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Books > Science & Mathematics > Science: general issues > History of science
China is emerging as a new superpower in science and technology, reflected in the success of its spacecraft and high-velocity Maglev trains. While many seek to understand the rise of China as a technologically-based power, the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s may seem an unlikely era to explore for these insights. Despite the widespread verdict of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution as an unmitigated disaster for China, a number of recent scholars have called for re-examining Maoist science-both in China and in the West. At one time Western observers found much to admire in Chairman Mao's mass science, his egalitarian effort to take science out of the ivory tower and place it in the hands of the disenfranchised peasant, the loyal worker, and the patriot soldier. Chunjuan Nancy Wei and Darryl E. Brock have assembled a rich mix of talents and topics related to the fortunes and misfortunes of science, technology, and medicine in modern China, while tracing its roots to China's other great student revolution-the May Fourth Movement. Historians of science, political scientists, mathematicians, and others analyze how Maoist science served modern China in nationalism, socialism, and nation-building-and also where it failed the nation and the Chinese people. If the Cultural Revolution contributed to China's emerging space program and catalyzed modern malaria treatments based on Traditional Chinese Medicine, it also provided the origins of a science talent gap and the milieu from which a one-child policy would arise. Given the fundamental importance of China today, and of East Asia generally, it is imperative to have a better understanding of its most recent scientific history, but especially that history in a period of crisis and how that crisis was resolved. What is at issue here is not only the specific domain of the history of science, but the social and scientific policies of China generally as they developed and were applied prior to, during, and after the Cultural Revolution.
Victorian Poetry and the Culture of the Heart is a significant and timely study of nineteenth-century poetry and poetics. It considers why and how the heart became a vital image in Victorian poetry, and argues that the intense focus on heart imagery in many major Victorian poems highlights anxieties in this period about the ability of poetry to act upon its readers. In the course of the nineteenth century, this study argues, increased doubt about the validity of feeling led to the depiction of the literary heart as alienated, distant, outside the control of mind and will. This coincided with a notable rise in medical literature specifically concerned with the pathological heart, and with the development of new techniques and instruments of investigation such as the stethoscope. As poets feared for the health of their own hearts, their poetry embodies concerns about a widespread culture of heartsickness in both form and content. In addition, concerns about the heart's status and actions reflect upon questions of religious faith and doubt, and feed into issues of gender and nationalism. This book argues that it is vital to understand how this wider culture of the heart informed poetry and was in turn influenced by poetic constructs. Individual chapters on Barrett Browning, Arnold, and Tennyson explore the vital presence of the heart in major works by these poets--including, Aurora Leigh, "Empedocles on Etna," In Memoriam, and Maud--while the wide-ranging opening chapters present an argument for the mutual influence of poetry and physiology in the period and trace the development of new theories of rhythm as organic and affective.
Powerfully involving narrative and incisive detail, clarity and inherent drama: Blood offers in abundance the qualities that define the best popular science writing. Here is the sweeping story of a substance that has been feared, revered, mythologized, and used in magic and medicine from earliest times--a substance that has become the center of a huge, secretive, and often dangerous worldwide commerce. Winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, Blood was described by judges as "a gripping page-turner, a significant contribution to the history of medicine and technology and a cautionary tale. Meticulously reported and exhaustively documented."
Combing logic, science, and God is like putting together a jigsaw puzzle; it can be very challenging. But in " Logic, Science, and God ," author Paul Stevens uses these concepts to help us understand our origin, why we are here on earth, and what we can expect when we die. " Logic, Science, and God " helps answer many of life's questions and provides detailed ways to obtain further light and knowledge. It explains: The basic laws of physics How evolution occurs Man's relationship to the universe Where man's intelligence originates How creation occurs Why creation does not happen by chance What God looks like The necessity of experiencing pain and suffering The two basic categories of laws we need to obey to be content and happy Facts concerning our destiny Through deductive reasoning and commonsense, " Logic, Science, and God " teaches you how to be grateful and content with life, and it shows how science and a belief in God are logically compatible.
A DAILY MAIL BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Spare Parts is a fascinating read filled with adventure, delight and surprise' RAHUL JANDIAL, surgeon author of 'Life on a Knife's Edge' 'This is a joyful romp through a fascinating slice of medical history' WENDY MOORE, author of 'The Knife Man' _______________________________________________________________ How did an architect help pioneer blood transfusion in the 1660s? Why did eighteenth-century dentists buy the live teeth of poor children? And what role did a sausage skin and an enamel bath play in making kidney transplants a reality? We think of transplant surgery as one of the medical wonders of the modern world. But transplant surgery is as ancient as the pyramids, with a history more surprising than we might expect. Paul Craddock takes us on a journey - from sixteenth-century skin grafting to contemporary stem cell transplants - uncovering stories of operations performed by unexpected people in unexpected places. Bringing together philosophy, science and cultural history, Spare Parts explores how transplant surgery constantly tested the boundaries between human, animal and machine, and continues to do so today. Witty, entertaining and at times delightfully macabre, Spare Parts shows us that the history - and future - of transplant surgery is tied up with questions about not only who we are, but also what we are, and what we might become. . .
Praise for "THE SPECIFIC DENSITY OF SCIENTISTS" As an expert in understanding and defining the cult mentality, David Conn manages, through logic and his strong faith, to explain the inability, or the refusal, of many scientists to separate the spiritual self from the scientifically driven self (in other words, "to bifurcate"). This, he boldly says, is their real path to illumination, to Jesus Christ, the only source of Truth, the creator not only of science, but of the entire universe. Mr. Conn bolsters his case by way of an inarguable and mathematically proven truism. --"Lillian Carucio, author, Humility, A Lost Virtue and the Search for Truth" In his latest book, "THE SPECIFIC DENSITY OF SCIENTISTS," Mr. Conn deals with the cult mentality that has invaded the realm of science and scientists. He explains four major concepts that the unbifurcated wing of science has either refused to consider or has fearfully and illogically swept aside. He exposes the weakness of the unbifurcated scientists, their minions, and the growing majority of a general population who, having themselves been infused with unscientific scientism, see to it that their children, their students, their spouses, and their friends, are also steeped in it. This errant scientism is a mentality that people are unaware of, but that flows in and out of them in torrents through public institutions, workplaces, artistic expressions, and social networks until it reaches a remarkable status of being something that Everybody knows and believes Four major concepts in "THE SPECIFIC DENSITY OF SCIENTISTS" were introduced in Mr. Conn s last book, the Christian science fiction novel, "LEDNORF S DILEMMA." One of these concepts, Grath s Paradox, is a Terminal Corruption Hypothesis. It is tenuous, at best, as analysts attempt to discern whether the United States has or has not reached the point of no return. In this latest book, Mr. Conn says: If the point of no return has not been reached, the only hope for a healthy realignment lies with America s intellectual community and its general citizenry coming to understand that scientists and other intellectuals are wrong to think their brains and education give them special advantages in determining whether or not God exists and participates in the lives of His people. The masses, therefore, should no longer be swayed by scientists who have no special authority in these spiritual matters. It is critical that they pursue the one source of Truth with all their hearts, souls and minds. David Conn was for ten years a lead analyst with Chevron s big environmental laboratory and then joined the Department of Defense as a Quality Control Representative, a liaison among several Naval and Air Force bases and the Defense Department, performing surveillance over chemicals and fuels and the occasional fueling of Air Force One. Aside from "LEDNORF S DILEMMA," David Conn also co-authored "THE CULT THAT DIED" (G. P. Putnam's Sons, New York, 1980).
This book presents a collection of essays that explore the life and works of Tatjana Afanassjewa (1876-1964), a Russian-Dutch physicist-mathematician. Readers will discover a scientist whose work on the foundations of thermodynamics significantly influenced the field itself as well as the philosophy of physics. This book highlights the philosophical consequences of her work in physics and mathematics and discusses historical aspects of her writings on the foundations of physics. In addition, it features English translations and critical reviews of key selections from her texts. First and foremost, the book highlights the numerous contributions that Afanassjewa made to the field. In particular, the authors examine her work on the foundations of thermodynamics and statistical physics, starting in the 1920s and extending to 1956, well after the untimely death of her husband in 1933. They also explore her almost entirely forgotten work on the didactics of mathematics. In addition, they discuss her influential collaboration with her husband, the Austrian physicist Paul Ehrenfest (1880-1933). The portrait that emerges is that of a highly original physicist and mathematician, whose legacy continues to influence scientists and philosophers today and whose lesser-known works deserve more attention than they have received. Readers will find a rich body of work that continues to this day to yield insights into the foundations of physics and mathematics.
Explorer-naturalists Robert Brown and Mungo Park played a pivotal role in the development of natural history and exploration in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. This work is a fresh examination of the lives and careers of Brown and Park and their impact on natural history and exploration. Brown and Park were part of a group of intrepid naturalists who brought back some of the flora and fauna they encountered, drawings of what they observed, and most importantly, their ideas. The educated public back home was able to gain an understanding of the diversity in nature. This eventually led to the development of new ways of regarding the natural world and the eventual development of a coherent theory of organic evolution. This book considers these naturalists, Brown, Park, and their contemporaries, from the perspective of the Scottish Enlightenment. Brown's investigations in natural history created a fertile environment for breakthroughs in taxonomy, cytology, and eventually evolution. Brown's pioneering work in plant taxonomy allowed biologists to look at the animal and plant kingdoms differently. Park's adventures stimulated significant discoveries in exploration. Brown and Park's adventures formed a bridge to such journeys as Charles Darwin's voyage on H.M.S. Beagle, which led to a revolution in biology and full explication of the theory of evolution.
National Science Foundation (NSF) is a unique federal agency because it supports scientific research financially, but does not engage in scientific work itself. Its history is known only in part because the NSF is a vibrant, expanding, and living entity that makes the final telling of its story impossible. Much can be learned from its beginning as well as its component parts. If the founding of the NSF in 1950 was couched in an era of physics, especially atomic physics, certainly by the end of the 20th century and the beginning of the 21st, biology was, and remains, the queen of sciences for the predictable future. This book highlights the elite status of America's biological sciences as they were funded, affected, and, to a very real degree, interactively guided by the NSF. It examines important events in the earlier history of the Foundation because they play strongly upon the development of the various biology directorates. Issues such as education, applied research, medical science, the National Institutes of Health, the beginnings of biotechnology, and other matters are also discussed.
Science and Catholicism in Argentina (1750-1960) is the first comprehensive study on the relationship between science and religion in a Spanish-speaking country with a Catholic majority and a "Latin" pattern of secularisation. The text takes the reader from Jesuit missionary science in colonial times, through the conflict-ridden 19th century, to the Catholic revival of the 1930s in Argentina. The diverse interactions between science and religion revealed in this analysis can be organised in terms of their dynamic of secularisation. The indissoluble identification of science and the secular, which operated at rhetorical and institutional levels among the liberal elite and the socialists in the 19th century, lost part of its force with the emergence of Catholic scientists in the course of the 20th century. In agreement with current views that deny science the role as the driving force of secularisation, this historical study concludes that it was the process of secularisation that shaped the interplay between religion and science, not the other way around.
This book provides insight into research and development of key aerospace materials that have enabled some of the most exciting air and space technologies in recent years. The stories are shared with you by the women who experienced them, those engineers and scientists in the labs, on the shop floors, or on the design teams contributing to the realization of these technologies. Their work contributes to the world in the challenging and vital field of aerospace materials, and their stories seethe with a pride and a passion for the opportunity to make these important contributions. As an important part of the Women in Science and Engineering book series, the work highlights the contribution of women leaders in Aerospace Materials, inspiring women and men, girls and boys to enter and apply themselves to secure our future in an increasingly connected world.
This collection pieces together a wealth of material in order to get inside the experience of scientific practice in the long nineteenth century. It aims to reach, or perhaps to facilitate, an understanding of the ways in which the value of scientific knowledge was produced, lived and challenged. The new turn to the history of experience suggests a logic to the compilation of material that is completely original: the sources are not selected according to the historical success of an idea or experiment, but for the ways in which scientific endeavour loaded knowledge claims with political or moral value, coupled with attendant practical justifications. Thus, 'bad ideas' sit alongside 'good'; now discountenanced practices take their place among the revered. In sum, they reveal an experimental culture that was not merely orientated toward cold knowledge or intellectual output, but defined by shifting sets of affective practices and procedures and the making of expertise out of the lived experience of doing science.
Galileo. Newton. Darwin. These giants are remembered for their great contributions to one of the most important phenomena in world history: science. But what is often forgotten is the profound influence on their lives and works of that other great phenomenon of Western Culture: Christianity. This book, the first volume in the Greenwood Guides to Science and Religion, explores the many ways in which religion—its ideas, attitudes, practices, and institutions—interacted with science from the beginnings of the Scientific Revolution to the end of the 19th century. Infused with the most up-to-date scholarship, the volume is aimed at the nonspecialist audience, explaining in clear language how inextricably linked science and religion have been during most of the last 500 years. While discussing how science and religion occasionally clashed, this volume also explores the positive interactions these two institutions have experienced during this seminal period in Western history. The Christian Humanism of the 16th century promoted the new, utilitarian approach to natural knowledge that distinguishes Modern from Medieval science. The Jesuits were instrumental in the development of the experimental and mathematical sciences during the Scientific Revolution. In the 17th century, the English Puritans advocated alchemical science and their opponents, liberal Anglicans, promoted a new, mechanistic approach to the sciences. The geological advances of the 19th century were often religiously motivated; the discoveries of biblical criticism of the same period were inspired by the science of the day. This volume includes a selection of primary source documents to help readers understand the arguments and beliefs of the people of the time, and an annotated bibliography to assist readers in finding further information on the topics.
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