Download or read book Dna Doctor The Candid Conversations With James D Watson written by Istvan Hargittai and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2007-07-11 with total page 235 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Three in-depth conversations with the Nobel laureate co-discoverer of the double helix and the first director of the Human Genome Project cover a wide range of topics, including progress in science; the scientist's role in modern life; women in science; scientific ethics; terrorism; religion; multiculturalism; and how genetics may improve human lives. Reflections by further illustrious contributors to the scientific revolution and the author's commentaries provide a glimpse into the thinking of scientists who largely determine the progress of humankind in our time.
Download or read book Avoid Boring People written by James D. Watson and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2010-05-04 with total page 370 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From Nobel Prize-winning scientist James D. Watson, a living legend for his work unlocking the structure of DNA, comes this candid and entertaining memoir, filled with practical advice for those starting out their academic careers. In Avoid Boring People, Watson lays down a life’s wisdom for getting ahead in a competitive world. Witty and uncompromisingly honest, he shares his thoughts on how young scientists should choose the projects that will shape their careers, the supreme importance of collegiality, and dealing with competitors within the same institution. It’s an irreverent romp through Watson’s colorful career and an indispensable guide to anyone interested in nurturing the life of the mind.
Download or read book Genes Girls and Gamow written by James D. Watson and published by Oxford University Press, USA. This book was released on 2003 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An autobiographical account of Jim Watson's life, following on from The Double Helix, the story of his and Francis Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA (published in 1968). Here is Watson adjusting to new-found fame, carrying out tantalizing experiments and falling in love.
Download or read book Nobel Prizes and Nature s Surprises written by Erling Norrby and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2013 with total page 470 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Each year the Nobel Prizes in the natural sciences reveal amazing discoveries. Nominations are kept secret for 50 years after the awards have been made. Covering the awards from 1960 to 1962, this book reveals discoveries relating to the control of infectious diseases and the advent of organ transplant organs, as well as advances in molecular biology.
Download or read book Drive and Curiosity written by Istvan Hargittai and published by Prometheus Books. This book was released on 2010-04-13 with total page 330 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: What motivates those few scientists who rise above their peers to achieve breakthrough discoveries? This book examines the careers of fifteen eminent scientists who achieved some of the most notable discoveries of the past century, providing an insider’s perspective on the history of twentieth century science based on these engaging personality profiles. They include: • Dan Shechtman, the 2011 Nobel laureate and discoverer of quasicrystals; • James D. Watson, the Nobel laureate and codiscoverer of the double helix structure of DNA; • Linus Pauling, the Nobel laureate remembered most for his work on the structure of proteins; • Edward Teller, a giant of the 20th century who accomplished breakthroughs in understanding of nuclear fusion; • George Gamow, a pioneering scientist who devised the initially ridiculed and now accepted Big Bang. In each case, the author has uncovered a singular personality characteristic, motivational factor, or circumstance that, in addition to their extraordinary drive and curiosity, led these scientists to make outstanding contributions. For example, Gertrude B. Elion, who discovered drugs that saved millions of lives, was motivated to find new medications after the deaths of her grandfather and later her fiancé. F. Sherwood Rowland, who stumbled upon the environmental harm caused by chlorofluorocarbons, eventually felt a moral imperative to become an environmental activist. Rosalyn Yalow, the codiscoverer of the radioimmunoassay always felt she had to prove herself in the face of prejudice against her as a woman. These and many more fascinating revelations make this a must-read for everyone who wants to know what traits and circumstances contribute to a person’s becoming the scientist who makes the big breakthrough.
Download or read book New York Scientific written by István Hargittai and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2017 with total page 327 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York city is a world center of science and the memorabilia presented introduce the reader to a culture of learning and of creating new knowledge, venues of great medicine, and a number of exceptional schools graduating world leaders in science.
Download or read book Women Scientists written by Magdolna Hargittai and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2015-03-04 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Magdolna Hargittai uses over fifteen years of in-depth conversation with female physicists, chemists, biomedical researchers, and other scientists to form cohesive ideas on the state of the modern female scientist. The compilation, based on sixty conversations, examines unique challenges that women with serious scientific aspirations face. In addition to addressing challenges and the unjustifiable underrepresentation of women at the higher levels of academia, Hargittai takes a balanced approach by discussing how some of the most successful of these women have managed to obtain professional success and personal happiness. Women Scientists portrays scientists from different backgrounds, different geographical regions-eighteen countries from four continents-and leaders from a variety of professional backgrounds, including eight Nobel laureate women. The book is divided into three sections: "Husband and Wife Teams," "Women at the Top," and "In High Positions." Hargittai uses her own experience to introduce her first section on the lives of prominent scientific couples and addresses the joys and disadvantages of husband and wife teams. The second section is a comprehensive exploration of the struggles and triumphs of "women at the top." Hargittai introduces women from countries where relatively little has been written about female scientists. The final section focuses on women scientists involved with science administration and leadership. Hargittai's biographical sketches role models for budding scientists. The book is a much needed account of female presence and influence in the sciences.
Download or read book Symmetry through the Eyes of a Chemist written by Magdolna Hargittai and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2009-02-28 with total page 528 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: It is gratifying to launch the third edition of our book. Its coming to life testi?es about the task it has ful?lled in the service of the com- nity of chemical research and learning. As we noted in the Prefaces to the ?rst and second editions, our book surveys chemistry from the point of view of symmetry. We present many examples from ch- istry as well as from other ?elds to emphasize the unifying nature of the symmetry concept. Our aim has been to provide aesthetic pl- sure in addition to learning experience. In our ?rst Preface we paid tribute to two books in particular from which we learned a great deal; they have in?uenced signi?cantly our approach to the subject matter of our book. They are Weyl’s classic, Symmetry, and Shubnikov and Koptsik’s Symmetry in Science and Art. The structure of our book has not changed. Following the Int- duction (Chapter 1), Chapter 2 presents the simplest symmetries using chemical and non-chemical examples. Molecular geometry is discussed in Chapter 3. The next four chapters present gro- theoretical methods (Chapter 4) and, based on them, discussions of molecular vibrations (Chapter 5), electronic structures (Chapter 6), and chemical reactions (Chapter 7). For the last two chapters we return to a qualitative treatment and introduce space-group sym- tries (Chapter 8), concluding with crystal structures (Chapter 9). For the third edition we have further revised and streamlined our text and renewed the illustrative material.
Download or read book Open Government Open Diplomacy written by István Hargittai and published by Central European University Press. This book was released on 2023-06-06 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: André Goodfriend was Deputy Chief of Mission from 2013 to 2015 at the US Embassy in Budapest. In the absence of an ambassador, most of the time he was Chargé d’Affaires. Goodfriend represented his country, and for that matter, liberal democracy, in the early period of the increasingly autocratic Orbán regime. This tenure was distinguished by an unusually high public visibility and broad-based popularity. This book contains the distilled essence of conversations recorded in the fall of 2015 and in the years after his departure. Aside from Goodfriend’s reflections on his personal history, the main focus of the deliberations is on open government: its characteristics, preconditions, benefits, and its relation to modern diplomacy. The mindset of a democracy-rooted diplomat with a working experience in an increasingly autocratic regime lends a particular perspective to the topics discussed. These topics include the fight against corruption, the protection of civil society, crisis prevention, education, economy, international relations, applied humanities, and the use of the social and traditional media to achieve policy goals. This book presents modern, “people-friendly” diplomacy in an era in which public officials are increasingly expected to be transparent and engaged.
Download or read book Science of Crystal Structures written by Istvan Hargittai and published by Springer. This book was released on 2015-09-09 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A volume which includes entries on quasicrystals, icosahedral packing, other packing considerations, extended structures, data treatment and data mining is presented by luminaries from the crystallography community. Several of the contributions are from the schools of such trend-setting crystallographers as J. Desmond Bernal and Aleksandr I. Kitaigorodskii. Internationally renowned scientists contributed such as Tom L. Blundell, Johann Jacob Burckhardt, John L. Finney, Jenny P. Glusker, Nobel laureate Herbert A. Hauptman, the 2014 Ewald-Prize winner A. Janner, Aminoff-Prize winner Isabella Karle, Nobel laureate Jerome Karle, Buckley-Prize winner Alan L. Mackay, Ewald-Prize winner David Sayre, Vladimir Shevchenko, and J. Fraser Stoddart. A few frontier topics dominate the selected material. Pioneers of the direct methods describe the phase problem and how it was solved, including the mathematical approach and the utilization of experience with gas-phase electron diffraction. The reviews by Herbert Hauptman, Jerome and Isabella Karle, and David Sayre reach to the present day in assessing the possibilities of X-ray crystallography. Another focus topic is the investigation of systems that are outside the so-called classical system of crystals. They include quasicrystals, imperfect and very small crystals, supramolecular species, crystal structures without lattice, clusters, nanomaterials among others. Application of synchrotron and cryoprotection techniques, the free-electron laser flash technique and others are mentioned in addition to X-ray crystallography. The relationship between structural and materials properties are examined and uncovered. The broader topics of the so-called generalized crystallography include polymers, clusters, polydisperse chain assemblies, and giant icosahedral fullerenes. There are some key contributions related to the structural investigation of biological macromolecules.
Download or read book Wisdom Of The Martians Of Science In Their Own Words With Commentaries written by Istvan Hargittai and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2015-12-10 with total page 265 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wisdom of the Martians of Science refers to five scientists whose brilliance contributed to shaping the modern world. John von Neumann was a pioneer of the modern computer; Theodore von Kármán was the scientist behind the US Air Force; Leo Szilard initiated the development of nuclear weapons; the Nobel laureate Eugene P Wigner was the world's first nuclear engineer; and Edward Teller was the father of the hydrogen bomb. They were born and raised in Budapest, were forced out of Hungary and then from Germany, they became Americans, and devoted themselves to the defense of the United States and the Free World.They contributed significant discoveries to fundamental science ranging from the properties of materials to the application of the symmetry principle in physics, to creating information theory, to game theory. The areas in which we can learn about their wisdom include applications of science to past, present and future real-world needs; defense; education; environment; human nature; humor; politics; religion; weather modification, and others.This book shows the wisdom of the Martians by presenting their thoughts and ideas in their own words and placing them into context. Their wisdom is intriguing, witty, provocative and thought provoking. It extended over many aspects of life and culture that impinge on our existence. While we cannot always agree with what they say, they are never boring. The power of their words and their philosophies will inspire the readers to pursue their own dreams.
Download or read book Budapest Scientific written by István Hargittai and published by OUP Oxford. This book was released on 2015-03-26 with total page 331 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This guidebook introduces the reader to the visible memorabilia of science and scientists in Budapest - statues, busts, plaques, buildings, and other artefacts. According to the Hungarian-American Nobel laureate Albert Szent-Györgyi, this metropolis at the crossroads of Europe has a special atmosphere of respect for science. It has been the venue of numerous scientific achievements and the cradle, literally, of many individuals who in Hungary, and even more beyond its borders, became world-renowned contributors to science and culture. Six of the eight chapters of the book cover the Hungarian Nobel laureates, the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the university, the medical school, agricultural sciences, and technology and engineering. One chapter is about selected secondary schools from which seven Nobel laureates (Szent-Györgyi, de Hevesy, Wigner, Gabor, Harsanyi, Olah, and Kertész) and the five "Martians of Science" (von Kármán, Szilard, Wigner, von Neumann, and Teller) had graduated. The concluding chapter is devoted to scientist martyrs of the Holocaust. A special feature in surveying Hungarian science is the contributions of scientists that left their homeland before their careers blossomed and made their seminal discoveries elsewhere, especially in Great Britain and the United States. The book covers the memorabilia referring to both émigré scientists and those that remained in Hungary. The discussion is informative and entertaining. The coverage is based on the visible memorabilia, which are not necessarily proportional with achievements. Therefore, there is a caveat that one could not compile a history of science relying solely on the presence of the memorabilia.
Download or read book Buried Glory written by Istvan Hargittai and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2013-09-19 with total page 369 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moscow's Novodevichy Cemetery is the final resting place of some of Russia's most celebrated figures, from Khrushchev and Yeltsin to Anton Chekhov, Sergei Eisenstein, Nikolai Gogol, and Mikhail Bulgakov. Using this famed cemetery as symbolic starting point, Buried Glory profiles a dozen eminent Soviet scientists-nine of whom are buried at Novodevichy-men who illustrate both the glorious heights of Soviet research as well as the eclipse of science since the collapse of the USSR. Drawing on extensive archival research and his own personal memories, renowned chemist Istvan Hargittai bring these figures back to life, placing their remarkable scientific achievements against the tense political backdrop of the Cold War. Among the eminent scientists profiled here are Petr L. Kapitza, one of the most brilliant representatives of the great generation of Soviet physicists, a Nobel-Prize winner who risked his career-and his life-standing up for fellow scientists against Stalin. Yulii B. Khariton, who ran the highly secretive Soviet nuclear weapons laboratory, Arzamas-16, despite being Jewish and despite the fact that his father Boris had been sent to the labor camps. And Andrei D. Sakharov, the "father of the Soviet hydrogen bomb" and a brilliant fighter for human rights, for which he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Along the way, Hargittai shines a light on the harrowing conditions under which these brilliant researchers excelled. Indeed, in the post-war period, Stalin's anti-Semitism and ongoing anti-science measures devastated biology, damaged chemistry, and nearly destroyed physics. The latter was saved only because Stalin realized that without physics and physicists there could be no nuclear weapons. The extraordinary scientific talent nurtured by the Soviet regime belongs almost entirely to the past. Buried Glory is both a fitting tribute to these great scientists and a fascinating account of scientific work behind the Iron Curtain.
Download or read book Visual Symmetry written by Magdolna Hargittai and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2009 with total page 220 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Symmetry is as simple or as complicated as we are ready to absorb it in everything around us. From flowers to bridges, buildings, coke machines, and snowflakes; from molecules to walnuts, fences, pine cones, and sunflowers; from music to children's drawings; from hubcaps to bank logos, propellers, wallpaper decorations, and pavements, we recognize it if we walk around with open eyes and an open mind. This book provides aesthetic pleasure and covert education, immersing the reader in both the familiar and the unknown and leading always to unexpected discoveries. The authors, world-renowned scientists, have already produced a dozen books on symmetry for professionals as well as laypersons, for grownups as well as children, in English, Russian, German, Hungarian, and Swedish languages. They provide this attractive account of symmetry in few words and many ? as many as 650 ? images in full color from the most diverse corners of our globe. An encounter with this book will open up a whole new experience for the reader, who will never look at the world with the same eyes as before.
Download or read book Science In Moscow Memorials Of A Research Empire written by Hargittai Magdolna and published by World Scientific. This book was released on 2019-08-20 with total page 404 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Moscow is the center of science and higher education of Russia and is also an international hub of science. There have been milestone achievements of science in Russia (and the Soviet Union), especially in the areas of physics, chemistry, mathematics, the conquest of space, various technologies and medicine. However, the scientists and inventors often created in isolation and have become less known than their discoveries would justify. At the same time, there is no other city in the world that has so many memorials honoring scientists as Moscow. There is a caveat in that political considerations have often influenced who was remembered and who was not. This book presents statues, memorial plaques, and historical buildings. Not only celebrated excellences are mentioned, but also some of the greats that perished during the years of terror. The book is full of human drama and 750 photos illustrate the narrative. Science in Moscow follows Budapest Scientific and New York Scientific and is the third in the series about memorials of scientists in great cities of the world.
Download or read book Science in London written by Istvan Hargittai and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2021-03-03 with total page 291 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book introduces the reader to the statues, busts, and memorial plaques of scientists, explorers, medicine men and women, and inventors found in the bustling capital of the United Kingdom, London. The former capital of the British Empire, London remains a world center of trade, navigation, finance and many more. It is also a hub of science, the seat of the Royal Society, Royal Institution, Science Museum, British Museum, Natural History Museum, and of great institutions of higher education. The historical figures depicted in these memorials are responsible for creating great institutions, milestone discoveries, contributions to the scientific and technological revolutions, fighting against epidemics, advancing medicine, and contributing to the progress seen during the past four hundred years. This is a guidebook for the visitor and the Londoner alike. It presents memorials that everybody is familiar with and others that the authors discovered during their years of painstaking research. The 750 images and the text, interlarded with anecdotes, is both informative and entertaining.
Download or read book Great Minds written by Balazs Hargittai and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014-05-01 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the 1990s and the 2000s, Istvan, Balazs, and Magdolna Hargittai conducted hundreds of interviews with leading scientists in physics, chemistry, materials, and biomedical research. These interviews appeared in a variety of publications, including Chemical Intelligencer, Mathematical Intelligencer, and Chemical Heritage. In four-thousand pages of interviews, the Hargittais had conversations with over a hundred Nobel laureates, along with many other top minds and personalities in various scientific fields. Now, in a single volume, the Hargittais have gathered the best and most notable moments of these interviews, creating a survey of the past, present, and future of science, as told by some of the most influential members of many scientific disciplines. Figures like James D. Watson, Francis Crick, and Glenn T. Seaborg share their thoughts in these pages, in a collection that includes 68 Nobel Laureates. Without exaggeration, their backgrounds come from all over the globe: scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, France, Germany, Israel, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, and Taiwan are featured. These interviews discuss many of the most prominent debates and issues in today's scientific climate. Great Minds is a synthesis of scientific thought, as told by some of the most notable scientists of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries.
