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Books > Biography > Science, technology & engineering

Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution - A handbook for entrepreneurs (Hardcover, New edition): Uri Levine Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution - A handbook for entrepreneurs (Hardcover, New edition)
Uri Levine
R595 R534 Discovery Miles 5 340 Save R61 (10%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

Unicorns - companies that reach a valuation of more than $1 billion - are rare. Uri Levine has built two. And in Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution, he shows you just how he did it. As the cofounder of Waze - the world's leading commuting and navigation app with more than 700 million users to date, and which Google acquired in 2013 for $1.15 billion - Levine is committed to spreading entrepreneurial thinking so that other founders, managers, and employees in the tech space can build their own highly valued companies. Levine offers an inside look at the creation and sale of Waze and his second unicorn, Moovit, revealing the formula that drove those companies to compete with industry veterans and giants alike. He offers tips on: Raising funding Firing and hiring Understanding your users Making up-scale decisions Going global Deciding when to sell Fall in Love with the Problem, Not the Solution offers mentorship in a book from one of the world's most successful entrepreneurs, and empowers you to build a successful business by identifying your consumers' biggest problems and disrupting the inefficient markets that currently serve them.

A Dominant Character - The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane (Paperback, Main): Samanth Subramanian A Dominant Character - The Radical Science and Restless Politics of J.B.S. Haldane (Paperback, Main)
Samanth Subramanian
R314 Discovery Miles 3 140 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Book of the Year in The Economist, Guardian, New Statesman, Wall Street Journal and New York Times. Shortlisted for the Duff Cooper Prize, the Elizabeth Longford Prize for Historical Biography and the British Society for the History of Science Hughes Prize. 'A wonderful book about one of the most important, brilliant and flawed scientists of the 20th century.' Peter Frankopan 'Superb' Matt Ridley, The Times 'Fascinating... The best Haldane biography yet.' New York Times J.B.S. Haldane's life was rich and strange, never short on genius, never lacking for drama. He is best remembered as a geneticist who revolutionized our understanding of evolution, but his peers thought him a polymath; one student called him 'the last man who knew all there was to be known'. Beginning in the 1930s, Haldane was also a staunch Communist - a stance that enhanced his public profile, led him into trouble, and even drew suspicions that he was spying for the Soviets. He wrote copiously on science and politics for the layman, in newspapers and magazines, and he gave speeches in town halls and on the radio, all of which made him, in his day, as famous in Britain as Einstein. Arthur C. Clarke called Haldane 'the most brilliant science popularizer of his generation'. He frequently narrated aspects of his life: of his childhood, as the son of a famous scientist; of his time in the trenches in the First World War and in Spain during the Civil War; of his experiments upon himself; of his secret research for the British Admiralty; of his final move to India, in 1957. A Dominant Character unpacks Haldane's boisterous life in detail, and it examines the questions he raised about the intersections of genetics and politics - questions that resonate all the more strongly today.

Portraits for NHS Heroes (Hardcover): Tom Croft Portraits for NHS Heroes (Hardcover)
Tom Croft; Foreword by Michael Rosen, Jim Down, Adebanji Alade
R736 Discovery Miles 7 360 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

All royalties, a minimum of GBP2.50 from the sale of each book, will be paid to NHS Charities Together (registered charity no. 1186569) to fund vital projects. When the UK went into lockdown in March 2020 to contain the spread of the Covid-19 virus, artist Tom Croft offered to paint an NHS key worker's portrait for free. Unsure how to help and offer his support, he wanted to capture and record the bravery and heroism of frontline workers who were risking their physical and mental health for our wellbeing. Tom suggested that other artists might want to do the same. He made his offer via video message on Instagram and was immediately contacted by Harriet Durkin, a nurse at the Manchester Royal Infirmary, who had contracted Covid-19 and, now recovered, was about to return to the frontline. Tom's portrait of Harriet, wearing PPE, was the first in what became a global art project. The response to the initiative was staggering and Tom personally paired up 500 artists and NHS workers in the first two weeks. When numbers reached the thousands, Tom set up a traffic light system so that artists and frontline workers could match themselves. Portraits in all mediums followed, from oils to pencil, sculpture to ceramic, mosaic to mural. This book presents a selection of these remarkable images. Some are by leading artists such as Alastair Adams and Mary Jane Ansell, and they are showcased here as both a celebration and a remembrance, in physical form, of the dedication of our NHS key workers. 'I just couldn't imagine what it must be like to have to put on your PPE and head into the frontline of the pandemic, so I wanted to try and thank NHS workers in some small way. We are indebted to them, so to be able to commemorate, celebrate and record their experiences through portraiture felt fitting. This collection will stand as a permanent record of their bravery in a time of national crisis.' Tom Croft

Wading Into Chaos - Inside the Life of a Paramedic (Paperback): Bob Holdsworth Wading Into Chaos - Inside the Life of a Paramedic (Paperback)
Bob Holdsworth
R493 R467 Discovery Miles 4 670 Save R26 (5%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

"It's raining and the reflections of the red and white lights are dancing off the buildings as we race down the wet streets. Sirens are screaming a warning to the very few people who dare to walk the street at night.
We make a final turn and the scene comes into view. There's a lone police car; its light bar extinguished so as not to call attention to itself. We follow suit and shut our lights and siren off as we approach. In the center of the rain-soaked street, a crowd has gathered. A woman is screaming, being held up by friends or family. A man lies crumpled in the middle of the road next to his wheelchair. The cop looks nervous as we roll to a stop and exit the ambulance. 'He's been shot - a lot, ' he shouts from about 10 feet away.
The decibel level immediately increases from the crowd of distraught onlookers. We know we're going to have to work quickly to try to save the patient and get away from the scene for our own safety. We grab the heart monitor, oxygen, trauma bag and the stretcher for the fourth time this shift and once again go wading into chaos..."
Paramedics and EMTs are the front line of the world's emergency medical system and serve as eyewitnesses to some of life's most precious and equally most tragic moments.
Wading Into Chaos, written by a veteran paramedic, gives you a first hand, real life glimpse inside the chaotic world of Emergency Medical Services. Ride along and experience the emotions, the frustration, the sadness and the dark humor that accompanies responding to fatal car crashes, 14-year-old suicides, inner city gang violence, train accidents, med-e-vac helicopter landings, and the forgotten elderly who just need someone to talk to.

Plague Years - A Doctor's Journey Through the AIDS Crisis (Hardcover): Ross A. Slotten Plague Years - A Doctor's Journey Through the AIDS Crisis (Hardcover)
Ross A. Slotten
R615 Discovery Miles 6 150 Ships in 9 - 17 working days

In 1992, Dr. Ross A. Slotten had the dubious distinction of signing more death certificates in the city of Chicago--and, by inference, the state of Illinois--than any other physician. As a family physician, he trained to care for patients from birth to death, but when he completed his residency in 1984, he had no idea that many of his future patients would be cut down in the prime of their lives. Among those patients were close friends, colleagues, and former lovers, who were shunned by most of the medical community because of their sexual orientation and HIV-positive status. Slotten wasn't an infectious disease specialist, but because of his unique position as a gay man and a young physician, he became an unlikely pioneer, swept up in the maelstrom of one of the greatest epidemics in modern human history. In Plague Years, Slotten offers a unique first-person account of the HIV/AIDS epidemic, drawing from private journals and notes from his thirty-plus years of practice. Spanning not just the city of Chicago, but four continents as well, Plague Years provides a comprehensive portrait of the epidemic, from its mystery-riddled early years through the reckless governmental responses of the United States and other nations that led to legions of senseless deaths and ruined lives to the discoveries of life-saving drug cocktails that transformed the disease into something potentially manageable. Unlike most other books on the subject, Slotten's story extends to the present day, when prevention of infection for those at risk and successful treatment of those already infected offer a ray of hope that HIV/AIDS can be stopped in its tracks. Alternating between Slotten's reactions to the crisis as a gay man and the demanding toll the disease took on his career and the world around him, Plague Years sheds light on some of the darkest hours in the history of the LGBT community in a way that no previous medical memoir has.

Breakthrough - Spectacular Stories Of Scientific Discovery From The Higgs Particle To Black Holes (Paperback): Marcus Chown Breakthrough - Spectacular Stories Of Scientific Discovery From The Higgs Particle To Black Holes (Paperback)
Marcus Chown
R307 R280 Discovery Miles 2 800 Save R27 (9%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

The spellbinding stories of the scientists whose eureka! breakthroughs in modern physics reveal science's astonishing predictive power.

How does it feel to know something about the universe that no one has ever known before? And why is mathematics so good at revealing nature's secrets?

This is the story of the scientists who, using mathematics, predicted the existence of unknown planets, black holes, invisible force fields, ripples in the fabric of space-time, unsuspected subatomic particles, and even antimatter.

The journey from prediction to proof transports us from seats of learning in Paris and Cambridge to the war-torn Russian front, to bunkers beneath nuclear reactors, observatories in Berlin and California, and huge tunnels under the Swiss-French border. From electromagnetism to Einstein's gravitational waves to Wolfgang Pauli's elusive neutrino, acclaimed science writer Marcus Chown takes us on a breathtaking, mind-altering tour of the major breakthroughs of modern physics and highlights science's central mystery: its astonishing predictive power.

The Uncrowned King of Mont Blanc - The life of T. Graham Brown, physiologist and mountaineer (Paperback): Peter Foster The Uncrowned King of Mont Blanc - The life of T. Graham Brown, physiologist and mountaineer (Paperback)
Peter Foster; Foreword by Lindsay N. Griffin
R457 R402 Discovery Miles 4 020 Save R55 (12%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

The Uncrowned King of Mont Blanc by Peter Foster is the biography of scientist and mountaineer Thomas Graham Brown, whose encyclopaedic knowledge of the mountain earned him the soubriquet, and whose achievements in the Alps and Greater Ranges place him at the forefront of British mountaineering between the two world wars. Born in Edinburgh in 1882, Graham Brown first pursued a career in the sciences as a physiologist - his exacting father demanding the highest standards - and the results of his research, largely unrecognised at the time, now underpin current understanding of the nervous control of movement in animals and man. His mountaineering career began in earnest after the First World War. From rock climbing in the Lake District he progressed to guided climbs in the Alps, where in 1927 he was fatefully introduced to Frank Smythe with whom he made the groundbreaking first ascents of the Sentinelle Rouge and the Route Major on the Brenva Face of Mont Blanc. This resulted in an obsession with the mountain and a feud between the pair that smouldered and flared for twenty years. Ambitious, determined and uncompromising in his views, he never left others feeling neutral: Geoffrey Winthrop Young thought him `a vicious lunatic', yet Charles Houston felt closer to Graham Brown `than almost anyone else I know'. Graham Brown's life was one of turbulence in his career, relationships and in the mountains, whether on expeditions to Mount Foraker, Nanda Devi and Masherbrum, or most frequently, the Alps. Peter Foster has drawn upon diaries, letters and extensive archival research that illuminate the highs and lows of Graham Brown's scientific and climbing careers, and explores the imbalance between the significance of his achievements and the lack of recognition he received. But, above all, The Uncrowned King of Mont Blanc allows one to hear Graham Brown's voice: querulous, opinionated and, to the discomfort of his many adversaries, almost always right.

Nurse, Come You Here! - More True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle (the Country Nurse Series, Book Two)Volume 2... Nurse, Come You Here! - More True Stories of a Country Nurse on a Scottish Isle (the Country Nurse Series, Book Two)Volume 2 (Paperback)
Mary J. MacLeod
R434 R410 Discovery Miles 4 100 Save R24 (6%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days
Alexander Wilson - The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology (Hardcover): Edward H Burtt, William E. Davis Alexander Wilson - The Scot Who Founded American Ornithology (Hardcover)
Edward H Burtt, William E. Davis
R905 R847 Discovery Miles 8 470 Save R58 (6%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Audubon was not the father of American ornithology. That honorific belongs to Alexander Wilson, whose encyclopedic American Ornithology established a distinctive approach that emphasized the observation of live birds. In the first full-length study to reproduce all of Wilson's unpublished drawings for the nine-volume Ornithology, Edward Burtt and William Davis illustrate Wilson's pioneering and, today, underappreciated achievement as the first ornithologist to describe the birds of the North American wilderness. Abandoning early ambitions to become a poet in the mold of his countryman Robert Burns, Wilson emigrated from Scotland to settle near Philadelphia, where the botanist William Bartram encouraged his proclivity for art and natural history. Wilson traveled 12,000 miles on foot, on horseback, in a rowboat, and by stage and ship, establishing a network of observers along the way. He wrote hundreds of accounts of indigenous birds, discovered many new species, and sketched the behavior and ecology of each species he encountered. Drawing on their expertise in both science and art, Burtt and Davis show how Wilson defied eighteenth-century conventions of biological illustration by striving for realistic depiction of birds in their native habitats. He drew them in poses meant to facilitate identification, making his work the model for modern field guides and an inspiration for Audubon, Spencer Fullerton Baird, and other naturalists who followed. On the bicentennial of his death, this beautifully illustrated volume is a fitting tribute to Alexander Wilson and his unique contributions to ornithology, ecology, and the study of animal behavior.

The Experimental Self (Hardcover): Jan Golinski The Experimental Self (Hardcover)
Jan Golinski
R957 Discovery Miles 9 570 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

What did it mean to be a scientist before the profession itself existed? Jan Golinski finds an answer in the remarkable career of Humphry Davy, the foremost chemist of his day and one of the most distinguished British men of science of the nineteenth century. Originally a country boy from a modest background, Davy was propelled by his scientific accomplishments to a knighthood and the presidency of the Royal Society. An enigmatic figure to his contemporaries, Davy has continued to elude the efforts of biographers to classify him: poet, friend to Coleridge and Wordsworth, author of travel narratives and a book on fishing, chemist and inventor of the miners' safety lamp. What are we to make of such a man? In The Experimental Self, Golinski argues that Davy's life is best understood as a prolonged process of self-experimentation. He follows Davy from his youthful enthusiasm for physiological experiment through his self-fashioning as a man of science in a period when the path to a scientific career was not as well-trodden as it is today. What emerges is a portrait of Davy as a creative fashioner of his own identity through a lifelong series of experiments in selfhood.

The Forgotten Botanist - Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art (Paperback): Wynne Brown The Forgotten Botanist - Sara Plummer Lemmon's Life of Science and Art (Paperback)
Wynne Brown
R675 Discovery Miles 6 750 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

WILLA Literary Award Winner in Creative Nonfiction 2022 Spur Award Winner 2022 Top Pick in Southwest Books of the Year New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards Finalist in Cover Design Honorable Mention in the At-Large NFPW Communications Contest The Forgotten Botanist is the account of an extraordinary woman who, in 1870, was driven by ill health to leave the East Coast for a new life in the West-alone. At thirty-three, Sara Plummer relocated to Santa Barbara, where she taught herself botany and established the town's first library. Ten years later she married botanist John Gill Lemmon, and together the two discovered hundreds of new plant species, many of them illustrated by Sara, an accomplished artist. Although she became an acknowledged botanical expert and lecturer, Sara's considerable contributions to scientific knowledge were credited merely as "J.G. Lemmon & wife." The Forgotten Botanist chronicles Sara's remarkable life, in which she and JG found new plant species in Arizona, California, Oregon, and Mexico and traveled throughout the Southwest with such friends as John Muir and Clara Barton. Sara also found time to work as a journalist and as an activist in women's suffrage and forest conservation. The Forgotten Botanist is a timeless tale about a woman who discovered who she was by leaving everything behind. Her inspiring story is one of resilience, determination, and courage-and is as relevant to our nation today as it was in her own time.

Walden & Civil Disobedience (Paperback): Henry David Thoreau Walden & Civil Disobedience (Paperback)
Henry David Thoreau
R311 R270 Discovery Miles 2 700 Save R41 (13%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Henry David Thoreau's account of his adventure in self-reliance on the shores of a pond in Massachusetts--part social experiment, part spiritual quest--is an enduringly influential American classic.
In 1845, Thoreau began building a cabin at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. The inspiring and lyrical book that resulted is both a record of the two years Thoreau spent in withdrawal from society and a declaration of personal independence. By virtue of its casual, offhandedly brilliant wisdom and the easy splendor of its nature writing, Thoreau's account of his immersion in solitude has become a signpost for the modern mind in an increasingly bewildering world.
Also included in this edition is Thoreau's famous essay, "Civil Disobedience," inspired by his anti-war and anti-slavery sentiments, which has influenced nonviolent resistance movements around the world ever since.

Journey to the Edge of Reason - The Life of Kurt Goedel (Hardcover): Stephen Budiansky Journey to the Edge of Reason - The Life of Kurt Goedel (Hardcover)
Stephen Budiansky
R709 R618 Discovery Miles 6 180 Save R91 (13%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days

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.

Tesla: Wizard At War - The Genius, the Particle Beam Weapon, and the Pursuit of Power (Hardcover): Marc Seifer Tesla: Wizard At War - The Genius, the Particle Beam Weapon, and the Pursuit of Power (Hardcover)
Marc Seifer
R679 R595 Discovery Miles 5 950 Save R84 (12%) Ships in 9 - 17 working days
The Man Who Made the Monitor - A Biography of John Ericsson, Naval Engineer (Paperback): Olav Thulesius The Man Who Made the Monitor - A Biography of John Ericsson, Naval Engineer (Paperback)
Olav Thulesius
R974 R719 Discovery Miles 7 190 Save R255 (26%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Mention Civil War naval confrontations and the Monitor instantly springs to mind. The first of the ironclads, the Monitor not only took part in a major battle, it forever changed the face of naval construction. But who was the man behind the ship? Born in Filipstad, Sweden, in 1803, the brilliant and somewhat eccentric engineer John Ericsson spent his childhood observing his father's work in mining and later learned his engineering skills at the North Atlantic-Baltic canal. As a young man Ericsson turned to a variety of projects. In England, he introduced the ship's propeller, built an Arctic expedition vessel and designed some of the first successful steam locomotives. Moving to New York in 1839, he soon teamed up with Harry Cornelius Delameter of the Phoenix foundry, a partnership which resulted in Ericsson's most famous work, the USS Monitor. Focusing on the man behind the inventions, this book tells the life story of John Ericsson. It details a number of Ericsson's inventions including a steam-powered fire engine, the first screw-propelled warship, a variety of hot-air engines, and early experiments in solar power from the roof of his Manhattan home. The main focus is Ericsson's design and construction of the ironclad USS Monitor. One of the first viable armored warships, the Monitor revolutionized naval warfare the world over. The ship's battle with the CSS Virginia at Hampton Roads and its eventual fate off the coast of Cape Hatteras are covered. Ericsson's relationships with contemporaries such as Alfred Nobel and recent developments concerning the recovery of the wreck of the Monitor are also examined.

Crystal Clear - The Autobiographies of Sir Lawrence and Lady Bragg (Hardcover): A.M. Glazer, Patience Thomson Crystal Clear - The Autobiographies of Sir Lawrence and Lady Bragg (Hardcover)
A.M. Glazer, Patience Thomson
R1,510 Discovery Miles 15 100 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Crystal Clear takes you behind the scenes in the life of one of the most prominent scientists of the twentieth century, William Lawrence Bragg (WLB) - an innovative genius, who together with his father, William Henry Bragg (WHB) founded and developed a whole new branch of science, X-ray Crystallography. The main body of the text contains the hitherto unpublished autobiographies of both WLB and his wife, Alice. Alice Bragg was a public figure in her own right. She was Mayor of Cambridge and National Chairman of the Marriage Guidance Council among other roles. She and WLB were as different as chalk and cheese. Their autobiographies complement each other to give a rounded picture of the real personalities behind their public appearance. They write of their travels, their family life, their friends and their joys and sorrows. They write most of all about each other. Their younger daughter, Patience Thomson, provides anecdotes and vignettes, bringing her parents to life. She has also included extracts from previously unpublished letters and from articles which Alice Bragg wrote for National newspapers. The result is an unusual insight into the lives of two distinguished people. The two accounts reveal a fascinating interaction between these two characters, neither of whom could have achieved on this scale without the other. There is an underlying love story here which humanises and transforms. This is a unique book, adopting an original viewpoint, which will take the reader far beyond the scope of a normal biography.

The Last Man Who Knew Everything - The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age (Hardcover): David N. Schwartz The Last Man Who Knew Everything - The Life and Times of Enrico Fermi, Father of the Nuclear Age (Hardcover)
David N. Schwartz
R904 R793 Discovery Miles 7 930 Save R111 (12%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

In 1942, a team at the University of Chicago achieved what no one had before: a nuclear chain reaction. At the forefront of this breakthrough stood Enrico Fermi. Straddling the ages of classical physics and quantum mechanics, equally at ease with theory and experiment, Fermi truly was the last man who knew everything-at least about physics. But he was also a complex figure who was a part of both the Italian Fascist Party and the Manhattan Project, and a less-than-ideal father and husband who nevertheless remained one of history's greatest mentors. Based on new archival material and exclusive interviews, The Last Man Who Knew Everything lays bare the enigmatic life of a colossus of twentieth century physics.

A Mind Over Matter - Philip Anderson and the Physics of the Very Many (Hardcover): Andrew Zangwill A Mind Over Matter - Philip Anderson and the Physics of the Very Many (Hardcover)
Andrew Zangwill
R1,089 Discovery Miles 10 890 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

A Mind Over Matter is a biography of the Nobel-prize winner Philip W. Anderson, a person widely regarded as one of the most accomplished and influential physicists of the second half of the twentieth century. Anderson (1923-2020) was a theoretician who specialized in the physics of matter, including window glass and metals, magnets and semiconductors, liquid crystals and superconductors. More than any other single person, Anderson transformed the patchwork subject of solid-state physics into the deep, subtle, and coherent discipline known today as condensed matter physics. Among his many world-class research achievements, Anderson discovered an aspect of wave physics that had been missed by all previous scientists going back to Isaac Newton. He became a public figure when he testified before Congress to oppose its funding of an expensive project intended exclusively for particle physics research. Over the years, he published many articles designed to influence a broad audience about issues where science impacted public policy and culture. Anderson grew up in the American mid-west, was educated at Harvard, and rose to the pinnacle of his profession during the first decade of his thirty-five career as a theoretical physicist at Bell Telephone Laboratories. Almost uniquely, he spent many years working half-time as a professor at the University of Cambridge and at Princeton University. The outspoken Anderson enjoyed broad influence outside of physics when he helped develop and champion the concepts of emergence and complexity as organizing principles to help attack very difficult problems in technically challenging disciplines.

Alexander von Humboldt (Paperback, Illustrated Ed): Nicolaas A. Rupke Alexander von Humboldt (Paperback, Illustrated Ed)
Nicolaas A. Rupke
R890 Discovery Miles 8 900 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) is one of the most celebrated figures of late-modern science, famous for his work in physical geography, botanical geography, and climatology, and his role as one of the first great popularizers of the sciences. His momentous accomplishments have intrigued German biographers from the Prussian era to the fall of the Berlin wall, all of whom configured and reconfigured Humboldt's life according to the sensibilities of the day.
This volume, the first metabiography of the great scientist, traces Humboldt's biographical identities through Germany's collective past to shed light on the historical instability of our scientific heroes.
"Rupke's study . . . will doubtless become a standard reference for the Humboldt industry and for writers of scientific metabiographies to come."--"Isis"""
"Engaging. . . . Rupke's meticulous analysis is fascinating on many scores."--"Times Higher Education Supplement "(UK)
"A study borne of considerable scholarship and one with important methodological implications for historians of geography."--Charles W. J. Withers, "Progress in Human Geography"""

The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein - The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922-1923 (Hardcover): Albert Einstein The Travel Diaries of Albert Einstein - The Far East, Palestine, and Spain, 1922-1923 (Hardcover)
Albert Einstein; Edited by Ze'ev Rosenkranz
R841 R696 Discovery Miles 6 960 Save R145 (17%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Albert Einstein's travel diary to the Far East and Middle East In the fall of 1922, Albert Einstein, along with his then-wife, Elsa Einstein, embarked on a five-and-a-half-month voyage to the Far East and Middle East, regions that the renowned physicist had never visited before. Einstein's lengthy itinerary consisted of stops in Hong Kong and Singapore, two brief stays in China, a six-week whirlwind lecture tour of Japan, a twelve-day tour of Palestine, and a three-week visit to Spain. This handsome edition makes available the complete journal that Einstein kept on this momentous journey. The telegraphic-style diary entries record Einstein's musings on science, philosophy, art, and politics, as well as his immediate impressions and broader thoughts on such events as his inaugural lecture at the future site of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, a garden party hosted by the Japanese Empress, an audience with the King of Spain, and meetings with other prominent colleagues and statesmen. Entries also contain passages that reveal Einstein's stereotyping of members of various nations and raise questions about his attitudes on race. This beautiful edition features stunning facsimiles of the diary's pages, accompanied by an English translation, an extensive historical introduction, numerous illustrations, and annotations. Supplementary materials include letters, postcards, speeches, and articles, a map of the voyage, a chronology, a bibliography, and an index. Einstein would go on to keep a journal for all succeeding trips abroad, and this first volume of his travel diaries offers an initial, intimate glimpse into a brilliant mind encountering the great, wide world.

The Tennis Partner (Paperback): Abraham Verghese The Tennis Partner (Paperback)
Abraham Verghese
R469 R401 Discovery Miles 4 010 Save R68 (14%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

An unforgettable, illuminating story of how men live and how they survive, from the acclaimed "New York Times" bestselling author of "Cutting for Stone"

When Abraham Verghese, a physician whose marriage is unraveling, relocates to El Paso, Texas, he hopes to make a fresh start as a staff member at the county hospital. There he meets David Smith, a medical student recovering from drug addiction, and the two men begin a tennis ritual that allows them to shed their inhibitions and find security in the sport they love and with each other. This friendship between doctor and intern grows increasingly rich and complex, more intimate than two men usually allow. Just when it seems nothing can go wrong, the dark beast from David's past emerges once again--and almost everything Verghese has come to trust and believe in is threatened as David spirals out of control.

The Man Who Flattened the Earth (Paperback, New edition): Mary Terrall The Man Who Flattened the Earth (Paperback, New edition)
Mary Terrall
R1,288 Discovery Miles 12 880 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Self-styled adventurer, literary wit, philosopher, and statesman of science, Pierre-Louis Moreau de Maupertuis (1698-1759) stood at the center of Enlightenment science and culture. Offering an elegant and accessible portrait of this remarkable man, Mary Terrall uses the story of Maupertuis's life, self-fashioning, and scientific works to explore what it meant to do science and to be a man of science in eighteenth-century Europe.
Beginning his scientific career as a mathematician in Paris, Maupertuis entered the public eye with a much-discussed expedition to Lapland, which confirmed Newton's calculation that the earth was flattened at the poles. He also made significant, and often intentionally controversial, contributions to physics, life science, navigation, astronomy, and metaphysics. Called to Berlin by Frederick the Great, Maupertuis moved to Prussia to preside over the Academy of Sciences there. Equally at home in salons, cafes, scientific academies, and royal courts, Maupertuis used his social connections and his printed works to enhance a carefully constructed reputation as both a man of letters and a man of science. His social and institutional affiliations, in turn, affected how Maupertuis formulated his ideas, how he presented them to his contemporaries, and the reactions they provoked.
Terrall not only illuminates the life and work of a colorful and important Enlightenment figure, but also uses his story to delve into many wider issues, including the development of scientific institutions, the impact of print culture on science, and the interactions of science and government. Smart and highly readable, "Maupertuis" will appeal to anyone interested ineighteenth-century science and culture.

Samuel F. B. Morse - His Letters and Journals (Paperback): Samuel Finley Breese Morse Samuel F. B. Morse - His Letters and Journals (Paperback)
Samuel Finley Breese Morse; Edited by Edward Lind Morse
R1,529 Discovery Miles 15 290 Ships in 12 - 19 working days

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1914 edition. Excerpt: ...In the world of affairs the wind was howling, too, and the storm was gathering which culminated in the series of lawsuits brought by Morse and his associates against the infringers on his patents. The letters to his brother are full of the details of these piratical attacks, but throughout all the turmoil he maintained his poise and his faith in the triumph of justice and truth. In the letter just quoted from he says: "These matters do not annoy me as formerly. I have seen so many dark storms which threatened, and particularly in relation to the Telegraph, and I have seen them so often hushed at the 'Peace, be still' of our covenant God, that now the fears and anxieties on any fresh gathering soon subside into perfect calm." And on November 27, he writes: "The most annoying part of the matter to me is that, notwithstanding my matters are all in the hands of agents and I have nothing to do with any of the arrangements, I am held up by name to the odium of the public. Lawsuits are commenced against them at Cincinnati and will be in Indiana and Illinois as well as here, and so, notwithstanding all my efforts to get along peaceably, I find the fate of Whitney before me. I think I may be able to secure my farm, and so have a place to retire to for the PEACE IN THE NEW HOME 283 evening of my days, but even this may be denied me. A few months will decide.... You have before you the fate of an inventor, and, take as much pains as you will to secure to yourself your valuable invention, make up your mind from my experience now, in addition to others, that you will be robbed of it and abused into the bargain. This is the lot of a successful inventor or discoverer, and no precaution, I believe, will save him from it. He will meet with a mixed estimate; the...

Sailor for the Wild - On Maine, Conservation and Boats (Paperback): Ben Emory Sailor for the Wild - On Maine, Conservation and Boats (Paperback)
Ben Emory
R502 R475 Discovery Miles 4 750 Save R27 (5%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days

Inspired by Maine's extraordinary land-and-seascape, the author recounts a lifetime of intertwined adventures on the water, and professional and volunteer land conservation engagement. Shining through is the joy of Maine ocean and landscape, fascination with good boats, dedication to conservation, and observations about a changing world. Important land trust history, and some national trust, is set forth for the first time. Maps by Jane Crosen. Among the advance comments: "Great history and warmly written! . . . from a player present at the birth of the modem conservation movement."--Tim Glidden, President, Maine Coast Heritage Trust ..". a fantastic job of merging the personal and professional, factual and reflective, historical and contemporary."--Janet Milne, Professor, VT Law School "As one of Maine's pioneers for the land trust movement, Ben Emory's historical perspective in Sailor for the Wild is both enlightening and entertaining . . . An admirable accomplishment and nicely written."--Anthony Irving, Preservation Chair, Lyme (CT) Land Conservation Trust and ocean sailor Ben Emory of Bar Harbor and Brooklin, Maine, has decades of conservation experience. As executive director of Maine Coast Heritage Trust, he helped Acadia National Park launch its nationally heralded conservation easement program. Co-founding the Land Trust Exchange (now Alliance) and serving as its president, he later became Maine representative for The Conservation Fund. He has served on several land trust boards as well as the Land for Maine's Future Board and Acadia National Park Advisory Commission. He has published articles in Northern Woodlands, Maine Boats, Homes & Harbors, Cruising World and Yachtin

Mindbending - The Hutchison Files -- 1981 to 1995 (Paperback): Geroge D. Hathaway Mindbending - The Hutchison Files -- 1981 to 1995 (Paperback)
Geroge D. Hathaway
R709 R546 Discovery Miles 5 460 Save R163 (23%) Ships in 12 - 19 working days
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