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  • Geschiedenis Van De Wetenschap - Netherlands

    • Lost in Math

      Sabine Hossenfelder

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In this "provocative" book ( New York Times ), a contrarian physicist argues that her field's modern obsession with beauty has given us wonderful math but bad science. Whether pondering black holes or predicting discoveries at CERN, physicists believe the best theories are beautiful, natural, and elegant, and this standard separates popular theories from disposable ones. This is why, Sabine Hossenfelder argues, we have not seen a major breakthrough in the foundations of physics for more than four decades. The belief in beauty has become so dogmatic that it now conflicts with scientific objectivity: observation has been unable to confirm mindboggling theories, like supersymmetry or grand unification, invented by physicists based on aesthetic criteria. Worse, these "too good to not be true" theories are actually untestable and they have left the field in a cul-de-sac. To escape, physicists must rethink their methods. Only by embracing reality as it is can science discover the truth.

    • A Short History of Nearly Everything

      Bill Bryson

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The ultimate eye-opening journey through time and space, A Short History of Nearly Everything is the biggest-selling popular science book of the 21st century and has sold over 2 million copies. 'Possibly the best scientific primer ever published.' Economist 'Truly impressive...It's hard to imagine a better rough guide to science.' Guardian 'A travelogue of science, with a witty, engaging, and well-informed guide' The Times Bill Bryson describes himself as a reluctant traveller, but even when he stays safely at home he can't contain his curiosity about the world around him. A Short History of Nearly Everything is his quest to understand everything that has happened from the Big Bang to the rise of civilization - how we got from there, being nothing at all, to here, being us. Bill Bryson's challenge is to take subjects that normally bore the pants off most of us, like geology, chemistry and particle physics, and see if there isn't some way to render them comprehensible to people who hav

    • The Origin of Species

      Charles Darwin

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Charles Robert Darwin (12 February 1809 – 19 April 1882) was an English naturalist. He established that all species of life have descended over time from a common ancestry, and proposed the scientific theory that this branching pattern of evolution resulted from a process that he called natural selection. He published his theory with compelling evidence for evolution in his 1859 book On the Origin of Species , overcoming scientific rejection of earlier concepts of transmutation of species. On the Origin of Species , published on 24 November 1859, is considered to be the foundation of evolutionary biology. Its full title was On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life . For the sixth edition of 1872, the short title was changed to The Origin of Species . This edition of The Origin of Species is specially formatted for e-readers and includes pictures and a Table of Contents.

    • The Quantum Universe

      Brian Cox & Jeff Forshaw

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The Quantum Universe brings together two authors on a brilliantly ambitious mission to show that everyone can understand the deepest questions of science. But just what is quantum physics? How does it help us understand the world? Where does it leave Newton and Einstein? And why, above all, can we be sure that the theory is good? The bizarre behaviour of the atoms and energy that make up the universe has led to some very woolly pronouncements on the nature of all interconnectedness. Here, Brian Cox and Jeff Forshaw give us the real science, and reveal the profound theories that allow for concrete, yet astonishing, predictions about the world. This is our most up-to-date picture of reality.

    • A Journey Through Care of Magical Creatures

      Pottermore Publishing

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap This non-fiction short-form eBook features content which is adapted from the audiobook Harry Potter: A History of Magic - inspired by the British Library exhibition of the same name. Well-known folkloric creatures like giants, dragons and merpeople, and lesser-known beings such as Acromantula and Hippogriffs, all play a key role in Harry Potter's journey. In the past, naturalists and explorers travelled the globe to encounter weird and wonderful creatures that enhanced our knowledge of the world and pushed forward the development of science. Nevertheless, it seems part of human nature to want to believe in the unbelievable: from the bestiaries and cabinets of curiosities of the medieval period onwards. We think that truth and myth are easily distinguished today, but magical creatures and the stories around them continue to fascinate us - and they are as central to the Harry Potter stories as Harry, Hermione and Ron. This eBook short examines the colourful characters and curious incide

    • The Emperor of All Maladies

      Siddhartha Mukherjee

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Winner of the Guardian First Book Award 2011 Winner of the Pulitzer Prize for Non-fiction 2011 Shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust Book Prize Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize Now, as cancer becomes an ever more universal experience, the need to understand it, and its treatment, has never been more compelling. In this groundbreaking and award-winning account Siddhartha Mukherjee tells the fascinating story of our relationship with this disease. From brutal early surgical treatments, to Sidney Farber’s hugely risky discovery of chemotherapy, to the author’s treatment of his own patients, he reveals how far we have come in solving one of science's great mysteries and offers a fascinating glimpse of our future progress. Reviews ‘This is a riveting book…profound, eloquent and searching’ John Carey, Sunday Times ‘”The Emperor of All Maladies” is the book that many will have been waiting for. This elegantly written overview allows us to look a once whispered-about illness

    • Fundamentals

      Frank Wilczek

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap One of our great contemporary scientists reveals the ten profound insights that illuminate what everyone should know about the physical world In Fundamentals, Nobel laureate Frank Wilczek offers the reader a simple yet profound exploration of reality based on the deep revelations of modern science. With clarity and an infectious sense of joy, he guides us through the essential concepts that form our understanding of what the world is and how it works. Through these pages, we come to see our reality in a new way--bigger, fuller, and stranger than it looked before. Synthesizing basic questions, facts, and dazzling speculations, Wilczek investigates the ideas that form our understanding of the universe: time, space, matter, energy, complexity, and complementarity. He excavates the history of fundamental science, exploring what we know and how we know it, while journeying to the horizons of the scientific world to give us a glimpse of what we may soon discover. Brilliant, lucid, and acces

    • The Information

      James Gleick

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap From the bestselling author of the acclaimed Chaos and Genius comes a thoughtful and provocative exploration of the big ideas of the modern era: Information, communication, and information theory.    Acclaimed science writer James Gleick presents an eye-opening vision of how our relationship to information has transformed the very nature of human consciousness. A fascinating intellectual journey through the history of communication and information, from the language of Africa’s talking drums to the invention of written alphabets; from the electronic transmission of code to the origins of information theory, into the new information age and the current deluge of news, tweets, images, and blogs. Along the way, Gleick profiles key innovators, including Charles Babbage, Ada Lovelace, Samuel Morse, and Claude Shannon, and reveals how our understanding of information is transforming not only how we look at the world, but how we live. A  New York Times  Notable Book A&#

    • Bad Science

      Ben Goldacre

      Wetenschap en natuur Ben Goldacre’s wise and witty bestseller, shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, lifts the lid on quack doctors, flaky statistics, scaremongering journalists and evil pharmaceutical corporations. Since 2003 Dr Ben Goldacre has been exposing dodgy medical data in his popular Guardian column. In this eye-opening book he takes on the MMR hoax and misleading cosmetics ads, acupuncture and homeopathy, vitamins and mankind’s vexed relationship with all manner of ‘toxins’. Along the way, the self-confessed ‘Johnny Ball cum Witchfinder General’ performs a successful detox on a Barbie doll, sees his dead cat become a certified nutritionist and probes the supposed medical qualifications of ‘Dr’ Gillian McKeith. Full spleen and satire, Ben Goldacre takes us on a hilarious, invigorating and ultimately alarming journey through the bad science we are fed daily by hacks and quacks. Reviews ‘From an expert with a mail-order PhD to debunking the myths of homeopathy, Ben Goldacre t

    • De verlichte middeleeuwen

      Seb Falk

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Een compleet nieuwe kijk op de middeleeuwen: een periode waarin de wetenschap floreerde Wie geleerd heeft dat de middeleeuwen primitieve tijden waren waarin mensen in barbaarse omstandigheden leefden en weinig kennis bezaten, moet deze visie na het lezen van dit boek volledig herzien. Seb Falk toont ons dat de middeleeuwen juist een reeks intelligente, verlichte wetenschappers voortbracht. Monnik John van Westwyk is onze gids op deze reis door de onbekende middeleeuwse wetenschap. Aan de hand van middeleeuwse teksten van zijn hand, laat Falk ons kennismaken met een breed scala aan wetenschappelijke vraagstukken waar mensen als John van Westwyk over nadachten en mee worstelden. Van het rekenen met Romeinse cijfers tot het ontcijferen van horoscopen, het genezen van ziekten en het navigeren op de sterren: lezers maken kennis met de wetenschap zoals de middeleeuwse monniken die bedreven. Het resulteert in een fascinerend verhaal waarin je stap voor stap wordt meegenomen in het brein van

    • Quantum

      Jim Al-Khalili

      Wetenschap en natuur From Schrodinger's cat to Heisenberg's uncertainty principle, this book untangles the weirdness of the quantum world. Quantum mechanics underpins modern science and provides us with a blueprint for reality itself. And yet it has been said that if you're not shocked by it, you don't understand it. But is quantum physics really so unknowable? Is reality really so strange? And just how can cats be half-alive and half-dead at the same time? Our journey into the quantum begins with nature's own conjuring trick, in which we discover that atoms -- contrary to the rules of everyday experience -- can exist in two locations at once. To understand this we travel back to the dawn of the twentieth century and witness the birth of quantum theory, which over the next one hundred years was to overthrow so many of our deeply held notions about the nature of our universe. Scientists and philosophers have been left grappling with its implications every since.

    • A Brief History of Everyone Who Ever Lived

      Adam Rutherford

      Wetenschap en natuur 'A brilliant, authoritative, surprising, captivating introduction to human genetics. You'll be spellbound' Brian Cox This is a story about you. It is the history of who you are and how you came to be. It is unique to you, as it is to each of the 100 billion modern humans who have ever drawn breath. But it is also our collective story, because in every one of our genomes we each carry the history of our species - births, deaths, disease, war, famine, migration and a lot of sex. In this captivating journey through the expanding landscape of genetics, Adam Rutherford reveals what our genes now tell us about human history, and what history can now tell us about our genes. From Neanderthals to murder, from redheads to race, dead kings to plague, evolution to epigenetics, this is a demystifying and illuminating new portrait of who we are and how we came to be. *** 'A thoroughly entertaining history of Homo sapiens and its DNA in a manner that displays popular science writing at its best' Ob

    • Het grootste project van de mens

      Lawrence Krauss

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In Het grootste project van de mens. De eeuwenlange zoektocht naar de bouwstenen van het universum verbindt Lawrence Krauss de wereld zoals wij die kennen met de onzichtbare wereld om ons heen, die zich onttrekt aan intuïtie en directe waarnemingen. Krauss legt uit hoe ons huidige begrip van de natuur tot stand is gekomen en welke gevolgen dit heeft gehad voor ons bestaan. Hij neemt ons mee op een rondreis door de wetenschap en laat ons kennismaken met de briljante pioniers die haar door de eeuwen heen hebben vormgegeven – vaak tegen de heersende politieke en religieuze doctrines in en met gevaar voor vervolging en verbanning. Het grootste project van de mens combineert serieuze wetenschap met inspirerende achtergrondverhalen. Het resultaat is een indrukwekkend boek over de geschiedenis van de wetenschap. ‘Humoristisch, persoonlijk, gepassioneerd, maar ook gedegen en gezaghebbend.’ Frank Wilczek, Nobelprijswinnaar ‘Ik ken geen beter boek over dit onderwerp.’ Martin Ree

    • To Explain the World

      Steven Weinberg

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In To Explain the World , pre-eminent theoretical physicist Steven Weinberg offers a rich and irreverent history of science from a unique perspective - that of a scientist. Moving from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad to Oxford, and from the Museum of Alexandria to the Royal Society of London, he shows that the scientists of the past not only did not understand what we understand about the world - they did not understand what there is to understand. Yet eventually, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of tides, the modern discipline of science emerged.

    • The Science Book

      DK

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Did the Universe start with a Big Bang? Is light a wave, a particle - or both? Are we the cause of global warming? Science has made it possible to comprehend the world we live in and the theoretical multiverses beyond, offering technological advances and extending the frontiers of knowledge. Written in plain English, The Science Book presents 80 of the most trailblazing ideas in physics, chemistry, and biology. It is packed with short, pithy explanations that cut through the jargon, step-by-step diagrams that untangle knotty theories, classic quotes that make scientific discoveries memorable, and witty illustrations that enhance and play with our understanding of science. Whatever your grasp of the subject, whether you're a keen student or an armchair expert, you'll find plenty to stimulate you within this book. Part of the popular "Big Ideas" series, The Science Book is the perfect way to explore this fascinating subject.

    • Beyond Measure

      James Vincent

      Wetenschap en natuur THE TIMES SCIENCE BOOK OF THE YEAR NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR FINALIST FOR THE LOS ANGELES TIMES BOOK PRIZE FOR SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY A revelatory and vibrant story of measurement which will make you look at the world around you anew. 'A wildly ambitious book by a formidably talented young writer.' ROBERT MACFARLANE 'Vivid, epic, and full of curiosities. This is a book to delight and fascinate.' TIM HARFORD , bestselling author of How to Make the World Add Up 'Beyond Measure offers, with much intellectual flair and style, a bracing new history: how the once innocent urge to quantification took over our lives, our sense of ourselves and the world.' PANKAJ MISHRA 'The exact value of this book is hard to quantify. Weighty, precise and satisfyingly obsessive, it's also an absolute pleasure to read.' SIMON GARFIELD , bestselling author of The Timekeepers We measure rainfall and radiation, the depths of space and the emptiness of atoms, calories and steps, happiness and pain. But how

    • Complexity

      Melanie Mitchell

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap What enables individually simple insects like ants to act with such precision and purpose as a group? How do trillions of neurons produce something as extraordinarily complex as consciousness? In this remarkably clear and companionable book, leading complex systems scientist Melanie Mitchell provides an intimate tour of the sciences of complexity, a broad set of efforts that seek to explain how large-scale complex, organized, and adaptive behavior can emerge from simple interactions among myriad individuals. Based on her work at the Santa Fe Institute and drawing on its interdisciplinary strategies, Mitchell brings clarity to the workings of complexity across a broad range of biological, technological, and social phenomena, seeking out the general principles or laws that apply to all of them. Richly illustrated, Complexity: A Guided Tour--winner of the 2010 Phi Beta Kappa Book Award in Science--offers a wide-ranging overview of the ideas underlying complex systems science, the current

    • After the Ice

      Steven Mithen

      Wetenschap en natuur A fantastic voyage through 15,000 years of history that laid the foundations for civilisation as we know it by award-winning science writer Steven Mithen. Twenty thousand years ago Earth was in the midst of an ice age. Then global warming arrived, leading to massive floods, the spread of forests and the retreat of the deserts. By 5,000 BC a radically different human world had appeared. In place of hunters and gatherers there were farmers; in place of transient campsites there were towns. The foundations of our modern world had been laid and nothing that came after - the Industrial Revolution, the atomic age, the internet - have ever matched the significance of those events. AFTER THE ICE tells the story of climate change's impact during this momentous period - one that also saw the colonisation of the Americas and mass extinctions of animals throughout the world. Drawing on the latest cutting-edge research in archaeology, cognitive science, palaeontology, geology and the evolutionary

    • De man uit de toekomst

      Ananyo Bhattacharya

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 'Maniac' John von Neumann was een van de meest invloedrijke wetenschappers die ooit heeft geleefd. Kernwapens, computers, smartphones. Ze dragen allemaal de vingerafdruk van deze opmerkelijke man. Ondanks zijn bijdragen aan de theorie van wiskunde, economie, logica, complexiteit en quantumfysica, werd John von Neumann nooit zo’n bekendheid als Einstein. Zijn collega’s geloofden dat hij de snelste hersenen ter wereld had, hij is een van de invloedrijkste wetenschappers die ooit heeft geleefd; Kernwapens, speltheorie, computers, de smartphone in je zak, ze dragen allemaal de vingerafdrukken van deze opmerkelijke man. Ananyo Bhattacharya laat zien hoe de combinatie van genialiteit en unieke historische omstandigheden een enkele man in staat stelde om door talrijke wetenschapsgebieden te razen en revoluties te ontketenen waar hij ook ging.

    • Chasing Venus

      Andrea Wulf

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap On two days in 1761 and 1769 hundreds of astronomers pointed their telescopes towards the skies to observe a rare astronomical event: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. United by this momentous occasion, scientists from around the globe came together to answer the essential question: how can the universe be measured? In Chasing Venus Andrea Wulf paints a vivid portrait of the rivalries, triumphs and misfortunes that befell these men, along with their passion and determination to succeed. This extraordinary book tells their story and how one single event prompted the first international scientific collaboration.

    • Leven is eenvoudig

      Johnjoe McFadden

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Ockhams scheermes is een van de bekendste theoretische principes. Maar wat weten we over haar naamgever? Johnjoe McFadden richt met dit boek een monument op voor de oervader van de moderne wetenschap. In ‘Leven is eenvoudig’ richt Johnjoe McFadden een monument op voor William van Ockham, een dwarse denker, die volgens hem als oervader van de moderne wetenschapsbeoefening mag worden beschouwd. We volgen het scheermes in de handen van Copernicus, Galilei, Newton, Darwin en Einstein. En passant verklaart McFadden de oorsprong en evolutie van ons heelal. Engeland, veertiende eeuw. Een franciscaner monnik, William van Ockham, gaat in tegen de dan heersende theologische opvatting en scheidt wetenschap van religie. Zijn nieuwe filosofische positie brengt hem in conflict met de paus en Ockham vlucht naar München. Ockhams scheermes (de these dat alle aannames die niet bijdragen aan het verklaren van een verschijnsel moeten worden weggelaten) is tegenwoordig een van de bekendste theoretisc

    • The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs

      Steve Brusatte

      Wetenschap en natuur "THE ULTIMATE DINOSAUR BIOGRAPHY," hails Scientific American: A thrilling new history of the age of dinosaurs, from one of our finest young scientists. "A masterpiece of science writing." —Washington Post A New York Times Bestseller • Goodreads Choice Awards Winner • A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR: Smithsonian, Science Friday, The Times (London), Popular Mechanics, Science News "This is scientific storytelling at its most visceral, striding with the beasts through their Triassic dawn, Jurassic dominance, and abrupt demise in the Cretaceous." —Nature The dinosaurs. Sixty-six million years ago, the Earth’s most fearsome creatures vanished. Today they remain one of our planet’s great mysteries. Now The Rise and Fall of the Dinosaurs reveals their extraordinary, 200-million-year-long story as never before. In this captivating narrative (enlivened with more than seventy original illustrations and photographs), Steve Brusatte, a young Americ

    • The Invention of Science

      David Wootton

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap We live in a world made by science. How and when did this happen? This book tells the story of the extraordinary intellectual and cultural revolution that gave birth to modern science, and mounts a major challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy of its history. Before 1492 it was assumed that all significant knowledge was already available; there was no concept of progress; people looked for understanding to the past not the future. This book argues that the discovery of America demonstrated that new knowledge was possible: indeed it introduced the very concept of 'discovery', and opened the way to the invention of science. The first crucial discovery was Tycho Brahe's nova of 1572: proof that there could be change in the heavens. The telescope (1610) rendered the old astronomy obsolete. Torricelli's experiment with the vacuum (1643) led directly to the triumph of the experimental method in the Royal Society of Boyle and Newton. By 1750 Newtonianism was being celebrated throughout Europe.

    • Life is Simple

      Johnjoe McFadden

      Wetenschap en natuur 'The most sheerly enjoyable history of science of recent years' The Spectator 'This is one of the best science books I have read in a decade' Paul Davies Life is Simple tells the remarkable story of how a thirteenth century monk's search for simplicity led to the emergence of the modern world. We begin in the turbulent times of the medieval friar, William of Occam, who first articulated the principle that the best answer to any problem is the simplest. This theory, known as Occam's razor, cut through the thickets of medieval metaphysics to clear a path for modern science. We follow the razor in the hands of the giants of science, from Copernicus, to Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, Rubin and Higgs. Its success suggests that we live in the simplest possible habitable universe and supports the revolutionary theory that our cosmos has evolved. By highlighting the very human passion, curiosity, mistakes and struggles of those who were inspired by Occam's razor to create the mode

    • The Decline of the West

      Oswald Spengler

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Since its first publication in two volumes between 1918-1923, The Decline of the West has ranked as one of the most widely read and most talked about books of our time. In all its various editions, it has sold nearly 100,000 copies. A twentieth-century Cassandra, Oswald Spengler thoroughly probed the origin and "fate" of our civilization, and the result can be (and has been) read as a prophesy of the Nazi regime. His challenging views have led to harsh criticism over the years, but the knowledge and eloquence that went into his sweeping study of Western culture have kept The Decline of the West alive. As the face of Germany and Europe as a whole continues to change each day, The Decline of the West cannot be ignored. The abridgment, prepared by the German scholar Helmut Werner, with the blessing of the Spengler estate, consists of selections from the original (translated into English by Charles Francis Atkinson) linked by explanatory passages which have been put into English by Arthur

    • Fashion, Faith, and Fantasy in the New Physics of the Universe

      Roger Penrose

      Wetenschap en natuur Nobel Prize–winning physicist Roger Penrose questions some of the most fashionable ideas in physics today, including string theory What can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe? Surely, theoretical physicists are immune to mere trends, dogmatic beliefs, or flights of fancy? In fact, acclaimed physicist and bestselling author Roger Penrose argues that researchers working at the extreme frontiers of physics are just as susceptible to these forces as anyone else. In this provocative book, he argues that fashion, faith, and fantasy, while sometimes productive and even essential in physics, may be leading today's researchers astray in three of the field's most important areas—string theory, quantum mechanics, and cosmology. Arguing that string theory has veered away from physical reality by positing six extra hidden dimensions, Penrose cautions that the fashionable nature of a theory can cloud our judgm

    • The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

      Isaac Newton

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy Isaac Newton, english physicist and mathematician (1643-1727) This ebook presents «The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy», from Isaac Newton. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected. Table of Contents -01- About this book -02- DEDICATION -03- THE AUTHOR'S PREFACE -04- THE PREFACE OF MR ROGER COTES -05- DEFINITIONS -06- AXIOMS OR LAWS OF MOTION -07- BOOK I. THE MOTION OF BODIES -08- SECTION I. METHOD OF FIRST AND LAST RATIOS -09- SECTION II. OF THE INVENTION OF CENTRIPETAL FORCES -10- SECTION III. OF THE MOTION OF BODIES IN ECCENTRIC CONIC SECTIONS -11- SECTION IV. OF THE FINDING OF ELLIPTIC, PARABOLIC, AND HYPERBOLIC ORBITS, FROM THE FOCUS GIVEN -12- SECTION V. HOW THE ORBITS ARE TO BE FOUND WHEN NEITHER FOCUS IS GIVEN -13- SECTION VI. HOW THE MOTIONS ARE TO BE FOUND IN GIVEN ORBITS -14- SECTION VII. CONCERNING THE RECTILINEAR ASCENT AND DESCENT OF BODIES -15- SECTION VIII. OF THE INVE

    • To Explain the World

      Steven Weinberg

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A masterful commentary on the history of science from the Greeks to modern times, by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg—a thought-provoking and important book by one of the most distinguished scientists and intellectuals of our time. In this rich, irreverent, and compelling history, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg takes us across centuries from ancient Miletus to medieval Baghdad and Oxford, from Plato’s Academy and the Museum of Alexandria to the cathedral school of Chartres and the Royal Society of London. He shows that the scientists of ancient and medieval times not only did not understand what we understand about the world—they did not understand what there is to understand, or how to understand it. Yet over the centuries, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science eventually emerged. Along the way, Weinberg examines historic clashe

    • The Music of the Primes

      Marcus du Sautoy

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap (This ebook contains a limited number of illustrations.) The ebook of the critically-acclaimed popular science book by a writer who is fast becoming a celebrity mathematician. Prime numbers are the very atoms of arithmetic. They also embody one of the most tantalising enigmas in the pursuit of human knowledge. How can one predict when the next prime number will occur? Is there a formula which could generate primes? These apparently simple questions have confounded mathematicians ever since the Ancient Greeks. In 1859, the brilliant German mathematician Bernard Riemann put forward an idea which finally seemed to reveal a magical harmony at work in the numerical landscape. The promise that these eternal, unchanging numbers would finally reveal their secret thrilled mathematicians around the world. Yet Riemann, a hypochondriac and a troubled perfectionist, never publicly provided a proof for his hypothesis and his housekeeper burnt all his personal papers on his death. Whoever cracks Rie

    • The Ascent Of Man

      Jacob Bronowski

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Dr Jacob Bronowksi's The Ascent of Man traces the development of human society through our understanding of science. First published in 1973 to accompany the groundbreaking BBC television series, it is considered one of the first works of 'popular science', illuminating the historical and social context of scientific development for a generation of readers. In his highly accessible style, Dr Bronowski discusses human invention from the flint tool to geometry, agriculture to genetics, and from alchemy to the theory of relativity, showing how they all are expressions of our ability to understand and control nature. In this new paperback edition, The Ascent of Man inspires, influences and informs as profoundly as ever.

    • Seeing Further

      Bill Bryson

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Edited and introduced by Bill Bryson, with contributions from Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Richard Holmes, Martin Rees, Richard Fortey, Steve Jones, James Gleick and Neal Stephenson amongst others, this beautiful, lavishly illustrated book tells the story of science and the Royal Society, from 1660 to the present. On a damp weeknight in November, 350 years ago, a dozen or so men gathered at Gresham College in London. A twenty-eight year old – and not widely famous – Christopher Wren was giving a lecture on astronomy. As his audience listened to him speak, they decided that it would be a good idea to create a Society to promote the accumulation of useful knowledge. With that, the Royal Society was born. Since its birth, the Royal Society has pioneered scientific exploration and discovery. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, John Locke, Alexander Fleming – all were fellows. Bill Bryson

    • Why Trust Science?

      Naomi Oreskes

      Wetenschap en natuur Why the social character of scientific knowledge makes it trustworthy Are doctors right when they tell us vaccines are safe? Should we take climate experts at their word when they warn us about the perils of global warming? Why should we trust science when so many of our political leaders don't? Naomi Oreskes offers a bold and compelling defense of science, revealing why the social character of scientific knowledge is its greatest strength—and the greatest reason we can trust it. Tracing the history and philosophy of science from the late nineteenth century to today, this timely and provocative book features a new preface by Oreskes and critical responses by climate experts Ottmar Edenhofer and Martin Kowarsch, political scientist Jon Krosnick, philosopher of science Marc Lange, and science historian Susan Lindee, as well as a foreword by political theorist Stephen Macedo.

    • This Idea Is Brilliant

      John Brockman

      Wetenschap en natuur Brilliant but overlooked ideas you must know, as revealed by today’s most innovative minds  What scientific term or concept ought to be more widely known? That is the question John Brockman, publisher of the acclaimed science salon Edge.org (“The world’s smartest website”—The Guardian), presented to 205 of the world’s most influential thinkers from across the intellectual spectrum—award-winning physicists, economists, psychologists, philosophers, novelists, artists, and more. From the origins of the universe to the order of everyday life, This Idea Is Brilliant takes readers on a tour of the bold, exciting, and underappreciated scientific concepts that will enrich every mind.  Pulitzer Prize–winning author of Guns, Germs, and Steel JARED DIAMOND on the lost brilliance of common sense * Oxford evolutionary biologist RICHARD DAWKINS on how The Genetic Book of the Dead could reconstruct ecological history * philosopher REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN on ho

    • The Island of Knowledge

      Marcelo Gleiser

      Wetenschap en natuur Do all questions have answers? How much can we know about the world? Is there such a thing as an ultimate truth? To be human is to want to know, but what we are able to observe is only a tiny portion of what's "out there." In The Island of Knowledge , physicist Marcelo Gleiser traces our search for answers to the most fundamental questions of existence. In so doing, he reaches a provocative conclusion: science, the main tool we use to find answers, is fundamentally limited. These limits to our knowledge arise both from our tools of exploration and from the nature of physical reality: the speed of light, the uncertainty principle, the impossibility of seeing beyond the cosmic horizon, the incompleteness theorem, and our own limitations as an intelligent species. Recognizing limits in this way, Gleiser argues, is not a deterrent to progress or a surrendering to religion. Rather, it frees us to question the meaning and nature of the universe while affirming the central role of life and o

    • The Pleasure of Finding Things Out

      Richard P. Feynman & Freeman Dyson

      Wetenschap en natuur This collection from scientist and Nobel Peace Prize winner highlights the achievements of a man whose career reshaped the world's understanding of quantum electrodynamics. The Pleasure of Finding Things Out is a magnificent treasury of the best short works of Richard P. Feynman-from interviews and speeches to lectures and printed articles. A sweeping, wide-ranging collection, it presents an intimate and fascinating view of a life in science-a life like no other. From his ruminations on science in our culture to his Nobel Prize acceptance speech, this book will fascinate anyone interested in the world of ideas.

    • The Glass Universe

      Dava Sobel

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, t he "inspiring" ( People ), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomy A New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017 Named one of the best books of the year by NPR,  The   Economist, Smithsonian, Nature,  and NPR's   Science Friday Nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A joy to read.” — The Wall Street Journal In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nigh

    • Galileo's Middle Finger

      Alice Dreger

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap New York Times Book Review  "[S]mart, delightful... a splendidly entertaining education in ethics, activism and science.” Editors's Choice, New York Times Book Review An impassioned defense of intellectual freedom and a clarion call to intellectual responsibility, Galileo’s Middle Finger is one American’s eye-opening story of life in the trenches of scientific controversy. For two decades, historian Alice Dreger has led a life of extraordinary engagement, combining activist service to victims of unethical medical research with defense of scientists whose work has outraged identity politics activists. With spirit and wit, Dreger offers in Galileo’s Middle Finger an unforgettable vision of the importance of rigorous truth seeking in today’s America, where both the free press and free scholarly inquiry struggle under dire economic and political threats. This illuminating chronicle begins with Dreger’s own research into the treatment of people born intersex (once called h

    • The Universe: Past and Future

      The Open University

      Wetenschap en natuur The history of the Universe, from the Big Bang to the present day, spans about 14 billion years. Attempts to understand and explain that history rely as much on the insights of particle physics as they do on cosmology. This multitouch book explores the physics of the very small – the fundamental building blocks of the Universe (atoms, nuclei, protons, neutrons and quarks) – to help explain the history of the very large – the Universe – and how it changes over time. A student at A-level, International Baccalaureate, or K-12 level will be stretched by this content and teaching. If in doubt, download the free sample.

    • The History of Science

      Peter Whitfield

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap This is the foundation of all: that we are not to imagine or suppose, but to discover what nature does, or may be made to do. Thus did Francis Bacon, early in the 17th century, outline the future of science and technology. This drive for knowledge and power has now given us a world dominated by science, and this text tells the story of how we have arrived there. The achievements of the great scientific thinkers of the ages – Copernicus, Newton, Lavoisier, Darwin, Pasteur, Einstein, Freud, Hubble and many more – are explained and woven together into an exciting story of intellectual discovery, but a story in which a sense of the mystery of the universe is always present.

    • Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science

      Martin Gardner

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap "Although we are amused, we may also be embarrassed to find our friends or even ourselves among the gullible advocates of plausible-sounding doubletalk." — Saturday Review "A very able and even-tempered presentation." — New Yorker This witty and engaging book examines the various fads, fallacies, strange cults, and curious panaceas which at one time or another have masqueraded as science. Not just a collection of anecdotes but a fair, reasoned appraisal of eccentric theory, it is unique in recognizing the scientific, philosophic, and sociological-psychological implications of the wave of pseudoscientific theories which periodically besets the world. To this second revised edition of a work formerly titled In the Name of Science , Martin Gardner has added new, up-to-date material to an already impressive account of hundreds of systematized vagaries. Here you will find discussions of hollow-earth fanatics like Symmes; Velikovsky and wandering planets; Hörbiger, Bellamy, and the the

    • A Brief History of Physical Science

      John Cramer

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Why do we think matter is made of atoms and the Earth goes around the Sun? How big is the universe? Did it have a beginning or is it eternal? Is heat a fluid or just the random motion of molecules? Is light made of particles or is it a fluid or maybe something else? This book answers these questions and many more as it traces the development of the modern scientific understanding of the physical world. The historical approach allows us to see not only how the content of the physical sciences was formed but also how cultural, philosophical and religious influences and attitudes have played a major role in that development.

    • The Discoverers

      Daniel J. Boorstin

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap An original history of man's greatest adventure: his search to discover the world around him.  In the compendious history, Boorstin not only traces man's insatiable need to know, but also the obstacles to discovery and the illusion that knowledge can also put in our way. Covering time, the earth and the seas, nature and society, he gathers and analyzes stories of the man's profound quest to understand his world and the cosmos.

    • Science: A History

      John Gribbin

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In this book, John Gribbin tells the story of the people who made science and the turbulent times they lived in. As well as famous figures such as Copernicus, Darwin and Einstein, there are also the obscure, the eccentric, even the mad. This diversecast includes, among others, Andreas Vesalius, landmark 16th-century anatomist and secret grave-robber; the flamboyant Galileo, accused of heresy for his ideas; the obsessive, competitive Newton, who wrote his rivals out of the history books; GregorMendel, the Moravian monk who founded modern genetics; and Louis Agassiz, so determined to prove the existence of ice ages that he marched his colleagues up a mountain to show them the evidence.

    • The Map That Changed the World

      Simon Winchester

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In 1793, a canal digger named William Smith made a startling discovery. He found that by tracing the placement of fossils, which he uncovered in his excavations, one could follow layers of rocks as they dipped and rose and fell—clear across England and, indeed, clear across the world—making it possible, for the first time ever, to draw a chart of the hidden underside of the earth. Smith spent twenty-two years piecing together the fragments of this unseen universe to create an epochal and remarkably beautiful hand-painted map. But instead of receiving accolades and honors, he ended up in debtors' prison, the victim of plagiarism, and virtually homeless for ten years more. The Map That Changed the World is a very human tale of endurance and achievement, of one man's dedication in the face of ruin. With a keen eye and thoughtful detail, Simon Winchester unfolds the poignant sacrifice behind this world-changing discovery.

    • The Structure of Scientific Revolutions

      Thomas S. Kuhn

      Wetenschap en natuur “One of the most influential books of the 20th century,” the landmark study in the history of science with a new introduction by philosopher Ian Hacking ( Guardian , UK). First published in 1962, Thomas Kuhn’s The Structure of Scientific Revolutions ”reshaped our understanding of the scientific enterprise and human inquiry in general.” In it, he challenged long-standing assumptions about scientific progress, arguing that transformative ideas don’t arise from the gradual process of experimentation and data accumulation, but instead occur outside of “normal science.” Though Kuhn was writing when physics ruled the sciences, his ideas on how scientific revolutions bring order to the anomalies that amass over time in research experiments are still instructive in today’s biotech age ( Science ). This new edition of Kuhn’s essential work includes an insightful introduction by Ian Hacking, which clarifies terms popularized by Kuhn, including “paradigm” and “incommens

    • Quando abbiamo smesso di capire il mondo

      Benjamín Labatut

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap C’è chi si indispettisce, come l’alchimista che all’inizio del Settecento, infierendo sulle sue cavie, crea per caso il primo colore sintetico, lo chiama «blu di Prussia» e si lascia subito alle spalle quell’incidente di percorso, rimettendosi alla ricerca dell’elisir. C’è chi si esalta, come un brillante chimico al servizio del Kaiser, Fritz Haber, quando a Ypres constata che i nemici non hanno difese contro il composto di cui ha riempito le bombole; o quando intuisce che dal cianuro di idrogeno estratto dal blu di Prussia si può ottenere un pesticida portentoso, lo Zyklon. E c’è invece chi si rende conto, come il giovane Heisenberg durante la sua tormentosa convalescenza a Helgoland, che probabilmente il traguardo è proprio questo: smettere di capire il mondo come lo si è capito fino a quel momento e avventurarsi verso una forma di comprensione assolutamente nuova. Per quanto terrore possa, a tratti, ispirare. È la via che ha preferito Benjamín Labatut in que

    • The Science of Can and Can't

      Chiara Marletto

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A young theoretical physicist's guide to how the radical new science of counterfactuals can reveal the full scope of our universe There is a vast class of properties that science has so far almost entirely neglected. These properties are central to an understanding of physical reality both at an everyday level and at the level of fundamental phenomena, yet they have traditionally been thought of as impossible to incorporate into fundamental explanations. They relate not only to what is true - the actual - but to what could be true - the counterfactual. This is the science of can and can't. Chiara Marletto, a pioneer in this field, explores the promise that this fascinating, far-reaching approach holds not only for revolutionizing how fundamental physics is formulated, but also for confronting existing technological challenges , from delivering the next generation of information-processing devices to designing AI . In each chapter, Marletto sets out how counterfactuals can solve a vexe

    • The Scientists

      John Gribbin & Adam Hook

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A wonderfully readable account of scientific development over the past five hundred years, focusing on the lives and achievements of individual scientists, by the bestselling author of In Search of Schrödinger’s Cat In this ambitious new book, John Gribbin tells the stories of the people who have made science, and of the times in which they lived and worked. He begins with Copernicus, during the Renaissance, when science replaced mysticism as a means of explaining the workings of the world, and he continues through the centuries, creating an unbroken genealogy of not only the greatest but also the more obscure names of Western science, a dot-to-dot line linking amateur to genius, and accidental discovery to brilliant deduction. By focusing on the scientists themselves, Gribbin has written an anecdotal narrative enlivened with stories of personal drama, success and failure. A bestselling science writer with an international reputation, Gribbin is among the few authors who could ev

    • De platte aarde

      Hans Dijkhuis

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Kleine kinderen denken dat de aarde plat is. Uit mythen blijkt dat vele eeuwen lang de hele mensheid er zo over heeft gedacht. En deze opvatting stond niet op zichzelf. De platte aarde vormde de onbeweeglijke basis voor de hemel, die haar als koepel bedekte en zijn eigen, goddelijke bewoners had. Veel volkeren namen aan dat zich onder de aarde nog een derde wereld bevond, verblijfplaats van de doden en van reusachtige monsters. Deze drie werelden – bovenwereld, middelwereld en onderwereld – vormden samen het hele universum. De beschrijving van dit mythisch-religieuze wereldbeeld wordt uitvoerig geïllustreerd met mythen van velerlei culturen en met passages uit oude geschriften, zoals de epen va Homerus, de Metamorphosen van Ovidius en de heilige boeken van jodendom, christendom en islam. Ook de eigenaardige geografie van de platte aarde krijgt veel aandacht. De verhalen over de omzwervingen van Odysseus of Sint-Brandaan zijn alleen te begrijpen vanuit de aardrijkskundige opvattin

    • Murderous Contagion

      Mary Dobson

      Wetenschap en natuur Disease is the true serial killer of human history: the horrors of bubonic plague, cholera, syphilis, smallpox, tuberculosis and the like have claimed more lives and caused more misery than the depredations of warfare, famine and natural disasters combined. Murderous Contagion tells the compelling and at times unbearably moving story of the devastating impact of diseases on humankind - from the Black Death of the 14th century to the Spanish flu of 1918-19 and the AIDS epidemic of the modern era. In this book Mary Dobson also relates the endeavours of physicians and scientists to understand and identify the causes of diseases and find ways of preventing them. This is a timely and revelatory work of popular history by a writer whose knowledge of, and enthusiasm for, her subject shines through her every word.

    • Eye of the Beholder: Johannes Vermeer, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, and the Reinvention of Seeing

      Laura J. Snyder

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The remarkable story of how an artist and a scientist in seventeenth-century Holland transformed the way we see the world. On a summer day in 1674, in the small Dutch city of Delft, Antoni van Leeuwenhoek—a cloth salesman, local bureaucrat, and self-taught natural philosopher—gazed through a tiny lens set into a brass holder and discovered a never-before imagined world of microscopic life. At the same time, in a nearby attic, the painter Johannes Vermeer was using another optical device, a camera obscura, to experiment with light and create the most luminous pictures ever beheld. “See for yourself!” was the clarion call of the 1600s. Scientists peered at nature through microscopes and telescopes, making the discoveries in astronomy, physics, chemistry, and anatomy that ignited the Scientific Revolution. Artists investigated nature with lenses, mirrors, and camera obscuras, creating extraordinarily detailed paintings of flowers and insects, and scenes filled with realistic effe

    • The Many Worlds of Hugh Everett III

      Peter Byrne

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Hugh Everett III's "Many Worlds" theory, of infinite multiple universes, is now considered a hugely important breakthrough in the history of physics.This book tells the story of the physics establishment's rejection of his theory, his subsequent Pentagon career in nuclear strategy, and his difficult personal life and eventual death from alcoholism.

    • Works of Isaac Newton

      Isaac Newton

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 5 works of Isaac Newton English physicist and mathematician who is widely regarded as one of the most influential scientists of all time (1642-1727) This ebook presents a collection of 5 works of Isaac Newton. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected. Table of Contents: New Theory About Light and Colour Observations upon the Prophecies of Daniel, and the Apocalypse of St. John Opticks or, a Treatise of the Reflections, Refractions, Inflections, and Colours of Light The Chronology of Ancient Kingdoms Amended The Mathematical Principles of Natural Philosophy

    • The Disappearing Spoon

      Sam Kean

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap From New York Times bestselling author Sam Kean comes incredible stories of science, history, finance, mythology, the arts, medicine, and more, as told by the Periodic Table. Why did Gandhi hate iodine (I, 53)? How did radium (Ra, 88) nearly ruin Marie Curie's reputation? And why is gallium (Ga, 31) the go-to element for laboratory pranksters? The Periodic Table is a crowning scientific achievement, but it's also a treasure trove of adventure, betrayal, and obsession. These fascinating tales follow every element on the table as they play out their parts in human history, and in the lives of the (frequently) mad scientists who discovered them. The Disappearing Spoon masterfully fuses science with the classic lore of invention, investigation, and discovery -- from the Big Bang through the end of time. Though solid at room temperature, gallium is a moldable metal that melts at 84 degrees Fahrenheit. A classic science prank is to mold gallium spoons, serve them with tea, and watch guests

    • Toms River

      Dan Fagin

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap WINNER OF THE PULITZER PRIZE •  Winner of The New York Public Library’s Helen Bernstein Book Award • “A new classic of science reporting.”— The New York Times The riveting true story of a small town ravaged by industrial pollution, Toms River melds hard-hitting investigative reporting, a fascinating scientific detective story, and an unforgettable cast of characters into a sweeping narrative in the tradition of A Civil Action, The Emperor of All Maladies, and The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks . One of New Jersey’s seemingly innumerable quiet seaside towns, Toms River became the unlikely setting for a decades-long drama that culminated in 2001 with one of the largest legal settlements in the annals of toxic dumping. A town that would rather have been known for its Little League World Series champions ended up making history for an entirely different reason: a notorious cluster of childhood cancers scientifically linked to local air and water pollution. For ye

    • Bad Science

      Linda Zimmermann

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 2011 Silver Medal Award Winner for Humor in the Independent Publisher's Awards! The contest is one of the oldest and largest, and this year included 4,000 books from around the world. "Bad Science: A Brief History of Bizarre Misconceptions, Totally Wrong Conclusions, and Incredibly Stupid Theories" takes a humorous look at bloodletting, alchemy, quack devices, the worship of meteorites, faked data, and secret testing on people. The history of science has been fraught with persecution, fraud,and ignorance on a massive scale, but that doesn't mean we can't laugh about it! Chapters include: 1 Medicine, 2 Chemistry and Pharmaceuticals, 3 Birth, Contraception & Sex, 4 Dentistry, 5 Geology, Paleontology, Archaeology (and other things found in dirt), 6 Astronomy & the Space Program,and 7 Scientists, Heredity, DNA, Firearms, and Everything Else that didn't Fit into Previous Categories.

    • Pathfinders

      Jim Al-Khalili

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap For over 700 years the international language of science was Arabic. In Pathfinders , Jim al-Khalili celebrates the forgotten pioneers who helped shape our understanding of the world. All scientists have stood on the shoulders of giants. But most historical accounts today suggest that the achievements of the ancient Greeks were not matched until the European Renaissance in the 16th century, a 1,000-year period dismissed as the Dark Ages. In the ninth-century, however, the Abbasid caliph of Baghdad, Abu Ja'far Abdullah al-Ma'mun, created the greatest centre of learning the world had ever seen, known as Bayt al-Hikma, the House of Wisdom. The scientists and philosophers he brought together sparked a period of extraordinary discovery, in every field imaginable, launching a golden age of Arabic science. Few of these scientists, however, are now known in the western world. Abu Rayhan al-Biruni, a polymath who outshines everyone in history except Leonardo da Vinci? The Syrian astronomer Ibn

    • Darwin's Black Box

      Michael J. Behe

      Wetenschap en natuur The groundbreaking, "seminal work" ( Time ) on intelligent design that dares to ask, was Darwin wrong? In 1996, Darwin's Black Box helped to launch the intelligent design movement: the argument that nature exhibits evidence of design, beyond Darwinian randomness. It sparked a national debate on evolution, which continues to intensify across the country. From one end of the spectrum to the other, Darwin's Black Box has established itself as the key intelligent design text—the one argument that must be addressed in order to determine whether Darwinian evolution is sufficient to explain life as we know it. In a major new Afterword for this edition, Behe explains that the complexity discovered by microbiologists has dramatically increased since the book was first published. That complexity is a continuing challenge to Darwinism, and evolutionists have had no success at explaining it. Darwin's Black Box is more important today than ever.

    • The Lightning Tamers: True Stories of the Dreamers and Schemers Who Harnessed Electricity and Transformed Our World

      Kathy Joseph

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap You flick on a light without thinking about it. But what about the fascinating and bizarre stories hidden behind that simple action? Fortunes were made and lost, ideas stolen, rivalries pursued, dogs electrocuted, beards set on fire, arms amputated, and decapitated human heads reanimated all with the invention and evolution of electricity. In this physics and engineering chronicle disguised as an electric time-travel adventure, Kathy Joseph, physicist, educator, and creator of the popular Kathy Loves Physics documentary channel on YouTube, shares the story of electricity through the linked breakthroughs of men and women in science. Go on a wild journey covering over 400 years of history to discover for yourself the unlikely yet true stories of the characters who paved the way for modern electricity. From the assistant who invented the electric light 140 years before Edison to the severed ear that led to the telephone, follow the chain of experiments, inventions, and discoveries throug

    • Anaximander

      Carlo Rovelli & Marion Lignana Rosenberg

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR 'Anaximander is a delight and so is this book' -- James McConnachie, Sunday Times Now widely available in English for the first time, this is Carlo Rovelli's first book: the thrilling story of a little-known man who created one of the greatest intellectual revolutions Over two thousand years ago, one man changed the way we see the world. Since the dawn of civilization, humans had believed in the heavens above and the Earth below. Then, on the Ionian coast, a Greek philosopher named Anaximander set in motion a revolution. He not only conceived that the Earth floats in space, but also that animals evolve, that storms and earthquakes are natural, not supernatural, that the world can be mapped and, above all, that progress is made by the endless search for knowledge. Carlo Rovelli's first book, now widely available in English, tells the origin story of scientific thinking: our rebellious ability to reimagine the world, again and again. Translated by Marion Lignana R

    • Atoms and Ashes

      Serhii Plokhy

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap CHOSEN AS A BOOK OF THE YEAR BY SUNDAY TIMES AND HISTORY TODAY 'Absolutely stunning. . . a formidable achievement. A six-part historical thriller that is essential reading for both our politicians and the ordinary citizen' Kai Bird Best-selling historian Serhii Plokhy returns with an illuminating exploration of the atomic age through the history of six nuclear disasters In 2011, a 43-foot-high tsunami crashed into a nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. In the following days, explosions would rip buildings apart, three reactors would go into nuclear meltdown, and the surrounding area would be swamped in radioactive water. It is now considered one of the costliest nuclear disasters ever. But Fukushima was not the first, and it was not the worst. . . In Atoms and Ashes , acclaimed historian Serhii Plokhy tells the tale of the six nuclear disasters that shook the world: Bikini Atoll, Kyshtym, Windscale, Three Mile Island, Chernobyl and Fukushima. Based on wide-ranging research and wit

    • About Time

      David Rooney

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 'An utterly dazzling book, the best piece of history I have read for a long time' Jerry Brotton, author of A History of the World in Twelve Maps 'Not merely an horologist's delight, but an ingenious meditation on the nature and symbolism of time-keeping itself' Richard Holmes The measurement of time has always been essential to human civilization, from early Roman sundials to the advent of GPS. But while we have one eye on the time every day, are we aware of the power clocks have given governments, military leaders and business owners, and how they have shaped our lives and our world? In this spectacularly far-reaching book, David Rooney narrates a history of timekeeping and civilization in twelve concise chapters. Over their course, we meet the most epochal inventions in horological history, from medieval water clocks to Renaissance hourglasses, and from stock-exchange timestamps to satellites in Earth's orbit. We discover how clocks have helped people navigate the globe and build em

    • The Outer Limits of Reason

      Noson S. Yanofsky

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap This exploration of the scientific limits of knowledge challenges our deep-seated beliefs about our universe, our rationality, and ourselves.   “A must-read for anyone studying information science.” — Publishers Weekly, starred review Many books explain what is known about the universe. This book investigates what cannot be known. Rather than exploring the amazing facts that science, mathematics, and reason have revealed to us, this work studies what science, mathematics, and reason tell us cannot be revealed. In The Outer Limits of Reason , Noson Yanofsky considers what cannot be predicted, described, or known, and what will never be understood. He discusses the limitations of computers, physics, logic, and our own intuitions about the world—including our ideas about space, time, and motion, and the complex relationship between the knower and the known.   Yanofsky describes simple tasks that would take computers trillions of centuries to complete and other problems

    • The Knowledge Machine: How Irrationality Created Modern Science

      Michael Strevens

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A paradigm-shifting, widely acclaimed work for our generation, The Knowledge Machine revolutionizes our understanding of the origins and structure of science. Michael Strevens’s “provocative and fascinating” (Jennifer Szalai, New York Times) investigation of science asks two fundamental questions: Why is science so powerful? And why did it take so long for the human race to start using science to learn the secrets of nature? The Knowledge Machine’s radical answer is that science, by nature, calls on its practitioners to do the irrational. By willfully ignoring religion, theoretical beauty, and especially philosophy, scientists embrace an unnaturally narrow method of inquiry, channeling unprecedented energy into observation and experimentation. Rich with vivid historical examples and widely acclaimed, Knowledge Machine overturns many of our most basic assumptions about scientific discovery.

    • Atomic Awakening

      James Mahaffey

      Wetenschap en natuur “Persuasive and based on deep research.  Atomic Awakening  taught me a great deal." — Nature The American public's introduction to nuclear technology was manifested in destruction and death. With Hiroshima and the Cold War still ringing in our ears, our perception of all things nuclear is seen through the lens of weapons development. Nuclear power is full of mind-bending theories, deep secrets, and the misdirection of public consciousness, some deliberate, some accidental. The result of this fixation on bombs and fallout is that the development of a non-polluting, renewable energy source stands frozen in time. Outlining nuclear energy's discovery and applications throughout history, Mahaffey's brilliant and accessible book is essential to understanding the astounding phenomenon of nuclear power in an age where renewable energy and climate change have become the defining concerns of the twenty-first century.

    • The Story of More

      Hope Jahren

      Wetenschap en natuur The essential pocket primer on climate change that will leave an indelible impact on everyone who reads it. • “ Jahren asks the central question of our time: how can we learn to live on a finite planet?" — Elizabeth Kolbert, New York Times bestselling author of The Sixth Extinction "The voice that science has been waiting for.” — Nature Hope Jahren is an award-winning scientist, a brilliant writer, a passionate teacher, and one of the seven billion people with whom we share this earth. In The Story of More , she illuminates the link between human habits and our imperiled planet. In concise, highly readable chapters, she takes us through the science behind the key inventions—from electric power to large-scale farming to automobiles—that, even as they help us, release greenhouse gases into the atmosphere like never before. She explains the current and projected consequences of global warming—from superstorms to rising sea levels—and the actions that we all can take to

    • Rutherford and Fry’s Complete Guide to Absolutely Everything

      Adam Rutherford & Hannah Fry

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap THE SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER 'Explores just about every area of life' DAILY MAIL 'If only Adam Rutherford and Hannah Fry were on tap to all of us, all the time . . . The pair have such a gift for making life, numbers and the forces at work in the universe all the richer, stranger, funnier and more marvellous.' Stephen Fry In Rutherford and Fry's comprehensive guidebook, they tell the complete story of the universe and absolutely everything in it - skipping over some of the boring parts . This is a celebration of the weirdness of the cosmos, the strangeness of humans and the fact that amid all the mess, we can somehow make sense of life. Our brains have evolved to tell us all sorts of things that feel intuitively right but just aren't true: the world looks flat, the stars seem fixed in the heavenly firmament, a day is 24 hours... This book is crammed full of tales of how stuff really works. With the power of science, Rutherford and Fry show us how to bypass our monkey-brains, taking us

    • End Times

      Bryan Walsh

      Wetenschap en natuur In this history of extinction and existential risk, a Newsweek and Bloomberg popular science and investigative journalist examines our most dangerous mistakes -- and explores how we can protect and future-proof our civilization. End Times is a compelling work of skilled reportage that peels back the layers of complexity around the unthinkable -- and inevitable -- end of humankind. From asteroids and artificial intelligence to volcanic supereruption to nuclear war, veteran science reporter and TIME editor Bryan Walsh provides a stunning panoramic view of the most catastrophic threats to the human race. In End Times , Walsh examines threats that emerge from nature and those of our own making: asteroids, supervolcanoes, nuclear war, climate change, disease pandemics, biotechnology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial intelligence. Walsh details the true probability of these world-ending catastrophes, the impact on our lives were they to happen, and the best strategies for savin

    • The Problem of Increasing Human Energy

      Nikola Tesla

      Wetenschap en natuur NIKOLA TESLA was a gifted electrical and mechanical engineer, and was one of the most influential inventors of the last century. Eventually holding over 700 patents, Tesla worked in a number of fields, including electricity, robotics, radar, and the wireless transmission of energy. His discoveries laid the groundwork for many of the twentieth century’s greatest technological advances. This book contains Tesla’s philosophical ideas on humanity’s relationship with the universe, and also his explanation of technological aspects of his work. His ideas on the wireless transmission of energy are discussed. First published in Century Illustrated Magazine in June 1900, this text is yet another example of his genius.

    • The Good Book of Human Nature

      Carel van Schaik & Kai Michel

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap How reading the Bible as a work of cultural and scientific evolution can reveal new truths about how our species conquered the Earth The Bible is the bestselling book of all time. It has been venerated -- or excoriated -- as God's word, but so far no one has read the Bible for what it is: humanity's diary, chronicling our ancestors' valiant attempts to cope with the trials and tribulations of life on Earth. In The Good Book of Human Nature , evolutionary anthropologist Carel van Schaik and historian Kai Michel advance a new view of Homo sapiens' cultural evolution. The Bible, they argue, was written to make sense of the single greatest change in history: the transition from egalitarian hunter-gatherer to agricultural societies. Religion arose as a strategy to cope with the unprecedented levels of epidemic disease, violence, inequality, and injustice that confronted us when we abandoned the bush -- and which still confront us today. Armed with the latest findings from cognitive science

    • The Ascent of Gravity

      Marcus Chown

      Wetenschap en natuur The Sunday Times Science Book of the Year 2017 'Does Einstein proud . . . Eminently readable' Guardian 'No one has covered the topic with such a light touch and joie de vivre . . . a delight' Brian Clegg Gravity was the first force to be recognised and described yet it is still the least understood. If we can unlock its secrets, the force that keeps our feet on the ground holds the key to understanding the biggest questions in science: what is space? What is time? What is the universe? And where did it all come from? Award-winning writer Marcus Chown takes us on an unforgettable journey from the recognition of the 'force' of gravity in 1666 to the discovery of gravitational waves in the twenty-first century. And, as we stand on the brink of a seismic revolution in our worldview, he brings us up to speed on the greatest challenge ever to confront physics.

    • Tide

      Hugh Aldersey-Williams

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap From Cnut to D-Day: the history and science of the unceasing tide explored for the first time. Half of the world's population lives in coastal regions lapped by tidal waters. Yet how little most of us know about the tide. Our ability to predict and understand the tide depends on centuries of science, from the observations of Aristotle and the theories of Newton to today's supercomputer calculations. This story is punctuated here by notable tidal episodes in history, from Caesar's thwarted invasion of Britain to the catastrophic flooding of Venice, and interwoven with a rich folklore that continues to inspire art and literature today. With Aldersey-Williams as our guide to the most feared and celebrated tidal features on the planet, from the original maelstrøm in Scandinavia to the world's highest tides in Nova Scotia to the crumbling coast of East Anglia, the importance of the tide, and the way it has shaped - and will continue to shape - our civilization, becomes startlingly clear.

    • Perfect Sight Without Glasses

      William Horatio Bates

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Perfect Sight Without Glasses William Horatio Bates, American physician who practiced ophthalmology (1860-1931) This ebook presents «Perfect Sight Without Glasses», from William Horatio Bates. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected. Table of Contents - About This Book - The Fundamental Principle - Preface - Introductory - Simultaneous Retinoscopy - Accommodation - The Truth About Accommodation As Demonstrated By Experiments On The Eye Muscles Of Animals - The Truth About Accommodation As Demonstrated By A Study Of Images Reflected From The Lens, Cornea, Iris And Sclera - The Truth About Accommodation As Demonstrated By Clinical Observations - The Variability Of The Refraction Of The Eye - What Glasses Do To Us - The Cause And Cure Of Errors Of Refraction - Strain - Central Fixation - Palming - Memory As An Aid To Vision - Imagination As An Aid To Vision - Shifting And Swinging - The Illusions Of Imperfect And Of Normal Sight - Illusions Of Color

    • The Upright Thinkers

      Leonard Mlodinow

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap In this fascinating and illuminating work, Leonard Mlodinow guides us through the critical eras and events in the development of science, all of which, he demonstrates, were propelled forward by humankind's collective struggle to know. From the birth of reasoning and culture to the formation of the studies of physics, chemistry, biology, and modern-day quantum physics, we come to see that much of our progress can be attributed to simple questions-why? how?-bravely asked. Mlodinow profiles some of the great philosophers, scientists, and thinkers who explored these questions-Aristotle, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein and Lavoisier among them-and makes clear that just as science has played a key role in shaping the patterns of human thought, human subjectivity has played a key role in the evolution of science. At once authoritative and accessible, and infused with the author's trademark wit, this deeply insightful book is a stunning tribute to humanity's intellectual curiosity.

    • The Physicist and the Philosopher

      Jimena Canales

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The explosive debate that transformed our views about time and scientific truth On April 6, 1922, in Paris, Albert Einstein and Henri Bergson publicly debated the nature of time. Einstein considered Bergson's theory of time to be a soft, psychological notion, irreconcilable with the quantitative realities of physics. Bergson, who gained fame as a philosopher by arguing that time should not be understood exclusively through the lens of science, criticized Einstein's theory of time for being a metaphysics grafted on to science, one that ignored the intuitive aspects of time. The Physicist and the Philosopher tells the remarkable story of how this explosive debate transformed our understanding of time and drove a rift between science and the humanities that persists today. Jimena Canales introduces readers to the revolutionary ideas of Einstein and Bergson, describes how they dramatically collided in Paris, and traces how this clash of worldviews reverberated across the twentieth century

    • Philosophy of Osteopathy

      Andrew Taylor Still

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Philosophy of Osteopathy Andrew Taylor Still, considered the father of osteopathy and osteopathic medicine (1828-1917) This ebook presents «Philosophy of Osteopathy», from Andrew Taylor Still. A dynamic table of contents enables to jump directly to the chapter selected. TABLE OF CONTENTS -01- ABOUT THIS BOOK -02- PREFACE -03- SOME INTRODUCTORY REMARKS -04- OSTEOPATHIC EXPLORATIONS -05- THE HEAD -06- EAR WAX AND ITS USES -07- DISEASES OF THE CHEST -08- THE LYMPHATICS -09- THE DIAPHRAGM -10- LIVER, BOWELS AND KIDNEYS -11- THE BLOOD -12- THE FASCIA -13- FEVERS -14- SCARLET FEVER AND SMALLPOX -15- A CHAPTER OF WONDERS -16- HAS MAN DEGENERATED -17- OSTEOPATHIC TREATMENT -18- REASONING TESTS -19- OBSTETRICS -20- CONVULSIONS -21- CONCLUDING REMARKS -22- THE SUPERIOR CERVICAL GANGLION -23- FOOTNOTES

    • Mekkas der Moderne - Pilgerstätten der Wissensgesellschaft

      Hilmar Schmundt

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Welche Orte laden ein zum Entdecken und Staunen? Gibt es so etwas wie Mekkas der Moderne? Das erwartungsvolle Strahlen von Schulkindern, die mit Schlafsäcken unterm Arm durch das British Museum eilen, um bei den Mumien zu übernachten; das seltsame Gefühl, gemeinsam mit Geologen aus aller Welt am Strand von Stevns Klint genau die fingerdicke Tonschicht zu berühren, die entstand, als die Dinosaurier ausstarben; die Lust, in Bologna, der vielleicht ältesten Universitätsstadt Europas, ein fettes Fleischragout zu löffeln; das Frösteln, das sich an Palmenstränden des Bikiniatolls einstellt, wenn man an die Bombenversuche denkt. Ziel dieses Buches ist es nicht, den einen kanonischen Ort zu finden oder zu erfinden. Die Mekkas der Moderne – falls sie existieren – kann es nur im Plural geben. Was also sind die Mekkas der Moderne? Und wenn es sie gibt, welche Funktionen erfüllen sie? Auf den Spuren dieser Fragen lädt das Buch ein zu einer Weltreise im Flugzeug, zu Fuß oder ein

    • Quantum Leaps

      Jon Balchin

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 'If I saw further than others,' said Sir Issac Newton, 'it is because I was standing on the shoulders of giants.''Quantum Leaps' introduces one hundred of these giants and examines their achievements: the men and women who, often in the face of extreme scepticism or worse, have striven and succeeded in pushing back the boundaries of human knowledge. Ranging across the spectrum of scientific endeavour, from the cosmology of Copernicus and Galileo, through the medical revolutions of Hippocrates and Galen, it includes the fields of physics, biology, chemistry and genetics. This is the story of the ideas that have shaped the world today, and the ideas that will shape the future. This is the Popular Reference edition of the fully-illustrated title 'Science', ISBN:9781782120469.

    • Works of Camille Flammarion

      Camille Flammarion

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap 4 works of Camille Flammarion French astronomer and author (1842-1925) This ebook presents a collection of 4 works of Camille Flammarion. A dynamic table of contents allows you to jump directly to the work selected. Table of Contents: Astronomy for Amateurs Mysterious Psychic Forces Thunder and Lightning Urania

    • The Perfect Theory

      Pedro G. Ferreira

      Wetenschap en natuur Albert Einstein's General Theory of Relativity is possibly the most perfect intellectual achievement in modern physics. Anything that involves gravity, the force that powers everything on the largest, hottest or densest of scales, can be explained by it. From the moment Einstein first proposed the theory in 1915, it was received with enthusiasm yet also with tremendous resistance, and for the following ninety years was the source of a series of feuds, vendettas, ideological battles and persecutions featuring a colourful cast of characters. A gripping, vividly told story, A Perfect Theory entangles itself with the flashpoints of modern history and is the first complete popular history of the theory, showing how it has informed our understanding of exactly what the universe is made of and how much is still undiscovered: from the work of the giant telescopes in the deserts of Chile to our newest ideas about black holes and the Large Hadron Collider deep under French and Swiss soil.

    • The Moral Authority of Nature

      Lorraine Daston & Fernando Vidal

      Wetenschap en natuur For thousands of years, people have used nature to justify their political, moral, and social judgments. Such appeals to the moral authority of nature are still very much with us today, as heated debates over genetically modified organisms and human cloning testify. The Moral Authority of Nature offers a wide-ranging account of how people have used nature to think about what counts as good, beautiful, just, or valuable. The eighteen essays cover a diverse array of topics, including the connection of cosmic and human orders in ancient Greece, medieval notions of sexual disorder, early modern contexts for categorizing individuals and judging acts as “against nature,” race and the origin of humans, ecological economics, and radical feminism. The essays also range widely in time and place, from archaic Greece to early twentieth-century China, medieval Europe to contemporary America. Scholars from a wide variety of fields will welcome The Moral Authority of Nature , which provides the

    • Radiation

      Robert Peter Gale & Eric Lax

      Wetenschap en natuur The essential guide to radiation: the good, the bad, and the utterly fascinating, explained with unprecedented clarity. Earth, born in a nuclear explosion, is a radioactive planet; without radiation, life would not exist. And while radiation can be dangerous, it is also deeply misunderstood and often mistakenly feared. Now Robert Peter Gale, M.D,—the doctor to whom concerned governments turned in the wake of the Chernobyl and Fukushima disasters—in collaboration with medical writer Eric Lax draws on an exceptional depth of knowledge to correct myths and establish facts. Exploring what have become trigger words for anxiety—nuclear energy and nuclear weapons, uranium, plutonium, iodine-131, mammogram, X-ray, CT scan, threats to the food chain—the authors demystify the science and dangers of radiation, and examine its myriad benefits, from safely sterilizing our food to the relatively low-risk fuel alternative of nuclear energy. This is the book for all readers who have asked the

    • Das größte Geheimnis

      David Icke

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap David Ickes aufrüttelndes und bisher explosivstes Buch behandelt u.a. den erstaunlichen Hintergrund des Mordes an Diana, Prinzessin von Wales. Jeder Mann, jede Frau und jedes Kind auf diesem Planeten ist von den unglaublichen Informationen betroffen, die David Icke in diesem Buch enthüllt. Er belegt detailliert und mit überzeugenden Beweisen, dass unser Planet seit Jahrtausenden durch dieselben miteinander verbundenen Blutlinien kontrolliert wird. Er beschreibt, wie sie die großen Religionen schufen und das spirituelle und esoterische Wissen unterdrückten, das die Menschheit aus ihrem geistigen und emotionalen Gefängnis befreien könnte. Während schwarze Magie und Rituale in der breiten Öffentlichkeit und von den Mainstream-Medien verlacht werden, finden sie in den inneren Kreisen der Elite regelmäßig Anwendung. Wer ins Licht will, sollte seine Schatten kennen – und keines unserer Bücher beleuchtet diese Abgründe der menschlichen Gesellschaft ausführlicher als dieses

    • Lost Continents

      L. Sprague de Camp

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A leading authority examines the facts and fancies behind the Atlantis theme in history, science, and literature. Sources include the classical works from which Plato drew his proposal of the existence of an island continent, Sir Thomas More's Utopia, the Lemurian Continent theory, K. T. Frost's equation of Atlantis with Crete, and many other citations of Atlantis in both famous and lesser-known literature. Related legends are also recounted and refuted, and reports include accounts of actual expeditions searching for the sunken continent and attempts to prove its existence through comparative anatomy and zoology.

    • Turing's Cathedral

      George Dyson

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap How did computers take over the world? In late 1945, a small group of brilliant engineers and mathematicians gathered at the newly created Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey. Their ostensible goal was to build a computer which would be instrumental in the US government's race to create a hydrogen bomb. The mathematicians themselves, however, saw their project as the realization of Alan Turing's theoretical 'universal machine.' In Turing's Cathedral , George Dyson vividly re-creates the intense experimentation, incredible mathematical insight and pure creative genius that led to the dawn of the digital universe, uncovering a wealth of new material to bring a human story of extraordinary men and women and their ideas to life. From the lowliest iPhone app to Google's sprawling metazoan codes, we now live in a world of self-replicating numbers and self-reproducing machines whose origins go back to a 5-kilobyte matrix that still holds clues as to what may lie ahead.

    • Rabid

      Bill Wasik & Monica Murphy

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The most fatal virus known to science, rabies-a disease that spreads avidly from animals to humans-kills nearly one hundred percent of its victims once the infection takes root in the brain. In this critically acclaimed exploration from the authors of Our Kindred Creatures , journalist Bill Wasik and veterinarian Monica Murphy chart four thousand years of the history, science, and cultural mythology of rabies. From Greek myths to zombie flicks, from the laboratory heroics of Louis Pasteur to the contemporary search for a lifesaving treatment, Rabid is a fresh and often wildly entertaining look at one of humankind's oldest and most fearsome foes. "A searing narrative." - The New York Times "In this keen and exceptionally well-written book, rife with surprises, narrative suspense and a steady flow of expansive insights, 'the world's most diabolical virus' conquers the unsuspecting reader's imaginative nervous system. . . . A smart, unsettling, and strangely stirring piece of work." - Sa

    • SuperFuel

      Richard Martin

      Wetenschap en natuur A riveting look at how an alternative source of energy is revoluntionising nuclear power, promising a safe and clean future for millions, and why thorium was sidelined at the height of the Cold War In this groundbreaking account of an energy revolution in the making, award-winning science writer Richard Martin introduces us to thorium, a radioactive element and alternative nuclear fuel that is far safer, cleaner, and more abundant than uranium. At the dawn of the Atomic Age, thorium and uranium seemed to be in close competition as the fuel of the future. Uranium, with its ability to undergo fission and produce explosive material for atomic weapons, won out over its more pacific sister element, relegating thorium to the dustbin of science. Now, as we grapple with the perils of nuclear energy and rogue atomic weapons, and mankind confronts the specter of global climate change, thorium is re-emerging as the overlooked energy source as a small group of activists and outsiders is working,

    • Wings in Orbit: Scientific and Engineering Legacies of the Space Shuttle, 1971-2010

      Progressive Management

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The printed version of Wings in Orbit, the official history of the Space Shuttle program, is an essential addition to the library of any spaceflight enthusiast. World Spaceflight News now presents this complementary flowing-text version for e-readers. This excellent NASA document has the dramatic tale of the development and operation of the most complex machine in history, with unique behind-the-scenes engineering and scientific information. Although there is some predictable recounting of familiar history, this book contains an extraordinary amount of new information revealing the true complexity of the Shuttle system and the extreme challenges faced by NASA. Even long-time Shuttle observers are sure to find something new and interesting on almost every page. There is an honest and open discussion of the Challenger and Columbia accidents, along with a fascinating overview of the use of the Shuttle for military and national security missions. NASA describes the book: ”Authoritativel

    • Saturn V: America's Apollo Moon Rocket

      Progressive Management

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Incorporating the historic Saturn V News Reference, this unique document provides extraordinary detail about America's Apollo moon rocket. Every major component and system on the incredibly successful Saturn V booster is covered in detail. Contents include: History of the Saturn V launch vehicle; First Stage S-IC; Second Stage S-II; Third Stage S-IVB; Instrument Unit; Managing and Testing the Saturn V; Dynamic Testing, Saturn V Full Scale Displays, The Saturn V, Introduction, Description, Typical Lunar Landing Mission, Earlier Saturns - Saturn 1, Uprated Saturn (Saturn 1B), How Saturn V Design Was Reached, Program Highlights, First Stage, First Stage Description, First Stage Fabrication And Assembly, Thrust Structure, Fuel Tank, LOX Tank, Intertank, Forward Skirt, Fins And Fairings, Vertical Assembly, Post Manufacturing Checkout, First Stage Systems, Fuel System, Fuel Tank, Fuel Fill And Drain System, Fuel Feed System, Fuel-Conditioning (Bubbling) System, Fuel Level Sensing And Engine

    • Rocks Of Ages

      Sj Gould & Stephen Jay Gould

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Writing with characteristic bracing intelligence and clarity, Gould sheds new light on a dilemma that has plagued thinking people since the Renaissance. Instead of having to choose between science and religion, Gould asks, why not opt for the golden resolution that accords dignity and distinction to both? In elaborating and exploring his thought-provoking concept, Gould delves into the history of science with stories of figures as Galileo and Darwin, and concludes that science defines the natural world, and religion our moral world.

    • Unnatural

      Philip Ball

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Can we make a human being? The question has been asked for many centuries, and has produced recipes ranging from the clay golem of Jewish legend to the mass-produced test-tube babies in Brave New World . Unnatural delves beneath the surface of the cultural history of 'anthropoeia' - the artificial creation of people - to explore what it tells us about our views on life, humanity, creativity and technology, and the soul. Philip Ball traces the threads that link the legendary inventor Daedalus, Goethe's tragic Faust, the automata-making magicians of E.T.A. Hoffman and Mary Shelley's Victor Frankenstein. He argues that these old tales and myths are alive and well, subtly manipulating the current debates about assisted conception, embryo research and human cloning, which have at last made the idea of 'making people' into flesh and blood reality.

    • Flat Earth

      Christine Garwood

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Contrary to popular belief, fostered in countless school classrooms the world over, Christopher Columbus did not discover that the world was round. The idea of the world as a sphere had been widely accepted in scientific, philosophical and even religious circles from as early as the fourth century bc. Bizarrely, it was not until the supposedly more rational nineteenth century that the notion that the world might actually be flat really took hold. Even more bizarrely, it persists to this day. Based on a range of original sources, Garwood's history of flat-earth beliefs - from the Babylonians to the present day - raises issues central to the history and philosophy of science, its relationship with religion and the making of human knowledge about the natural world. Flat Earth is the first definitive study of one of history's most notorious and persistent ideas, and evokes all the intellectual, philosophical and spiritual turmoil of the modern age. 'Highly entertaining and often hilarious

    • Beyond Uncertainty

      David C. Cassidy

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap "Exhaustively detailed yet eminently readable, this is an important book." Publishers Weekly , starred review "Cassidy does not so much exculpate Heisenberg as explain him, with a transparency that makes this biography a pleasure to read." Los Angeles Times "Well crafted and readable . . . [Cassidy] provides a nuanced and compelling account of Heisenberg's life." The Harvard Book Review In 1992, David C. Cassidy’s groundbreaking biography of Werner Heisenberg, Uncertainty , was published to resounding acclaim from scholars and critics. Michael Frayn, in the Playbill of the Broadway production of Copenhagen , referred to it as one of his main sources and “the standard work in English.” Richard Rhodes ( The Making of the Atom Bomb ) called it “the definitive biography of a great and tragic physicist,” and the Los Angeles Times praised it as “an important book. Cassidy has sifted the record and brilliantly detailed Heisenberg’s actions.” No book that has appeared since ha

    • Slouch

      Beth Linker

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap The strange and surprising history of the so-called epidemic of bad posture in modern America—from eugenics and posture pageants to today’s promoters of “paleo posture” In 1995, a scandal erupted when the New York Times revealed that the Smithsonian possessed a century’s worth of nude “posture” photos of college students. In this riveting history, Beth Linker tells why these photos were only a small part of the incredible story of twentieth-century America’s largely forgotten posture panic—a decades-long episode in which it was widely accepted as scientific fact that Americans were suffering from an epidemic of bad posture, with potentially catastrophic health consequences. Tracing the rise and fall of this socially manufactured epidemic, Slouch also tells how this period continues to feed today’s widespread anxieties about posture. In the early twentieth century, the eugenics movement and fears of disability gave slouching a new scientific relevance. Bad posture c

    • The Struggle of Parts

      Wilhelm Roux, David Haig & Richard Bondi

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap A landmark work of nineteenth-century developmental and evolutionary biology that takes the Darwinian struggle for existence into the organism itself. Though he is remembered primarily as a pioneer of experimental embryology, Wilhelm Roux was also a groundbreaking evolutionary theorist. Years before his research on chicken and frog embryos cemented his legacy as an experimentalist, Roux endorsed the radical idea that a “struggle for existence” within organisms—between organs, tissues, cells, and even subcellular components—drives individual development. Convinced that external competition between individuals is inadequate to explain the exquisite functionality of bodily parts, Roux aimed to uncover the mechanistic principles underlying self-organization. The Struggle of Parts was his attempt to provide such a theory. Combining elements of Darwinian selection and Lamarckian inheritance of acquired characteristics, the work advanced a materialist explanation of how “purposiven

    • The Blind Spot

      Adam Frank, Marcelo Gleiser & Evan Thompson

      Wetenschap en natuur A compelling argument for including the human perspective within science, and for how human experience makes science possible. “This is by far the best book I've read this year.” —Michael Pollan, Professor of the Practice of Non-fiction, Harvard University; #1 New York Times bestselling author “(A) stimulating manifesto for changing the way we look at things.” — Wall Street Journal It’s tempting to think that science gives us a God’s-eye view of reality. But we neglect the place of human experience at our peril. In The Blind Spot, astrophysicist Adam Frank, theoretical physicist Marcelo Gleiser, and philosopher Evan Thompson call for a revolutionary scientific worldview, where science includes—rather than ignores or tries not to see—humanity’s lived experience as an inescapable part of our search for objective truth. The authors present science not as discovering an absolute reality but rather as a highly refined, constantly evolving form of human experience. The

    • Atom

      Piers Bizony

      Geschiedenis van de wetenschap Riddled with jealousy, rivalry, missed opportunities and moments of genius, the history of the atom's discovery is as bizarre, as capricious, and as weird as the atom itself.  John Dalton gave us the first picture of the atom in the early 1800s. Almost 100 years later the young misfit New Zealander, Ernest Rutherford, showed the atom consisted mostly of space, and in doing so overturned centuries of classical science. It was a brilliant Dane, Neils Bohr, who made the next great leap - into the incredible world of quantum theory. Yet, he and a handful of other revolutionary young scientists weren't prepared for the shocks Nature had up her sleeve.  This 'insightful, compelling' book ( New Scientist ) reveals the mind-bending discoveries that were destined to upset everything we thought we knew about reality and unleash a dangerous new force upon the world. Even today, as we peer deeper and deeper into the atom, it throws back as many questions at us as answers.

    • Quantum Physics Made Me Do It

      Jeremie Harris

      Wetenschap en natuur 'Jérémie Harris is a very funny scientist. I laughed all the way through' - Bob McDonald From Silicon Valley entrepreneur, quantum physicist, AI risk expert, and Hollywood "alternative reality" consultant Jérémie Harris, comes an entertaining and accessible look at the world of quantum physics. The discovery of quantum mechanics has paved the way to just about every important innovation in the last half century: it has led us to the technology that powers microwaves, iPhones, and self-driving cars and is about to trigger a computing revolution that will either spell the end of the human species or propel us to heights we've never imagined. But there's another reason that quantum mechanics is so important: it is really the only way we can understand ourselves and each other. For the last hundred years or so, physicists have been feverishly debating what quantum theory has to say about you: what you're made of, whether you have free will, what will happen to you when you die, and mu

    • Our Fragile Moment

      Michael E. Mann

      Wetenschap en natuur In this sweeping work of science and history, the renowned climate scientist and author of The New Climate War shows us the conditions on Earth that allowed humans not only to exist but thrive, and how they are imperiled if we veer off course.   For the vast majority of its 4.54 billion years, Earth has proven it can manage just fine without human beings. Then came the first proto-humans, who emerged just a little more than 2 million years ago—a fleeting moment in geological time. What is it that made this benevolent moment of ours possible? Ironically, it’s the very same thing that now threatens us—climate change. The drying of the tropics during the Pleistocene period created a niche for early hominids, who could hunt prey as forests gave way to savannahs in the African tropics. The sudden cooling episode known as the “Younger Dryas” 13,000 years ago, which occurred just as Earth was thawing out of the last Ice Age, spurred the development of agriculture in the fertil

    • Dreamscapes of Modernity

      Sheila Jasanoff & Sang-Hyun Kim

      Wetenschap en natuur Dreamscapes of Modernity offers the first book-length treatment of sociotechnical imaginaries, a concept originated by Sheila Jasanoff and developed in close collaboration with Sang-Hyun Kim to describe how visions of scientific and technological progress carry with them implicit ideas about public purposes, collective futures, and the common good. The book presents a mix of case studies—including nuclear power in Austria, Chinese rice biotechnology, Korean stem cell research, the Indonesian Internet, US bioethics, global health, and more—to illustrate how the concept of sociotechnical imaginaries can lead to more sophisticated understandings of the national and transnational politics of science and technology. A theoretical introduction sets the stage for the contributors’ wide-ranging analyses, and a conclusion gathers and synthesizes their collective findings. The book marks a major theoretical advance for a concept that has been rapidly taken up across the social sciences an

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