History of science Books
The University of Chicago Press The Rise of the Wave Theory of Light
Book SynopsisNo one interested in the history of optics, the history of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century physics, or the general phenomenon of theory change in science can afford to ignore Jed Buchwald's well-structured, highly detailed, and scrupulously researched book. . . . Buchwald's analysis will surely constitute the essential starting point for further work on this important and hitherto relatively neglected episode of theory change.John Worrall, Isis
£47.50
The University of Chicago Press The Creation of Scientific Effects Heinrich Hertz
Book SynopsisThis text focuses on the social and intellectual world of 19th-century German physics. In providing a biography of Hertz and his scientific community, Buchwald aims to reconstitute the tacit knowledge - the shared, unwritten assumptions, values and understandings - that shapes the work of science.
£52.25
The University of Chicago Press Life Out of Sequence
Book SynopsisLooks inside this landscape of digital scientific work. This title chronicles the emergence of bioinformatics - the mode of working across and between biology, computing, mathematics, and statistics - from the 1960s to the present, seeking to understand how knowledge about life is made in and through virtual spaces.Trade Review"What happens to biology with computerization? Hallam Stevens's compelling ethnographic and historical narrative shows how the nature of the biological experiment has changed with the increasing use of the tools of information technology in life science and biomedicine." (Hannah Landecker, University of California, Los Angeles)"
£84.00
The University of Chicago Press Life Out of Sequence
Book SynopsisLooks inside this landscape of digital scientific work. This title chronicles the emergence of bioinformatics - the mode of working across and between biology, computing, mathematics, and statistics - from the 1960s to the present, seeking to understand how knowledge about life is made in and through virtual spaces.Trade Review"What happens to biology with computerization? Hallam Stevens's compelling ethnographic and historical narrative shows how the nature of the biological experiment has changed with the increasing use of the tools of information technology in life science and biomedicine." (Hannah Landecker, University of California, Los Angeles)"
£28.00
The University of Chicago Press Observing by Hand
Book SynopsisToday we are all familiar with the iconic pictures of the nebulae produced by the Hubble Space Telescope's digital cameras. This book sheds entirely new light on the ways in which the production and reception of hand-drawn images of the nebulae in the nineteenth century contributed to astronomical observation.
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Sex Itself
Book SynopsisTracking the emergence of a new and distinctive way of thinking about sex represented by the unalterable, simple, and visually compelling binary of the X and Y chromosomes, this title examines the interaction between cultural gender norms and genetic theories of sex from the beginning of the twentieth century to the present, postgenomic age.Trade Review"Through a series of deeply researched case studies, Sarah S. Richardson shows how thoroughly gender ideologies permeated twentieth- and twenty-first-century research on the so-called sex chromosomes. An essential addition to feminist science studies." (Helen E. Longino, Stanford University)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press From Natural Philosophy to the Sciences Writing
Book SynopsisEleven leading historians assess what their field has taught us about this time, and identify issues that remain unexamined or require reconsideration.
£34.20
The University of Chicago Press A Tenth of a Second
Book SynopsisIn the late fifteenth century, clocks acquired minute hands. A century later, second hands appeared. Tracing debates about the nature of time, causality, and free will, as well as the introduction of modern technologies - telegraphy, photography, cinematography - this title locates the reverberations of this 'perceptual moment' throughout culture.Trade Review"A thoughtful look at the all-too-human perceptual complications facing objective observation." (New Scientist) "This is an interesting, entertaining, and well-written book." (Choice)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Shaping Science with Rhetoric
Book SynopsisIn considering how scientists persuade colleagues to cross the disciplinary divide, this text examines three scientific monographs in their historical contexts: Dodzhansky's "Genetics and the Origin of Species" (1937); Schrodinger's "What is Life?" (1944); and Wilson's "Consilience" (1998).
£30.00
University of Chicago Press The Earth on Show Fossils and the Poetics of
Book SynopsisTracks the astonishing growth of geology's prestige in Britain, exploring how a geohistory far more alluring than the standard six days of Creation was assembled and sold to the wider Bible-reading public.Trade Review"Undoubtedly a tour de force and an outstanding success." (David Oldroyd, Nuncius) "This book is utterly brilliant." (Sharon Ruston, Byron Journal) "The portrayal of the geological past to a public hungry for drama and instruction is explored with great verve by Ralph O'Connor.... One could argue that the awareness of deep time has changed human perception of our place in the cosmos more than any other discovery. Anyone interested in how such new ideas are promulgated at large will enjoy O'Connor's work." (Richard A. Fortey, Times Literary Supplement)"
£999.99
The University of Chicago Press Victorian Scientific Naturalism
Book SynopsisExamines the secular creeds of the generation of intellectuals who, in the wake of The Origin of Species, wrested cultural authority from the old Anglican establishment while installing themselves as a new professional scientific elite.
£39.90
The University of Chicago Press Vienna in the Age of Uncertainty Science
Book SynopsisTraces the vital and varied roles of science through the story of three generations of the eminent Exner family, whose members included Nobel Prize - winning biologist Karl Frisch, the teachers of Freud and of physicist Erwin Schrodinger, artists of the Vienna Secession, and a leader of Vienna's women's movement.Trade Review"A lucid and erudite account of a complex cultural phenomenon that will be of use to both historians of science and students of Austrian culture." (American Historical Review) "An important contribution to understanding what was distinctive in this culture." (Journal of Modern History) "An important contribution... one that will especially interest those fascinated by the varied interactions among science, society, and culture." (Science)"
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Protogaea
Book SynopsisPresents the English translation of "Protogaea", a central text in natural philosophy and an account of terrestrial history.Trade Review"Historically, this is a very influential book that has finally been brought out of obscurity for readers of English. Essential." - Choice "Protogaea gives us a much fuller picture of science and culture in the territories of the Holy Roman Empire at a crucial time in its history. Cohen and Wakefield are to be commended for their hard work in making it possible for the Protogaea to reach the audience it deserves." - H-Net Review.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Making Physics
Book SynopsisThis text tells the stories of Brookhaven National Laboratory's scientists and their research, which has included detailed descriptions of the structure of the nucleus, early attempts at radiotherapy for inoperable tumours, and studies of strange particles.
£30.40
The University of Chicago Press The Life of a Virus Tobacco Mosaic Virus as an
Book SynopsisIn this text, Angela N.H. Creager introduces the reader to the plant virus that taught much of what we know about all viruses, including the lethal ones, and that also played a crucial role in the development of molecular biology.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Quantum Mechanics Historical Contingency and the
Book SynopsisIn examining the role that timing can play in the establishment of theory and explanation, this book argues that the Copenhagen interpretation of quantum mechanics was accepted not because it was better than David Bohm's (who supplied an alternative explanation), but because it appeared first.
£42.75
The University of Chicago Press From Eve to Evolution
Book SynopsisProvides the study of American women's responses to evolutionary theory and illuminates the role science played in the nineteenth-century women's rights movement.Trade Review"From Eve to Evolution documents the ardent ways in which women's rights advocates articulated and advanced Charles Darwin's observations of female choice in the natural world as a counterargument to age-old Biblical assertions about women's roles in society. A fresh intellectual history of late nineteenth-century feminism that will interest historians of science as well as those interested in women, gender, and science issues." (Sally Gregory Kohlstedt, editor of History of Women in the Sciences)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Subjects of the World
Book SynopsisBeing human while trying to scientifically study human nature confronts us with our most vexing problem. What we need to move forward in our understanding of human agency, this book argues, is a reform in the way we study ourselves and a long overdue break with traditional humanist thinking.Trade Review"In Davies's bracing book, we get a resounding manifesto for naturalism, in particular as it pertains to our perceived free will (Davies argues that this concept is otiose). His is not the first naturalistic manifesto, but it is arguably one of the most trenchant.... The gauntlet has been cast and it deserves being picked up. The author reminds us that being a coherent naturalist is a serious and difficult philosophical project; as such, this stimulating book should be read by all philosophers interested in the implications of naturalism." (Quarterly Review of Biology)"
£33.25
The University of Chicago Press Discipline and Experience The Mathematical Way in
Book SynopsisThis study examines 17th-century mathematical sciences - astronomy, optics and mechanics - not as abstract ideas, but as vital enterprises that involved practices related to both experience and experiment. Mersenne, Descartes, Pascal, Barrow, Newton, Boyle and the Jesuits are discussed.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Medieval Cosmology
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£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Mapping an Empire The Geographical Construction
Book SynopsisIn this history of the British surveys of India, the author relates how imperial Britain employed modern scientific survey techniques to create and define the spacial image of its Indian empire, and to legitimize its colonialist activities as triumphs of liberal, rational science.
£31.35
The University of Chicago Press The Best of All Possible Worlds Mathematics and
Book SynopsisTracing the impact of optimization and the ways in which it has influenced the study of mathematics, biology, economics, and even politics, this title reveals how the idea has driven some of our greatest intellectual breakthroughs.Trade Review"The deity of Leibniz and Maupertuis can only make action stationary; to us remains the challenge to make the world as good as possible.... We can neither evade such problems nor address them without science. Ekeland's admirable account gives us the tools to consider these important questions in greater depth." - Peter Pesic, Times Literary Supplement "A vivid picture of human history and destiny.... Ekeland moves easily from mathematics to physics, biology, ethics, and philosophy." - Freeman Dyson, New York Review of Books "[Ekeland's] explanations are clear and elegant... and his prose is fluid, exhilarating, and suspenseful. I tried to put this book down after chapter 4 but couldn't. It was as if some compelling force of nature had a purpose, an opposing directive in the best of all possible worlds." - Joseph Mazur, Nature"
£16.72
The University of Chicago Press A Cultural History of Heredity
Book SynopsisIt was only around 1800 that heredity began to enter debates among physicians, breeders, and naturalists. Soon thereafter it evolved into one of the most fundamental concepts of biology. In this book, the authors offer a succinct cultural history of the scientific concept of heredity.Trade Review"Inarguably well researched and in possession of the kind of knowledgeable depth only found in the realm of expertise." (Bookslut) "An essential resource for those interested in the study of heredity-in any time period or disciplinary tradition, from seventeenth-century studies of generation to contemporary work on the ethics of genetically modified organisms or human cloning. Muller-Wille and Rheinberger's contribution thus serves as a valuable addition to our existing histories of generation, heredity, and genetics." (HOPOS)"
£24.00
The University of Chicago Press Anthropology at War
Book SynopsisBetween 1914 and 1918, German anthropologists conducted their work in the midst of full-scale war. The discipline was relatively new in German academia when World War I broke out. The author reveals that its development was profoundly altered by the conflict. He examines both the origins and consequences of this shift.Trade Review"Evans not only offers an explanation for the key transition in the history of German anthropology, he also presents the most comprehensive history of the discipline available to date. Even beyond this impressive scholarly work, Evans has made a real conceptual contribution to the history of science, correcting the dominant view of the relation between science and politics." - Matti Bunzl, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"
£91.00
The University of Chicago Press Anthropology at War World War I and the Science
Book SynopsisBetween 1914 and 1918, German anthropologists conducted their work in the midst of full-scale war. The discipline was relatively new in German academia when World War I broke out. The author reveals that its development was profoundly altered by the conflict. He examines both the origins and consequences of this shift.Trade Review"Evans not only offers an explanation for the key transition in the history of German anthropology, he also presents the most comprehensive history of the discipline available to date. Even beyond this impressive scholarly work, Evans has made a real conceptual contribution to the history of science, correcting the dominant view of the relation between science and politics." - Matti Bunzl, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign"
£31.00
The University of Chicago Press The Halle Orphanage as Scientific Community
Book SynopsisFounded around 1700 by a group of German Lutherans known as Pietists, the Halle Orphanage became the institutional headquarters of a universal seminar that still stands largely intact today. The author reveals, those teaching and training in Halle Orphanage contributed to the transformation of scientific observation and its related activities.Trade Review"Modernism takes many forms; what many of us thought was a credit to Pietism of the Franke school turns out to be an amalgam of differentiated Enlightenment thought. I strongly recommend reading this book and rethinking the issues." (Joanna Geyer-Kordesch, University of Glasgow)
£33.25
University of Chicago Press The Courtiers Anatomists
Book SynopsisExplores the relationships between empiricism and theory, human and animal. The author reveals how anatomy and natural history were connected through animal dissection and vivisection. She tell the story of Joseph-Guichard Duverney, who performed violent, riot-inducing dissections of both animal and human bodies before the king at Versailles.Trade Review"Guerrini ably shows how anatomy emerged as a science within the institutional and courtly spaces of Louis XIV's France. Her beautifully illustrated and richly woven account explores the relationship between the emerging fashion for dissection and the mechanical philosophy, showing how and why dead bodies were enrolled into the wider transformation of European learning in the seventeenth century. Navigating between the pan-European Republic of Letters which made and disseminated new anatomical knowledge, and the promise and constraints of courtly patronage, Guerrini displays an assured grasp of her subject." -Emma Spary, University of Cambridge
£29.45
The University of Chicago Press Thomas Kuhn
Book SynopsisThis work discusses whether Kuhn's The Structure of Scientific Revolutions was revolutionary. Steve Fuller argues that Kuhn held a profoundly conservative view of science and how one ought to study its history.
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press On Hysteria
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£45.60
The University of Chicago Press Science and Salvation Evangelical Popular Science
Book SynopsisAileen Fyfe examines the emergence of a popular science literature in early Victorian Britain, which was largely stimulated by the Religious Tract Society. Anxious that science and faith were becoming seen as mutually exclusive, the RTS embarked on an ambitious publishing venture.
£30.40
The University of Chicago Press The Comparative Reception of Darwinism
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£47.50
The University of Chicago Press British Weather and the Climate of Enlightenment
Book SynopsisEnlightenment inquiries into weather sought to impose order on a force that had the power to alter human life and social conditions. This title reveals how a sense of the national climate emerged in the 18th century from the systematic recording of the weather, and how it was deployed in discussions of the health and welfare of the population.Trade Review"[An] absorbing new study of attitudes to the weather in the age of Enlightenment.... Gives us such a lucid picture of its subject, backed by abundant documentation and argued in a manner both stylish and vigorous." (Times Literary Supplement)"
£30.00
The University of Chicago Press Community Organizing for Urban School Reform
Book SynopsisEnlightenment inquiries into weather sought to impose order on a force that had the power to alter human life and social conditions. This title reveals how a sense of the national climate emerged in the 18th century from the systematic recording of the weather, and how it was deployed in discussions of the health and welfare of the population.Trade Review"[An] absorbing new study of attitudes to the weather in the age of Enlightenment.... Gives us such a lucid picture of its subject, backed by abundant documentation and argued in a manner both stylish and vigorous." (Times Literary Supplement)"
£76.00
The University of Chicago Press Wrestling with Nature From Omens to Science
Book SynopsisWhen and where did science begin? Historians have offered different answers to these questions, some pointing to Babylonian observational astronomy. This title examines how students of nature themselves, in various cultures and periods of history, have understood and represented their work.Trade Review"Wrestling with Nature is a strong collection of essays, united by a coherent thread, written by leading scholars. It will be a useful guide to the state of the field for graduate students and advanced undergraduates." (Brian Ogilvie, University of Massachusetts Amherst)"
£96.90
The University of Chicago Press Wrestling with Nature From Omens to Science
Book SynopsisWhen and where did science begin? Historians have offered different answers to these questions, some pointing to Babylonian observational astronomy. This title examines how students of nature themselves, in various cultures and periods of history, have understood and represented their work.Trade Review"Wrestling with Nature is a strong collection of essays, united by a coherent thread, written by leading scholars. It will be a useful guide to the state of the field for graduate students and advanced undergraduates." (Brian Ogilvie, University of Massachusetts Amherst)"
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Styles of Scientific Thought The German Genetics
Book SynopsisIn this detailed historical and sociological study of the development of scientific ideas, Jonathan Harwood argues that there is no such thing as a unitary scientific method driven by an internal logic. Rather, there are national styles of science that are defined by different values, norms, assumptions, research traditions, and funding patterns. The first book-length treatment of genetics in Germany, Styles of Scientific Thought demonstrates the influence of culture on science by comparing the American with the German scientific traditions. Harwood examines the structure of academic and research institutions, the educational backgrounds of geneticists, and cultural traditions, among many factors, to explain why the American approach was much more narrowly focussed than the German. This tremendously rich book fills a gap between histories of the physical sciences in the Weimar Republic and other works on the humanities and the arts during the intellectually innovative 1920s, and it will interest European historians, as well as sociologists and philosophers of science.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press The Age of Everything
Book SynopsisTaking advantage of advances throughout the sciences, this title shows how scientists have determined the age of everything from the colonization of the New World over 13,000 years ago to the origin of the universe nearly fourteen billion years ago.Trade Review"We are used to being told confidently of an enormous, measurable past: that some collection of dusty bones is tens of thousands of years old, or that astronomical bodies have an age of some billions. But how exactly do scientists come to know these things? That is the subject of this quite fascinating book.... As told by Hedman, an astronomer, each story is a marvel of compressed exegesis that takes into account some of the most modern and intriguing hypotheses." - Steven Poole, Guardian "Hedman is worth reading because he is careful to present both the power and peril of trying to extract precise chronological data. These are all very active areas of study, and as you read Hedman you begin to see how researchers have to be both very careful and incredibly audacious, and how much of our understanding of ourselves - through history, through paleontology, through astronomy - depends on determining the age of everything." - Anthony Doerr, Boston Globe"
£18.58
The University of Chicago Press From Eve to Evolution
Book SynopsisFrom Eve to Evolution provides the first full-length study of American women's responses to evolutionary theory and illuminates the role science played in the nineteenth-century women's rights movement. Kimberly A. Hamlin reveals how a number of nineteenth-century women, raised on the idea that Eve's sin forever fixed women's subordinate status, embraced Darwinian evolution-especially sexual selection theory as explained in The Descent of Man-as an alternative to the creation story in Genesis. Hamlin chronicles the lives and writings of the women who combined their enthusiasm for evolutionary science with their commitment to women's rights, including Antoinette Brown Blackwell, Eliza Burt Gamble, Helen Hamilton Gardener, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, and Elizabeth Cady Stanton. These Darwinian feminists believed evolutionary science proved that women were not inferior to men, that it was natural for mothers to work outside the home, and that women should control reproduction. The practical applications of this evolutionary feminism came to fruition, Hamlin shows, in the early thinking and writing of the American birth control pioneer Margaret Sanger. Much scholarship has been dedicated to analyzing what Darwin and other male evolutionists had to say about women, but very little has been written regarding what women themselves had to say about evolution. From Eve to Evolution adds much-needed female voices to the vast literature on Darwin in America.
£23.00
The University of Chicago Press The Stars Are Not Enough ScientistsTheir Passions
Book SynopsisBased on interviews with physicists of all ages this text examines how their hopes, dreams and ambitions have evolved. The study reveals how greatness eludes nearly all people in their heroic quests for extraordinary achievment.
£23.00
The University of Chicago Press Fermilab
Book SynopsisFermi National Accelerator Laboratory, located in the western suburbs of Chicago, has stood at the frontier of high-energy physics for forty years. This title tells the history of this laboratory and of its powerful accelerators that is told from the point of view of the people who built and used them for scientific discovery.Trade Review"Fermilab will be of interest to anyone curious about science and science policy." (Physics World) "Fermilab's story is well told and attractively framed in the book, a fitting capstone for the edifice of historical scholarship that the authors have erected over 30 years. Megascience requires 'megahistory,' and Hoddeson knows how to pioneer in that field." (Science)"
£30.40
The University of Chicago Press Science as a Process
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£37.00
The University of Chicago Press Inventing Chemistry Herman Boerhaave and the
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£24.00
The University of Chicago Press The Lost Species
Book SynopsisTrade Review"An unexpectedly delightful and rewarding jaunt into once-cherished, now-decaying living history. Each chapter gives a quick sketch of a species or genus that was formally described from a museum specimen, often decades after it was collected. Most of the creatures--which include lightning cockroaches, squeaker frogs, pygmy bandicoots from New Guinea, ruby seadragons, and 'atomic' tarantulas caught at a nuclear test site in Nevada--have been identified in the past fifteen years or so."-- "Wall Street Journal" "As part of the rising concern for global biodiversity, Christopher Kemp makes clear the value of preserved specimens in basic research. He successfully presents their study as part science, part history, and part adventure."--Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, emeritus, Harvard University "Forbes, Best Biology Books of 2017" "The natural history museums of the world are full of surprises--undescribed species, from flying foxes to king crabs--sitting on their shelves waiting for someone to notice. Kemp vividly brings to life the stories of these specimens, and the people who collect and describe them. The Lost Species will delight any reader who cares about discovery, adventure, and the little-known planet that sustains us."--Richard Conniff, author of The Species Seekers: Heroes, Fools, and the Mad Pursuit of Life on Earth "Forbes, Best Biology Books of 2017" "Natural history museums and their collections come alive with Kemp's inside stories of new species formerly hidden away in museum drawers and jars. Anyone who appreciates discovery and has an interest in museums, history, and biodiversity will find plenty to enjoy in The Lost Species, an intriguing, engaging, and conversational read."--Marty Crump, author of Eye of Newt and Toe of Frog, Adder's Fork and Lizard's Leg: The Lore and Mythology of Amphibians and Reptiles "Forbes, Best Biology Books of 2017" "Natural history collections are vast, backlogged, error-riddled, or incompletely described. Think of all those expeditions in the 1800s and 1900s. Imagine drawers with thousands of beetles and flies, countless jars of marine invertebrates. What other treasures could those collections still be holding? Well, biologist Kemp wondered about that, too. And he went on a quest to uncover the forgotten collections and chronicled his findings in a book, The Last Species--new species that were only found with the help of natural history museums. . . . Amazing story."--Ira Flatow "Science Friday" "At a time when funding for natural history collections is under siege, Kemp's The Lost Species, which champions the irreplaceable value of these collections in the identification of new species, is a refreshing endorsement of both biodiversity and curatorial taxonomic expertise. . . . Kemp ably demonstrates the vital role that natural history collections and curators with taxonomic expertise play in the documentation of new species and ultimately in the preservation of biodiversity. These collections require maintenance to ensure the preservation of specimens and documentation for the next generation of taxonomists, who will discover more new species. It is my hope that The Lost Species will engender broader public interest and support for these efforts."--Bonnie Styles "Science" "As Kemp showcases these inspiring discoveries, you'll find yourself wondering what undiscovered treasures can be found in your local natural history museum. Clearly there is plenty of unknown biodiversity: currently, only 2 million species have been named out of the estimated 10 million that are thought to be out there (some credible estimates go as high as 30 million unnamed species), but I was amazed to learn that as many as half of all museum specimens are misidentified. Yeow! Clearly, there's a lot of taxonomic and systematic work to be done. This engaging book is a compelling argument for the overall value of natural history museums, and for the importance of studying these collections."--GrrlScientist "Forbes, Best Biology Books of 2017" "Major natural history museums of the world today collectively hold an enormous, irreplaceable collection of scientific objects numbering in the billions. Among this library of life and culture that has been assembled over several centuries, each piece has its own tale to tell. Christopher Kemp vividly brings several of these stories to life in The Lost Species. He chooses pieces ranging from a lowly nematode worm to the mighty dinosaur Apatosaurus (formerly known as Brontosaurus) to engage us. He presents these specimens to us not only as voucher specimens of Earth's biodiversity, but also as examples of human endeavor surrounding their discovery and eventual study. A great read for anyone interested in natural history museum collections, how they came to be, and what we can learn from them." --Lance Grande, author of Curators "Forbes, Best Biology Books of 2017"
£26.00
The University of Chicago Press Squaring the Circle The War between Hobbes and
Book SynopsisThis text presents an account of the argument between Thomas Hobbes and John Wallis, from the core mathematics to the broader issues. Their battle of the books illuminates the relationship between science and 17th-century debates over the limits of sovereign power and the existence of God.
£38.00
The University of Chicago Press Influences Art Optics and Astrology in the
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£21.00
The University of Chicago Press Hybrid
Book SynopsisDrawing on historical and scientific accounts, as well as a rich trove of anecdotes, this title shows how scientists, amateur breeders, and countless anonymous farmers and gardeners slowly caused the evolutionary pressures of nature to be supplanted by those of human needs.Trade Review"Kingsbury's account should be required reading for students preparing for a future as a plant breeder, geneticist, or molecular biologist. Fortunately, that requirement should prove unnecessary - the book is engaging at many levels, and I expect many scientists and lay readers to pick it up on their own accord." (Science) "This engaging history of the genetic milestones and individuals that have shaped the field helps to fill a long-standing gap." (Choice) "Apart from the amazing factual content, [Hybrid] is also a tale of human endeavour that will fascinate all those who love a good story, and one that I know I shall want to return to time and again." (English Gardener) "The scope of this well-researched book is stunning; it is apparent that the work was a labor of love. Kingsbury is thorough, and each chapter is a rewarding feast of narrative and information.... Hybrid is a masterful work by an admirably ambitious author." (American Gardener) "Shoppers who shun genetically modified foods in favor of 'natural' fruits and veggies may be in for a surprise. Horticulturalist Kingsbury's lively history documents the history of human meddling with plant genes since the dawn of agriculture." (Discover)"
£31.35
The University of Chicago Press Outward Mind Materialist Aesthetics in Victorian
Book SynopsisThough underexplored in contemporary scholarship, the Victorian attempts to turn aesthetics into a science remains one of the more fascinating aspects of that era. As mind and emotion were increasingly understood in terms of biology, aesthetic experience began to be thought of less as abstract judgment and more as an interaction between the nervous system and the materiality of art. In The Outward Mind, Benjamin Morgan approaches this period of innovation as an important origin point for current attempts to understand art or beauty using the tools of the sciences. Moving chronologically from natural theology in the early nineteenth century to laboratory psychology in the early twentieth, Morgan draws on little-known archives of Victorian intellectuals such as William Morris, Walter Pater, John Ruskin, and others, to argue that scientific studies of mind and emotion transformed the way that nineteenth-century writers and artists understood the experience of beauty and effectively redesc
£91.00
The University of Chicago Press Landscapes and Labscapes
Book SynopsisIn Landscapes and Labscapes Robert E. Kohler explores the people, places and practices of field biology in the United States from the 1890s to the 1950s. Using historical frontiers as models, Kohler shows how biologists created vigorous new border sciences of ecology and evolutionary biology.
£85.00
