40 Products

Histories of Western science often begin their narrative with Galileo’s battle to gain acceptance for Copernicus’ heliocentric model. But physicist John Freely sets out ‘to right this historical injustice’ by showing how a succession of European scholars as far back as the Dark Ages paved the way for the exciting discoveries of later centuries. Discussing the influential work of such figures as the Venerable Bede and Albertus Magnus, he identifies those ‘giants’ on whose shoulders Newton said he was standing.

John Gribbin tells the story of how, in the 17th century, amid civil war, plague and fire, a group of ‘natural philosophers’ – Gilbert, Bacon, Harvey, Wren, Newton and Hooke – began a scientific revolution.

Between 1810 and 1811, amateur naturalist George Perry published 22 instalments of Arcana, a magazine dedicated to 'the most recent discovered objects in natural history' from around the world, including mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, molluscs and insects. This cleaned-up, chronologically ordered facsimile edition comprises the complete set of original texts, which combine scientific description with entertaining anecdotes, and all 84 exquisitely hand-coloured plates, as well as a collation and systematic review.

Thomas Levenson tells the all-but-forgotten story of Isaac Newton, Urbain-Jean-Joseph Le Verrier and the search for the planet Vulcan, and how Albert Einstein proved that it did not exist and went on to discover relativity.

When black holes collide, vast amounts of energy are emitted in the form of gravitational waves. Einstein predicted the existence of such waves in 1916, but not until a century later was it possible to create instruments of sufficient sensitivity to detect them from Earth. Reporting her own conversations with her fellow-astrophysicists, Levin’s lyrical, humorous account of this decades-long quest captures their ambitions and obsessions, struggles and disappointments as they endeavour to measure subtle shifts in the shape of spacetime. American-cut pages and felt-tip mark on lower trimmed edge.

Patricia Fara follows the evangelists of the new science of electricity, including Benjamin Franklin and Luigi Galvani, and the ideas their demonstrations sparked in the popular culture of the 18th century.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832) is best known as Germany’s foremost poet and playwright, but he was also an accomplished all-round scientist, studying anatomy, geology, botany, zoology and colour theory. The extracts from his scientific writings reproduced in this book illustrate his belief that we should study our world as people at home in it rather than remotely, and are essential reading for anyone who feels we have lost our spiritual connection to nature.

The period between the European Renaissance and Enlightenment brought monumental scientific discoveries about gravity, the structure of the solar system and the circulation of the blood, but these coexisted with an almost universal belief in horoscopes and magic. In this book a Tudor historian explores how the great thinkers of the age responded to the entanglement of superstition and science, and shows how their work contributed to debate about the relationship between belief and knowledge.

Colourful characters and dramatic events abound in the history of Scottish seafaring during the period 1650 to 1790, whether the raids of John Paul Jones, the press gangs of the Royal Navy, English wars or trade wars. In this illustrated study Graham traces the development of the Scottish marine and argues that state intervention and warfare at sea in the pursuit of mercantilist goals largely determined Scottish maritime fortunes.

The physicist James Clerk Maxwell (1831–1879) was one of the ‘great men’ to emerge from the Scottish Enlightenment. Although prompted by Clerk Maxwell’s achievement, this study goes beyond his life to examine the family he emerged from and its wider connections. Covering the period following the religious and political turmoil of the 17th century, John Arthur explores how Scottish families such as the Clerk Maxwells and their associates produced the brilliant Scots of the Enlightenment and the 19th century.

These 15 studies in the early development of geology include papers on Nicholas Desmarest, natural law in 18th-century geology and Buffon’s Époques de la Nature (1778).

With newsprint increasingly viewed as an endangered species, this study examines the history and use of the newspaper clipping as object and as medium, from 1870 to 1930. Rethinking Art’s Histories series.

This series introduces the texts that have helped shape Western civilization, every volume providing a detailed examination of the central ideas and arguments of a seminal text and discussion of its lasting significance.

This series introduces the texts that have helped shape Western civilization, every volume providing a detailed examination of the central ideas and arguments of a seminal text and discussion of its lasting significance.

In 15 essays by historians of science, this volume presents a comparative analysis of responses to Mendeleev's periodic system of elements in eleven countries, including Japan, from the 1870s to 1920s.

Physics is the science that ties together all others, aiming to explain the nature of the universe from the smallest subatomic particles to vast galaxies and the nature of space-time. Profiling the most important figures in the history of science and covering topics such as light and optics, energy and the Big Bang, this well-illustrated book traces the development of physics from the natural philosophers of the ancient world to cutting-edge experiments in quantum mechanics.

Showing how new scientific discoveries were presented to Victorian children through 'fairy tales of science', Keene's study introduces 19th-century debates about education, scientific progress and the role of fantasy.

In this 'long meditation on a single question', Nobel Prize-winning physicist Wilczek considers how ideas about beauty and art have always been intertwined with our scientific understanding of the cosmos. Taking as his starting-point Pythagoras' credo that 'all things are number', he follows the quest of figures such as Newton and Einstein who contributed to our present-day understanding of the equations and symmetries that reveal the fundamental purity, order and harmony of the entire universe.

Sir William Parsons (1800–1867) of Birr Castle built what was for 70 years the world’s largest telescope (‘the Leviathan’). In a series of ten essays, this volume examines the life of Parsons, the ‘consummate engineer’, and his work in astronomical science.

Comprising eleven essays, this is a history of an important scientific institution during the Third Reich: the German Physical Society, whose members had included Haber and Einstein before 1933.

Focusing on Galileo's invention of the telescope in 17th-century Europe, Huff presents a comparative study of contemporary scientific development in Western Europe, China, Mughal India and the Ottoman Empire.

This first detailed study of the British Association for the Advancement of Science examines the history and geography of science and the science of geography in 19th- and early 20th-century Britain and the Empire.

Ioan James profiles 38 remarkable biologists from the last 400 years. While the emphasis is on their life stories rather than details of their achievements, read in sequence the biographies convey something of the way in which biology has developed.

Science writer Nancy Marie Brown follows 'The Scientist Pope' Sylvester II (Gerbert of Aurillac, ca.945-1003) through scientific exploration and political scheming as he rose from peasant to pope.

With more than 1,200 entries on both prominent and lesser-known figures, this major reference work offers a biographically detailed overview of the development of British science in the 19th century. No jacket.

Jessica Ratcliff describes the 1874 and 1882 programmes of observations of the transit, drawing out their cultural significance and exploring the nature of 'big science' in late Victorian Britain. No jacket.

This volume presents recent historical research into aspects of the complex relationship between the sciences and National Socialism, in many cases reaching back to the earlier years of the 20th century. Beginning with the editor's introductory essay and a study of Humboldt's concept of the university, the essays deal with disciplines including geography, eugenics, biochemistry and aeronautics; technologies such as bio-technology and area planning; and the careers of individual scientists.

Rom Harre gives a lively account of the many ways in which scientists have used animals and plants, whether alive or dead - or both (conceptually) in the case of Schrodinger's cat.