Ships of Mercy tells the riveting true story of Mercy Ships, the astonishing fleet of hospital ships that sail the globe, bringing dramatic change to the lives of hundreds of thousands of people in the most impoverished and disease-stricken corners of the world. Ships of Mercy is a page-turner of the highest quality, an inspiring testimony both to the essence of the human spirit and God's amazing providence. It tells the story of a teenager's extraordinary vision brought to reality in the form of a multi-million dollar life-saving mission. It also tells the story of a family of people from diverse backgrounds who have sacrificed their comfort and security in order to perform remarkable acts of grace and kindness.

This book provides a rounded biography of Franz (later Sir Francis) Simon, his early life in Germany, his move to Oxford in 1933, and his experimental contributions to low temperature physics approximating absolute zero. After 1939 he switched his research to nuclear physics, and is credited with solving the problem of uranium isotope separation by gaseous diffusion for the British nuclear programme Tube Alloys. The volume is distinctive for its inclusion of source materials not available to previous researchers, such as Simon's diary and his correspondence with his wife, and for a fresh, well-informed insider voice on the five-power nuclear rivalry of the war years. The work also draws on a relatively mature nuclear literature to attempt a comparison and evaluation of the five nuclear rivals in wider political and military context, and to identify the factors, or groups of factors, that can explain the results.

Discovering the passions of Chris Woodhead Collected writings from a man who stimulated controversy and roused passions Best known as the Chief Inspector of Schools who demanded higher standards across the board, Woodhead was admired and condemned in equal measure for his determination to confront taboos and bring them into the national education debate. His final and greatest challenge was with Motor Neurone Disease, a condition he faced with strength and empathy until his death in 2015. While his education journalism stands at the core of this book, What Matters Most explores Woodhead's lesser known passions, literature and climbing, which he writes about with the precision and clarity that became his journalistic hallmark. In the final pages of the book Woodhead shares his personal views on assisted dying, advocating for individuals to be permitted to die with dignity at a time of their choosing. What Matters Most: A Collection of Pieces is a fascinating and poignant book which tracks the life and beliefs of a truly inspirational contemporary thinker.

Brown-Sequard: An Improbable Genius Who Transformed Medicine traces the strange career of an eccentric, restless, widely admired, nineteenth-century physician-scientist who eventually came to be scorned by antivivisectionists for his work on animals, by churchgoers who believed that he encouraged licentious behavior, and by other scientists for his unorthodox views and for claims that, in fact, he never made. An improbable genius whose colorful life was characterized by dramatic reversals of fortune, he was a founder-physician of England's premier neurological hospital and held important professorships in America and France.
Brown-Sequard identified the sensory pathways in the spinal cord and emphasized functional processes in the integrative actions of the nervous system, thereby anticipating modern concepts of how the brain operates. He also discovered the function of the nerves that supply the blood vessels and thereby control their caliber, and the associated reflexes that adjust the circulation to bodily needs. He was the first to show that the adrenal glands are essential to life and suggested that other organs have internal secretions. He injected himself with ground-up animal testicles, claiming an invigorating effect, and this approach led to the development of modern hormone replacement therapy.
Charles-Edouard Brown-Sequard was reportedly "one of the greatest discover of facts that the world has ever seen." It has also been suggested that "if his reasoning power had equaled his power of observation he might have done for physiology what Newton did for physics." In fact, scientific advances in the years since his death have provided increasing support for many of his once-ridiculed beliefs."

In January 2020, leading epidemiologist Professor Mark Woolhouse learned of a new virus taking hold in China. He immediately foresaw a hard road ahead for the entire world, and emailed the Chief Medical Officer of Scotland warning that the UK should urgently begin preparations. A few days later he received a polite reply stating only that everything was under control. In this astonishing account, Mark Woolhouse shares his story as an insider, having served on advisory groups to both the Scottish and UK governments. He reveals the disregarded advice, frustration of dealing with politicians, and the missteps that led to the deaths of vulnerable people, damage to livelihoods and the disruption of education. He explains the follies of lockdown and sets out the alternatives. Finally, he warns that when the next pandemic comes, we must not dither and we must not panic; never again should we make a global crisis even worse. The Year the World Went Mad puts our recent, devastating, history in a completely new light.

"HOW COULD YOU, A MATHEMATICIAN, BELIEVE THAT EXTRATERRESTRIALS WERE SENDING YOU MESSAGES?" the visitor from Harvard asked the West Virginian with the movie-star looks and Olympian manner. "Because the ideas I had about supernatural beings came to me the same way my mathematical ideas did," came the answer. "So I took them seriously."

Thus begins the true story of John Nash, the mathematical genius who was a legend by age thirty when he slipped into madness, and who--thanks to the selflessness of a beautiful woman and the loyalty of the mathematics community--emerged after decades of ghostlike existence to win a Nobel Prize for triggering the game theory revolution. The inspiration for an Academy Award-winning movie, Sylvia Nasar's now-classic biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over adversity, and the healing power of love.

The smartphones in our pockets and computers like brains. The vagaries of game theory and evolutionary biology. Nuclear weapons and self-replicating spacecrafts. All bear the fingerprints of one remarkable, yet largely overlooked, man: John von Neumann. Born in Budapest at the turn of the century, von Neumann is one of the most influential scientists to have ever lived. A child prodigy, he mastered calculus by the age of eight, and in high school made lasting contributions to mathematics. In Germany, where he helped lay the foundations of quantum mechanics, and later at Princeton, von Neumann's colleagues believed he had the fastest brain on the planet-bar none. He was instrumental in the Manhattan Project and the design of the atom bomb; he helped formulate the bedrock of Cold War geopolitics and modern economic theory; he created the first ever programmable digital computer; he prophesized the potential of nanotechnology; and, from his deathbed, he expounded on the limits of brains and computers-and how they might be overcome. Taking us on an astonishing journey, Ananyo Bhattacharya explores how a combination of genius and unique historical circumstance allowed a single man to sweep through a stunningly diverse array of fields, sparking revolutions wherever he went. The Man from the Future is an insightful and thrilling intellectual biography of the visionary thinker who shaped our century.

The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin (1791) is an unfinished memoir by Benjamin Franklin. Addressing the work to his son William, Franklin intended to provide a private account of his life and accomplishments. Published after his death, however, The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin has since been recognized as one of the most influential works of autobiography in history, as well as a foundational text for the American ideal of the self-made man. Born in Boston, Franklin joins his brother's printing business at a young age, learning the ropes in an industry which will later bring him both wealth and fame. Secretly, however, he publishes a series of essays under the pseudonym "Silence Dogood," satirical pieces written from the perspective of a middle-aged widow. When his authorship is revealed, a dispute ensues between Franklin and his brother that leads the young Benjamin to look for work elsewhere. Unable to find work in New York City, Franklin continues south toward Philadelphia, where he establishes himself as the printer and editor of the Pennsylvania Gazette. After describing his system of thirteen virtues aimed at moral perfection, Franklin returns to his work as a publisher of Poor Richard's Almanack, a successful yearly pamphlet containing meteorological information, practical tips, and puzzles. Franklin also focuses on his diplomatic work, scientific research and inventions, and his appointment as an honorary member of the prestigious Royal Society. With a beautifully designed cover and professionally typeset manuscript, this edition of The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin is a classic of American literature reimagined for modern readers.

This biography of the famous Soviet physicist Leonid Isaakovich Mandelstam (1889-1944), who became a Professor at Moscow State University in 1925 and an Academician (the highest scientific title in the USSR) in 1929, describes his contributions to both physics and technology. It also discusses the scientific community that formed around him, commonly known as the Mandelstam School. By doing so, it places Mandelstam's life story in its cultural context: the context of German University (until 1914), the First World War, the Civil War, and the development of the Socialist Revolution (until 1925) and the young socialist country. The book considers various general issues, such as the impact of German scientific culture on Russian science; the problems and fates of Russian intellectuals during the revolutionary and post-revolutionary years; the formation of the Soviet Academy of Science, the State Academy; and the transformation of the system of higher education in the USSR during the 1920s and 1930s. Further, it reconstructs Mandelstam's philosophy of science and his approach to the social and ethical function of science and science education based on his fundamental writings and lecture notes. This reconstruction is enhanced by extensive use of previously unpublished archive material as well as the transcripts of personal interviews conducted by the author. The book also discusses the biographies of Mandelstam's friends and collaborators: German mathematician and philosopher Richard von Mises, Soviet Communist Party official and philosopher B.M.Hessen, Russian specialist in radio engineering N.D.Papalexy, the specialists in non-linear dynamics A.A.Andronov, S.E. Chaikin, A.A.Vitt and the plasma physicist M.A.Leontovich. This second, extended edition reconstructs the social and economic backgrounds of Mandelstam and his colleagues, describing their positions at the universities and the institutes belonging to the Academy of Science. Additionally, Mandelstam's philosophy of science is investigated in connection with the ideological attacks that occurred after Mandelstam's death, particularly the great mathematician A.D.Alexandrov's criticism of Mandelstam's operationalism.

'Charming and addictively accessible' STEVEN PINKER 'Original, authoritative and beautiful' BRIAN COX 'The most wonderful adventure' ROBIN INCE A brilliantly illustrated journey through the wonders and mysteries of the human brain - from a renowned husband-and-wife team of cognitive neuroscientists. Professors and husband-and-wife team Uta and Chris Frith have pioneered major studies of brain disorders throughout their nearly fifty-year career. In Two Heads, their distinguished careers serve as a prism through which they share the compelling story of the birth of neuroscience and their paradigm-shifting discoveries across areas as wide-ranging as autism and schizophrenia research, and new frontiers of social cognition including diversity, prejudice, confidence, collaboration and empathy. Working with their son Alex Frith and artist Daniel Locke, they examine the way that neuroscientific research is now focused on the fact we are a social species, whose brains have evolved to work cooperatively. What happens when people gather in groups? How do people behave when they're in pairs - either pitted against each other or working together? Is it better to surround yourself with people who are similar to yourself, or different? And, are two heads really better than one? Highly original and ingeniously illustrated, Two Heads provides an expansive understanding of how our brains work, and how they work together.

Combining memoir and studies in the Environmental Humanities, Black Swan Song weaves together an autobiographically-based account of the unique life and work of Rod Giblett. For over 25 years he was a leading local wetland conservationist, environmental activist, and pioneer transdisciplinary researcher and writer of fiction and non-fiction. He has researched, written, and published more than 25 books in the environmental humanities, especially wetland cultural studies, and psychoanalytic ecology. Black Swan Song traces Rod's early and later life and work from being born in Borneo as the child of Christian missionaries, through his childhood in Bible College, being a High School dropout and studying at three universities to becoming an academic, activist and author, and now a writer. Following in the footsteps of New Lives of the Saints: Twelve Environmental Apostles, Black Swan Song also comprises conversations in conservation counter-theology between the twelve minor biblical prophets and twelve environmental apostles, such as Henry David Thoreau, Aldo Leopold, John Muir, and Rachel Carson. It also introduces the lives and works of twelve more environmental apostles, such as John Clare, Rebecca Solnit, John Charles Ryan, and others who have made a valuable contribution to green thinking and living. Black Swan Song mixes modes and genres, such as memoir, essay, story, criticism, etc., making up the writer's black swan song. It provides ways of living and being with the earth in dark and troubled times by providing resources of a journey of hope for learning to live bio- and psycho-symbiotic livelihoods in bioregional home habitats of the living earth and in the Symbiocene, the hoped-for age superseding the Anthropocene.

This book (hardcover) is part of the TREDITION CLASSICS. It contains classical literature works from over two thousand years. Most of these titles have been out of print and off the bookstore shelves for decades. The book series is intended to preserve the cultural legacy and to promote the timeless works of classical literature. Readers of a TREDITION CLASSICS book support the mission to save many of the amazing works of world literature from oblivion. With this series, tredition intends to make thousands of international literature classics available in printed format again - worldwide.

Recognising the contributions of female psychoanalytic pioneers has become very popular in recent years * Thompson's original work is very hard to find and there's little coverage of her in the existing literature * Her ideas have become part of the psychoanalytic mainstream, especially in the US.

"Jonathan Friedlaender has devoted much of his professional life to studies of human population variation in Pacific Islanders.. His collaborator on this memoir of his life and experiences in the Pacific is Joanna Radin, a young but remarkably knowledgeable historian of science currently conducting graduate studies at the University of Pennsylvania. These two professionals weave a fascinating fabric of complex texture that incorporates the educational, political, governmental, and research climate of the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s with the trials and tribulations of a young researcher and academic trying to make his way in a highly competitive arena. The book is much more than a series of recollections about one man's life; rather, it is a history of an important era in the development of anthropological genetics and the dramatic transition in this science that took place in the early 1980s.

Friedlaender's book should have appeal to a number of audiences - students, professional anthropologists, and lay readers, alike... Jonathan Friedlaender's Reflections is a valuable addition to the historical record of this important science. This is a worthwhile book to read for anyone with interests in the history of science or the history of a science."

From the Foreword by Professor Michael A. Little, Binghamton University