History of science Books

Book SynopsisIn the summer of 1878 three ruthless and brilliant scientists raced to Wyoming and Colorado to observe a total solar eclipse. One sought to discover a new planet. Another fought to prove that science was not an anathema to femininity. And a young, megalomaniacal inventor sought to test his bona fides and light the world through his revelations. David Baron brings to life these three competitors—James Craig Watson, Maria Mitchell and Thomas Edison—re-creating the jockeying of nineteenth-century astronomy. With accounts of train robberies and Indian skirmishes, the last days of the Wild West come alive. A magnificent portrayal of America’s dawn as a superpower, American Eclipse depicts a nation looking to the skies to reveal its ambition and expose its genius.Trade Review"Baron's stories are good ones, well told." -- Nature"American Eclipse is an incredibly well written work of non-fiction. It is clearly the result of considerable research and careful thought. And it tells a great story." -- Book of the Month - BBC Sky at Night"... Eclipse is a shining example of scientific curiosity at work." -- New Scientist"The author gives a skillful account of the scientific aims of the various teams of eclipse-watchers, from the examination of the solar corona to the more precise calculation of the Moon’s orbit." -- 12 Books of Christmas - Sky at Night

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Book SynopsisWhen Dr David Hosack tilled the America’s first botanical garden in the Manhattan soil more than two hundred years ago, he didn’t just dramatically alter the New York landscape; he left a monumental legacy of advocacy for public health and wide-ranging support for the sciences. A charismatic dreamer admired by the likes of Jefferson, Madison and Humboldt, and intimate friends with both Hamilton and Burr, the Columbia professor devoted his life to inspiring Americans to pursue medicine and botany with a rigour to rival Europe’s. Though he was shoulder-to-shoulder with the founding fathers Hosack and his story remain unknown. Now, in melodic prose, Victoria Johnson eloquently chronicles Hosack’s tireless career to reveal the breadth of his impact.Trade Review"Victoria Johnson follows Hosack’s life and legacy through a range of detail and social context which answers all the answerable questions. It is 54 years since Hosack was the subject of a full biography. Johnson has added some more details, written in a lively way and has related him to other prominent people of his lifetime." -- Financial Times"American Eden’s many glimpses of the swamps, meadows, fields and flora lying beneath the city, meticulously mapped, are among its greatest pleasures." -- Times Literary Supplement"... Victoria Johnson’s fine science biography... A rich and compelling read." -- Nature"American Eden will not disappoint.... In her ambitious and entertaining book Johnson connects past to present." -- Marta McDowell - The New York Times Book Review"“[A] captivating biography…" -- Penelope Rowlands - The Wall Street Journal

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Book SynopsisThis comprehensive work highlights 400 of the greatest scientists in history, with an introduction to their significance, birth and death dates and places; and specialty fields of science.This second edition of Great Lives from History: Scientists & Science highlights nearly 400 of the greatest scientists in history, from Aristotle and the field of formal logic to Shinya Yamanaka and stem cell research. Last published in 2012, this new edition adds 10 years of scientific achievement, to profile individuals who made life-changing discoveries in nearly 90 categories, including acoustics, anatomy, astrophysics, bacteriology, biochemistry, climatology, conservation biology, genetics, information theory, logic, nuclear physics, oceanography, oncology, quantum mechanics, relativity, thermodynamics, and virology. With all entries reviewed, many updated, and the addition of many new scientists, this three-volume set includes current discussions on recent scientific discoveries in evolutionary biology, quantum theory and quantum chemistry, HIV and cancer treatments, immunology, MRI technology, neurodegeneration and more.

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Book SynopsisIvan P. Pavlov was a pioneering Russian physiologist whose influence on Russian psychology was politically emphasized in 1930s to 1950s. He was a brilliant experimenter who received 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the digestive system. Less is known about his epistemology of generalization that made it possible to study one individual for the sake of obtaining generalized knowledge. In this volume we analyze the major contributions of Pavlov from the standpoint of idiographic science, and demonstrate how generalizations in science are possible from single specimens.

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Book SynopsisIvan P. Pavlov was a pioneering Russian physiologist whose influence on Russian psychology was politically emphasized in 1930s to 1950s. He was a brilliant experimenter who received 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his work on the digestive system. Less is known about his epistemology of generalization that made it possible to study one individual for the sake of obtaining generalized knowledge. In this volume we analyze the major contributions of Pavlov from the standpoint of idiographic science, and demonstrate how generalizations in science are possible from single specimens.

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Book SynopsisOriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Trade Review"The topic is clearly timely, as questions surrounding globalization and networks continue to be some of the most pressing of the twenty-first century. Such questions thus continue to demand historical investigation that is both substantial in its scholarship and innovative in its approach – a dual hurdle that Oriental Networks clears with ease, even panache. The editors are to be commended on their choice of contributions, which impressively encompass canonical and non-canonical writers, and contain an embarrassment of archival riches. The fact that the collection is lavishly, intelligently illustrated is a real bonus, too!" -- Evan Gottlieb * author of Romantic Globalism: British Literature and Modern World Order, 1750-1830 *"Oriental Networks provides ample evidence that the networked worlds of the twenty-first century descend, in crucial ways, from eighteenth-century European experiments in global interconnection, both material and conceptual, with a particular focus on the East. The ambivalence of eighteenth-century orientalisms lends itself to the complex and sometimes unpredictable dynamics of transculturation and exchange within emergent paradigms of empire. These case studies invite response from non-Eurocentric sites of knowledge and thus initiate an important conversation." -- Eugenia Zuroski * author of A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism *Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgment Introduction: Oriental Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century Bärbel Czennia Chapter 1: Knowing and Growing Tea: China, Britain, and the Formation of a Modern Global Commodity Richard Coulton Chapter 2: China-Pugs: The Global Circulation of Chinoiseries, Porcelain, and Lapdogs, 1660–1800 Stephanie Howard-Smith Chapter 3: Green Rubies from the Ganges: Eighteenth-Century Gardening as Intercultural Networking Bärbel Czennia Chapter 4: The Blood of Noble Martyrs: Penelope Aubin’s Global Economy of Virtue as Critique of Imperial Networks Samara Anne Cahill Chapter 5: Robert Morrison and the Dialogic Representation of Imperial China Jennifer L. Hargrave Chapter 6: At Home with Empire? Charles Lamb, the East India Company, and “The South Sea House” James Watt Chapter 7: Commerce and Cosmology on Lord George Macartney’s Embassy to China, 1792–94 Greg Clingham Chapter 8: Extreme Networking: Maria Graham’s Mountaintop, Underground, Intercontinental, and Otherwise Multidimensional Connections Kevin L. Cope Bibliography Index About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisOriental Networks explores forms of interconnectedness between Western and Eastern hemispheres during the long eighteenth century, a period of improving transportation technology, expansion of intercultural contacts, and the emergence of a global economy. In eight case studies and a substantial introduction, the volume examines relationships between individuals and institutions, precursors to modern networks that engaged in forms of intercultural exchange. Addressing the exchange of cultural commodities (plants, animals, and artifacts), cultural practices and ideas, the roles of ambassadors and interlopers, and the literary and artistic representation of networks, networkers, and networking, contributors discuss the effects on people previously separated by vast geographical and cultural distance. Rather than idealizing networks as inherently superior to other forms of organization, Oriental Networks also considers Enlightenment expressions of resistance to networking that inform modern skepticism toward the concept of the global network and its politics. In doing so the volume contributes to the increasingly global understanding of culture and communication. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press.Trade Review"The topic is clearly timely, as questions surrounding globalization and networks continue to be some of the most pressing of the twenty-first century. Such questions thus continue to demand historical investigation that is both substantial in its scholarship and innovative in its approach – a dual hurdle that Oriental Networks clears with ease, even panache. The editors are to be commended on their choice of contributions, which impressively encompass canonical and non-canonical writers, and contain an embarrassment of archival riches. The fact that the collection is lavishly, intelligently illustrated is a real bonus, too!" -- Evan Gottlieb * author of Romantic Globalism: British Literature and Modern World Order, 1750-1830 *"Oriental Networks provides ample evidence that the networked worlds of the twenty-first century descend, in crucial ways, from eighteenth-century European experiments in global interconnection, both material and conceptual, with a particular focus on the East. The ambivalence of eighteenth-century orientalisms lends itself to the complex and sometimes unpredictable dynamics of transculturation and exchange within emergent paradigms of empire. These case studies invite response from non-Eurocentric sites of knowledge and thus initiate an important conversation." -- Eugenia Zuroski * author of A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism *"The topic is clearly timely, as questions surrounding globalization and networks continue to be some of the most pressing of the twenty-first century. Such questions thus continue to demand historical investigation that is both substantial in its scholarship and innovative in its approach – a dual hurdle that Oriental Networks clears with ease, even panache. The editors are to be commended on their choice of contributions, which impressively encompass canonical and non-canonical writers, and contain an embarrassment of archival riches. The fact that the collection is lavishly, intelligently illustrated is a real bonus, too!" -- Evan Gottlieb * author of Romantic Globalism: British Literature and Modern World Order, 1750-1830 *"Oriental Networks provides ample evidence that the networked worlds of the twenty-first century descend, in crucial ways, from eighteenth-century European experiments in global interconnection, both material and conceptual, with a particular focus on the East. The ambivalence of eighteenth-century orientalisms lends itself to the complex and sometimes unpredictable dynamics of transculturation and exchange within emergent paradigms of empire. These case studies invite response from non-Eurocentric sites of knowledge and thus initiate an important conversation." -- Eugenia Zuroski * author of A Taste for China: English Subjectivity and the Prehistory of Orientalism *Table of Contents List of Illustrations Acknowledgment Introduction: Oriental Networks in the Long Eighteenth Century Bärbel Czennia Chapter 1: Knowing and Growing Tea: China, Britain, and the Formation of a Modern Global Commodity Richard Coulton Chapter 2: China-Pugs: The Global Circulation of Chinoiseries, Porcelain, and Lapdogs, 1660–1800 Stephanie Howard-Smith Chapter 3: Green Rubies from the Ganges: Eighteenth-Century Gardening as Intercultural Networking Bärbel Czennia Chapter 4: The Blood of Noble Martyrs: Penelope Aubin’s Global Economy of Virtue as Critique of Imperial Networks Samara Anne Cahill Chapter 5: Robert Morrison and the Dialogic Representation of Imperial China Jennifer L. Hargrave Chapter 6: At Home with Empire? Charles Lamb, the East India Company, and “The South Sea House” James Watt Chapter 7: Commerce and Cosmology on Lord George Macartney’s Embassy to China, 1792–94 Greg Clingham Chapter 8: Extreme Networking: Maria Graham’s Mountaintop, Underground, Intercontinental, and Otherwise Multidimensional Connections Kevin L. Cope Bibliography Index About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisIn this ambitious new interdisciplinary study, Useche proposes the metaphor of the social foundry to parse how industrialization informed and shaped cultural and national discourses in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Spain. Across a variety of texts, Spanish writers, scientists, educators, and politicians appropriated the new economies of industrial production—particularly its emphasis on the human capacity to transform reality through energy and work—to produce new conceptual frameworks that changed their vision of the future. These influences soon appeared in plans to enhance the nation’s productivity, justify systems of class stratification and labor exploitation, or suggest state organizational improvements. This fresh look at canonical writers such as Emilia Pardo Bazán, Concha Espina, Benito Pérez Galdós, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, and José Echegaray as well as lesser known authors offers close readings of their work as it reflected the complexity of Spain’s process of modernization. Trade Review"Founders of the Future establishes Spain as a vital player in late nineteenth-century discussions of modernization, industrialization, and energy. With a background in engineering and a fine ear for language, Óscar Iván Useche looks beyond well-known works to show how metaphors in popular science writing shaped attitudes toward energy, industrial production, and Spain’s possibilities." -- Laura Otis * author of Banned Emotions: How Metaphors Can Shape What People Feel *"Each chapter of this finely-crafted book paints a lucid picture of the productive incorporation of industrial language and imagery into the discursive fabric of fin-de-siglo Spanish society. Researchers, historians, and scholars from diverse disciplines and theoretical backgrounds will no doubt find Useche’s book a rich source for reflection." -- Nicolás Fernández-Medina * author of Life Embodied: The Promise of Vital Force in Spanish Modernity *"At the crossroads of industry and ideology, Useche reveals the 'semiological engine' of a paradigm shift in fin-de-siglo Spain that spans the discursive horizon of modernization and progress. Attentive to economics, education, labor practices, technology, and the environment, this study explores how coetaneous, often contradictory currents of thought confronted change through new ways of imagining a symbolic advancement that was at once liberating and threatening for Spain’s tomorrow." -- Travis Landry * editor of The Fruits of the Struggle in Diplomacy and War: Moroccan Ambassador al-Ghazzal and His Di *"Founders of the Future uncovers the new logic in Spain’s late nineteenth-century industrialization and modernization. It offers a unique perspective for mapping how different sectors of Spanish society viewed technological innovation, a 'social foundry' whence to forge regenerative approaches to Spain’s social, political, and economic problems." -- Dale Pratt * author of Signs of Science: Literature, Science and Spanish Modernity Since 1868 *Table of ContentsNote on TranslationsIntroduction: Reaching Out into the Future1 The Social Foundry2 Economy and Other Matters of State3 The Educational Engine4 Social Engineering5 Technologies of Mass Diffusion6 Industrial FootprintConclusion: The Unreachable FutureAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis Enlightenment-era writers had not yet come to take technology for granted, but nonetheless were—as we are today—both attracted to and repelled by its potential. This volume registers the deep history of such ambivalence, examining technology’s influence on Enlightenment British literature, as well as the impact of literature on conceptions of, attitudes toward, and implementations of technology. Offering a counterbalance to the abundance of studies on literature and science in seventeenth- and eighteenth-century Britain, this volume’s focus encompasses approaches to literary history that help us understand technologies like the steam engine and the telegraph along with representations of technology in literature such as the “political machine.” Contributors ultimately show how literature across genres provided important sites for Enlightenment readers to recognize themselves as “chimeras”—“hybrids of machine and organism”—and to explore the modern self as “a creature of social reality as well as a creature of fiction.” Table of ContentsIntroductionKristin M. Girten and Aaron R. HanlonChapter 1: Webster’s Baroque Experiments and the Testing of Technology in the Early 1600sLaura FrancisChapter 2: Telling Time in the Fiction of Mary Hearne and Daniel DefoeErik L. JohnsonChapter 3: The Technology and Theatricality of Three Hours after Marriage’s “Touch-Stone of Virginity”Thomas A. OldhamChapter 4: Gulliver’s Travels, Automation, and the Reckoning AuthorZachary M. MannChapter 5: Designing the Enlightenment AnthropoceneKevin MacDonnellChapter 6: Technology, Temporality, and Queer Form in Horace Walpole’s GothicEmily M. WestChapter 7: Telegraphic Supremacy in Maria Edgeworth’s “Lame Jervas”Deven M. ParkerChapter 8: Percy Shelley, Political Machines, and the Pre-History of the Post-LiberalJamison KantorAfterword: On the Uses of the History of Technology for Literary Studies and Vice VersaJoseph DruryBibliographyNotes on ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisEmu Field is overshadowed by Maralinga, the larger and much more prominent British atomic test site about 193 kilometres to the south. But Emu Field has its own secrets, and the fact that it was largely forgotten makes it more intriguing. Only at Emu Field did a terrifying black mist speed across the land after an atomic bomb detonation, bringing death and sickness to Aboriginal populations in its path. Emu Field was difficult and inaccessible. So why did the British go there at all, when they knew that they wouldn't stay? What happened to the air force crew who flew through the atomic clouds? And why is Emu Field considered the 'Marie Celeste' of atomic test sites, abandoned quickly after the expense and effort of setting it up? Elizabeth Tynan, the award-winning author of Atomic Thunder: The Maralinga Story, reveals a story of a cataclysmic collision between an ancient Aboriginal land and the post-war Britain of Winston Churchill and his gung-ho scientific advisor Frederick Lindemann. The presence of local A?angu people did not interfere with Churchill's geopolitical aims and they are still paying the price. The British undertook Operation Totem at Emu Field under cover of extreme remoteness and secrecy, a shroud of mystery that continues to this day.

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Book SynopsisThe fundamental burden of a theory of inductive inference is to determine which are the good inductive inferences or relations of inductive support and why it is that they are so. The traditional approach is modeled on that taken in accounts of deductive inference. It seeks universally applicable schemas or rules or a single formal device, such as the probability calculus. After millennia of halting efforts, none of these approaches has been unequivocally successful and debates between approaches persist.The Material Theory of Induction identifies the source of these enduring problems in the assumption taken at the outset: that inductive inference can be accommodated by a single formal account with universal applicability. Instead, it argues that that there is no single, universally applicable formal account. Rather, each domain has an inductive logic native to it. Which that is, and its extent, is determined by the facts prevailing in that domain.Paying close attention to how inductive inference is conducted in science and copiously illustrated with real-world examples, The Material Theory of Induction will initiate a new tradition in the analysis of inductive inference.

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Book SynopsisThe spectacular reappearance of the aurora borealis at the beginning of the 18th century, often observed simultaneously from different observatories in Europe, mobilized and federated a large community of astronomers on a European scale. It encouraged them to communicate the results of their observations and, in compiling exhaustive catalogs of information, has helped to establish a system of the aurora borealis that can be further studied in the future, according to the experimental method inherited from the previous century. This book is dedicated to some of the main aurora observers in Europe and to the human, institutional and philosophical context in which they evolved in the first half of the 18th century. Its reading should be seen as a retrospective journey through the scholarly world of the Enlightenment, during which the same scholars are frequently encountered and reencountered, yet each time in different contexts, or from different angles, with the aim of compiling an account of the swarming of ideas and encounters that constituted the development of experimental science in this pivotal period.Table of ContentsIntroduction ix Chapter 1 The Aurora Borealis Issue of the Affirmation of the Cartesian Mechanism and the Dispute Between Paris and Montpellier: The French Choice 1 1.1 Introduction 1 1.2 The two main systems of the aurora borealis 2 1.2.1 Halley’s system 2 1.2.2 Mairan’s system 5 1.3 History of the aurora borealis in the volumes of the Académie Royale des Sciences between 1716 and 1733 8 1.3.1 The silence on Halley’s system in Mémoires and Histoire 8 1.3.2. The memoir refused by the Parisian Academy of François de Plantade .. 13 1.4 The Montpellier actors: François de Plantade and the Société Royale des Sciences 20 1.4.1 François de Plantade, founder of the Société Royale de Montpellier 20 1.4.2 The Société Royale des Sciences de Montpellier 21 1.5 The Parisian actors: Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle and Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan, the Académie Royale des Sciences 26 1.5.1 The Académie Royale des Sciences 26 1.5.2 The permanent secretary Bernard le Bovier de Fontenelle 30 1.5.3 Jean-Jacques Dortous de Mairan 37 1.6 The London actors: Hans Sloane and Edmond Halley, the Royal Society 43 1.6.1 Hans Sloane 43 1.6.2 Edmond Halley 45 1.6.3 The Royal Society and its relations with the Académie Royale des Sciences 49 1.7 Discussion of the reasons for rejecting Plantade’s submission 51 Chapter 2 Joseph-Nicolas Delisle: Grandeur and Vicissitudes of a Newtonian Scientist with Thwarted Ambitions 55 2.1 Introduction 55 2.2 Delisle in the period before his departure for Russia (1710–1725) 61 2.2.1 Delisle’s beginnings in astronomy and optics, a Newtonian 61 2.2.2 Delisle’s setbacks at the Académie Royale des Sciences 71 2.2.3 Delisle’s great project: Histoire Céleste 83 2.2.4 Epilogue concerning the Parisian period 89 2.3 The invitation to St Petersburg and Delisle’s Russian period (1726–1747) 90 2.3.1 The cartographic objective of Delisle’s mission 90 2.3.2 Delisle’s means at the St Petersburg Observatory 97 2.4 Brief synthesis of Delisle’s scientific trajectory 109 2.5 Conclusion 112 Chapter 3 The Creation Ex-nihilo and the Beginnings of the Imperial Russian Academy of Sciences: The Influence of Christian Wolff 115 3.1 Introduction 115 3.2 The foundation of the Imperial Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg 117 3.2.1 Historical context 117 3.2.2 Peter the Great’s Imperial Academy of Sciences project 120 3.2.3 The birth of astronomy in Russia 122 3.3 Christian Wolff, the aurora borealis and their first observers at the Academy of Sciences in St Petersburg 125 3.3.1 Historical context 125 3.3.2 Christian Wolff’s conference 126 3.3.3 The quartet of aurora observers at the Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg 131 3.3.4 The rejection of aurora observations by Mayer 135 3.3.5 Euler’s physical–mathematical explanation 143 3.3.6 Mayer’s philosophical position and possible reasons for his abandonment of aurora observation 146 3.4 The Imperial Academy of Sciences of St Petersburg 149 3.4.1 The setting up of the Academy 149 3.4.2 The clerical and noble opposition 151 3.4.3 Wolffians versus Newtonians 155 3.4.4. The problems of the functioning of the Academy in the decades 1730–1740 161 3.4.5 The regulation of 1748 refounding the Academy 164 3.5 Conclusion 167 Chapter 4 Anders Celsius and the European Observation Networks, Setting Up a Science Society and an Astronomical Observatory in Uppsala 171 4.1 Introduction 171 4.2 The life of Celsius 173 4.2.1 The first years 173 4.2.2 The European journey 176 4.2.3 Maupertuis’ expedition in Lapland 179 4.2.4 The last few years 181 4.3 Three European networks for the observation of natural phenomena 184 4.3.1 The observations of the aurora borealis around de Mairan 185 4.3.2 Monitoring the variations of the magnetic needle according to Anders Celsius 190 4.3.3 Thermometry and meteorological records around Joseph-Nicolas Delisle 199 4.4 The Royal Society of Uppsala and Celsius’ legacy 211 4.4.1 Historical context of the Enlightenment in Sweden 211 4.4.2 Birth and development of the Royal Society of Sciences in Uppsala 214 4.4.3 Relations between the Royal Society and the University 219 4.4.4 Celsius’ legacy 222 4.5 Conclusion 228 Chapter 5 Genesis of the Academies of Bologna and Berlin, the Involvement of Women in Astronomy and the Gender Issue 231 5.1 Introduction 231 5.2 Three examples of “astronomical households” 236 5.2.1. The Kirchs: an artisanal-type household inspired by the guild tradition 238 5.2.2 The Manfredis: a household with a humanistic coloration inherited from the Renaissance 247 5.2.3 The Delisle family: an artisanal household where women took care of the family scientific heritage 255 5.3 Two examples of astronomical institutions: the academies of Bologna and Berlin and their observatories 259 5.3.1 The Academy and the Bologna Observatory 262 5.3.2 The Academy and the Observatory of Berlin 270 5.4 Astronomical households, institutions and gender in Bologna and Berlin 280 5.5 Conclusion 287 Conclusion 289 Appendix 301 References 313 Index 331

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Book SynopsisDrawing from literary studies, philosophy, and the history of science, in this interdisciplinary study Hanna Roman argues that the language of Buffon’s Histoire naturelle (1749-1788) could not be separated from the science it conveyed; the language communicated nature’s vital order, form and movement. In the Histoire naturelle, the ability of language to embody and communicate the living essence of nature grew increasingly poignant as Buffon established his hypothesis that the Earth, initially a molten ball of fire, was dying as it slowly became colder.The author highlights Buffon’s Époques de la nature (1778) in which he implied that to save nature from cold death, people must learn to create actual heat according to the model provided by his lyrical, dynamic language, the energy of which would transform into re-warming a cooling globe.In this way, Roman argues that Buffon’s literary simulacrum of nature taught his readers not only about the history of nature and its laws, but also how to interact with nature differently, transferring to them the skills necessary to modify the surrounding world in order to better fit the desires and dreams of humanity. A new world could be more than imagined—it could be engineered through language.Trade Review'...this book is a valuable addition to the scholarship on the close links between literary and scientific knowledge in the Enlightenment.'Elizabeth Wallmann, French Studies'Proposing a book about the monumental and eclectic thirty-six volumes of the Histoire naturelle requires from the offset a lot of courage, especially when the author proposes, in this ambitious interdisciplinary study [...] to revisit the whole series. [...] Hanna Roman masterfully builds on recent top scholars' achievements [...] The style is clear, [including] the flawless translations from French to English. [...] This book, anchored by deep and sound sources, will be considered as another foundation stone for the Buffonian critics as it iconically demonstrates the fundamental connection between written language and knowledge.'Swann Paradis, Isis'An accomplished original tribute to Buffon’s geniuses: scientific and literary.' Swann Paradis, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science SocietyTable of ContentsPrefaceIntroduction: Enlightenment natural history and literary inventionStyle: combining rhetoric and knowledgeHarmonizing world and wordNatural history: between physics and historyThe literary practice of natural historySummary of chapters1. Inventing natural language: the harmonization of mind and world Mathematical rules and natural laws Buffon and natural law: relativizing perception Inventing and intervening: Montesquieu and the natural laws of history Scaling the levels of perception: the evolving relationship with nature in the Histoire naturelle2. Generating heat: the energy of natural language Introducing heat: De l’art d’écrire Heat: the material interface with nature Between body and mind: the spirit of language The energy of the natural historical text3. Writing nature: the foundations of natural history The ‘Discours sur le style’: translating the movement of nature The mise-en-scène of style in the Histoire naturelle, 1749 From style to history: reading temporality into nature’s story4. Hypothesis and the energy of invention Hypothesis and the invention of a verisimilar world Hypothesis and heat: inventing the hidden mechanism of nature Making heat real: the hypothesis in the ‘Epoques de la nature’5. Reinventing nature’s heat Buffon’s theorization of heat The natural history of human beings: a story of inventing the temperate Writing the future with heatConclusion: preserving the heat of the Histoire naturelle Rethinking Buffon’s intellectual legacy Condorcet’s Eloge de M. de Buffon Saving style for posterity The literary experimentBibliographyIndex

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Book SynopsisSomething has gone terribly wrong. We face a spiritual crisis, but the extremes of religious fundamentalism on one hand, and scientific atheism on the other, offer no cure. Scepticism is soaring, especially among Millennials. Daily, we read of scandals among our politicians, priests and Hollywood stars. Mass shootings are epidemic, yet entertainment media glorifies violence. Drugs, not 'religion' as Karl Marx claimed, are now the 'opiate of the masses'. 'Christian' TV preachers use donations to purchase private jets and mansions, while children starve. The White House has claimed that 'Truth is not the truth'. Our leaders and institutions have lost all moral authority. A common religious response to crisis is to thump the Bible harder and louder. This book challenges us to go beyond a simple, childish belief. Dr Lance Moore offers an intelligent faith rooted in a respect for Scripture, while taking a fresh look at calcified orthodoxies. He invites readers to embrace paradox, in Spirituality and in Science, to rediscover God for our Quantum Age.

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Book SynopsisSometimes referred to as the "Father of Biogeography," Alfred Russel Wallace has come to be known as the co-originator of the theory of evolution through natural selection, and he also wrote extensively on zoology, botany, anthropology, politics, astronomy, and psychology. Although notorious in his day for his unpopular and eccentric beliefs, he is still recognized as one of the leading figures in nineteenth-century British science. In this book, Patrick Armstrong illuminates the many facets of Wallace's long life, which extended from 1823 until the eve of World War I. He shows Wallace to be, in many ways, a more interesting character than his colleague and friend, evolutionary scientist Charles Darwin. Taking a psychological approach, this compact yet comprehensive biography gives insight into a man who was frequently plagued with misfortune; legal problems, inability to obtain full-time employment, and relationship troubles all vexed him. Armstrong unlocks the life of a restless traveler who, although raised with "a very ordinary" education, would go on to become one of the most influential, extraordinary scientists of his time.

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Book SynopsisThis collection sheds new light on the nature, role and practice of philosophy and science in the renewed Berlin Academy from the mid-1740s to the 1770s, and in so doing provides a robust new instalment of materials for the broader task of constructing a historiography of philosophy at this important Enlightenment institution. The collection ranges from discussions of the roles of philosophy and natural philosophy in the formation of the reinvigorated Academy in the mid-1740s, to conceptions of the correct philosophical methodology to be deployed by the Academy. It provides the first ever study of the nature and arrangement of the new classes of the Academy, and a fresh appraisal of the Academy’s methodological eclecticism. One recurring theme is the status of metaphysics: there are studies of both special metaphysics, including the study of the soul; general metaphysics, that is, the study of being in general; and foundational metaphysical principles and concepts, such as Maupertuis’s Principle of least action, Euler’s concept of space and Lambert’s notion of an experimental metaphysics. The collection also takes the study of the Academy in new directions through focused studies of important figures whose writings deserve to be better understood, such as Jean Bernard Merian, Louis de Beausobre, Jean Henri Samuel Formey and Johann Georg Sulzer.Table of ContentsList of figuresAbbreviationsAcknowledgements IntroductionTinca Prunea-Bretonnet and Peter R. Anstey 1. The Four classes of the Berlin AcademyPeter R. Anstey 2. ‘Mother of all sciences’ or mere speculation? The justification of metaphysics at the Berlin AcademyAnnelie Grosse 3. Eclectic philosophy and ‘academic spirit’: the Berlin Academy and the Thomasian legacyTinca Prunea-Bretonnet 4. In Search of a ‘golden mean’: experience and reasoning according to Louis de BeausobreAngela Ferraro 5. Maupertuis, Euler and the Leibnizian metaphysics behind the Principle of least actionAnsgar Lyssy 6. Euler and the reflexive origin of the idea of spaceChristian Leduc 7. Experimental–Metaphysik at the Berlin Academy: the odd alliance between experience, mathematics and teleologyPaola Basso 8. Origins of arts, origins of man in Sulzer’s academic essaysAlessandro Nannini Appendix: ‘On the duties of the academician’ by Pierre-Louis Moreau de MaupertuisList of ContributorsIndex

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Book SynopsisThe Evolution of Scientific Knowledge aims to reach a unique understanding of science with the help of economic and sociological theories. The economic theories used are institutionalist and evolutionary. The sociological theories draw from the type of work on social studies of science that have, in recent decades, transformed our picture of science and technology.Science - and more broadly research - is a field where economics and sociology meet in an attempt to understand how complex organizations emerge and work. While the authors argue that science is neither an institution nor an order that emerged as the result of conscious and willful design, nor is it like a 'normal' market, they also acknowledge that science has aspects of market orders and aspects of orders created by design. Furthermore, science develops in specific ways that are to some extent like the development of economic systems, and at the same time are very different. This fascinating book will be of great interest to economists, philosophers, historians and sociologists by focussing on a multidisciplinary understanding of science.Trade Review'The papers make very interesting and in some cases quite provocative reading. . . anyone interested in different views - any discipline jumper - will profit from the richness of concepts and language in the collection.' -- Gerard de Zeeuw, Entrepreneurship and InnovationTable of ContentsContents: Preface 1. Introduction 2. The Essential Tension in the Social Sciences: Between the ‘Unification’ and ‘Fragmentation’ Traps 3. Residual Categories and the Evolution of Economic Knowledge 4. Evolutionary, Constructivist and Reflexive Models of Science 5. A Neo-Darwinian Model of Science 6. Science and Spontaneously Formed Institutions: An Austrian School Approach 7. An Evolutionary Approach to the Constitutional Theory of the Firm 8. Science as a Spontaneous Order: An Essay in the Economics of Science 9. Must Spontaneous Order be Unintended? Exploring the Possibilities for Consciously Enhancing Creative Discovery and Imaginative Problem-Solving 10. The Laboratory and the Market – On the Production and Interpretation of Knowledge Index

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Book SynopsisFresh examinations of the role of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice and how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion and identity. The important and ever-shifting role of medicinal plants in medieval science, art, culture, and thought, both in the Latin Western medical tradition and in Byzantine and medieval Arabic medicine, is the focus of this new collection. Following a general introduction and a background chapter on Late Antique and medieval theories of wellness and therapy, in-depth essays treat such wide-ranging topics as medicine and astrology, charms and magical remedies, herbal glossaries, illuminated medical manuscripts, women's reproductive medicine, dietary cooking, gardens in social and political context, and recreated medieval gardens. They make a significant contribution to our understanding ofthe place of medicinal plants in medieval thought and practice, and thus lead to a greater appreciation of how medieval theories and therapies from diverse places developed in continuously evolving and cross-pollinating strands,and, in turn, how they contributed to broader ideas concerning the body, religion, identity, and the human relationship with the natural world. Contributors: MARIA AMALIA D'ARONCO, PETER DENDLE, EXPIRACION GARCIA SANCHEZ, PETER MURRAY JONES, GEORGE R. KEISER, DEIRDRE LARKIN, MARIJANE OSBORN, PHILIP G. RUSCHE, TERENCE SCULLY, ALAIN TOUWAIDE, LINDA EHRSAM VOIGTSTrade ReviewA welcome contribution to the growing body of scholarship on early medical, scientific and other utilitarian texts. [...] The topic is both timely and important for the field of Medieval Studies which has, in recent decades, witnessed a renewed interest in utilitarian prose as a relatively untapped source of insight into the period. * ENGLISH STUDIES *This fascinating history shows how theories of health and disease evolved in the interplay of Western, Byzantine, and Arabic medicines and the relationship with the natural world. * AMERICAN HERB ASSOCIATION QUARTERLY *This collection is [...] extremely welcome, not only in that it fills what might be a rather obvious gap in the literature, but also for bringing to the task some of the biggest names in medieval medicine. I recommend the collection as a whole not only to medievalists (both early and late), but to anyone who may believe that the classical legacy was neglected or unknown until humanists rediscovered it, and to all those interested in plant-based medicine. * MEDICAL HISTORY *[A] fascinating collection. [...] On many different levels it opens up a new world of the association of plants to medicine. * BRITISH SOCIETY FOR THE HISTORY OF MEDICINE on-line review *Table of ContentsThe Legacy of Classical Antiquity in Byzantium and the West - Alain Touwaide Plants and Planets: Linking the Vegetable with the Celestial in Late- Medieval Texts - Linda Ehrsam Voigts Plants in the Early Medieval Cosmos: Herbs, Divine Potency, and the Scala natura - Peter Dendle A Cook's Therapeutic Use of Garden Herbs - Terence Scully The Jujube-Tree in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Case Study in the Methodolo gy of Textual Archaobotany - Alain Touwaide Gardens on Vellum: Plants and Herbs in Anglo-Saxon Manuscripts - Maria D'Aronco The Sources for Plant Names in Anglo-Saxon England and the Laud Herbal Glossary - Philip Rusche Anglo-Saxon Ethnobotany: Women's Reproductive medicine in Leechbook III - Marijane Osborn Herbs and the Medieval Surgeon - Peter Murray Jones Rosemary: Not Just for Rememberance - George R. Keiser Utility and Aesthetics in the Gardens of al-Andalus: Species with Multiple Uses - Expiración García Sánchez Hortus Redivivus: The Medieval Garden Recreated - Deirdre Larkin

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Book Synopsis"Weaving the Cosmos" traces humanity's journey from the mythical origins of religion, through the struggles to make sense of Christianity in the fourth century, and the strangely similar struggles to make sense of quantum theory in the twentieth century, to modern quantum cosmology. What we see, both in the human mind and in the cosmos which has given birth to that mind, is a dance between rational Form and intuitive Being. This present moment of ecological crisis opens to us a unique opportunity for bringing together these two strands of our existence, represented by religion and science. As the story unfolds, the historical account is interwoven with the author's own experiences of learning the principles through which we can bring about this integration in ourselves and in society. The final chapter surveys the many changes now emerging in society which give us hope that a transformation can be achieved from our dysfunctional past to a future in which we can be truly human, in harmony with the earth.

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Book Synopsis

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Book SynopsisWhen English naturalist Joseph Banks (1743–1820) accompanied Captain James Cook (1728–1779) on his historic mission into the Pacific, the Endeavour voyage of 1768–71, he took with him a team of collectors and illustrators. Banks and his team returned from the voyage with unprecedented collections of artefacts and specimens of stunning birds, fish and other animals as well as thousands of plants, most seen for the first time in Europe. They produced, too, remarkable landscape and figure drawings of the peoples encountered on the voyage along with detailed journals and descriptions of the places visited, which, with the first detailed maps of these lands (Tahiti, New Zealand and the East Coast of Australia), were afterwards used to create lavishly illustrated accounts of the mission. These caused a storm of interest in Europe where plays, poems and satirical caricatures were also produced to celebrate and examine the voyage, its personnel and many ‘new’ discoveries. Along with contemporary portraits of key personalities aboard the ship, scale models and plans of the ship itself, scientific instruments taken on the voyage, commemorative medals and sketches, the objects (over 140) featured in this new book will tell the story of the Endeavour voyage and its impact ahead of the 250th anniversary in 2018 of the launch of this seminal mission. Artwork made both during and after the voyage will be seen alongside actual specimens. And by comparing the voyage originals with the often stylized engravings later produced in London for the official account, the book will investigate how knowledge gained on the mission was gathered, revised and later received in Europe. Items separated in some cases for more than two centuries will be brought together to reveal their fascinating history not only during but since that mission. Original voyage specimens will feature together with illustrations and descriptions of them, showing a rich diversity of newly discovered species and how Banks organized this material, planning but ultimately failing to publish it. In fact, many of the objects in the book have never been published before. The book will focus on the contribution of Banks’s often neglected artists Sydney Parkinson, Herman Diedrich Spöring, Alexander Buchan as well as the priest and Pacific voyager Tupaia, who joined Endeavour in the Society Islands, none of whom survived the mission. These men illustrated island scenes of bays, dwellings, canoes as well as the dress, faces and possessions of Pacific peoples. Burial ceremonies, important religious sites and historic encounters were all depicted. Of particular interest, and only recently recognised as by him, are the original artworks of Tupaia, who produced as part of this mission the first charts and illustrations on paper by any Polynesian. The surviving Endeavour voyage illustrations are the most important body of images produced since Europeans entered this region, matching the truly historic value of the plant specimens and artefacts that will be seen alongside them.Trade Review“Handsome volume … a work of fine scholarship.” * International Journal of Maritime History *Beautifully presented and detailed … an authoritative and high-quality book which will be enjoyed by many readers. * Journal of Historical Geography *Endeavouring Banks is beautifully illustrated: 143 objects heavy with the weight of provenance. More powerful perhaps are the underlying resonances … it was a different world that the Endeavour had sailed into, in more than the physical sense." * World of Interiors *A lavishly illustrated account of the expedition." * Australian Geographic *In this fascinating publication, specimens collected by naturalist Joseph Banks on his HMS Endeavour voyage, along with scientific drawings, maps of the ship, and profiles of his travelling companions, including James Cook, give insight into what it might have been like to explore the uncharted South Pacific. * Gardening Australia *

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Book SynopsisIn the West at the turn of the twentieth century, public understanding of science and the world was shaped in part by expeditions to Asia, North America, and the Pacific. The Anthropology of Expeditions draws together contributions from anthropologists and historians of science to explore the role of these journeys in natural history and anthropology between approximately 1890 and 1930. By examining collected materials as well as museum and archive records, the contributors to this volume shed light on the complex social life and intimate work practices of the researchers involved in these expeditions. At the same time, the contributors also demonstrate the methodological challenges and rewards of studying these legacies and provide new insights for the history of collecting, history of anthropology, and histories of expeditions. Offering fascinating insights into the nature of expeditions and the human relationships that shaped them, The Anthropology of Expeditions sets a new standard for the field.

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Book SynopsisWhen leaded gasoline was first developed in the 1920s, medical experts were quick to warn of the public health catastrophes it would cause. Yet government regulators did not heed their advice, and for more than half a century, nearly all cars used leaded gasoline, which contributed to a nationwide epidemic of lead poisoning. By the 1970s, 99.8% of American children had significantly elevated levels of lead in their blood. Unleaded tells the story of how crusading scientists and activists convinced the U.S. government to ban lead additives in gasoline. It also reveals how, for nearly fifty years, scientific experts paid by the oil and mining industries abused their authority to convince the public that leaded gasoline was perfectly harmless. Combining environmental history, sociology, and neuroscience, Carrie Nielsen explores how lead exposure affects the developing brains of children and is linked to social problems including academic failure, teen pregnancies, and violent crime. She also shows how, even after the nationwide outrage over Flint’s polluted water, many poor and minority communities and communities of color across the United States still have dangerously high lead levels. Unleaded vividly depicts the importance of sound science and strong environmental regulations to protect our nation’s most vulnerable populations.Trade Review"Nielsen has developed a sophisticated analysis of childhood lead exposure. One of the real joys of this book is that it is written in an accessible style and makes an important contribution to the historical literature on childhood lead poisoning."— Gerald Markowitz, author of Lead Wars "Carrie Nielsen’s Unleaded provides a scientific perspective on an early-twentieth-century federal policy that misguidedly allowed the rapid rise and then, sensibly, the decline of a single product, leaded gasoline. The outcomes of these policy decisions changed the global environment and the socioeconomic fate of millions of people, mainly in the U.S. but also worldwide."— Howard Mielke, Tulane University School of MedicineTable of ContentsPreface 1 Lead in 20th Century America 2 Where the Lead Came From 3 Getting the Lead Out 4 Lead in America’s Children 5 Brains and Behavior and Lead 6 Lead and Violence 7 The Lead Problem Persists 8 Lessons from the Lead Battles Conclusion: Understanding our Leaded World Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisWhen leaded gasoline was first developed in the 1920s, medical experts were quick to warn of the public health catastrophes it would cause. Yet government regulators did not heed their advice, and for more than half a century, nearly all cars used leaded gasoline, which contributed to a nationwide epidemic of lead poisoning. By the 1970s, 99.8% of American children had significantly elevated levels of lead in their blood. Unleaded tells the story of how crusading scientists and activists convinced the U.S. government to ban lead additives in gasoline. It also reveals how, for nearly fifty years, scientific experts paid by the oil and mining industries abused their authority to convince the public that leaded gasoline was perfectly harmless. Combining environmental history, sociology, and neuroscience, Carrie Nielsen explores how lead exposure affects the developing brains of children and is linked to social problems including academic failure, teen pregnancies, and violent crime. She also shows how, even after the nationwide outrage over Flint’s polluted water, many poor and minority communities and communities of color across the United States still have dangerously high lead levels. Unleaded vividly depicts the importance of sound science and strong environmental regulations to protect our nation’s most vulnerable populations.Trade Review"Nielsen has developed a sophisticated analysis of childhood lead exposure. One of the real joys of this book is that it is written in an accessible style and makes an important contribution to the historical literature on childhood lead poisoning."— Gerald Markowitz, author of Lead Wars "Carrie Nielsen’s Unleaded provides a scientific perspective on an early-twentieth-century federal policy that misguidedly allowed the rapid rise and then, sensibly, the decline of a single product, leaded gasoline. The outcomes of these policy decisions changed the global environment and the socioeconomic fate of millions of people, mainly in the U.S. but also worldwide."— Howard Mielke, Tulane University School of MedicineTable of ContentsPreface 1 Lead in 20th Century America 2 Where the Lead Came From 3 Getting the Lead Out 4 Lead in America’s Children 5 Brains and Behavior and Lead 6 Lead and Violence 7 The Lead Problem Persists 8 Lessons from the Lead Battles Conclusion: Understanding our Leaded World Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis unique book presents the story of the pioneering manufacturing company Ferranti Ltd. – producer of the first commercially-available computers – and of the nine end-user organisations who purchased these machines with government help in the period 1951 to 1957. The text presents personal reminiscences from many of the diverse engineers, programmers and marketing staff who contributed to this important episode in the emergence of modern computers, further illustrated by numerous historical photographs. Considerable technical details are also supplied in the appendices.Topics and features: provides the historical background to the Ferranti Mark I, including the contributions of von Neumann and Turing, and the prototype known as The Baby; describes the transfer of technologies from academia to industry and the establishment of Ferranti’s computer production resources; reviews Ferranti’s efforts to adapt their computers for sale to business and commercial markets, and to introduce competitive new products; covers the use of early Ferranti computers for defence applications in different government establishments in the UK, including GCHQ Cheltenham; discusses the installation and applications of Ferranti computers at universities in the UK, Canada, and Italy; presents the story of the purchase of a Ferranti Mark I* machine by the Amsterdam Laboratories of the Shell company; details the use of Ferranti Mark I* computers in the UK’s aerospace industry and compares this with the American scene; relates the saga of Ferranti’s journey from its initial success as the first and largest British computer manufacturer to its decline and eventual bankruptcy.This highly readable text/reference will greatly appeal to professionals interested in the practical development of early computers, as well as to specialists in computer history seeking technical material not readily available elsewhere. The educated general reader will also find much to enjoy in the photographs and personal anecdotes that provide an accessible insight into the early days of computing.Table of ContentsThe Small Seeds of Innovation Academic/Industrial Collaboration: from Chorlton-on-Medlock to Moston, and Back Canada Calling: Toronto Gets a Mark I A Star is Born: Ideas and Upgrades Into the Market The AVRO Mark I* Installation at Chadderton The Mark I* at Armstrong Siddeley, Ansty, Coventry The Ferranti Mark I* Installation in Amsterdam The Ferranti Mark I* Installation in Rome GCHQ Cheltenham’s Mark I* The Mark I* at the Armaments Research Development Establishment, Fort Halstead The Mark I* at the Atomic Weapons Research Establishment, Aldermaston What Came Next? Appendix A: Baby’s Conception: the Back Story Appendix B: Mark I and Mark I* Software Details Appendix C: Mark I and Mark I* Hardware Details Appendix D: Naming Names Appendix E: Performance, Cost and Delivery Details of Other Computers

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Book SynopsisThis book presents an English-language translation of Risālā-yi Muʿīnīya, or the Muʿīnīya Epistle. Risālā-yi Muʿīnīya is one of the earliest known works of Naṣīr al-Dīn Ṭūsī (1201–1274), an intellectual luminary of the 13th century CE. The work is notable for the choice of Ṭūsī’s native Persian as the language of the text. In addition, Ṭūsī organized his volume into a four-part structure, which went on to become a popular template for the Islamic astronomers who succeeded him. This book helped ensure the patronage of Ṭūsī's courtly patrons during his decades-long stay with the Ismaʿīlīs, as well as the continuation of his remarkable career under the first Ilkhanid rulers of Persia. This translation helps make this notable treatise accessible to English language readers. It is among a handful of English translations of major astronomical works dealing with hay’a/cosmography in the Islamic world. Subsequently Ṭūsī was to pen his own commentary on the work (the Ḥall-i Mushkilāt-i Muʿīnīya, or A solution to the difficulties of the Muʿīnīya) and he used this occasion to discuss his celebrated mathematical formulation “the Ṭūsī Couple” (a concept that he merely hinted at in the Risālā-yi Muʿīnīya). Table of ContentsPrefacePart I. IntroductionChapter 1 Ṭūsī’s hayʾaChapter 2 Ṭūsī as a Young ScholarChapter 3 On the Structure and Contents of Risāla-yi MuʿīnīyaPart II. Edition and Translation of Risāla-yi MuʿīnīyaChapter 4 Book One: On the Introduction to this ScienceChapter 5 Two: On the Configuration of the Celestial BodiesChapter 6 Book Three: On the Configuration of the Earth and the Difference in the State of its Regions Due to the Difference in the State of the Celestial BodiesChapter 7 Book Four: On the Distances and BodiesPart III. Ṭūsī’s Commentary on Risāla-yi MuʿīnīyaChapter 8 The Chapters. AppendicesGlossaryBibliographyIndex

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Book Synopsis This open access book brings together for the first time all aspects of the tragic life and fascinating work of the polymath Robert Leslie Ellis (1817–1859), placing him at the heart of early-Victorian intellectual culture. Written by a diverse team of experts, the chapters in the book’s first part contain in-depth examinations of, among other things, Ellis’s family, education, Bacon scholarship and mathematical contributions. The second part consists of annotated transcriptions of a selection of Ellis’s diaries and correspondence. Taken together, A Prodigy of Universal Genius: Robert Leslie Ellis, 1817–1859 is a rich resource for historians of science, historians of mathematics and Victorian scholars alike. Robert Leslie Ellis was one of the most intriguing and wide-ranging intellectual figures of early Victorian Britain, his contributions ranging from advanced mathematical analysis to profound commentaries on philosophy and classics and a decisive role in the orientation of mid-nineteenth century scholarship. This very welcome collection offers both new and authoritative commentaries on the work, setting it in the context of the mathematical, philosophical and cultural milieux of the period, together with fascinating passages from the wealth of unpublished papers Ellis composed during his brief and brilliant career.- Simon Schaffer, Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge Table of ContentsPart I Chapters 1 From Bath to Cambridge: The Early Life and Education of Robert Leslie Ellis Christopher Stray2 “A Senior Wrangler among Senior Wranglers”: The Mathematical Education of Robert Leslie Ellis June Barrow-Green3 Ellis’s Character, John Grote and the Cambridge Network, 1830-1866 John R. Gibbins4 Robert Leslie Ellis as Editor and Contributor to Mathematical Journals Tony Crilly5 Ellis on Mathematical Statistics and Probability Stephen M. Stigler6 Ellis’s Philosophy and Bacon Scholarship Lukas M. Verburgt7 Robert Leslie Ellis: An Almost Perfect Moral Nature Joan L. Richards Part II Manuscripts 8 The Ellis Papers in Trinity College, Cambridge Jonathan Smith Diaries Lukas M. Verburgt & Christopher Stray Letters Lukas M. Verburgt & Christopher StrayBM "Appendix 1: Bibliography of Ellis’s Writings " BM Appendix 2: List of Ellis’s Mathematical Reading BM Appendix 3: List of Ellis’s Diaries BM Bibliography

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Book SynopsisThis open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.Trade Review“There is much in this collection that should interest historians of early modern science, as well as historians of early modern print culture and visual culture. This edited volume is part of a multiyear project at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science … . Written in the 13th-century in Paris, this slim text was taught in universities across Europe until the end of the 17th century.” (Kathleen Crowther, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 54 (3), August, 2023)Table of ContentsMatteo Valleriani & Andrea Ottone The Early Modern Academic Book Market Seen Through The ≪ Sphere ≫ of Sacrobosco.- Section 1: Production Dynamics.- Richard Oosterhoff The ≪ Sphere≫ and the Estienne Print Shop in Paris .- Catherine Kikuchi Erhard Ratdolt ’ s Edition of the ≪Sphaera≫ A New Editorial Model in Venice?.- Insa-Christiane Hennen Printers, Publishers and Book Binders in Wittenberg in the Sixteenth Century: Real Estate, Vicinity, Political and Cultural Activities.- Saskia Limbach Publishing the «Sphaera» in Sixteenth-Century Wittenberg.- Section 2: Distribution Dynamics.- Ian Maclean Sacrobosco at the Book Fairs, 1564-1624: The Pedagogical Marketplace.- Alejandra Ulla Lorenzo Exploring the Circulation of Sacrobosco’s ≪Tractatus de sphaera≫ in Early Modern Iberian Peninsula and New World Printing.- Andrea Ottone The Giunti’s Publishing and Distributing Network and Their Supply to the European Academic Market.- Isabelle Pantin Mathematical Books in Paris (1531–1563): The Development of Editorial Policies in a Competitive International Market.- Matteo Valleriani & Christoph Sander Exploring Social Relations Between Early Modern Publishers and Printers by Means of Paratexts.- Section 3: Usage Dynamics.- Paul F. Grendler The «Sphaera» in Jesuit Astronomical and Mathematical Education.- Richard Kremer Printing Sacrobosco in Leipzig, 1488–1520: Local Markets and “ Academic” Publishing.- Alissar Levy Publishing Mathematical Books to «Calculatores» in Paris (1508–1515).- Stefano Gulizia Traces of ≪The Sphere≫ in Early Modern Poland and in the German/Baltic Cultural Region.

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Book SynopsisThis open access volume focuses on the cultural background of the pivotal transformations of scientific knowledge in the early modern period. It investigates the rich edition history of Johannes de Sacrobosco’s Tractatus de sphaera, by far the most widely disseminated textbook on geocentric cosmology, from the unique standpoint of the many printers, publishers, and booksellers who steered this text from manuscript to print culture, and in doing so transformed it into an established platform of scientific learning. The corpus, constituted of 359 different editions featuring Sacrobosco’s treatise on cosmology and astronomy printed between 1472 and 1650, represents the scientific European shared knowledge concerned with the cosmological worldview of the early modern period until far after the publication of Copernicus’ De revolutionibus orbium coelestium in 1543. The contributions to this volume show how the academic book trade influenced the process of homogenization of scientific knowledge. They also describe the material infrastructure through which such knowledge was disseminated, and thus define the premises for the foundation of modern scientific communities.Trade Review“There is much in this collection that should interest historians of early modern science, as well as historians of early modern print culture and visual culture. This edited volume is part of a multiyear project at the Max Planck Institute for the History of Science … . Written in the 13th-century in Paris, this slim text was taught in universities across Europe until the end of the 17th century.” (Kathleen Crowther, Journal for the History of Astronomy, Vol. 54 (3), August, 2023)Table of ContentsMatteo Valleriani & Andrea Ottone The Early Modern Academic Book Market Seen Through The ≪ Sphere ≫ of Sacrobosco.- Section 1: Production Dynamics.- Richard Oosterhoff The ≪ Sphere≫ and the Estienne Print Shop in Paris .- Catherine Kikuchi Erhard Ratdolt ’ s Edition of the ≪Sphaera≫ A New Editorial Model in Venice?.- Insa-Christiane Hennen Printers, Publishers and Book Binders in Wittenberg in the Sixteenth Century: Real Estate, Vicinity, Political and Cultural Activities.- Saskia Limbach Publishing the «Sphaera» in Sixteenth-Century Wittenberg.- Section 2: Distribution Dynamics.- Ian Maclean Sacrobosco at the Book Fairs, 1564-1624: The Pedagogical Marketplace.- Alejandra Ulla Lorenzo Exploring the Circulation of Sacrobosco’s ≪Tractatus de sphaera≫ in Early Modern Iberian Peninsula and New World Printing.- Andrea Ottone The Giunti’s Publishing and Distributing Network and Their Supply to the European Academic Market.- Isabelle Pantin Mathematical Books in Paris (1531–1563): The Development of Editorial Policies in a Competitive International Market.- Matteo Valleriani & Christoph Sander Exploring Social Relations Between Early Modern Publishers and Printers by Means of Paratexts.- Section 3: Usage Dynamics.- Paul F. Grendler The «Sphaera» in Jesuit Astronomical and Mathematical Education.- Richard Kremer Printing Sacrobosco in Leipzig, 1488–1520: Local Markets and “ Academic” Publishing.- Alissar Levy Publishing Mathematical Books to «Calculatores» in Paris (1508–1515).- Stefano Gulizia Traces of ≪The Sphere≫ in Early Modern Poland and in the German/Baltic Cultural Region.

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Book SynopsisThe status of America’s infrastructure is graded every four years by the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) and reports are provided on the various categories. In this book, prominent women engineers discuss many of the eighteen infrastructure categories from the 2021 ASCE Infrastructure Report Card providing background, analysis of the issues facing the category and projections for the future. Categories covered include aviation, bridges, dams, water and wastewater, energy, hazardous waste, inland waterways, levees, ports, public parks, rail, roads, solid waste, and transit. Case studies from the authors’ work are included throughout. These topics touch on many of the challenges facing the world today and these solutions by women researchers and practitioners are valuable for their technical excellence and their non-traditional perspective. As an important part of the Women in Engineering and Science book series, the work highlights the contribution of women leaders in many of the infrastructure categories, inspiring women and men, girls and boys to enter and apply themselves to secure our future infrastructure.Table of ContentsChapter1. Introduction.- Chapter2. The American Society of Civil Engineers’ Report Card on America’s Infrastructure.- Chapter3. Infrastructure Pioneers.- Part1. Moving People and Things.- Chapter4. Airport Infrastructure.- Chapter5. Roadway Infrastructure.- Chapter6. Roadway Lighting and “Smart Poles”.- Chapter7. Community Engagement + Community Partnerships = Community Projects: Implementing Successful Rail Transit Projects.- Chapter8. Public Transportation Ridership Patterns: Past, Present and Possible Future Trends.- Part2. Making Connections.- Chapter9. Creating Bridges as Art.- Chapter10. Inland Waterway Transportation System .- Chapter11. Seaports.- Chapter12. Tunnels.- Part3. Controlling Water.- Chapter13. Dams.- Chapter14. Managing Levees in the Modern Age.- Part4. Cleaning Up.- Chapter15. Contaminated Sites.- Chapter16. Solid Waste Management.- Chapter17. Water and Wastewater Infrastructure.- Part5. Improving the Quality of Life.- Chapter18. Preparing for the Electric Grid of the Future.- Chapter19. Infrastructure in a Park and Recreation Setting: the example of the Golden Gate National Recreation Area – “The teams behind the partnership brand”.

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Book SynopsisCosmic Origins tells the story of how physicists and astronomers have struggled for more than a century to understand the beginnings of our universe, from its origins in the Big Bang to the modern day. The book will introduce the science as a narrative, by telling the story of the scientists who made each major discovery. It will also address and explain aspects of our theories that some cosmologists are still hesitant to accept, as well as gaps in our knowledge and even apparent inconsistencies in our measurements. Clearly written by a master of scientific exposition, this book will fascinate the curious general reader as well as providing essential background reading for college-level courses on physics and astronomy.Table of ContentsIntroduction.- The Expanding Universe.- The Discovery of the Big Bang.- Behind the Veil.- The Dark Universe.- The Age of Precision Cosmology.

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Book SynopsisThis volume of specially commissioned interpretative essays marks the centenary of the establishment of the International Geographical Union in 1922. Written by leading human and physical geographers from all parts of the world, A Geographical Century considers the history and present condition of geography as an international science. Based on the latest research, A Geographical Century provides new and critical analyses of the different forms of geographical internationalism that emerged during the 20th century; the changing relations between geography and cognate disciplines in the natural and social sciences; the geopolitics of international geographical collaboration; and the prospects of geography as a 21st century international science.Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction.- Part 1: Geography as International Science: Historical Perspectives on the IGU.- Chapter 2. nternationalising Geography, 1871–1945.- Chapter 3. The International Geographical Union in the Post War Period.- Chapter 4. Internationalization of Geography in the Bipolar World: Socialist Countries During the Cold War.- Chapter 5. The International Circulation and Dissemination of Geographical Concepts and Ideas.- Chapter 6. ‘The International’ in Geography: Concepts, Actors, Challenges.- Chapter 7. Internationalization in the International Geographical Union: Landmarks, Periods and Personalities.- Part 2: The Challenges of International Geography.- Chapter 8. The Challenges of International Geography.- Chapter 9. To Be or not to Be International: Geographic Knowledge, Globalization and the Question of Languages.- Chapter 10. Geography and International Education.- Chapter 11. The ‘North – South’ Problem in Geography.- Chapter 12. Gender and International Geography.- Part 3: International Geography in the 21st Century: A Dream Discipline .- Chapter 13. Interactions of Geography with Other Natural and Social Sciences and the Humanities.- Chapter 14. Global Understanding: A New Geographical Paradigm for the 21st Century?.- Chapter 15. Geography and Environmental Issues.- Chapter 16. Geography and the Information Society.- Chapter 17. Geography and Social Issues. – Chapter 18. Geography and Social Issues

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers a comprehensive overview of the history of genomics across three different species and four decades, from the 1980s to the recent past. It takes an inclusive approach in order to capture not only the international initiatives to map and sequence the genomes of various organisms, but also the work of smaller-scale institutions engaged in the mapping and sequencing of yeast, human and pig DNA. In doing so, the authors expand the historiographical lens of genomics from a focus on large-scale projects to other forms of organisation. They show how practices such as genome mapping, sequence assembly and annotation are as essential as DNA sequencing in the history of genomics, and argue that existing depictions of genomics are too closely associated with the Human Genome Project. Exploring the use of genomic tools by biochemists, cell biologists, and medical and agriculturally-oriented geneticists, this book portrays the history of genomics as inseparably entangled with the day-to-day practices and objectives of these communities. The authors also uncover often forgotten actors such as the European Commission, a crucial funder and forger of collaborative networks undertaking genomic projects. In examining historical trajectories across species, communities and projects, the book provides new insights on genomics, its dramatic expansion during the late twentieth-century and its developments in the twenty-first century. Offering the first extensive critical examination of the nature and historicity of reference genomes, this book demonstrates how their affordances and limitations are shaped by the involvement or absence of particular communities in their production. Table of ContentsChapter 1. IntroductionPart I. The Diversity of GenomicsChapter 2. Distributed and Concentrated Strategies in the Sequencing of the Yeast GenomeChapter 3. The Human Genome Project(s)Part II. Communities and Reference GenomesChapter 4. The Funnelling Effect of the Sanger InstituteChapter 5. The Pig Community and Their Reference GenomePart III. Contextualising and Enhancing Reference GenomesChapter 6. Making Reference Genomes Useful: AnnotationChapter 7. Improving and Going Beyond Reference GenomesChapter 8. Conclusion

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Book SynopsisThis book is reflecting upon core theories in evolutionary biology – in a historical as well as contemporary context. It exposes the main areas of interest for discussion, but more importantly draws together hypotheses and future research directions. The Modern Synthesis (MS), sometimes referred to as Standard Evolutionary Theory (SET), in evolutionary biology has been well documented and discussed, but was also critically scrutinized over the last decade. Researchers from diverse disciplinary backgrounds have claimed that there is a need for an extension to that theory, and have called for an Extended Evolutionary Synthesis (EES). The book starts with an introductory chapter that summarizes the main points of the EES claim and indicates where those points receive treatment later in the book. This introduction to the subjects can either serve as an initiation for readers new to the debate, or as a guide for those looking to pursue particular lines of enquiry. The following chapters are organized around historical perspectives, theoretical and philosophical approaches and the use of specific biological models to inspect core ideas. Both empirical and theoretical contributions have been included. The majority of chapters are addressing various aspects of the EES position, and reflecting upon the MS. Some of the chapters take historical perspectives, analyzing various details of the MS and EES claims. Others offer theoretical and philosophical analyses of the debate, or take contemporary findings in biology and discuss those findings and their possible theoretical interpretations. All of the chapters draw upon actual biology to make their points. This book is written by practicing biologists and behavioral biologists, historians and philosophers - many of them working in interdisciplinary fields. It is a valuable resource for historians and philosophers of biology as well as for biologists. Chapters 8, 20, 22 and 33 are available open access under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License via link.springer.com.Table of ContentsSee attachments

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Book SynopsisModels of Time and Space from Astrophysics and World Cultures explores how our conceptions of time, space, and the physical universe have evolved across cultures throughout the centuries. Developed with a humanistic approach, this book blends historical sources, biographical profiles of exceptional scientists, and the latest discoveries in both astrophysics and particle physics. This rich read describes the incredible insights and ultimate limits of our knowledge, the physical universe, and how ideas old and new have converged, across the world, to build our current understanding of reality. From the Large Hadron Collider to the James Webb Space Telescope, we have mapped the universe from the smallest to largest scales; allowing us to gain fundamental knowledge that has transformed our understanding of the universe. The chapters herein will teach you about dark matter and dark energy, gravitational waves and other complex parts of the cosmos. Along the way, you will learn a thing or two about quantum mechanics, parallel universes, and the ultimate boundaries of the observable universe. This book cultivates insight from a variety of cultural traditions, including perspectives from both modern and ancient cultures, in order to show how our modern conceptions of space and time have arisen from the ongoing explorations within ancient world civilizations.It is a valuable, intriguing and insightful volume for those interested in the fields of historical astronomy and cultural astronomy, as well as for anyone interested in learning about the latest finds from the field of physics and astrophysics.Table of ContentsChapter 1: IntroductionChapter 2: Microscopic Reality – Particles and Waves, Quantum Mechanics and the limits of our knowledge Chapter 3: The Light Cone – the Boundary of the Observable Universe, and its structure based on cosmology Chapter 4: Beyond the Observable Universe – the new science of Multiverses and unseen matter Chapter 5: Macroscopic Quantum reality – Quantum computing, Bose-Einstein condensates and the ways in which quantum physics shapes our large-scale universe Chapter 6: Notions of Time, Space and Matter from across cultures Chapter 7: Consciousness and Beyond – How Neuroscience and Ancient Cultures describe Thought and Experience Chapter 8: Emptiness and Eternity from Physics, Buddhism and other World Cultures

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Book SynopsisThis open access book offers new insights into the Venetian physician Sanctorius Sanctorius (1561–1636) and into the origins of quantification in medicine. At the turn of the seventeenth century, Sanctorius developed instruments to measure and quantify physiological change. As trivial as the quantitative assessment of health issues might seem to us today – in times of fitness trackers and smart watches – it was highly innovative at that time. With his instruments, Sanctorius introduced quantitative research into the field of physiology. Historical accounts of Sanctorius and his work tend to tell the story of a genius who, almost out of the blue, invented a new medical science, based on measurement and quantification, that profoundly influenced modernity. Abandoning the “genius narrative,” this book examines Sanctorius and his work in the broader perspective of processes of knowledge transformation in early modern medicine. It is the first systematic study to include the entire range of the physician’s intellectual and practical activities. Adopting a material culture perspective, the research draws on the contemporary reconstruction of Sanctorius’s most famous instrument: the Sanctorian weighing chair. And here it departs from past studies that focus mainly on Sanctorius’s thinking rather than on his making and doing. The book also re-evaluates Sanctorius’s role in the wider process of the early transformation of medical culture in the early modern period, a process that ultimately led to the abandonment of Galenic medicine and to the introduction of a new medical science, based on the use of quantification and measurement in medical research. The book is therefore an important contribution to the history of medicine and historical epistemology aimed at historians of science and philosophy.Table of ContentsAcknowledgements.- Preface (Dr. Matteo Valleriani).- Introduction.- List of Figures.- Abbreviations and Short Titles.- Chapter 1. Sanctorius Sanctorius—Between Koper and Venice.- Chapter 2. Sanctorius’s Galenism.- Chapter 3. Sanctorius’s Work in its Practical Context.- Chapter 4. Quantification in Galenic Medicine.- Chapter 5. Quantification and Certainty.- Chapter 6. The Measuring Instruments.- Chapter 7. Sanctorius Revisited.- List of Appendices.

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Book SynopsisThe Barnard Objects have fascinated professional and amateur astronomers for over one hundred years. Many of those objects first imaged by E.E. Barnard on black-and-white photographic plates are now being captured daily in thousands of color astrophotographs. This book tells of Barnard’s story; describing his life and work as well as how the fields of astronomy and astrophotography have transformed ever since.The chapters in this book are equal parts history and science. It will provide readers with an introduction to nebula science and the incredible discoveries made in this field over the decades; including an overview of popular astronomical catalogues and a detailed look at how astronomical imaging has advanced since Barnard’s time, from early plates to digital imaging and chips. In addition, the book features a comprehensive guide to viewing and imaging these objects yourself. A glossary of astronomical and photographic terms is provided, along with detailed references. And, an updated table displaying the locations of these Barnard Objects; including the missing twenty-five objects from E.E. Barnard’s original catalogue.Richly researched and illustrated, this fascinating reference will attract astronomers of all skill levels interested in astrophotography and how it has changed over the past hundred years.Table of ContentsPreface Chapter 1. Introduction Chapter2. Nebulae – an overview Bright nebulae Dark nebulae Classical nebulae: HII regions, planetary nebulae, supernova remnants Diffuse nebulae Bok globules Chapter 3. Astronomical Catalogs – an overview Messier NGC IC Sharpless Cederblad DG Lynds Chapter 4. EE Barnard, his life, observations, and his catalogs Max Wolf (1863-1932) Objects discovered and named after Barnard Barnard’s awards and honors Catherine Wolfe Bruce (1816-1900) Bruce photographic telescopes (Yerkes, Mt. Wilson, Heidelberg) Comet observations, Comet Halley Planet observations Barnard’s star Barnard Objects Chapter 5. Visual Observation of Barnard Objects Astronomical League Dark Nebulae Observing Program Chapter 6. Modern Imaging of the Barnard Objects: images and imaging technique What to look for – nova, variable stars, change in nebulosity, astrometry, B&W and color imaging, history of color imaging Imaging techniques Chapter 7. Selected Important Barnard Objects Chapter 8. Filling in the Missing Barnard Objects- #176-200 Chapter 9. Conclusions Glossary and Table of Astronomical Catalogs Acknowledgements Index

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Book SynopsisThe primary purpose of this book is to introduce the reader to a wide variety of interesting and useful connections, relationships, and equivalencies between and among conventional and permutation statistical methods. There are approximately 320 statistical connections and relationships described in this book. For each connection or connections the tests are described, the connection is explained, and an example analysis illustrates both the tests and the connection(s). The emphasis is more on demonstrations than on proofs, so little mathematical expertise is assumed. While the book is intended as a stand-alone monograph, it can also be used as a supplement to a standard textbook such as might be used in a second- or third-term course in conventional statistical methods. Students, faculty, and researchers in the social, natural, or hard sciences will find an interesting collection of statistical connections and relationships - some well-known, some more obscure, and some presented here for the first time.Table of Contents- 1. Introduction. - 2. Statistical Methods. - 3. One-Sample Tests. - 4. Two-Sample Tests. - 5. Matched-Pair Tests. - 6. Completely Randomized Designs. - 7. Randomized-Blocks Designs. - 8. Measures of Interval Association. - 9. Measures of Ordinal Association I. - 10. Measures of Ordinal Association II. - 11. Measures of Nominal Association I. - 12. Measures of Nominal Association II. - 13. Measures of Fourfold Association I. - 14. Measures of Fourfold Association II.

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Book SynopsisSupernovae.- The 1604 Supernova.- Galilei against the Aristotelics.- Past, Present, Future.

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