Download or read book Harmony and Unity written by Niels Blædel and published by Springer. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niels Bohr, the founder of quantum mechanics, is generally considered to be one of the greatest scientists of the 20th century. His work revolutionized natural science, and his name is inscribed in history side by side with the names of Galileo, Newton, and Einstein. He won the Nobel Prize in physics for his model of the atom, which is still taught today in science classes everywhere. But the image of Bohr is complete only when the physicist is joined with the person Niels Bohr. This book, skillfully interweaving Bohr's scientific and personal life, is the first biography to be based on the extensive archives of the Bohr Institute of Physics in Copenhagen, and on excerpts from many of Bohr's letters to his family, his friends, and his colleagues. In addition, the book includes more than 150 photographs, as well as extracts from Bohr's personal correspondence to his wife, Margrethe, dating from the time of their engagement to just before his death 50 years later. This work of scientific biography is accessible to both the scientist and the general reader. Skillfully translated from the original Danish by Geoffrey French, the book has been carefully edited for an English-speaking readership.

Download or read book Harmony and Unity written by Niels Blædel and published by John Koning. This book was released on 1988-01-01 with total page 323 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Biografie van de Deense fysicus Niels Hendrik David Bohr (1885-1962).

Download or read book Harmony and Unity The Life of Niels Bohr written by Niels Blaedel and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page 341 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Blaedel has addressed himself to the task of writing a full-length biography that covers all facets of his subject and that emphasizes that they form part of one harmonious unity. I think that on the whole he has succeeded remarkably well. He gives an accurate picture of the man theorists of my generation both admired and loved. And not only of the physicist: Bohr’s relations with his family and in particular with his wife, an admirable woman, are drawn with sympathy and understanding. Blaedel’s sketch of the atmosphere at Bohr’s institute in Copenhagen... is true to life; it will raise nostalgic memories among those who, like myself, experienced it... [Blaedel] has produced a fitting tribute to a great scientist and a noble man.” — H.B.G. Casimir, Nature “The book is intended primarily for nonphysicists; nevertheless it offers extensive (albeit nontechnical) accounts of all aspects of Bohr’s scientific work. The consistent emphasis, however, is on Bohr as a person—his character, interests andWeltanschauung. Niels Blaedel was able to draw on matchless resources, both human and material: Bohr’s family (especially his widow, Margrethe Bohr, who shared both her memories and her correspondence), Bohr’s former friends and colleagues, and a rich supply of documentary and photographic material from Danish collections, as well as from the AIP Niels Bohr Library in New York. The result is a lavishly illustrated and affectionate account of Bohr from his earliest years until his death... as a general picture of Bohr and his work this book can be warmly recommended.” — Anthony P. French, Physics Today “Niels Bohr is generally regarded as a giant of twentieth-century physics... Bohr was securely entrenched in a Danish culture that is difficult for many historians to penetrate. It is important, then, that at last a biography has been written by a Dane with wide knowledge of the society in which Bohr lived and moved... The author had unprecedented access to Bohr’s family correspondence, primarily with his wife Margrethe, who, before she died at ninety-four in 1984, read Blaedel many letters from her husband... Blaedel’s book, written on commission for the Bohr centennial and published in Danish in 1985, contains valuable insights on Bohr, particularly as they relate to his previously unavailable family correspondence and his place in Danish culture.” — Finn Aaserud, Isis: A Journal of the History of Science “Though Niels Bohr is best known as a distinguished citizen of the international community of science, he was also a leading citizen of Denmark. This is the first biography of Bohr to deal with both of these dimensions to his life, without which it is hard to fully understand either the man or his work.” — Robert March, University of Wisconsin-Madison, author of Physics for Poets “... the book can be read without any background knowledge in physics. But its overwhelming number of photographs and rich use of letters and recollections make Niels Blaedel’s book closely resemble the great standard biography — a literary monument to Niels Bohr.” — Flemming Christian Nielsen, Jyllands-Posten “Niels Blaedel has solved an almost insoluble problem... thereby clarifying the life of Niels Bohr... a well-constructed piece of documentation and a coherent piece of scientific history.” — Jens Kistrup, Berlingske Tidende

Download or read book The Hunting of the Quark A True Story of Modern Physics written by Michael Riordan and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 313 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is the absorbing account of one of the twentieth century’s most revolutionary discoveries — our first encounter with an essential mystery of the universe. Told by an active participant in this discovery, it is the saga of the search for quarks, the elementary particles lurking within the protons and neutrons of atomic nuclei, which constitute the fundamental basis of matter. Michael Riordan, physicist and author, was present at the key moments in this story. He brings to life the personalities, triumphs and failures of this true-life scientific detective story, vividly portraying the soaring ambitions and clashing egos of modern physicists at work, vying for the coveted Nobel Prize. The Hunting of the Quark gives readers an insider’s perspective on how frontier science actually occurs — the great leaps of imagination, the blind alleys followed, and the final resolution of the mysteries that had to be overcome on the road to unity. Like James Watson’s famous accountThe Double Helix, it has the immediacy and excitement of being on the trail of a monumental discovery — leading to a striking new scientific paradigm, the Standard Model of particle physics. “Many books on the 20th-century revolution in particle physics focus on the startling new notions introduced. Not as much attention is paid to those who dirtied their hands, nursing crotchety accelerator instruments, in order to prove the conjectures. Mr. Riordan, a physicist affiliated with the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, presents an authoritative account of this less-told tale. A veteran quark-stalker himself, he deftly combines his technical expertise with a journalistic flair, personally acquainting us with many of the men and women who joined in the hunt... Mr. Riordan enables us to behold exactly how physicists work and the tortuous paths that experimentalists must travel to gain just a scrap of insight into the puzzling laws of nature.” — Marcia Bartusiak, The New York Times “A great book that I couldn’t put down even though I knew the plot.” — Sheldon Glashow, Eugene Higgins Professor of Physics, Emeritus, Harvard University, Nobel prize in physics (1979) “Machines two miles long, pieces of matter elusive as lost souls, the likes of Richard Feynman ‘snooping around,’ reputations made and lost on the contumacious front lines of science — what a wonderful mix for a book. Particle physics has seemed arcane, the quark business most of all. Michael Riordan, who lives the story he tells, makes it lively, literate and accessible.” — Richard Rhodes, author of The Making of the Atomic Bomb “Mr. Riordan... understands the physics, but he also has an eye for the human comedy associated with the work. The result is a fine book on elementary particle physics.” — Jeremy Bernstein, The New Yorker “Riordan was an active participant in the search for the enigmatic quark, and his story reflects the excitement, passion and revelation of peeking into nature’s most elusive realm.” — Rudy Rucker, San Francisco Chronicle “An enjoyable book with enough good explanations and clear discussions to make it well worth reading both for the expert in modern high-energy physics and for the general reader.” — Alexander Firestone, Physics Today “A physicist with first-hand experience chasing quarks at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center (SLAC) relates the high points of the search for those elusive subatomic particles... Riordan builds a suspenseful tale around the neck-and-neck race between MIT/Brookhaven (Sam Ting) and Stanford (Burton Richter) in discovering the J/psi particle... Riordan’s epilogue is eloquent... Readers will... turn to Riordan for a close-in view and astute commentary on a pivotal period in 20th-century physics.” —Kirkus

Download or read book Quantum Einstein Bohr and the Great Debate about the Nature of Reality written by Manjit Kumar and published by W. W. Norton & Company. This book was released on 2010-05-24 with total page 415 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "A lucid account of quantum theory (and why you should care) combined with a gripping narrative." —San Francisco Chronicle Quantum theory is weird. As Niels Bohr said, if you weren’t shocked by quantum theory, you didn’t really understand it. For most people, quantum theory is synonymous with mysterious, impenetrable science. And in fact for many years it was equally baffling for scientists themselves. In this tour de force of science history, Manjit Kumar gives a dramatic and superbly written account of this fundamental scientific revolution, focusing on the central conflict between Einstein and Bohr over the nature of reality and the soul of science. This revelatory book takes a close look at the golden age of physics, the brilliant young minds at its core—and how an idea ignited the greatest intellectual debate of the twentieth century.

Download or read book Niels Bohr written by Helge Kragh and published by Springer Nature. This book was released on 2022-06-15 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Niels Bohr’s atomic theory of 1913 is one of the absolute highlights in the history of modern science. It was only with this work that physicists realized that quantum theory is an essential ingredient in atomic physics, and it was also only with this work that Rutherford’s nuclear model dating from 1911 was transformed into a proper theory of atomic structure. In a longer perspective, Bohr’s quantum atom of 1913 gave rise to the later Heisenberg-Schrödinger quantum mechanics and all its marvellous consequences. This book is a detailed account of the origin of the Bohr atom centred around his original scientific articles of 1913 which are here reproduced and provided with the necessary historical background. In addition to the so-called trilogy – the three papers published in Philosophical Magazine – also two other and less well-known yet important papers are included. The present work starts with a condensed biographical account of Bohr’s life and scientific career, from his birth in Copenhagen in 1885 to his death in the same city 77 years later. It then proceeds with a chapter outlining earlier ideas of atomic structure and tracing Bohr’s route from his doctoral dissertation in 1911 over his stays in Cambridge and Manchester to the submission in April 1913 of the first part of the trilogy. The reproduction of Bohr’s five articles is followed by notes and comments directly related to the texts, with the aim of clarifying some of the textual passages and to explicate names and subjects that may not be clear or well known. The reception of Bohr’s radically new theory by contemporary physicists and chemists is discussed in a final chapter, which deals with the immediate reactions to Bohr's theory 1913-1915 mostly among British, German and American scientists. Historians of science have long been occupied with Bohr’s atomic theory, which was the subject of careful studies in connection with its centenary in 2013. The present work offers an extensive source-based account of the original theory aimed at a non-specialist audience with an interest in the history of physics and the origin of the quantum world. In 1922 Bohr was awarded the Nobel Prize for his theory. The coming centenary will undoubtedly cause an increased interest in how he arrived at his revolutionary picture of the constitution of atoms and molecules.

Download or read book The Upright Thinkers written by Leonard Mlodinow and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2016-04-19 with total page 354 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: How did a near-extinct species, eking out a meager existence with stone axes, become the dominant power on earth, able to harness a knowledge of nature ranging from tiny atoms to the vast structures of the universe? Leonard Mlodinow takes us on an enthralling tour of the history of human progress, from our time on the African savannah through the invention of written language, all the way to modern quantum physics. Along the way, he explores the colorful personalities of the great philosophers, scientists, and thinkers, and traces the cultural conditions—and the elements of chance—that influenced scientific discovery. Deeply informed, accessible, and infused with the author’s trademark humor and insight, The Upright Thinkers is a stunning tribute to humanity’s intellectual curiosity and an important book for any reader with an interest in the scientific issues of our day.

Download or read book Remarkable Physicists written by Ioan James and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 2004-01-12 with total page 420 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Sample Text

Download or read book Driven to Innovate written by Ioan Mackenzie James and published by Peter Lang. This book was released on 2009 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Ioan James celebrates the extraordinary contribution made by Jewish people in mathematics and physics, from the mathematician Norbert Wiener, the founder of cybernetics, to distinguished nuclear physicist and Nobel Prize-winner Niels Bohr. He tells the life-stories of thirty-five men and women, born in the nineteenth century, who were at the forefront of research in the closely related fields of mathematics and physics, often in the face of various kinds of anti-Semitism. Some were caught up in the trauma of the Nazi accession to power in Germany and the Second World War. Wolfgang Pauli, described as 'greater than Einstein' by his contemporary Max Born, became a German national following the Nazi annexation of Austria in 1938 but was able to escape to the United States for the duration of the war. Already hampered by anti-Semitism in his native Poland, logician and mathematician Alfred Tarski found himself stranded in the USA at the outbreak of war and did not see his wife and sons until the war's end. The Italian mathematician Vito Volterra publicly opposed Mussolini's Fascist regime at considerable personal risk. Others such as George Pólya and Emmy Noether found that their left-wing political beliefs hindered their careers.

Download or read book Theology and Modern Physics written by Peter E. Hodgson and published by Routledge. This book was released on 2017-09-08 with total page 296 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The new discoveries in physics during the twentieth century have stimulated intense debate about their relevance to age-old theological questions. Views range from those holding that modern physics provides a surer road to God than traditional religions, to those who say that physics and theology are incommensurable and so do not relate. At the very least, physics has stimulated renewed theological discussions. In this critical introduction to the science-theology debate, Peter E. Hodgson draws on his experience as a physicist to present the results of modern physics and the theological implications. Written for those with little or no scientific background, Hodgson describes connections between physics, philosophy and theology and then explains Newtonian physics and Victorian physics, the theories of relativity, astronomy and quantum mechanics, and distinguishes the actual results of modern physics from speculations. The connections with theology are explored throughout. The concluding section draws discussions together and makes an important new contribution to the debate.

Download or read book Atomic Quest A Personal Narrative written by Arthur Holly Compton and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-09 with total page pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As director of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Manhattan Project at the University of Chicago, Arthur Holly Compton was a major participant in the research, production and testing of the first atomic bombs. In this memoir, he tells the story of the bomb’s development from the presentation of the project to President Roosevelt, through its planning, research, and building phases, to its use against Japan. From the perspective of the key position he held during World War II, Compton describes the project as a large-scale group effort leveraging the knowledge and talents of numerous scientists, industrialists and administrators all working as part of their nation’s war effort. “An absorbing and eminently readable account... packed with new information, enlivened with precious detail and illuminating insights into the minds and personalities of the chief actors in the drama... Mr. Compton tells, and tells well, the story of how, with his unflagging encouragement, the brilliant team under the late Enrico Fermi brought about the first nuclear chain reaction... [an] important book.” — Henry Guerlac, The New York Times Book Review “This book... is without doubt the most authoritative source available on many aspects of the atomic bomb project... Better than in most histories the real factors underlying one of mankind’s most important developments are set forth in this work... The story is a personal one, which... gives the book a Churchillian authenticity... No historian will ever dare to neglect this volume in writing the history of World War II. It is beautifully written, carefully documented, and thoroughly interesting from cover to cover.” — W.F. Libby, Science “For those who were in the project, it will mean many recollections. For those who were not, it should give an inkling of the character and capacity of many of the individuals, including Arthur Compton, who made success possible.” — Lieutenant General Leslie R. Groves, U.S. Army (Retired) “Atomic Quest is an absorbingly interesting story of the people who blazed the trail into the atomic frontier... In a lifetime filled with brilliant accomplishments, Arthur Compton’s four-year leadership in the quest for the atomic bomb was his grandest achievement... It is fortunate indeed that he returned to the fold long enough to set down in Atomic Quest a story that only he could tell.” — Richard L. Doan, American Journal of Physics “Dr. Compton is a thinking man whose reflections range far beyond the confines of his scientific work: indeed, the distinctive quality of his book lies in his ability to reconcile the atomic bomb and similar operations with his belief as a practicing Christian.” — John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate “It should be required reading for every American, for the free world... The narrative alone makes the book worth reading; its hopeful philosophy makes it mandatory reading.” — Robert S. Kleckner, Chicago Sunday Tribune “As... director of the Metallurgical Laboratory of the Manhattan Project, Dr. Compton has an important record to add to the annals of the beginning of the Atomic Age, for his was a personal and intimate connection with it.” — Kirkus “A leading physicist’s personal account of the wartime developments in atomic energy, culminating in the production of the atomic bomb.” — Henry L. Roberts, Foreign Affairs “Informal, anecdotal, packed with behind-the-scenes incidents and impressions... arrestingly interesting.” — George W. Gray, The Saturday Review “The most controversial part of the book is that which endeavors to foresee the future of a world faced with the threat of war with nuclear weapons and the inevitable widespread destruction that will accompany their use. Compton is convinced that war has actually thereby become obsolescent.” — Robert Bruce Lindsay, Physics Today “This book... is written for the layman, in clear, everyday English... it answers the questions that have arisen in the minds of all intelligent people concerning the physical, moral, social and religious implications of the Atomic Age which was so brutally and vividly thrust upon the world in 1945.” — Paul Jordan-Smith, Los Angeles Times

Download or read book Alvarez Adventures of a Physicist written by Luis W. Alvarez and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-08-08 with total page 252 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: During World War II, Luis W. Alvarez participated in the Allies’ development of radar at the MIT Radiation Laboratory, and of the atomic bomb at Los Alamos. He then worked as an experimental physicist on cyclotrons, particle accelerators and bubble chambers at UC-Berkeley with Ernest Lawrence. Later in life, he used cosmic rays to “X ray” an Egyptian pyramid, developed a new theory about the extinction of the dinosaurs, and won the 1968 Nobel prize in physics for his work on elementary particles. In this autobiography, Alvarez shares insights on the process of scientific discovery, risk-taking in science and how theoretical and experimental physics interact. “[A] delightful autobiography... [A] fascinating book... It should be read by everyone who is interested in science and adventure, or who just wants to meet one of our most fascinating contemporaries.” — James Trefil, New York Times Book Review “Beyond its self-portrait, Alvarez provides an exceptionally clear view of the world of science.” — Alan Lightman, Washington Post Book World “This is a richly absorbing autobiography... Personally as well as scientifically forthright and plainspoken, [Alvarez] holds the reader with the story of his life as a scientist, much of the time at Berkeley, Calif., working with such men as Robert Oppenheimer, Ernest Lawrence and Enrico Fermi.” — Publishers Weekly “A gripping book. It succeeds well in making the scientific experience and the excitement of discovery accessible to the general reader.” — Richard L. Garwin,Physics Today “A fascinating life.” — Elena Brunet, Los Angeles Times “One of the best popular books on science to emerge from the laboratory in years.” — Henry Kisor, Chicago Sun-Times “Luis W. Alvarez has an unsurpassed reputation among scientists for a lifelong record of crucial participation in important discoveries in pure and applied science. In this book he performs an additional service by revealing his thought processes.” — Philip Abelson, Science Advisor, American Association for the Advancement of Science

Download or read book The Intelligibility of Nature written by Peter Dear and published by University of Chicago Press. This book was released on 2008-09-15 with total page 255 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Throughout the history of the Western world, science has possessed an extraordinary amount of authority and prestige. And while its pedestal has been jostled by numerous evolutions and revolutions, science has always managed to maintain its stronghold as the knowing enterprise that explains how the natural world works: we treat such legendary scientists as Galileo, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein with admiration and reverence because they offer profound and sustaining insight into the meaning of the universe. In The Intelligibility of Nature, Peter Dear considers how science as such has evolved and how it has marshaled itself to make sense of the world. His intellectual journey begins with a crucial observation: that the enterprise of science is, and has been, directed toward two distinct but frequently conflated ends—doing and knowing. The ancient Greeks developed this distinction of value between craft on the one hand and understanding on the other, and according to Dear, that distinction has survived to shape attitudes toward science ever since. Teasing out this tension between doing and knowing during key episodes in the history of science—mechanical philosophy and Newtonian gravitation, elective affinities and the chemical revolution, enlightened natural history and taxonomy, evolutionary biology, the dynamical theory of electromagnetism, and quantum theory—Dear reveals how the two principles became formalized into a single enterprise, science, that would be carried out by a new kind of person, the scientist. Finely nuanced and elegantly conceived, The Intelligibility of Nature will be essential reading for aficionados and historians of science alike.

Download or read book John von Neumann The Scientific Genius Who Pioneered the Modern Computer Game Theory Nuclear Deterrence and Much More written by Norman Macrae and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2019-07-31 with total page 280 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: John von Neumann was a Jewish refugee from Hungary — considered a “genius” like fellow Hungarians Leo Szilard, Eugene Wigner and Edward Teller — who played key roles developing the A-bomb at Los Alamos during World War II. As a mathematician at Princeton’s Institute for Advanced Study (where Einstein was also a professor), von Neumann was a leader in the development of early computers. Later, he developed the new field of game theory in economics and became a top nuclear arms policy adviser to the Truman and Eisenhower administrations. “I always thought [von Neumann’s] brain indicated that he belonged to a new species, an evolution beyond man. Macrae shows us in a lively way how this brain was nurtured and then left its great imprint on the world.” — Hans A. Bethe, Cornell University “The book makes for utterly captivating reading. Von Neumann was, of course, one of this century’s geniuses, and it is surprising that we have had to wait so long... for a fully fleshed and sympathetic biography of the man. But now, happily, we have one. Macrae nicely delineates the cultural, familial, and educational environment from which von Neumann sprang and sketches the mathematical and scientific environment in which he flourished. It’s no small task to render a genius like von Neumann in ordinary language, yet Macrae manages the trick, providing more than a glimpse of what von Neumann accomplished intellectually without expecting the reader to have a Ph.D. in mathematics. Beyond that, he captures von Neumann’s qualities of temperament, mind, and personality, including his effortless wit and humor. And [Macrae] frames and accounts for von Neumann’s politics in ways that even critics of them, among whom I include myself, will find provocative and illuminating.” — Daniel J. Kevles, California Institute of Technology “A lively portrait of the hugely consequential nonmathematician-physicist-et al., whose genius has left an enduring impress on our thought, technology, society, and culture. A double salute to Steve White, who started this grand book designed for us avid, nonmathematical readers, and to Norman Macrae, who brought it to a triumphant conclusion.” — Robert K. Merton, Columbia University “The first full-scale biography of this polymath, who was born Jewish in Hungary in 1903 and died Roman Catholic in the United States at the age of 53. And Mr. Macrae has some great stories to tell... Mr. Macrae’s biography has rescued a lot of good science gossip from probable extinction, and has introduced many of us to the life story of a man we ought to know better.” — Ed Regis, The New York Times “A nice and fascinating picture of a genius who was active in so many domains.” —Zentralblatt MATH “Biographer Macrae takes a ‘viewspaperman’ approach which stresses the context and personalities associated with von Neumann’s remarkable life, rather than attempting to give a detailed scholarly analysis of von Neumann’s papers. The resulting book is a highly entertaining account that is difficult to put down.” — Journal of Mathematical Psychology “A full and intimate biography of ‘the man who consciously and deliberately set mankind moving along the road that led us into the Age of Computers.’” — Freeman Dyson, Princeton, NJ “It is good to have a biography of one of the most important mathematicians of the twentieth century, even if it is a biography that focuses much more on the man than on the mathematics.” — Fernando Q. Gouvêa, Mathematical Association of America “Based on much research, his own and that of others (especially of Stephen White), Macrae has written a valuable biography of this remarkable genius of our century, without the opacity of technical (mathematical) dimensions that are part of the hero’s intellectual contributions to humanity. Interesting, informative, illuminating, and insightful.” — Choice Review “Macrae paints a highly readable, humanizing portrait of a man whose legacy still influences and shapes modern science and knowledge.” — Resonance, Journal of Science Education “In this affectionate, humanizing biography, former Economist editor Macrae limns a prescient pragmatist who actively fought against fascism and who advocated a policy of nuclear deterrence because he foresaw that Stalin’s Soviet Union would rapidly acquire the bomb and develop rocketry... Macrae makes [von Neumann’s] contributions accessible to the lay reader, and also discusses von Neumann’s relationships with two long-suffering wives, his political differences with Einstein and the cancer that killed him.” — Publishers Weekly “Macrae’s life of the great mathematician shows dramatically what proper care and feeding can do for an unusually capacious mind.” — John Wilkes, Los Angeles Times

Download or read book Structure Agency and Theory written by Ib Gram-Jensen and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2021-04-20 with total page 418 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Structure, Agency and Theory" challenges common readings of Marx' and Engels' historical materialism and argues the necessity of abandoning their conception of the dialectic of forces and relations of production as the motive power of historical development and transformations because of its doubtful validity and deterministic implications. Instead another fundamental conception in historical materialism, the interaction between social circumstances and agency as the motive power of history, is accentuated with an emphasis on agents' experiences as a causal factor, arguing its potential in terms of historical explanation, and attempting to spell out some of its strategic implications for revolutionary socialism.

Download or read book The Last Sorcerers written by Richard Morris and published by Joseph Henry Press. This book was released on 2003-11-10 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: They started with four: earth, air, fire, and water. From these basics, they sought to understand the essential ingredients of the world. Those who could see further, those who understood that the four were just the beginning, were the last sorcerers â€" and the world's first chemists. What we now call chemistry began in the fiery cauldrons of mystics and sorcerers seeking not to make a better world through science, but rather to make themselves richer through magic formulas and con games. But among these early magicians, frauds, and con artists were a few far-seeing "alchemists" who, through rigorous experimentation, transformed mysticism into science. By the 18th century the building blocks of nature, the elements of which all matter is composed, were on the verge of being discovery. Initially, it was not easy to determine whether a substance really was an element. Was water just water, plain and simple? Or could it be the sum of other (unknown and maybe unknowable) parts? And if water was made up of other substances, how could it be broken down into discreet, fundamental, and measurable components? Scientific historians generally credit the great 18th century French chemist Antoine Lavoisier with addressing these fundamental questions and ultimately modernizing the field of chemistry. Through his meticulous and precise work this chaotic new field of scientific inquiry was given order. Exacting by nature, Lavoisier painstakingly set about performing experiments that would provide lasting and verifiable proofs of various chemical theories. Unfortunately, the outspoken Lavoisier eventually lost his head in the Terror, but others would follow his lead, carefully examining, measuring, and recording their findings. As the field slowly progressed, another pioneer was to emerged almost 100 years later. Dimitri Mendeleev, an eccentric genius who cut his flowing hair and beard but once a year, sought to answer the most pressing questions that remained to chemists: Why did some elements have properties that resembled those of others? Were there certain natural groups of elements? And, if so, how many, and what elements fit into them? It was Mendeleev who finally addressed all these issues when he constructed the first Periodic Table in the late 1800s. But between and after Lavoisier and Mendeleev were a host of other colorful, brilliant scientists who made their mark on the field of chemistry. Depicting the lively careers of these scientists and their contributions while carefully deconstructing the history and the science, author Richard Morris skillfully brings it all to life. Hailed by Kirkus Reviews as a "clear and lively writer with a penchant for down-to-earth examples" Morris's gift for explanation â€" and pure entertainment â€" is abundantly obvious. Taking a cue from the great chemists themselves, Morris has brewed up a potent combination of the alluringly obscure and the historically momentous, spiked with just the right dose of quirky and ribald detail to deliver a magical brew of history, science, and personalities.

Download or read book Bell Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude written by Robert V. Bruce and published by Plunkett Lake Press. This book was released on 2020-03-15 with total page 532 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A prominent public personality, Alexander Graham Bell (1847-1922), inventor of the telephone, teacher of the deaf, phonetician, showman and sage, was also a very private individual. With unrestricted access to Bell’s vast personal files, Robert V. Bruce takes the proper measure of Bell the man in this biography, which portrays Bell as intense, curious, struggling to overcome his very real limitations as a scientist and the negative effects of early fame (he invented the telephone while still in his 20s) and sheds light on 19th- and 20th-century technology and on Bell’s inventions, including tetrahedral construction, the bullet probe, the “vacuum jacket” (a precursor of the iron lung) and the telephone. Bruce also explores Bell’s research and experiments on the airplane, the phonograph and the hydrofoil, and offers detailed information about the long and dramatic battle waged by Bell and his backers to establish the legitimacy of their claims on the basic telephone patents. Bruce illuminates the field which Bell considered his foremost vocation, the teaching of the deaf, describing Bell’s friendship with Helen Keller, his marriage to a deaf girl to whom he had given lessons in speech, and his funding of The Volta Review, a journal concerned with the deaf and hard of hearing still in existence — like Bell’s other magazines, Science and National Geographic. Bell: Alexander Graham Bell and the Conquest of Solitude was a finalist for the 1974 National Book Award in biography. “Both a lucid picture of an extraordinary scientific career and an engaging account of a remarkable man... Professor Bruce doesn’t scant the astonishing variety of Bell’s interests and accomplishments, which ranged all the way from supporting important scientific periodicals... to teaching the deaf to speak and fighting for their right to do so... to inventing everything he could imagine... At the same time, he has given us an extremely candid personal picture of this titan of American technology.” — Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, New York Times “The first full-scale life based on the voluminous Bell papers. It is an absorbing story... The technical trials and errors, Bell’s almost naive persistence, the actual components he worked with, are all attentively documented by Professor Bruce. We are, as well, given a vivid picture of the human environment out of which the telephone emerged, as one individual after another, each of immense importance to Bell, sought to advise, encourage, deter, rectify his failings or even defeat him... It is [in Bruce’s] account of Bell’s life after the telephone... that the man himself emerges... It becomes, as the author writes, a study not of long adversity culminating in a final crescendo of triumph, the usual pattern for heroic tales, but of a long personal struggle against the deadening handicap of early fame... As it turns out, Bell’s post-telephone days, from 1876 to August, 1922, when he died at age 75, were in many ways his best.” — David McCullough, New York Times Book Review “The brilliant Scottish immigrant’s story is more complicated, and more fascinating, than his myth. This authoritative, scientifically informed biography vividly portrays a man who, unlike his single-minded contemporary Thomas Edison, was a divided genius.” — Newsweek “Until now, Alexander Graham Bell has been eclipsed by that invention which so changed communication that it is among the few which can genuinely be called revolutionary. Here he emerges not as a myth but as a man.” — Los Angeles Times “Bruce has written the first fully documented biography of Alexander Graham Bell... a lengthy portrayal of a man gifted with intelligence, imagination, and energy pursuing a wide range of interests... It seems likely that Bruce’s narrative account of Bell’s invention of the telephone — with its shadings and emphasis — will be the definitive one.” — Thomas Parker Hughes, Science “The result of a decade of study with the blessing and help of Bell’s descendants, this is undoubtedly the most comprehensive and handsomely researched biography of Bell since C. D. MacKenzie’s 1928 work... Throughout the enormous detail of this biography, Bell’s restless intellectual energy and breakthrough fever emerge. A gargantuan work — sure to be a basic reference for both future admirers and detractors.” — Kirkus Reviews “Robert V. Bruce has written an admirable and much needed biography of Alexander Graham Bell... Based on the vast collection of Bell’s papers held at the National Geographic Society in Washington and exhaustively supplemented by other sources, it is the first full-scale biography of the man whose invention changed the world.” — Patrick O’Dowd, Isis “A definitive biography of [Alexander Graham Bell]... From [the] mass of source material available to him, Bruce has skillfully and faithfully extricated a genuine personality and has forced Bell off the pedestal to which his own contemporaries had assigned him.” — Joseph Frazier Wall, Business History Review “[A] carefully researched biography... from family correspondence especially Bruce has distilled skillfully the dreams, the disappointments, and the foibles of a determined inventor in his moments of triumph and distress... the author’s assertive style, brightened by flashes of wry humor, and frequent sketches reproduced from Bell’s lab notebooks help make this in depth analysis of a notable American inventor profitable reading.” — Hugo A. Meier, Journal of American History