History of science Books
Springer Verlag, Singapore Eye Beyond the Sky
Book Synopsis
£28.49
Columbia Global Reports Rivals: How Scientists Learned to Cooperate
Book Synopsis
£12.34
Springer International Publishing AG Genius: Theory, History and Technique
Book SynopsisGenius is a fascinating topic. Everyone has an opinion on it, but not a lot of clarity. Much has been written on the subject - biographies, autobiographies, technical books, popular science books, and practical manuals - but genius in all of its dimensions has yet to be addressed. This book seeks to remedy that. What follows is a work of significant breadth that hopes to facilitate a nuanced popular understanding of the definition of genius, examining all of the main theories and approaches regarding the nature and origin of brilliance, the cognitive path that geniuses follow, and the difference that exists between “geniuses” on one side and “normal people” on the other. Pragmatic indications surrounding this issue are also examined, regarding such questions as: is it possible to become a genius or is genius innate? If it is possible, what is the path – no doubt long and difficult – that one must take? Is there a method for becoming a genius that can be taught and learned? This book will appeal to anyone who has ever contemplated great ideas and works and wondered how they came into being.Trade Review“From historical and linguistic aspects to artificial intelligence (AI), the book presents centuries of thought and research on genius and related topics, including creativity, neurology, psychology, and environmental factors. … The book is written in a mixed style … . Manzocco provides many references that should help readers who want a deeper dive into any of the topics discussed in the book.” (Yishai Feldman, Computing Reviews, October 23, 2023)Table of ContentsIntroductionWhy do geniuses fascinate us? The genius as a new “hero myth” Chapter One Origin and history of the concept of genius. The scientific study of genius. How do we measure genius? Definition of genius. How do we determine who is a genius and who is not ? The concept of “misunderstood genius” and “forgotten genius” Chapter Two The typologies of genius. Is there a “generic” genius or is genius always “specialized”? Is it possible to be a genius in multiple sectors of knowledge? Genius and multiple intelligences. Political genius, military genius and business genius. Does it make sense to talk about “evil genius”? The concept of “reverse genius” (for example consider the movies of Ed Wood, so badly made as to become classics) Chapter Three Nature or culture? What produces genius, genetics, environment, free–will (if it exists), or a mixture of these things? What role does trauma have in the development of a genius? And what about education? Up to what point is genius self-taught? Among other things in this chapter we will introduce the “Darwinian theory of genius,” promoted by Dean Keith Simonton Chapter Four Genius and talent. How do they differ? Fifth Chapter Genius, IQ and intelligence. Why the link between IQ and genius is actually weak Chapter Six Genius and creativity. “Normal” creativity and “genius” creativity, difference of degree or qualitative difference? Chapter Seven Neurobiology of genius. The myth of Einstein 's brain Chapter Eight The “stroke of genius”, definition and psychological processes involved. Eureka and insight; inspiration and preparatory work. The cognitive process that leads to brilliant work: heuristics vs algorithms. Genius and serendipity Chapter Nine Is there a typical genius personality? Genius and “chameleon” personality. Genius and madness. Does madness help or hinder the work of genius? Chapter Ten Lifecycle of the genius. Surviving your own genius. The “swan song” phenomenon (the last great work of genius before the death); genius and the relationship with death. “Precocious” genius and “late bloomers” Chapter Eleven Sociability and loneliness, the presence of partners and mentors, teamwork and the concept of being “on the shoulders of giants.” Collective genius, historical epochs, zeitgeist and individual genius. Parallel discoveries Chapter Twelve What do geniuses think of their genius? Philosophy and genius; philosophy of genius. Is the genius aware of being so? Chapter Thirteenth Anders Ericsson and “deliberate practice,” or how to become a genius. Genius, performance and the rule of ten thousand hours of practice. The concept of cognitive modifiability. Can you become a genius? The geniuses and us, the “normal people.” Genius, deliberate practice and the world of sportChapter Fourteenth The future of genius. Genius and AI. Genius and Genetic Engineering. Is it - or will it be – possible to reproduce genius?
£18.39
Basic Books Synchronicity: The Epic Quest to Understand the
Book SynopsisIn Synchronicity Paul Halpern tells the little-known story of the unlikely friendship between the Nobel-prize-winning quantum physicist Wolfgang Pauli and the father of psychoanalysis, Carl Jung. In the 1930s, Pauli and Jung began collaborating on a unified theory of quantum and the mind, the result of which was Jung's synchronicity principle-the idea that events connected by meaning need not be explained by causality. Pauli's work on entanglement theory, which allowed for instantaneous cause and effect relationships, was particularly appealing to Jung, as it seemed to give weight to his controversial theory of a collective unconscious.Casting their relationship within a larger intellectual history of entanglement theory, Halpern poses a question that has mystified physicists and philosophers alike since the times of Aristotle: Is the speed of light finite, as Einstein posited, or is it, as Pauli and the proponents of entanglement theory asserted, variable across time and dimensions? As Halpern works his way through the history of the physics of cause and effect, he shows that this centuries-old debate is not only relevant at the smallest scales of particle physics but also at the largest scales of the cosmos itself.
£22.50
Oneworld Publications About Time: From Sun Dials to Quantum Clocks, How
Book SynopsisFrom Stonehenge to beyond the Big Bang, an exhilarating scientific exploration of how we make time Time is the grandest conception of the universe that we humans have been able to imagine – and its most intimate, the very frame of human life. In About Time, astrophysicist and award-winning writer Adam Frank tells the scientific story of this wonderful and tyrannical invention. A Palaeolithic farmer moved through the sun-fuelled day and star-steered night in a radically different way than the Elizabethan merchants who set their pace to the clocks newly installed in their town squares. Since then, science has swept time into increasingly minute and standardized units – the industrial efficiency of ironworks’ punch clocks; the space-age precision of atomic fountains and GPS satellites; the fifteen-minute increments of Outlook’s digital revolution. And in the past decade, string-theory branes, multiverses, and “clockless” physics have begun to overturn our ideas about how the universe began – the Big Bang – in ways that will completely rewrite time and our experience of it. Weaving cosmology with day-to-day chronicles and a down-to-earth style, About Time is both dazzling and riveting as it confronts what comes next.Trade Review"Beyond exploring mind-bending theories… Frank's book is a fascinating and comprehensive survey of how technology — from farming to railways to telegraphy to the internet — has changed our everyday concept of time… Compelling." Marcus Chown * New Scientist *“A phenomenal blend of science and cultural history.” Starred review. * Kirkus Reviews *"This will fascinate anyone curious about the nexus of astronomy and history and, of course, time. Recommended." * Library Journal *“Eloquent.” * Nature *
£9.49
University of California Press The Pyrocene
Book SynopsisTrade Review"An excellent grounding in how fire functions, how we think about it and why that matters. In Pyne’s hands, fire becomes more than simply a natural phenomenon." * Los Angeles Times *"Stephen J. Pyne takes a measured, historical, and ecological approach to fire. . . . [A] brief but highly impactful book." * Science *"The Pyrocene is his fullest elucidation yet of how humanity has entered a new age of fire, one that redefines the human-altered era of the Anthropocene. And Pyne . . . is certainly the best writer to make this argument." * Nature *"The Pyrocene may be just the type of analysis that we need to reformulate our understanding of fire and to prepare for the longue duree of a fire age." * Natural Resources and Environment *"A tremendous read, an incisive account of the history and science of fire alongside the evolution of hominids." * Organic Gardener *"Pyne’s book is [a] wonderful and worthy read." * Metascience *"A sweeping, deep biological and geological history of the Earth and how its human inhabitants have for the first time shaped its current state and future." * Utah Historical Quarterly * "Pyne’s book is another wonderful and worthy read. It is a culmination of his work and thinking about fire spanning over forty years." * Springer Nature *Table of ContentsPrologue: Between Three Fires 1 Fire Planet: Fire Slow, Fire Fast, Fire Deep 2 The Pleistocene 3 Fire Creature: Living Landscapes 4 Fire Creature: Lithic Landscapes 5 The Pyrocene Epilogue: Sixth Sun Author's Note Notes Bibliographic Essay Index
£18.00
Harvard University Press The Global Transformation of Time 18701950
Book SynopsisAs railways, steamships, and telegraph communications brought distant places into unprecedented proximity, previously minor discrepancies in local time-telling became a global problem. Vanessa Ogle’s chronicle of the struggle to standardize clock times and calendars from 1870 to 1950 highlights the many hurdles that proponents of uniformity faced.Trade ReviewThe powerful lesson of Ogle’s book is how the gradual global transformation of time over the course of the twentieth century came to suit many different parties, all of whom thought they had something to gain from new modes of integration and connectivity. The process we anachronistically call ‘globalization,’ Vanessa Ogle shows, was made up of forces that often used international means to solve national or parochial problems. -- Thomas Meaney * Times Literary Supplement *Ogle is more interested in the ways in which the concept of global time helped create what she calls a ‘global imagination,’ in which peoples and societies could be understood as parts of a single, developing world system. In this way, Ogle argues, the standardization of time reflected and reproduced the world’s European-led power hierarchies. International clocks and calendars united the world, but they also revealed and sometimes reinforced its inequities. -- G. John Ikenberry * Foreign Affairs *Today, we take our global system of timekeeping largely for granted… Yet in her imaginative and thought-provoking new book The Global Transformation of Time: 1870–1950, Vanessa Ogle reminds us that standardization and simultaneity had to be invented… Ogle’s formidable work contributes to a new history of political economy which takes seriously the ideas, values, and acts of violence behind the emergence of global capitalism. -- Ian P. Beacock * The Atlantic *How exactly horological chaos gave way to order is the subject of Ogle’s accessible and prodigiously researched book…Ogle has insightful things to say about many topics, from the role of cosmopolitan ports in disseminating new kinds of timepieces, to Islamic calendars, to the curiously moralizing tone of early discussions of using daylight savings schemes to prevent people from squandering precious sunshine hours. Perhaps her most important contribution is to show, via discussion of the various ways that power relations shaped debates relating to time, how foolish it is to view globalization, in any period, as a smooth, value-free process of flattening out. -- Jeffrey Wasserstrom * Financial Times *With impressive breadth, imagination, and originality, Ogle has produced an important and genuinely global history of time that reveals the rhythms, directions, unevenness, and contradictory consequences of what we now call globalization. -- Geoff Eley, University of MichiganWriting global history is still a high-stakes venture, and Ogle’s The Global Transformation of Time is an impressive testimony to the potential of the genre. We get a deep sense of the talk about time and calendars among transnational experts and politicians as well as the everyday intelligence that produced differentiated time regimes—times for travel, for work, for leisure, for religious practice or, as may be, for milking cows—across the globe in Berlin and Beirut, London and Bombay, and their rural hinterlands. Reading this book is a tremendous intellectual pleasure from beginning to end. -- Michael Geyer, University of ChicagoGlobalization is all the rage in the 21st century. What technology and cultural factors led to this shrinking world? One of the factors often overlooked, even taken for granted, is our system of uniform time…The progressives who advocated for uniform time found themselves dealing with nationalism, regionalism, and colonialism, as well as resistance from labor, religion, and other groups with a vested interest in the status quo. Ogle provides an intriguing glimpse into the machinations that led to the globalization of time. -- T. Timmons * Choice *
£34.81
Princeton University Press Relativity
Book SynopsisAfter completing the final version of his general theory of relativity in November 1915, Albert Einstein wrote a book about relativity for a popular audience. His intention was "to give an exact insight into the theory of relativity to those readers who, from a general scientific and philosophical point of view, are interested in the theory, but whTrade ReviewOne of Symmetry magazine's Physics Books of 2015 "I can still see some fugitive magic in Relativity ... it conjures Einstein as the oracle presenting a theory to the world--one of the most revolutionary and profound theories of all time."--Pedro Ferreira, Nature "Nobody is better at explaining relativity than Einstein himself; his account provides a combination of depth and clarity that only he could confidently produce... This 100th anniversary edition is complemented by commentary from Gutfreund and Renn, who clarify some key points and add historical perspective, making Einstein's own words even more accessible and meaningful."--Tom Siegfried, Science News "Hanoch Gutfreund, professor emeritus of theoretical physics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, and Jurgen Renn, director of the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science in Berlin, augment the 100th anniversary edition of [Relativity] with a reading companion to make Einstein's thinking clearer to present-day readers."--Mike Perricone, Symmetry MagazineTable of ContentsIntroduction xiii Einstein as a Missionary of Science 1 Einstein's Booklet: Relativity: The Special and the General Theory 7 PART I : The Special Theory of Relativity 1.Physical Meaning of Geometrical Propositions 11 2.The System of Co- ordinates 14 3.Space and Time in Classical Mechanics 18 4.The Galileian System of Co- ordinates 21 5.The Principle of Relativity (in the Restricted Sense) 23 6.The Theorem of the Addition of Velocities Employed in Classical Mechanics 27 7.The Apparent Incompatibility of the Law of Propagation of Light with the Principle of Relativity 28 8.On the Idea of Time in Physics 32 9.The Relativity of Simultaneity 36 10.On the Relativity of the Conception of Distance 39 11.The Lorentz Transformation 41 12.The Behaviour of Measuring- Rods and Clocks in Motion 47 13.Theorem of the Addition of the Velocities. The Experiment of Fizeau 50 14.The Heuristic Value of the Theory of Relativity 54 15.General Results of the Theory 56 16.Experience and the Special Theory of Relativity 62 17.Minkowski's Four- Dimensional Space 68 PART II: The General Theory of Relativity 18.Special and General Principle of Relativity 72 19.The Gravitational Field 76 20.The Equality of Inertial and Gravitational Mass as an Argument for the General Postulate of Relativity 80 21.In What Respects Are the Foundations of Classical Mechanics and of the Special Theory of Relativity Unsatisfactory? 85 22.A Few Inferences from the General Principle of Relativity 88 23.Behaviour of Clocks and Measuring- Rods on a Rotating Body of Reference 93 24.Euclidean and Non- Euclidean Continuum 97 25.Gaussian Co- ordinates 101 26.The Space- Time Continuum of the Special Theory of Relativity Considered as a Euclidean Continuum 106 27.The Space- Time Continuum of the General Theory of Relativity Is Not a Euclidean Continuum 109 28.Exact Formulation of the General Principle of Relativity 113 29.The Solution of the Problem of Gravitation on the Basis of the General Principle of Relativity 117 PART III: Considerations on the Universe as a Whole 30.Cosmological Diffi culties of Newton's Theory 122 31.The Possibility of a "Finite" and Yet "Unbounded" Universe 125 32.The Structure of Space According to the General Theory of Relativity 131 Appendixes 1.Simple Derivation of the Lorentz Transformation (Supplementary to Section 11) (1918) 133 2.Minkowski's Four- Dimensional Space ("World") (Supplementary to Section 17) (1918) 140 3.The Experimental Confi rmation of the General Theory of Relativity (1920) 142 4.The Structure of Space According to the General Theory of Relativity (Supplementary to Section 32) (1946) 153 5.Relativity and the Problem of Space (1953) 155 A Reading Companion: Thirteen Commentaries Physics and Geometry ( 1- 2) 180 Mechanics and Space ( 3- 6) 182 Light Propagation and Time ( 7- 9) 187 Light Propagation and Space ( 10- 12 and Appendix 1) 191 Physics in Relativistic Space and Time ( 13- 16) 193 The World of Four Dimensions ( 17 and Appendix 2) 201 From Special to General Relativity 204 Gravitation and Inertia ( 18- 21) 205 Acceleration, Clocks, and Rods ( 22- 23) 209 Gravitation and Geometry ( 24- 27) 213 Gravitation and General Relativity ( 28- 29) 218 The Challenge of Cosmology ( 30- 32 and Appendix 4) 222 The Relation between Theory and Experiment (Appendix 3) 226 The Changing Concept of Space (Appendix 5) 230 A History and Survey of Foreign-Language Editions The English Translation 244 The French Translation 247 The Italian Translation 252 The Spanish Translation 256 The Russian Translation 259 The Chinese Translation 262 The Japanese Translation 266 The Polish Translation 270 The Czech Translation 273 The Hebrew Translation 276 Concluding Remarks 279 Appended Documents A Letter from Walther Rathenau to Einstein 281 A Sample Page of Einstein's Handwriting 284 Manuscript of Appendix 3 of the Booklet 286 Further Reading 293 Index 297
£19.80
Princeton University Press Psychology of Yoga and Meditation
Book Synopsis
£28.80
Princeton University Press Why Trust Science
Book Synopsis
£15.19
Princeton University Press Hidden in the Heavens
Book Synopsis
£22.50
Princeton University Press When the Sahara Was Green
Book SynopsisTrade Review"Winner of the ASLI Choice Award, Atmospheric Science Librarians International""Winner of the PROSE Award in Earth Science, Association of American Publishers""Winner of the Special Book Award, Gourmand World Cookbook Awards""Winner of the Award of Excellence in Plants and Environmental Change, Council on Botanical and Horticultural Libraries""A detailed and authoritative account that reveals the rich and fascinating story of this unique landscape and its climate, geology and natural history. . . . Williams’s book offers a wonderful insight into how climate can transform the landscape across long stretches of time, as well as how delicately balanced are the ecosystems on which we depend."---P. D. Smith, The Guardian"This vivid historical survey by Earth scientist Martin Williams is the result of a lifetime’s work."---Andrew Robinson, Nature"Fascinating. . . . Engrossing. . . . When the Sahara Was Green covers the cyclical, gradual desiccation of the Sahara, the changing of its biomes, the nature of its current occupants, and even the question of its future. It’s formidably researched . . . but so warmly, approachably written that learning was never so pleasant."---Steve Donoghue, Open Letters Review"Given Williams’s deep well of knowledge, this book could have been bogged down by technicalities and jargon. Instead, When the Sahara Was Green is admirably accessible to a broad audience with only basic knowledge of geography and earth sciences. Furthermore, the book stands out for the numerous clear and well-designed illustrations that explain complex concepts."---Leon Vlieger, Inquisitive Biologist"Highly accessible . . . and filled with interesting facts about geological history."---Nicole Barbaro, Bookmarked"[A] fascinating and informative introduction to the history of the Sahara, the past and present lifeforms it hosts, and its role in the wider planetary environment . . . Read this book and spread interest in Earth’s largest desert."---Jeffery Hirschy, H-Environment
£17.09
Johns Hopkins University Press Reading Benedict Reading Mead Feminism Race and
Book SynopsisNewman, University of Florida; Dolores E. Janiewski, Victoria University of Wellington; Christopher Shannon, University of Notre Dame; Gerald Sullivan, University of Notre Dame; Sharon Tiffany, University of Wisconsin, Whitewater; Jean Walton, University of Rhode Island; Virginia Yans, Rutgers, the State University of New JerseyTrade Review"A handy compendium of current writing on Benedict and Mead - enormously informative, stimulating, and intellectually sound." - Howard Brick, Washington University, St. Louis"Table of ContentsIntroduction: Being and Becoming Ruth Benedict and Margaret MeadPart I: Becoming Benedict, Becoming MeadChapter 1. Woven Lives, Raveled Texts: Benedict,Mead, and Representational DoublenessChapter 2. "The Bo-Cu Plant": Ruth Benedict and GenderChapter 3. Margaret Mead, the Samoan Girl and the Flapper: Geographies of Selfhood in Coming of Age in SamoaPart II: Erasures and InclusionsChapter 4. Coming of Age, but Not in Samoa: Reflections on Margaret Mead's Legacy for Western Liberal FeminismChapter 5. "A World Made Safe for Differences": Ruth Benedict's The Chrysanthemum and the SwordChapter 6. White Maternity, Rape Dreams, and the Sexual Exile in A Rap on RacePart III: Imperial VisionsChapter 7. Of Feys and Culture Planners:Margaret Mead and Purposive Activity as ValueChapter 8. The Lady of the Chrysanthemum: Ruth Benedict and the Origins of The Chrysanthemum and the SwordChapter 9. Ruth Benedict's Obituary for Japanese CultureChapter 10. The Parable of Manus: Utopian Change, American Influence, and the Worth of WomenPart IV: Echoes and ReverberationsChapter 11. Imagining the South Seas:Margaret Mead's Coming of Age in Samoa and the Sexual Politics of ParadiseChapter 12. Symbolic Subordination and the Representation of Power in "Margaret Mead and Samoa"Chapter 13. Misconceived Configurations of Ruth BenedictPart V: Re-Thinking Benedict and MeadChapter 14. Margaret Mead: Anthropology's Liminal FigureChapter 15. "It is besides a pleasant English word"—Ruth Benedict's Concept of Patterns RevisitedChapter 16. On the Political Anatomy of Mead-bashing, or Re-thinking Margaret MeadNotesContributorsIndexIllustrations
£46.35
Johns Hopkins University Press Epidemics Laid Low A History of What Happened in
Book SynopsisEpidemics continue to threaten us today. What do our responses to these threats say about our priorities? Will the security of public health remain a privilege of a few powerful countries or will poorer countries benefit from the efforts of the rich to prevent the spread of disease inside their own borders?Trade ReviewBourdelais covers heavily traversed grounds in public health history, though providing his own insights along the way. -- Linda Bryder Health and History 2007Table of ContentsIntroduction to the English-Language EditionIntroduction1. The Plague EraFrom the Plague of the Philistines to Justinian's PlagueThe Black DeathThe Price of GrowthDecisions to Protect HealthBad Air—or Planetary Misalignment?Flagellants and PogromsThe Danse Macabre and the Apocalypse2. Modernity: New Concepts of the State and the BodyEconomies of ScaleThe Care of the BodyA Cure at Any CostThe Decline of MortalityFrom Helvétius to Vicq d'AzyrFresh Air and Clean WaterVaccination and the ElitesVaccination's Astonishing SuccessA Short-lived Success?3. Cholera: The Return of Epidemic Disease and the Abandonment of Traditional Protective MeasuresContagion or Infection?The Cholera Epidemic as a Natural ExperimentHealth through IsolationDisease as Population ControlThe Mobilization of Political and Technical ResourcesTurning Away from Traditional Protective Measures4. The "English System": New Methods Gain AcceptanceThe English InitiativeCleanliness or Poverty?The New QuarantineThe New Sanitary FrontierSocial Stigmatization and HealthThe War on SyphilisBlaming the Victims: New Mothers5. The Sanitary Reform Movement: From Miasma Theory to Departments of HealthSanitary ReformersMaternity Wars: Should They Be Closed Down?The Effects of Better NurtitionCity Health Departments, 1879–1900The Importance of Municipal Policies6. Vaccination: A Powerful ParadigmSmallpox Vaccination: The Difficult Road to AcceptanceBacteriology and New VaccinesPasteur's Laboratory InvestigationsTuberculosis: Feared, Resistant, and RomanticThe Twentieth Century: New Vaccines despite Theoretical UncertaintiesObjections to VaccinationOrganized Political Opposition7. The Era of Spectacular VictoriesBacteriology's Successes: Sulfamides and AntibioticsVictory over TuberculosisIndustrialization and the Expansion of DemandGovernment Programs8. The End of a Dream?Resistance and Emerging and Re-emerging InfectionsThe Thunderbolt: AIDSWhat about the Rest of the World?ConclusionNotesBibliographyIndex
£38.70
University of Toronto Press Artificially Intelligent
Book SynopsisThe story of AI isn’t finished yet. The question is: how will you be part of it?With the unprecedented adoption of artificial intelligence and its far-reaching implications, people everywhere are witnessing the world change around them. Artificially Intelligent answers today’s most pressing questions about AI – from the fundamental to the futuristic – offering readers a new, informed worldview. In an age of unparalleled innovation and change, artificial intelligence has become the heart of our fears, discussions, and debates. Thus, AI researcher and award-winner David Eliot takes readers on a journey through the key moments and decisions that have shaped its creation and our world. A socially driven history, the book explores its technical breakthroughs and the social forces that made them possible. But this book isn’t just about the past – it’s about you. Artificially Intelligent invites readers to find their place in the story of AI, to understand its impact on their lives, and to decide what kind of future they want to help create.Artificially Intelligent tells the story of the technology the way it was meant to be told: not as an exhaustive retelling of history, nor as a prophecy of doom and gloom, but as a human story that is not yet complete.
£19.79
Stanford University Press What Is Real?
Book SynopsisEighty years ago, Ettore Majorana, a brilliant student of Enrico Fermi, disappeared under mysterious circumstances while going by ship from Palermo to Naples. How is it possible that the most talented physicist of his generation vanished without leaving a trace? It has long been speculated that Majorana decided to abandon physics, disappearing because he had precociously realized that nuclear fission would inevitably lead to the atomic bomb. This book advances a different hypothesis. Through a careful analysis of Majorana's article "The Value of Statistical Laws in Physics and Social Sciences," which shows how in quantum physics reality is dissolved into probability, and in dialogue with Simone Weil's considerations on the topic, Giorgio Agamben suggests that, by disappearing into thin air, Majorana turned his very person into an exemplary cipher of the status of the real in our probabilistic universe. In so doing, the physicist posed a question to science that is still awaiting an answer: What is Real?
£15.29
Zone Books Things that Talk: Object Lessons from Art and
Book Synopsis
£19.00
Zone Books Biological Motion: A History of Life
Book Synopsis
£25.20
Globe Pequot Quantum Physics for Poets
Book Synopsis
£17.09
Oxford University Press The History of Chemistry
Book SynopsisThis Very Short Introduction maps the historical development of chemistry from man's earliest exploration in the Stone Age to the nanotechnology of today's materials science. In this succinct but comprehensive overview Brock balances the approaches to - and interpretations of - the subject, revealing chemistry's rich and diverse history.Trade ReviewWriting a short book about a long history is not easy; but it would be hard to think of anybody more qualified to do it than Bill Brock. * David Knight, Annals of Science *Writing a concise introduction to this subject which, at the same time, should be accessible to the general reader, is therefore a task which is not to be underestimated. William Brock, one of the most accomplished scholars of the subject, demonstrates with this book that he is more than capable of the task. * British Journal of the History of Science *I can thoroughly recommend this brief tour of our all-embracing science. * Chemistry World *Brock manages to make a very dull and dense subject both attractive and interesting - something I could never accuse my old Chemistry teacher of doing. * Stephen Craggs, Northern Echo *Table of ContentsINTRODUCTION; EPILOGUE
£9.49
Taylor & Francis Ltd Entropic Creation
Book SynopsisEntropic Creation is the first English-language book to consider the cultural and religious responses to the second law of thermodynamics, from around 1860 to 1920. According to the second law of thermodynamics, as formulated by the German physicist Rudolf Clausius, the entropy of any closed system will inevitably increase in time, meaning that the system will decay and eventually end in a dead state of equilibrium. Application of the law to the entire universe, first proposed in the 1850s, led to the prediction of a future ''heat death'', where all life has ceased and all organization dissolved. In the late 1860s it was pointed out that, as a consequence of the heat death scenario, the universe can have existed only for a finite period of time. According to the ''entropic creation argument'', thermodynamics warrants the conclusion that the world once begun or was created. It is these two scenarios, allegedly consequences of the science of thermodynamics, which form the core of this boTrade Review’... an exemplary history of ideas, which taxonomizes and critiques a spectrum of arguments about thermodynamics and cosmology, clearly demarcating newer from older ways of thinking. Particularly fascinating is his account of the staying power of the conservative and theological connotations of thermodynamic cosmology into the Cold War, when it became part of Soviet orthodoxy that laboratory physics could not be applied to the infinite universe. The book will interest scholars of science and religion as well as historians of physics.’ British Journal for the History of Science ’Pour découvrir en détail les tenants et les aboutissants de ces débats, rien de tel que le livre érudit, novateur et passionnant d’Helge Kragh. [...] Kragh montre en effet que les liens historiques entre philosophie, religion et science sont complexes. C’est un autre mérite de ce très bon livre.’ Pour la Science ’Je ne peux que recommander ce livre riche, original et passionnant, à toute personne qui s'intéresse à l'histoire de la physique, et en particulier celle de la cosmologie, mais aussi aux philosophes et théologiens qui abordent aujourd'hui le débat 'science-foi'.’ Archives Internationales d'Histoire des SciencesTable of ContentsChapter 1 Introduction; Chapter 2 Some Early Ideas on Decay and Creation; Chapter 3 Thermodynamics and the Heat Death; Chapter 4 The Entropic Creation Argument; Chapter 5 Concepts of the Universe; Chapter 6 Post-1920 Developments; Chapter 7 Shadows from the Past;
£51.29
Johns Hopkins University Press North Atlantic Right Whales
Book SynopsisThe result is a single volume that offers a comprehensive understanding of North Atlantic right whales, the role they played in the many cultures that hunted them, and our modern attempts to help them recover.Trade ReviewAlthough the text is written for a technical audience, the lucid and fluid narrative is combined with sufficient engaging descriptions to make this work accessible to all audiences. Statistics about whale populations and whaling are present, but unlike many books on whaling that overwhelm readers with extensive tables, quantitative information is placed judiciously in the narrative to illustrate specific points. The figures are well-rendered and useful. Recommended.—ChoiceThe back cover states that the work is a masterpiece and I have to agree. Whatever you want to know about Atlantic whaling, its history and the eventual conservation of whales, this is the text to read.—The BiologistThis book’s highly detailed historical record without a doubt required an enormous effort to research, assemble, and present for a popular audience... Laist’s treatment of the right whale encompasses its entire history, from years of exploitation, to the first conservation concerns, to current threat-mitigation actions.—Irina S. Trukhanova, Applied Physics Laboratory, University of Washington, Polar Science Center, Seattle, WA, Conservation BiologyTable of ContentsChapter Title Preface I A Right Whale Named Nantucket II What's In A Name? III Foraging with a Smile IV. Evolution V. The Origin of Whaling VI Medieval Whaling in Northern Europe VII Ghost Whalers VIII Basque Whaling in Terranova IX The Dawn of International Whaling X A Fitful Start for Colonial Whalers XI Long Island Whaling XII Cape Cod Whaling XIII Nantucket, Martha's Vineyard, and Cape May XIV Whaling in North Carolina and the Southeastern United State XV Estimating Pre-Exploitation Population Size XVI A Second Chance XVII A Dedicated Recovery Program XVIII Nobody Wants to Hit a Whale XIX. Slow Speed Ahead XX Entanglement XXI Oh What A Tangled Web XXII Ten Thousand Right WhalesAcknowledgementsReferencesIndex
£47.30
Columbia University Press Waking Dreaming Being
Book SynopsisCognitive science joins with Asian contemplative traditions and philosophy to bring revolutionary meaning to the human experience.Trade ReviewIn a game-changing book that is both an intellectual tour de force and the courageous statement of a life's ideal, Thompson brilliantly demonstrates how Indian philosophical thought can join forces with the neurosciences to create a new science of the conscious mind. A must-read for anyone who believes that the future of philosophy is crosscultural. -- Jonardon Ganeri, University of Sussex and the School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London Evan Thompson, a philosopher with a deep knowledge of Indo-Tibetan contemplative traditions and modern neuroscience, has written a brilliant and comprehensive book on the nature of awareness and the self. Waking, Dreaming, Being is a dazzling synthesis. Thompson takes on some of the most fundamental questions about the nature of mind and addresses them with remarkable creativity and clarity. This volume is a must read for any serious student of the mind and consciousness. -- Richard J. Davidson, New York Times-bestselling coauthor of The Emotional Life of Your Brain Drawing on multiple sources of knowledge, all tested by first-person experience and critical analysis, Thompson presents an illuminating neurophenomenological account of what it's like to be a conscious human being. -- Stephen LaBerge, author of Exploring the World of Lucid Dreaming Waking, Dreaming, Being powerfully demonstrates how bringing cognitive science, philosophy, and Buddhism into a critical engagement can open innovative ways of exploring the 'hard problem' of consciousness. The blending of philosophical rigor and scientific knowledge with meditative insights, with the author's own remarkable life as the larger background, makes the book a real joy to read. This book will be an invaluable help to anyone who is interested in knowing how the fundamental questions of self, consciousness, and human existence can be explored in a way that combines the best of both East and West. -- Thupten Jinpa, author of Self, Reality and Reason in Tibetan Philosophy With extensive training in Buddhism, brain science, and phenomenology, Evan Thompson is uniquely positioned to reveal how different perspectives on the mind can be mutually illuminating. He begins with the Buddhist insight that there are many forms of consciousness--far more than traditionally recognized in the West--and he shows that these can be associated with deferent brain processes. The result is a richly original and integrated account of human mental life. Whether you are a curious newcomer or a seasoned expert, you have much to learn from this stunning synthesis of ancient wisdom and cutting-edge science. -- Jesse Prinz, author of The Conscious Brain and Beyond Human Nature [an] excellent book. New York Times Book Review Extraordinary and exciting claims... beautiful ideas. Cosmos and Culture Contemplative and groundbreaking, Waking, Dreaming, Being is a welcome addition to college library philosophy shelves. Midwest Book Review Waking, Dreaming, Being is an exceptional and intriguing contribution to the exploration of consciousness as a multidimensional self and makes a convincing argument for the usefulness of philosophical, experiential, and scientific approaches to understanding consciousness. -- Marissa Krimsky Buddhadharma A rich, thought-provoking and poetic tour of a wide variety of phenomena of consciousness... Constructivist Foundations A magnificent tome. Big Think This is a ground-breaking exploration of conciousness and the self as they occur across the states of waking, falling asleep, dreaming, lucid dreaming, deep dreamless sleep, out-of-body experiences and dying. Evan Thompson's rich, beautifully written book interweaves lucid prose with relevant personal anecdotes, bringing the latest neuroscience together with ancient contemplative wisdom to offer valuable insightr into the nature of conciousness and the self. -- Miri Albahari Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews This remarkable book addresses deep philosophical questions from a unique perspective. Choice Waking Dreaming Being will soon be considered a landmark and a tipping point in consciousness investigations.Journal of Mind and Behavior Journal of Mind and Behavior A lucid and comprehensive account of the self as a subject of experience and agent of action. -- George T. Hole Philosophical Practice A fine book by an extraordinary author. Journal of Consciousness StudiesTable of ContentsForeword by Stephen Batchelor Prologue: The Dalai Lama's Conjecture Acknowledgments Introduction 1. Seeing: What Is Consciousness? 2. Waking: How Do We Perceive? 3. Being: What Is Pure Awareness? 4. Dreaming: Who Am I? 5. Witnessing: Is This a Dream? 6. Imagining: Are We Real? 7. Floating: Where Am I? 8. Sleeping: Are We Conscious in Deep Sleep? 9. Dying: What Happens When We Die? 10. Knowing: Is the Self an Illusion? Notes Bibliography Index
£18.04
The University of Chicago Press Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the
Book SynopsisThe age of the baroque - a time of great strides in science and mathematics - also saw the construction of some of the world's most magnificent buildings. Hersey explores the interrelations of the two developments and how they cross-fertilised.Trade Review"In Architecture and Geometry in the Age of the Baroque, George L. Hersey examines the era's scientific, musical and architectural lore of number, shape and proportion.... A beguiling book." - Kerry Downes, Times Literary Supplement "Learned and lucidly written.... Hersey demonstrates how, through geometry, architecture translated abstract ideas into visual, haptic forms. In chapters on music, optics, the cube, symmetry, circles and ovals, spirals and epicycles, Hersey explicitly shows the cross-fertilisation of science and art that scholars have hitherto assumed but never demonstrated." - Art Newspaper
£38.00
Oxford University Press Inc Thomas Harriot
Book SynopsisThomas Harriot (1560-1621) was a pioneer in both the figurative and literal sense. Navigational adviser and loyal friend to Sir Walter Ralegh, Harriot took part in the first expedition to colonize Virginia. Not only was he responsible for getting Ralegh''s ships safely to harbor in the New World, once there he became the first European to acquire a working knowledge of an indigenous language (he also began a lifelong love of tobacco, which may have been his undoing). Harriot''s abilities were seemingly unlimited and nearly awe-inspiring. He was the first to use a telescope to map the moon''s craters, and, independently of Galileo, discovered and recorded sunspots. He preceded Newton (whose fame eclipsed his) in his discovery of the properties of the prism. He was arguably the best mathematician of his age, and one of the finest experimental scientists of all time. Yet Harriot has traditionally remained a tantalizingly elusive character. He had no close family to pass down records, and Trade ReviewWhile other historians less literate in science and mathematics might have written Harriot's biography in a different manner, she has provided to us a well-written guide to this mysterious scientist who measured everything during the six productive decades of his life. * Larry E. Tise, East Carolina University and Philadelphia, North Carolina Historical Review *"As Robyn Arianrhod's important biography makes abundantly clear, Harriot truly deserves the title "Renaissance Man"Robyn Arianrhod's diligent research establishes Harriot's reputation as a harbinger of modernity, but perhaps history has left us a more specific clue as to the true nature of his legacy." Times Literary Suppliment"In a largely harmonious meld of biography and science writing, Arianrhod furthers the drive to resurrect the reputation of English mathematician Thomas Harriot (1560-1621).The author, a research fellow at Monash University in Melbourne, writes with the authority of a distinguished professor, placing Harriot's achievements in the context of his era and of the evolution of science... A significant achievement that builds on previous works and takes the next step in establishing Harriot's genius." --Kirkus, *Starred* Review[A] readable and important book which can only be recommended to introduce Thomas Harriot to a wider audience. * Thomas Sonar, Braunschweig, zbMATH *I learned much from the many enjoyable hours I spent reading this captivating book. In embarking on this wellcrafted literary work you will soon develop a confident sense that either Harriot is with you in the room, or you are with him on the high seas on Sir Walter Raleigh's Tiger. The elegant writing gracefully guides us past mathematical and scientific hurdles in a joyful time-traveling page-turner that never slows down. When you get to the last page and look back, you will feel that you know the man, a fellow so energetic and so guided by formidable curiosity that you wonder how such a person could possibly have disappeared from history. You will remember this book as a time journey in reverse with the wind in your sails all the way through. * Joseph Mazur, The Mathematical Intelligencer *Robyn Arianrhod's biography of Thomas Harriot (1560{1621) is well researched and well written, and it will be read with pleasure by scholar and layperson alike. * William R. Shea, Mathematical Reviews Clippings *this is a marvelous book because of the engaging way it is told, very much unlike a dull biography with an enumeration of facts. Moreover it is also well documented by additional material to be found in the last 100 pages of the book ... On this canvas Arianrhod paints the bubbling emergence of the Scientific Revolution to which Harriot was a silent contributor. * Adhemar Bultheel, European Mathematical Society *"Arianrhod's seamless blend of storytelling and science puts Harriot into full historical context. Though he inhabited a world of court intrigues, plague, and political upheaval, Harriot's unflagging intellectual curiosity set him apart then, and makes him more than worthy of respect now, as this fascinating biography amply proves." --Publishers Weekly"At long last a first-rate biography of Thomas Harriot. Though unknown to many, Harriot's scientific work casts a long shadow, and for 'Harrioteers,' as his fans are known, Robyn Arianrhod's beautifully written and deeply researched book is the one we've been waiting for. A triumph and a must read!" --Jimmy Soni, author of Mind at Play"Explorer, navigator, astronomer, linguist, mathematician, and natural scientist, Thomas Harriot was all of these and more. His accomplishments rivaled Galileo and Kepler, but his reluctance to publish doomed him to relative obscurity. With beautiful prose, astute historical understanding, and impeccable mastery of a near-inexhaustible array of fields, Robyn Arianrhod resurrects the life and works of this enigmatic Renaissance man. The world of an Elizabethan sage who was an intimate of the greatest soliders, scholars, and poets of the age springs to life in Arianrhod's pulsating narrative." --Amir Alexander, UCLA, author of Infinitesimal"Robyn Arianrhod restores Harriot to his rightful place alongside Galileo and Kepler in the pantheon of pioneering early modern scientists and shows how, as one friend put it, he was 'robbed of glory.' Thomas Harriot: A Life in Science is a wonderful combination of biography, history, and popular science that pulses with the spirit of its time." --Jessie Childs, author of God's TraitorsThe story of Thomas Harriot's life and works, was it not so well documented by such a respected scholar as Dr. Arianrhod, could easily be thought a work of pure fiction - and extravagant, scarcely believable fiction at that. Yet it is all true. That Dr. Arianrhod has devoted the time and effort in bringing him back to us through this absolutely captivating biography is something for which we should all be deeply grateful, and in similar gratitude, we owe it to the memory, indeed, the unrelentingly curious and inquiring spirit, of Thomas Harriot himself, to read it. * The Well-Read Naturalist *Table of ContentsPrologue Chapter 1: Harriot's London Chapter 2: Sea Fever Chapter 3: The Science of Sea and Sky Chapter 4: Practical Navigation (and Why the Winds Blow) Chapter 5: America at Last Chapter 6: Preparing for "Virginia" Chapter 7: Roanoke Island Chapter 8: After Roanoke Chapter 9: War, and a New Calendar Chapter 10: New Chances Chapter 11: Setback Chapter 12: Royal Refraction Chapter 13: Spirals and Turmoil Chapter 14: Changing of the Guard Chapter 15: Algebra, Rainbows, and Tragedy Chapter 16: Solving the Rainbows Chapter 17: Conversations with Kepler Chapter 18: Atomic Speculations Chapter 19: Searching the Skies Chapter 20: Gravity Chapter 21: Mathematics, Jamestown, Guiana Chapter 22: The End of an Era Chapter 23: All Things Must Pass Epilogue: Resurrecting Harriot
£25.64
Yale University Press A Beautiful Ending
Book SynopsisAn award-winning historian’s revisionary account of the early modern world, showing how apocalyptic ideas stimulated political, religious, and intellectual transformationsTrade Review“Martin’s case that the apocalypse is the midwife of modernity seems self-evidently right to me. My main frustration is that we need a second volume, on how the apocalypse has fared since 1800.”—Alec Ryrie, Financial Times“[A] beautifully produced book. . . . Martin’s book ends beautifully as it begins, its apocalypse in the eternal now.”—Jonathan Locke Hart, Renaissance and Reformation“What does it mean to live near the end of time and await the world’s rebirth, as generations of Jews, Christians and Muslims did? A Beautiful Ending is a masterful synthesis of the prognostications of faith, knowledge, and politics on a global stage. Martin’s book illuminates one of the enduring themes that shaped the medieval and early modern world.”—Paula E. Findlen, Stanford University“In his elegantly braided analysis of the apocalyptic imagination among Christian, Muslim, and Jewish thinkers, John Jeffries Martin recasts the world-making events of the late medieval and early modern periods. A Beautiful Ending is a beautiful book.”—Alan Mikhail, author of God’s Shadow: Sultan Selim, His Ottoman Empire, and the Making of the Modern World“Martin’s masterful and wide-ranging study places ideas about the end of the world in their historical context, demonstrating how the apocalyptic imagination allowed historical actors to confront difficult and often frightening circumstances. Their experiences inform our own contemporary historical moment.”—Elizabeth Horodowich, New Mexico State University“A sweeping history of early modern apocalyptic and millenarian thought among Christians, Muslims, and Jews, when the end of history brought expectations of a golden age of peace. Martin provides a powerful history of the hopes and horrors produced by these apocalyptic fantasies with an eye to their continuity into our own times. Few books make early modern history more relevant to the present.”—Stuart Schwartz, Yale University“In his richly detailed new book, John Jeffries Martin advances the striking hypothesis that apocalyptic thinking not only did not go away with the advent of modernity; it was one of the key forces that gave us our modern world. If he’s right, much of what we thought we knew bears rethinking.”—Benjamin M. Friedman, author of Religion and the Rise of Capitalism “Engaging and profoundly original, A Beautiful Ending treats Christian, Jewish, and Muslim thought about End Times as a source of modernity. Martin’s deft argument convinces that the proverbial rise of modern secularism is a myth.”—Edward Muir, Northwestern University
£24.70
HarperCollins Publishers Chasing the Moon
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.Trade Review‘If you think you know all that is important about the Apollo moon landings, you would be wrong. In Chasing the Moon, Robert Stone and Alan Andres offer scintillating stories both great and small.’ Roger D. Launius, former chief historian of NASA ‘[The Moon Landing] was one of the most amazing achievements in human history. And now we have a book worthy of the grand endeavor.’ William Martin, New York Times bestselling author of Cape Cod and Bound for Gold ‘Chasing the Moon is rich, lively, and deeply human’ Richard Rhodes, Pulitzer Prize– and National Book Award–winning author of Energy: A Human History ‘Chasing the Moon tells the story I've lived for most of my life. From my testing of the lunar module on Apollo 9 to my hopes for the future as we celebrate Apollo’s fiftieth anniversary, it’s all there, and told through the personal experiences of the people who lived it. Some of it familiar, some never told before, this is a very human account of a truly historic moment as humankind emerges into the larger cosmos.’ Russell ‘Rusty’ Schweickart, astronaut, Apollo 9 ‘A fascinating and enjoyable read … Meticulously researched and definitively detailed, this book is a must-have for anyone who wants to understand why and how Apollo happened.’ James Burke, former BBC-TV science correspondent ‘Engaging’ The Space Review ‘Breathtaking … A brisk narrative, deft anecdotes, and abundant illustrations enliven a well-researched history’ Kirkus ‘Chasing the Moon’s novel approach to its topic – telling the story of Apollo against a rich backdrop of diverse characters – helps it stand out head and shoulders above the rest’ National Space Society ‘Makes the tale of Apollo 11 seem richer and more relevant than ever’ The Washington Post
£9.99
Random House Invisible
Book SynopsisIf you could be invisible, what would you do? The chances are that it would have something to do with power, wealth or sex. Perhaps all three. Impulses like these have always been at the heart of our fascination with invisibility. This book offers a history of humanity's turbulent relationship with the invisible.Trade ReviewAs a harvest of fascinating facts delivered with sharp wit and insight, it is hard to fault -- Robert Douglas-Fairhurst * Daily Telegraph *Intriguing -- John Carey * Sunday Times *A fascinating compendium… Another author might struggle to manage such an esoteric collection [of stories of invisibility] but Mr Ball’s writing is incisive enough to keep the different elements hanging and working together * The Economist *Ball marshals his material with deftness and charm * Literary Review *[A] fantastic feast of ideas and information on the subject… In this enthralling book, Philip Ball’s elegant and intelligent mastery…is very evident indeed * Evening Standard *
£13.49
Oxford University Press Inc The Apollo Chronicles
Book SynopsisThe moon landing of 1969 stands as an iconic moment for both the United States and humankind. The familiar story focuses on the journey of the brave astronauts, who brought home Moon rocks and startling photographs. But Apollo''s full account includes the earthbound engineers, mounds of their crumpled paper, and smoldering metal shards of exploded engines. How exactly did the nation, step by difficult step, take men to the Moon and back? In The Apollo Chronicles, fifty years after the moon landing, author Brandon R. Brown, himself the son of an Apollo engineer, revisits the men and women who toiled behind the lights. He relays the defining twentieth-century project from its roots, bringing the engineers'' work and personalities to bright life on the page. Set against the backdrop of a turbulent American decade, the narrative whisks audiences through tense deadlines and technical miracles, from President John F. Kennedy''s 1961 challenge to NASA''s 1969 lunar triumph, as engineers confrTrade ReviewAn excellent history of the space program through the eyes of its engineers and scientists. * James Gleick, The New York Review of Books *Brown takes us leap by leap through the 1960s, tracing the parallel engineering work at Cape Canaveral (the launch site in Florida), the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Texas (now the Johnson Space Center), and the rocketry group in Huntsville, Alabama. Brown peppers his account with on-the-ground details of how engineers dealt with unexpected problems. * Alexandra Witze, Nature *Brown shows the engineers meeting tough deadlines and performing technical miracles, drawing schematics around the clock, making mistakes, coping with warning lights that blinked at the worst possible time, and regrouping after the tragic death of three astronauts. * Flora Taylor, American Scientist *A great addition to anything you may have read about the space race with so much material I've never seen before * Brian Clegg, Popular Science *While [Brown] appreciates the bravery of the astronauts, his book is "more concerned with the astronauts' protectors" (which is a nice way of looking at it). This book... is written in an entertaining and accessible narrative style. It concludes with a thought-provoking observation on the heritage of the Apollo engineers. * Mark Williamson, Engineering & Technology *In The Apollo Chronicles, we meet the engineers who toiled behind the spotlights from 1958 to 1972. The son of an Apollo engineer, author Brandon R. Brown devotes his writing chops to storytelling and a dramatic tension that will engage even the most technical unsavvy and engineering estranged of readers. * Nelson Noven, Fahrenheit *Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments Chapter One: 1945 - Origins Chapter Two: 1957 - Paths, Power and Panic Chapter Three: 1960 - Silent Movies and Old-World Evenings Chapter Four: 1961 - A Toddler's Marathon Chapter Five: The Moon Chapter Six: 1962 - Punch Cards and a Key to the Trunk Chapter Seven: 1964 - Of Doubts and Bugs Chapter Eight: 1965 - Saturn Breathes Chapter Nine: 1966 - Of Software and Star Balls Chapter Ten: 1967 - From Madness to Miracle Chapter Eleven: 1968 - Of Timeless Views and New Perspectives Chapter Twelve: 1969 - Alarms and Lightning Chapter Thirteen: 1972 - From Rovers to Regrets Chapter Fourteen: 1981 - Farther Along Chapter Fifteen: Today - Mementos and Returns Chapter Sixteen: How We Did It
£36.09
Oxford University Press Inc Priest of Nature
Book SynopsisHe was the dominant intellectual figure of his age. His published works, including the Principia Mathematica and Opticks, reached across the scientific spectrum, revealing the degree of his interdisciplinary genius. His renown opened doors throughout his career, securing him prestigious positions at Cambridge, the Royal Mint, and the Royal Society. Yet alongside his public success, Sir Isaac Newton harbored private religious convictions that set him at odds with established law and Anglican doctrine, and, if revealed, threatened not just his livelihood but his life. Religion and faith dominated much of Newton''s thought and his manuscripts, in various states of completion and numbering in the thousands of pages, are filled with biblical speculation and timelines, along with passages that excoriated the early Church Fathers. They make clear that his theological positions rendered him a heretic. Newton believed that the central concept of the Trinity was a diabolical fraud and loathed thTrade ReviewOne of the great strengths of this book is the degree to which Iliffe places Newton's religious research in the context of the debates of his own day. * Harvey Hill, Anglican and Episcopal History *Rob Iliffe's Priest of Nature: The Religious Worlds of Isaac Newton is a work of excellent historical scholarship. * Paul R. Gilliam III, Church History *Who was Isaac Newton? Rob Iliffe has responded to this problem by providing such a thoroughly researched and carefully constructed account of Newton's life and work that certain propositions can hardly be doubted. * Adam D. Righter, Journal of Ecclesiastical History *This book is a fascinating read for anyone interested in learning more about Sir Isaac Newton, or about how someone with a scientific mind might approach religion....Essential. * C. Charnaswskas-Jasionowicz, CHOICE *[W]hile other biographies acknowledge that Newton possessed a sincere, though heterodox, faith, Mr. Iliffe serves up the most complicated picture to date of the faith itself. He completely recasts the relationship of Newton's scientific inquiry to his religious beliefs, tying the two together to an unparalleled degree....Mr. Iliffe presents a syncretism in Newton's thinking that eludes simple classification....Mr. Iliffe also attends carefully to neglected periods of Newton's life, including the teen years he spent laboring in an apothecary's workshop and his stints as a Member of Parliament. Attention to such detail, woven deftly into a finely constructed and well-written narrative, makes Mr. Iliffe's 'Priest of Nature' a robust portrait with broad appeal. Both the academic and lay reader will appreciate how, in shattering the simplistic Enlightenment account of Newton, the book reveals the flexibility of the great man's capacious mind. * David Davis, Wall Street Journal *Iliffe's book is not only an accurate and detailed reconstruction of Newton's religious thought, but it is also an important study of the great themes of freedom of conscience and religious tolerance, as well as the key political question of the relationship between church and state, which are at the roots of European culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It is destined to become an indispensable reference for every serious Newton scholar, as well as for anyone dealing with religion and natural philosophy in the early modern period. * Franco Giudice, Metascience *Iliffe's outstanding contribution to our knowledge of Newton will be of considerable relevance not only to historians of science and religion, but also to anyone interested in the important topics that were debated in the late seventeenth-century Europe. * William R. Shea, Fides et Historia *This book is an enormous contribution to the Newton literature and the history of science in general. It examines huge numbers of sources that were, until now, essentially unknown and provides an unparalleled contextualization of the man and his work. * Science *The author thoroughly examines Newton's religious papers, which were unpublished during the inventor's lifetime, including writings on natural theology, religious doctrine, prophesy, and heresy...Iliffe's challenging and scholarly work addresses an important and long overlooked aspect of Newton. * Library Journal *Iliffe's fascinating study provides an absorbing glimpse into Newton's work and early modern culture. * Publishers Weekly *For too long, historians have evaluated Isaac Newton's theological writings wholly in relation to his mathematical and natural philosophical work * first, as an embarrassing obsession, best passed over in silence; then, as a sideshow, taken up when his intellectual powers were fading; more recently, as an influence on properly scientific pursuits. Rob Iliffe knows the range of Newton's unpublished and published writings better than any other living scholar, and he gives us here a stunningly well-read, original, and provocative account of a thinker who struggled with theological matters throughout his life and whose reflections on right religion and on the sources of right knowledge emerged from the heart of his self-understanding. Priest of Nature is well titled: it radically redraws the picture of Newton we have long been offered.Steven Shapin, Franklin L. Ford Research Professor of the History of Science, Harvard University *Newton wrote importantly about physics, optics, and mathematics and wrote copiously about alchemy, but he saved his most intense thoughts and passionate investigation for perfecting his theology. In Priest of Nature Rob Iliffe restores Newton to an age of political upheaval and religious anxiety, portraying him as a godly man endlessly in search of truth, prophecy, and history. Newton's lifelong struggle to combat the perceived corruption of Christianity with the tools of faith and reason comes to life in this thought-provoking and deeply researched history. A must read for any serious scholar of Newton. * Paula Findlen, Stanford University *Table of ContentsIntroduction: A Rational Christian 1. A Divine Web 2. A Spiritual Ant 3. IInfinity and the Imagination 4. From Liberty to Heresy 5. Abominable Men 6. Prisca Newtoniana 7. Methodising the Apocalypse 8. Divine Persecution 9. The End of the World 10. Private Prosecutions 11. Critical Friends 12. A Particle of Divinity
£23.49
Oxford University Press Gravity From Falling Apples to Supermassive Black
Book SynopsisGravity: From Falling Apples to Supermassive Black Holes provides a fascinating historical account of how we have reached our current understanding of gravity, and places the most sensational developments in gravitational physics, including the detection of gravitational waves and supermassive black holes, in their true context.Trade ReviewIt's welcome that Nicholas Mee has updated his fine book to include, in this new edition, the exciting recent advances in studying gravity and its cosmic manifestations. But what makes the book special is that the narrative builds on a fascinating description of the historical context that can be traced right back to ancient times. * Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society *With clear diagrams, questions and puzzles and interesting notes for each chapter this is an unusually stimulating book. * Sir James Hough, Associate Director of the Institute for Gravitational Research, Research Professor in Natural Philosophy, University of Glasgow *The quality of writing is high, the style is engaging and the explanations clear and accessible. * Mike Cruise, Emeritus Professor of Astrophysics and Space Research, University of Birmingham *Written in an engaging and readable style, this book brings us right up to date in all things concerning gravity. * Julian Onions, Astrophysicist, University of Nottingham *Gravity: From Falling Apples to Supermassive Black Holes is written in a captivating historical style with stories about the researchers of the past and present that illuminate many key ideas in astronomy and physics. * MathSciNet *Gravity (2nd Edition) is a worthwhile addition to the bookshelf of anybody looking to more fully understand the most fundamental of forces, whether from a historical or scientific perspective. It is published by Oxford University Press and available wherever good books are sold. * Blogstronomy *Table of Contents0: Can You Feel the Force? 1: The Cosmic Puzzle 2: The Secret of the Universe 3: The Magic Spyglass 4: Voyaging through Strange Seas 5: The Great Ocean of Truth 6: Lets Do the Time Warp 7: Black Holes 8: Ripples in the Fabric of Things 9: Across the Universe
£22.49
Oxford University Press Identifying FutureProof Science
Book SynopsisThis is the first book to explore how to identify future-proof science. Peter Vickers takes a transdisciplinary approach in his analysis of 'scientific fact' in order to defend science against potentially dangerous scepticism.Trade ReviewHow do scientists reach consensus? It's a simple question with increasing relevance in our polarized world. Peter Vickers draws from disparate examples in physics, anatomy, palaeontology, and virology to give an under-the-hood insight into how science really works. Although his subject is weighty, his conversational prose makes for both an enlightening and engaging read. * Steve Brusatte, University of Edinburgh, author of The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs *Vickers' discussion of the Tiktaalik blends together scientific results with sophisticated and nuanced philosophical argumentation. It is to be commended for its focus on areas of science often neglected by philosophers. It's also admirably clear and accessible. This will be readable by undergraduate and postgraduate students. * Henry Taylor, University of Birmingham *This rich but accessible, example-driven book relocates the realism debate from frontier physics to the sciences that most matter to us - shifting the burden of proof in the process. * Kerry McKenzie, University of California, San Diego *Peter Vickers has written just the book we need to move forward in the ongoing debate between scientific realism and its competitors. He investigates a wide range of heterogeneous historical examples and deploys them thoughtfully to challenge virtually all of the standard positions in that debate while making the case for a novel alternative proposal of his own. I suspect that the weight of the historical evidence he has gathered will force many contributors to the realism debate to substantially modify their own existing views-it certainly had that effect on me! * P. Kyle Stanford, University of California, Irvine *Peter Vickers gives clear, convincing philosophical arguments and fascinating case studies to support bold predictions about which scientific findings will stand the test of time. * Mike T. Stuart, NYCU Taiwan and London School of Economics *For the last sixty years, history has often been interpreted as creating profound challenges for those who ascribe to more positive views about the rationality of scientific progress and the significance of scientific success. [...] Too often we hear hardened skeptics dismiss the authority of scientists on the grounds that science has been wrong before. It will be convenient in the future to direct such individuals to Vickers' book. * Metascience *Table of ContentsPreface List of Figures 1: What is future-proof science? 2: The historical challenge to future-proof science: the debate so far 3: Meckel's successful prediction of gill slits: a case of misleading evidence? 4: The Tiktaalik 'missing link' novel predictive success and the evidence for evolution 5: The judgement of the scientific community: lessons from continental drift 6: Fundamental physics and the special vulnerability to underdetermination 7: Do we know how the dinosaurs died? 8: Scientific knowledge in a pandemic 9: Core argument, objections, replies, and outlook Bibliography Index
£88.00
Oxford University Press Creationisms Trojan Horse
Book SynopsisThis carefully documented exposé of the Intelligent Design (ID) movement contributed to the stunning victory in Federal court of eleven Dover, PA, parents who recognized ID''s threat to public education and religious freedom. Now in paperback, here is Forrest and Gross''s influential work documenting the continuity of intelligent design with traditional creationism. The new text updates ID initiatives in Kansas and Ohio and the movement''s shifting strategies in an attempt to remain viable after its legal undoing in federal court. Anyone who values science and the benefits of life in an enlightened society should know about the Wedge''s political, cultural, and religious ambitions. With a new foreword by Barry Lynn, this updated edition is an essential guide to ID''s continuing threat to public education and the separation of church and state. It is the book to turn to for an inside look at the claims and operations of the ID movement, the most recent manifestation of American creatioTrade Review"Science educators can benefit greatly by understanding creationists' motivations and strategies. These are thoroughly documented in Creationism's Trojan Horse"--SCIENCE"This is the definitive work on modern creationism, an exhaustively detailed and compelling exposure of the attempt--by the well-known process in nature called by biologists "aggressive mimicry"--to corrupt science in the service of sectarian religion. In the process, the book explores the larger and seemingly endless struggle between religion-based tribal values and science-based universal values."--Edward O. Wilson, University Research Professor, Emeritus, Harvard University"Creationism's Trojan Horse documents the disturbing movement to sneak religious dogma back into science education, driven by the vague fear that Americans can't handle the truth. Educators, scientists, and politicians would do well to understand this movement and its tactics, and this book is a superb and timely analysis."--Steven Pinker, Johnston Professor, Harvard University, and author of How the Mind Works and The Blank Slate"Intelligent Design 'theory' (ID) has been well described as Creationism in a cheap Tuxedo. One if its luminaries, we are told, has 'angrily denied that ID is stealth creationism.' He is right. There's no stealth about it. It is Creationism. Unfortunately, ID 'theorists' have a streetwise political professionalism to outweigh the amateurishness of their science, and we therefore cannot ignore them. Barbara Forrest and Paul Gross meticulously document their pretensions, destroy their arguments, and expose their true motivation. An excellent and sadly necessary book."--Richard Dawkins. author of The Selfish Gene"Read an account of the history of Intelligent Design and of the Discovery Institute...You can find a gold mine in Creationism's Trojan Horse"--Phi Delta KappanTable of ContentsINTRODUCTION
£27.49
Oxford University Press Inc The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World
Book SynopsisMichael Higgins broadens our understanding of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World by bringing science, engineering, and technology together with ancient documentation and archaeological findings.The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World (Pyramids of Giza, Hanging Gardens of Babylon, Statue of Zeus at Olympia, Temple of Artemis at Ephesus, Colossus of Rhodes, and the Pharos Lighthouse at Alexandria) have been a source of fascination for more than two thousand years. Even though six of the Wonders are now gone, historians and archaeologists have attempted to explain how and why these ancient monuments were created. However, never before have these attempts been synthesized with the contributions of science, engineering, and technology.In The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, Michael Higgins combines scientific research together with ancient documentation and archaeological findings to present a rich, multi-layered portrait of each monument. To build a Wonder took advanced social organiTrade ReviewHere is a refreshing treatment of a topic that goes back to antiquity: what were the methods and conditions that made possible the construction of the renowned Seven Wonders? With a light touch, Higgins brings to bear geology, metallurgy, ancient craft and engineering, archaeology, and historical scholarship to reveal how grand projects were achieved in ancient Egypt, the Near East, and Greece. * Alexander Jones, author of A Portable Cosmos *In this wide-ranging book Higgins, a geologist, presents a refreshing, personal approach to The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. His energetic and well documented presentation differs from the many other discussions of the Wonders by carefully considering the associated influences of geology, tectonics, and the environment. An engaging final chapter on rebuilding the Wonders provides an engineer's view of how modern materials and techniques might have guaranteed the monuments a longer life. * John Peter Oleson, editor of The Oxford Handbook of Engineering and Technology in the Classical World *The Seven Wonders of The Ancient World: Science, Engineering, and Technology, Michael Denis Higgins,...Higgins ends his work with a theoretical discussion of how the ancient Wonders could be reconstructed with modern engineering...Professor Higgins's desire to rebuild the wonders of the ancient world is interesting. * Jesse Russell, Voegelinview *The book under review offers a fast-moving, impassioned, and richly illustrated exposé of the Seven Wonders from a specific angle: that of science, engineering, and technology... There is much to learn for everyone, particularly in the sections concerning the geology and materials involved in the creation of the Wonders, often overlooked in historical accounts... In sum, the book offers an original discussion of the modern list of Seven Ancient Wonders, bringing science, engineering, and technology to the forefront. It invites readers to explore these Wonders and their broader regional and scientific contexts. While it embraces a degree of speculation and may not fully satisfy the stringent referencing and historical rigor of the humanities, it provides many interesting insights about the Seven Wonders, making them again accessible to a general audience. * Bryn Mawr Classical Review *A fascinating work and one that is eminently accessible. It is also extremely readable, requiring very little prior knowledge of the science and technology of the ancient world. What could be a dry topic is anything but, and Higgins' writing is rich in detail and evocative of the distant worlds in which the wonders existed. The book will appeal to a wide range of readers, and deservedly so. * All About History *Table of ContentsChapter 1: Introduction Chapter 2: The Pyramids of Giza Chapter 3: The Hanging Gardens Chapter 4: The Statue of Zeus at Olympia Chapter 5: The Mausoleum Chapter 6: The Temple of Artemis at Ephesus Chapter 7: The Colossus of Rhodes Chapter 8: The Pharos of Alexandria Chapter 9: Rebuilding the Wonders
£999.99
Oxford University Press Inc Generative Artificial Intelligence
Book SynopsisAI expert Jerry Kaplan explains how generative AI will revolutionize virtually every human activity. Highly recommended. - Francis Fukuyama, Political scientist and author of The End of History and the Last Man Advances in Generative Artificial Intelligence (GAI) have created a new class of computer systems that exhibit astonishing proficiency on a wide variety of tasks with superhuman performance, producing novel text, images, music, and software by analyzing enormous collections of digitized information. Soon, these systems will provide expert medical care; offer legal advice; draft documents; write computer programs; tutor our children; and generate music and art. These advances will accelerate progress in science, art, and human knowledge, but they will also bring new dangers. Have we finally discovered the holy grail of AI - machines that match or exceed human intelligence? Which industries and professions will thrive, and which will wither? What risks and dangers will it pose? Ho
£999.99
Oxford University Press, USA Explanations
Book SynopsisOur lives, states of health, relationships, behaviour, experiences of the natural world, and the technologies that shape our contemporary existence are subject to a superfluity of competing, multi-faceted and sometimes incompatible explanations. Widespread confusion about the nature of ''explanation'' and its scope and limits pervades popular exposition of the natural sciences, popular history and philosophy of science. This fascinating and intriguing book explores the way explanations work, why they vary between disciplines, periods, and cultures, and whether they have any necessary boundaries. In other words, Explanations aims to achieve a better understanding of explanation, both within the sciences and the humanities. It features contributions from expert writers from a wide range of disciplines, including science, philosophy, mathematics, and social anthropology.Trade ReviewI recommend this book to all readers interested in philosophy and sociology of science. * Andrzej Stasiak, EMBO Reports *Table of ContentsPreface ; List of contributors ; Introduction ; 1. What good is an explanation? ; 2. Can science explain everything? Can science explain anything? ; 3. Explaining the universe ; 4. Does physics rule the roost of scientific explanation? ; 5. Mathematical explanation ; 6. Ponderable matter: explanation in chemistry ; 7. The biology of the future and the future of biology ; 8. Teleology: the explanation that bedevils biology ; 9. What is it not like to be a brain? ; 10. Ontology and scientific explanation ; 11. From explanation to interpretation in social anthropology ; 12. Passing it on: redescribing scientific explanation ; Index
£999.99
Oxford University Press The Astronomer and the Witch
Book SynopsisJohannes Kepler (1571-1630) was one of the most admired astronomers who ever lived and a key figure in the scientific revolution. A defender of Copernicus s sun-centred universe, he famously discovered that planets move in ellipses, and defined the three laws of planetary motion. Perhaps less well known is that in 1615, when Kepler was at the height of his career, his widowed mother Katharina was accused of witchcraft. The proceedings led to a criminal trial that lasted six years, with Kepler conducting his mother''s defence. In The Astronomer and the Witch, Ulinka Rublack pieces together the tale of this extraordinary episode in Kepler''s life, one which takes us to the heart of his changing world. First and foremost an intense family drama, the story brings to life the world of a small Lutheran community in the centre of Europe at a time of deep religious and political turmoil - a century after the Reformation, and on the threshold of the Thirty Years'' War. Kepler''s defence of his mother also offers us a fascinating glimpse into the great astronomer''s world view, on the cusp between Reformation and scientific revolution. While advancing rational explanations for the phenomena which his mother''s accusers attributed to witchcraft, Kepler nevertheless did not call into question the existence of magic and witches. On the contrary, he clearly believed in them. And, as the story unfolds, it appears that there were moments when even Katharina''s children struggled to understand what their mother had done...Trade ReviewA breath-taking account of a brave family who boldly fought for justice. * Early Science and Medicine *Compelling. * Hannah Murphy, Isis Review *Ulinka Rublack shows wonderful sensitivity about mothers, old age, and female struggles, as she unpicks the trial of Johannes Kepler's mother for witchcraft. * Marina Warner, Book of the Year 2015, Observer *An enthralling book. * Jennifer Rampling, Nature *Excellent ... meticulously researched and wonderfully readable. * John Banville, Literary Review *Ulinka Rublack's book about Katharina Kepler, and her sons extraordinary defence of her, is fine-grained microhistory, but it's also revealing of the larger ideas that framed their world ... Superstition and science, rather than being successive stages in the ascent of reason, co-existed so closely and dynamically that the definition of neither is reliable. The Astronomer and the Witch illustrates this complexity, and its transitions, with agility and sensitivity. * Malcolm Gaskill, London Review of Books *[an] important new book ... [which] offers an extended meditation on family relationships, and in particular that indelible but intangible bond between a mother and her son. * Jan Machielsen, Times Literary Supplement *[A] superb study ... The author wanted her book to provide a "better understanding of individuals, but also of families, a community, and an age". It succeeds triumphantly. * Jonathan Wright, Catholic Herald *Rublack tells [this] story with a novelist's panache. Even if you know what happened, it's a compelling book. She sketches the vivid details that make the time, place and characters come to life ... The Tale of the Witch and the Mathematician - unmissable. * Mark Greener, Fortean Times *In 1615, an illiterate widow is accused of witchcraft in a German town. Her son, the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler, conducts her defence in a trial that drags on for six years. In this enthralling book, Ulinka Rublack reconstructs the struggle over Katharina Kepler's fate. We enter a small-town world of rivalries, friendships, deference, power and vulnerability, a world in which religious faith, scientific knowledge and folk belief are dangerously intertwined. Vividly drawn and subtly observed, The Astronomer and the Witch opens a window onto the inner life of a past that is strange and remote, but also unsettlingly familiar. * Christopher Clark *Table of ContentsTimeline of Johannes Kepler's LIfe ; 1. Introduction ; 2. A Lutheran Court ; 3. The Year of the Witches ; 4. Kepler's Strategies ; 5. A Family Responds ; 6. Movements of the Soul ; 7. The Trial Continues ; 8. Other Witches ; 9. Katherina's Imprisonment ; 10. Kepler's Return ; 11. The Defence ; 12. The Trial Ends ; 13. Kepler's Dream ; Epilogue ; Notes ; Further Reading ; Index
£999.99
Oxford University Press On Trial for Reason
Book SynopsisIn 1633 the Roman Inquisition condemned Galileo as a suspected heretic for defending the astronomical theory that the earth moves, and implicitly assuming the theological principle that Scripture is not scientific authority. This controversial event has sent ripples down the centuries, embodying the struggle between a thinker who came to be regarded as the Father of Modern Science, and an institution that is both one of the world''s greatest religions and most ancient organizations. The trial has been cited both as a clear demonstration of the incompatibility between science and religion, and also a stunning exemplar of rationality, scientific method, and critical thinking. Much has been written about Galileo''s trial, but most works argue from a particular point of view - that of secular science against the Church, or justifying the religious position. Maurice Finocchiaro aims to provide a balanced historical account that draws out the cultural nuances. Unfolding the intriguing narrative of Galileo''s trial, he sets it against its contemporary intellectual and philosophical background. In particular, Finocchiaro focuses on the contemporary arguments and evidence for and against the Earth''s motion, which were based on astronomical observation, the physics of motion, philosophical principles about the nature of knowledge, and theological principles about the authority and the interpretation of Scripture. Following both sides of the controversy and its far-reaching philosophical impact, Finocchiaro unravels the complex relationship between science and religion, and demonstrates how Galileo came to be recognised as a model of logical reasoning.Trade ReviewStudents of early modern science are indebted to Maurice Finocchiaro for his lifetime of scholarly effort relating to the work of Galileo ... this latest work is also welcome, providing a readable summary of the main issues at stake in the Galileo affair and of Finocchiaro's defence of Galileo's reasoning. I say 'defence' because ... While his latest book exemplifies the even-handedness he praises in the work of his seventeenth-century hero, it nevertheless constitutes a vigorous defence of both Galileo's approach to the scientific enterprise and his attempts to separate science and religion. * Gregory Dawes, Metascience *Finocchiaro [...] presents the arguments of Galileo, his supporters and his opponents with lucidity. * Geoffrey Cantor, The Times Higher Education Supplement *a comprehensive account of the Galileo affair ... Finocchiaro's book is a must-read for all those interested in this episode constitutive of modernity. * Revue des Questions Scientifiques *This is a truly masterful presentation with a critical analysis of the underlying issues; even though it is not geared to the usual small scholarly audience, it will be welcomed by those historians of astronomy who are not expert in the world of Galileo ... Finocchiaro is not afraid at ruffling academic feathers, which is an especially refreshing approach; it gives his text an edginess that makes this book eminently readable and entirely fascinating. * Clifford Cunningham, Journal of Astronomical History and Heritage *A highly enjoyable and profitable reading experience. * José Manuel Lozano-Gotor, ESSSAT News & Reviews *Finocchiaro does a great job of explaining complexities to a lay audience, clearly with the intent of promoting deeper understanding. Such awareness is required to understand the nuances of Galileo's trial, which involved theological, scientific, and epistemological arguments. * Matthew R. Fisher, The American Biology Teacher *Finocchiaro presents a fascinating examination of these [trial] events and the ways Galileo's trial was essential in turning the Copernican hypothesis into accepted theory. * Andrea Gawrylewski, Scientific American *Finocchiaro [...] undertakes with great care a discussion of the nature of rationality and of Galileo's argumentative techniques ... Combining history and philosophy of science, [he] provides an interpretive key from the point of view of a lay scholar, but always ready to do justice to both sides of the controversy. * Stefano Gattei, Corriere della sera (translated from Italian) *With lucid explanations and clear illustrations, [Finocchiaro] paints a picture of the early 16th-century worldview ... He takes us there by way of an interesting, authoritative journey through the history of science and philosophy. Enriched with a detailed bibliography and index, "On Trial for Reason" is destined to become the classic treatment of this subject. * Nancy L. Roberts, Catholic News Service *Finocchiaro does a masterly job of explaining the real issues involved in the trial and how the trial has been interpreted down to the present day. It is a subtle and complex story out of which Galileo emerges with great credit. * The Church of England Newspaper *[A] spirited book. * Jonathan Wright, The Catholic Herald *With scrupulous attention to evidence and the argumentation employed by various participants, Dr. Finocchiaro's book is at once an accessible primer on a key event in the 16th- and 17th-century Scientific Revolution, and a thought provoking look at how the subsequent controversies resonate down to the present day. * Aaron Weinacht, New Books Network *Finocchiaro, already the author of [several] books about Galileo, details the way in which the scientist's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems led to his inquisition trial. The comprehensive account is full of information likely to be new to the reader. * Ralph Jones, New Humanist *Authoritative ... [Finocchiaro] highlights open-mindedness, judiciousness and fair-mindedness, concluding that Galileo was a indeed a model of critical reasoning. These qualities also apply to the book as a whole, which can be highly recommended as a nuanced study of this famous episode. * David Lorimer, Paradigm Explorer *What I like about On Trial for Reason is that it very economically gives you a lot of basic things that you want to know about Galileo. What exactly is the nature of Galileo's scientific innovation? What has he done? What are the controversies? What are the problems of it from a scientific perspective, from a philosophical perspective, and then, of course, ultimately, from a religious perspective? He [Finocchiaro] also reads the trial like a forensic analyst. * Paula Findlen, FiveBooks *This work is distinguished by an unhurried, comprehensive presentation of the relevant historical facts...and a patient unbraiding and discussion of the surprisingly numerous and diverse methodological issues...They cannot be found laid out and explained with anywhere near the adequacy and clarity they receive here in any other book on the topic. All future discussion on Galileo necessarily moves through Finocchiaro's culminating masterpiece. * Patrick Madigan, The Heythrop Journal *Table of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments 1: Introduction: Avoiding Myths and Muddles 2: When the Earth Stood Still 3: The Copernican Controversy (1543-1609) 4: Re-assessing Copernicanism (1609-1616) 5: The Earlier Inquisition Proceedings (1615-1616) 6: The Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems (1632) 7: The Inquisition Trial (1632-1633) 8: Becoming a Cultural Icon (1616-2016) 9: Religion vs. Science? 10: A Model of Critical Thinking? 11: Some Final Thoughts Further Reading and Cited Works Notes
£999.99
Oxford University Press The Historical and Physical Foundations of
Book SynopsisFollowing the path by which humanity learned quantum mechanics can lead to an improved teaching and understanding of the fundamental theory and the origins of its perceived limitations. The purpose of this textbook is to retrace the development of quantum mechanics by investigating primary sources (including original published papers and letters) with attention to their timing and influence. Placing the development of quantum mechanics in its historical context, from the nascent philosophical notions of matter, atoms, and void in Ancient Greece, to their scientific realization in the 19th and 20th centuries, the book culminates with an examination of the current state of the field and an introduction to quantum information and computing.Table of ContentsPART I - BASIS OF THE THEORY 1: Introduction 2: Properties of the quantum world: indeterminacy, interference, superposition, entanglement 3: The origin of quantum theory in the crisis of classical physics 4: Further steps to quantum mechanics: the old quantum mechanics of Bohr and Sommerfeld 5: Further steps to quantum mechanics: Louis de Broglie and the world's most important PhD thesis 6: The invention of quantum mechanics - matrix mechanics 7: Schrödinger and the development of wave mechanics 8: Further developments of wave mechanics by Schrödinger 9: Quantum statistics and the origin of wave mechanics 10: Early attempts at interpretation of the theory 11: The final synthesis of quantum mechanics: the 'transformation theory' and Dirac notation 12: Dirac and Jordan commit 'sin squared': Second quantization and the beginning of quantum field theory 13: The 'completion of quantum mechanics' - the fifth Solvay Conference on Physics, October 1927 14: von Neumann>'s mathematical foundations of quantum mechanics: Redux 15: Einstein and Schrödinger renew the assault on quantum mechanics 16: Weimar culture and quantum mechanics 17: Further development of the interpretation of quantum theory PART II - APPLICATIONS OF QUANTUM MECHANICS 18: Operator techniques and the algebraic solutions of problems 19: Spin-1/2 and two-level systems 20: Path integrals and scattering 21: Introduction to quantum computing (with the assistance of Edward D. Davis) Free
£46.07
Oxford University Press Astronomy The Human Quest for Understanding
Book SynopsisSince humans first looked up at the stars, astronomy has had a particular ability to stir the imagination and challenge the thinking of scientists and non-scientists alike. Astronomy: The Human Quest for Understanding is an introductory astronomy textbook specifically designed to relate to non-science majors across a wide variety of disciplines, nurture their curiosity, and develop vital science-based critical-thinking skills. This textbook provides an introduction to how science operates in practice and what makes it so successful in uncovering nature''s secrets. Given that the study of astronomy dates back thousands of years, it is the ideal subject for tracing the development of the physical sciences and how our evolving understanding of nature has influenced, and been influenced by, mathematics, philosophy, religion, geography, politics, and more. This historical approach also illustrates how wrong turns have been taken, and how the inherent self-correcting nature of science througTrade ReviewThis hefty volume includes standard textbook-type supplements-such as problem sets with some of the answers provided in an appendix but could also serve as a mini-reference book or self-study guide for a wide range of astronomical topics...The writing style is fresh and approachable, encouraging an understanding of the nature of science as something that people do when curious about how nature works. * Choice *The writing style is fresh and approachable, encouraging an understanding of the nature of science as something that people do when curious about how nature works. The level of mathematics is low, but math is used extensively. This well-illustratedbook includes a nice glossary and an index. An accompanying website offers tutorials and further examples as well as updates, such as discoveries from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST), that came in after thebook was printed. * M.-K. Hemenway, formerly, University of Texas at Austin, CHOICE connect *Dale Ostlie has wonderfully redefined what knowledge of the physical universe an introductory textbook on astronomy should convey. * Simon Mitton, St Edmund's College Cambridge *Ostlie presents an interesting approach to introductory astronomy and one that will help students better learn and understand not just astronomy, but how science in general works as well. * Aaron Grocholski, American University, Washington DC *Table of ContentsI The Process of Science Through the Lens of Astronomy 1: The Nature of Science 2: The Heavens: A Realm of Mystery 3: On the Path Toward Modern Science 4: The Copernican Revolution 5: Sir Isaac Newton's Universe 6: The Universality of Physical Law 7: Revealing Secrets Hidden in Light and Matter 8: Modern Physics: New Science to Study the Universe II The Sun, Our Solar System, and Exoplanets 9: The Sun, Our Parent Star 10: An Overview of the Solar System 11: The Rocky Planets and Our Moon 12: The Giant Planet Systems 13: Dwarf Planets and Small Bodies 14: Planets Everywhere and the Search for Extraterrestrial Life III Stars and the Universe Beyond 15: Measuring the Stars 16: The Lives of Stars 17: The End of a Stellar Life 18: Galaxies Galore 19: The Once and Future Universe Appendices
£45.12
Oxford University Press Who Cares about Particle Physics Making Sense of
Book SynopsisCERN, the European Laboratory for particle physics, regularly makes the news. What kind of research happens at this international laboratory and how does it impact people''s daily lives? Why is the discovery of the Higgs boson so important? Particle physics describes all matter found on Earth, in stars and all galaxies but it also tries to go beyond what is known to describe dark matter, a form of matter five times more prevalent than the known, regular matter. How do we know this mysterious dark matter exists and is there a chance it will be discovered soon? About sixty countries contributed to the construction of the gigantic Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN and its immense detectors. Dive in to discover how international teams of researchers work together to push scientific knowledge forward.Here is a book written for every person who wishes to learn a little more about particle physics, without requiring prior scientific knowledge. It starts from the basics to build a solid understanding of current research in particle physics. A good dose of curiosity is all one will need to discover a whole world that spans from the infinitesimally small and stretches to the infinitely large, and where imminent discoveries could mark the dawn of a huge revolution in the current conception of the material world.Trade ReviewA great general interest primer with a surprising and welcome feminist focus -- Most highly recommended. * Times Higher Education *I am giving this book four stars for its interesting insider content and particularly its insight into the way that the LHC is used that I have never seen elsewhere ... it's a book that's well worth reading if you have interest in this most fundamental of physical explorations. * Brian Clegg, Popular Science *Pauline Gagnon tells the wonderful scientific adventure of CERN that led to confirming the existence of the Higgs boson and that should bring a revolution in physics in elucidating big enigmas in the coming years such as the mystery of dark matter or the disappearance of antimatter. * Pauline Gravel, science writer, Le Devoir newspaper, Montreal *Pauline Gagnon's book is a wonderfully detailed and comprehensive look at how scientists have pieced together our best understanding of the natural world, from accelerators to cosmology. If you want to know how particle physicists really work and think, this is a great place to start. * Sean Carroll, author of The Particle at the End of the Universe *I am fascinated. You should read it too; everybody can read it and understand it. Madame Gagnon has a knack for finding very efficient images to make us understand extremely complex phenomena. * Catherine Perrin, host of Médium Large on Radio-Canada *Pauline Gagnon is an inside-woman of the particle-physics world — and this excellent book shows just that. The comprehensive account of where particle physics stands today is peppered by colourful metaphors that make even the most complex concepts accessible to everyone. On top of that, Gagnon gives the reader a glimpse into the inner workings of CERN and thoroughly describes how its huge international collaborations actually make new discoveries. This is a book that admirably delivers on the promise of taking the general reader seriously and a timely must-read if you want to get up to speed with Run 2 of the Large Hadron Collider. * Leonie Mueck, Senior Editor, Nature *During the two-year search for Higgs in the LHC, Dr. Gagnon's lively and insightful blog was a key source for those outside the physics community who needed to keep track of the process and have it explained in layperson' terms. Her excellent book will now be essential reading for those seeking to understand why the discovery was important, and what might come next from the LHC. * Robert Evans, former Reuter correspondent in Geneva *Table of Contents1: What is matter made of? 2: What about the Higgs boson? 3: Accelertors and detector, the essential tools 4: The discovery of the Higgs boson 5: The dark side of the Universe 6: Going beyond the Standard Model: calling SUSY to the rescue 7: What does fundamental research put on our plate? 8: CERN experiments: a unique management and cooperation model 9: Diversity in science 10: What could th next big discoveries be?
£999.99
Oxford University Press Constructing Quantum Mechanics Volume Two The
Book SynopsisThis is the second of two volumes on the genesis of quantum mechanics in the first quarter of the 20th century. It covers the rapid transition from the old to the new quantum theory in the years 1923-1927.Trade ReviewAt the top of the scaffold, the arch! In Volume 1, Duncan and Janssen told the intricate story of the long struggles in the first twenty years of the emergence of quantum mechanics. Now, in The Arch, they give a definitive analysis of the climactic and brilliant mid-1920s, with the formulation of matrix and wave mechanics. It is an extraordinary achievement: all future work on this topic starts here. * Jeremy Butterfield, University of Cambridge *Duncan and Janssen have done something courageous and even audacious. They have surveyed the sprawling, multi-stranded, twenty-seven year saga of the birth and consolidation of modern quantum mechanics and produced a systematic description of the main conceptual advances, in historical context. I expect it will become a unique reference for interested scientists and historians. * A. Douglas Stone, Yale University *Table of Contents8: Introduction to Volume 2 III. Transition to the New Quantum Theory 9: The Exclusion Principle and Electron Spin 10: Theory in the Old Quantum Theory 11: Umdeutung paper 12: Consolidation of Matrix Mechanics 13: Broglie's Matter Waves and Einstein's Quantum Theory of the Ideal Gas 14: and Wave Mechanics 15: and Failures of the Old Quantum Theory Revisited IV. The Formalism of Quantum Mechanics and Its Statistical Interpretation 16: Interpretation of Matrix and Wave Mechanics 17: Neumann's Hilbert Space Formalism 18: Arch and Scaffold Appendices C. The Mathematics of Quantum Mechanics
£80.75
Oxford University Press Galaxies A Very Short Introduction Very Short
Book SynopsisGalaxies are the building blocks of the Universe: standing like islands in space, each is made up of many hundreds of millions of stars in which the chemical elements are made, around which planets form, and where on at least one of those planets intelligent life has emerged. Our own galaxy, the Milky Way, is just one of several hundred million other galaxies that we can now observe through our telescopes. Yet it was only in the 1920s that we realised that there is more to the Universe than the Milky Way, and that there were in fact other ''islands'' out there. In many ways, modern astronomy began with this discovery, and the story of galaxies is therefore the story of modern astronomy. Since then, many exciting discoveries have been made about our own galaxy and about those beyond: how a supermassive black hole lurks at the centre of every galaxy, for example, how enormous forces are released when galaxies collide, how distant galaxies provide a window on the early Universe, and what the formation of young galaxies can tell us about the mysteries of Cold Dark Matter. In this Very Short Introduction, renowned science writer John Gribbin describes the extraordinary things that astronomers are learning about galaxies, and explains how this can shed light on the origins and structure of the Universe.ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Table of Contents1. A Very Short Introduction ; 2. The Great Debate ; 3. Our Island ; 4. The Expanding Universe ; 5. Across the Universe ; 6. The Origin of Galaxies ; 7. The Universe at Large ; References & Further Reading ; Index
£9.49
Oxford University Press Newton
Book SynopsisThis Very Short Introduction uses Newton''s own unpublished writings to provide fascinating insight into the man who kept the Royal Society under his thumb, was Head of the Mint, and whose contributions to our understanding of the heavens and the earth are considered by many to be unparalleled. The author begins with the legends surrounding Newton before next exploring the forces that shaped his life, introducing, along the way, many of the key thinkers and politicians of the time. Although Newton''s science was largely revered (his reputation reached near-immortal status with the publication of the Principia), theologically, his beliefs were very controversial. He was a fanatical Protestant, and claimed that tribes like the Goths, Vandals, and Huns had tried to save the planet from the corruption of the Catholics. He was also convinced that he was specially chosen by God to protect the original, pure form of Christianity, and viewed any criticisms directed at him as a form of persecution. Resisting the urge to show how Newton''s views on alchemy, mathematics, physics, and religion complemented one another, the author instead emphasises that these were the very different obsessions of an extremely complex man whose beliefs at the time dominated England''s political, religious, and intellectual landscape. ABOUT THE SERIES: The Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis, perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and challenging topics highly readable.Trade ReviewSlim yet informative...The style is elegant and he steers through the shoals of Newton's difficult personality - he made enemies everywhere he went - and the more controversial aspects of his career - the alchemy and heresy - with an assured hand. * Joe Cushley, What's On In London *Table of Contents1. A National Man ; 2. Playing philosophically ; 3. The Marvellous years ; 4. The censorious multitude ; 5. A true hermetic philosopher ; 6. One of God's choen few ; 7. The Divine Book ; 8. In the city ; 9. Lord and Master of all ; 10. Centaurs and other animals
£9.49
Oxford University Press The Tears of Re
Book SynopsisAccording to Egyptian mythology, when the god Re cried, his tears turned into bees upon touching the ground. Beyond the realm of myth, the honey bee is a surprisingly common and significant motif in Egyptian history, playing a role in the mythology, medicine, art, and food of the ancient culture. In The Tears of Re: Beekeeping in Ancient Egypt, entomologist Gene Kritsky presents the first full-length discussion of the ways in which bees were a part of life in ancient Egypt, shedding light on one of the many mysteries of the ancient world. Kritsky delves into ancient Egypt''s complex society, revealing that bees had a significant presence in everything from death rituals to trade. In fact, beekeeping was a state-controlled industry, and in certain instances honey could even be used to pay taxes! Honey was used both to sweeten foods and treat cuts, and was sometimes used as a tribute or offering. From the presence of bees in paintings and hieroglyphs in tombs to the use of beeswax in a variety of products, bees had a significant presence in ancient Egyptian culture. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, The Tears of Re will appeal to anyone with a passion for beekeeping, Egypt, or the ancient world.Trade ReviewKritsky achieves a quality integration punctuated with excellent illustration Readers will appreciate Kritskys combination of historical range, beekeeping knowledge, and connection to the present. * Adam Ebert, Agricultural History *This concise account of beekeeping in Ancient Egypt packs a wealth of material into its 133 pages of text ... a pleasure to read, exploring myriad aspects of Ancient Egyptian life from a new perspective and with appeal to a similarly wide audience. * Susan Biddle, Beekeepers Quarterly *Kritsky has provided a comprehensive, well documented, and highly readable overview of Ancient Egyptian beekeeping. His book is full of interesting facts ... a truly astounding book that will appeal to both Egyptophiles and entomologists * O. Zuhdi, KMT *This well-illustrated book works as a guide for the amateur Egyptologist, 'with step-by-step instructions to the evidence of ancient beekeeping at different archaeological sites and in different museums'. It is a great read for those with an interest in Ancient Egypt and the detective work that has revealed its complex, highly ordered and controlled society. The amateur beekeeper will also be fascinated by this book. * Paul Bolam, History Today *Kritsky marshals [the material for this book] with a simple, supple prose ... Readable in a few hours, the book is the sort of unexpected delight one hopes to find in an old hotel, and it deserves to do well. Lets hope the, er, buzz spreads (sorry). * Richard Benson, The Independent *This fascinating study traces the history of beekeeping and honey production through pictorial evidence starting back in the Fifth Dynasty ... well researched and very accessible to the general reader. * Hilary Forrest, Ancient Egypt *an engaging and enjoyable read and would encourage anyone who has an interest in bees, beekeeping or ancient Egypt to read it. * Biologist *Kritsky has created a book that is an enjoyable, engaging read and also contributes meaningfully to our understanding of the cultural significance of the bee and apiculture in Egypt. ... Kritsky's work is an essential starting point for understanding beekeeping and discussions of bees throughout the Mediterranean world, in art, and in history. * Rachel D. Carlson, Bryn Mawr Classical Review *Richly illustrated and engagingly written, Kritsky's monograph will appeal to anyone with a passion for beekeeping, Egyptology, or the ancient world in general. It will become a compelling reference work on the subject for many years to come. * European Journal Entomology *The is subject matter will appeal to students, beekeepers interested in history, and professors teaching the development of apiculture... * Kirsten Traynor, American Entomologist *A must for anyone interested in cultural entomology. * Claire Waring, Bee Craft *Table of Contents1. Beekeeping Begins ; 2. The Delight of Re: Beekeeping During the Old Kingdom ; 3. Instability and Reunification: Beekeeping During the Middle Kingdom ; 4. The Age of Empire: Beekeeping During the New Kingdom ; 5. The Saite Period ; 6. The Greco-Roman Period ; 7. The Honey Bee Hieroglyph ; 8. The Administration and Economics of Egyptian Beekeeping ; 9. Bees and Food ; 10. Honey and Healing ; 11. Bees, Gods, and Feasts ; 12. The Magic of Beeswax ; 13. The Afterlife of Ancient Egyptian Beekeeping
£32.49
Oxford University Press The Oxford Illustrated History of Science
Book SynopsisThe Oxford Illustrated History of Science is the first ever fully illustrated global history of science, from Aristotle to the atom bomb - and beyond. The first part of the book tells the story of science in both East and West from antiquity to the Enlightenment: from the ancient Mediterranean world to ancient China; from the exchanges between Islamic and Christian scholars in the Middle Ages to the Chinese invention of gunpowder, paper, and the printing press; from the Scientific Revolution of sixteenth and seventeenth century Europe to the intellectual ferment of the eighteenth century. The chapters that follow focus on the increasingly specialized story of science since end of the eighteenth century, covering experimental science in the laboratory from Michael Faraday to CERN; the exploration of nature, from intrepid Victorian explorers to twentieth century primatologists; the mapping of the universe, from the discovery of Uranus to Big Bang theory; the impact of evolutionary ideas, from Lamarck, Darwin, and Wallace to DNA; and the story of theoretical physics, from James Clark Maxwell to Quantum Theory and beyond. A concluding chapter reflects on how scientists have communicated their work to a wider public, from the Great Exhibition of 1851 to the internet in the early twenty-first century.Trade ReviewA fabulous series of essays from more than a dozen science historians that show science interacting with and being influenced by culture and society. Morus and company succeed in showing science as a product of human culture, not a phenomenon apart from it. * Publishers Weekly *This book successfully shows for a general audience that science is culture and that "science"-singular-has never existed...chapeau for a beautiful andnuanced comprehensive history of science. * Floor Haalboom, Erasmus M C Rotterdam andUtrecht Univ, Isis Journal of the History of Science Society *This book is both conventional and not, sweeping yet focused, and really fun to read as both a reference source and as a piece of world history. * New Books in Science podcast *Table of ContentsIwan Rhys Morus: Introduction 1: James Evans: Science in the Ancient Mediterranean World 2: Donald Harper: Science in Ancient China 3: Sonja Brentjes: Medieval Science in the West and Middle East 4: Dagmar Schaefer: Science in the Medieval East 5: John Henry: The Scientific Revolution 6: Jan Golinski: Enlightenment Science 7: Iwan Rhys Morus: Experimental Cultures 8: Amanda Rees: Exploring Nature 9: Robert Smith: Mapping the Universe 10: Peter Bowler: The Meaning of Life 11: Matthew Stanley: Theoretical Visions 12: Charlotte Sleigh: Communicating Nature Further Reading Index
£999.99
Oxford University Press Elegance in Science The beauty of simplicity
Book SynopsisThe elegance in science is not always obvious, but it does play an important role. Here, Ian Glynn selects historical examples from a wide range of sciences to draw out the principle of elegance, highlighting the role of beauty and simplicity in science, and relating it to important philosophical issues related to inference to the best explanation.Trade Review...there is a wealth of historical information packed in here. * Times Literary Supplement *An erudite book...Well illustrated and full of historical anecdote and background, this is an elegant volume indeed. * Serge Daan, Nature *Table of Contents1. The meaning of elegance ; 2. Celestial mechanics ; 3. Bringing the heavens down to Earth ; 4. So what is heat? ; 5. Elegance and electricity ; 6. Throwing light on light ; 7. How do nerves work? ; 8. Information handling in the brain ; 9. The genetic code: a hundred years of decoding ; 10. Epilogue: a cautionary tale
£17.28
Oxford University Press Inc Phosphorus
Book SynopsisPhosphorus is essential to the production of our food, and it also triggers algal blooms in lakes, rivers, and oceans when it slips through our hands. An understanding of this essential resource and how we have used and misused it over the years is crucial to the sustainability of our well-being on our planet. In this book, world authorities on phosphorus sustainability Jim Elser and Phil Haygarth explain this element''s involvement in biology, human health and nutrition, food production, ecosystem function, and environmental sustainability. Phosphorus chronicles the sustainability challenges phosphorus both poses and solves in various contexts. The book begins with its discovery over 350 years ago, moving to its basic chemistry and the essential role it plays in all living things on Earth. Chapters go on to explain the rise in the usage of phosphorus in agriculture and how the increase in the mining of rock phosphate in the mid-20th century was essential for the Green Revolution. HowTrade ReviewJim Elser and Phil Haygarth's book is an optimistic 'Call to Arms' sequel to Emsley's gripping book written two decades ago: The Shocking History of Phosphorus. Elser and Haygarth's book is not just about phosphorus atoms and its cycle: It is about the people and events that led to the discovery, use (as well as abuse) of phosphorus, and the champions of change in the current sustainable phosphorus movement. This element underpins the world we live in — from the food on our table to the atoms in our DNA, so the risks facing the world's fragile phosphorus cycle are relevant to all of us, not just to scientists. Elser and Haygarth are not only brilliant scientists, they are excellent storytellers. Phosphorus needed Jim and Phil to tell the inside story. This really is a book for everyone. * Dana Cordell, Research Director and Associate Professor, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney *At a time when environmental concerns are dominated by carbon (above all by its role in the global warming), this book is a welcome reminder that the human interference in other biospheric cycles deserves no less attention. Elser and Haygarth's treatment and approach stands out. They offer a systematic and thorough examination of the element in the modern world, of its fundamental importance, its irreplaceable uses, their desired and unwelcome consequences, and the ways to manage them better. * Vaclav Smil, Distinguished Professor Emeritus at the University of Manitoba, Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, and author of Grand Transitions: How the Modern World Was Made *Who thinks about phosphorus when they dig into a juicy sirloin steak? Elser and Haygarth bring the two together from the beginning of the universe (actually after the Big Bang) to the chunk of red meat on the plate. They skillfully guide the reader through the history of discovery, use, over-use, and need for reduced consumption of phosphorus because there is only so much left on our planet. Doomsday is set aside when they provide alternative human behaviors that reduce our over-consumptive threats to our resources and provide ways for us to make a smaller carbon footprint, a smaller nitrogen footprint, and a smaller phosphorus footprint. * Nancy Rabalais, Professor and Shell Endowed Chair in Oceanography and Wetland Studies in the Department of Oceanography & Coastal Sciences at Louisiana State University and coeditor of Coastal Hypoxia: Consequences for Living Resources and Ecosystems *Table of ContentsP is for Preface Chapter 1: Phosphorus Knowing Chapter 2: Phosphorus Becoming Chapter 3: Phosphorus Living Chapter 4: Phosphorus Feeding Chapter 5: Phosphorus Growing Chapter 6: Phosphorus Polluting Chapter 7: Phosphorus Awakening Chapter 8: Phosphorus Reducing Chapter 9: Phosphorus Recycling Chapter 10. Phosphorus Sustaining Epilogue: Driving to San Diego Additional Sources and Deeper Reading
£25.64
