Best known outside the scientific community for the Nobel Prize in Physics he won in 1991, Pierre-Gilles de Gennes was exceptional amongst scientists for the breadth and depth of his contributions in multiple fields of physics. He was also much ahead of his time in his desire to break down barriers between scientific disciplines and between fundamental and applied science. He was equally unusual in his willingness to explain the nature and purpose of his work to society at large and to young people in particular. Laurence Pl vert's fascinating work retraces the influences and experiences that moulded this complex, charismatic, charming and eclectic genius. It follows him from his unconventional childhood on the fringes of the old French aristocracy and in war-divided France, through his glittering school and early scientific career, up to the revolutionary breakthroughs in fields as diverse as superconductivity, liquid crystals, polymers and soft matter, culminating in the final consecration of the Nobel prize. Constructed from exclusive interviews with the physicist himself, his family, friends and colleagues, this biography immerses us in the work and character of a truly remarkable figure, a Renaissance man of the 20th century.

Extensively researched, this book traces the life and work of Abraham De Moivre as well as the state of probability and statistics in eighteenth-century Britain. It is the first extensive biography of De Moivre and is based on recently discovered material and translations, including some of De Moivre 's letters.

The book begins with discussions on De Moivre 's early life in France and his initial work in pure mathematics with some excursions into celestial mechanics. It then describes his fundamental contributions to probability theory and applications, including those in finance and actuarial science. The author explores how De Moivre 's wide network of personal and professional connections often motivated his research. The book also covers De Moivre 's contemporaries and his impact on the field. Written in a clear, approachable style, this biography will appeal to historians and practitioners of the art of probability and statistics in a wide range of applications, including finance and actuarial science.

From the Wall Street Journal's Tripp Mickle, the dramatic, untold story inside Apple after the passing of Steve Jobs by following his top lieutenants-Jony Ive, the Chief Design Officer, and Tim Cook, the COO-turned-CEO-and how the fading of the former and the rise of the latter led to Apple losing its soul. Steve Jobs called Jony Ive his "spiritual partner at Apple." The London-born genius was the second-most powerful person at Apple and the creative force who most embodies Jobs's spirit, the man who designed the products adopted by hundreds of millions the world over: the iPod, iPad, MacBook Air, the iMac G3, and the iPhone. In the wake of his close collaborator's death, the chief designer wrestled with grief and initially threw himself into his work designing the new Apple headquarters and the Watch before losing his motivation in a company increasingly devoted more to margins than to inspiration. In many ways, Cook was Ive's opposite. The product of a small Alabama town, he had risen through the ranks from the supply side of the company. His gift was not the creation of new products. Instead, he had invented countless ways to maximize a margin, squeezing some suppliers, persuading others to build factories the size of cities to churn out more units. He considered inventory evil. He knew how to make subordinates sweat with withering questions. Jobs selected Cook as his successor, and Cook oversaw a period of tremendous revenue growth that has lifted Apple's valuation to $3 trillion. He built a commanding business in China and rapidly distinguished himself as a master politician who could forge global alliances and send the world's stock market into freefall with a single sentence. Author Tripp Mickle spoke with more than 200 current and former Apple executives, as well as figures key to this period of Apple's history, including Trump administration officials and fashion luminaries such as Anna Wintour while writing After Steve. His research shows the company's success came at a cost. Apple lost its innovative spirit and has not designed a new category of device in years. Ive's departure in 2019 marked a culmination in Apple's shift from a company of innovation to one of operational excellence, and the price is a company that has lost its soul.

Armin G Stromberg was arguably one of the founding fathers of the technique of stripping voltammetry frequently used in chemical analysis, yet he is virtually unheard of in Western scientific circles. He was a brilliant scientist, but due to his German ancestry he was interred in one of the NKVD GULAG camps at the outbreak of the Second World War. This semi-biographical history presents the complete set of 74 surviving letters written by Stromberg to his wife during this period. The letters provide both historians and the interested public with a rare and unique glimpse into the everyday living conditions of inmates in one of the GULAG labour camps. The book also traces Stromberg's life following his release. More importantly, it relates how he founded the thriving Tomsk school to the wider historical context of electroanalysis in the USSR, drawing conclusions about the rate of scientific development as compared to the West and showing how wet analysis' remained of vital importance to industry long after equivalent measurements were made elsewhere. Readers will also appreciate how Stromberg's invaluable contributions in the Tomsk School of Electroanalysis laid the foundations for the extensive metallurgical extraction and nuclear industries that dominated the entire Siberian region for many years. This book is a must-read for anyone interested in the life and times of an important, yet often overlooked scientist of the Second World War.

S Chandrasekhar, popularly known as Chandra, was one of the foremost scientists of the 20th century. The year 2010 marks the birth centenary of Chandra. His unique style of research, inward bound, seeking a personal perspective to master a particular field, and then pass on to another was so unique that it will draw considerable interest and attention among scholars. As Chandra elucidates in the preface, "The various installments describe in detail the evolution of my scientific work during the past forty years and records each investigation, describing the doubts and the successes, the trials and the tribulations. And the parts my various associates and assistants played in the completion of the different investigations are detailed." It is indeed a remarkable and rare document, fascinating to read and experience the joys, frustrations and struggles of a creative mind.

The Skeleton Cupboard is Professor Tanya Byron's account of her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat. Gripping, poignant and full of daring black humour, this book reveals the frightening and challenging induction faced by all mental health staff and highlights their incredible commitment to their patients. Powerfully moving and beautifully written, The Skeleton Cupboard shares the tales of ordinary people with an amazing resilience to the challenges of life.

The forgotten garden that inspired Charles Darwin becomes the modern-day setting for an exploration of memory, family, and the legacy of genius. Darwin's childhood garden at The Mount in Shrewsbury was the site of some of the great scientist's earliest experiments. It was where, under the tutelage of his green-fingered mother and sisters, and the house's knowledgeable gardeners, he first examined the reproductive life of flowers, collected birds' eggs, and began to note down the ideas that would lead to his groundbreaking theory of evolution. In The Ghost in the Garden, Jude Piesse uncovers the lost histories that inspired Darwin's work and how his legacy, and the legacies of those around him, live on today.

Walter Thirring is the last offspring of an Austrian family of scientists. In this moving narrative, he describes how he survived the Nazi occupation and became instrumental in reconstructing European science.Thirring is one of the last living physicists who worked on the greatest discoveries and with the greatest scientists of the 20th century. He recollects encounters with the old masters like Einstein, Schroedinger, Heisenberg, Pauli and others as well as his collaborations with the present stars like Murray Gell-Mann and Elliott Lieb. The book presents the challenges faced when one of the major paradigm shifts took place, namely, the shift away from atomistic theory and Newtonian physics towards field theory and quantum mechanics. Every step is presented in clear, understandable language which reflects Thirring's extensive experience in training the next generation. Additionally, Thirring describes his fascinating and profound life experiences, growing up under Nazi occupation, serving in the war, striving to establish scientific excellence and in reaching out across the Iron Curtain. A true Renaissance man, he concludes by discussing his love of music, and it is clear that his passion for learning is only matched by his passion for music, a sampling of which can be found at .A work that inspires at every junction and is decisively re-readable, Thirring's autobiography is assuredly a must-have for anyone interested in science, physics and history.

"Ants are the most warlike of all animals, with colony pitted against colony," writes E.O. Wilson, one of the world's most beloved scientists, "their clashes dwarf Waterloo and Gettysburg." In Tales from the Ant World, two-time Pulitzer Prize-winner Wilson takes us on a myrmecological tour to such far-flung destinations as Mozambique and New Guinea, the Gulf of Mexico's Dauphin Island and even his parent's overgrown backyard, thrillingly relating his nine-decade-long scientific obsession with over 15,000 ant species. Animating his scientific observations with illuminating personal stories, Wilson hones in on twenty-five ant species to explain how these genetically superior creatures talk, smell, and taste, and more significantly, how they fight to determine who is dominant. Wryly observing that "males are little more than flying sperm missiles" or that ants send their "little old ladies into battle," Wilson eloquently relays his brushes with fire, army, and leafcutter ants, as well as more exotic species. Among them are the very rare Matabele, Africa's fiercest warrior ants, whose female hunters can carry up to fifteen termites in their jaw (and, as Wilson reports from personal experience, have an incredibly painful stinger); Costa Rica's Basiceros, the slowest of all ants; and New Caledonia's Bull Ants, the most endangered of them all, which Wilson discovered in 2011 after over twenty years of presumed extinction. Richly illustrated throughout with depictions of ant species by Kristen Orr, as well as photos from Wilsons' expeditions throughout the world, Tales from the Ant World is a fascinating, if not occasionally hair-raising, personal account by one of our greatest scientists and a necessary volume for any lover of the natural world.

The author of Mind of the Dolphin and Center of the Cyclone tells the story of his astonishing discoveries - from his early experiments mapping the brains of monkeys and communication with dolphins to his awesome breakthroughs with consciousness expanding drugs and isolation tanks. His revelations in The Scientist are staggering - his latest report on the "solid state conspiracy", on communication with extraterrestrials and the imperative of dolphin/human dialog will grip the reader with its sense of cosmic vision. This expanded edition of The Scientist contains "bubbles" of consensus reality - text and photos - in the hyperspace narrative. It includes an introduction by Timothy Leary, an afterward by Burgess Meredith, biographical and bibliographic information. The third edition has an update on John Lilly's work with Human/Dolphin communication and the results of recent reintroduction of captive dolphins and other cetaceans to the wild.

S Chandrasekhar, popularly known as Chandra, was one of the foremost scientists of the 20th century. The year 2010 marks the birth centenary of Chandra. His unique style of research, inward bound, seeking a personal perspective to master a particular field, and then pass on to another was so unique that it will draw considerable interest and attention among scholars. As Chandra elucidates in the preface, "The various installments describe in detail the evolution of my scientific work during the past forty years and records each investigation, describing the doubts and the successes, the trials and the tribulations. And the parts my various associates and assistants played in the completion of the different investigations are detailed." It is indeed a remarkable and rare document, fascinating to read and experience the joys, frustrations and struggles of a creative mind.

This important book is an autobiographical account of doing scientific research in India. It provides an insight to the perseverance of a scientist from a develpong country. His relentless pursuit of excellence in chemistry for more than half a century is a remarkable source of inspiration to young scientists facing modern-day challenges.

This important book is an autobiographical account of doing scientific research in India. It provides an insight to the perseverance of a scientist from a develpong country. His relentless pursuit of excellence in chemistry for more than half a century is a remarkable source of inspiration to young scientists facing modern-day challenges.

Combines the personal life story of Nobel Laureate Prof. Richard R. Ernst with the historical development of his invention, which led to the universally known MRI imaging process in the field of medicine Explains in an unusually open-hearted way the human side of research from its innermost circle, captivating both a general audience and those interested in science Explains the basics of MRI technology in comprehensible, yet lively language Focuses on an ethical approach to science and research for the benefit of society as a whole

This autobiography presents a personal account of the life of a woman academic, over a span of 60 years, from incidents in her childhood, through the education process from primary to pre-university education in British Malaya to two doctorates from University College London. As the story unfolds, it is immediately apparent that her journey in academia has been far from ordinary.She gives credit to the excellent early education she received in Ipoh - a medium-sized town in Malaya - from highly qualified and dedicated nuns and teachers in the Convent of the Holy Infant Jesus. Hers was a career carved out by Providence, as she "drifted" to various international centers of learning, depending on the sponsorship of scholarships available at the time. Her drive and passion for chemistry (actually with other attributes as well) allowed her to rub shoulders with some of the best minds in the field. Her association with numerous colleagues, mentors and scientists, unintentionally and unknowingly, laid the groundwork for a sort of global networking, which in turn influenced her career path in subtle yet significant ways. This proved immensely useful later as she balanced the rigorous demands of teaching, research and family. She has shown that it is not impossible for a woman to make a success of family and life in academia.Indeed, her story will encourage young women venturing into science and academia. It also shows that developing countries - more than their developed counterparts - have a good deal to gain from their professional citizens by removing obstacles such as unduly early mandatory retirement and poor support for active researchers. It is a refreshing glimpse into the author's generation in science and academia and a repository of important insights for students and scientists in developing and emerging economies.

The year 2008 marks the 150th birth anniversary of Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose who, at a relatively young age, established himself among the ranks of European scientists during the heyday of colonial rule in India. He was one of those great Indian scientists who helped to introduce western science into India. A physicist, a plant electrophysiologist and one of the first few biophysicists in the world, Sir J C Bose was easily 60 years ahead of his time and much of his research that was ignored during his lifetime is now entering the mainstream. As the inventor of millimeter waves and their generation, transmission and reception, and the first to make a solid state diode, he was the first scientist who convincingly demonstrated that plants possess a nervous system of their own and "feel" pain. J C Bose later spent his life's savings to set up the Institute which carries his name in Calcutta and Darjeeling.This book covers Bose's life in colonial India, including the general patriotic environment that pervaded at the time and how he became one of the flag bearers of the Bengal Renaissance. It also examines the scientific achievements of this polymath and his contributions to physics and plant electrophysiology, while highlighting his philosophy of life.

This is the biography of controversial and flamboyant nineteenth century doctor Francis Tumblety. The doctor's exploits include arrests for complicity in the Lincoln assassination, for selling abortion drugs, for killing patients, and for indecent assault, and scrutiny as a possible suspect in the "Jack the Ripper" murders. Tumblety's sheen of respectability appeared crafted to cover his homosexuality and his provocative fields of practice.

"Transformative...[Taylor's] experience...will shatter [your] own perception of the world."-ABC News The astonishing New York Times bestseller that chronicles how a brain scientist's own stroke led to enlightenment On December 10, 1996, Jill Bolte Taylor, a thirty-seven- year-old Harvard-trained brain scientist experienced a massive stroke in the left hemisphere of her brain. As she observed her mind deteriorate to the point that she could not walk, talk, read, write, or recall any of her life-all within four hours-Taylor alternated between the euphoria of the intuitive and kinesthetic right brain, in which she felt a sense of complete well-being and peace, and the logical, sequential left brain, which recognized she was having a stroke and enabled her to seek help before she was completely lost. It would take her eight years to fully recover. For Taylor, her stroke was a blessing and a revelation. It taught her that by "stepping to the right" of our left brains, we can uncover feelings of well-being that are often sidelined by "brain chatter." Reaching wide audiences through her talk at the Technology, Entertainment, Design (TED) conference and her appearance on Oprah's online Soul Series, Taylor provides a valuable recovery guide for those touched by brain injury and an inspiring testimony that inner peace is accessible to anyone.

Although his name has become a household word after he published "The Origin of the Species," a one-volume edition of his writings that covers the full gamut of his theoretical as well as scientific writings has not been available for many years. "Charles Darwin: An Anthology," covers the heart of the five books for which the author is best known. This readable volume includes "The Autobiography, The Voyage of the Beagle, The Origin of the Species, The Descent of Man," and "The Expression of the Emotion."

The volume also includes parts of Darwin's less well-known works. Although it was published last chronologically, "The Autobiography" is an ideal beginning to the volume. A new introduction by the noted anthropologist Lionel Tiger underlines the continuing importance of Darwin's thinking, and explains why it still infl uences contemporary scholarship in many fi elds.

These selections have not been rewritten--they are pure Darwin. The dull and the unessential have been eliminated. What remains is material that best illustrates Darwin's most important and interesting ideas. Th e selection manages as well to retain his most readable prose, while presenting the fundamentals of Darwin's revolutionary thought. Collectively, the volume paints a picture of an immensely curious and indefatigable mind. This volume also includes a critical bibliography that will prove valuable to those interested in further reading.

"Marston Bates" (1906-1974) was an American zoologist. His studies on mosquitoes led to the understanding of the causes of yellow fever in South America. He is the author of numerous science books including "The Land and Wildlife of South America" and "The Nature of Natural History."

"Philip S. Humphrey" is Curator Emeritus and former Director of the Natural History Museum at the University of Kansas.

"Lionel Tiger" is Charles Darwin Professor of Anthropology at Rutgers University. He is the author of "The Decline of Males, Optimism, The Pursuit of Pleasure, China's Food, The Manufacture of Evil, Men in Groups," and with Robin Fox, "The Imperial Animal." He directs the anthropology publishing eff ort at Transaction Publishers.

'I was born in Washington, DC, June 13, 1931, of parents who immigrated from Russia shortly after the first world war. Home was the inner city of Washington - a small apartment atop my parents' grocery store on First and Seaton Street. During my childhood, Washington was a segregated city, and I lived in the midst of a poor, black neighborhood. Life on the streets was often perilous. Indoor reading was my refuge and, twice a week, I made the hazardous bicycle trek to the central library at Seventh and K streets to stock up on supplies'. Irvin Yalom is a gifted and lyrical writer whose memoir traces his life, from the apartment above his parents' grocery store to a world stage via the intimacy of his consulting room. The memoir includes his self-analysis and is interwoven with vignettes from patients whose stories have played such a central role in his life. For his legion of fans, and anyone interested in the human psyche, this book is not to be missed.

Imagine going from neurologist to dermatologist, orthopaedic surgeon to obstetrician, assassin to saviour - all in one day. Welcome to the extraordinary world of veterinary medicine... In Never Work with Animals, vet Gareth Steel shares the moments of humour, horror and heroism across his 20-year career caring for creatures great and small, from bulls to stick insects. Thought-provoking, heartwarming and often laugh-out-loud funny, this unforgettable memoir reveals what life is really like for our vets.

Learn about the boy who - could read and add numbers when he was three years old, - thwarted his teacher by finding a quick and easy way to sum the numbers 1-100, - attracted the attention of a Duke with his genius, and became the man who... - predicted the reappearance of a lost planet, - discovered basic properties of magnetic forces, - invented a surveying tool used by professionals until the invention of lasers. Based on extensive research of original and secondary sources, this historical narrative will inspire young readers and even curious adults with its touching story of personal achievement.

In this "heartrending, passionate, and surprisingly humorous account of the conjunction between art and death" (Andrew Solomon, New York Times bestselling author), acclaimed opera singer Charity Tillemann-Dick recounts her remarkable journey from struggling to draw a single breath to singing at the most prestigious venues in the world after receiving not one but two double lung transplants. Charity Tillemann-Dick was a vivacious young American soprano studying at the celebrated Franz Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest when she received devastating news: her lungs were failing, her heart was three and a half sizes too big, and she would die within five years. Medical experts advised Charity to abandon her musical dreams, but if her time was running out, she wanted to spend it doing what she loved. In just three years, she endured two double lung transplants and had to slowly learn to breathe, walk, talk, eat, and sing again. With new lungs and fierce determination, she eventually fell in love, rebuilt her career, and reclaimed her life. More than a decade after her diagnosis, she has a chart-topping album, performs around the globe, and is a leading voice for organ donation. Weaving Charity's extraordinary tale of triumph with those of opera's greatest heroines, The Encore illuminates the indomitable human spirit and is "an uplifting story of overcoming significant odds to fulfill a dream" (Kirkus Reviews).

Imagining the Elephant is a biography of Allan MacLeod Cormack, a physicist who was awarded the Nobel Prize for Medicine in 1979 for his pioneering contributions to the development of the computer-assisted tomography (CAT) scanner, an honor he shared with Godfrey Hounsfield. A modest genius who was also a dedicated family man, the book is a celebration of Cormack's life and work. It begins with his ancestral roots in the far north of Scotland, and then chronicles his birth and early years in South Africa, his education at the University of Cape Town (UCT) and Cambridge University, and his subsequent academic appointments at UCT and Tufts University in Boston, USA. It details his discovery of the problem at Cape Town in 1956, traces his scientific footsteps all the way to Stockholm in December 1979, and then extends the odyssey to his pursuits beyond the Nobel Prize.