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A collection of fascinating stories, entertainingly told, revealing the human face of science. Eurekas and Euphorias encompasses some 200 anecdotes brilliantly illustrating scientists in all their shapes: the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the preternaturally brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, the open-minded and the intolerant, recluses and arrivistes. Told with wit and relish by Walter Gratzer, here are stories to delight, astonish, instruct, and most especially, entertain the general reader, scientist and non-scientist alike.
A book about metals, plants, animals, and planets.
100 tales of invention and discovery to astonish, bewilder, & stupefy Meet the angry undertaker who gave us the push-button phone. Discover how modesty led to the invention of the stethoscope. Find out why Albert Einstein patented a refrigerator. Learn how a train full of trumpeters made science history. Did you know about: The frustrated fashion designer who created the space suit? The gun-toting newspaperman who invented the parking meter? The midnight dreams that led to a Nobel Prize? They're so good, you can't read just one!
What do the discovery of the coffee bean, the invention of the aqualung, the perception of the importance of the size of the moon, the conquest of smallpox, and supersonic flight all have in common? They are milestones in the history of science, a saga that began before the ancient Greeks and one that will continue for thousands of years to come. These and other fascinating stories about several of the world's most important inventions and discoveries are featured in The Book of Scientfic Anecdotes. This witty, informative, and highly readable collection includes more than sixty anecdotes chosen and edited by science writer Adrian Berry. Divided into eleven sections, the book covers topics ranging from man's exploration of the world - and space - to the revolution in communications, scientific martyrs, and "bogus science". It contains a wealth of fascinating, little-known facts and information, as well as anecdotes about people who have played crucial roles in the progress of science - Louis Pasteur, Einstein, and Galileo - along-side lesser-known individuals -" Lucy", the woman who lived more than three million years ago; Gilbert Vernam, the creator of the "one-time pad", the world's first unbreakable cipher; and J. S. Haldane, the only man to have tested safely in the mines by reciting Shakespeare. The scientific achievements of this century - relativity, quantum mechanics, nuclear power, genetic engineering, space travel, jet aircraft, desktop computers, and the beginnings of artificial intelligence - have swept away most of the predictions of the last. What do these breakthroughs augur for the twenty-first century? The Book of Scientific Anecdotes illuminates some of the inventionsand discoveries that have changed the world, and the people who made them.
The follow-on to the best-selling That's Not in My American History Book explains in everyday language both the ordinary and the bizarre technological marvels that we take for granted and the laws of nature that serve as the baseline for life on earth. Beginning with clear, concise, and entertaining descriptions of the important discoveries that form the basis of our scientific knowledge—-Newtonian mechanics, Einstein's theory of relativity, evolution, and germ theory, to name a few—-the book goes on to tell scientific stories that "are lost between the pages." These include the discovery of the periodic table of elements (and why it matters), the development of miracle drugs such as aspirin and penicillin, the invention of television, the prospects for earthquake prediction, and the genesis of the Internet. Whether it's a fascinating anecdote about the role of zebrafish as stand-in patients for humans or the history of the computer, That's Not in My Science Book will prove to be an engaging read for armchair scientists and students alike.
The Science of Stories explores the role narrative plays in human life. Supported by in-depth research, the book demonstrates how the ways in which people tell their stories can be indicative of how they construct their worlds and their own identities. Based on linguistic analysis and computer technology, Laszlo offers an innovative methodology which aims to uncover underlying psychological processes in narrative texts. The reader is presented with a theoretical framework along with a series of studies which explore the way a systematic linguistic analysis of narrative discourse can lead to a scientific study of identity construction, both individual and group. The book gives a critical overview of earlier narrative theories and summarizes previous scientific attempts to uncover relationships between language and personality. It also deals with social memory and group identity: various narrative forms of historical representations (history books, folk narratives, historical novels) are analyzed as to how they construct the past of a nation. The Science of Stories is the first book to build a bridge between scientific and hermeneutic studies of narratives. As such, it will be of great interest to a diverse spectrum of readers in social science and the liberal arts, including those in the fields of cognitive science, social psychology, linguistics, philosophy, literary studies and history.
“Wolf restores our awe of the human brain—its adaptability, its creativity, and its ability to connect with other minds through a procession of silly squiggles.” — San Francisco Chronicle How do people learn to read and write—and how has the development of these skills transformed the brain and the world itself ? Neuropsychologist and child development expert Maryann Wolf answers these questions in this ambitious and provocative book that chronicles the remarkable journey of written language not only throughout our evolution but also over the course of a single child’s life, showing why a growing percentage have difficulty mastering these abilities. With fascinating down-to-earth examples and lively personal anecdotes, Wolf asserts that the brain that examined the tiny clay tablets of the Sumerians is a very different brain from the one that is immersed in today’s technology-driven literacy, in which visual images on the screen are paving the way for a reduced need for written language—with potentially profound consequences for our future.
Communicate more effectively about science—by taking a page from Hollywood and improving your storytelling skills. Ask a scientist about Hollywood, and you’ll probably get eye rolls. But ask someone in Hollywood about science, and they’ll see dollar signs: Moviemakers know that science can be the source of great stories, with all the drama and action that blockbusters require. That’s a huge mistake, says Randy Olson: Hollywood has a lot to teach scientists about how to tell a story—and, ultimately, how to do science better. With Houston, We Have a Narrative, he lays out a stunningly simple method for turning the dull into the dramatic. Drawing on his unique background, which saw him leave his job as a working scientist to launch a career as a filmmaker, Olson first diagnoses the problem: When scientists tell us about their work, they pile one moment and one detail atop another moment and another detail—a stultifying procession of “and, and, and.” What we need instead is an understanding of the basic elements of story, the narrative structures that our brains are all but hardwired to look for—which Olson boils down, brilliantly, to “And, But, Therefore,” or ABT. At a stroke, the ABT approach introduces momentum (“And”), conflict (“But”), and resolution (“Therefore”)—the fundamental building blocks of story. As Olson has shown by leading countless workshops worldwide, when scientists’ eyes are opened to ABT, the effect is staggering: suddenly, they’re not just talking about their work—they’re telling stories about it. And audiences are captivated. Written with an uncommon verve and enthusiasm, and built on principles that are applicable to fields far beyond science, Houston, We Have a Narrative has the power to transform the way science is understood and appreciated, and ultimately how it’s done.
What is life? Where do we come from and how did we evolve? What is the universe and how was it formed? What is the nature of the material world? How does it work? How and why do we think? What does it mean to be human? How do we know? There are many different versions of our creation story. This book tells the version according to modern science. It is a unique account, starting at the Big Bang and travelling right up to the emergence of humans as conscious intelligent beings, 13.8 billion years later. Chapter by chapter, it sets out the current state of scientific knowledge: the origins of space and time; energy, mass, and light; galaxies, stars, and our sun; the habitable earth, and complex life itself. Drawing together the physical and biological sciences, Baggott recounts what we currently know of our history, highlighting the questions science has yet to answer.