Download or read book Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold written by Tom Shachtman and published by HMH. This book was released on 2000-12-12 with total page 275 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “A lovely, fascinating book, which brings science to life.” —Alan Lightman Combining science, history, and adventure, Tom Shachtman “holds the reader’s attention with the skill of a novelist” as he chronicles the story of humans’ four-centuries-long quest to master the secrets of cold (Scientific American). “A disarming portrait of an exquisite, ferocious, world-ending extreme,” Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold demonstrates how temperature science produced astonishing scientific insights and applications that have revolutionized civilization (Kirkus Reviews). It also illustrates how scientific advancement, fueled by fortuitous discoveries and the efforts of determined individuals, has allowed people to adapt to—and change—the environments in which they live and work, shaping man’s very understanding of, and relationship, with the world. This “truly wonderful book” was adapted into an acclaimed documentary underwritten by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, directed by British Emmy Award winner David Dugan, and aired on the BBC and PBS’s Nova in 2008 (Library Journal). “An absorbing account to chill out with.” —Booklist

Download or read book Building Tall written by John L. Tishman and published by University of Michigan Press. This book was released on 2011-09-29 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "John Tishman is a true pioneer in the Construction Management industry. Through his CM leadership, some of America's most well-known buildings have been brought to successful completion." ---Bruce D'Agostino, president and chief executive, Construction Management Association of America "Building Tall will provide readers with insights into John Tishman's career as a visionary engineer, landmark builder, and great businessman. Responsible for some of the construction world's most magnificent projects, John is one of the preeminent alumni in the history of Michigan Engineering. His perspectives have helped me throughout my time as dean, and his impact will influence generations of Construction Management professionals and students." ---David C. Munson, Jr., Robert J. Vlasic Dean of Engineering, University of Michigan In this memoir, University of Michigan graduate John L. Tishman recounts the experiences and rationale that led him to create the entirely new profession now recognized and practiced as Construction Management. It evolved from his work as the construction lead of the "owner/builder" firm Tishman Realty and Construction, and his personal role as hands-on Construction Manager in the building of an astonishing array of what were at the time the world's tallest and most complex projects. These include The world's first three 100-story towers---the original "twin towers" of the World Trade Center in Manhattan and the Hancock Tower in Chicago. The Epcot Center at Disney World. The Renaissance Center in Detroit. New York's Madison Square Garden. Tishman interweaves the stories behind the construction of these and many other important buildings and projects with personal reminiscences of his dealings with Henry Ford, Jr., Disney's Michael Eisner, casino magnate Steve Wynn, and many others into a practical history of the field of Construction Management, which he pioneered. This book will be of interest not only to a general public interested in the stories and personalities behind many of the most iconic construction projects of the post–World War II period in the United States but to students of engineering and architecture and members of the new field of Construction Management.

Download or read book Airlift to America written by Tom Shachtman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2009-09-15 with total page 302 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the long-hidden saga of how a handful of Americans and East Africans fought the British colonial government, the U.S. State Department, and segregation to transport to, or support at, U.S. and Canadian universities, between 1959 and 1963, nearly 800 young East African men and women who would go on to change their world and ours. The students supported included Barack Obama Sr., future father of a U.S. president, Wangari Maathai, future Nobel Peace Prize laureate, as well as the nation-builders of post-colonial East Africa -- cabinet ministers, ambassadors, university chancellors, clinic and school founders. The airlift was conceived by the unusual partnership of the charismatic, later-assassinated Kenyan Tom Mboya and William X. Scheinman, a young American entrepreneur, with supporting roles played by Jackie Robinson, Harry Belafonte, Sidney Poitier, and Martin Luther King, Jr. The airlift even had an impact on the 1960 presidential race, as Vice-President Richard Nixon tried to muscle the State Department into funding the project to prevent Senator Jack Kennedy from using his family foundation to do so and reaping the political benefit. The book is based on the files of the airlift's sponsor, the African American Students Foundation, untouched for almost fifty years.

Download or read book Rumspringa written by Tom Shachtman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2007-05-29 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Abstract:

Download or read book Dead Center written by Shiya Ribowsky and published by Harper Collins. This book was released on 2009-10-13 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This insider’s account of the NYC medical examiner’s office takes readers from an average day in the autopsy room to the tragic aftermath of 9/11. For fifteen years, Shiya Ribowsky worked as a medicolegal investigator in New York City’s medical examiner’s office—the largest, most sophisticated organization of its kind in the world. Ribowsky led the investigations of more than eight thousand individual deaths, becoming a key figure in some of New York’s most bizarre death cases. He also took charge of the largest forensic investigation ever attempted: identifying the dead in the aftermath of September 11th. Now Ribowsky pulls back the curtain on the New York City’s medical examiner’s office, giving a never-before-seen glimpse into death and the city. From vermin-infested Bowery flophouses to posh Upper East Side apartments of the city’s dead, Ribowsky explores the skeletons that hang in the Big Apple’s closets. Combing through the autopsy room, he also exposes the grim secrets that only a scalpel can reveal, and explains how forensic investigation not only solve crimes—but also saves lives.

Download or read book Cold written by Bill Streever and published by Hachette+ORM. This book was released on 2009-07-02 with total page 287 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From avalanches to glaciers, from seals to snowflakes, and from Shackleton's expedition to The Year Without Summer, Bill Streever journeys through history, myth, geography, and ecology in a year-long search for cold -- real, icy, 40-below cold. In July he finds it while taking a dip in a 35-degree Arctic swimming hole; in September while excavating our planet's ancient and not so ancient ice ages; and in October while exploring hibernation habits in animals, from humans to wood frogs to bears. A scientist whose passion for cold runs red hot, Streever is a wondrous guide: he conjures woolly mammoth carcasses and the ice-age Clovis tribe from melting glaciers, and he evokes blizzards so wild readers may freeze -- limb by vicarious limb.

Download or read book The ABC s of Science written by Giuseppe Mussardo and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2020-11-05 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Science, with its inherent tension between the known and the unknown, is an inexhaustible mine of great stories. Collected here are twenty-six among the most enchanting tales, one for each letter of the alphabet: the main characters are scientists of the highest caliber most of whom, however, are unknown to the general public. This book goes from A to Z. The letter A stands for Abel, the great Norwegian mathematician, here involved in an elliptic thriller about a fundamental theorem of mathematics, while the letter Z refers to Absolute Zero, the ultimate and lowest temperature limit, - 273,15 degrees Celsius, a value that is tremendously cooler than the most remote corner of the Universe: the race to reach this final outpost of coldness is not yet complete, but, similarly to the history books of polar explorations at the beginning of the 20th century, its pages record successes, failures, fierce rivalries and tragic desperations. In between the A and the Z, the other letters of the alphabet are similar to the various stages of a very fascinating journey along the paths of science, a journey in the company of a very unique set of characters as eccentric and peculiar as those in Ulysses by James Joyce: the French astronomer who lost everything, even his mind, to chase the transits of Venus; the caustic Austrian scientist who, perfectly at ease with both the laws of psychoanalysis and quantum mechanics, revealed the hidden secrets of dreams and the periodic table of chemical elements; the young Indian astrophysicist who was the first to understand how a star dies, suffering the ferocious opposition of his mentor for this discovery. Or the Hungarian physicist who struggled with his melancholy in the shadows of the desert of Los Alamos; or the French scholar who was forced to hide her femininity behind a false identity so as to publish fundamental theorems on prime numbers. And so on and so forth. Twenty-six stories, which reveal the most authentic atmosphere of science and the lives of some of its main players: each story can be read in quite a short period of time -- basically the time it takes to get on and off the train between two metro stations. Largely independent from one another, these twenty-six stories make the book a harmonious polyphony of several voices: the reader can invent his/her own very personal order for the chapters simply by ordering the sequence of letters differently. For an elementary law of Mathematics, this can give rise to an astronomically large number of possible books -- all the same, but - then again - all different. This book is therefore the ideal companion for an infinite number of real or metaphoric journeys.

Download or read book The Founding Fortunes written by Tom Shachtman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2020-01-21 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In The Founding Fortunes, historian Tom Shachtman reveals the ways in which a dozen notable Revolutionaries deeply affected the finances and birth of the new country while making and losing their fortunes. While history teaches that successful revolutions depend on participation by the common man, the establishment of a stable and independent United States first required wealthy colonials uniting to disrupt the very system that had enriched them, and then funding a very long war. While some fortunes were made during the war at the expense of the poor, many of the wealthy embraced the goal of obtaining for their poorer countrymen an unprecedented equality of opportunity, along with independence. In addition to nuanced views of the well-known wealthy such as Robert Morris and John Hancock, and of the less wealthy but influential Alexander Hamilton, The Founding Fortunes offers insight into the contributions of those often overlooked by popular history: Henry Laurens, the plantation owner who replaced Hancock as President of Congress; pioneering businessmen William Bingham, Jeremiah Wadsworth, and Stephen Girard; privateer magnate Elias Hasket Derby; and Hamilton’s successors at Treasury, Oliver Wolcott, Jr. and Albert Gallatin. The Founders dealt with tariffs, taxes on the wealthy, the national debt, regional disparities, the census as it affected finances, and how much of what America needs should be manufactured at home in ways that remain startlingly relevant. Revelatory and insightful, The Founding Fortunes provides a riveting history of economic patriotism that still resonates today.

Download or read book The Hunt for Zero Point written by Nick Cook and published by Crown. This book was released on 2007-12-18 with total page 305 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This riveting work of investigative reporting and history exposes classified government projects to build gravity-defying aircraft--which have an uncanny resemblance to flying saucers. The atomic bomb was not the only project to occupy government scientists in the 1940s. Antigravity technology, originally spearheaded by scientists in Nazi Germany, was another high priority, one that still may be in effect today. Now for the first time, a reporter with an unprecedented access to key sources in the intelligence and military communities reveals suppressed evidence that tells the story of a quest for a discovery that could prove as powerful as the A-bomb. The Hunt for Zero Point explores the scientific speculation that a "zero point" of gravity exists in the universe and can be replicated here on Earth. The pressure to be the first nation to harness gravity is immense, as it means having the ability to build military planes of unlimited speed and range, along with the most deadly weaponry the world has ever seen. The ideal shape for a gravity-defying vehicle happens to be a perfect disk, making antigravity tests a possible explanation for the numerous UFO sightings of the past 50 years. Chronicling the origins of antigravity research in the world's most advanced research facility, which was operated by the Third Reich during World War II, The Hunt for Zero Point traces U.S. involvement in the project, beginning with the recruitment of former Nazi scientists after the war. Drawn from interviews with those involved with the research and who visited labs in Europe and the United States, The Hunt for Zero Point journeys to the heart of the twentieth century's most puzzling unexplained phenomena.

Download or read book Gentlemen Scientists and Revolutionaries written by Tom Shachtman and published by Macmillan. This book was released on 2014-10-07 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A fresh exploration of the scientific pursuits of the Founding Fathers that reveals their science as critical to the great political "experiment" of the day

Download or read book Torpedoed written by Edmond D. Pope and published by Little, Brown. This book was released on 2001-11-01 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: He was a man of mystery: Edmond D. Pope -- former Naval Intelligence officer, then private businessman, in Russia looking for some answers. It was a top secret operation: The CIA and the Canadian secret service -- out to steal one of Russia's crown jewels: the plans to a submarine torpedo that travels an astonishing 300 miles per hour. He was the new man in charge: Vladimir Putin -- former head of the KGB, now boss of all Russia and a man who wanted to set an example at almost any cost. Now, for the first time ever, Ed Pope tells the real story of what led to his becoming the first American since Gary Powers to be convicted of espionage in Russia. Combining a gripping account of his arrest, trial and 253-day imprisonment with a deeply disturbing look at today's Russia, Pope's harrowing story reads like a Le Carre novel come to life. And with a large dollop of espionage-insider information and secret submarine warfare technology, Ed Pope's harrowing memoir will remind readers of the best of Tom Clancy.

Download or read book Whoever Fights Monsters written by Robert K. Ressler and published by . This book was released on 1993 with total page 400 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The author of this book played a major part in the FBI's development of psychological profiles for serial killers, he even invented the term serial killer. Whilst Thomas Harris made Ressler's work famous in fiction, Ressler did it for real.

Download or read book The FBI KGB War written by Robert J. Lamphere and published by Mercer University Press. This book was released on 1995 with total page 372 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The names, we sometimes say, have been changed "to protect the innocent". As regards those agents in KGB networks in the U.S. during and following World War II, their presence and their deeds (or misdeeds) were known, but their names were not. The FBI-KGB War is the exciting, true (which often really is stranger than fiction), and authentic story of how those names became known and how the not-so-innocent persons to whom those names belonged were finally called to account. Following World War II, FBI Special Agent Robert J. Lamphere set out to uncover the extensive American networks of the KGB. Lamphere used a large file of secret Russian messages intercepted during the war. The FBI-KGB War is the detailed (but never boring) story of how those messages were finally decoded and made to reveal their secrets, secrets that led to persons with such now-infamous names as Judith Coplon, Klaus Fuchs, Harry Gold, and Ethel and Julius Rosenberg.

Download or read book The Bold and Cold written by Brandon Pullan and published by Rocky Mountain Books Ltd. This book was released on 2016 with total page 264 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Recounts the stories of mountaineers who undertook climbing expeditions in the Canadian Rockies.

Download or read book A Hidden Legacy written by Thomas E. Schindler and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2021-08-17 with total page 177 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It's time to honor the significant scientific contributions of Esther Zimmer Lederberg. In A Hidden Legacy, Thomas E. Schindler shares the story of this remarkable microbiologist and offers insight into why her legacy has been obscured for so long. In the mid-20th century, microbiologist Esther Zimmer Lederberg and her then-husband, Joshua Lederberg, made a series of remarkable discoveries that contributed to the biochemical understanding of the gene. Together, they laid the foundation for molecular biology and the field of bacterial genetics. In 1958, he alone was awarded the Nobel Prize for their work. Esther's ingenuity was largely ignored and undervalued by the Nobel committee and has continued to be obscured by historians of science. In this book, Thomas E. Schindler shares many of Esther's hidden scientific contributions and her role in the discoveries that launched her then-husband's celebrated career. A Hidden Legacy delves into how, as a couple, the Lederbergs established a new field of bacterial genetics in the decade leading up to the discovery of the DNA double helix. Their impressive series of achievements includes the discovery of: *l bacteriophage and the first plasmid, known as the F-factor; how viruses carry bacterial genes between bacteria; and fundamental properties of bacterial sex. Schindler explains how Esther's research revealed unique features of bacterial sex that are now essential to our understanding of molecular biology and evolution. A magnificent story of a remarkable scientist, A Hidden Legacy takes readers through the process that scrambled the tree of life and offers insight into the role Esther played in uncovering these secretes of bacterial and viral genes.

Download or read book Warmth Disperses and Time Passes written by Hans Christian Von Baeyer and published by Modern Library. This book was released on 1999-06-15 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: If you want to know what's happening in the world, follow the heat. Why can't your coffee "steal" heat from the air to stay piping hot? Why can't Detroit make a car that's 100 percent efficient? Why can't some genius make a perpetual motion machine? The answers lie in the field of thermodynamics, the study of heat, which turns out to be the key to an astonishing number of scientific puzzles, including why time inexorably runs in only one direction. In Warmth Disperses and Time Passes: The History of Heat, physics professor Hans Christian von Baeyer tells the story of heat through the lives of the scientists who discovered it. With his trademark elegant prose, eye for lively detail, and gift for lucid explanation, Professor von Baeyer turns the contemplation of a cooling coffee cup into a beguiling portrait of the birth of a science with relevance to almost every aspect of our lives.

Download or read book How the French Saved America written by Tom Shachtman and published by St. Martin's Press. This book was released on 2017-09-12 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Americans today have a love/hate relationship with France, but in How the French Saved America Tom Shachtman shows that without France, there might not be a United States of America. To the rebelling colonies, French assistance made the difference between looming defeat and eventual triumph. Even before the Declaration of Independence was issued, King Louis XVI and French foreign minister Vergennes were aiding the rebels. After the Declaration, that assistance broadened to include wages for our troops; guns, cannon, and ammunition; engineering expertise that enabled victories and prevented defeats; diplomatic recognition; safe havens for privateers; battlefield leadership by veteran officers; and the army and fleet that made possible the Franco-American victory at Yorktown. Nearly ten percent of those who fought and died for the American cause were French. Those who fought and survived, in addition to the well-known Lafayette and Rochambeau, include François de Fleury, who won a Congressional Medal for valor, Louis Duportail, who founded the Army Corps of Engineers, and Admiral de Grasse, whose sea victory sealed the fate of Yorktown. This illuminating narrative history vividly captures the outsize characters of our European brothers, their battlefield and diplomatic bonds and clashes with Americans, and the monumental role they played in America’s fight for independence and democracy.