History of science Books

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Book SynopsisWhen Nicolaus Copernicus claimed that the Earth was not stationary at the centre of the universe but circled the Sun, he brought about a total revolution in the sciences and consternation in the Church.Copernicus' theory demanded a new physics to explain motion and force, a new theory of space, and a completely new conception of the nature of our universe. He also showed for the first time that a common-sense view of things isn't necessarily correct, and that mathematics can and does reveal the true nature of the material world. As John Henry reveals, from his idea of a swiftly moving Earth Copernicus sowed the seed from which science has grown to be a dominant aspect of modern culture, fundamental in shaping our understanding of the workings of the cosmos.Trade Review'Contains a wealth of detail . an ideal introduction to Copernicus' * Morning Star *

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Book SynopsisEvery rock is a tangible trace of the earth’s past. This book tells the fascinating stories behind the discoveries that shook the foundations of geology. In twenty-five chapters—each about a particular rock, outcrop, or geologic phenomenon—Donald R. Prothero recounts the scientific detective work that shaped our understanding of geology.Trade ReviewA natural follow-up to the author’s The Story of Life in 25 Fossils . . . [A] useful introduction to geology. * Kirkus Reviews *In 25 short and enjoyable chapters, [Prothero] explores issues that have been at the center of geology since long before geology was a science... Prothero provides thought-provoking historical context for each subject and presents information about the individuals responsible for advancing geological knowledge—including James Hutton, Charles Lyell, and Alfred Wegener—while explaining the underlying science in an accessible manner. * Publishers Weekly *Geologist Donald Prothero has crafted a rock-solid premise for this delightful book. -- Barbara Kiser * Nature *I learned something and gained a deeper appreciation for the history of Earth science from reading The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks. I recommend it to anyone interested in tales of scientific discovery and natural marvels. * Physics Today *Skillfully presents a vast array of facts that should appeal to readers newly acquainted with Earth science who are interested in learning a bit more. * Choice *The Story of the Earth in 25 Rocks provides twenty-five well-lit doorways into the sometimes dark and imposing edifice of the geologic past. Colorful characters welcome the reader in, revealing the very human nature of scientific inquiry and our long and complicated relationship with rocks. -- Marcia Bjornerud, author of Reading the Rocks: The Autobiography of EarthTable of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgments 1. Volcanic Tuff: Vulcan’s Wrath: The Eruption of Vesuvius2. Native Copper: The Iceman and the Island of Copper3. Cassiterite: The “Isles of Tin” and the Bronze Age4. Angular Unconformity: “No Vestige of a Beginning”: The Immensity of Geologic Time5. Igneous Dikes: The “Earth’s Great Heat Engine”: The Origin of Magmas6. Coal: The Rock That Burns Fires the Industrial Revolution7. Jurassic World: The Map That Changed the World: William Smith and the Rocks of Britain8. Radioactive Uranium: Clocks in Rocks: Arthur Holmes and the Age of the Earth9. Chondritic Meteorites: Messengers From Space: The Origin of the Solar System10. Iron-Nickel Meteorites: The Cores of Other Planets 11. Moon Rocks: Green Cheese or Anorthosite: The Origin of the Moon12. Zircons: Early Oceans and Life? Evidence in a Grain of Sand13. Stromatolites: Microbial Condos: Cyanobacteria and the Oldest Life14. Banded Iron Formation: Mountains of Iron: The Earth’s Early Atmosphere15. Turbidites: Archean Sediments and Submarine Landslides16. Diamictites: Tropical Glaciers and the Snowball Earth17. Exotic Terranes: Paradox in Rocks: Wandering Fossils and Traveling Landmasses18. Jigsaw-Puzzle Bedrock: Alfred Wegener and Continental Drift19. Chalk: The Cretaceous Seaway and Greenhouse Planet20. The Iridium Layer: The Death of the Dinosaurs21. Lodestones: How Paleomagic Launched Plate Tectonics22. Blueschists: The Puzzle of Subduction Zones23. Transform Faults: Earthquake! The San Andreas Fault24. Messinian Evaporites: The Mediterranean Was a Desert25. Glacial Erraticts: A Poet, a Professor, a Politician, a Janitor, and the Discovery of the Ice AgesIndex

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Book SynopsisTransforming Matter provides an accessible and clearly written introduction to the history of chemistry, telling the story of how the discipline has developed over the years.Trade ReviewLevere's book is commendably clear, with good explanations of numerous concepts... It is an excellent textbook for practicing chemists and chemistry students. -- Peter Morris New Scientist Excellent... In Trevor H. Levere's book Transforming Matter, this topic [when did chemistry become a science] is explained with precision and clarity, alongside other aspects of the history of chemistry... Most suitable for readers studying the history of chemistry as part of their education... [though] the general reader with more than a passing interest in the development of modern science would find much of interest. -- Anthony R. Butler American Scientist What makes this book enjoyable is its personal tone. The reader feels as if he or she was listening to a course of lectures each of which has its own little dramaturgy and message... Transforming Matter is a book science students will enjoy. It gives a good sense of the intellectual fascination involved in man's open-ended quest for understanding the material world and its inner structures. And it may also encourage to taste some of the fascination the history of chemistry has to offer. -- Christoph Meinel Ambix Transforming Matter is targeted at newcomers to the subject, whether or not they have a background in the sciences. Formulas and technicalities are kept to a minimum, and it says much of Levere's skill as a popularizer that despite these restrictions, he is able to give lucid and accurate accounts of the principles of thermodynamics in an excellent chapter on the rise of physical chemistry. The book is interspersed with aptly chosen black-and-white illustrations accompanied by boxed texts that complement the main narrative... Instructors who want a readable, reliable, and general introductory text for arts and sciences students... will find this beautifully crafted textbook highly commendable. -- William H. Brock Chemical Heritage Levere's book is commendably up to date, and amazingly full of information... His book can be recommended for students as readable and reliable. It is expository, didactic and clear. -- David Knight British Journal for the History of Science An excellent short history of chemistry. -- Michael Sutton Chemistry in Britain A solid treatment of the complex process by which chemistry has evolved. Choice Transforming Matter is an excellent introduction to the personalities and philosophies behind the development of chemistry... an ideal source for those outside the profession needing or wanting some grounding in the evolution of chemistry. -- Jonathan Nabe E-StreamsTable of ContentsContents: 1 First Steps: From Alchemy to Chemistry? 2 Robert Boyle: Chemistry and Experiment 3 A German Story: What Burns, and How 4 An Enlightened Discipline: Chemistry as Science and Craft 5 Different Kinds of Air 6 Theory and Practice: The Tools of Revolution 7 Atoms and Elements 8 The Rise of Organic Chemistry 9 Atomic Weights Revisited 10 The Birth of the Teaching-Research Laboratory 11 Atoms in Space 12 Physical Chemistry 13 The Nature of the Chemical Bond 14 Conclusion: Where Now, and Where Next? New Frontiers

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Book SynopsisJames Clerk Maxwell published the Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism in 1873. At his death, six years later, his theory of the electromagnetic field was neither well understood nor widely accepted. By the mid-1890s, however, it was regarded as one...Trade ReviewGeorge Francis Fitzgerald's indirect influence was immense, and his reputation grows with every retelling of his period by the historians of science, especially in... The Maxwellians, by Bruce Hunt.... He was the acknowledged leader of an international team—what we would today call an invisible college—calling themselves the Maxwellians—the subject of Hunt's splendid book. -- D. Weaire, Trinity College, Dublin * Europhysics News *The entire story is fascinating and often surprising. It deserves a wide audience. This will be facilitated by the fact that the book is in English, not in mathematics; a few equations appear, but most are in plain prose. * American Scientist *The Maxwellians is a remarkable achievement.... Hunt combines the highest level of professional historical scholarship with a narrative that is lively and compelling throughout. * Nature *This excellent book is the story of three men whose lives were shaped and whose friendship was made through the study of one book, James Clerk Maxwell's Treatise on Electricity and Magnetism. Behind this story is another of how the premature death of one man, Maxwell, caused an intellectual dislocation in science propagating over many years. * Science *Told with historical sensitivity and analytical skill, Hunt's story demolishes many of the long-accepted myths about the history of electromagnetism after Maxwell.... Hunt provides a readable account, written in terms accessible to anyone with a basic knowledge of physics. * Times Higher Education Supplement *

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Book SynopsisThis challenge to the prevailing wisdom behind drug regulation and addiction therapy provides a historical corrective to our perception of LSD's medical efficacy.Trade ReviewDigs deeply into an area of drug history that has for the most part been ignored. Literary Review of Canada 2009 The story is very well written and researched... The book is a good read and has the bonus of imparting historical understanding of psychiatry during its most exciting and innovative era. British Journal of Psychiatry 2009 A smoothly written account. -- Edward Shorter American Historical Review 2009 Psychedelic Psychiatry is a highly nuanced work of scholarship that sheds new light on LSD research in Saskatchewan. -- Kam Teo Saskatchewan History 2009 As Dyck shows well, LSD gives historians a lot to think about. -- John C. Burnham Isis 2009 Crisply written, well-researched and cogently argued. -- Alex Mold Social History of Medicine 2009 Psychedelic Psychiatry represents the first archive-based, sober history of LSD's early years as a promising pharmaceutical and its subsequent decline. -- Nicolas Rasmussen Journal of American History 2009 Psychedelic Psychiatry is intensely interesting; an important and influential period of transition in psychiatry that has direct and important implications for current psychiatry... I highly recommend it to others. -- Mathew Martin-Iverson Health and History 2009Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Psychedelic Pioneers2. Simulating Psychoses3. Highs and Lows4. Keeping Tabs on Science and Spirituality5. Acid Panic6. "The Perfect Contraband"ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisHow the picturing of insects inspired new ideas about art, science, nature, and commerce Table of ContentsContentsIntroduction: Specimen LogicI. Insects as Objects and Insects as Subjects: Establishing Conventions for Illustrating Insects1. Joris Hoefnagel’s Imaginary Insects: Inventing an Artistic Identity2. Cutting and Pasting Nature into Print: Ulisse Aldrovandi’s and Thomas Moffet’s Images of Insects 3. Suitable for Framing: Insects in Early Still Life PaintingsII. New Worlds and New Selves4. Between Observation and Image: Representations of Insects in Robert Hooke’s Micrographia5. Stitches, Specimens, and Pictures: Maria Sibylla Merian and the Processing of the Natural WorldConclusion: Discipline and SpecimenizeAcknowledgmentsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisTraces the story of how ancient cultures envisioned artificial life, automata, self-moving devices and human enhancements, sharing insights into how the mythologies of the past related to and shaped ancient machine innovations.Trade Review"One of BookAuthority’s Three Best New Robotics Audiobooks To Read in 2019""Absorbing. . . . [Mayor is] an accessible and engaging writer."---Peter Thonemann, Wall Street Journal"In her new book, Gods and Robots, Adrienne Mayor draws comparisons between mythical androids and ancient robots and the AI of today. . . . Through detailed storytelling and careful analysis of popular myths, Mayor urges readers to consider lessons learned from these stories as we set about creating a new world with AI. . . . Wonderful storytelling, thorough research, and impressive expertise."---Sarah Olson, Science"A fascinating unpacking of ancient myths that feature robots and other lifelike beings, some of which bear an eerie resemblance to modern technology. . . . In her insightful analyses of these tales, Mayor is approachable and engaging, and she infuses many familiar stories with new energy in the context of technology. She adroitly explores the ethical aspects of artificial life, addressing big questions about sentience and agency through the lens of ancient ideas. She also makes a convincing argument that these imagined machines anticipated advances that are considered cutting-edge today. Ultimately, she leaves readers in awe of these thinkers who dreamed of ‘androids’ long before it was conceivable to build them. A collection of wondrous tales that present ancient myths as the proto-science fiction stories they are." * Kirkus *"The Greeks thought of everything, including sci-fi tropes such as androids and artificial intelligence, according to this lively study of mythology and technology. . . . Mayor’s exploration of the endless inventiveness of the Greek imagination makes for an engrossing read." * Publishers Weekly *"It is a place where megalomaniac leaders with an insatiable appetite for knowledge develop artificial intelligence and robots that pose grave dangers to humanity. Silicon Valley? No, Greek mythology."---Mark Bridge, The Times"Dr. Mayor urges top tech bosses to closely analyse the stories of the Greeks as we close in on a future dominated by automated technologies."---Harry Pettit, Daily Mail"This is an excellent source book for confronting political and technological hubris then and now, the earliest arguable traces of modern fears."---Peter Stothard, The Spectator"The Greeks [Mayor argues] envisioned . . . advanced technological artifacts driven by internal machinery [and] establishes the engineered nature of androids like Talos and Pandora. [Her] close analysis finds echoes of real historical techniques [and] nicely refutes those critics who might claim that artificial life achieved through engineering was an idea beyond the conceptual horizon of the ancients."---William A. Wilson, Weekly Standard"[An] astonishing chronicle."---Barbara Kiser, Nature"Adrienne Mayor entertainingly re-examines the various versions of these myths that survive in written and visual form and speculates about their origins." * The Economist *"In Gods and Robots, Adrienne Mayor describes how, more than 2,500 years before the modern computer, people told tales of autonomous machines that could labor, entertain, kill and seduce. . . . 'The age-old stories,' she writes, 'raise questions of free will, slavery, the origins of evil, man’s limits, and what it means to be human.'"---Matthew Hutson, Washington Post"In a breezy and thought-provoking account, Mayor describes how ancient Greek, Roman, Indian and Chinese myths expressed hopes and fears about human-made life long before conversational robots and computer chess champions flexed their algorithms."---Bruce Bower, Science News"[A] brilliant book." * Enlightened Economist *"In her remarkable book Gods and Robots: Machines, Myths, and Ancient Dreams of Technology, Stanford Professor Adrienne Mayor gives a literate and creative history of the notion of delegating power and giving orders to man-made entities."---Michael Munger, American Institute of Economic Research"Beautifully written."---Candida Moss, Daily Beast"[A] masterful retelling of ancient tales."---Clara Bosak-Schroeder, Bryn Mawr Classical Review"There is much to intrigue the general reader, with enough to challenge the more academic reader."---Cath Milnes, Classics for All Reviews"Mayor’s account works so well . . . because she assembles . . . fragments of images to generate a rich visual tapestry . . . The greatest strength of Gods and Robots is that it gives us a framework and a set of familiar stories with which we can negotiate our own times."---Michael John Goodman, British Society for Literature and Science"Gods and Robots turned out to be a fascinating book on an unusual subject." * The Inquisitive Biologist *"Adrienne Mayor writes jargon-free prose laced with wit."---Barry Baldwin, Fortean Times"The questions [Mayor] raises are significant and timely."---Ivana Petrovic, Greece and Rome"This is a wonderful ‘eureka’ book for anyone in search of the deep origin story of robotics and AI . . . and a possible epiphany for Marvel fans and science-fiction and fantasy readers looking for more back story on their favorite superheroes."---Emily E. Auger, Mythlore Journal"Gods and Robots is an excellent discussion of ancient ideas of technology and the potential such technology had to transform the ancient world and to inform the contemporary one. . . .[this book provides] a key introduction to the field of classical reception."---Alan Chadwick, Journal of Classics Teaching"Gods and Robots is an absorbing study of ancient mythological and historical automata that explores their origins and significance in the ancient and modern worlds. It will intrigue anyone interested in mythology, ancient and modern robotics, and the genesis of artificial intelligence."---Georgina J. Henderson, Technology and Culture

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Book SynopsisModern political culture features a deep-seated faith in the power of numbers. But quantitative evidence has not always been revered, as William Deringer shows. After the 1688 Revolution, as Britons learned to fight by the numbers, their enthusiasm for figures arose not from efforts to find objective truths but from the turmoil of politics itself.Trade Review[Statistics] are center stage again now for reasons of both political conflict and epistemological uncertainty. Once again, some politicians wield numbers without any great concern about their accuracy or meaningfulness; the victory in debate is all that matters. Once again, given the profound changes in the structure of the economy, we can’t be sure what categories and methods will give us the understanding we would like. This is a terrific book for reflecting on contested and uncertain statistical terrain. -- Diane Coyle * Enlightened Economist *[Deringer] focuses on the early 18th century, with its increasingly vitriolic debates over government expenditure, taxation, and debt as well as the trade balance… Deringer tells these vivid stories with a richness of research that brings to life not only the events surrounding them but also the many famous characters involved. We can learn from the 18th century debate, he says, by promoting new and diverse computational approaches to stimulate public debate and offset what he fears is growing anti-quantitative sentiment. -- Robert Heath * Finance & Development *A thoroughly impressive work…[Deringer] recontextualizes the skepticism about numbers and suspicion of ‘experts’ in our time as something that has existed from the beginning rather than a recent disillusionment… A book this insightful about the past and with such a trenchant analysis of the present is a rare pleasure indeed. -- Chris Dudley * Journal of British Studies *Tells the coming-of-age story of (early) modern public fascination with numbers…A great book that should be on the shelves of everyone who takes history of economic thought seriously. -- Gábor Bíró * History of European Ideas *Highly original in its research, highly intelligent in its analysis, and highly sophisticated in its argumentation, there is much to impress in this book. Calculated Values resonates with our own financial obsessions. -- Theodore Porter, University of California, Los AngelesEngaging, learned, and beautifully written, Calculated Values is a major scholarly work. Deringer builds on his own experiences as a financial calculator to imbue material that otherwise might be a tad dry with a sense of wonder and adventure, not to mention an adroit sentiment of happy-go-lucky deceitfulness. It is a must-read for a wide variety of scholars and interested general readers—truly impressive and timely in the extreme. -- Sophus A. Reinert, Harvard Business SchoolDeringer’s inspired and insightful book shows how mathematics and accounting mixed with politics to create modern finance. The story is so important, and yet, until now, has not been told. There is no way to understand the birth of economics without reading it. -- Jacob Soll, University of Southern CaliforniaShows how numerical calculation has both worked and failed in political life and what we can learn from it to help us use numbers more effectively in the future…A tour de force of intellectual and social history to explain how numerical thinking became the way to understand the world. Original in its approach and sophisticated in its argument. -- Lee Trepanier * VoegelinView *

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Book SynopsisGiordano Bruno's The Ash Wednesday Supper presents a revolutionary cosmology founded on the new Copernican astronomy that Bruno extends to infinite dimensions, filling it with an endless number of planetary systems.Trade Review"The volume’s most important contributions to Bruno studies are the extended "Notes" that offer background, interpretation, and explanation of Bruno’s provocative debate." -- Paul Richard Blum, Loyola University Maryland * Isis, vol 110, 1 *Table of Contents1. Introduction 2. A Note on the Text 3. Complete Italian Text: newly edited according to the so-called vulgate version 4. Translation of the Dedication (+ notes) 5. Translation of Dialogue 1 (+ notes) 6. Translation of Dialogue 2 (+ notes) 7. Translation of Dialogue 3 (+ notes) 8. Translation of Dialogue 4 (+ notes) 9. Translation of Dialogue 5 (+ notes) 10. Appendix: Alternative Italian text of folio D 11. Appendix: Alternative English translation of folio D 12. Bibliography of Cited Works

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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)

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"Paleoceanography, Rohling’s area of expertise, is the study of ancient oceans and ancient climates as they changed and developed together over geologic time. It involves analyzing data like layers of sediment taken from the seabed. Much alarming information can be learned this way, as Rohling demonstrates, about how today’s oceans are likely to respond to climate change--with greater acidification, sea-level rise, mass extinction and so forth. But because storms leave no geological record, the precise effect of global warming on hurricanes is harder to gauge. Still, Rohling is confident that the combination of rising sea levels and some form of increased storm intensity 'spells doom' for the world’s coastal regions. For surfers, rooting for hurricane swell may be increasingly difficult to rationalize."---James Ryerson, New York Times"Rohling's work is extensive and informative." * Publishers Weekly *"The Oceans is extremely thorough, appropriately so for a topic of such profundity. The book also covers a tremendous amount of ground with dizzying speed." * Foreword Reviews *"If you want to understand the planet and climate change, this book is for you."---John R. Platt, EcoWatch"For science readers looking for something new, [The Oceans] is a treat."---John Farrell, Forbes.com"The density of information and Rohling’s clear, concise explanations make for exhilarating reading, not least because his delight in his subject matter is so palpable. Most importantly though, Rohling’s long view makes clear the vast scope of the transformation of the oceans taking place around us, underlining not just the effect on ecosystems and biodiversity, but also its geological scale."---James Bradley, The Australian"In an incredibly detailed 262-page hardcover volume titled The Oceans: A Deep History, Rohling shakes up every reader who . . . [dives] into the massive amount of worrisome information"---Judy Siegel-Itzkovich, The Jerusalem Post"The Oceans: A Deep History oozes with the enthusiasm and passion that Eelco has for geology and palaeoceanography and the awe that he has for how the Earth came to be what it is today. . . . A brilliantly masterminded book, full of necessary detail that builds a compelling argument from 4.6 billion years of evidence and which culminates in an undeniable conclusion."---Jennifer D. Stanford, The Holocene"This book is not only an invaluable introduction to the cutting-edge science of palaeoceanography but also a crucially important text for students approaching all different fields of marine sciences."---Roberto Danovaro, Current Biology Magazine"Very informative, extensive, and full of necessary detail . . . . this book clearly teaches the many relevant lessons needed to understand the climate change of today and what happens when our atmosphere and oceans change."---Miguel Furtado, Conservation Biology

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Book SynopsisA foremost thinker on science and religion argues that an adequate understanding of cosmic history requires attention to the emergence of interiority, including religious aspirationTrade Review“I have no doubt that The New Cosmic Story will enrich many and produce fruitful dialogues for years to come.” —John P. Slattery, Science & Christian BeliefWinner of the Outstanding Academic Title for 2018 award sponsored by Choice"A compelling argument for a broader understanding of religion in relation to our cosmic story."—Mary Evelyn Tucker, coauthor of Journey of the Universe"Haught offers a coherent framework that gives value to the whole cosmic story revealed by science, while situating science and traditional religion together in a road map to a hopeful future in our still-unfinished cosmos."—Daryl P. Domning, professor of anatomy, Howard University“This book, John F. Haught’s summa, will become a permanent contribution to the religion and science literature.”—Holmes Rolston, III, Templeton Prize winner "A profound work that expands Haught's contributions to understanding religion in a universe that is still coming to be.”— Ilia Delio, Villanova University "A significant antidote to the 'cosmic pessimism' so prevalent in academic circles! Haught champions a hopeful narrative of our unfinished universe that informs and enlivens all facets of belief and refreshes the conversation between science and faith."—Robert E. Ulanowicz, University of Maryland

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Book SynopsisLukas Rieppel shows how dinosaurs gripped the popular imagination and became emblems of America’s industrial power and economic prosperity during the Gilded Age. Spectacular fossils were displayed in museums financed by North America’s wealthiest tycoons, to cement their reputation as both benefactors of science and fierce capitalists.Trade ReviewA penetrating study of legitimacy and capitalism in the realm of fossils. It traces the parallel growth of paleontology and the public museums in which dinosaur fossils often end up being housed…Perhaps what Rieppel is studying, really, is the way museums distinguish themselves, intellectually and economically, from the Barnum-like hustle of their dime-museum predecessors…The museum seems now to be a more purified place. And yet it’s worth reading Rieppel on the work of legacy-laundering before you stop by to see the newest T. rex in its David H. Koch Dinosaur Wing. -- Verlyn Klinkenborg * New York Review of Books *Assembling the Dinosaur is a solid entry into the growing body of literature on Gilded Age American paleontology, but it is particularly valuable for its contribution to enhancing our understanding of how science and its representation during that period were influenced by, and in turn affected, society as a whole. By incorporating cultural, economic, and scientific developments, Rieppel shines new light on the history of both American paleontology and museum exhibition practice. -- Ilja Nieuwland * Science *Rieppel traces the commingling of capitalism and science…Thrilling museum fossil displays burnished the reputations of philanthropists who backed the institutions, such as Andrew Carnegie and J. P. Morgan—even as the tycoons twisted the dinosaurs’ demise into a metaphor for the advance of ‘enlightened’ corporate culture. * Nature *[A] beautiful first book…This is the cultural history of science at its best, revealing the rigging, both material and conceptual, with which not only the dinosaur but also the scientific process have come to be held in place…Rieppel’s book will be required reading for students of both the history of modern science and the history of capitalism precisely because he convincingly shows that you cannot have one without the other. -- Henry M. Cowles * Isis *A brilliant, original history of dinosaurs set within the landscape of American science, capitalism, and culture. Rieppel integrates the practices and ambitions of vertebrate paleontologists, the patronage they found among wealthy industrialists, and the public’s fascination with these colossal creatures from the deep past—from the discovery of fossil remains in the American West at the turn of the twentieth century through their assembly in emergent museums of natural history. Resting on extensive archival research and apt illustrations, Assembling the Dinosaur is an altogether authoritative and captivating work. -- Daniel J. Kevles, Living Properties: Making Knowledge and Controlling Ownership in the History of BiologyThis innovative book reinterprets the discovery of dinosaurs in the American West as a compelling aspect of the country’s culture at a time of dramatic economic expansion. Highly recommended as a stimulating account of science during the Gilded Age and beyond. -- Janet Browne, author of Charles Darwin: VoyagingThe nineteenth century saw the simultaneous rise of industrial capitalism and the discovery of dinosaurs. These hulking creatures, expensive to excavate and to display, became a perfect match for the self-presentation of the rising economic elite in the United States. Connecting the history of capitalism and the history of science, this important book traces how the shifting presentation of these fossils—from massive, slow moving, and solitary to agile and social—mirrored the transition from giant corporations to nimble startups. -- Sven Beckert, author of Empire of Cotton: A Global HistoryResting on broad erudition and an expansive historical imagination, Assembling the Dinosaur explores the relationship of science, culture, and economy in the Gilded Age. It is a unique contribution to our understanding of the making of modern America. -- Michael Zakim, author of Accounting for Capitalism: The World the Clerk MadeHighly recommended for anyone interested in the cultural-historical aspects of the study of prehistory. -- Justin Mullis * AiPT! Science *Complex and thought provoking…It demonstrates how dinosaur discovery has affected both science and society. * Choice *Readers with an interest in the history of palaeontology will be particularly well-served by this book. * Inquisitive Biologist *Tracing the entwined relationship of dinosaurs, capitalism, and culture during the Gilded Age, Rieppel reveals the outsized role these giant reptiles played during one of the most consequential periods in American history. * Southeastern Naturalist *

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"This authoritative centenary edition is a fitting tribute to Einstein’s efforts to make his concepts accessible—in turn, helping to raise the profile of basic science and modern physics on a global scale."---Mary Craig, Nature

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“This work provides an enjoyable tour through Einstein’s scientific career and discoveries. This is not so much a straightforward biography of Einstein as a presentation of his thought processes, and a pleasant, informative, and well-paced description of what Einstein accomplished as a scientist.”—Donald Goldsmith, author of Einstein’s Greatest Blunder?“Steven Gimbel is one of a kind. He can explain the science, the philosophy, and the personal and professional life of Einstein, and do so with clarity, sophistication, and panache.”—Peter Achinstein, author of Evidence and Method

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Book SynopsisExamines 100 extraordinary projects, theories and experiments that have been conducted in the name of science. From spider monkeys to human cyborgs, and from swimming in syrup to chaos theory, the author places each experiment and discovery in its scientific context.Table of Contents1. The Brain • 2. The Human Body and Medicine • 3. Society, Communications, Technology and Sociology • 4. The Planet, Global Warming, Oceans and Atmosphere • 5. The Universe, Space and Particle Accelerators

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Book SynopsisTrade Review"DeSilva's volume provides a welcome opportunity to reflect on the history of evolutionary theory as a legacy complicated by Darwin's prescience as well as prejudice."---Erika Lorraine Milam, Science"Together with ten colleagues, DeSilva courageously takes up this perennially red-hot founding text of his discipline."---Jessica Riskin, New York Review of Books"A fascinating, comprehensive, and accessible collection of essays. . . . A Most Interesting Problem gives credit to Darwin where credit is due, but is unabashed in its systematic rejection of outdated science."---Lydia Pyne, JSTOR Daily"In this ‘tribute to how science operates,’ 10 contributors revisit Descent on the 150th anniversary of its publication in a ‘quest for understanding the origin, biological variation, behavior, and evolution of humans.’ . . . Each of the contributors adds something valuable to the conversation." * Kirkus Reviews *"This important new collection of commentaries on what is perhaps the most challenging of Darwin's books in our own time, takes up the evidence for human evolution, our place in the family tree, the origins of civilization, of human races, and of sex differences in ways that are both meaningful as well as accessible to those both inside and outside of the scholarly world who are interested in reading and wrestling with this important and core work of Charles Darwin for themselves."---Johannes E. Riutta, The Well-Read Naturalist"[A] unique presentation of the many scientific ideas and hypotheses of Darwin’s “Descent of Man”. [A Most Interesting Problem] is a very interesting book about how sometimes scientific beliefs that have existed for decades can easily be debunked using modern technology."---Molly Gabler-Smith, Integrative and Comparative Biology"This is an especially important and timely project because Darwin’s volume is chock-full of creative, thought-provoking arguments and speculations about human evolution that span an extremely wide range of subjects, and after 150 years, many of these are overdue for a fresh reconsideration."---Jason Winning, Quarterly Review of Biology"This summary of Darwin's contributions to understanding human evolution should interest not only biologists and anthropologists but all concerned about the fate of the human species."---J. S. Schwartz, CHOICE"A Most Interesting Problem is a fantastic run-down of today’s understanding of human evolution and a great showcase of the scientific process."---Tibi Puiu, ZME Science"Fascinating reading about the development of science, and the cultural blindspots than can misdirect even the most brilliant scientists."---Ian Angus, Climate & Capitalism

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Book SynopsisTrade Review“Readers who want to know more about physics but are intimidated by the subject’s complexity will want to turn to The Physics Book” —Booklist

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Drawing upon aspects of Actor Network Theory, this Element introduces an approach to see technique as the interaction of people and things, and technology as the reflection of these networks of entanglement.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewIf science and medicine were a theme park, Luke O'Neill is the best company on the wildest rides . . . serious and fun . . . expansive and detailed . . . a disruptive professor in his own class -- BonoLuke's brilliant wit and infectious passion makes for a fascinating and hugely entertaining read...a timely reminder of just why science and the scientists who have shaped our lives matter -- Liz BonninA lively, gossipy, story-filled delight, filled with fascinating factoids * Sunday Independent *Even the scientifically illiterate, like myself, could get it and have a whole new understanding of all kinds of things * Brendan O’Connor *

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Book SynopsisThe Renaissance, scholars have long argued, was a period beset by the loss of philosophical certainty. In Possible Knowledge, Debapriya Sarkar argues for the pivotal role of literature—what early moderns termed poesie—in the dynamic intellectual culture of this era of profound incertitude. Revealing how problems of epistemology are inextricable from questions of literary form, Sarkar offers a defense of poiesis, or literary making, as a vital philosophical endeavor. Working across a range of genres, Sarkar theorizes “possible knowledge” as an intellectual paradigm crafted in and through literary form. Sixteenth- and seventeenth-century writers such as Spenser, Bacon, Shakespeare, Cavendish, and Milton marshalled the capacious concept of the “possible,” defined by Philip Sidney as what “may be and should be,” to construct new theories of physical and metaphysical reality. These early modern thinkers mobilized the imaginative habits of thought constitutive to major genres of literary writing—including epic, tragedy, romance, lyric, and utopia—in order to produce knowledge divorced from historical truth and empirical fact by envisioning states of being untethered from “nature” or reality. Approaching imaginative modes such as hypothesis, conjecture, prediction, and counterfactuals as instruments of possible knowledge, Sarkar exposes how the speculative allure of the “possible” lurks within scientific experiment, induction, and theories of probability. In showing how early modern literary writing sought to grapple with the challenge of forging knowledge in an uncertain, perhaps even incomprehensible world, Possible Knowledge also highlights its most audacious intellectual ambition: its claim that while natural philosophy, or what we today term science, might explain the physical world, literature could remake reality. Enacting a history of ideas that centers literary studies, Possible Knowledge suggests that what we have termed a history of science might ultimately be a history of the imagination.Trade Review"This pathbreaking book will be at the vanguard of a new movement in literature and science studies." * Jenny C. Mann, New York University *"An ambitious, brilliant, and genuinely original account of the constitutive relationship between poesy and science in early modernity." * Vin Nardizzi, University of British Columbia *"This important book provides compelling evidence that early modern literature in the age of the new science helped readers develop sophisticated forms of knowing about what existed in the world, and, more crucially, what might possibly come to be." * Mary Thomas Crane, Boston College *

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Book SynopsisTheodore Gray has become a household name among fans, both young and old, of popular science and mechanics with his bestselling trilogy of books: The Elements, Molecules, and Reactions. In How Things Work, he explores the mechanical underpinnings of dozens of types of machines, from the cotton gin to the wristwatch to an industrial loom, and shares his deep, firsthand appreciation and knowledge of the world''s most essential mechanical systems. Filled with stunning original photographs by Nick Mann, How Things Work is a must-have exploration of stuff-large and small-for any builder, maker or lover of mechanical things.

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewWinner * Presidents Book Award, Social Science History Association, 2020 *"One of the many merits of Mr. Poskett's book is that it rejects the standard view of phrenology as something that was almost accidentally invented in Europe and then came to flourish in the therapy-obsessed United States. Instead, Mr. Poskett paints the picture of a globe crisscrossed by phrenological exhibits and ephemera." * Wall Street Journal *"Materials of the Mind, a material culture travelogue through phrenology's truly global popularity in the nineteenth century, asks us to look a bit more closely at what is right under our noses. . . . The book's six chapters each focus on a type of material object, an unusual structure that makes for a wonderfully thematic read. . . . Poskett's contribution to this 'global history of science' is to 're-entangle' phrenology's objects with the sheer scale of colonial violence that had to occur before phrenology could have any meaning at all. . . . The 'materials of the mind' in this story exist in the ephemera of personal letters; the fragile but often meticulously cared for plaster casts; the elaborate books and the out-of-date periodicals. All of these pay some degree of homage, even in distant memory, to the violence once visited upon the enduring skull." * Global Intellectual History *"Well-written, rich, broad-scoped, and politically provocative . . . . While one of the book's strengths lies in the material it explores, it also partially suspends its judgment of the subject, thereby allowing the strange, horrific, and violent nature of phrenology to emerge as a feature of modern history of science." * Metascience *"A work of truly ambitious scope. . . . This is an undeniably important book, offering fresh and stimulating new perspectives on the history of phrenology. As a history of phrenology in the global nineteenth-century Anglosphere and its colonial outposts, with a few enlightening forays beyond these limits, it is exemplary." * Nineteenth-Century Contexts *"For those readers looking for an entirely new approach to the once-faddish pseudoscience of phrenology, [Poskett] presents just such an addition . . . . With engaging writing, many illustrations, and extensive references for historians, there is much to recommend in Materials of Mind, a scholarly and uniquely social approach to the phrenological movement. . . . A fascinating subject that should appeal to more than just specialists interested in phrenology or, more generally, the history of science." * Journal of the History of the Neurosciences *"In Materials of the Mind, [Poskett] studies the discredited 19th-century 'science' of phrenology. . . . [He] covers his subject in chapters on skulls, casts, books, letters, periodicals, and photographs. . . . Recommended." * CHOICE *"Materials of the Mind brings race to the forefront of the history of phrenology, long overdue. Race was astonishingly absent from many earlier scholarly treatments of phrenology, despite its centrality and explicit discussion in phrenological texts and its inseparability from British colonialism and western imperialism. Poskett vividly demonstrates how phrenological objects were material means for communicating racial differences, and as a result, that materials played a significant part in the subjugation and exploitation of peoples around the globe. We can now better grasp how the history of skull collecting and cranial study was inextricable from colonial and plantation violence. Materials of the Mind also opens up the history of phrenology by incorporating the voices and dissent of people who were the objects of phrenological study. . . . Poskett's book is a true achievement, binding the history of materials and race to the politics of phrenology and making a powerful case for the global history of science." * Social History of Medicine *"A bold take on a fascinating subject. By any measure, this is an extraordinarily ambitious project involving substantial archival research, international travel, and translations from at least six languages. The resulting book encourages readers to take phrenology seriously as a worldwide social and scientific movement, its current status as pseudoscience notwithstanding. . . . Essential reading for anyone interested in Victorian psychology and the global circulation of ideas." * Victorian Studies *"Taking place on a thoroughly globalized stage, highlighted by tragedies both banal and spectacular, and populated by a host of actors well and lesser known, Poskett's history transforms phrenology's status from that of scientific footnote to one of near‐Shakespearian significance. . . . Poskett has written an important book. In it, he demonstrates how scientific actors the world over use and are used by competing and complementary racial agendas. And in doing so, Poskett effectively spotlights much that has been consigned to science's darker corners. His stage is a contested one. His script was simultaneously familiar and strange. And his actors? As epistemological and transactional subjects and objects, Poskett's phrenological entities are compelling, disturbing, and eminently familiar. They are, after all, the unembraced forefathers and mothers of today's human scientists." * Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences *"[An] insightful and richly illustrated book. . . . An important milestone." * British Journal for the History of Science *"It is perhaps unsurprising that phrenology already occupies a fairly well-explored area in the history of science. This valuable and engaging book, however, breaks new scholarly ground. James Poskett uses the material cultures of phrenology—such as skulls, letters, and photography—to generate an interconnected transnational history that transforms a familiar pseudoscience into a complex and multifaceted global process. As it examines phrenology’s many global pathways, interchanges and permutations, Materials of the Mind remains attuned to power but explicitly works against the constraints imposed by units of analysis such as nations and empires, offering instead a materially based and iterative model for a global history of science. As a global history, this work offers a wide-ranging and erudite analysis of how transnational flows of material and material cultures shaped phrenology. . . . Every chapter of this book is distinguished by impressive archival work across many collections in numerous global locations and languages. Detail, references, and illustrations abound, supporting Poskett’s fundamental commitment to exploring material culture’s role in shaping a global history of science. . . . As both an exploration of phrenology specifically and as a scholarly work interested in advancing the question of what it means to write a global history of science, Materials of the Mind comes out ahead." * Journal of British Studies *"Poskett has taken two new approaches in the history of science—a focus on materials and a global approach—and successfully applied them to phrenology: the book moves the historiography of phrenology in a new direction and places the discipline of phrenology firmly in the nineteenth-century context of globalization, imperialism, and racial thinking... This book shows that phrenology is an excellent discipline to think with. Poskett's book brings the historiography of phrenology up to date with the latest insights and paints a rich and varied picture of how phrenology worked." * Isis: A Journal of the History of Science Society *"Today we can laugh at the idea that our personalities and attributes can be measured by the bumps on our heads, but phrenology was the most widely practiced mind science of the Victorian era. . . . Not just a fascination in Europe and America, Poskett show the wide reach of the 'science' through its objects and ephemera—skulls and charts and books and the like—travelled the globe and found receptive audiences wherever they landed." * New York Society Library *"An exemplary history of objects, this book is also a global history of the mind. Poskett clarifies the material culture through which ideas about phrenology--and materialism itself--translated and travelled across continents and languages. The freshest history of the strangest science." -- Alison Bashford, author of Global Population: History, Geopolitics, and Life on Earth"In this ambitious and riveting book, James Poskett tracks the global in so many senses: as a category among phrenologists who were concerned with the scales and spaces of work and with the nature of comparison and racial imagination; as a physical possibility among those who transferred skulls, letters, printed text, and casts; as a lumpy and uneven set of links across the span of the world; and finally, as a way in which we talk about our present moment in the historiography of the sciences. It is precisely because Poskett combines all of this globular talk, and because phrenology is such a good discipline with which to range across these globals, that Materials of the Mind should be vital reading on some of the most urgent concerns facing the world history of science." -- Sujit Sivasundaram, University of Cambridge"This terrific book explores the global turn in the Victorian science of phrenology and sets the topic firmly inside the expanding imperial and racial concepts of the day. It shows how the ideas and objects associated with the popular activity of measuring heads circulated across the globe while making a substantial contribution to understanding the universalizing properties of science and technology in history." -- Janet Browne, Harvard UniversityTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Skulls 2. Casts 3. Books 4. Letters 5. Periodicals 6. Photographs Epilogue List of Figures Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisExamining the ideas and attitudes that encourage scientists to experiment on living creatures, what their justifications are, and how these have changed over time. Experimentation on animalsparticularly humansis often assumed to be a uniquely modern phenomenon. But the ideas and attitudes that encourage biological and medical scientists to experiment on living creatures date from the earliest expressions of Western thought. In Experimenting with Humans and Animals, Anita Guerrini looks at the history of these practices and examines the philosophical and ethical arguments that justified them. Guerrini discusses key historical episodes in the use of living beings in science and medicine, including the discovery of blood circulation, the development of smallpox and polio vaccines, and recent research in genetics, ecology, and animal behavior. She also explores the rise of the antivivisection movement in Victorian England, the modern animal rights movement, and current debates over genTrade ReviewI was impressed by Guerrini's vast knowledge of the historical development of biomedical science, including the events that matter to ethical issues around use of animal and human subjects in research.—Perspectives in Science and Christian Faith...a valuable, insightful, and useful book, covering a vast time span and a weighty theme.—Journal of the History of BiologyTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionChapter 1. Bodies of Evidence: Experimentation and Philosophical Debate in Premodern EuropeChapter 2. Animals, Machines, and MoralsChapter 3. Disrupting God's PlanChapter 4. Cruelty and KindnessChapter 5. The Microbe HuntersChapter 6. Polio and PrimatesChapter 7. From Nuremberg to CRISPR: New Rules and New SciencesConclusionSuggested Further ReadingNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisConservative skepticism of scientific authority—contesting evolution and the climate change consensus—is constantly in the news. But liberal humanists also have their doubts, targeting “scientistic” overreach. Andrew Jewett provides the first history of Americans’ diverse and longstanding criticisms of science as a source of corrupt social values.Trade ReviewErudite and truly original. Jewett explains why so many cultural leaders came to deplore the increasing incursions of science into the realm of values, especially after World War II. A pioneering book. -- Ronald L. Numbers, author of The CreationistsJewett has thoroughly scoured the wide field of American intellectual discourse to find the misgivings, fears, and doubts aroused by the growth and influence of science. Science under Fire is strikingly relevant to pressing present-day concerns. I know of nothing else quite like it. -- Howard Brick, author of Transcending CapitalismThe continued politicization of science is rooted in the discomfort that many still feel about the banishment of ethics, humanistic values, and religion from much of public policy. Jewett’s book reminds us that this tension has a long history and that we should remain attentive to what is gained and lost as science continues to dominate how we understand the world and our place in it. -- Christopher J. Phillips * Science *Tackles the deep and persistent American intellectual tradition we might call Science-hesitant…It takes them seriously, arguing their vision was no less ‘modern’ for ranking Science lower than other human values, such as religious faith…A sweeping tour of a vast array of intellectual trends…The challenges to the authority of Science in this book are less episodes in the history of American science than episodes in the history of American religion, and readers drawn to those questions will find much to interest them here. -- Michael D. Gordin * Los Angeles Review of Books *An exceptionally well-written, detail-rich treatment of anti-science attitudes in the United States over the past century…Jewett reveals that the sprawling, wheeling sweep of his historical study is the argument: there is no single or stable ideology of anti-science…[He] starts and ends by talking about climate denialism, anti-vax, and COVID lockdown skepticism. -- Donovan O. Schaefer * Isis *The anti-science crowd ridiculed mask-wearers as sheep mindlessly following the herd. Armed crowds gathered at the homes of public-health officials across the country and hounded them from their jobs…As Andrew Jewett makes clear…the scientific enterprise in America has long drawn public hostility…Follows nearly a century of critiques of scientific cultural authority, from the 1920s to roughly the present…Given the moment we are in, Science under Fire seems particularly well timed, and it ought to be instructive. -- David Steigerwald * Origins *Deeply researched and thoughtful…The tensions he describes are entirely familiar, but they take on a fresh appearance with the historical backdrop he provides, and his nuanced portrait of the positions of the key protagonists produces a welcome respect for the complexity of ongoing intellectual and political controversies…Jewett concludes with a plea to approach science more matter-of-factly. -- John Casterline * Population and Development Review *

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Book SynopsisThis updated edition includes a new afterword that identifies the role the Buck story plays in the Supreme Court's review of emerging state laws that seek to limit access to abortion. Three generations of imbeciles are enough. Few lines from U.S. Supreme Court opinions are as memorable as this declaration by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. in the landmark 1927 case Buck v. Bell. The ruling allowed states to forcibly sterilize residents in order to prevent feebleminded and socially inadequate people from having children. It is the only time the Supreme Court endorsed surgery as a tool of government policy. Though Buck set the stage for more than sixty thousand involuntary sterilizations in the United States and was cited at the Nuremberg trials in defense of Nazi sterilization experiments, it has never been overturned. It has been more than a decade since Paul A. Lombardo's classic Three Generations, No Imbeciles first exposed the Buck case's fraudulent roots. During that time, seveTable of ContentsPreface to Updated EditionIntroductionPrologue: The Expert Witness1. Problem Families2. Sex and Surgery3. The Pedigree Factory4. Studying Sterilization5. The Mallory Case6. Laughlin's Book7. A Virginia Sterilization Law8. Choosing Carrie Buck9. Carrie Buck versus Dr. Priddy10. Defenseless11. On Appeal: Buck v. Bell12. In the Supreme Court13. Reactions and Repercussions14. After the Supreme Court15. Sterilizing Germans16. Skinner v. Oklahoma17. Buck, at Nuremberg and After18. Rediscovering BuckEpilogue: Reconsidering BuckAfterword: Looking Back at BuckAcknowledgmentsAppendix A: The Supreme Court Opinion in Buck v. Bell, by Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.Appendix B: Virginia Eugenical Sterilization Act, 1924Appendix C: Laws and Sterilizations by StateAppendix D: Carrie Buck's lettersNotesA Note on SourcesIndex

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Book SynopsisThe large-scale structure of the Universe is dominated by vast voids with galaxies clustered in knots, sheets, and filaments, forming a great ''cosmic web''. In this personal account of the major astronomical developments leading to this discovery, we learn from Laird A. Thompson, a key protagonist, how the first 3D maps of galaxies were created. Using non-mathematical language, he introduces the standard model of cosmology before explaining how and why ideas about cosmic voids evolved, referencing the original maps, reproduced here. His account tells of the competing teams of observers, racing to publish their results, the theorists trying to build or update their models to explain them, and the subsequent large-scale survey efforts that continue to the present day. This is a well-documented account of the birth of a major pillar of modern cosmology, and a useful case study of the trials surrounding how this scientific discovery became accepted.Trade Review'… a very readable book, and I recommend it to anyone who wants to know about the universe at large scales.' Ingemar Bengtsson, Contemporary Physics'Recommended. Upper-division undergraduates. Graduate students, faculty, and professionals.' S. P. Maran, ChoiceTable of ContentsForeword; Preface; List of Abbreviations; 1. Understanding the Foundations of Modern Cosmology; 2. Preview of the Discovery of Cosmic Voids; 3. Homogeneity of the Universe: Great Minds Speak Out; 4. All-Sky Surveys in the Transition Years 1950–1975; 5. The Early Redshift Surveys from Arizona Observatories; 6. Galaxy Mapping Attempt at Tartu Observatory; 7. Theoretical Models of Galaxy Formation: East versus West; 8. Priority Disputes and the Timeline of Publications; 9. Impact of Cosmic Voids: Cosmology, Gravity at the Weak Limit, and Galaxy Formation; Appendix A. KPNO Observing Proposal; Appendix B. Gregory and Thompson (1978) reprint; References; Index.

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Book SynopsisOne of the most controversial, cutting-edge ideas in cosmologythe possibility that there exist multiple parallel universesin fact has a long history. Tom Siegfried reminds us that the size and number of the heavens have been contested since ancient times. His story offers deep lessons about the nature of science and the quest for understanding.Trade ReviewThe best new book on the Multiverse out this year. -- Ethan Siegel * Forbes *The Number of the Heavens is a thrilling history of our quest to grasp the whole of reality and determine our place within it. Whether there is one universe or many, Siegfried's masterful prose allows us all to delight in our species' passionate urge to look up and wonder. -- Brian Greene, author of The Elegant UniverseWhile it is debatable how closer we might be to verifying the multiverse compared to Aristotle, a recounting of the history of this philosophical and scientific debate in the entertaining and often tongue-in-cheek tone of Siegfried is certainly fascinating. * Nature Astronomy *This ‘multiverse,’ a hot topic of debate in physics today, is only the latest example of how scientists have expanded our horizons…This intriguing book examines that changing understanding of the universe, and of science as well. -- Jeff Foust * Space Review *You might think this book is only about the multiverse, but it’s really about something bigger: how science has been done through the ages—and how our perspective changes along with our view of the cosmos. -- Alan Boyle * GeekWire *This clear and thoughtful work of popular science serves as a fascinating history of one of the most provocative concepts in modern physics, while also tracing its roots in ancient ideas and exploring its implications for this universe and others. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *What sets this book by Siegfried apart from others is the quality of his writing, as well as the direct links he draws between contemporary and ancient views of the multiverse concept. * Library Journal *Starting with the ancient Greeks…chronicles how the concept of the multiverse has evolved as scientists’ understanding of the universe has expanded. * Science News *The most readable tour of cosmology from the perspective of the multiverse to date. -- Robert Schaefer * New York Journal of Books *Packed with surprising historical tidbits and witty asides, Siegfried tells the riveting tale of millennia-long efforts to define not merely the extent of existence, but also the nature of science itself. -- K. C. Cole, author of The Universe and the Teacup: The Mathematics of Truth and BeautyPrepare to enter the mysterious realm of the multiverse! The Number of the Heavens displays unusual depth across several fields of research, allowing scientists, historians, and the general public to experience firsthand a debate of great cosmological import. -- Steven J. Dick, former NASA Chief HistorianExamining the positions of medieval thinkers and today’s physicists alike, this book is a very thorough and timely study of the concept of the multiverse through the ages. -- Marcelo Gleiser, author of The Simple Beauty of the UnexpectedCombining interviews of modern physicists and philosophers with a detailed historical narrative of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance interpretations of the word ‘world,’ Siegfried’s text fills an important gap in the expanding body of multiverse literature. -- Brian Keating * Physics Today *A fast-paced account of the multiverse. -- Julius Lobo * Book Riot *

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Book SynopsisDiscusses symmetry and asymmetry in contemporary physics and tells the story of how contemporary theoretical physicists are following Einstein in their search for the beauty and simplicity of nature.Trade Review"Zee's exposition of the intuitive use by modern theoretical physicists of the concept of symmetry ... in order to fathom nature's laws is superb scientific reading."--Publishers Weekly "[Zee] demonstrates effortless competence over a wide area of theoretical physics. He also displays great enthusiasm and excitement for his subject, which many readers will find infectious."--James W. McAllister, ISIS, A Journal of the History of Science SocietyTable of ContentsForeword xi Preface 1999 xv Preface xvii acknowledgements xix I Symmetry and Design 1 1. In Search of Beauty 3 2. Symmetry and Simplicity 8 3. The Far Side of the Mirror 22 II Einstein's Legacy, 49 4. Marriage of Time and Space 51 5. A Happy Thought 76 6. Symmetry Dictates Design 95 III Into The Limelight 101 7. Where the action is not 103 8. The lady and the Tyger 113 9. Learning to Read the Great Book 122 10. Symmetry Triumphs 133 IV To Know His Thoughts 151 11. The Eightfold Path in the Forest of the Night 153 12. The Revenge of Art 185 13. The Ultimate Design Problem 210 14. The Unity of Forces 228 15. The Rise of Hubris 255 16. The Mind of the Creator 275 Afterword 285 Appendix to Chapter 9 297 Appendix to the Afterword 301 Notes 321 Index 345

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Book SynopsisMilitaries with state-of-the-art information technology sometimes bog down in confusing conflicts. To understand why, it is important to understand the micro-foundations of military power in the information age, and this is exactly what Jon R. Lindsay''s Information Technology and Military Power gives us. As Lindsay shows, digital systems now mediate almost every effort to gather, store, display, analyze, and communicate information in military organizations. He highlights how personnel now struggle with their own information systems as much as with the enemy.Throughout this foray into networked technology in military operations, we see how information practicethe ways in which practitioners use technology in actual operationsshapes the effectiveness of military performance. The quality of information practice depends on the interaction between strategic problems and organizational solutions. Information Technology and Military Power explores information practicTrade ReviewPractitioners on the application of military power would be wise to pick up a copy of this book. Its appeal, however, extends beyond. Those seeking to understand how information and technology have influenced recent military operations would gain from this work as well. * The Journal of Military History *This book will appeal to a wide audience. It is only a moderate exaggeration to say that if you are in the military and use a computer to do your work, you will find this book useful. Military personnel working in large command centers will find this book especially helpful. * Strategic Studies Quarterly *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Shifting the Fog of War 1. The Technology Theory of Victory 2. A Framework for Understanding Information Practice 3. Strategic and Organizational Conditions for Success: The Battle of Britain 4. User Innovation and System Management: Aviation Mission Planning Software 5. Irregular Problems and Biased Solutions: Special Operations in Iraq 6. Increasing Complexity and Uneven Results: Drone Campaigns 7. Practical Implications of Information Practice

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Book SynopsisScience: A Four Thousand Year History rewrites science''s past. Instead of focussing on difficult experiments and abstract theories, Patricia Fara shows how science has always belonged to the practical world of war, politics, and business. Rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people - men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals in their quest for success. Fara sweeps through the centuries, from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, illuminating the financial interests, imperial ambitions, and publishing enterprises that have made science the powerful global phenomenon that it is today. She also ranges internationally, illustrating the importance of scientific projects based around the world, from China to the Islamic empire, as well as the more familiar tale of science in Europe, from Copernicus to Charles Darwin and beyond. Above all, this four thousand year history challenges scientific supremacy, arguing controversially that science is successful not because it is always right - but because people have said that it is right.Trade Reviewa surprise and a subversive pleasure * Tim Radford, Guardian: Science Bookclub *Review from previous edition Fara's book could not be more wide-ranging, beginning [with] the quest to take the story of science as far back as she story of science as far back as she possibly can, and ending bang up to date. The content is ambitious. jusiciously and fairly handled...The narrative moves forward in an engaging way, while the enthusiasm and opinions of the author are never far from the surface. It is a book to provoke thought and argument. An impressive achievement. * Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine *Epic history of science * Jo Marchant, New Scientist *Wide-ranging and provocative...Romps through history at a terrific rate. * The Economist *An impressive and commendable effort to square the circle, to tell science's history, from the beginning. * Martin D. Gordin, Science *An engaging book...Fara is to be commended for stepping back - way back - to assess the history of science in its entirety * Robert J Malone, excutive director of the History of Science Society *Table of ContentsPART I: ORIGINS; PART II: INTERACTIONS; PART III: EXPERIMENTS; PART IV: INSTITUTIONS; PART V: LAWS; PART VI: INVISIBLES; PART VII

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Book SynopsisAn original study of late Enlightenment aesthetics, poetics, and environmental medicine as overlapping ways of comprehending the dislocations of historical existence lodged in the movements of bodies and mindsTrade ReviewWinner of the 2022 Jean-Pierre Barricelli Prize, sponsored by the International Conference on RomanticismShortlisted for the Marilyn Gaull Award from The Wordsworth Circle“In tracing how eighteenth-century pathology and aesthetics registered causal forces beyond our immediate ken, Kevis Goodman offers an electrifying account of the way poetics made abstract historical processes visible at a pivotal moment in global modernity.”—Lynn Festa, author of Fiction Without Humanity“Goodman provides a new way of thinking about human freedom, the imagination, volition, and mobility. This is a richly erudite and theoretically lucid book that anyone working in this period will want to read and reread.”—Alan Bewell, University of Toronto“By bringing together aesthetics and medicine, Goodman offers a new and enthralling description of modernity. Pathologies of Motion also brilliantly vindicates, as it demonstrates, the practice of symptomatic reading.”—Deidre Lynch, Harvard University“Goodman’s elegant, learned work is the entering wedge in a radical rethinking of Romanticism and its predecessors. It reveals a pathological counter-current in tension with the age’s dominant aesthetic quest for harmony.”—Marjorie Levinson, author of Thinking through Poetry “Goodman rediscovers eighteenth-century pathology as a synoptic discipline projecting the material body and the imagination as mutually involved and evolving agents of human behavior and consciousness. Her book thereby offers exciting new readings of reading itself—of the physiological functions of organized sound—as well as of Schiller and the Scottish doctors, of the newly privileged phenomenon of nostalgia, and of some of the best-known Romantic poems.”—David Simpson, author of Engaging Violence

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Book SynopsisA hugely entertaining exploration of unintentional world-changing discoveries in science, for fans of ELEMENTAL and HUMANS: A BRIEF HISTORY OF HOW WE F*CKED IT ALL UP.

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Book SynopsisDespite a resurgence in popularity, horoscopes are generally considered to be pseudoscience today - but they were once a cutting-edge scientific tool. In this ingenious work of history, data scientist Alexander Boxer examines a treasure trove of esoteric classical sources to expose the deep imaginative framework by which - for millennia - we made sense of our fates. Astrology, he argues, was the ancient world's most ambitious applied mathematics problem, a grand data-analysis enterprise sustained by some of history's most brilliant minds, from Ptolemy to al-Kindi to Kepler. A Scheme of Heaven explores the wonderful subtleties of astrological ideas. Telling the stories of their inventors and most influential exponents, Boxer puts them through their paces using modern data sets - finding that the methods of today's scientists are often uncomfortably close to those of astrology's ancient sages.Trade ReviewWith Boxer's thought-provoking offering of playful experiments and vibrant historical anecdotes, A Scheme of Heaven will entice even the most ardent sceptic. -- Madeleine Pollard * FT *Unusual and refreshing ... Boxer's work is far from a rehabilitation of the 'wretched science'. He takes it for granted that, in a strict and contemporary sense, astrology is bullshit. From there, he proceeds to draw out the impressive conceptual and psychological legacy of astrology in modern scientific thinking. He suggests - without ever labouring the point - that we may wish to keep an eye on whether other more respectable modern sciences, data science in particular, may also sometimes incline towards bullshit. But just as important, in Boxer's hands astrology is a playground. Whether he is recreating ancient star charts or performing statistical tests on astrological claims, he does it because it's fun -- Claire Hall * LRB *Enthusiastic, level-headed and with a good turn of phrase, [Boxer] leads his readers on an exhilarating trajectory. -- Andrew Lycett * Mail on Sunday *Boxer takes a lively, non-judgemental approach in this intellectual history, tracing astrology back to its beginnings in ancient Egypt to its modern day renaissance, taking in 'astrosexuality', Henry VIII's birth horoscope, personality traits and new-age thinkers along the way. Essential reading for anyone interested in going beyond their horoscope. -- Francesca Carington * Tatler *Wide-ranging and full of peculiar nuggets of information ... This is a book about a very human aspect of astrology - our desire to understand our fate - and its history, as well as the fallibility of data analysis, which is often far more subjective than it might seem at first glance. -- Fiona Lensvelt * Times *A delightful and utterly fascinating work of intellectual history. -- Joshua Foer, author of Moonwalking with EinsteinThrough striking diagrams and accessible explanations, Boxer shows us the impressive range of technology the ancients developed for tapping into astrology's predictive powers. This book demonstrates how impactful astrology is in everyday life-not through the influence of the stars, but rather through the deep scientific and cultural legacy that it so richly explores. -- Janelle Shane, author of You Look Like A Thing and I Love Youa masterful synthesis-science, history, legends, literature, and an eye-opening exploration of the human penchant for pattern recognition. The book is full of wit and refreshing insight. I'll never look at a horoscope-or the night sky-in quite the same way again. -- David Baron, author of American EclipseBoxer is a champion of intrepid thought. His learned book demonstrates how much we stand to gain by studying topics that just may be a little bit true. And a little truth, as Boxer shows, can change everything. -- Mitch Horowitz, PEN Award-winning author of Occult AmericaA fresh and original introduction to astrology's long history and deep cultural reach. Open and inquisitive, Boxer combines the critical perspective of a modern data scientist with a historian's sympathetic eye for telling detail. The result is a vivid and unique delight -- Stephen Johnston, University of OxfordEducated in both the humanities and the sciences, Boxer is uniquely qualified to guide his readers into a fascinating story of mathematical complexity. The overarching theme of our human destiny is inspirational. -- Norman Austin, Emeritus Professor of Classics, University of ArizonaAstrologers as the first and most ambitious quants and data scientists? Alexander Boxer's remarkable book reveals astrology's mathematical, scientific, historical, philosophical, and literary roots. He shows that astrology is not only an indispensable part of science history, but also springs from the same mixture of motives: the desire to control the world and to wonder about it. -- Robert P. Crease, author of The Workshop and the WorldA Scheme of Heaven is wide-ranging and full of peculiar nuggets of information ... This is a book about a very human aspect of astrology - our desire to understand our fate - and its history, as well as the fallibility of data analysis, which is often far more subjective than it might seem at first glance. -- Fiona Lensvelt * the Times *A Scheme of Heaven will make you fall in love with astrology, even as it extinguishes any niggling suspicion that it might actually work -- Simon Ings * Spectator *Fascinating ... his entertaining book explains fallacies that have given astrology unmerited credibility ... he also reveals how equivalent sloppiness may distort data science today. -- Jonathon Keats * New Scientist *

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Book SynopsisSince ancient times, we have tried to make sense of our universe by observing objects far beyond our abilities to see or touch – from the smallest atom to the farthest star.This book covers, in chronological order, all the key discoveries and remarkable minds in each scientific field, including Aristotle’s geocentric model of the cosmos, Darwin’s theory of evolution, Newton’s theory of gravity and Einstein’s theory of relativity. Also included are fascinating anecdotes about the lives of influential scientists: learn how Ptolemy fixed his results to match his theories; Freud used cocaine to expand his mind; and Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide Web, was banned from using university computers after being caught hacking.Revealing how human curiosity knows no bounds, and how the field of science has evolved over the last 2,500 years, this book breaks everything down into easily digestible sections to give a broad overview of the fascinating history of science.

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Book SynopsisIn a world divided by the ideological struggles of the Cold War, the Vietnam War and the Civil Rights Movement, more than one-fifth of the people on the planet paused to watch the live transmission of the Apollo 11 mission. To watch as humanity took a giant leap forward. A companion book to the landmark documentary series on BBC TV.

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