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Books > Science & Mathematics > Astronomy, space & time > General
The Sixth Trieste Conference on Chemical Evolution for the first time has also been a Euroconference. This year we focused on "First Steps in the Origin of Life in the Universe." (Both this Centre and the ICGEB have been sponsors since we first started planning the series with Professors Abdus Salam and Cyril Ponnamperuma. ) The conference had the following 11 sponsors: The Abdus Salam International Centre for Theoretical Physics, The European Commission, The SETI Institute, Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy, The International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, Trieste, The European Space Agency (ESA), National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Universite Paris 12, The ICTP Public Information Office, La Fondazione Internazionale Trieste per il Progresso e la Liberta della Scienza, and II Laboratorio dell'Immaginario Scientifico. of our Over 90 participants allowed us to make a truly comprehensive review subject. In 82 presentations we had contributions from experts in questions related to the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the universe, topics that are known together as the science ofastrobiology. The publication ofthese proceedings was largely due to a generous grant form the Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Rome, Italy. The general topic of the conference concerned the origin, evolution, distribution and destiny of life in the Universe, a subject referred to as astrobiology and also as exobiology. In this report we prefer the synonym Astrobiology.
For the last four hundred years, women have played a part far in excess of their numerical representation in the history of astronomical research and discovery. It was a woman who gave us our first tool for measuring the distances between stars, and another who told us for the first time what those stars were made of. It was women who first noticed the rhythmic noise of a pulsar, the temperature discrepancy that announced the existence of white dwarf stars, and the irregularities in galactic motion that informed us that the universe we see might be only a small part of the universe that exists. And yet, in spite of the magnitude of their achievements, for centuries women were treated as essentially second class citizens within the astronomical community, contained in back rooms, forbidden from communicating with their male colleagues, provided with repetitive and menial tasks, and paid starvation wages. This book tells the tale of how, in spite of all those impediments, women managed, by sheer determination and genius, to unlock the secrets of the night sky. It is the story of some of science's most hallowed names - Maria Mitchell, Caroline Herschel, Vera Rubin, Nancy Grace Roman, and Jocelyn Bell-Burnell - and also the story of scientists whose accomplishments were great, but whose names have faded through lack of use - Queen Seondeok of Korea, who built an observatory in the 7th century that still stands today, Wang Zhenyi, who brought heliocentrism to China, Margaret Huggins, who perfected the techniques that allowed us to photograph stellar spectra and thereby completely changed the direction of modern astronomy, and Hisako Koyama, whose multi-decade study of the sun's surface is as impressive a feat of steadfast scientific dedication as it is a rigorous and valuable treasure trove of solar data. A History of Women in Astronomy and Space Exploration is not only a book, however, of those who study space, but of those who have ventured into it, from the fabled Mercury 13, whose attempt to join the American space program was ultimately foiled by betrayal from within, to mythical figures like Kathryn Sullivan and Sally Ride, who were not only pioneering space explorers, but scientific researchers and engineers in their own rights, aided in their work by scientists like Mamta Patel Nagaraja, who studied the effects of space upon the human body, and computer programmers like Marianne Dyson, whose simulations prepared astronauts for every possible catastrophe that can occur in space. Told through over 130 stories spanning four thousand years of humanity's attempt to understand its place in the cosmos, A History of Women in Astronomy and Space Exploration brings us at last the full tale of women's evolution from instrument makers and calculators to the theorists, administrators, and explorers who have, while receiving astonishingly little in return, given us, quite literally, the universe.
This book is the fourth volume under the title Organizations and
Strategies in Astronomy (OSA). These OSA Books are intended to
cover a large range of fields and themes. In practice, one could
say that all aspects of astronomy-related life and environment are
considered in the spirit of sharing specific expertise and lessons
learned.
This book details the lives of two married geniuses, Aden and Marjorie Meinel, who helped to pioneer modern optics and solar energy in the U.S. Aden B. Meinel and Marjorie P. Meinel stood at the confluence of several overarching technological developments during their lifetimes, including postwar aerial surveillance by spy planes and satellites, solar energy, the evolution of telescope design, interdisciplinary optics, and photonics. Yet, their incredible stories and their long list of scientific contributions have never been adequately recognized in one place. In this book, James Breckinridge and Alec M. Pridgeon correct this oversight by sharing the story of this powerful duo. The book follows their lives and covers large scientific developments between World War II to the Cold War. James B. Breckinridge, a previous advisee and later colleague to the Meinels, and historian and scientist Alec M. Pridgeon collected more than 200 hours of oral interviews with those who worked closely with the Meinels and some who built their careers around the findings made possible by their work. The book shares and analyzes the work done by the Meinels, and it also includes incredible insights from an unpublished Meinel autobiography.
I. Current Missions.- The Hubble Space Telescope.- Early Results from the Cosmic Background Explorer (COBE).- The Status of the DIRBE Instrument on the COBE.- The Automatic Spacecraft Granat.- The Hipparcos Mission: Will It Be a Scientific Success?.- The International Ultraviolet Explorer (IUE).- X-Ray Astronomy Satellite Ginga.- Extreme and Far Ultraviolet Astronomy from Voyagers 1 and 2.- II. Future Missions.- Roentgen Satellite.- The Gamma-Ray Observatory.- The Advanced X-Ray Astrophysics Facility.- The Astro-D Mission.- The X-Ray Timing Explorer.- The Joint European Telescope for X-Ray Astronomy (JET-X).- SODART Telescope on Spectrum-Roentgen-Gamma and Its Instrumentation.- ESA's X-Ray Astronomy Mission, XMM.- The SAX Mission for X-Ray Astronomy.- The Extreme Ultraviolet Explorer Mission.- Lyman the Far Ultraviolet Spectroscopic Explorer.- Far and Extreme Ultraviolet Astronomy with Orfeus.- The Spectrum - UV Project.- The Space Infrared Telescope Facility (SIRTF).- The Infrared Space Observatory.- IRTS: Infrared Telescope in Space.- FIRST - Far Infrared and Submillimetre Space Telescope.- A Submillimeter Mission for the 1990s: SMMM.- The Submillimeter Wave Astronomy Satellite.- International VLBI Satellite (IVS).- VSOP, A Space VLBI Programme.- VLBI with TDRSS.- SOHO - An Observatory to Study the Solar Interior and the Solar Atmosphere.- An Overview of the Orbiting Solar Laboratory.- The Planetenteleskop Mission.- The Astrometric Imaging Telescope: Near-Term Discovery and Study of Other Planetary Systems.- Ultraviolet Polarimetry.- The Hopkins Ultraviolet Telescope.- The Ultraviolet Imaging Telescope for Astro 1.- The Broad Band X-Ray Telescope (BBXRT) on Astro-1.- Future Solar System Missions.- The Ulysses Mission in the High Latitude Heliosphere.- Science Operations for Future Space Astrophysics Missions.- III. Launch Vehicles.- United States Launch Vehicle Systems.- ESA's Space Transportation Programme.- Launch Vehicles of ISAS.- U.S.S.R. LAUNCH SYSTEMS 343.- Launch Vehicles of the Future: Earth to Near-Earth Space.- Future Deep Space Propulsion Systems.- IV. Relative Merits of Various Observatories.- Lunar-Based Astronomy.- Relative Merits of Low-Earth, Eccentric, Geosynchronous, and Interplanetary Orbits and Sites in Space.- Humanity or Robotics in Space?.- Astrophysics from the Moon.- Use of Libration-Point Orbits for Space Observatories.- Major Observatories Versus Economy-Class Observatories in Space.- V. Long Term Future Issues.- Does Theory Advance with Technology?.- Occultation Astronomy.- Comments.- The Astrophysics of the Future.- Evolution of the Unsolved Problems.- Contributed Papers.- SIXA: The Solid State Spectrometer Array Onboard Spectrum-X-Gamma.- The X-Ray Large Array.- The Stellar X-Ray Polarimeter for the Spectrum-X-Gamma Mission.- The All-Sky Extragalactic X-Ray Foreground.- A Low Energy Gas Scintillation Proportional Counter for the SAX-X-Ray Astronomy Satellite.- The EXOSAT Results Database.- An X-Ray All Sky Monitor for a Japanese Experimental Module on the Space Station.- The Astro Mission.- The UV Imager for the Israeli Scientific Satellite.- ORFEUS-SPAS: The Berkeley EUV Spectrometer.- An Observatory for Mapping the Far UV Diffuse Galactic Emission Line Background.- Project of a Three Reflection Telescope for Wide Field Ultraviolet Observations.- Santa Maria: An Orbiting Multispectral Observatory.- Cryogenic Testing of Optics for ISOCAM.- EDISON: A Second Generation Infrared Space Observatory.- Merits of Space VLBI Missions for Geodynamics.- Low Frequency Radio Astronomy from Earth Orbit.- High-Resolution Imaging Spectroscopy at TeraHertz Frequencies.- Science Observations with the IUE Using the One Gyro Mode.- New Methods of Determining Spacecraft Attitude.- Knowledge Based Automated Scheduling and Planning Tools for IUE.- Earth Observation System Plans of India.- The Stability of the Planetary Triangular Lagrange Points.- Cosmic Rays and the Dynamic Balance in the Large Magellanic Cloud.- Li
Published under the auspices of the Royal Astronomical Society, this volume contains a set of extensive school tested lectures, with the aim to give a coherent and thorough background knowledge of the subject and to introduce the latest developments in N-body computational astrophysics. The topics cover a wide range from the classical few-body problem with discussions of resonance, chaos and stability to realistic modelling of star clusters as well as descriptions of codes, algorithms and special hardware for N-body simulations. This collection of topics, related to the gravitational N-body problem, will prove useful to both students and researchers in years to come. 1) Published under the auspices of the Royal Astronomical Society.
The definitive story of the making of 2001: A Space Odyssey, acclaimed today as one of the greatest films ever made, and of director Stanley Kubrick and writer Arthur C. Clarke-"a tremendous explication of a tremendous film....Breathtaking" (The Washington Post). Fifty years ago a strikingly original film had its premiere. Still acclaimed as one of the most remarkable and important motion pictures ever made, 2001: A Space Odyssey depicted the first contacts between humanity and extraterrestrial intelligence. The movie was the product of a singular collaboration between Stanley Kubrick and science fiction visionary Arthur C. Clarke. Fresh off the success of his cold war satire Dr. Strangelove, Kubrick wanted to make the first truly first-rate science fiction film. Drawing from Clarke's ideas and with one of the author's short stories as the initial inspiration, their bold vision benefited from pioneering special effects that still look extraordinary today, even in an age of computer-generated images. In Space Odyssey, author, artist, and award-winning filmmaker Michael Benson "delivers expert inside stuff" (San Francisco Chronicle) from his extensive research of Kubrick's and Clarke's archives. He has had the cooperation of Kubrick's widow, Christiane, and interviewed most of the key people still alive who worked on the film. Drawing also from other previously unpublished interviews, Space Odyssey provides a 360-degree view of the film from its genesis to its legacy, including many previously untold stories. And it features dozens of photos from the making of the film, most never previously published. "At last! The dense, intense, detailed, and authoritative saga of the making of the greatest motion picture I've ever seen...Michael Benson has done the Cosmos a great service" (Academy Award-winning actor Tom Hanks).
Der Blick zu den Sternen.- Ovids gewoelbter Himmel.- Der Sonnenwagen.- Jupiter und Kallisto.- Jupiter und Europa.- Perseus und Andromeda.- Der Sternenhimmel im Jahreskreis.- Der Himmel im Fruhling.- Sternzug: "Deichsellinie bis Spica".- Der Himmel im Sommer.- Sternzuge: "Funfsternreihe" und "Grosses Dreieck".- Der Himmel im Herbst.- Sternzug: "Kolurlinie".- Der Himmel im Winter.- Sternzuge: "Grosser Wagen und Polarstern" und "Grosses Sechseck um Orion".- Himmelskarten fur das ganze Jahr.- Tabellen.- Karten.- Sternbilder und uberliefertes Wissen.- Adler.- Andromeda.- Barenhuter.- Becher.- Delphin.- Drache.- Fische.- Fuhrmann.- Grosser Bar.- Grosser Hund.- Hase.- Herkules.- Jungfrau.- Kassiopeia.- Kleiner Bar.- Kleiner Hund.- Krebs.- Leier.- Loewe.- Noerdliche Krone.- Noerdliche Wasserschlange.- Orion.- Pegasus.- Perseus.- Rabe.- Schlange, Schlangentrager.- Schutze.- Schwan.- Skorpion.- Steinbock.- Stier.- Waage.- Walfisch.- Wassermann.- Widder.- Zwillinge.- Wissenschaftliche Bilder.- Das Universum antiker Astronomen.- Beobachtung der Sonne.- Beobachtung der Sterne.- Die Bewegung der Sonne vor dem Fixsternhintergrund.- Die Deutung der Beobachtungen als Zwei-Kugel-Universum.- Die Bewegung von Planeten vor dem Fixsternhintergrund.- Kopernikanisches Universum.- Die Philosophie der Bilder.- Das naturwissenschaftliche Bild.- Zeiten "normaler Wissenschaft".- Selbst und Sein.- Quellen und weiterfuhrende Literatur.- Quellenhinweise.- Schrifttum.- Fruhe Quellen uber Sternbilder und Mythen.- Menschen, Goetter und Damonen.- Namen und Kurzbeschreibungen.- AEhnliche oder nahezu aquivalente Gottheiten.- Symbole, Kennzeichen und Eigenschaften.- Funktion, Tatigkeit und Aufgabe.- Die Lage des Mondes und der Planeten auf der Ekliptik.- Himmelskarten und besondere Objekte.- Danksagung.- International gebrauchliche Fachbezeichnungen und Sternbildabkurzungen.- Verzeichnis der Sterne und Sternbilder.- Verzeichnis zur Mythologie.- Gesamtverzeichnis.
'Entertaining and engrossing' Sean Carroll Press the snooze button on your alarm once too often and you soon remember the importance of good timekeeping. That need to tell the time connects you to over five thousand years of human history, from the first solstice markers at Newgrange to quartz crystal oscillating in your watch today. Science underpins time: measuring the movement of Sun, Earth and Moon, and unlocking the mysteries of quantum mechanics and relativity theory - the key to ultra-precise atomic clocks. Yet time is also socially decided: the Gregorian calendar we use today came out of fraught politics, while the ancient Maya used sophisticated astronomical observations to produce a calendar system unlike any other. In his quirky and accessible style, Chad Orzel reveals the wondrous physics that makes time something we can set, measure and know.
This book presents the latest researches on hypersonic steady glide dynamics and guidance, including the concept of steady glide reentry trajectory and the stability of its regular perturbation solutions, trajectory damping control technique for hypersonic glide reentry, singular perturbation guidance of hypersonic glide reentry, trajectory optimization based on steady glide, linear pseudospectral generalized nominal effort miss distance guidance, analytical entry guidance and trajectory-shaping guidance with final speed and load factor constraints. They can be used to solve many new difficult problems in entry guidance. And many practical engineering cases are provided for the readers for better understanding. Researchers and students in the fields of flight vehicle design or flight dynamics, guidance and control could use the book as valuable reference.
AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR 'A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves' The Economist #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel returns with a captivating, little-known true story of women in science Before they even had the right to vote, a group of remarkable women were employed by Harvard College Observatory as 'Human Computers' to interpret the observations made via telescope by their male counterparts each night. The author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter and The Planets shines light on the hidden history of these extraordinary women who changed the burgeoning field of astronomy and our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.
With Astronomy Today, Eighth Edition, trusted authors Eric Chaisson and Steve McMillan communicate their excitement about astronomy, delivering current and thorough science with insightful pedagogy. The text emphasizes critical thinking and visualization, and it focuses on the process of scientific discovery, teaching students how we know what we know. Alternate Versions *Astronomy Today, Volume 1: The Solar System, Eighth Edition-Focuses primarily on planetary coverage for a 1-term course. Includes Chapters 1-16, 28. *Astronomy Today, Volume 2: Stars and Galaxies, Eighth Edition-Focuses primarily on stars and stellar evolution for a 1-term course. Includes Chapters 1-5 and 16-28.
When Planetomachia was published in 1585, Greene himself-always the best advertiser of his own books-promised his readers a perfectly balanced diet of edification and entertainment. He described his newest offering as an astronomical discourse on the nature and influence of the planets interlaced with 'pleasant and tragical histories,' which one could ostensibly use as a manual to identify various planetary influences on 'natural constitution.' In this first complete critical edition, Nandini Das presents Planetomachia as a complex hybrid which is eminently a product of its times, exploring how the two very different intellectual and cultural spheres of Humanist scholarship and Renaissance popular print engage in an intriguing, albeit uneasy, dialogue to produce this unique work of prose fiction. The volume gives a clear sense, afforded by no other existing edition, of the intellectual climate which shaped this text. It offers substantial introductory material (on biographical, literary and scientific contexts) and extensive annotation identifying Greene's allusions and elucidating his vocabulary. It also includes translations and extracts from significant sources, along with a bibliography of relevant primary texts and critical work on Greene generally and on Planetomachia in particular.
Deep Impact, or at least part of the flight system, is designed to crash into comet 9P/Tempel 1. This bold mission design enables cometary researchers to peer into the cometary nucleus, analyzing the excavated material with its imagers and spectrometers. The book describes the mission, its objectives, expected results, payload, and data products in articles written by those most closely involved. This mission has the potential of revolutionizing our understanding of the cometary nucleus.
Astrophysics: Anomalous Redshift Question: Empirical Evidence on the Creation of Galaxies and Quasars (H. Arp). Periodicity in Extragalactic Redshifts (W.M. Napier). Quasar Spectra: Black Holes or Nonstandard Models? (J.W. Sulentic). Relativity: Problems of Energy and of Ether: Fourdimensional Elasticity: Is It General Relativity? (A. Tartaglia). Universality of the Lie-Isotopic Symmetries for Deformed Minkowskian Metrics (A.K. Aringazin, K.M. Aringazin). From Relativistic Paradoxes to Absolute Space and Time Physics (H.E. Wilhelm). Geophysics: Expanding Earth: Earth Complexity vs. Plate Tectonic Simplicity (G. Scalera). An Evolutionary Earth Expansion Hypothesis (S.T. Tassos). Fields and Particles: Space-Time Structures: Electromagnetic Interactions and Particle Physics (A.O. Barut). Isotopic and Genotopic Relativistic Theory (A. Jannussis, A. Sotiropoulou). Quantum Physics: Duality and Locality: A New Logic for Quantum Mechanics? (E. Bitsakis). Classical Interpretation of Quantum Mechanics (V.K. Ignatovich). 62 additional articles. Index.
In this selection of studies, J.L. Mancha explores aspects of the development of medieval optics and astronomy, including some medieval antecedents of the work of early modern astronomers. The articles deal with Latin, Hebrew and Arabic texts, and the process of translation and transmission of knowledge, and focus on three main themes. First, the theory and astronomical use of the pinhole camera in the 12th and 13th centuries; the texts edited here contain a solution to the problem of the formation of images cast by light through triangular apertures, equivalent to Kepler's, a description of the correct procedure for measuring solar apparent diameters using finite apertures, and a derivation of the Sun's eccentricity from its apparent diameters at apogee and perigee. Second, the characteristics of the Latin and ProvenAal versions of Levi ben Gerson's astronomical work, composed in collaboration with the author, as well as his tables and canons for finding syzygies and the mathematical methods used in the derivation of parameters. Third, different aspects of the survival of homocentric astronomy in the Middle Ages, especially al-Bitruji's model for trepidation and the technique for calculating the hippopede resulting from Eudoxan couples.
Ring lasers are commonly used as gyroscopes for aircraft navigation and attitude control. The largest ring lasers are sensitive enough that they can be used for high resolution inertial rotation sensing of the Earth in order to detect tiny perturbations to the Earth's rotation caused by earthquakes or global mass transport. This book describes the latest advances in the development of large ring lasers for applications in geodesy and geophysics using the most sensitive and stable devices available. Chapters cover our current knowledge of the physics of the laser gyroscope, how to acquire and analyse data from ring lasers, and what the potential applications are in the geosciences. It is a valuable reference for those working with ring lasers or using the data for applications in geodesy and geophysics; as well as researchers in laser physics, photonics and navigation.
A new paradigm for scientific discovery through computational tools now permeates every aspect of astronomical research. Computational astrophysics combines modern computational methods, novel hardware designs, advanced algorithms, original software implementations, and associated technologies to discover new phenomena and to make predictions in astronomy. The proceedings of IAU Symposium 362 summarizes ongoing developments in computational astrophysics through astronomers in diverse fields sharing their knowledge and approaches. It focuses on computational methods applied to speed up and broaden the scope of scientific studies, such as finding trends in observational data, high performance computing, automated search algorithms, and model predictability. Experts discuss a palette of challenging informational and technical developments, with the goal of coordinating their efforts and the improvement of techniques in pursuit of a wide range of astronomical studies, including fluid dynamics in star and galaxy evolution, exoplanets, gravitational waves, numerical relativity, data mining, and much more.
Explore Scientific Reasoning by Exploring the Universe Universe by Robert M. Geller and Roger Freedman strikes the right balance between scientific rigour, student comprehension, and excitement. Available as the full 27-chapter text or split into Stars and Galaxies and The Solar System, Universe provides all the detail you need to prepare students for engaging with astronomical ideas and theories, while also inviting students to explore through stunning visuals and relatable narratives. Universe, 11e is now supported in Achieve, Macmillan's new online learning platform. Achieve is the culmination of years of development work put toward creating the most powerful online learning tool for astronomy students. It houses all of our renowned assessments, multimedia assets, e-book, and instructor resources in a powerful new platform.
The studies brought together in this second collection of articles by Paul Kunitzsch continue the lines of research evident in his previous volume (The Arabs and the Stars). The Arabic materials discussed stem mostly from the early period of the development of Arabic-Islamic astronomy up to about 1000AD, while the Latin materials belong to the first stage of Western contact with Arabic science at the end of the 10th century, and to the peak of Arabic-Latin translation activity in 12th century Spain. The first set of articles focuses upon Ptolemy in the Arabic-Latin tradition, followed by further ones on Arabic astronomy and its reception in the West; the final group looks at details of the transmission of Euclid's Elements.
Studies on the Transmission of Medieval Mathematical Astronomy opens with a new survey of the transmission of Hellenistic astronomy, followed by two studies on how the notion of precession was treated by Babylonian, Greek, Indian, Arabic and Latin hands. Next is a survey of the astronomical tables that appeared in Latin during the 12th century, drawn mainly from Arabic and to some extent from Hebrew, as well as a special study of the Latin tables for London and Pisa drawn originally from the 10th-century Islamic astronomer al-Sufi. For the Sanskrit texts the focus is on the demonstration that the systems were founded on observations made in India, even though much of the theory was Greek in origin. On Byzantine material there are studies of the Persian Syntaxis whose source lay in the Persian Zij-i Ilkhani, and of the diverse materials drawn on by Gemistus Plethon. Mercier's work shows that there is a unity in medieval astronomy in spite of the great diversity in cultural settings, which included South and Central Asia, the Middle East, Byzantium, and Europe. The texts were recorded in all the major languages of this great region, from Sanskrit to Latin, over a period of time stretching from the late classical world to late medieval Europe. Yet these astronomical texts have much in common, drawn from the whole apparatus of Ptolemaic, or rather more inclusively, Greek astronomy. Transmission is demonstrated partly by the continuity of technical terms, and partly by the conservation and development of numerical parameters.
This introduction to one of the liveliest and most popular fields in philosophy is written specifically for a beginning readership with no background in philosophy or science. Step-by-step analyses of the key arguments are provided and the philosophical heart of the issues is revealed without recourse to jargon, maths, or logical formulas. The book introduces Einstein's revolutionary ideas in a clear and simple way, along with the concepts and arguments of philosophers, both ancient and modern that have proved of lasting value. Specifically, the theories of the ancient Greek philosophers, Zeno, Euclid and Parmenides are considered alongside the ideas of Newton, Leibniz and Kant as well as the giants of twentieth-century physics, Einstein and Lorentz. The problems at the heart of the philosophy of space and time, such as change, motion, infinity, shape, and inflation, are examined and the seismic impact made by relativity theory and quantum theory is assessed in the light of the latest research. The writing is lucid and entertaining, allowing a beginning readership to grasp some difficult concepts while offering the more experienced reader a succinct and illuminating presentation of the state of the debate. "Space, Time and Einstein" shows the reader the excitement of scientific discovery and the beauty of theory in the search for answers to these fundamental questions.
Considered the paradigm case of the troubled interaction between science and religion, the conflict between Galileo and the Church continues to generate new research and lively debate. Richard J. Blackwell offers a fresh approach to the Galileo case, using as his primary focus the biblical and ecclesiastical issues that were the battleground for the celebrated confrontation. Blackwell's research in the Vatican manuscript collection and the Jesuit archives in Rome enables him to re-create a vivid picture of the trends and counter-trends that influenced leading Catholic thinkers of the period: the conservative reaction to the Reformation, the role of authority in biblical exegesis and in guarding orthodoxy from the inroads of "unbridled spirits," and the position taken by Cardinal Bellarmine and the Jesuits in attempting to weigh the discoveries of the new science in the context of traditional philosophy and theology. A centerpiece of Blackwell's investigation is his careful reading of the brief treatise Letter on the Motion of the Earth by Paolo Antonio Foscarini, a Carmelite scholar, arguing for the compatibility of the Copernican system with the Bible. Blackwell appends the first modern translation into English of this important and neglected document, which was placed on the Index of Forbidden Books in 1616. Though there were differing and competing theories of biblical interpretation advocated in Galileo's time-the legacy of the Council of Trent, the views of Cardinal Bellarmine, the most influential churchman of his time, and, finally, the claims of authority and obedience that weakened the abillity of Jesuit scientists to support the new science-all contributed to the eventual condemnation of Galileo in 1633. Blackwell argues convincingly that the maintenance of ecclesiastical authority, not the scientific issues themselves, led to that tragic trial.
The Dictionary of Geophysics, Astrophysics, and Astronomy provides a lexicon of terminology covering fields such as astronomy, astrophysics, cosmology, relativity, geophysics, meteorology, Newtonian physics, and oceanography. Authors and editors often assume - incorrectly - that readers are familiar with all the terms in professional literature. With over 4,000 definitions and 50 contributing authors, this unique comprehensive dictionary helps scientists to use terminology correctly and to understand papers, articles, and books in which physics-related terms appear. |
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Proceedings of the American Association…
Assoc for the Advancement of Science
Hardcover
R732
Discovery Miles 7 320
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