Hersey explores the interrelations of the two developments and how they cross-fertilised.Trade Review"In Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque, George L. Hersey examines the era's scientific, musical and architectural lore of number, shape and proportion.... A beguiling book." - Kerry Downes, Times Literary Supplement "Learned and lucidly written.... Hersey demonstrates how, through geometry, architecture translated abstract ideas into visual, haptic forms. In chapters on music, optics, the cube, symmetry, circles and ovals, spirals and epicycles, Hersey explicitly shows the cross-fertilisation of science and art that scholars have hitherto assumed but never demonstrated." - Art Newspaper
£47.27
University of Washington Press Life as Surplus
Book SynopsisFocusing on the period from 1970s onwards, this is a study of the relationship between politics, economics, science, and cultural values in the United States. It demonstrates that the history of biotechnology cannot be understood without taking into account the simultaneous rise of neo-liberalism as a political force and an economic policy.Trade Review"Melinda Cooper's forceful Life as Surplus is a political economy of the exploitation of life in the biotech era that exposes the modes of re/production attuned to late twentieth-century neoliberal capitalism..Cooper's brilliant and inventive mapping of prevailing contemporary biopolitical imaginaries is precious." * Biosocieties *"A fascinating study of speculative impulses that serve as the foundation of increasingly commercialized life sciences." * Book News *"Life as Surplus is interesting, and examines some of the fundamentals of science practice. . .Well written, a nd well documented. Useful for professionals and for academic coursework on science and society. Recommended." * Choice *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. Life Beyond the Limits: Inventing the Bioeconomy 2. On Pharmaceutical Empire: AIDS, Security, and Exorcism 3. Preempting Emergence: The Biological Turn in the War on Terror Intermezzo 4. Contortions: Tissue Engineering and the Topological Body 5. Labors of Regeneration: Stem Cells and the Embryoid Bodies of Capital 6. The Unborn Born Again: Neo-Imperialism, the Evangelical Right, and the Culture of Life Epilogue Notes References Index
£25.19
Dover Publications Inc. History of the Theories of Aether and Electricity
Book SynopsisAccessible treatment offers highly detailed accounts concerning development of ideas and theories about the nature of electricity and space (aether), focusing on period from Descartes to Lorentz, Einstein, and Minkowski.
£23.37
WW Norton & Co Mathematics
Book SynopsisA gently guided, profusely illustrated Grand Tour of the world of mathematics.
£53.99
