As a practising mortician, Caitlin Doughty has long been fascinated by our pervasive terror of dead bodies. In From Here to Eternity she sets out in search of cultures unburdened by such fears. With curiosity and morbid humour, Doughty introduces us to inspiring death-care innovators, participates in powerful death practices almost entirely unknown in the West and explores new spaces for mourning - including a futuristic glowing-Buddha columbarium in Japan, a candlelit Mexican cemetery, and America's only open-air pyre. In doing so she expands our sense of what it means to treat the dead with 'dignity' and reveals unexpected possibilities for our own death rituals.

In this detailed and meticulously researched account of the life and work of Charles Michell, the first surveyor-general and civil engineer of the South African Cape Colony, author Gordon Richings examines in depth, the many interests and achievements of the man, as well as the essence of the time in which he lived, by referring to unpublished personal diaries, sketchbooks and letters. Born in Exeter, Devon in 1793, Michell showed artistic talent at a young age, but due to family circumstances, joined the British Army and served with distinction in the Napoleonic Wars in Portugal. He came to the Cape in 1829 and for the next twenty years played a crucial role in opening up the Cape interior to economic development and expansion, by designing roads, bridges and mountain passes, including Sir Lowry's, the Houw Hoek, Montagu and Michell's Passes. He also suggested improvements to Table Bay Harbour and designed lighthouses at Mouille Point, Cape Agulhas and Cape Recife in an effort to protect shipping along the Cape's notorious coastline. This first biography of Charles Michell is lavishly illustrated with his sketches, watercolours and engravings of Cape scenery, plants, insects and rock paintings, as well as Cape personalities, maps of the colony and architectural plans - the majority of which are published for the first time. New light is shed on the socio-economic life at the Cape, particularly the Tsitsikamma region of the southern Cape, the Frontier War of 1834-35, as well as on the personalities of Michell's colleagues and contemporaries in England and at the Cape.

Fresh out of training, Dr. Chuck Radis moves with his wife and daughter to Peaks Island, Maine, to fulfill a Public Health scholarship obligation. Absent-minded and initially oblivious to island mores, Dr. Radis slowly adapts to a medical practice where x-rays and advanced laboratory testing are available only on the mainland. When he travels to the outer islands of Casco Bay for house calls, he relies on his physical examination skills and a tackle box of emergency medications to successfully manage his patients. With stories ranging from hilarious to heart breaking, Go by Boat is a respite from contemporary living, immersing the reader in the distinct culture of Maine island communities. Come along with Dr. Radis as he finds acceptance and friendship on the hardscrabble islands of Casco Bay.

This biography provides a stimulating and coherent blend of scientific and personal narratives describing the many achievements of the theoretical physicist Herbert Froehlich. For more than half a century, Froehlich was an internationally renowned and much respected figure who exerted a decisive influence, often as a 'man ahead of his time', in fields as diverse as meson theory and biology. Although best known for his contributions to the theory of dielectrics and superconductivity, he worked in many other fields, his most important legacy being the pioneering introduction quantum field-theoretical methods into condensed matter physics in 1952, which revolutionised the subsequent development of the subject. Gerard Hyland has written an absorbing and informative account, in which Herbert Froehlich's magnetic personality shines through.

A remarkable account of Kurt Goedel, weaving together creative genius, mental illness, political corruption, and idealism in the face of the turmoil of war and upheaval. At age 24, a brilliant Austrian-born mathematician published a mathematical result that shook the world. Nearly a hundred years after Kurt Goedel's famous 1931 paper "On Formally Undecidable Propositions" appeared, his proof that every mathematical system must contain propositions that are true - yet never provable within that system - continues to pose profound questions for mathematics, philosophy, computer science, and artificial intelligence. His close friend Albert Einstein, with whom he would walk home every day from Princeton's famous Institute for Advanced Study, called him "the greatest logician since Aristotle." He was also a man who felt profoundly out of place in his time, rejecting the entire current of 20th century philosophical thought in his belief that mathematical truths existed independent of the human mind, and beset by personal demons of anxiety and paranoid delusions that would ultimately lead to his tragic end from self-starvation. Drawing on previously unpublished letters, diaries, and medical records, Journey to the Edge of Reason offers the most complete portrait yet of the life of one of the 20th century's greatest thinkers. Stephen Budiansky's account brings to life the remarkable world of philosophical and mathematical creativity of pre-war Vienna, and documents how it was barbarically extinguished by the Nazis. He charts Goedel's own hair's-breadth escape from Nazi Germany to the scholarly idyll of Princeton; and the complex, gently humorous, sensitive, and tormented inner life of this iconic but previously enigmatic giant of modern science. Weaving together Goedel's public and private lives, this is a tale of creative genius, mental illness, political corruption, and idealism in the face of the turmoil of war and upheaval.

THE NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER. An unorthodox guide to making things worth making, from 'the father of the iPod and iPhone' and the creator of Nest. Everyone deserves a mentor. For every career crisis, every fork in the road, you need someone to talk to. Someone who's been there before, who knows exactly how wobbly and conflicted you feel, who can give it to you straight: Here's how to think about choosing a job. Here's how to be a better manager. Here's how to approach design. Here's how to start a company. Here's how to run it. Tony Fadell learned all these lessons the hard way. He spent the first 10 years of his career in Silicon Valley failing spectacularly, and the next 20 building some of the most impactful devices in history - the iPod, iPhone, and Nest Learning Thermostat. He has enough stories and advice about leadership, design, startups, mentorship, decision making, devastating screwups, and unbelievable success to fill an encyclopedia. So that's what this book is. An advice encyclopedia. A mentor in a box. But Tony's doesn't follow the standard Silicon Valley credo that you have to radically reinvent everything you do. His advice is unorthodox because it's old school. Because it's based on human nature, not gimmicks. Tony keeps things simple: he just tells you what works. He gives you exactly what you need to make things worth making. PRAISE FOR BUILD 'This is the most fun - and the most fascinating - memoir of curiosity and invention that I've ever read.' Malcolm Gladwell, Host of the Revisionist History podcast. Author of Outliers and Talking to Strangers. 'Whether you're looking to build a great product, a creative team, a strong culture, or a meaningful career, Tony's guidance will get you thinking and rethinking.' Adam Grant, Author of Think Again & Host of the TED podcast WorkLife

Published in 1994: This book is to commemorate the one hundredth anniversary of Heinrich Hertz's death at the terribly young age of thirty-six. The introductory biography together with eleven papers by Hertz and seven about him are intended to highlight the importance of Hertz's contributions to physics and at the same time to serve the needs of anyone interested in doing research on this highly gifted scientist.

No one expected this journey. Jessica Carmel was born with a severe congenital heart condition. At four days old, her parents learned she would need heart surgery. They had no idea that her future held multiple surgeries and even more unexpected challenges. Fast-forward sixteen years. As Jessica sat in her cardiologist's office for a routine checkup, he told her and her mom that there was nothing more he could do for her. Jessica needed a heart transplant. Three weeks later, Jessica underwent heart transplant surgery. Her recovery was long, but good. Feeling healthier than ever, she went on to graduate high school and college. Soon after her college graduation,however, she began to feel "off." She visited the emergency room for what she thought was severe stomach pain, but it turned out her heart was the real issue. She was admitted to the hospital to relieve fluid, and a couple of days into her stay, a transplant nephrologist informed her she was going to need a kidney transplant. Nearly ten years had passed since Jessica had received her heart transplant, and now she was in desperate need for a kidney. Her only hope to survive was her hero and sister, Amy. Amy came through-right away, she agreed to offer up one of her kidneys. Now, it wasn't enough that Jessica's mom was going to see one daughter off to the operating room, as she had done with Jessica many times before. She would be seeing both her daughters heading into surgery. In The Hearts of a Girl, Jessica shares that story and the story of her many years of struggle to survive and thrive after a long history of challenging surgeries. It's a story that informs and inspires.

Tracy Kidder is a winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the author of the bestsellers The Soul of a New Machine, House, Among Schoolchildren, and Home Town. He has been described by the "Baltimore "Sun as the "master of the non-fiction narrative." This powerful and inspiring new book shows how one person can make a difference, as Kidder tells the true story of a gifted man who is in love with the world and has set out to do all he can to cure it.
At the center of Mountains Beyond Mountains stands Paul Farmer. Doctor, Harvard professor, renowned infectious-disease specialist, anthropologist, the recipient of a MacArthur "genius" grant, world-class Robin Hood, Farmer was brought up in a bus and on a boat, and in medical school found his life's calling: to diagnose and cure infectious diseases and to bring the lifesaving tools of modern medicine to those who need them most. This magnificent book shows how radical change can be fostered in situations that seem insurmountable, and it also shows how a meaningful life can be created, as Farmer--brilliant, charismatic, charming, both a leader in international health and a doctor who finds time to make house calls in Boston and the mountains of Haiti--blasts through convention to get results.
Mountains Beyond Mountains takes us from Harvard to Haiti, Peru, Cuba, and Russia as Farmer changes minds and practices through his dedication to the philosophy that "the only real nation is humanity" - a philosophy that is embodied in the small public charity he founded, Partners In Health. He enlists the help of the Gates Foundation, George Soros, the U.N.'s World Health Organization, and others in his quest to cure the world. At the heart of this bookis the example of a life based on hope, and on an understanding of the truth of the Haitian proverb "Beyond mountains there are mountains": as you solve one problem, another problem presents itself, and so you go on and try to solve that one too.
"Mountains Beyond Mountains unfolds with the force of a gathering revelation," says Annie Dillard, and Jonathan Harr says, "[Farmer] wants to change the world. Certainly this luminous and powerful book will change the way you see it."

"From the Hardcover edition.

This is a revealing account of the family life and achievements of the Third Earl of Rosse, a hereditary peer and resident landlord at Birr Castle, County Offaly, in nineteenth-century Ireland, before, during and after the devastating famine of the 1840s. He was a remarkable engineer, who built enormous telescopes in the cloudy middle of Ireland. The book gives details, in an attractive non-technical style which requires no previous scientific knowledge, of his engineering initiatives and the astronomical results, but also reveals much more about the man and his contributions - locally in the town and county around Birr, in political and other functions in an Ireland administered by the Protestant Ascendancy, in the development and activities of the Royal Society, of which he was President from 1848-54, and the British Association for the Advancement of Science. The Countess of Rosse, who receives full acknowledgement in the book, was a woman of many talents, among which was her pioneering work in photography, and the book includes reproductions of her artistic exposures, and many other attractive illustrations. -- .

First published in 1932. The widespread influence of Gregor Johann Mendel's work and his own remarkable destiny combine to arouse interest in the personality and the life of this investigator who, little known in his lifetime, was one of the pioneers of science. This comprehensive biography of the life and work of Mendel will be of great interest to historians and scientists.

First published in 1963. Humphry Davy, knighted by the Prince Regent in 1812 for his contributions to science, and later created baronet for his invention of the miners' safety lamp, was among the foremost European chemists in the early nineteenth century. Anne Treneer tells in full the story of Humphry Davy's life. From letters, journals and memoirs of the time, Davy and his contemporaries come to life. This title will be of great interest to scientists and historians.

First published in 1978. This biography aims solve the problem of the lack of access to information regarding American engineers and technologists of the nineteenth-century, whilst also providing opportunities for scholars to study and assess the work of hitherto little known, potentially important figures. This title will be of interest to scholars and students of science and history.

First published in 1965. In 1865, a woman first obtained a legal qualification in this country as physician and surgeon. Elizabeth Garrett surprised public opinion by the calm obstinacy with which she fought for her own medical education and that of the young women who followed her. This full biography is based largely on unpublished material from the hospitals and medical schools where Elizabeth Garrett Anderson worked, and the private papers of the Garrett and Anderson families. This title will be of great interest to history of science students.

This book, first available in 1994, was published to commemorate the one-hundredth anniversary of Heinrich Hertz's death at the terribly young age of thirty-six. The introductory biography together with eleven papers by Hertz and seven about him are intended to highlight the importance of Hertz's contributions to physics and at the same time to serve the needs of anyone interested in doing research on this highly gifted scientist.

In a world of chaos and disease, one group of driven, idiosyncratic geniuses envisioned a universe that ran like clockwork. They were the Royal Society, the men who made the modern world.

At the end of the seventeenth century, sickness was divine punishment, astronomy and astrology were indistinguishable, and the world's most brilliant, ambitious, and curious scientists were tormented by contradiction. They believed in angels, devils, and alchemy yet also believed that the universe followed precise mathematical laws that were as intricate and perfectly regulated as the mechanisms of a great clock.

The Clockwork Universe captures these monolithic thinkers as they wrestled with nature's most sweeping mysteries. Award-winning writer Edward Dolnick illuminates the fascinating personalities of Newton, Leibniz, Kepler, and others, and vividly animates their momentous struggle during an era when little was known and everything was new--battles of will, faith, and intellect that would change the course of history itself.

"Catch a Falling Star," the life story of Donald Clayton, follows the struggle of one human being to find love and to create scientific understanding of the origin of the atoms of chemical elements. Born on an Iowa farm, son of an aviation pioneer, he became the first among his family to attend college, then graduate school in physics at Caltech. His three marriages reveal his battle with sexual anxiety and a sense of loss. At the same time he struggled to discover new knowledge about the creation of the atoms of our bodies and our earth. His close friendship with two great pioneers of the origin of matter enlivened his scientific life in the United States and Europe. His discoveries created two new fields of astronomy whose beginnings are featured in the book.

Clayton's autobiography chronicles the exciting life that he lived on the frontier of the scientific discovery of the origin of the chemical elements within stars. His adventures centered on academic institutions: California Institute of Technology, Rice University, University of Cambridge, Max Planck Institute in Heidelberg, and Clemson University. "Catch a Falling Star" tells how science and his love of it endowed his life with meaning.

Our current moment is filled with despair about climate crises and the possibility of coming to any kind of agreement that might change the dire outcomes. Shoulder to Shoulder tells the stories of communities in North Western America who learned to talk to each other and to solve the conflicts between stakeholders. Loggers, cattle ranchers, rogue-river keepers, corporate developers, tree huggers, and indigenous peoples from many tribes are just a few of the characters in these stories of hope for our climate. This is a book for anyone wanting to make a difference, anyone looking for camaraderie with others of like mind, anyone believing that democracy requires engaged citizenship, anyone looking for hope. The message throughout is that change can be made with large numbers of caring, involved, thinking, co-operative people, change to protect both democracy and a livable planet.

Among the group of physics honors students huddled in 1957 on a Colorado mountain watching Sputnik bisect the heavens, one young scientist was destined, three short years later, to become a key player in America s own top-secret spy satellite program. One of our era s most prolific mathematicians, Karl Gustafson was given just two weeks to write the first US spy satellite s software. The project would fundamentally alter America s Cold War strategy, and this autobiographical account of a remarkable academic life spent in the top flight tells this fascinating inside story for the first time.

Gustafson takes you from his early pioneering work in computing, through fascinating encounters with Nobel laureates and Fields medalists, to his current observations on mathematics, science and life. He tells of brushes with death, being struck by lightning, and the beautiful women who have been a part of his journey."

The second edition of Drawing the Line: How Mason and Dixon Surveyed the Most Famous Border in America updates Edwin Danson s definitive history of the creation of the Mason - Dixon Line to reflect new research and archival documents that have come to light in recent years. * Features numerous updates and revisions reflecting new information that has come to light on surveyors Charles Mason and Jeremiah Dixon * Reveals the true origin of the survey s starting point and the actual location of the surveyors observatory in Embreeville * Offers expanded information on Mason and Dixon s transit of Venus adventures, which would be an important influence on their future work, and on Mason s final years pursuing a share of the fabulous Longitude prize, and his death in Philadelphia * Includes a new, more comprehensive appendix describing the surveying methods utilized to establish the Mason-Dixon Line