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Theatre and Evolution from Ibsen to Beckett
By Kirsten, Shepherd-Barr. 2015
The Scientific 100
By Lynda Simmons, John Simmons. 1996
Who are the great scientists throughout the ages, and what exactly did they do to earn their importance? From Archimedes…
to Newton to Einstein to Hawking, The Scientific 100 provides the fascinating answers. Vivid biographical sketches chronicle the lives and accomplishments of the world's preeminent scientists. And in the tradition of the Citadel Press 100 Series, they are ranked provocatively in order of influence--an inspiration for lively discussion.This unique volume is a browser's treasure trove and a handy reference for the general reader.John Simmons has been associated with Current Biography for more than fifteen years. He has written frequently about Nobel laureates in science. A member of the New York Academy of Sciences, he divides his time between New York City and Paris.Fred Sanger Double Nobel Laureate
By George G. Brownlee. 1962
Considered 'the father of genomics', Fred Sanger (1918-2013) paved the way for the modern revolution in our understanding of biology.…
His pioneering methods for sequencing proteins, RNA and, eventually, DNA earned him two Nobel Prizes. He remains one of only four scientists (and the only British scientist) ever to have achieved that distinction. In this, the first full biography of Fred Sanger to be published, Brownlee traces Sanger's life from his birth in rural Gloucestershire to his retirement in 1983 from the Medical Research Council's Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge. Along the way, he highlights the remarkable extent of Sanger's scientific achievements and provides a real portrait of the modest man behind them. Including an extensive transcript of a rare interview of Sanger by the author, this biography also considers the wider legacy of Sanger's work, including his impact on the Human Genome Project and beyond.Texas Ingenuity: Lone Star Inventions, Inventors & Innovators
By Alan C. Elliott. 2010
Imagination is bigger in Texas, too. This collection of inspiring and often quirky stories highlights dozens of examples of innovation…
from Lone Star history. The Hamill brothers devised a better oil well to reach gushers at Spindletop. The first Neiman-Marcus store opened in Dallas in 1907, revolutionizing the retail fashion world. Astroturf emerged at the Astrodome in 1966. Fritos and corn dogs are just two ubiquitous snack foods claimed as Texan originals. Houston native, and civil rights activist, Congresswoman Barbara Jordan rose to national prominence as a voice of unity during the Watergate scandal. Author Alan C. Elliott details these and many more lessons in success in Texas Ingenuity.The Everything Einstein Book
By Shana Priwer. 2003
Albert Einstein was the most famous and influential thinker of his time. His theories of relativity, quantum mechanics, and statistical…
physics gave birth to a new era in scientific thought and changed the ay people see the universe and their place in it. The Everything Einstein Book walks you through his rise from a lowly patent clerk to a groundbreaking scientist and explains the theories that brought him fame and world renown. Covering everything from photoelectric effect to the unified field theory, this book answers all your questions about the genius, his work, and the age that influenced him.A Whale for the Killing
By Farley Mowat. 2012
When an 80-ton Fin Whale became trapped in a lagoon near his Newfoundland home, Farley Mowat rejoiced: here was a…
unique chance to observe one of the world's most magnificent creatures up close. But some of his neighbours saw a different opportunity altogether: in a prolonged fit of violence, they blasted the whale with rifle fire, and scarred its back with motorboat propellers. Mowat appealed desperately to the police, to marine biologists, finally to the Canadian press. But it was too late. Mowat's poignant and compelling story is an eloquent argument for the end of the whale hunt, and the rediscovery of the empathy that makes us human.Jefferson's Shadow
By Keith Thomson. 2012
In the voluminous literature on Thomas Jefferson, little has been written about his passionate interest in science. This new and…
original study of Jefferson presents him as a consummate intellectual whose view of science was central to both his public and his private life. Keith Thomson reintroduces us in this remarkable book to Jefferson's eighteenth-century world and reveals the extent to which Jefferson used science, thought about it, and contributed to it, becoming in his time a leading American scientific intellectual. With a storyteller's gift, Thomson shows us a new side of Jefferson. He answers an intriguing series of questions—How was Jefferson's view of the sciences reflected in his political philosophy and his vision of America's future? How did science intersect with his religion? Did he make any original contributions to scientific knowledge?—and illuminates the particulars of Jefferson's scientific endeavors. Thomson discusses Jefferson's theories that have withstood the test of time, his interest in the practical applications of science to societal problems, his leadership in the use of scientific methods in agriculture, and his contributions toward launching at least four sciences in America: geography, paleontology, climatology, and scientific archaeology. A set of delightful illustrations, including some of Jefferson's own sketches and inventions, completes this impressively researched book.Stories for Boys: A Memoir
By Gregory Martin. 2012
In this memoir of fathers and sons, Gregory Martin struggles to reconcile the father he thought he knew with a…
man who has just survived a suicide attempt; a man who had been having anonymous affairs with men throughout his thirty-nine years of marriage; and who now must begin his life as a gay man. At a tipping point in our national conversation about gender and sexuality, rights and acceptance, Stories for Boys is about a father and a son finding a way to build a new relationship with one another after years of suppression and denial are given air and light.Martin's memoir is quirky and compelling with its amateur photos and grab-bag social science and literary analyses. Gregory Martin explores the impact his father's lifelong secrets have upon his life now as a husband and father of two young boys with humor and bracing candor. Stories for Boys is resonant with conflicting emotions and the complexities of family sympathy, and asks the questions: How well do we know the people that we think we know the best? And how much do we have to know in order to keep loving them?And No Birds Sang
By Farley Mowat. 2012
Turned away from the Royal Canadian Air Force for his apparent youth and frailty, Farley Mowat joined the infantry in…
1940. The young second lieutenant soon earned the trust of the soldiers under his command, and was known to bend army rules to secure a stout drink, or find warm - if non-regulation - clothing. But when Mowat and his regiment engaged with elite German forces in the mountains of Sicily, the optimism of their early days as soldiers was replaced by despair. With a naturalist's eyes and ears, Mowat takes in the full dark depths of war - and his moving account of military service, and the friends he left behind, is also a plea for peace. It is one of the most searing and unforgettable World War II memoirs from any Canadian.Now in one volume: Three exquisite meditations on nature, healing, and the pleasures of the solitary life from a New…
York Times–bestselling author. In a long life spent recording her personal observations, poet, novelist, and memoirist May Sarton redefined the journal as a literary form. This extraordinary volume collects three of her most beloved works. Journal of a Solitude: Sarton’s bestselling memoir chronicles a solitary year spent at the house she bought and renovated in the quiet village of Nelson, New Hampshire. Her revealing insights are a moving and profound reflection on creativity, oneness with nature, and the courage it takes to be alone. Plant Dreaming Deep: Sarton’s intensely personal account of how she transformed a dilapidated eighteenth-century farmhouse into a home is a loving, beautifully crafted memoir illuminated by themes of friendship, love, nature, and the struggles of the creative life. Recovering: In this affecting diary of one year’s hardships and healing, Sarton focuses on her sixty-sixth year, which was marked by the turmoil of a mastectomy, the end of a treasured relationship, and the loneliness that visits a life of chosen solitude. By turns uplifting, cathartic, and revelatory, Sarton’s journals still strike a chord in the hearts of contemporary readers. Through them, in the words of the Los Angeles Times, “we are able to see our own experiences reflected in hers and we are enriched.”Rocket Girl
By George D. Morgan. 2013
AN UNSUNG HEROINE OF THE SPACE AGE--HER STORY FINALLY TOLD. This is the extraordinary true story of America's first female…
rocket scientist. Told by her son, it describes Mary Sherman Morgan's crucial contribution to launching America's first satellite and the author's labyrinthine journey to uncover his mother's lost legacy--one buried deep under a lifetime of secrets political, technological, and personal. In 1938, a young German rocket enthusiast named Wernher von Braun had dreams of building a rocket that could fly him to the moon. In Ray, North Dakota, a young farm girl named Mary Sherman was attending high school. In an age when girls rarely dreamed of a career in science, Mary wanted to be a chemist. A decade later the dreams of these two disparate individuals would coalesce in ways neither could have imagined. World War II and the Cold War space race with the Russians changed the fates of both von Braun and Mary Sherman Morgan. When von Braun and other top engineers could not find a solution to the repeated failures that plagued the nascent US rocket program, North American Aviation, where Sherman Morgan then worked, was given the challenge. Recognizing her talent for chemistry, company management turned the assignment over to young Mary. In the end, America succeeded in launching rockets into space, but only because of the joint efforts of the brilliant farm girl from North Dakota and the famous German scientist. While von Braun went on to become a high-profile figure in NASA's manned space flight, Mary Sherman Morgan and her contributions fell into obscurity--until now. From the Trade Paperback edition.Preparing for the High Frontier
By Committee on Human Spaceflight Crew Operations. 2011
As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) retires the Space Shuttle and shifts involvement in International Space Station (ISS)…
operations, changes in the role and requirements of NASA's Astronaut Corps will take place. At the request of NASA, the National Research Council (NRC) addressed three main questions about these changes: what should be the role and size of Johnson Space Center's (JSC) Flight Crew Operations Directorate (FCOD); what will be the requirements of astronaut training facilities; and is the Astronaut Corps' fleet of training aircraft a cost-effective means of preparing astronauts for NASA's spaceflight program? This report presents an assessment of several issues driven by these questions. This report does not address explicitly the future of human spaceflight.Liberty Bell 7
By Colin Burgess. 2014
NASA's Mercury astronauts were seven highly skilled professional test pilots. Each of them seemed to possess the strength of character…
and commitment necessary to overcome apparently insurmountable obstacles as the United States entered into a Cold War space race with the Soviet Union. This was never more evident than on the epic suborbital MR-4 flight of Liberty Bell 7 with astronaut Virgil ('Gus') Grissom piloting the spacecraft to a successful splashdown, followed by the premature blowing of the craft's explosive hatch. After a hurried exit and struggling to stay afloat, he could only watch helplessly as the recovery helicopter pilot valiantly fought a losing battle to save the sinking capsule. That day NASA not only lost a spacecraft but came perilously close to losing one of its Mercury astronauts, a decorated Korean fighter pilot from Indiana who might one day have soared to the highest goal of them all, as the first person to set foot on the Moon. For the first time, many of those closest to the flight of Liberty Bell 7 and astronaut Gus Grissom offer their stories and opinions on the dramatic events of July 21, 1961, and his later pioneering Gemini mission. They also tell of an often controversial life cut tragically and horrifically short in a launch pad fire that shocked the nation.Ranging from Yellowstone in Wyoming to Mount Pelee in the Caribbean, from Bogoslof and Pavlov in Alaska, to Sakurajima in…
Japan, and, finally, to the massive volcanoes of Kilauea and Mauna Loa in Hawaii—The Last Volcano reveals the incredible journey of a man on a mission to understand the awesome power of volcanic eruptions. Volcanoes have fascinated—and terrified—people for ages. They have destroyed cities and ended civilizations. John Dvorak, the acclaimed author of Earthquake Storms, looks into the early scientific study of volcanoes and the life of the man who pioneered the field, Thomas Jaggar. Educated at Harvard, Jaggar went to the Caribbean after Mount Pelee exploded in 1902, killing more than 26,000 people. Witnessing the destruction and learning about the horrible deaths these people had suffered, Jaggar vowed to dedicate himself to a study of volcanoes. What followed was fifty years of global travel to eruptions in Italy, Alaska, Central America, Japan and the Pacific. In 1912, he built a small science station at the edge of a lake of molten lava at Kilauea volcano in the Hawaiian Islands, with the goal of solving the mystery of why volcanoes erupt and how they could be predicted. Jaggar found something else at Kilauea: true love. She was Isabel Maydwell, a widowed school teacher who came to Kilauea to restart her life. For more than twenty ears, she and Jaggar ran the science station, living in a small house at the edge of a high cliff that overlooked the lava lake. Maydwell would quickly becoming one of the world’s most astute observers of volcanic activity. Mixed with tales of myths and rituals, as well as the author’s own experiences and insight into volcanic activity, The Last Volcano reveals the lure and romance of confronting nature in its most magnificent form—the edge of a volcanic eruption.A Letter to My Grandchildren
By David Suzuki. 2014
An exclusive excerpt of one letter from David Suzuki's forthcoming book Letters to My Grandchildren. In the book, Suzuki offers…
grandfatherly advice to his five grandchildren, recounts stories from his own childhood, and explores what makes life meaningful. As he ponders life's deepest questions and offers up a lifetime of wisdom, Suzuki inspires us all to live with courage, conviction, and passion.All proceeds from the sale of this exclusive advance will be donated to the David Suzuki Foundation.The Scientific Legacy of William Herschel
By Clifford J. Cunningham. 2017
This book presents a modern scholarly analysis of issues associated with England'smost famous astronomer, William Herschel. The world's leading experts…
onHerschel, discoverer of the planet Uranus, here offer their combined wisdom on manyaspects of his life and astronomical research. Solar system topics includecomets, Earth's Moon, and the spurious moons of Uranus, all objects whose observation was pioneered by Herschel. The contributors examine his study of thestructure of the Milky Way and an in-depth look at the development of the front view telescopes he built. The popular subject of extraterrestriallife is looked at from the point of view of both William Herschel and his sonJohn, both of whom had an interest in the topic. William's personal development through the educational system of the lateeighteenth-century is also explored, and the wide range of verse and satire invarious languages associated with his discoveries is collected here for thefirst time. Hershel worked at a time of incredible discovery, and his work is still highly regarded in the field. Here it is given a thorough investigation which puts into context and perspective his path breaking career.Gödel, Escher, Bach: An Eternal Golden Braid
By Douglas R. Hofstadter. 1979
This groundbreaking Pulitzer Prize-winning book sets the standard for interdisciplinary writing, exploring the patterns and symbols in the thinking of…
mathematician Kurt Gödel, artist M.C. Escher, and composer Johann Sebastian Bach. Winner of the National Book Award Pulitzer Prize WinnerSick: A Compilation Zine on Physical Illness (World Around Us) (World Around Us Ser.)
By Ben Holtzman. 2014
Sick collects peoples' experiences with illness to help establish a collective voice of those impacted within radical/left/DIY communities. The zine…
is meant to be a resource for those who are living with illness as well as those who have not directly experienced it themselves. Contributors discuss personal experiences as well as topics such as receiving support, providing support, and being an informed patient. These writings are meant to increase understandings of illness and further discussion as well as action towards building communities of care.Behind Many Doors
By Phil Carradice. 2014
Behind Many Doors is a vivid and revealing portrait of an Edwardian psychiatric hospital in Cardiff, created by those who…
know it most intimately. Whitchurch Hospital, formerly Cardiff Asylum, will cease to admit in-patients from 2016, marking the beginning of its gradual closure over the following years. This unique anthology seeks to capture, preserve and shine a light on what Whitchurch Hospital has meant and still means to service users, staff, visitors and members of the local community across its long and complex history. Readers are invited to experience the hospital from every angle, from the water tower's outline spied from the top deck of a Cardiff bus, right down to the cigarette burns on the ward carpet. Sometimes shocking, often moving, always illuminating, this collection of writing will compel all those who turn its pages to think anew about the mental healthcare of the past and the future and to look again at a building that has impacted upon the lives of so many.The Cambridge Companion to Darwin
By Jonathan Hodge, Gregory Radick. 2009
The naturalist and geologist Charles Darwin (1809-82) ranks as one of the most influential scientific thinkers of all time. In…
the nineteenth century his ideas about the history and diversity of life - including the evolutionary origin of humankind - contributed to major changes in the sciences, philosophy, social thought and religious belief. This volume provides the reader with clear, lively and balanced introductions to the most recent scholarship on Darwin and his intellectual legacies. A distinguished team of contributors examines Darwin's main scientific ideas and their development; Darwin's science in the context of its times; the influence of Darwinian thought in recent philosophical, social and religious debate; and the importance of Darwinian thought for the future of naturalist philosophy. New readers will find this a most convenient and accessible guide to Darwin. Advanced students and specialists will find a conspectus of recent developments in the interpretation of Darwin.