The twentieth century is the period during which the history of Greek mathematics reached its greatest acme. Indeed, it is by no means exaggerated to say that Greek mathematics represents the unique field from the wider domain of the general history of science which was included in the research agenda of so many and so distinguished scholars, from so varied scientific communities (historians of science, historians of philosophy, mathematicians, philologists, philosophers of science, archeologists etc. ), while new scholarship of the highest quality continues to be produced. This volume includes 19 classic papers on the history of Greek mathematics that were published during the entire 20th century and affected significantly the state of the art of this field. It is divided into six self-contained sections, each one with its own editor, who had the responsibility for the selection of the papers that are republished in the section, and who wrote the introduction of the section. It constitutes a kind of a Reader book which is today, one century after the first publications of Tannery, Zeuthen, Heath and the other outstanding figures of the end of the 19th and the beg- ning of 20th century, rather timely in many respects.

The acclaimed author of In Search of Schrodinger's Cat searches for life on other planets Are we alone in the universe? Surely amidst the immensity of the cosmos there must be other intelligent life out there. Don't be so sure, says John Gribbin, one of today's best popular science writers. In this fascinating and intriguing new book, Gribbin argues that the very existence of intelligent life anywhere in the cosmos is, from an astrophysicist's point of view, a miracle. So why is there life on Earth and (seemingly) nowhere else? What happened to make this planet special? Taking us back some 600 million years, Gribbin lets you experience the series of unique cosmic events that were responsible for our unique form of life within the Milky Way Galaxy. Written by one of our foremost popular science writers, author of the bestselling In Search of Schrodinger's Cat Offers a bold answer to the eternal question, "Are we alone in the universe?" Explores how the impact of a "supercomet" with Venus 600 million years ago created our moon, and along with it, the perfect conditions for life on Earth From one of our most talented science writers, this book is a daring, fascinating exploration into the dawning of the universe, cosmic collisions and their consequences, and the uniqueness of life on Earth.

Death by Euphoria. Dysgenics. Population Death Spiral. Genetic Superhumans. Geomagnetic Reversal. Galactic Collision. Strangelets. Whether we like it or not, everything's going to come to a pretty unpleasant halt on our planet at some point in the future. What we don't know is what form our extinction is likely to take. In this accessible and entertaining book, acclaimed writer Alok Jha explains the head-spinning apocalyptic science behind 50 horrifying doomsday scenarios.

The ability is see is fundamental to our very existence. How true our perceptions really are depends upon many factors, and not least is our understanding of what light is and how it interacts with matter. It was said that the camera, the icon of light recording instruments, never lies, and in the day of the glass plate and celluloid roll-film this might well have been true. But in this modern era, with electronic cameras and computer software, it is often safe to assume that the camera always lies. The advertising images that bombard our every waking moment are manipulated in shape, profile, color, and form. In this new era, light can be manipulated with metamaterials to make one object look like another or even cause that objects to vanish, literally before our eyes; not only can the image we see be manipulated, but so can the light itself.

This highly informative and fascinating book brings together perspectives on sound by leading experts from a wide variety of disciplines. These include anthropology, physiology, zoology, physics, music, phonetics and film. Through crossing disciplinary boundaries, the volume hopes to inspire a richer and more creative approach to the acoustic world. Whilst aiming for a general audience and presented in an accessible style, several chapters also represent important contributions within their own disciplines or will serve as core texts for students. The sequence of nine chapters passes from cultural perspectives on silence, via the physics of sound, physiology of the ear, songs of birds, and sounds of human speech, to music. From the reconstruction of medieval music, via twentieth-century composition and the music of the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, the volume concludes with the role of sound in film. Life will never sound the same again.

The Soviet-American race to land the first man on the Moon was a technical challenge unlike anything in modern human history. BBC Aerospace Correspondent Reginald Turnill covered the story, and his reports were heard and seen by millions worldwide. With unparalleled access to the politicians, scientists, and technicians involved in the race to the Moon, Turnill knew all the early astronauts--Alan Shepard, John Glenn, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin--as they pioneered the techniques that made the Moon landings possible. He became a friend of Dr. Wernher von Braun, the German rocket pioneer and mastermind behind the technology. Turnill's unique eyewitness account of one of the most thrilling adventures of the twentieth century is clearly written and is packed with action and drama, making this a fascinating read for all those interested in the story of the race to the Moon. Reginald Turnill started work in Fleet Street at the age of 15, and by 19 he was covering the national news as a Press Association staff reporter. After joining the BBC in 1956 he covered the launch of Sputnik 1 and found it so exciting that he made space reporting his speciality. As the BBC Aerospace Correspondent, Turnill spent the rest of his career covering all the manned space missions as well as planetary missions like Mariner, Pioneer, Viking, and Voyager. Since leaving the BBC staff, Turnill has continued to broadcast and write on space, and he created the first spaceflight directory. Turnill is the only non-American to have been presented with NASA's Chroniclers Award for contributions to public understanding of the space program.

This is a study and translation of the Zhou bi suan jing, a Chinese work on astronomy and mathematics which reached its final form around the first century AD. The author provides the first easily accessible introduction to the developing mathematical and observational practices of ancient Chinese astronomers and shows how the generation and validation of knowledge about the heavens in Han dynasty China related closely to developments in statecraft and politics. The book will be of equal interest to historians of science and those studying the history of Chinese culture.

'The physicist transforming how we see the universe' (Financial Times) 'An utter joy' (Adam Rutherford) 'A hugely engaging book... Rovelli is a charming, thought-provoking tour guide' (Manjit Kumar Prospect) Do space and time truly exist? What is reality made of? Can we understand its deep texture? Scientist Carlo Rovelli has spent his whole life exploring these questions and pushing the boundaries of what we know. In this mind-expanding book, he shows how our understanding of reality has changed throughout centuries, from Democritus to loop quantum gravity. Taking us on a wondrous journey, he invites us to imagine a whole new world where black holes are waiting to explode, spacetime is made up of grains, and infinity does not exist -- a vast universe still largely undiscovered. Translated by Simon Carnell and Erica Segre

Evolution is a fundamental process that cuts across boundaries of art and science and has beguiled thinkers for ages. This collection of articles about all aspects of evolution is a feast of challenging ideas, drawing together world-renowned thinkers and communicators with their own intriguing insights. This impressive cast of contributors takes on such questions as: Why and how do civilizations and societies change over time? Why do our cells develop the way they do? Why are some villages still villages while others have grown into vast cities? Can we learn from our evolutionary past to plan a better future for our health and society? Tracing the history of biological evolution, through the evolution of cultures, society, science and the universe, contributors such as Stephen Jay Gould, Freeman Dyson, and Martin Rees address these mysteries by considering parallels from all levels of life. From the evolution of the embryo to the evolution of a star, common threads emerge to tell a fascinating story with surprising implications.

This engaging volume for the general reader explores how individuals and societies remember, forget and commemorate events of the past. The collection of eight essays takes an interdisciplinary approach to address the relationships between individual experience and collective memory, with leading experts from the arts and sciences. We might expect scientists to be concerned with studying just the mental and physical processes involved in remembering, and humanities scholars to be interested in the products of memory, such as books, statues and music. This collection exposes the falseness of such a dichotomy, illustrating the insights into memory which can be gained by juxtaposing the complementary perspectives of specialists venturing beyond the normal boundaries of their disciplines. The authors come from backgrounds as diverse as psychoanalysis, creative writing, neuroscience, social history and medicine.

Consciousness is our gateway to experience: it enables us to recognize Van Gogh's starry skies, be enraptured by Beethoven's Fifth, and stand in awe of a snowcapped mountain. Yet consciousness is subjective, personal, and famously difficult to examine: philosophers have for centuries declared this mental entity so mysterious as to be impenetrable to science. In The Ravenous Brain , neuroscientist Daniel Bor departs sharply from this historical view, and builds on the latest research to propose a new model for how consciousness works. Bor argues that this brain-based faculty evolved as an accelerated knowledge gathering tool. Consciousness is effectively an idea factory- that choice mental space dedicated to innovation, a key component of which is the discovery of deep structures within the contents of our awareness. This model explains our brains' ravenous appetite for information- and in particular, its constant search for patterns. Why, for instance, after all our physical needs have been met, do we recreationally solve crossword or Sudoku puzzles? Such behaviour may appear biologically wasteful, but, according to Bor, this search for structure can yield immense evolutionary benefits- it led our ancestors to discover fire and farming, pushed modern society to forge ahead in science and technology, and guides each one of us to understand and control the world around us. But the sheer innovative power of human consciousness carries with it the heavy cost of mental fragility. Bor discusses the medical implications of his theory of consciousness, and what it means for the origins and treatment of psychiatric ailments, including attention-deficit disorder, schizophrenia, manic depression, and autism. All mental illnesses, he argues, can be reformulated as disorders of consciousness- a perspective that opens up new avenues of treatment for alleviating mental suffering. A controversial view of consciousness, The Ravenous Brain links cognition to creativity in an ingenious solution to one of science's biggest mysteries.

Understanding Catastrophe examines the immense and varied impact that catastrophic change can have on the development of life on earth. Opening with a remarkable account of supernovae and the nature of stellar catastrophe, it then examines the way evolution itself can proceed through genetic jumps of catastrophic proportions. The primal forces of the earth, manifested in such natural catastrophes as earthquakes and cyclones, and the devastating impact these can have even today on human populations across the world receive extended scrutiny as does the power of famine historically in determining the future of humankind. To conclude, a fascinating final chapter on changing medical and social attitudes to epidemic diseases such as tuberculosis offers--in the age of AIDS particularly--some unsettling insights into our fundamental incapacity when confronted by major threats to life and health. The book originates in the fifth annual series of Darwin College Lectures, delivered in Cambridge in 1990 under the title 'Catastrophes'. The contributors include Robert Kirshner on Stellar Catastrophe; Walter Alvarez on the Extinction of the Dinosaurs; Martin Rudwick on Darwin and Catastrophe; Christopher Zeeman on Catastrophe and Evolution; Claudio Vita Finzi on Earthquakes; Nicholas Cook on Storms and Cyclones; Peter Garnsey on Famine and History; and Roy Porter on Changing Attitudes to Disease.

Telecommunications is a major global industry, and this unique book chronicles the development of this complex technology from the electric telegraph to the Internet in a simple, accessible, and entertaining way. The book opens with the early years of the electric telegraph. The reader will learn how the Morse telegraph evolved into an international network that spanned the globe, starting with the development of international undersea cables, and the heroic attempts to lay a trans-Atlantic cable. The book describes the events that led to the invention of the telephone, and the subsequent disputes over who had really invented it. It takes a look at some of the most important applications that have appeared on the Internet, the mobile revolution, and ends with a discussion of future key developments in the telecommunications industry.

Collecting curiosities was a gentlemanly occupation for wealthy and educated 18th-century Europeans. Few creatures aroused more curiosity than those from Australia. But collections demand organisation, and classification itself reveals patterns to life that cannot be ignored. From a leisurely occupation, the science of biology was born. Cabinets de curiosites became national museums, with specimens from Australia playing an integral role in all kinds of biological debates. Australian museums now foster their own research and continue to provide major and sometimes unexpected perspectives to international scientific developments. Continent of Curiosities follows the thread of individual natural history stories through the scientists of one of Australia's oldest museums, Museum Victoria. Together, these stories weave a history of the development of biological science from an Australian perspective, with insights into the people and places that influence the way we see and understand the natural world around us.

Can a Christian escape from a lion? How quickly can a rumour spread? Can you fool an airline into accepting oversize baggage? Recreational mathematics is full of frivolous questions where the mathematician's art can be brought to bear. But play often has a purpose. In mathematics, it can sharpen skills, provide amusement, or simply surprise, and books of problems have been the stock-in-trade of mathematicians for centuries. This collection is designed to be sipped from, rather than consumed in one sitting. The questions range in difficulty: the most challenging offer a glimpse of deep results that engage mathematicians today; even the easiest prompt readers to think about mathematics. All come with solutions, many with hints, and most with illustrations. Whether you are an expert, or a beginner or an amateur mathematician, this book will delight for a lifetime.

Boeing's 737 is indisputably the most popular and arguably the safest commercial airliner in the world. But the plane had a lethal flaw, and only after several disastrous crashes and years of painstaking investigation was the mystery of its rudder failure solved. This book tells the story of how engineers and scientists finally uncovered the defect that had been engineered into the plane. One of its novel features is that it portrays the complex interaction of different experts and opposing interests in investigating and solving the mystery of this single crash.

Is lowering your temperature when you have a fever helpful? Do you really need to finish every course of antibiotics? Or could some of the treatments you think are healing you actually be harming you? Medicine has significantly advanced in the last few decades. But while we have learned a lot, we still rely on medical interventions that are vastly out of date and can adversely affect our health. In this game-changing book, infectious-disease expert and Rotavirus vaccine inventor Dr Offit highlights fifteen common medical interventions still recommended and practised by medical professionals, despite clear evidence that they are harmful - including the treatment of acid reflux in babies and the reliance on heart stents and knee surgery. By presenting medical alternatives, Overkill gives patients invaluable information to help them ask their doctors better questions and to advocate for their own health.

The discoveries of neutral currents and of the W and Z bosons marked a watershed in the history of CERN. They established the validity of the electroweak theory and convinced the physicists of the importance of renormalizable non-Abelian gauge theories of the fundamental interactions. The articles collected in this book have been written by distinguished physicists who contributed in a crucial way to these developments. The book is a historical account of those discoveries and of the construction and the testing of the standard model. It also reports on the future of particle physics and provides an updated status report on the LHC and its detectors being currently built at CERN. The book addresses readers interested in particle physics including the educated public.

The Global Water Partnership notes that the crisis in the water sector is a one of governance. Water management is an integral part of ecosystem governance and is closely linked to the sustainable development discourse. This book unpacks the core elements of governance, with a specific focus on water. It analyzes the linkages between key variables in an effort to increase our understanding of what makes governance good.

Beam is the story of the race to make the laser, the three intense years from the birth of the laser idea to its breakthrough demonstration in a California laboratory. The quest was a struggle against physics, established wisdom, and the establishment itself. In 1954, Charles Townes invented the laser's microwave cousin, the maser. The next logical step was to extend the same physical principles to the shorter wavelengths of light, but the idea did not catch fire until October 1957, when Townes asked Gordon Gould about Gould's research on using light to excite thallium atoms. Each took the idea and ran with it. The independent-minded Gould sought the fortune of an independent inventor; the professorial Townes sought the fame of scientific recognition. Townes enlisted the help of his brother-in-law, Arthur Schawlow, and got Bell Labs into the race. Gould turned his ideas into a patent borth ation and a million-dollar defense contract. They soon had company. Ali Javan, one of Townes's former students, began pulling 90-hour weeks at Bell Labs with colleague Bill Bennett. And far away in California a bright young physicist named Ted Maiman became a very dark horse in the race. While Schawlow proclaimed that ruby could never make a laser, Maiman slowly convinced himself it would. As others struggled with recalcitrant equipment and military secrecy, Maiman built a tiny and elegant device that fit in the palm of his hand. His ruby laser worked the first time he tried it, on May 16, 1960, but afterwards he had to battle for acceptance as the man who made the first laser. Beam is a fascinating tale of a remarkable and powerful invention that has become a symbol of modern technology.

This is a fascinating and enjoyable popular science book on gravity and black holes. It offers an absorbing account on the history of research on the universe and gravity from Aristotle via Copernicus via Newton to Einstein. The author possesses high literary qualities and is celebrated relativist. The physics of black holes constitutes one of the most fascinating chapters in modern science. At the same time, there is a fanciful quality associated with this strange and beautiful entity. The black hole story is undoubtedly an adventure through physics, philosophy, history, fiction and fantasy. This book is an attempt to blend all these elements together.

This entertaining book seeks to unravel an array of pricing puzzles from the one captured in the book 's title to why so many prices end with "9" (as in $2.99 or $179). Along the way, the author explains how the 9/11 terrorists have, through the effects of their heinous acts on the relative prices of various modes of travel, killed more Americans since 9/11 than they killed that fateful day. He also explains how well-meaning efforts to spur the use of alternative, supposedly environmentally friendly fuels have starved millions of people around the world and given rise to the deforestation of rainforests in Malaysia and Indonesia.

Think of a number between one and ten. No, hang on, let's make this interesting. Between zero and infinity. Even if you stick to the whole numbers, there are a lot to choose from - an infinite number in fact. Throw in decimal fractions and infinity suddenly gets an awful lot bigger (is that even possible?) And then there are the negative numbers, the imaginary numbers, the irrational numbers like pi which never end. It literally never ends. The world of numbers is indeed strange and beautiful. Among its inhabitants are some really notable characters - pi, e, the "imaginary" number i and the famous golden ratio to name just a few. Prime numbers occupy a special status. Zero is very odd indeed: is it a number, or isn't it? How Numbers Work takes a tour of this mind-blowing but beautiful realm of numbers and the mathematical rules that connect them. Not only that, but take a crash course on the biggest unsolved problems that keep mathematicians up at night, find out about the strange and unexpected ways mathematics influences our everyday lives, and discover the incredible connection between numbers and reality itself. ABOUT THE SERIES New Scientist Instant Expert books are definitive and accessible entry points to the most important subjects in science; subjects that challenge, attract debate, invite controversy and engage the most enquiring minds. Designed for curious readers who want to know how things work and why, the Instant Expert series explores the topics that really matter and their impact on individuals, society, and the planet, translating the scientific complexities around us into language that's open to everyone, and putting new ideas and discoveries into perspective and context.

Information and Its Role in Nature presents an in-depth interdisciplinary discussion of the concept of information and its role in the control of natural processes. After a brief review of classical and quantum information theory, the author addresses numerous central questions, including: Is information reducible to the laws of physics and chemistry? Does the Universe, in its evolution, constantly generate new information? Or are information and information-processing exclusive attributes of living systems, related to the very definition of life? If so, what is the role of information in classical and quantum physics? In what ways does information-processing in the human brain bring about self-consciousness? Accessible to graduate students and professionals from all scientific disciplines, this stimulating book will help to shed light on many controversial issues at the heart of modern science.

Offers an eye-opening and revealing look into an interpersonal/scientific conflict involving the 'Father of Modern Soil Mechanics' Karl von Terzaghi.

Exemplifies the 'human side' of science in which, sometimes, the prominence of a theorist and the inertia of the 'accepted wisdom' can inhibit progress and rational discussion of the facts.

More than 100 illustrations combine with historical details in the text to evoke a vivid picture of the lost era of pre-WWII Vienna.