Download or read book Full Meridian of Glory written by Paul Murdin and published by Springer Science & Business Media. This book was released on 2008-12-25 with total page 198 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: [the text below needs editing and we must be careful not to say things about Dan Brown's book that could get Springer in legal trouble] Dan Brown’s novel, The Da Vinci Code, was first published in 2003; its sales have reached 40 million worldwide. The book mixes a small spice of fact into a large dollop of fiction to create an entertaining novel of intrigue, adventure, romance, danger and conspiracy, which have been imaginatively worked together to cook up the successful bestseller. Most interest in the book’s origins has centred on the sensational religious aspects. Dan Brown has written: ‘All of the art, architecture, secret rituals, secret societies, all of that is historical fact.’ This gives an air of authenticity to the book. Brown has, however, made up the religious doctrines, or based them on questionable accounts by others. The locations of the actions of The Da Vinci Code are not, however, made up. The present book is the scientific story behind the scene of several of the book’s actions that take place on the axis of France that passes through Paris. The Paris Meridian is the name of this location. It is the line running north-south through the astronomical observatory in Paris. One of the original intentions behind the founding of the Paris Observatory was to determine and measure this line. The French government financed the Paris Academy of Sciences to do so in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. It employed both astronomers – people who study and measure the stars – and geodesists – people who study and measure the Earth. This book is about what they did and why. It is a true story behind Dan Brown’s fiction. This is the first English language presentation of this historical material. It is attractively written and it features the story of the community of scientists who created the Paris Meridian. They knew each other well – some were members of the same families, in one case of four generations. Like scientists everywhere they collaborated and formed alliances; they also split into warring factions and squabbled. They travelled to foreign countries, somehow transcending the national and political disputes, as scientists do now, their eyes fixed on ideas of accuracy, truth and objective, enduring values – save where the reception given to their own work is concerned, when some became blind to high ideals and descended into petty politics. To establish the Paris Meridian, the scientists endured hardship, survived danger and gloried in amazing adventures during a time of turmoil in Europe, the French Revolution and the Napoleonic War between France and Spain. Some were accused of witchcraft. Some of their associates lost their heads on the guillotine. Some died of disease. Some won honour and fame. One became the Head of State in France, albeit for no more than a few weeks. Some found dangerous love in foreign countries. One scientist killed in self defence when attacked by a jealous lover, another was himself killed by a jealous lover, a third brought back a woman to France and then jilted her, whereupon she joined a convent. The scientists worked on practical problems of interest to the government and to the people. They also worked on one of the important intellectual problems of the time, a problem of great interest to their fellow scientists all over the world, nothing less than the theory of universal gravitation. They succeeded in their intellectual work, while touching politics and the affairs of state. Their endeavours have left their marks on the landscape, in art and in literature.

Download or read book The Measure of All Things written by Ken Alder and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2014-07-29 with total page 432 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In June 1792, amidst the chaos of the French Revolution, two intrepid astronomers set out in opposite directions on an extraordinary journey. Starting in Paris, Jean-Baptiste-Joseph Delambre would make his way north to Dunkirk, while Pierre-François-André Méchain voyaged south to Barcelona. Their mission was to measure the world, and their findings would help define the meter as one ten-millionth of the distance between the pole and the equator—a standard that would be used “for all people, for all time.” The Measure of All Things is the astonishing tale of one of history’s greatest scientific adventures. Yet behind the public triumph of the metric system lies a secret error, one that is perpetuated in every subsequent definition of the meter. As acclaimed historian and novelist Ken Alder discovered through his research, there were only two people on the planet who knew the full extent of this error: Delambre and Méchain themselves. By turns a science history, detective tale, and human drama, The Measure of All Things describes a quest that succeeded as it failed—and continues to enlighten and inspire to this day.

Download or read book Meridienne Verte written by Alan Birkelbach and published by . This book was released on 2007 with total page 81 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Making and Unmaking of a Saint written by Mathew Kuefler and published by University of Pennsylvania Press. This book was released on 2014-01-15 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Includes English translation of the Vita Geraldi brevior.

Download or read book Zero Degrees written by Charles W. J. Withers and published by Harvard University Press. This book was released on 2017-03-13 with total page 334 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Space and time on earth are regulated by the prime meridian, 0°, which is, by convention, based at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. But the meridian’s location in southeast London is not a simple legacy of Britain’s imperial past. Before the nineteenth century, more than twenty-five different prime meridians were in use around the world, including Paris, Beijing, Greenwich, Washington, and the location traditional in Europe since Ptolemy, the Canary Islands. Charles Withers explains how the choice of Greenwich to mark 0° longitude solved complex problems of global measurement that had engaged geographers, astronomers, and mariners since ancient times. Withers guides readers through the navigation and astronomy associated with diverse meridians and explains the problems that these cartographic lines both solved and created. He shows that as science and commerce became more global and as railway and telegraph networks tied the world closer together, the multiplicity of prime meridians led to ever greater confusion in the coordination of time and the geographical division of space. After a series of international scientific meetings, notably the 1884 International Meridian Conference in Washington, DC, Greenwich emerged as the most pragmatic choice for a global prime meridian, though not unanimously or without acrimony. Even after 1884, other prime meridians remained in use for decades. As Zero Degrees shows, geographies of the prime meridian are a testament to the power of maps, the challenges of accurate measurement on a global scale, and the role of scientific authority in creating the modern world.

Download or read book Imprint and Trace written by Sonja Neef and published by Reaktion Books. This book was released on 2012-01-01 with total page 368 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Today, writing by hand seems a nearly archaic process. Nearly all of our written communication is digital—our letters are via email or text message, our manuscripts are composed using word processors, our journals are blogs, and we sign checks to pay bills with the push of a button. Sonja Neef believes that what we have lost in our modern technological conversation is the ductus—the physical and material act of handwriting. In Imprint and Trace Neef argues, however, that handwriting throughout its history has always been threatened with erasure. It exists in a dual state: able to be standardized, repeated, copied—much like an imprint—and yet persistently singular, original, and authentic as a trace or line. Throughout its history, from the first prehistoric handprint, through the innovations of stylus, quill, and printing press, handwriting has revealed an interweaving, ever-changing relationship between imprint and trace. Even today, in the age of the digital revolution, the trace of handwriting is still an integral part of communication, whether etched, photographed, pixelated, or scanned. Imprint and Trace presents an essential re-evaluation of the relationships between handwriting and technology, and between the various imprints and traces that define communication.

Download or read book Playing with Earth and Sky written by James Housefield and published by Dartmouth College Press. This book was released on 2016-07-05 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Playing with Earth and Sky reveals the significance astronomy, geography, and aviation had for Marcel Duchamp - widely regarded as the most influential artist of the past fifty years. Duchamp transformed modern art by abandoning unique art objects in favor of experiences that could be both embodied and cerebral. This illuminating study offers new interpretations of Duchamp's momentous works, from readymades to the early performance art of shaving a comet in his hair. It demonstrates how the immersive spaces and narrative environments of popular science, from museums to the modern planetarium, prepared paths for Duchamp's nonretinal art. By situating Duchamp's career within the transatlantic cultural contexts of Dadaism and Surrealism, this book enriches contemporary debates about the historical relationship between art and science. This truly original study will appeal to a broad readership in art history and cultural studies.

Download or read book Meridienne Verte written by Alan Birkelbach and published by Purple Flag. This book was released on 2015-05-15 with total page 92 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Alan Birkelbach's tenth book of poetry, Meridienne Verte, is an existential romp through terrain that seems familiar at first - but changes before our very eyes. With each accessible poem, balancing wisdom with irreverence, Birkelbach invites readers in with simple and common language - and then leaves them in an environment not unlike the scientific explorers in his poem "A Little Conversation about Geometers" who have suddenly found themselves in a different place in the center of the earth, all rules of gravity and survival changed. It is their world, yes, but it isn't the same anymore - because someone asked a question that altered everything: "What use was there in measuring the stars...?" In so many of the poems, "When Those Choose to Talk" or "Atlas On His Day Off," for example, Reality (with a capital R) is so far away - but it isn't really. The poems are full of the mysterious minutiae of the reality we all know, transported to mythical and almost unbelievable settings. Whether it is the transient nature of a camisole failing off an invisible shoulder, or the misericordia in a church most of us will never visit, the implicit value of the inherent, far-off, and short-term treasure, and measure, is promoted to be one of hope and exuberance. Life may be short. But based on Birkelbach's poems it is well worth living.

Download or read book Reading the Times written by Randall Stevenson and published by Edinburgh University Press. This book was released on 2018-02-01 with total page 224 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Wartime British writers took to the airwaves to reshape the nation and the Empire

Download or read book The Geek Atlas written by John Graham-Cumming and published by "O'Reilly Media, Inc.". This book was released on 2009-05-28 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Atlas.

Download or read book Zarzuela written by Geoff Taylor and published by Xlibris Corporation. This book was released on 2015-09-03 with total page 277 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This book is (mainly) a conventional life-story, written in a deliberately conversational style that has you believing youre with a friend in your local Pub or enjoying a lengthy stroll on the river bank. Yet once the book has you comfortably snoozing, an outrageous passage of humour and sarcasm has you hoping for more.

Download or read book On the Trail in France written by Ronald W. Kenyon and published by Ronald W. Kenyon. This book was released on 2015-10-25 with total page 511 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A French-speaking American discovers the soul of France on foot through an extensive network of long-distance walking trails crisscrossing the country.

Download or read book Natural History written by and published by . This book was released on 2000 with total page 1012 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book Revolutionary Science written by Steve Jones and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2017-01-10 with total page 244 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Paris at the time of the French Revolution was the world capital of science. The city was saturated in scientists; many had an astonishing breadth of talents. Paris in the century around 1789 saw the first lightning conductor, the first flight, the first estimate of the speed of light and the invention of the tin can and the stethoscope. The theory of evolution came into being. Perhaps the greatest Revolutionary scientist of all, Antoine Lavoisier, founded modern chemistry and physiology, transformed French farming, and much improved gunpowder manufacture. His political activities brought him a fortune, but in the end led to his execution. The judge who sentenced him to death claimed that "the Revolution has no need for geniuses."In this enthralling and dazzling book, acclaimed science writer Steve Jones shows how wrong this was and takes a new look at Paris, its history, and its science, to give the reader dazzling new insight into the City of Light.

Download or read book Trekking the GR10 written by Brian Johnson and published by Cicerone Press Limited. This book was released on 2023-07-03 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Guidebook to the GR10, a 955km trek across the French Pyrenees from Hendaye on the Atlantic Coast to the Mediterranean coast at Banyuls-sur-Mer. Described in 55-day stages of 7-27km, the route can be completed in its entirety, usually in around 45 days, or in shorter sections using the bus and rail links found throughout the Pyrenees. Step by step route descriptions are accompanied by 1:100,000 mapping and gradient profiles. Useful practical information is also included such as when to go, getting there and back, camping, accessing fuel and water, plus handy equipment tips and more. The easiest, oldest and most popular of the three long-distance routes that traverse the mountain range, the GR10 is well waymarked and follows good mountain paths. For many walkers, the highlight of the route is the magnificent wildflowers and associated butterflies. For others, it's the spectacular mountain terrain, while those keen on bird watching will delight in scanning the sky for the many varieties of birds of prey that can be seen in the region, from the massive Griffon vulture to the distinctly coloured Egyptian vulture.

Download or read book Fodor s Around Paris With Kids written by Fodor's and published by Fodor's. This book was released on 2013-06-18 with total page 162 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Fodor's Around Paris with Kids provides both visiting and local parents with 68 fun family activities to do in Paris, from exploring the interactive Cité des Enfants inside Paris's futuristic Cité des Sciences et de l'Industrie to seeing (and even learning) magic tricks at the Double Fond café-theater. Each activity features practical tips and suggestions for nearby places to eat. Plus, there are games for the kids. Competitive Advantage: Fodor's Around Paris with Kids is a unique, kid-friendly guide designed as a flipbook; as kids flip the pages, they'll see the Eiffel Tower do somersaults. Parents will appreciate its compact size and easy-to-use format, which results in a better organized and more practical guide than the competition. And a guide parents will dip into time and time again. Expanded Coverage: Exciting new kid-friendly activities and sights have been added to help families experience the best of Paris. Restaurant coverage has been updated with a focus on top spots with kid-friendly menus. Indispensable Trip Planning Tools: Cross-references at the end of each listing allow families to identify the Paris sights that best match their interests. Boxes in each listing call out tips and nearby kid-friendly restaurants for quick reference. A quick-scan thematic index appears at the back of the book. Written by a Parent: Fodor's Around Paris with Kids is written by a parent who lives in Paris and knows how to keep kids entertained there. Fodor's choices are tried and true, while covering the practical concerns that all parents must address. Tips on transportation, timing, and what to do on rainy days are all included.

Download or read book A History of the French Senate The Fourth and Fifth Republics 1946 2004 written by Paul Smith and published by Edwin Mellen Press. This book was released on 2005 with total page 486 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The tale of the Senate is the untold story of French political and parliamentary history. If it is mentioned at all, it is usually only at the moments when it proved to be an obstacle to 'progressive' reform or a frustration to ambitious governments. Its ways and its traditions, its ever-developing and changing role under three republics and its place at the heart of a particular and peculiar political culture, have remained little known or explored. This two-part study uncovers the French Senate and examines its evolution from keystone of the compromise that created the Republic in 1875 to its consecration as the chambre de la décentralisation in 2003. Volume One examines the place of the Senate in the Third Republic, from its uncertain beginnings to its presence at the forefront of political life in the 1930s, a prominence that would cost the Senate dear after the Liberation. Volume Two traces the unlikely recovery of the upper chamber in 1946, its 'restoration' in 1958 and its rollercoaster relationship with government and the lower house since then. Both volumes explore not only the place of the Senate in the constitutional game, but examine its political evolution and the part played by the men and (after 1946) women who have shaped its fortunes.