Modesty, humor, compassion, and wisdom are the traits most evident in this illuminating selection of personal papers from the Albert Einstein Archives.
A sweeping intellectual biography that restores the Enlightenment polymath to the intellectual, scientific, and courtly worlds that shaped his early life and thoughtDescribed by Voltaire as ';perhaps a man of the most universal learning in Europe,' Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz (16461716) is often portrayed as a rationalist and philosopher who was wholly detached from the worldly concerns of his fellow men.
A major rethinking of the European novel and its relationship to early evolutionary scienceThe 120 years between Henry Fielding's Tom Jones (1749) and George Eliot's Middlemarch (1871) marked both the rise of the novel and the shift from the presumption of a stable, universal human nature to one that changes over time.
Esta accesible exposición de los intentos científicos modernos por destronar el pensamiento empirista se ha convertido, en el transcurso de los últimos veinticinco años, en un éxito de ventas a la vez que el texto universitario de referencia, traducido a más de quince lenguas.
An award-winning history of the Enlightenment quest to devise a mathematical model of rationalityWhat did it mean to be reasonable in the Age of Reason?
The triumphs of recent biology - understanding hereditary disease, the modern theory of evolution - are all thanks to the fruit fly, the guinea pig, the zebra fish and a handful of other organisms, which have helped us unravel one of life's greatest mysteries - inheritance.
This overview of the leading locomotive producers in the United States during the twentieth century shows how they responded to a radical technological change: the replacement of steam locomotives by diesels.
Nobel Prize-winning physicist Roger Penrose questions some of the most fashionable ideas in physics today, including string theoryWhat can fashionable ideas, blind faith, or pure fantasy possibly have to do with the scientific quest to understand the universe?
The latest title in the much-loved Element Encyclopedia series, The Element Encyclopedia of Fairies explores the history, legends, and mythology of these little peoples.
A multifaceted biography of a brilliant mathematician and iconoclastA mathematician unlike any other, John Horton Conway (19372020) possessed a rock star's charisma, a polymath's promiscuous curiosity, and a sly sense of humor.
A Nobel Laureate explains quantum entanglement and teleportation and why Einstein was wrong about the nature of realityWhat is the true nature of reality?
The epic story of human evolution, from our primate beginnings more than five million years ago to the agricultural eraOver the course of five million years, our primate ancestors evolved from a modest population of sub-Saharan apes into the globally dominant species Homo sapiens.
Why seismologists still can't predict earthquakesAn earthquake can strike without warning and wreak horrific destruction and death, whether it's the catastrophic 2010 quake that took a devastating toll on the island nation of Haiti or a future great earthquake on the San Andreas Fault in California, which scientists know is inevitable.
The story of unmanned space exploration, from Viking to todayDreams of Other Worlds describes the unmanned space missions that have opened new windows on distant worlds.
The untold story of Albert Einstein's role as the father of quantum theoryEinstein and the Quantum reveals for the first time the full significance of Albert Einstein's contributions to quantum theory.
The remarkable story and personalities behind one of the most important theories in modern economicsFinding Equilibrium explores the post-World War II transformation of economics by constructing a history of the proof of its central dogma-that a competitive market economy may possess a set of equilibrium prices.
Power, Speed, and Form is the first accessible account of the engineering behind eight breakthrough innovations that transformed American life from 1876 to 1939-the telephone, electric power, oil refining, the automobile, the airplane, radio, the long-span steel bridge, and building with reinforced concrete.
Ten Thousand Birds provides a thoroughly engaging and authoritative history of modern ornithology, tracing how the study of birds has been shaped by a succession of visionary and often-controversial personalities, and by the unique social and scientific contexts in which these extraordinary individuals worked.
How the new brain sciences are transforming our understanding of what it means to be humanThe brain sciences are influencing our understanding of human behavior as never before, from neuropsychiatry and neuroeconomics to neurotheology and neuroaesthetics.
The story of the visionary scientists who invented the futureIn 1969, Princeton physicist Gerard O'Neill began looking outward to space colonies as the new frontier for humanity's expansion.
John Servos explains the emergence of physical chemistry in America by presenting a series of lively portraits of such pivotal figures as Wilhelm Ostwald, A.
Between 1945 and 1953, while the Soviet Union confronted postwar reconstruction and Cold War crises, its unchallenged leader Joseph Stalin carved out time to study scientific disputes and dictate academic solutions.
Though it did not yet exist as a discrete field of scientific inquiry, biology was at the heart of many of the most important debates in seventeenth-century philosophy.
In the mid-eighteenth century, Swiss-born mathematician Leonhard Euler developed a formula so innovative and complex that it continues to inspire research, discussion, and even the occasional limerick.
Why absolute certainty is impossible in scienceIn today's unpredictable and chaotic world, we look to science to provide certainty and answers-and often blame it when things go wrong.
The first publication of Albert Einstein's travel diary to the Far East and Middle EastIn the fall of 1922, Albert Einstein, along with his then-wife, Elsa Einstein, embarked on a five-and-a-half-month voyage to the Far East and Middle East, regions that the renowned physicist had never visited before.
Karl Pearson, founder of modern statistics, came to this field by way of passionate early studies of philosophy and cultural history as well as ether physics and graphical geometry.
The clash of faith and science in Napoleonic FranceThe Dendera zodiac-an ancient bas-relief temple ceiling adorned with mysterious symbols of the stars and planets-was first discovered by the French during Napoleon's campaign in Egypt, and quickly provoked a controversy between scientists and theologians.
In the seventeenth century the microscope opened up a new world of observation, and, according to Catherine Wilson, profoundly revised the thinking of scientists and philosophers alike.
An essential work on the origins of statisticsThe Rise of Statistical Thinking, 1820-1900 explores the history of statistics from the field's origins in the nineteenth century through to the factors that produced the burst of modern statistical innovation in the early twentieth century.
How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities-demons-to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world.
How the idea of deep time transformed how Americans see their country and themselvesDuring the nineteenth century, Americans were shocked to learn that the land beneath their feet had once been stalked by terrifying beasts.
Die These dieses Buches lautet, dass es in diesem Zeitalter erstmalig möglich ist, objektiv überzeugende Antworten auf die großen philosophischen Lebensfragen zu erhalten.
In Moby-Dick, Ishmael declares, "e;Be it known that, waiving all argument, I take the good old fashioned ground that a whale is a fish, and call upon holy Jonah to back me.
