Search results for ""Kepler""

For millennia humans have studied the skies to help them grow crops, navigate the seas, and earn favor from their gods. We still look to the stars today for answers to fundamental questions: How did the universe begin? Will it end, and if so, how? What is our place within it? John North has been examining such questions for decades. In "Cosmos", he offers a sweeping historical survey of the two sciences that help define our place in the universe: astronomy and cosmology.Organizing his history chronologically, North begins by examining Paleolithic cave drawings that clearly chart the phases of the moon. He then investigates scientific practices in the early civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, and the Americas, whose inhabitants developed sophisticated methods to record the movements of the planets and stars. Trade routes and religious movements, North notes, brought these ancient styles of scientific thinking to the attention of later astronomers, whose own theories - such as Copernicus' planetary theory - led to the Scientific Revolution.The work of master astronomers, including Ptolemy, Galileo, Kepler, and Newton, is described in detail, as are modern-day developments in astrophysics, such as the advent of radio astronomy, the brilliant innovations of Einstein, and the many recent discoveries brought about with the help of the Hubble telescope. This new edition brings North's seminal book right up to the present day, as North takes a closer look at last year's reclassification of Pluto as a dwarf planet and gives a thorough overview of current research.With more than two hundred illustrations and a comprehensive bibliography, "Cosmos" is the definitive history of astronomy and cosmology. It is sure to find an eager audience among historians of science and astronomers alike.

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Recurrent questions about space have dogged philosophers since ancient times. Can an ordinary person draw from his or her perceptions to say what space is? Or is it rather a technical concept that is only within the grasp of experts? Can geometry characterize the world in which we live? What is God's relation to space? In Ancient Greece, Euclid set out to define space by devising a codified set of axioms and associated theorems that were then passed down for centuries, thought by many philosophers to be the only sensible way of trying to fathom space. Centuries later, when Newton transformed the 'natural philosophy' of the seventeenth century into the physics of the eighteenth century, he placed the mathematical analysis of space, time, and motion at the center of his work. When Kant began to explore modern notions of 'idealism' and 'realism,' space played a central role. But the study of space was transformed forever when, in 1915, Einstein published his general theory of relativity, explaining that the world is not Euclidean after all. This volume chronicles the development of philosophical conceptions of space from early antiquity through the medieval period to the early modern era. The chapters describe the interactions at different moments in history between philosophy and various other disciplines, especially geometry, optics, and natural science more generally. Fascinating central figures from the history of mathematics, science and philosophy are discussed, including Euclid, Plato, Aristotle, Proclus, Ibn al-Haytham, Nicole Oresme, Kepler, Descartes, Newton, Leibniz, Berkeley, and Kant. As with other books in the series, shorter essays, or Reflections, enrich the volume by characterizing perspectives on space found in various disciplines including ecology, mathematics, sculpture, neuroscience, cultural geography, art history, and the history of science.

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If the discovery of life elsewhere in the universe is just around the corner, what would be the consequences for religion? Would it represent another major conflict between science and religion, even leading to the death of faith? Some would suggest that the discovery of any suggestion of extraterrestrial life would have a greater impact than even the Copernican and Darwinian revolutions. It is now over 50 years since the first modern scientific papers were published on the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI). Yet the religious implications of this search and possible discovery have never been systematically addressed in the scientific or theological arena. SETI is now entering its most important era of scientific development. New observation techniques are leading to the discovery of extra-solar planets daily, and the Kepler mission has already collected over 1000 planetary candidates. This deluge of data is transforming the scientific and popular view of the existence of extraterrestrial intelligence. Earth-like planets outside of our solar system can now be identified and searched for signs of life. Now is a crucial time to assess the scientific and theological questions behind this search. This book sets out the scientific arguments undergirding SETI, with particular attention to the uncertainties in arguments and the strength of the data already assembled. It assesses not only the discovery of planets but other areas such as the Fermi paradox, the origin and evolution of intelligent life, and current SETI strategies. In all of this it reflects on how these questions are shaped by history and pop culture and their relationship with religion, especially Christian theology. It is argued that theologians need to take seriously SETI and to examine some central doctrines such as creation, incarnation, revelation, and salvation in the light of the possibility of extraterrestrial life.

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'Includes exciting recent advances in studying gravity and its cosmic manifestations.' Lord Martin Rees, Astronomer Royal, former President of the Royal Society A fascinating historical account of how we have reached our current understanding of gravity. There have been sensational developments in gravitational physics in recent years. The detection of gravitational waves - ripples in the fabric of space - has opened a new window on the universe. These waves are produced by the most cataclysmic events in the universe - the collisions and mergers of black holes and neutron stars. There have also been great strides in our understanding of supermassive black holes. We now know that a black hole with a gargantuan mass lies at the heart of every galaxy, and we even have an image of one such beast. Gravity: From Falling Apples to Supermassive Black Holes provides an engaging and accessible account of how we have reached our current understanding of gravity and places these amazing discoveries in their true context. 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. The historical material leads from discussions of the early cosmologies to the great breakthroughs of Tycho and Kepler. We then consider Galileo's contributions to astronomy and mechanics, and the significance of Jeremiah Horrocks's ideas to the Newtonian revolution that would follow. Newton's theories brought about a new scientific age and his description of gravity was unrivalled for over two centuries until it was superseded by Einstein's description in terms of curved spacetime. The outlandish predictions of Einstein's theory have been confirmed again and again, including black holes and gravitational waves. Finally, we move on to more speculative ideas including Hawking radiation and primordial black holes and attempts to find a quantum theory of gravity.

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Anthony Grafton is erudite and elegant in the style of the best historical writers who make the past come alive for the reader. In a full-scale presentation of the world of scholarship, from the Renaissance to the modern period, Grafton sets before us in three-dimensional detail such seminal figures as Poliziano, Scaliger, Kepler, and Wolf. He calls attention to continuities, moments of crisis, and changes in direction.The central issue in Defenders of the Text is the relation between humanism and science from the mid-fifteenth century to the beginning of the modern period. Treatments of Renaissance humanism in English have emphasized the humanists’ commitment to rhetoric, ethics, and politics and have accused the humanists of concentrating on literary matters in preference to investigating the real world via new developments in science, philosophy, and other technical disciplines. This revisionist book demonstrates that humanism was neither a simple nor an impractical enterprise, but worked hand-in-hand with science in developing modern learning.Grafton makes clear that humanism remained an integral and vital part of European culture until the eighteenth century, maintaining a technical component of its own—classical philology—which developed in as rich, varied, and unexpected a way as any other field of European thought. Attention to the text led the humanists to develop a whole range of cools and methods that lent power to science and learning for centuries to come. Grafton shows the continued capacity of classical texts to provoke innovative work in both philology and philosophy, and traces a number of close and important connections between humanism and natural science. His book will be important to intellectual historians, students of the classics and the classical tradition, and historians of early modern science.

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The Journey to Wisdom addresses a broad array of topics in education, the natural world, and medieval intellectual history. The book examines a philosophy of education that originated with the ancient Greeks and that reached its culmination in the late-medieval and early-Renaissance periods. That philosophy of education promotes a journey to wisdom, involving an escape from pure subjectivity and “the seductions of rhetoric” and leading to a profound awareness of the natural world and “nature’s God.” It grants us a renewed sense of education as a self-directed, transforming journey to knowledge and insight—rather than (as is so often the case now) as an impersonal, bureaucratized trek that reflects little sense of the ultimate aims of education. The volume opens with a discussion of the quarrel in ancient Greece between the Sophists and the so-called “philosophers”—a quarrel, Paul A. Olson writes, “out of which the [philosophers’] tradition centering education in reality, as opposed to social convention, develops.” Subsequent chapters follow the development of this tradition in the writings of Augustine, Boethius, Dante, Petrarch, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, and others. Here Olson refutes several recent theories: that medieval intellectuals helped legitimize technological mastery and exploitation of the environment; that medieval education involved no systematic progress “toward recognizing the sanctity of creation”; and that all literary works—medieval ones included—“are self-referenced,” and therefore that they offer no guidance to a world beyond themselves. The Journey to Wisdom will be essential reading for students of ancient, medieval, and Renaissance intellectual history. But in its unmistakably modern concerns about education, the book also speaks to a far wider spectrum of readers. Olson’s study falls into that rarest category of scholarly productions: one that reflects both its author’s profound knowledge of the past and his equally great commitment to the present. That dual commitment accounts for the uncommon insights—and pleasures—offered by this book.

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This is a very stimulating book which should be read by everyone who wants to gain an understanding of the latest developments in the shadow economy.'- Friedrich Schneider, Johannes Kepler University of Linz, Austria'Professor Williams is to be congratulated for this timely contribution - a fresh addition to the literature. As he explains, the recognition that the shadow economy is diverse and extensive has led to a rethinking of how to tackle it. In a reader-friendly fashion, the author explains the variable magnitude of and variable character of the shadow economy; he then discusses policy approaches, deterrence measures and incentives. The result is of interest to the policy-maker as well as to academics.'- Léo-Paul DANA, Groupe Sup de Co Montpellier Business School, FranceThis authoritative monograph explores the effectiveness and transferability of the rapidly expanding range of policy approaches and measures available as weaponry in the fight against the shadow economy.Beginning with a review of the extent of undeclared work, the author discusses the discrepancies between regions and the potential impacts of the economic crisis, comparing the nature of the potential solutions available with those actually adopted. The way forward, the book concludes, is to move away from increasing the costs of engaging in hidden work using repressive measures, and concentrate more on developing initiatives that enhance the benefits of engaging in declared work and increase the likelihood of compliance by engendering a commitment to tax morality.This insightful and unique exposition will have considerable appeal to academics, practitioners and policy-makers across the globe involved in the fight against undeclared work.Contents: 1. Introduction Part I Extent and Nature of the Shadow Economy 2. The Variable Magnitude of the Shadow Economy 3. The Variable Character of the Shadow Economy Part II Policy Approaches 4. Evaluating the Policy Options 5. A Typology of Policy Measures Part III Direct Controls 6. Deterrence Measures 7. Supply-Side Incentives for Businesses 8. Supply-Side Incentives for Individuals 9. Demand-Side Incentives Part IV Indirect Controls 10. Commitment Measures 11. Broader Economic and Social Policies 12. Conclusions References Index

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From the author of A Nearly Normal Family - now a major Netflix TV series. The Woman Inside is a breathless page-turner from an international master of suspense, this is a story about dependency, justice, and the sometimes fine line between right and wrong.'The darkness dwells, the desperation grows between the characters and the walls close in until you're caught in the trap' - Lars Kepler, author of The SpiderThree young people.Bill, a widower and single dad, is in a financial mess with bills to pay when he rents out a room in his apartment to Karla.Karla left home to study law and to earn some money begins working as a cleaner at the palatial home of Steven and Regina Rytter. But inside their house it is clear that something is wrong with the doctor and his wife, who never leaves her bedroom.Jennica is single and careerless when she meets Steven on Tinder. But just as she thinks her luck is changing, it soon becomes clear that Steven is hiding secrets of his own . . .Two murders.By the end of the summer Steven and Regina Rytter will be found dead in their home and the questions will begin . . .One truth.Ordinary people will do things they never thought possible when faced with extraordinary circumstances, and the truth is that the woman inside may hold the key to it all . . .What readers are saying about The Woman Inside:‘The Woman Inside was my first novel from author Edvardsson. It certainly won’t be my last. Five stars’‘The last sentence left me breathless’‘I loved how the layers of the story were revealed and I am always a fan of multi POV’‘This book is over 10 hours long and I am telling the truth when I say I didn’t press pause’‘This was a very fun thriller, great for fans of Lisa Jewell and Sally Hepworth’Praise for A Nearly Normal Family:‘Deceptive and riveting’ - Karin Slaughter, bestselling author of Girl, Forgotten‘Taut page-turner *****’ - The Sun‘A cracking read!’ - T. M. Logan, bestselling author of The Vacation‘A compulsively readable tour de force’ - Wall Street Journal‘A canny, intensely suspenseful legal thriller’ - Scott Turow, author of Presumed Innocent

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Put on your running shoes - it's time to hit the road, the trails and the great outdoors. In this comprehensive runner's companion, you'll find 50 of the world's greatest running routes - from short city runs and must-do marathons to cross-country trails and challenging ultras - plus a further 150 courses around the globe to satisfy runners of all abilities. Each run is accompanied by stunning photos and a map and toolkit of practical details - where to start and finish, how to get there, where to stay and more - to help you plan the perfect trip. Suggestions for similar runs around the world are also included. Organised by continent, Lonely Planet's Epic Runs of the World takes runners past giraffes, zebras and rhinos in Africa, along courses the length of Vancouver's Stanley Park Seawall in the Americas, offers spectacular views of Hong Kong from Victoria Peak in Asia and jogs along Rome's Tiber River in Europe, while inviting athletes to push themselves to the limit in Oceania's Blue Mountains Ultra. Runs in Africa include: The Lewa Safari Marathon (Kenya) Marathon Des Sables (Morocco) The Great Ethiopian Run The Comrades Ultramarathon (South Africa) Run in the Americas include: The Big Sur Marathon (USA) Havana's El Malecon (Cuba) Rio at Dawn (Brazil) An Illuminating Ascent in La Paz (Bolivia) Runs in Asia include: The Great Wall Marathon (China) Angkor Wat Half Marathon (Cambodia) A Temple Ascent in Pokhara (Nepal) Kyoto's Riverside (Japan) Runs in Europe include: Amalfi Coast's Path of the Gods (Italy) A Classic Fell Run in the Lakes (England) The Athens Marathon (Greece) Dublin's Wild Side (Ireland) Runs in Oceania include: Great Ocean Road Marathon (Australia) The Kepler Track (New Zealand) Freycinet Peninsula (Tasmania) A Ghost Run in Waihi Gorge (New Zealand) About Lonely Planet: Lonely Planet is a leading travel media company and the world's number one travel guidebook brand, providing both inspiring and trustworthy information for every kind of traveller since 1973. Over the past four decades, we've printed over 145 million guidebooks and grown a dedicated, passionate global community of travellers. You'll also find our content online, on mobile, video and in 14 languages, 12 international magazines, armchair and lifestyle books, ebooks, and more.

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Incarcerated in a high-security prison, a broken Alexander Blix joins forces with Emma Ramm to find a ruthless killer who has escaped from a German jail and is making his way to Norway. Pulse-pounding Nordic Noir. ‘Blix suffers a series of vicious assaults in Stigma, the new novel by the stellar Norwegian crime-writing duo Jorn Lier Horst and Thomas Enger … tense, brutal and fast-moving’ Sunday Times BOOK OF THE MONTH ‘Darkly twisty’ Crime Monthly 'Superb Nordic noir. Dark, intricate and extremely compelling. Contemporary Scandinavian fiction at its best' Will Dean _______ Alexander Blix is a broken man. Convicted for avenging his daughter’s death, he is now being held in one of Norway’s high-security prisons. Inside, the other prisoners take every opportunity to challenge and humiliate the former police investigator. On the outside, Blix’s former colleagues have begun the hunt for a terrifying killer. Walter Kroos has escaped from prison in Germany and is making his way north. The only lead established by the police is that Kroos has a friend in Blix’s prison ward. And now they need Blix’s help. Journalist Emma Ramm is one of Blix’s few visitors, and she becomes his ally as he struggles to connect the link between past and present, between the world inside and outside the prison walls. And as he begins to piece things together, he identifies a woodland community in Norway where deeply scarred inhabitants foster deadly secrets... secrets that maybe the unravelling of everyone involved… Two of Nordic Noir's finest writers return with the emotive, breath-holdingly intense and searingly tense fourth book in the number-one bestselling Blix & Ramm series. _______ Praise for the Blix & Ramm series: ‘If you're a fan of writers like Lars Kepler, Stefan Ahnhem or Søren Sveistrup, you won't want to miss this' Crime by the Book ‘Two of the most distinguished writers of Nordic Noir’ Financial Times ‘An international sensation’ Vogue 'The most exciting yet' The Times 'Devilishly complex' Publishers Weekly ‘Fascinating’ Sun ‘Completely nerve-wracking’ Tvedestrandsposten ‘Everything I want in a book – mystery, tension and action’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews ‘Masterly’ NB Magazine ‘An absolute MUST for thriller fans … in a class of its own’ Krimi Couch

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Two thousand years ago, according to the Bible, a star rose low in the east and stopped high above Bethlehem. Was it a miracle, a sign from God to herald the birth of Christ? Was there a star at all, or was it simply added to the Bible to fulfill the Old Testament prophecy concerning the birth of the Messiah? Or was the Star of Bethlehem an actual astronomical event? For hundreds of years, astronomers as prominent as Johannes Kepler have sought an answer to this last baffling question. In The Star of Bethlehem, Mark Kidger brings all the tools of modern science, years of historical research, and an infectious spirit of inquiry to bear on the mystery. He sifts through an astonishing variety of ideas, evidence, and information--including Babylonian sky charts, medieval paintings, data from space probes, and even calculations about the speed of a camel--to present a graceful, original, and scientifically compelling account of what it may have been that illuminated the night skies two millennia ago. Kidger begins with the stories of early Christians, comparing Matthew's tale of the Star and the three Magi who followed it to Bethlehem with lesser-known accounts excluded from the Bible. Crucially, Kidger follows the latest biblical scholarship in placing Christ's birth between 7 and 5 B.C., which leads him to reject various phenomena that other scientists have proposed as the Star. In clear, colorful prose, he then leads us through the arguments for and against the remaining astronomical candidates. Could the Star have been Venus? What about a meteor or a rare type of meteor shower? Could it have been Halley's Comet, as featured in Giotto's famous painting of the Nativity? Or, as Kidger suspects, was the Star a combination of events--a nova recorded in ancient Chinese and Korean manuscripts preceded by a series of other events, including an unusual triple conjunction of planets? Originally published in 1999. The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback and hardcover editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

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Comparing and contrasting the reality of subjectivity in the work of history's great scientists and the modern Bayesian approach to statistical analysis Scientists and researchers are taught to analyze their data from an objective point of view, allowing the data to speak for themselves rather than assigning them meaning based on expectations or opinions. But scientists have never behaved fully objectively. Throughout history, some of our greatest scientific minds have relied on intuition, hunches, and personal beliefs to make sense of empirical data-and these subjective influences have often aided in humanity's greatest scientific achievements. The authors argue that subjectivity has not only played a significant role in the advancement of science, but that science will advance more rapidly if the modern methods of Bayesian statistical analysis replace some of the classical twentieth-century methods that have traditionally been taught. To accomplish this goal, the authors examine the lives and work of history's great scientists and show that even the most successful have sometimes misrepresented findings or been influenced by their own preconceived notions of religion, metaphysics, and the occult, or the personal beliefs of their mentors. Contrary to popular belief, our greatest scientific thinkers approached their data with a combination of subjectivity and empiricism, and thus informally achieved what is more formally accomplished by the modern Bayesian approach to data analysis. Yet we are still taught that science is purely objective. This innovative book dispels that myth using historical accounts and biographical sketches of more than a dozen great scientists, including Aristotle, Galileo Galilei, Johannes Kepler, William Harvey, Sir Isaac Newton, Antoine Levoisier, Alexander von Humboldt, Michael Faraday, Charles Darwin, Louis Pasteur, Gregor Mendel, Sigmund Freud, Marie Curie, Robert Millikan, Albert Einstein, Sir Cyril Burt, and Margaret Mead. Also included is a detailed treatment of the modern Bayesian approach to data analysis. Up-to-date references to the Bayesian theoretical and applied literature, as well as reference lists of the primary sources of the principal works of all the scientists discussed, round out this comprehensive treatment of the subject. Readers will benefit from this cogent and enlightening view of the history of subjectivity in science and the authors' alternative vision of how the Bayesian approach should be used to further the cause of science and learning well into the twenty-first century.

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When a police investigator is killed execution-style and Blix’s own daughter is targeted by the killer, he makes a dangerous decision, which could cost him everything. Blix & Ramm are back in a breathless, emotive thriller by two of Norway’s finest crime writers…‘Superb Nordic noir. Dark, intricate and extremely compelling. Contemporary Scandinavian fiction at its best’ Will Dean‘The most exciting yet’ The Times‘Blends a gripping storytelling structure with thrilling tension and heartfelt moments … if you’re a fan of writers like Lars Kepler, Stefan Ahnhem or Søren Sveistrup, you won’t want to miss this’ Crime by the Book––––––––––––––––––––When police investigator Sofia Kovic uncovers a startling connection between several Oslo murder cases, she attempts to contact her closest superior, Alexander Blix before involving anyone else in the department. But before Blix has time to return her call, Kovic is shot and killed in her own home – execution style. And in the apartment below, Blix’s daughter Iselin narrowly escapes becoming the killer’s next victim.Four days later, Blix and online crime journalist Emma Ramm are locked inside an interrogation room, facing the National Criminal Investigation Service. Blix has shot and killed a man, and Ramm saw it all happen. As Iselin’s life hangs in the balance, under-fire Blix no longer knows who he can trust … and he’s not even certain that he’s killed the right man…Two of Nordic Noir’s most brilliant writers return with the explosive, staggeringly accomplished, emotive third instalment in the international, bestselling Blix & Ramm series … and it will take your breath away.––––––––––––––––––––––––‘Short chapters, shifts in focus, and rapid changes in time frames kept me on my toes and high alert … The storytelling is just superb’ LoveReading‘Devilishly complex’ Publishers Weekly'An exercise in literary tag-teaming from two of Norway's biggest crime writers with a bold new take...’ Sunday Times ‘Hands down, the best book in the series so far and it will satisfy even the most demanding readers’ Tap the Line‘One of those jaw-dropping “what did you just do” kind of conclusions that will leave fans of the series reeling’ Jen Med’s Book Reviews‘Intense, dark, emotional and utterly outstanding!’ Karen ColePraise for the Blix & Ramm series'Grim, gory and filled with plenty of dark twists ... There's definitely a Scandinavian chill in the air with this fascinating read' Sun'Alongside Jo Nesbo's Knife, Smoke Screen is this summer's most anticipated read, and it doesn't disappoint' Tvedestrandsposten, Norway‘Masterly … surprises or shifts in subtle ways that are pleasing and avoid cliché’ New Books Magazine'A fast-moving, punchy, serial killer investigative novel with a whammy of an ending. If this is the first in the Blix and Ramm series, then here's to many more!' LoveReading'Now what happens when you put two of the most distinguished writers of Nordic noir in tandem? Death Deserved by Thomas Enger and Jørn Lier Horst suggests it was a propitious publishing move; a ruthless killer is pursued by a tenacious celebrity blogger and a damaged detective' Financial Times For fans of Will Dean, Jussi Adler-Olsen, Ragnar Jónasson, Harlan Coben, Eva Bjorg Aegisdottir and Katrine Engber

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