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Books > Biography > Science, technology & engineering
From his childhood in Waco, Texas, where he took expert care of
nine small cousins while the adults ate Sunday lunch, to Princeton
and an offer from Broadway, to medical and psychoanalytic training,
to the exquisite observations into newborn behavior that led babies
to be seen in an entirely new light, Dr. T. Berry Brazelton's life
has been one of innovation and caring. Known internationally for
the Touchpoints theory of regression and growth in infants and
young children, Brazelton is also credited for bringing the
insights of child development into pediatrics, and for his powerful
advocacy in Congress.
This study explores the evolution of Lomonosov's imposing stature in Russian thought from the middle of the eighteenth century to the closing years of the Soviet period. It reveals much about the intersection in Russian culture of attitudes towards the meaning and significance of science, as well as about the rise of a Russian national identity, of which Lomonosov became an outstanding symbol. Idealized depictions of Lomonosov were employed by Russian scientists, historians, and poets, among others, in efforts to affirm to their countrymen and to the state the pragmatic advantages of science to a modernizing nation. In setting forth this assumption, Usitalo notes that no sharply drawn division can be upheld between the utilization of the myth of Lomonosov during the Soviet period of Russian history and that which characterized earlier views. The main elements that formed the mythology were laid down in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; Soviet scholars simply added more exaggerated layers to existing representations.
This is a kaleidoscopic account of the remarkable life story of Alladi Ramakrishnan (1923-2008), an internationally reputed physicist, and the son of Sir Alladi Krishnaswami Iyer (1883-1953), one of India's most eminent jurists.Part I of the autobiography gives a fascinating account his early life in Madras, India during the last decades of British colonial rule, and the leading role played by Sir Alladi in drafting the Constitution of India. Then follows the incredible saga of his creation of MATSCIENCE, The Institute of Mathematical Sciences, in Madras, inspired by his visit to the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, and the result of a Theoretical Physics Seminar which he organized in his family home Ekamra Nivas in Madras, which received the endorsement of Nobel Laureate Niels Bohr, and the support of India's Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru.Part II covers the period of Ramakrishnan's term as Director of MATSCIENCE, and his visits to about 200 centres of learning the world over, where he interacted with leading scientists and lectured on his research in the fields of Probability, Stochastic Processes, Elementary Particle Physics, Matrix Theory, and on his novel treatment of Einstein's Special Relativity. Historical photos, letters, and documents of special interest are included.
It all started with a Hob Nob. As Dr Matt Morgan, an intensive care consultant, examined a patient who had suffered a cardiac arrest after inhaling some biscuit crumbs, he saw a flock of birds fly past the window. They must inhale objects all the time when flying, how do they survive? he thought to himself. This began an investigation that spanned continents, species and millennia. For animal science has so much to teach us about human medicine. While some of the overlaps and parallels are obvious - we know how much DNA we share with primates, the first pig heart has been transplanted into a human - there is so much more that we have learnt from the animal world. For example, studying kangaroos, in particular the female's three vaginas, has improved in-vitro fertilisation success rates. Watching how a giraffe breathes can help save the life of someone struggling with asthma. Investigating why birds that live in the frozen Arctic circle don't freeze to death led to advances with treating hypothermia. Getting a ECG on the 150kg heart of a humpback whale was instrumental to keeping patients with cardiac failure living longer. We owe animals so much, it's time to focus on examining how they live and what we still have to learn from them. Better shared understanding of how our species coexists with millions of others can lead to untold medical advances, help both humans and animals and improve the world for all creatures from single-celled bacteria to a 30,000 kg whale. Who knows, maybe a kiss from a frog will save your life?
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.
Writing a memoir was not only an interesting experience for this Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, but it also provided him an opportunity to revisit his past with his sons. The author graduated from Cornell in 1953 in Engineering Physics and received his PhD in Physics in 1956 at the University of Illinois. He was then at the General Electric Research Laboratory until 1965, when he moved to Stanford. He has seen his life transform from a physics student to husband, father, author, professor, scoutmaster, von Humboldt scholar, and sometimes musician. His published books include Pseudopotentials, Solid State Theory, Elementary Electronic Structure, and Applied Quantum Mechanics. Here he draws a parallel with the ancient alchemical goal of transforming lead into gold. The reader will find this engaging memoir rich in anecdotes and stories that constitute the various transformations resulting in what may be called a 'golden experience'.
Writing a memoir was not only an interesting experience for this Professor of Applied Physics at Stanford University, but it also provided him an opportunity to revisit his past with his sons. The author graduated from Cornell in 1953 in Engineering Physics and received his PhD in Physics in 1956 at the University of Illinois. He was then at the General Electric Research Laboratory until 1965, when he moved to Stanford. He has seen his life transform from a physics student to husband, father, author, professor, scoutmaster, von Humboldt scholar, and sometimes musician. His published books include Pseudopotentials, Solid State Theory, Elementary Electronic Structure, and Applied Quantum Mechanics. Here he draws a parallel with the ancient alchemical goal of transforming lead into gold. The reader will find this engaging memoir rich in anecdotes and stories that constitute the various transformations resulting in what may be called a 'golden experience'.
A multi-award-winning Italian debut, from a bold and original new voice in contemporary queer literature. Jonathan is 31 years old, living in Milan with his boyfriend of three years and their two Devon Rex cats when, on a day like any other, he gets a fever. But unlike most, this fever doesn't go away; it's constant, low-level, and exhausting. After spending weeks Googling his symptoms and documenting his illness, he finally sees a doctor. A series of blood tests, anxious visits to hospitals, and repeated misdiagnoses ensue, until the truth is finally revealed: Jonathan is HIV-positive. As Jonathan comes to terms with what this diagnosis will mean for him, his future, and his relationships, he also takes the reader back in time, in search of his history, to the suburbs where he grew up, and from which he feels he has escaped: Rozzano, the ghetto of Milan, and of Italy's north. In the vein of Edouard Louis and Virginie Despentes, Fever is at once a deeply personal story and a searing examination of class, poverty, prejudice, and opportunity in modern Europe.
First published in 2005, this book represents the first full length biography of John Phillips, one of the most remarkable and important scientists of the Victorian period. Adopting a broad chronological approach, this book not only traces the development of Phillips' career but clarifies and highlights his role within Victorian culture, shedding light on many wider themes. It explores how Phillips' love of science was inseparable from his need to earn a living and develop a career which could sustain him. Hence questions of power, authority, reputation and patronage were central to Phillips' career and scientific work. Drawing on a wealth of primary sources and a rich body of recent writings on Victorian science, this biography brings together his personal story with the scientific theories and developments of the day, and fixes them firmly within the context of wider society.
This biography of Charles Darwin, first published in 1937, re-lives Darwin's life year by year, allowing the reader to share his experiences. The book displays Darwin's ideas and how they developed and grew over time. This title will be of great interest to students of the history of science and philosophy.
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.
Sir Isaac Newton once declared that his momentous discoveries were only made thanks to having 'stood on the shoulders of giants'. The same might also be said of the scientists James Watson and Francis Crick. Their discovery of the structure of DNA was, without doubt, one of the biggest scientific landmarks in history and, thanks largely to the success of Watson's best-selling memoir 'The Double Helix', there might seem to be little new to say about this story. But much remains to be said about the particular 'giants' on whose shoulders Watson and Crick stood. Of these, the crystallographer Rosalind Franklin, whose famous X-ray diffraction photograph known as 'Photo 51' provided Watson and Crick with a vital clue, is now well recognised. Far less well known is the physicist William T. Astbury who, working at Leeds in the 1930s on the structure of wool for the local textile industry, pioneered the use of X-ray crystallography to study biological fibres. In so doing, he not only made the very first studies of the structure of DNA culminating in a photo almost identical to Franklin's 'Photo 51', but also founded the new science of 'molecular biology'. Yet whilst Watson and Crick won the Nobel Prize, Astbury has largely been forgotten. The Man in the Monkeynut Coat tells the story of this neglected pioneer, showing not only how it was thanks to him that Watson and Crick were not left empty-handed, but also how his ideas transformed biology leaving a legacy which is still felt today.
David Mearns has discovered some of the world's most fascinating and elusive shipwrecks. From the mighty battlecruiser HMS Hood to the crumbling wooden skeletons of Vasco da Gama's 16th century fleet, David has searched for and found dozens of sunken vessels in every ocean of the world. The Shipwreck Hunter is an account of David's most intriguing and fascinating finds. It details both the meticulous research and the mid-ocean stamina and courage required to find a wreck miles beneath the sea, as well as the moving human stories that lie behind each of these oceanic tragedies. Combining the derring-do of Indiana Jones with the precision of a surgeon, in The Shipwreck Hunter David Mearns opens a porthole into the shadowy depths of the ocean.
The first ever biography of Dr Charles Lewis Meryon (17831877), born in Rye (Sussex), physician to Lady Hester Stanhope and companion on her travels on various different occasions (to Malta, Greece, Turkey, Egypt and the Lebanon) during which he met Lord Byron, the Pasha of Egypt, and famed traveller Johann Ludwig Burckhardt, among many other characters and personalities; he was shipwrecked, attacked by pirates and lost for several days in the desert, in addition to living numerous other adventures; he was the father of tormented French artist Charles Meryon (the artists mothers unrequited love for his father is told by means of their original correspondence), author of the two three-volume sets, The Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope and The Travels of the Lady Hester Stanhope, translator (Meryon mastered various languages both ancient and modern); poet, and revolutionary politician in his home town of Rye. The biography also includes an edition of his poem Tis all my Eye and Betty Martin, of which only five copies were ever printed. The last remaining copy in the UK was destroyed in the bombing of London in the Second World War, and the work was believed to be lost forever, but the last surviving copy was recently unearthed in Canada. The biography is a companion volume to the newly discovered Additional Memoirs of Lady Hester Stanhope: An Unpublished Historical Account for the Years 1819-1820, as recorded by her physician Charles Lewis Meryon, edited with an introduction by Mark Guscin.
Tu Youyou's Journey in the Search for Artemisinin is an autobiographical science book chronicling in detail the great experiences of Tu Youyou from her childhood to winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.As Tu Youyou is the first female scientist from China to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, this win created a sudden wave of interest in medicine, resulting in numerous autobiographical books about Tu Youyou appearing on the market. Contrary to these mass market titles, this book is uniquely different as it is fully authorized by the Nobel laureate herself. Her once-confidential experimental data and Artemisinin research reports are now revealed in this book for all to learn and comprehend. In addition, one of the book authors, Dr Wang Manyuan, is the only PhD student supervised by Professor Tu.Pharmaceutical researchers can use the book's valuable contents to reference, quote and analyse while searching for their own scientific inspirations. It also successfully serves as a guide for budding scientists and future Nobel Prize winners as it provides the proper guidance and methods of scientific research.
Tu Youyou's Journey in the Search for Artemisinin is an autobiographical science book chronicling in detail the great experiences of Tu Youyou from her childhood to winning the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.As Tu Youyou is the first female scientist from China to win the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, this win created a sudden wave of interest in medicine, resulting in numerous autobiographical books about Tu Youyou appearing on the market. Contrary to these mass market titles, this book is uniquely different as it is fully authorized by the Nobel laureate herself. Her once-confidential experimental data and Artemisinin research reports are now revealed in this book for all to learn and comprehend. In addition, one of the book authors, Dr Wang Manyuan, is the only PhD student supervised by Professor Tu.Pharmaceutical researchers can use the book's valuable contents to reference, quote and analyse while searching for their own scientific inspirations. It also successfully serves as a guide for budding scientists and future Nobel Prize winners as it provides the proper guidance and methods of scientific research.
'Freeman Dyson has had an extraordinary range of interests, serious activity and influence. This is reflected in the choice of topics in these essays ... This book is informative, very entertaining and well up to the high standards attained previously by this author!'Contemporary PhysicsMy friendship with Freeman Dyson goes back over a half century. My first contact with him goes back to the late 1950s, when I was at the Institute for Advanced Study, and then evolved when I was a consultant at General Atomics in La Jolla, California. Freeman was then trying to design a space ship - the Orion - which would be propelled by atomic bombs. When I left the Institute, Freeman and I continued our correspondence and I saved his letters. They are written in an almost calligraphically elegant handwriting. It is hard to see how you could make a mistake in a mathematical computation if you wrote that clearly. The letters show his human side and his enormous range of knowledge.There are then two essays involving the physicist Fritz Houtermans who was an extraordinarily colorful character. There is a brief essay on Einstein's collaboration with a fraud. There is even an essay on the Titius-Bode law and the new exo-planets. Because of my enduring interest in nuclear weapons, the reader will find essays devoted to that. There is also a bit of fiction at the end.
First published in 2003. Hewett Cottrell Watson was a pioneer in a new science not yet defined in Victorian times - ecology - and was practically the first naturalist to conduct research on plant evolution, beginning in 1834. The correspondence between Watson and Darwin, analysed for the first time in this book, reveals the extent to which Darwin profited from Watson's data. Darwin's subsequent fame, however, is one of the reasons why Watson became almost forgotten. This biography traces both the influences and characteristics that shaped Watson's outlook and personality, and indeed his science, and the institutional contexts within which he worked. At the same time, it makes evident the extent of his real contributions to the science of the plant ecology and evolution.
In the United States it is estimated that 3.2 million people are infected with the Hepatitis C virus, which is a contagious liver disease that can range in severity from a mild illness to a serious, lifelong condition. Infections worldwide are estimated at 150 to 200 million people, many of whom are not aware they are affected. Gregory David finds out the hard way that he is one of the infected - through a letter, which reads, "We regret that at this time our company cannot offer you a life insurance policy. We based our decision on your recent alcohol use during the past six years, and the presence of the Hepatitis C virus." At first, Gregory is in disbelief, and he insists on having his doctor perform an independent test. But when the results come back, he learns that his earlier years of occasional drug use and constant partying may have finally caught up with him. The coming weeks and months pose huge obstacles as Gregory learns about the disease, breaks the news to family and friends, and struggles to cope with an infection he at first knows little about. Join Gregory as he confronts the disease, and find inspiration in "Breaking Free from Hepatitis C."
"No doctor, however great his capacity or original his ideas, has the right to choose martyrs for science or for the general good." Human Guinea Pigs: Experimentation on Man.Whistle-blowers tend not to be very popular. Maurice Pappworth's whistle was in the form of Human Guinea Pigs, the controversial book published in 1967 which examined unethical medical experimentation on humans and identified the researchers and institutions responsible. The ground-breaking text took the medical establishment by storm and provoked questions in Parliament. Brilliant, Jewish, already an outsider, Pappworth was recognised as the best medical teacher in the country. But convinced that the reason for these experiments being carried out was purely to advance the careers of ambitious practitioners, Pappworth had to speak up. In the wake of his expose, stricter codes of practice for human experimentation were put into place and the establishment of the research ethics committees was formed, which remains in place today. Maurice Pappworth's daughter, the late Joanna Seldon, re-assesses the importance of Human Guinea Pigs in her book Whistle-blower: The Life of Maurice Pappworth. She considers her father's text a major milestone in the development of current medical research ethics and demands a re-evaluation of the pioneering medical ethicist who compromised his own career in order to ensure the protection of the patient.
This famous book, the inspiration behind Kate Bush's 1985 hit song 'Cloudbusting', is the extraordinary account of life as friend, confidant and child of the brilliant but persecuted psychoanalyst Wilhelm Reich. Peter, his son, shared with his father the revolutionary concept of a world where dream and reality are virtually indistinguishable, and the sense of mission which set him and his followers apart from the rest of the human race. Here, Peter Reich writes vividly and movingly of the mysterious experiences he shared with his father: of flying saucers; the 'cloudbuster' rain-makers and the FDA narks; and of the final tragic realization of his father's death, which woke him up to the necessity of living out his life in an alien world. Already regarded as a modern classic, A Book of Dreams is not only a beautifully written narrative of a remarkable friendship and collaboration, but a loving son's heartfelt tribute to a loving father.
Pasteurization, penicillin, Koch's postulates, and gene coding. These discoveries and inventions are vital yet commonplace in modern life, but were radical when first introduced to the public and academia. In this book, the life and times of leading pioneers in microbiology are discussed in vivid detail, focusing on the background of each discovery and the process in which they were developed - sometimes by accident or sheer providence. |
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