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Books > Biography > Science, technology & engineering
By addressing the enigma of the exceptional success of Hungarian
emigrant scientists and telling their life stories, Brilliance in
Exile combines scholarly analysis with fascinating portrayals of
uncommon personalities. Istvan and Balazs Hargittai discuss the
conditions that led to five different waves of emigration of
scientists from the early twentieth century to the present.
Although these exodes were driven by a broad variety of personal
motivations, the attraction of an open society with inclusiveness,
tolerance, and - needless to say - better circumstances for working
and living, was the chief force drawing them abroad. While
emigration from East to West is a general phenomenon, this book
explains why and how the emigration of Hungarian scientists is
distinctive. The high number of Nobel Prizes among this group is
only one indicator. Multicultural tolerance, a quickly emerging,
considerably Jewish, urban middle class, and a very effective
secondary school system were positive legacies of the
Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Multiple generations, shaped by these
conditions, suffered from the increasingly exclusionist,
intolerant, antisemitic, and economically stagnating environment,
and chose to go elsewhere. "I would rather have roots than wings,
but if I cannot have roots, I shall use wings," explained Leo
Szilard, one of the fathers of the Atom Bomb.
Ever heard of Allied spy Noor Inayat Khan, a Muslim woman whom the
Nazis considered highly dangerous? Or German painter and
entomologist Maria Sibylla Merian, who planned and embarked on the
world s first scientific expedition? How about Huang Daopo, the
inventor who fled an abusive child marriage only to revolutionize
textile production in China? Women have always been able to change
the world, even when they didn t get the credit. In Wonder Women,
author Sam Maggs introduces you to pioneering female scientists,
engineers, mathematicians, adventurers, and inventors each profile
a study in passion, smarts, and stick-to-itiveness, complete with
portraits by Google doodler Sophia Foster-Dimino, an extensive
bibliography, and a guide to present-day women-centric STEM
organizations.
Featured in New Scientist's Best Books of 2021 'Filled with
wonderment and awe ... Greene's eloquent memoir is equal parts
escape and comfort.' Publishers Weekly A powerful reflection on
life in isolation, in pursuit of the dream of Mars. In 2013 Kate
Greene moved to Mars. On NASA's first HI-SEAS simulated Mars
mission in Hawaii, she lived for four months in an isolated
geodesic dome with her crewmates, gaining incredible insight into
human behaviour in tight quarters, as well as the nature of
boredom, dreams and isolation that arise amidst the promise of
scientific progress and glory. Greene draws on her experience to
contemplate what makes an astronaut, the challenges of freeze-dried
eggs and time-lagged correspondence, the cost of shooting for a
Planet B. The result is a story of space and life, of the slippage
between dreams and reality, of bodies in space, and of humanity's
incredible impulse to explore. From trying out life on Mars, Greene
examines what it is to live on Earth. 'In her thoughtful,
well-written account of the mission, Greene reflects on what this
and other space missions can teach us about ourselves and life on
Earth.' Physics Today
The scientists affiliated with the early Royal Society of London
have long been regarded as forerunners of modern empiricism,
rejecting the symbolic and moral goals of Renaissance natural
history in favor of plainly representing the world as it really
was. In Aesthetic Science, Alexander Wragge-Morley challenges this
interpretation by arguing that key figures such as John Ray, Robert
Boyle, Nehemiah Grew, Robert Hooke, and Thomas Willis saw the study
of nature as an aesthetic project. To show how early modern
naturalists conceived of the interplay between sensory experience
and the production of knowledge, Aesthetic Science explores
natural-historical and anatomical works of the Royal Society
through the lens of the aesthetic. By underscoring the importance
of subjective experience to the communication of knowledge about
nature, Wragge-Morley offers a groundbreaking reconsideration of
scientific representation in the early modern period and brings to
light the hitherto overlooked role of aesthetic experience in the
history of the empirical sciences.
'His clarity, wit and determination are evident, his understand and
good humour moving' New Scientist My Brief History recounts Stephen
Hawking's improbable journey, from his post-war London boyhood to
his years of international acclaim and celebrity. Lavishly
illustrated with rarely seen photographs, this concise, witty and
candid account introduces readers to a Hawking rarely glimpsed in
previous books: the inquisitive schoolboy whose classmates
nicknamed him 'Einstein'; the jokester who once placed a bet with a
colleague over the existence of a black hole; and the young husband
and father struggling to gain a foothold in the world of academia.
Writing with characteristic humility and humour, Hawking opens up
about the challenges that confronted him following his diagnosis of
motor neurone disease aged twenty-one. Tracing his development as a
thinker, he explains how the prospect of an early death urged him
onwards through numerous intellectual breakthroughs, and talks
about the genesis of his masterpiece A Brief History of Time - one
of the iconic books of the twentieth century. Clear-eyed, intimate
and wise, My Brief History opens a window for the rest of us into
Hawking's personal cosmos. 'Read it for the personal nuggets . . .
but above all, it's worth reading for its message of hope' Mail on
Sunday
Thomas Telford, the son of a shepherd, was born in Westerkirk,
Scotland in 1757. At the age of 14, he was apprenticed to a
stonemason. He worked for a time in Edinburgh and in 1792, he moved
to London where he was involved in building additions to Somerset
House. Two years later, he found work at Portsmouth dockyard. In
1787, he became surveyor of public works for Shropshire. By this
time, Telford had established a good reputation as an engineer and
in 1790 was given the task of building a bridge over the River
Severn at Montford. This was followed by a canal that linked the
ironworks and collieries of Wrexham with Chester and Shrewsbury.
This involved building an aqueduct over the River Dee. On the
Pontcysyllte Aqueduct, Telford used a new method of construction
consisting of troughs made from cast-iron plates and fixed in
masonry. After the completion of the Ellesmere Canal Telford moved
back to Scotland where he took control of the building of
Caledonian Canal. Other works by Telford include the Menai
Suspension Bridge (1819-1826) and the Katherine's Docks (1824-1828)
in London. Telford was also an important road builder. He was
responsible for rebuilding the Shrewsbury to Holyhead road and the
North Wales coast road between Chester and Bangor. During his life,
Telford built more than 1,000 miles of road, including the main
road between London and Holyhead. Thomas Telford died in 1834.
In this tribute to Benjamin Wright, former students and colleagues
recall the foundational contributions he made to the theory and
practice of measurement in a career spanning over five decades.
Wright is recognized as the foremost proponent of the psychometric
approach of Georg Rasch, a Danish mathematician, whose ideas
continue to provoke controversy. Wright's colleagues and students,
and students of their students, are leaders in educational research
and practice around the world. This volume relates the extent of
Wright's influence far beyond education and psychology, where his
work in measurement began, into health care and the social sciences
at large. The editors and contributors-all leading measurement
scholars-trace the development of themes in Wright's work,
identifying the roots of today's formative assessment methods, the
integration of quantitative and qualitative data, and the contrast
between scientific and statistical methods. These previously
unpublished papers reflect on Wright's lifelong passion for making
measurement both more scientific and more meaningful. They recount
how Wright's insight, energy, and gregarious nature led him to
produce multiple innovations in computing, estimation methods,
model development, fit assessment, and reliability theory,
stimulating practical applications in dozens of fields, serving on
over 120 dissertation committees, and founding several professional
societies. The volume includes three reprinted articles by Wright
that provide insights into his early engagement with Rasch's ideas.
Psychological and Social Measurement will be welcomed by the broad
international measurement community of professionals and
researchers working in such diverse fields as education,
psychology, health sciences, management, and metrology. Scientists
working in any field involving measurement science and technology
will appreciate an inside look at this seminal figure and a new
perspective on the expanding conversation across the sciences about
measurement and the communication of meaningful, transparent
information.
Near the end of the Apollo 15 mission, David Scott and fellow
moonwalker James Irwin conducted a secret ceremony unsanctioned by
NASA: they placed on the lunar soil a small tin figurine called The
Fallen Astronaut, along with a plaque bearing a list of names. By
telling the stories of those sixteen astronauts and cosmonauts who
died in the quest to reach the moon between 1962 and 1972, this
book enriches the saga of humankind's greatest scientific
undertaking, Project Apollo, and conveys the human cost of the
space race. Many people are aware of the first manned Apollo
mission, in which Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee lost
their lives in a fire during a ground test, but few know of the
other five fallen astronauts whose stories this book tells as well,
including Ted Freeman and C.C. Williams, who died in the crashes of
their T-38 jets; the "Gemini Twins," Charlie Bassett and Elliot
See, killed when their jet slammed into the building where their
Gemini capsule was undergoing final construction; and Ed Givens,
whose fatal car crash has until now been obscured by rumors.
Supported by extensive interviews and archival material, the
extraordinary lives and accomplishments of these and other fallen
astronauts-including eight Russian cosmonauts who lost their lives
during training-unfold here in intimate and compelling detail.
Their stories return us to a stirring time in the history of our
nation and remind us of the cost of fulfilling our dreams. This
revised edition includes expanded and revised biographies and
additional photographs. Purchase the audio edition.
In The Surprising Lives of Small-Town Doctors, physicians put down
their stethoscopes and pick up their pens to share some of the most
frightening and pivotal moments of their careers. From making igloo
house calls to bandaging animal bites to performing surgeries they
may have only read about in textbooks, these young doctors speak of
the many rewards of practising medicine in small communities. They
also detail the fears, failures, and challenges of providing health
care in the farthest reaches of our country--where the need for
doctors is the greatest. Collectively, these stories capture the
spirit, innovation, and resilience of these rural doctors and the
communities they serve.
Was Einstein's first wife his uncredited coauthor, unpaid
assistant, or his unacknowledged helpmeet? The real "Mileva Story."
Albert Einstein's first wife, Mileva Einstein-Maric, was forgotten
for decades. When a trove of correspondence between them beginning
in their student days was discovered in 1986, her story began to be
told. Some of the tellers of the "Mileva Story" made startling
claims: that she was a brilliant mathematician who surpassed her
husband, and that she made uncredited contributions to his most
celebrated papers in 1905, including his paper on special
relativity. This book, based on extensive historical research,
uncovers the real "Mileva Story." Mileva was one of the few women
of her era to pursue higher education in science; she and Einstein
were students together at the Zurich Polytechnic. Mileva's
ambitions for a science career, however, suffered a series of
setbacks-failed diploma examinations, a disagreement with her
doctoral dissertation adviser, an out-of-wedlock pregnancy by
Einstein. She and Einstein married in 1903 and had two sons, but
the marriage failed. Was Mileva her husband's uncredited coauthor,
unpaid assistant, or his essential helpmeet? It's tempting to
believe that she was her husband's secret collaborator, but the
authors of Einstein's Wife look at the actual evidence, and a
chapter by Ruth Lewin Sime offers important historical context. The
story they tell is that of a brave and determined young woman who
struggled against a variety of obstacles at a time when science was
not very welcoming to women.
What if you could peer into the minds of an entire population? What if you could target the weakest with rumours that only they saw?
In 2016, an obscure British military contractor turned the world upside down. Funded by a billionaire on a crusade to start his own far-right insurgency, Cambridge Analytica combined psychological research with private Facebook data to make an invisible weapon with the power to change what voters perceived as real.
The firm was created to launch the then unknown Steve Bannon's ideological assault on America. But as it honed its dark arts in elections from Trinidad to Nigeria, 24-year-old research director Christopher Wylie began to see what he and his colleagues were unleashing.
He had heard the disturbing visions of the investors. He saw what CEO Alexander Nix did behind closed doors. When Britain shocked the world by voting to leave the EU, Wylie realised it was time to expose his old associates. The political crime of the century had just taken place - the weapon had been tested - and nobody knew.
A beautifully written and compelling memoir of a largely unexplored
area of medicine: transplant surgery. Leading transplant surgeon Dr
Joshua Mezrich creates life from loss, moving organs from one body
to another. In this intimate, profoundly moving work, he examines
more than one hundred years of remarkable medical breakthroughs,
connecting this fascinating history with the stories of his own
patients. Gripping and evocative, How Death Becomes Life takes us
inside the operating room and presents the stark dilemmas that
transplant surgeons must face daily: How much risk should a healthy
person be allowed to take to save someone she loves? Should a
patient suffering from alcoholism receive a healthy liver? The
human story behind the most exceptional medicine of our time,
Mezrich's riveting book is a poignant reminder that a life lost can
also offer the hope of a new beginning.
In "The Private Science of Louis Pasteur," Gerald Geison has
written a controversial biography that finally penetrates the
secrecy that has surrounded much of this legendary scientist's
laboratory work. Geison uses Pasteur's laboratory notebooks, made
available only recently, and his published papers to present a rich
and full account of some of the most famous episodes in the history
of science and their darker sides--for example, Pasteur's rush to
develop the rabies vaccine and the human risks his haste entailed.
The discrepancies between the public record and the "private
science" of Louis Pasteur tell us as much about the man as they do
about the highly competitive and political world he learned to
master.
Although experimental ingenuity served Pasteur well, he also
owed much of his success to the polemical virtuosity and political
savvy that won him unprecedented financial support from the French
state during the late nineteenth century. But a close look at his
greatest achievements raises ethical issues. In the case of
Pasteur's widely publicized anthrax vaccine, Geison reveals its
initial defects and how Pasteur, in order to avoid embarrassment,
secretly incorporated a rival colleague's findings to make his
version of the vaccine work. Pasteur's premature decision to apply
his rabies treatment to his first animal-bite victims raises even
deeper questions and must be understood not only in terms of the
ethics of human experimentation and scientific method, but also in
light of Pasteur's shift from a biological theory of immunity to a
chemical theory--similar to ones he had often disparaged when
advanced by his competitors.
Through his vivid reconstruction of the professional rivalries
as well as the national adulation that surrounded Pasteur, Geison
places him in his wider cultural context. In giving Pasteur the
close scrutiny his fame and achievements deserve, Geison's book
offers compelling reading for anyone interested in the social and
ethical dimensions of science.
Originally published in 1996.
The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand
technology to again make available previously out-of-print books
from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press.
These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these
important books while presenting them in durable paperback
editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly
increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the
thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since
its founding in 1905.
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