Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance
In today's world of intellectual property disputes, industrial espionage, and book signings by famous authors, one easily loses sight of the historical nature of the attribution and ownership of texts. In Openness, Secrecy, Authorship: Technical Arts and the Culture of Knowledge from Antiquity to the Renaissance, Pamela Long combines intellectual ......
Helps us appreciate the richness of Einstein's vision, discussing the renowned scientist's lesser-known contributions, from Einstein's theories supporting time travel, to his research on curved space, the cosmological constant, black holes, wormholes, gravity waves, and cosmic lenses, to quantum theory, and beyond.
An explication of the scientific facts, this work is a primer for the lay reader curious about the biological revolution. It presents a discussion of important issues in life science.
Shorthorn Cattle, Collies, and Arabian Horses since 1800
How did animal breeding emerge as a movement? Who took part and for what reasons? How do the pedigree and market systems work? What light might the movement shed on the assumptions behind human eugenics? In Bred for Perfection, Margaret Derry provides the most comprehensive and accessible book yet published on the human quest to improve and ......
Using the biblical dictum, 'the tree is known by its fruit', the author surveys the historical record left by the defenders of faith and the proponents of reason. His analysis challenges the commonly held belief that despite its many abuses religion on balance civilised the world.
How we arrived at a capacity for taking cold, hard looks at the facts of natureand whether we ever truly have done soare questions that continue to engage both historians of science and students of culture. Historians of modern European intellectual history commonly credit Francis Bacon with laying the groundwork for a mode of study that ......
From about 1600 to 1800 scientists and mariners made increasingly sophisticated attempts to understand the earth's magnetic field and use it in navigation. Europeans had long understood the difference between magnetic and true north, but why did it vary as one traversed the sea? Could this variation be used to pinpoint longitude? Drawing on a ......
The National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics--forerunner of today's NASA--emerged in 1915, when airplanes were curiosities made of wood and canvas and held together with yards of baling wire. At the time an unusual example of government intrusion (and foresight, given the importance of aviation to national military concerns), the committee ......
Language, Race, and Natural Theology in the Nineteenth Century (POD)
In the nineteenth century, philologyespecially comparative philologymade impressive gains as a discipline, thus laying the foundation for the modern field of linguistics. In Darwinism and the Linguistic Image, Stephen G. Alter examines how comparative philology provided a genealogical model of language that Darwin, as well as other scientists ......
