Book Description

After 1905, Einstein's miraculous year, physics would never be the same again. In those twelve months, Einstein shattered many cherished scientific beliefs with five extraordinary papers that would establish him as the world's leading physicist. This book brings those papers together in an accessible format. The best-known papers are the two that founded special relativity: On the Electrodynamics of Moving Bodies and Does the Inertia of a Body Depend on Its Energy Content? In the former, Einstein showed that absolute time had to be replaced by a new absolute: the speed of light. In the second, he asserted the equivalence of mass and energy, which would lead to the famous formula E = mc².

The book also includes On a Heuristic Point of View Concerning the Production and Transformation of Light, in which Einstein challenged the wave theory of light, suggesting that light could also be regarded as a collection of particles. This helped to open the door to a whole new world--that of quantum physics. For ideas in this paper, he won the Nobel Prize in 1921.

The fourth paper also led to a Nobel Prize, although for another scientist, Jean Perrin. On the Movement of Small Particles Suspended in Stationary Liquids Required by the Molecular-Kinetic Theory of Heat concerns the Brownian motion of such particles. With profound insight, Einstein blended ideas from kinetic theory and classical hydrodynamics to derive an equation for the mean free path of such particles as a function of the time, which Perrin confirmed experimentally. The fifth paper, A New Determination of Molecular Dimensions, was Einstein's doctoral dissertation, and remains among his most cited articles. It shows how to calculate Avogadro's number and the size of molecules.

These papers, presented in a modern English translation, are essential reading for any physicist, mathematician, or astrophysicist. Far more than just a collection of scientific articles, this book presents work that is among the high points of human achievement and marks a watershed in the history of science.

Coinciding with the 100th anniversary of the miraculous year, this new paperback edition includes an introduction by John Stachel, which focuses on the personal aspects of Einstein's youth that facilitated and led up to the miraculous year.

Reviews (6)

Einstein's Masterful Synthesis
We should know some things about Einstein. He needed a mathematician to write his ideas and theories about relativity. He found the famous mathematician Kurt Godel to help him. Einstein said to Godel "I need you to write the equations for my theory". However, Godel said: " I don't know physics" whereby Einstein replied, " I know physics and you know mathematics". Then Godel agreed to go to work for Einstein.

As is always the case in science, we stand on the shoulders of others before us. Einstein got his ideas and theories about relativity from many mathematicians and some physicists.

When you read between the lines of this fine book, you will see how Einstein synthesized and derived some of the greatest theories in history as to how nature is constructed and works.

Einstein put it all together just like Newton did with the calculus.

Einstein's masterful synthesis
We should remember a few things about Einstein. He needed a mathematician to write his concepts and theories about relativity. He found the famous mathematician Kurt Godel. He said to Godel " I need you to help me construct my theories". However, Godel replied " I don't know physics ". Einstein replied, "I know physics and you know mathematics". Then Godel agreed to go to work for Einstein.

As is always the case in science, we stand on the shoulders of others before us. Einstein got his ideas from many mathematicians and some physicists. He synthesized and derived the greatest theories in history about nature and how it works.

If you read between the lines of this book you will come to understand what this fine book is telling us about the great Albert Einstein. It was he, who put it all together, like Newton did with the calculus.

Incomplete History
I recently read a much more informative book "Albert Einstein: The Incorrigible Plagiarist" by Christopher Jon Bjerknes which tells the truth about Einstein and the 1905 papers Einstein's wife Mileva Maric wrote for him. The Bjerknes book is a scholarly book, and it presents the facts. Anyone interested in the 1905 papers should know the truth. Max Born said of the 1905 relativity paper, "It gives you the impression of quite a new venture. But that is, of course, as I have tried to explain, not true." The truth is that the theory belongs to Boscovich, Lange, Voigt, Fitzgerald, Larmor, Lorentz, Palagyi, and Poincare, among many others. The 1905 paper on special relativity did not give a single reference to these men.

Finally, the real thing; not just inaccurate verbal metaphor
I am a nonscientist, general reader, but have read many popular accounts of special relativity.I have always felt shortchanged, though, just at the point where things get most interesting.I think that is because thereal physics does lie in the equations, and verbal metaphors fall short. For me, here, for the first time, I see where the science is: just beyondthe metaphors.Although I do not follow all the math by any means, so itis partly like listening to a foreign language, I recognized enough of theconcepts to get a glimmer: and it is stunning.Here is Einstein himself,deriving E=mc2 in paper 4; so briefly, so lucidly (although another readerfrom California seems to have missed it).Paper 3 on special relativityis, even to this nonscientist, dazzling.

Not for beginners
If you're looking for a good book to learn a bit about Einstein's theories of relativity, you'd be better served reading his "The Meaning of Relativity." "Einstein's Miraculous Year," being acompilation of translated versions of his original 1905 papers, is moresuited for the seasoned physicist who already understands the material butis curious about how Einstein really did it all. In the latter case, ofcourse, one could turn to the professional physics literature, but it'snice to have all his 1905 papers in one place. The extra commentary is anice addition, since it provides the necessary historical context. Too badthe book doesn't include Einstein's papers on his general theory ofrelativity but, of course, that would fall out of the miraculous year of1905. ... Read more

Book Description

"The nuclear physicist most responsible for the creation of the atomic bomb, J. Robert Oppenheimer, was a genius both scientifically and otherwise. In Jeremy Bernstein's intensely interesting biographical memoir, Oppenheimer emerges as a man unsure of his identity and captive to an element of self-destructiveness in his makeup. As a former colleague of Oppenheimer's, Bernstein has composed a book that is both personal and historical, bringing the reader close to the life and workings of an extraordinary and controversial man." ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Interstitial Material
This book has supplied insights and information which none of my readings on the topic of Oppenheimer or the Manhattan Project or Los Alamos (where I spent part of my childhood, hence the interest) has provided.

This is not a massive tome with large quantities of detail related to any one specific area of Oppenheimer's life, but provides information that tends to hold the massive amounts of data which has been written about him at a more personal level.

All in all, a readable, cogent, human book about a man whose life seems filled with contradictions and disparate interests.

An involving, highly recommended biographical survey
Oppenheimer: Portrait Of An Enigma is the biography of the preeminent American nuclear scientist has been a long-awaited book: Biographer Jeremy Berstein spent two years at the institute where Robert Oppenheimer was director, observed him nearly daily, and is in the perfect position to blend history with personal observation. The nuclear physicist Oppenheimer was key in creating the atomic bomb, and was a genius both scientifically and otherwise: Oppenheimer's science, background, and most of all the personal talks between biographer and scientist spice up a revealing, involving, highly recommended biographical survey. ... Read more

Book Description

The thrilling story of the charismatic explorer who Simon Bolivar called "the truediscoverer of South America" and the daring expedition that altered the course of science.

From 1799 to 1804 German naturalist and adventurer Alexander von Humboldtconducted the first extensive scientific exploration of Latin America. At the completionof his arduous 6,000-mile journey, he was feted by Thomas Jefferson and presented toNapoleon, and, with the subsequent publication of his findings, he would be hailed as thegreatest scientific genius of his age.

Humboldt’s Cosmos tells the story of this extraordinary man who was equal partsEinstein and Livingstone, and of the adventure that defined his life. Gerard Helferichvividly recounts Humboldt’s expedition through the Amazon and over the Andes,highlighting his paradigm-changing discoveries along the way. During the course of theexpedition, Humboldt cataloged more than 60,000 plants, set an altitude record climbingthe volcano Chimborazo, and became the first to study the great cultures of the Aztecsand Incas. In the process, he revolutionized geology and laid the groundwork for modernsciences such as climatology, oceanography, and geography—and his contributionswould influence future greats such as Charles Darwin and shape the course of science forcenturies to come.

Published in time for the bicentennial of the expedition’s completion in May 1804,Humboldt’s Cosmos is a dramatic tribute to one of history’s most audaciousadventurers, whom Stephen Jay Gould noted "may well have been the world’s mostfamous and influential intellectual." ... Read more

Reviews (3)

An enthralling story, brilliantly organized and written
This is the story of Alexander Von Humboldt's five-year journey of exploration in the New World (1799-1804). Humboldt was in his late twenties, a German aristocrat of independent means, brilliant and filled with boundless energy and enthusiasm. He set out with the idealistic belief that all of Nature (including humans) was an integrated entity which could be understood and defined by exacting scientific measurement. Quite a modern conviction for the 18th century! He returned to Europe internationally famous, acclaimed by readers of his widely published reports who found his constructive spirit a welcome relief from the current realities of the Napoleonic Wars.

Humboldt, his companion Bonpland, occasional fellow travelers, and a small coterie of native handlers and guides explored the upper reaches of the Orinoco River, deep in the impenetrable jungle bordering the Amazon watershed. They traveled in narrow dugout canoes, heavy with personnel, dunnage and scientific measuring equipment and boxes for their growing collection of specimens. They portaged rapids, slept in the wet, swatted mosquitoes and were constantly at the mercy of predators and exotic diseases. Later they traversed the tall rugged Andes in Equador and Peru, studying and recording everything around them. They paid particular attention to the great volcanoes, some over 20,000 feet, climbed them and contemplated their geological formation and established cutting edge scientific theories. Finally they journeyed through the more inhabited areas of Mexico and Cuba, recording anthropological, social, and political observations in addition to their continuing scientific studies of nature. Humboldt paid particular attention to the institution of slavery, which he abhorred.

Three cheers for Gerard Helferich who has given us this enthralling story of a nearly forgotten significant man. His book is carefully researched and documented, brilliantly organized and written. It is a thoroughly readable text. I read it rapidly with avaricious delight!!

BEFORE THERE WAS DARWIN
You may vaguely recognize the name Alexander von Humboldt (especially if you recall seeing his statue outside of the American Museum of Natural History in New York), but he's not as famous as he should be. Before Darwin ever set foot on the Beagle, von Humboldt and his crew set out on an unprecedented five-year journey throughout Latin America, traveling through the Amazon and the Andes, Chile, Peru, Mexico and Cuba. Throughout his journey, Humboldt make painstaking observations -about the land, the flora and fauna, the wind and the currents, and the peoples he encountered - and his notes and ideas helped shape entirely new disciplines in science: he was a hero to the young Charles Darwin. While there have been a flood of books championing individuals who were "footnotes" to science and history, Humboldt was the real deal. This informative but very lively book, written on the 200th anniversary of Humboldt's most famous journey, should help restore Humboldt's reputation as a pioneering scientist and thinker.

Adventure and science story...a fascinating read
This book is a scintillating adventure and science story about one of the world's most important and, curiously least known, figures, the dashing Alexander von Humboldt, who in the course of five years blazed a five thousand mile swath through Latin America, including Cuba, Mexico, and what is now Venezuela, Ecuador, Columbia and Peru. He and his traveling companion Aime Bonpland conducted the first extensive scientific exploration of these countries. In the course of their incredible journey, completed two hundred years ago, the two climbed Chimborazo, coming within 1300 feet of the summit, an event that wasn't to be surpassed until Whymper conquered the peak in the 1880's. I highly recommend this book for anybody interested in adventure, science, and history. ... Read more

Book Description

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 and world acclaim. The inspiration for a major motion picture, Sylvia Nasar's award-winning biography is a drama about the mystery of the human mind, triumph over incredible adversity, and the healing power of love. ... Read more

Reviews (253)

An ambitious biography
Now that the Ron Howard film has been released, it is difficult to review the book on its own merits. Yet this biography is so strong, it can stand on its own. Nasar is an excellent writer who can create excellent pen pictures of life at RAND, MIT and Princeton. She shows great style in creating the environment of the late 1940s and the 1950s. Nash emerges as a complex, demanding and flawed person - an individual. Nash has since refuted the claims of anti-semitism and homosexuality in the book, but it is good to see that Nasar does not side step the issues at all. It is probably prudent to read Nash's comments on the book before making a judgement.

Where Nash is weak is in her descriptions of mathematical formulae. She does not appear to have any real understanding of the mathematics and I would have thought a plain English explanation of his work would have strengthened the biography. I got a little frustrated that she did not tackle this task. Yet it is perhaps a measure of Nash's genius that the ideas are so complex they cannot be easily reduced to a paragraph. Still she could have tried harded in this area. Nasar tends to get around this problem, by getting another expert to describe the brilliance of the idea, rather than the mathemtical idea itself.

Based on my own experiences with people with schizophrenia, Nash's recovery is remarkable and this is the section is probably the most interesting, perhaps because it is so startling. Even after reading the biogrpahy, I still find it hard to believe that someone could recover given the severity of the illness, so it gives some hope to people who suffer this disability and those close to them.

An absorbing biography and close to a great one.

Beautiful...and Intriguing
John Forbes Nash, Jr. was a genius who suffered from paranoid schizophrenia and was in and out of mental institutions for most of his life. Nasar's book, as she states so succinctly in her prologue, is Nash's story, "in three acts: genius, madness, reawakening."

Naturally introverted, even at a young age, Nash was described as being "bookish and slightly odd." His mother had him reading by the time he was four and instead of coloring books, his father gave him science books to read. But despite his parents' efforts, the young Nash was prone to daydreaming in school, which led his teachers to describe him as an underachiever. A loner and the ultimate nerd, his best friends were books, his bedroom resembled a science lab, he was always the last to be chosen for baseball, and at a school dance, he danced with chairs rather than girls.

Although his elementary school math teachers complained he couldn't do the work, his mother noticed he wasn't following the teachers' instructions because he had devised a simpler way of solving the problems. By high school, he was deciphering problems his chemistry teacher wrote on the blackboard, without using pencil or paper. In college, his math professors would call on Nash when they themselves ran into problems solving complex equations they were presenting to their classes.

But together with his brilliance were eccentricities that became more evident as Nash aged. Those close to him characterized him as "disconnected" and "deeply unknowable."

He had little use for textbooks and was known for solving difficult (and often previously unsolvable) problems using "no references but his own mind." His peers called the results he was able to obtain "beautiful" and "striking", perhaps his greatest achievement being his work on game theory, which led to a Nobel Prize for economics in 1994. He possessed a true love of discovery - while swimming with a friend in California, the two were dragged out to sea by an undercurrent and nearly drowned. Finally reaching shore exhausted, the friend was grateful for surviving while Nash, after briefly catching his breath, re-entered the surf exclaiming, "I wonder if that was an accident. I think I'll go back in and see."

Nash was in California during the Cold War working for the internationally famous think tank known as the RAND Corporation. Funded by the U.S. Air Force, RAND was populated by "the best minds in mathematics, physics, political science, and economics." Their principle focus was developing strategies to deter - or if that failed, to win - a nuclear war against Russia. Suddenly, the game theory Nash had been intrigued by at Princeton had a practical application, for war is the ultimate game of conflict. Years later, a more profitable application would be the FCC's $7-billion sale of cell phone air space to competing communications conglomerates.

Possibly the oddest in an odd bunch of ducks, Nash's math colleagues over the years included a professor who used a mathematical formula to select his suits; the manic-depressive Norbert Wiener (the founder of cybernetics), who was known to say such things as "When we met, was I walking to the faculty club or away from it? For in the latter case I've already had my lunch"; and others who were "beset by shyness, awkwardness, strange mannerisms, and all kinds of physical and psychological tics.'"

By the age of 30 it became apparent Nash was more than just eccentric as he started to display symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia; behaving suspiciously, becoming suspect of others, and finally announcing that "abstract powers from outer space" were communicating with him through encrypted messages printed in the New York Times and broadcast by radio stations. He developed "an obsession with the stock and bond markets," investing his mother's savings, convinced he could outsmart the markets and earn a profit. Instead, the results were "disastrous, to say the least." He was offered a prestigious chair in the mathematics department at the University of Chicago - something he had long strived for - but in response the chairman of the department received a strange letter from Nash declining the offer since he had decided to become the "Emperor of Antarctica" instead.

Eventually, his illness required long periods of hospitalization while he endured drug and insulin shock therapy, with the result being the loss of a considerable portion of his memory. When an associate came to visit during one of his hospital stays, Nash mused, "What if they don't let me out until I'm NORMAL?" Although Nash shared some exquisite company, at one point being hospitalized with the poet Robert Lowell, on the whole he was slightly atypical of the average mental patient. Most don't work on a paper on fluid dynamics while institutionalized, and he took some ribbing for this. Nasar notes an instance when another patient remarked, "Professor, let me show you how one uses a broom."

Despite his illness, the math community rallied around Nash. A colleague remembers, "Everybody wanted to help [him]. His was a mind too good to waste."

By 1990, his illness had gone into remission and he was able to stop taking antipsychotic drugs, while learning to separate rational thinking from delusional thinking. In spite of his amazing recovery, awarding him with the Nobel Prize was a contentious issue due to his history of schizophrenia. But once awarded, there was resolve that the right decision had been made about a very worthy individual. One committee member recalls, "We resurrected him in a way. It was emotionally satisfying." Soon after it was announced he had won, Nash half-joked "he hoped that getting the Nobel would improve his credit rating because he really wanted a credit card."

Nasar's engaging account of Nash's life and work is both comprehensive and well-written. It is highly recommended reading if you're looking for the full story.

A Beautiful Mind
John Nash's story is truly inspirational. I could not stop the audio until I got to the end!

John Nash, a mathematical genius, had many ups and downs in his life, including a diagnosed mental illness and various social problems that made his life painful and complicated. His Nobel-prize winning work occurred while he was writing his dissertation at Princeton. He was not recognized until later in his life for his ground-breaking contribution to "game theory".

His story is one not only of his incredible gift, mental illness and remission, but really one of personal victory. In the end, he learns to live in harmony with those around him doing what he enjoyed most.

One of my most recent favorites!

An amazing piece of detective work
As I have said in the title, this book is an amazing piece of detective work about the life of Great John Nash. This is by far the work that beats the movie. If you have seen it, do not stop there - read the book, because it is TRUE! If you are interested into mathematics, into the Game theory - read it, not to learn the science, but to appreciate the scientist! However, I still give it 4 stars since the level of writing drops a little after exhilarating first few chapters. Nevertheless this is a great read!!!

a not-really-that-beautiful mathematician
(hey everyone else is making a pun with their titles so why not me?)

well this book has been well commented on so i'll try to keep this brief.

first, it is fact that many great mathematicians develop some sort of mental illness (it happened to kurt godel, georg cantor, and even issac newton). nash, then, is not really an unusual case.

what does make him interesting, then, is the fact that he had "reawakened" from his illness and continued to do math in his old age. such among mathematic circles is very rare.

and his math is indeed great. nash's ability to solve problems concerning manifolds and other topological spaces is still making waves in math today. the layman unfortunately, like nasar, doesn't appreciate this fully, which is a shame. i would have liked to get a mathematician's view on johnny's life.

but, as a pop bio, it's not too bad. i agree with other reviews that it contained too much minute detail, and her references to nash looking like a golden god were overstated and a bit offputting. i wouldn't be surprised if nasar was really in love with nash. (she might have dedicated her book to alicia to subdue any suspicions of that sort.)

in the end, though, we see the life of one of the greatest modern mathematicians, through triumph and tribulation, which was the ultimate goal of the book. i would recommend this book to some and not to others. ... Read more

Book Description

In the spring of 1543, as the celebrated astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus lay on his deathbed, his fellow clerics brought him a long-awaited package: the final printed pages of the book he had worked on for many years, De revolutionibus (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). Though Copernicus would not live to hear of its extraordinary impact, his book-which first posited that the sun, not Earth, was the center of the universe-is recognized as the greatest scientific work of the sixteenth century.

Four and a half centuries later, astrophysicist Owen Gingerich embarked on an extraordinary quest: to see in person all extant copies of the first and second printings of De revolutionibus. He was inspired by two contradictory pieces of information: Arthur Koestler's claim, in his famous book The Sleepwalkers, that nobody had read Copernicus's famous book when it was published; and Gingerich's discovery, at the Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, of a first edition of De revolutionibus that had been richly annotated in the margins by Erasmus Reinhold, the leading teacher of astronomy in northern Europe in the 1540s-strongly suggesting that Koestler's statement about the book was wrong.

After three decades of investigation, and after traveling hundreds of thousands of miles-from Melbourne to Moscow, Boston to Beijing-to view more than 600 copies of De revolutionibus, Gingerich has written an utterly original book built from his experience and the remarkable insights gleaned from Copernicus's books. Eventually he found copies once owned by saints, heretics, and scalawags, by musicians, movie stars, medicine men, and bibliomaniacs. Most interesting were the copies owned and annotated by astronomers, which even today illuminate the long, reluctant process of accepting the sun-centered cosmos as a physically real description of the world, and the tensions among scientists and between science and the church. Part biography of a book and a man, part scientific exploration, part bibliographic quest, Gingerich's book will offer new appreciation of the history of science and cosmology. ... Read more

Reviews (7)

The book everyone read
If I wish to determine who has read my publications or US patents, I can go to on-line sources of information. I can quickly get an idea of the influence of my work through the citations in subsequent publications. However, even citations do not necessarily assure that a work has been read. In order to find the influence of Copernicus' famous book, the author has spent decades tracking down the six hundred surviving copies of "De Revolutionibus" in the libraries of the world. He has used the marginal writings in these books to connect the books with their owners and groups of sixteenth century astronomers and mathematicians. Yes, Copernicus' book was read and analyzed by scientists throughout the western world.

Gingerich's book may be of more interest to library scientists than to astronomers. However, I did find the chapter on the geocentric Ptolemaic system vs. the Copernican heliocentric system fascinating. The author dispels the myth that the Ptolemaic system needed an unmanageable number of epicycles to match calculations with observations.. He shows that the two systems yielded equivalent predictions using about the same order of complexity. As a physicist, I would argue that you can work in any coordinate system that you choose, even one in which the Earth is stationary. However, the Copernican system did simplify the calculations and more importantly does more closely express the physical reality of the solar system. The work of Copernicus paved the way for Kepler's laws including the discovery of the elliptical nature of planetary orbits. Both the geocentric and heliocentric models were based upon the theory that the orbits of celestial bodies were fundamentally circular. This was a good first approximation for matching the precision of the existing observations. It was another century and a half after Copernicus that Newton formulated a theoretical basis for explaining planetary mechanics.

Copernicus for Bibliophiles
In the year of my birth, Arthur Koestler threw down a gauntlet when he labeled Nicolaus Copernicus' De revolutionibus [arguably the greatest science book of the last few thousand years] "the book nobody read." Owen Gingerich, astronomer and bibliophile, picked up that gauntlet and did battle with Koestler in the way a scientist must do battle - find empirical evidence that the book had been read. The Book Nobody Read is Gingerich's popular account of his decades long effort to track down every extant copy of the first and second edition of De revolutionibus to look for evidence of use [mainly using the marginalia left by the readers/owners]. The book flap blurb nails the book when it calls The Book Nobody Read "part biography of a book, part scientific exploration, [and] part bibliographic detective story." The blurb writer could have tossed in adventure story, too. I enjoyed the book immensely, especially the excellent way in which The Book Nobody Read illustrates the use of the scientific [empirical] method for what many folks would perceive as a non-traditional use. As a bibliophile and science teacher, I'm probably a member of the perfect audience for this book. I include the previous statement as a caution, because at least one of the reviewers seems to have misjudged what the book was about. If you are interested in traditional biography and want a book on Nicolaus Copernicus, The Book Nobody Read may disappoint. If you like books on books and have an interest in history [especially the history of science], I think you'd rate this book a classic.

Scholar's Story of Treasure Hunt
A respected historian of science, Owen Gingerich provides not only a fascinating introduction into the reception of Copernicus's De Revolutionibus but also a terrific narrative about the production of scholarship. The end result is both an engaging chapter in the history of science and an amazing foray into the history of reading more generally.

Sleuthing about ownership & readership of De Revolutionibus
At his death in 1543 Nicholas Copernicus published De Revolutionibus, arguing that the sun, not the earth, was at the center of the known universe. There were over 600 copies of two editions that began to interest astronomical historian Gingerich who set out to scrutinize each copy in libraries and personal collections around the world, partly out of curiosity and partly to judge how widely the book had been read. The author engages in intriguing detective work, extending the known provenance of each book to include other owners while tracing its impact on scientific thinking in 16th and 17th century Europe. Since many of the copies contained marginal comments and were owned by astronomers, it became apparent from studies of handwriting who the students and who the professors were, giving us an insight about the readership. We learn about the formation of watermarks, types of glue, and how papermaking, printing and binding were accomplished. The author's expertise has been called upon to trace prior ownership of stolen copies offered at auction, and we learn that parts of one copy were sometimes used to round out the contents of another copy. Eight pages of bibliographic notes; good 16-page index; 8-pages of color; two appendices, one of which gives the location of extant copies. Highly recommended for history enthusiasts of astronomy and the Renaissance.

Ensure mind is engaged before keyboard is in gear ...
"Gee gosh golly" anecdotal intelectual flabbyness, mostly centering on "I," and written in flacid prose. Would award no star at all if that were possible.

For coverage of similar and related material would highly recomend J. L. Heilbron's "The Sun In The Church" -- a vigorous and active intelect conveying complex insights clearly and writing with a dry sense of humor. ... Read more

Book Description

World-renowned physicist and bestselling author Stephen Hawking presents a revolutionary look at the momentous discoveries that changed our perception of the world with this first-ever compilation of seven classic works on physics and astronomy. His choice of landmark writings by some of the world's great thinkers traces the brilliant evolution of modern science and shows how each figure built upon the genius of his predecessors. On the Shoulders of Giants includes, in their entirety, On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus; Principia by Sir Isaac Newton; The Principle of Relativity by Albert Einstein; Dialogues Concerning Two Sciences by Galileo Galilei with Alfonso De Salvio; plus Mystery of the Cosmos, Harmony of the World, and Rudolphine Tables by Johannes Kepler. It includes an essay by each scientist preceded by biographies written by Hawking. ... Read more

Reviews (12)

Five "Giants" who Altered Our View of the Heavens
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The brilliant idea behind this book is the inclusion of selected, original, translated "Great Works of Physics and Astronomy" (which is the book's subtitle). These works were written by five intellectual "giants" (all men whose portraits are shown on the book's cover). This book's title "On the Shoulders of Giants" was a phrase used in a letter by one of these men and the meaning of it is the theme of this book. Its meaning, as Dr. Stephen Hawking states, is "how science...is a series of incremental advances each building on what went before." This book uses these five men's great works "to trace the evolution of our picture of the heavens."

This book was edited and has "commentary" by Hawking. The reader is not told exactly what Hawking's commentary is but I assume it is the short but excellent introduction to the book, the brief but informative biographies or "Life and Work" of each man, and the helpful footnotes included with each great work. All these as a whole comprise less than 2% ot this nearly 1300 page book.

I found in the page entitled "A Note on the Texts" the following: "The texts [or great works] in this book are based on translations of the original, printed editions [or papers]. [There has been] no attempt to modernize [or correct] the author's own distinct usage, spelling, or punctuation, or to make the texts consistent with each other in this regard." I assume this also applies to errors in grammar and errors to equations (such as omissions). That is, any errors in the original, translated papers are not corrected.

Who were these giants and what great work (that's included in this book) did they produce? The answer is as follows:

1. Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 to 1543). The work included is entitled "On the Revolutions of [the] Heavenly Spheres" (1543). This work was the beginning of the Sun-centered "Copernican revolution." It has an introduction and six parts or "books." This work comprises about 30% of this book.

2. Galileo Galilei (1564 to 1642). Work included: "Dialogues [or Discourses and Mathematical Demonstrations] Concerning Two [New] Sciences" (1638). This work "is widely held to be the cornerstone of modern physics." It has four parts or "days." It comprises about 18% of the book.

3. Johannes Kepler (1571 to 1630). Work included: Book Five of "Harmonies of the World" (1618). With this book and his other four, "Kepler discovered how planets orbited." It has an introduction and ten chapters. Comprises 7% of this book.

4. Sir Isaac Newton (1642 to 1727). Work included: "The Mathematical Priciples of Natural Philosophy" (1687). Better known as "The Principia." This work includes Newton's three laws of motion and his law of universal gravitation. It has an introduction and three parts or "books." Comprises 34% of this book.

5. Albert Einstein (1879 to 1955). Work (which was co-authored) includes: Seven selections from "The Principles of Relativity: A Collection of Original Papers on the Special Theory of Relativity" (1922). In these works, read how Einstein altered our perception of space and time. Comprises 8% of this book.

To read the works of Copernicus, Galileo, and Kepler, it would be helpful to know some geometry, trigonometry, and algebra. The same goes for the work of Newton but knowing some calculus would also be helpful. For the works of Einstein, knowing some advanced mathematics (such as advanced calculus) would be helpful.

I found, for myself, that in all of the above great works, the person's thought processes could be easily followed (even if the mathematics was unclear). This even applied to the works of Einstein. I recommend reading each of these works slowly and taking frequent breaks since the reading can become tedious at times.

There were three problems I found with this book:

First, the table of contents. For the major works, it just states their title and page number of where they begin. For example, the work of Einstein begins on page 1167 and that's all we're told!! Why not list the seven selections that are included? Thus, state in the table of contents that one selection has the title "On the Influence of Gravitation on the Propagation of Light" and that it begins on page 1193. Or consider the work of Copernicus. Why not state that part four of his work starts on page 197? Since this book is so large (and probably intimitating to some), I feel that a good, detailed table of contents is imperative.

Second, I found small errors in that 1% of the book that does not include the great works and Life & Work sections. (Fortunately, these errors are corrected in these sections of the book.) For example, in the "A Note on the Texts" page, we are told that "Kepler completed [his] work on May...1816." But he died in 1630! Or the table of contents states that Newton's birth year was 1643. I don't normally nit-pick like this, but since there were only five men, I feel that little errors like this should not be made.

Third, the "Life and Work" sections are not referenced. Where was this detailed information obtained?

Finally, a few equations in the Einstein papers have errors (like omissions, etc.) As explained above, these were probably in the original, printed work and thus were not corrected. In most cases, I found I could correct the error myself. I did find three equations where some variables were cut-off. I found I could easily deduce what the variables should be. Even with these minor errors, the Einstein section is still very informative and usable.

In conclusion, these five intellectual giants revolutionized the course of science. Be sure to get this first-ever compilation of their great works!!

<=====>

Typos make the Einstein section unusable
On the Shoulders of Giants. ISBN 0-7264-1348-4. Stephen Hawking, ed. [2002]

I bought this book at one of the giant bookstores. The printing / production has mechanical errors which make the book publisher less credible, in the section for Einstein. Some well-known physics book publishers provide corrected pages on the Internet. Could the publisher provide some pdf files with corrections for the following pages? Are these corrections available to us?

I purchased this book just to study the papers by Einstein. Here are some transcription errors:
page 1190: 2nd equation is mal-formed.
page 1191: top equation is clipped.
page 1194: top equation is clipped.
page 1232: equation 54 is mal-formed.
page 1235: equation 59 is mal-formed..
page 1237: line 6 from bottom, an in-line expression is clipped and not understandable.
page 1239: lines 11-12 have expressions with subscripts only, but no variables.
page 1263: equation 17 is mal-formed.

According to the publicity note,
"World-renowned physicist and bestselling author Stephen Hawking presents a revolutionary look at the momentous discoveries that changed our perception of the world with this first-ever compilation of seven classic works on physics and astronomy. His choice of landmark writings by some of the world's great thinkers traces the brilliant evolution of modern science and shows how each figure built upon the genius of his predecessors. On the Shoulders of Giants includes, in their entirety, On the Revolution of Heavenly Spheres by Nicolaus Copernicus; Principia by Sir Isaac Newton; The Principle of Relativity by Albert Einstein; Dialogues Concerning Two Sciences by Galileo Galilei with Alfonso De Salvio; plus Mystery of the Cosmos, Harmony of the World, and Rudolphine Tables by Johannes Kepler. It also includes five critical essays and a biography of each featured physicist, written by Hawking himself. "

Put your wallet back in your pocket, unless...
Fortunately, my public library has this book and I was able to check it out before laying out my dough.
As others have said, the only Stephen Hawking material in this book is the short intro. I would much rather consult the individual works as I see the need rather than relying on Hawking (or most likely--the publisher/editor) to provide me a pricey package which has little apparent added value. Its sort of like an Oprah Book Club selection--Steve Hawking says its good, so I guess I'll buy it. For the general public (dumb guys like me) who love astronomy and astrophysics, Timothy Ferris' books are a lot more fun and approachable.

The Necessary Anthology
I can't say enough about how much this compilation of revolutionary works should be on any true human's shelf. It outlines the way in which our world has mathematically and scientifically evolved in the way that no other anthology can.

Read 'Principia...', for no one does it like Newton himself.
Having spent years teaching high school Physics - including the ubiquitous F=ma - I was humbled by the elegance and clarity of Newton's own derivation. There is nothing that I - or authors of textbooks I have seen - can come up with that will explain the three Laws of Motion better than Newton's own presentation. I am surprised that this is not compulsory reading in standard college Physics courses or, more importantly, in teacher training. The 'Principia...' are not just of historical interest - they can still be used in education today. It makes, for example, a refreshing change to teach the 2nd Law without using the term 'acceleration', focussing on momentum ('movement' in Newton's language) instead.
I'm also ashamed to admit it took me so long to notice that since Newton followed Kepler (one of the 'giants' to whom Newton's statement refers), Newton derived the Law of Gravitation by combining Kepler's 3rd with his own 2nd and not, as many syllabi would have our students believe, the other way round ["derive Kepler's 3rd law..."]. Better late than never... ... Read more

Book Description

Isaac Asimov's innovative exploration of the relationship between science and society over the past 4 million years. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

The purest of genius -- Issac Asimov
I love all works by Asimov, and meeting him in person one time was a high of a lifetime for me!!

This book is one which is informative beyond imagination, powerful towards one's understanding of the world and science at large, and so fun to read.

I miss having Asimov among us since his passing, but his genius will live on always, and this book is certainly no exception.

Asimov knew his science
Isaac Asimov was one of the great popularizers for science. This Chronology of the history of science just understates that we lost one of the great writers of any era when he passed away in 1992.

This book is great. It outlines all the major and most of the minor scientific discoveries. The scientific advances that worked to give us the current world we live in. With things like nuclear weapons, global warming, etc. It is super important that politicians policy makers understand science. It is sad that most of them don't think they need to know about it.

This book helps people to understand the important role that science plays in our world.

The best book of the history of science by Asimov
I was a complete Asimovphile and I had read his books on science(my favorite subject)and science fiction that I could come across. The book Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery is probably the best book of science he's ever written. This book takes the reader on the journey in history from our human ancestors up to modern times. It has all the dates,events,and the people involed in scientific discoveries and technology. Not only does it include abstract discoveries but neat facts such as when the slide rule was invented, how negative numbers where conceived, who invented LSD, and how computers came from bulky to small. To me, Asimov knew every event with the year and the person involved. Aside of what happened in the past,he kept up with the present as well.I like his work since I know that he made complex topics understandable for the general reader. Because of him, I became a genius of science! I read every single book written by him before I started to go into other works by different authors. Aside from that, He updated his work also. To sum it all up, Asimov's Chronology of Science & Discovery is the crowning achievment of science,discovery,history, and the author who can present to the general reader. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A very good book for students and "real" scientist/engineers
Students who are really interested in physics, electrical engineering or related subjects would find this book informative and inspiring.
Real electrical engineer would have the deepest feeling when reading through the lines.
Written for a genius (hero) by a great educator of the field. ... Read more

Book Description

A Publishers Weekly best book of 1995!

Dr. Michael Guillen, known to millions as the science editor of ABC's Good Morning America, tells the fascinating stories behind five mathematical equations.

As a regular contributor to daytime's most popular morning news show and an instructor at Harvard University, Dr. Michael Guillen has earned the respect of millions as a clear and entertaining guide to the exhilarating world of science and mathematics.

Now Dr. Guillen unravels the equations that have led to the inventions and events that characterize the modern world, one of which -- Albert Einstein's famous energy equation, E=mc2 -- enabled the creation of the nuclear bomb.Also revealed are the mathematical foundations for the moon landing, airplane travel, the electric generator -- and even life itself.

Praised by Publishers Weekly as "a wholly accessible, beautifully written exploration of the potent mathematical imagination," and named a Best Nonfiction Book of 1995, the stories behind The Five Equations That Changed the World, as told by Dr. Guillen, are not only chronicles of science, but also gripping dramas of jealousy, fame, war, and discovery.

Dr. Michael Guillen is Instructor of Physics and Mathematics in the Core Curriculum Program at Harvard University. ... Read more

Reviews (33)

A powerful story teller making the complicated simple.
It's obvious from the start that Dr. Guillen purpose in writing the book was not to bog the reader down with mathematical minutia that is an all too common weakness when writing abstract notions such as these five equations.

This utterly fascinating book is written in a style that can keep a readers attention regardless of their mathematical background.

He masterfully weaves the human condition in a what-if scenario of these men who faced challenges with the present day beliefs of their time. We got to see the lives of men whose personalities seemed to be so distant from each other. We saw in Faraday, a profoundly humble man that did not change his demeanor throughout his life and a youthful Einstein so arrogant that he mocked his high school teacher outright.

Aside from the usual first printings mistakes, the one that I find unforgivable is the perpetuating of the poor little Galileo against the big bad church. He falls short, when he maintains this analogy of the church and science being wedded by the Aristotelian and Biblical view of the earth. Truth was clearly sacrificed when he felt he needed to maintain this marriage notion at all costs, as he recounts the standoff between Galileo and the Church. What really happened is only too well documented for Dr. Guillen not to have made this error by ignorance. Once again, the Galileo Myth lives on.

Being a math teacher, I would have hoped that he would have developed the profound power of Calculus a little more (even though I know he was dealing with the gravitational force formula). It is truly the poetry of mathematics.

Understanding that this book is not intended for his fellow colleagues, Dr. Guillen takes a risk of making very high level abstract ideas and presenting them in a way that a person of average intelligence can understand.

(Five Equations) + (Micheal Guillen) = The Best Non-Fiction
Any avid reader knows the experience. After weeding through countless uninspired (and uninspiring) novels, or grueling non-fiction that could only be improved by a couple of bald-faced lies, you somehow come across that ONE book that completely captures your imagination, and you simply can't read it fast enough. I would bet that anyone reading this knows the feeling exactly; it's the kind of experience that keeps one going back to the libraries and bookstores.

I'm pleased to report that Michael Guillen's "Five Equations that Changed the World" falls into this category with ease. The subject matter may not initially attract those for whom "mathematics" is synonymous with "inferiority complex", but speaking as an "almost pure" non-mathematician, this book will appeal to anyone with an interest in history, in the processes of scientific method, or who simply enjoys an absorbing human drama. Additionally, even the most mathematically challenged may finally have their first experience of truly understanding intricate numerical concepts, as well as the thought, experience and effort which go into their creation.

The book details the lives of five historically prominent individuals, from Sir Issac Newton to Einstein, with the central focus of each story being a mathematical principle (and resulting equation) that proved to be their defining and enduring achievement. Guillen doesn't shy away from presenting the numerical concepts in their pure form, or try to take refuge in "layman's terms", but instead allows you to see some of the thought that went into the development of each equation, and in this way ensures that you will understand the concepts that led to the numbers. This process allows the reader to clearly see mathematics as a language that can be used to elegantly summarize complex ideas.

Ultimately though, what is truly astonishing about the book doesn't lie in the five equations, but in the details of the lives of these remarkable men. Each story is filled with the passion, competition, family drama, ill feelings, jealousy, hard work and sheer will that underlies most human endeavours, science not the least. On finishing the book, I found myself wondering for days where people like these are today, people for whom "genius" seems a small and confining definition. There obviously is not space here to provide any details, so I will can only encourage anyone who finds this even mildly intriguing to do themselves a favour and go to the source as soon as possible.

Guillen manages to find that extremely rare balance where, even as you're reading the book, you're marvelling at his ability to maintain an almost perfect mixture of enlightenment and entertainment. This book is one of those rare items (fiction or non-fiction) that is so absorbing that I found myself checking the number of the last page, not because (as so often happens) I wanted to know how much more I had to wade through, but because I just didn't want it to end too quickly. Be warned, though: this book will almost certainly disrupt your life for whatever time period it takes to finish it! Mr. Guillen, I thank you.

Robert Haaf

Wish I had read this before Engrg School
A fascinating and well written work. Michel Guillen brought to life the stories of the equations. When I had these in college, they were no where near as interesting!

Engaging, Optimistic and Sloppy
Delightfully written, easy to follow, Guillen describes the personal situations and scientific context of Newton's Law of Gravitation, Bernoulli's Law of Hydrodynamic Pressure, Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction, Clausius's Second Law of Thermodynamics, and Einstein's Theory of Special Relativity (the equivalence of mass and energy).

As is the recent custom outside of textbooks, Guillen has given an exceptional amount of personal detail, letting us be amazed once more about how much these five scientists achieved despite personal situations that varied from ordinary to awful. Furthermore, the resistance from other scientists of their times is still surprising to some of us, while the resistance of the Catholic Church is not.

Guillen's efforts to provide clear explanations for the discoveries mostly succeed, least well for Clausius's Second Law of Thermodynamics, in my opinion. Many clever similes are used. A better explanation of the inverted delta in Clerk-Maxwell's equation on Faraday's Law of Electromagnetic Induction is needed. Guillen defines it as "the amount of" (p158), while "the rate of change" might be better. The math does not go beyond high school algebra, with that one exception, so the mathematically challenged such as this reviewer need not fear.

What is very disappointing is the number of errors:

1. On p27 globes are said to 2-dimensional, when they are actually 3-dimensional; circles are 2-dimensional.

2. On p36 et seq planetary motion around the sun is said to follow oval paths, when the paths are actually elliptical. These are different shapes.

3. On p137 the Leyden jar was said to be the forerunner of the modern battery. In fact is was the ancestor of the modern capacitor.

4. On p139 Volta's piles were said to provide more current the higher the pile, meaning the more plates). In fact, more plates gave more voltage, not more current. The two terms are not interchangeable. The piles were said to be the ancestor of today's storage batteries, while, in fact, they were the precursor of today's "dry" cells, which are not rechargeable.

5. On p158 the general term "electricity" was used instead of the proper term "voltage" (E).

6. On p162 a perpetual motion machine seems to be described inadvertently by the supposed possibility of using an electric motor to spin a dynamo that, in turn, powers the motor. This is not possible, of course.

7. On p163 the term "current" is used instead of "voltage"; these have never been interchangeable. The current is the number of electrons passing a certain point per second, while voltage is the unit of electrical pressure.

8. On p163 the term "heat" is used instead of "temperature". Thermometers measure temperature; calorimeters measure heat.

9. On p187 there seems to be total confusion between heat capacity and conduction. The apple filling in a pie is mostly water which has high heat capacity and good conduction, so it is easy to be burned on hot filling. The crust is mostly carbohydrate with air pockets, almost a foam, and the combination of low heat content at a given temperature and poor conduction makes it harder to be burned by the hot crust.

10. On p246 the speed of light was said to be constant. This should have been qualified from the start as being in a vacuum, as was done from p248 et seq.

11. The gross structure of the atom was worked out by Ernest Rutherford et al. in 1911 by bombarding gold foil with a beam of alpha particles from radium, not in the 1930s with "atom smashers" (particle accelerators), p258.

12. Einstein's 1921 Nobel Prize in Physics was for his discovery of the photoelectric effect, not for quantum mechanics (p259), which Einstein never even accepted!

Other Amazon.com reviewers found other mistakes as well.

As the physicists turn.
The author of this book should be hung up by his thumbs whilst being slowly beaten to death by irate readers. Hopefully they will bludgeon him with several large encylopaedias whilst chanting, "check the facts, check the facts."
This may and it's a large MAY be the only thing that stops the revolving in the grave of the people who's stories our supposedly contained within this book.
You know that a reader is in for a torrid time when only five, yes, five pages into the first chapter is a mistake so incredibly stupid that you have to wish that the author included it as either a joke or to try and keep his readers awake. Unfortunately neither seems to be the case. Just so you don't choke on your own bodily fluids if you make the mistake of reading this book, here it is. The king of England at the time of the civil war Dr. Guillen was Charles the first not William the first. A small difference of 600 years between them, you know 1066 and all that. If only that was the only error, or if only I had stopped reading. Several people had corrected the numerous errors in my library copy; I'm fighting the urge to add my own corrections.
This book is the literary equivalent of a car crash. You know you don't want to look at the devastation and suffering but somehow you just can't seem to stop yourself.
A lot more facts and a lot less sensationalism would have helped this book.
As it is the incredibly annoying section on heat makes you think that Fahrenheit 451 with fond memories.
If you want a book on the poetry of maths grab Mandlebrots book on fractals. Yes its a chalanging read, but worth every bit if energy you expend on it and by the end you will see some of the most beautiful maths imaginable. ... Read more

Book Description

Reviews (9)

A Pulitzer Prize-winning Explanation of the Space Race
Although there were notable forerunners, spaceflight historiography came of age with the 1985 publication this book by Walter McDougall. It received Pulitzer Prize and a host of other well-deserved awards with its analysis of the origins and conduct of the space race. This book explores the Cold War rivalry in race with the preparations for and launch of Sputnik 1 on October 4, 1957, through the race to the Moon in the 1960s. The author argues that the mandate to complete Apollo on Kennedy's schedule prompted the space program to become identified almost exclusively with high-profile, expensive, human spaceflight projects. This was because Apollo became a race against the Soviet Union for recognition as the world leader in science and technology and by extension in other fields as well.

McDougall juxtaposes the American effort of Apollo with the Soviet space program and the dreams of such designers as Sergei P. Korolev to land a Soviet cosmonaut on the Moon. The author recognizes Apollo as a significant engineering achievement but concludes that it was also enormously costly both in terms of resources and the direction to be taken in state support of science and technology. In the end, NASA had to stress engineering over science, competition over cooperation, civilian over military management, and international prestige over practical applications. Not all agree with McDougall's arguments, but since the publication of "the Heavens and the Earth..." historians have been striving to equal its scintillating analysis, stellar writing, and scope of discussion.

Recommended Bargain
I`ll have to congratulate Mr McDougall with an excellent effort in capturing the essence cold war from the point of view of the space programs of the superpowers. It is somewhat difficult for me to review a book that I regard so much as this one, so please forgive me when I only give my unconditional praise to the book in question.

However, I got the inspiration for my nick from this book.

?
My, what a little cat fight we have hear. Hissssss

a compelling political analysis of the space program
The political history of the space age in _...The_Heavens_and_the_Earth_ provides a fascinating glimpse of the considerations taken within the Eisenhower administration and the Khrushchev regime regarding the orbital realm. Unlike other authors issuing paeans to Kennedy for his expensive though successful challenge of a manned lunar program, Professor McDougall renders a more sympathetic assessment of Eisenhower's reluctance to commit federal resources to open-ended and prestige-focused stunts. The hesitance in launching the first orbital satellite, although politically disastrous, was prudently based on concerns that foreign countries might object to orbital overflights by potential reconnaissance vehicles. With the Soviet Union launching the first satellite _Sputnik_, such criticism would be rendered moot, although this triumph enabled Khrushchev to persuasively promote Soviet hegemony and stoke American fears of missile delivery for nuclear explosives.

Most Americans have forgotten that Eisenhower advocated "open skies" to reduce the potential of overreacting to a perceived threat due to insufficient or faulty mobilization information, as well as reduce military expenditures (comparatively higher than today). Khrushchev, hoping to obscure both intentions and especially the capabilities of Soviet military power projection for preserving options in diplomatic and domestic intimidation. The United States wanted more open information so as to avoid a future "Pearl Harbor" and the Russians wanted to maintain their eastern-European gains without obligation to show their economic weakness and armed force limitations. Although sharing the information with the citizenry was an ultimate preference (now available thanks to LandSat, SPOT and other orbiting cameras), Eisenhower directed the first reconnaissance satellites as the Discovery series to look behind the Iron Curtain.

Kennedy responded to Khrushchev's overtures by upping the stakes, federalizing research towards attention-grabbing endeavors with an eye towards employing technological problem-solving ultimately to social engineering against poverty and racism. Neither Kennedy nor Johnson appeared to realize that engineering solutions and welfare statism address not only different problem categories, but their agents differ -- engineers tend to focus on the measurable and quantitative, whereas social workers (unless flaking for larger budgets) appeal to a more ethereal empathy with their charges. Professor McDougall shows the underlying hubris behind these policies, and how this was integrated into the manned (and unmanned) programs for NASA.

Fine Work
Another fine work from Walter Mcdougall. This is the most thorough treatment of the political history of the space race available, and for those who find it dry, I suggest that you not read too often, lest your brain break down. This is fine historical research, told in fluid prose, which makes highly original proposals for future research in the area. Like the reviewer below said, it is not MTV, and for that, McDougall need not pologize. Of course, if you know the correct spelling of "Obi Wan's" last name, or are upset that you cannot understand the big words, then perhaps you should avoid books without pictures altogether -- i.e., it is no surprise that you think this book is dry. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Stunning!
This is one of the most beautiful books I have ever seen.

A Crowning Glory for Any Library
Let me start off by saying that I'm a huge fan of this book publisher Taschen. If you go to any book store and find yourself flipping through some spectacularly illustrated book that seems very cutting edge, there is a good chance it is a Taschen. Taschen is a company led by Benedikt and Angelika (last name: Taschen!). These people are pure and simple revolutionaries. I've been collecting books for close to 20 years, and it has really only been with the advent of Taschen that I've found myself excited by anything newly published.

This book specifically: Does the price seem a little spendy?? To the contrary. If you buy it you will be so utterly astonished at the imposing size and the overall high quality that you will find it to be the best bargain of your bargain-hunting and book-buying lifespan. This book is a work of art in its own right. The content is fabulous: spectacular color plates that reveal nature as the most creative (if not downright psychedelic) of artists. It truly is amazing to see a display of awe-inspiring bio-diversity documented in this fashion. If you are not an eager advocate for the environment, you very well may become one upon flipping through these pages. It is impossible to not feel affection for these various small and beautiful creatures, and one feels a mandate to recognize their rightful place on the planet when you have them introduced to you in this fashion. I would personally buy a copy of this for George W. Bush if I could rest assured that he would flip through every page if only once. He would have to re-examine his approach to the planet as a result, or he simply is not human.

Okay, one gripe, one mistake I see Taschen making: a book of this magnitude needs a cloth or "buckram" cover, not a mere "finished cardboard" cover. The cover is nicely decorated and textured, but it is essentially of the same quality as a Dr. Suess book. It is the only aspect of the book where Taschen has cut a corner in an obvious attempt to save money. It is sad that they did so. I think Taschen needs to keep the quality of the bindings high and traditional. Taschen content is so innovative and progressive that they don't need to get too clever with the covers. I have another Taschen book with a "shiny cardboard cover"; it appears to be coated with some type of plastic or resin. Already, after only two years or so, it is making creaking noises when you open it. I envision after a few more years those synthetic molecules quite simply giving up and the entire book falling apart in my hands. Taschen, listen up: most of us are happy to spend a few bucks more for top quality all the way across. This "Cabinet of Curiosities" in particular is insulted by the compromise cover. But despite this caveat, I can not imagine any enlightened person being anything other than fully blown-away by this book. It truly doesn't get much better than this in the world of contemporary books.

truly wonderful book
I saw this huge beautiful book at a store today and nearly bought it on a whim -
even with the $150 price tag. Then I thought I'd check on Amazon
and maybe get it at a discount - no such luck.
They said they don't discount such hard-to-find titles. Well, it's certainly not hard to
find, as it is published by Taschen, and any decent bookstore has plenty of Taschen
books. It is however huge, and expensive, so there's the trouble. Here is some info on the
book directly from the publishers:

Albertus Seba's "Cabinet of Curiosities" is one of the 18th
century's greatest natural history achievements and remains one
of the most prized natural history books of all time.

Though it was common for men of his profession to collect natural
specimens for research purposes, Amsterdam-based pharmacist
Albertus Seba (1665-1736) had a passion that led him far beyond
the call of duty. His amazing, unprecedented collection of animals,
plants and insects from all around the world gained international
fame during his lifetime. In 1731, after decades of collecting, Seba
commissioned illustrations of each and every specimen and
arranged the publication of a four-volume catalog detailing his
entire collection-from strange and exotic plants to snakes, frogs,
crocodiles, shellfish, corals, insects, butterflies and more, as well
as fantastic beasts, such as a hydra and a dragon.

Seba's scenic illustrations, often mixing plants and animals in a
single plate, were unusual even for the time. Many of the stranger
and more peculiar creatures from Seba's collection, some of which
are now extinct, were as curious to those in Seba's day as they
are to us now.

Our superb, complete reproduction is taken from a rare,
hand-colored original. The introduction offers background
information about the fascinating tradition of the cabinet of
curiosities to which Seba's curiosities belonged and an additional
annex, written by contemporary biologists, provides descriptions of
the specimens.

I'll most likely save my dollars until I can buy this without feeling too guilty: By the way - it's 646 pages and about 18 inches high. ... Read more

Book Description

In nine essays and lectures composed in the last years of his life, Werner Heisenberg offers a bold appraisal of the scientific method in the twentieth century--and relates its philosophical impact on contemporary society and science to the particulars of molecular biology, astrophysics, and related disciplines. Are the problems we define and pursue freely chosen according to our conscious interests? Or does the historical process itself determine which phenomena merit examination at any one time? Heisenberg discusses these issues in the most far-ranging philosophical terms, while illustrating them with specific examples. ... Read more

Reviews (3)

Essays from Heisenberg's Later Years, 1972-1975
These essays were first published by Seabury Press in 1983 under the title Tradition in Science. A new edition, titled Encounters with Einstein And Other Essays on People, Places, and Particles, was published in 1989 by Princeton University Press.

Throughout his life Werner Heisenberg shared his enthusiasm for physics and philosophy, frequently giving presentations to general audiences. Several essays address the history of quantum physics. Others are more technical and include topics like cosmic radiation, particle physics, and closed-theories in physics. All essays are well-crafted and should be accessible to a wide audience.

Heisenberg only met Einstein on a few occasions. The title essay, Encounters with Einstein, describes these encounters, including a final meeting at Princeton a few months before Einstein's death. While he admitted that he had never discussed politics with Einstein, Heisenberg did comment on Einstein's pacifism. Heisenberg does not discuss his own beliefs, nor his role in WWII Germany.

At several points in this collection Heisenberg expresses his concerns with the theoretical direction that particle physics was taking in the early 1970s. In his essay "What is an Elementary Particle?", he expresses his doubts regarding quark theory. It was interesting to see Heisenberg in one essay lamenting Einstein's reluctance to accept quantum theo