Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Science & Technology

Few scientists are as recognizable as Stephen Hawking. Despite having Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (Lou Gehrig's Disease)--an affliction that many experts expected to have killed him decades ago--Hawking remains a vital and influential voice in the scientific community. One of the leading cosmologists studying the celestial phenomenon known as black holes, Hawking has also led the way in popularizing science with his best-selling work A Brief History of Time. This biography of Hawking, written by a physicist, provides an accessible introduction to the life and work of an...

Three generations of Leakeys have dug in East Africa for fossil evidence that answers questions about human origins. Louis and Mary, husband and wife, began what would turn into decades of research and fieldwork, often disproving common theories and beliefs of the time. Son Richard followed in his parents' foot steps, along with his wife Meave, and made spectacular finds as well. Today, Louise, the oldest daughter of Richard and Meave, continues the family tradition with fieldwork in northern Kenya.

The Leakey family's achievements have had an enormous impact on our knowledge of human...

Even as a young girl, Jane Goodall was fascinated with animals. As she grew older, she would have the opportunity to begin her research on chimpanzees under the guidance of notable anthropologist Louis Leakey. With Leakey's encouragement and support, Goodall pursued her Ph.D. and began research at the Gombe Stream Reserve in Tanzania. It was there that she would make significant discoveries regarding chimpanzee behaviors. These discoveries, along with her tireless efforts for conservation, have led to numerous awards during her career of over 40 years.

Goodall's life is...

When John McPhee met Bill Bradley, both were at the beginning of their careers. A Sense of Where You Are, McPhee's first book, is about Bradley when he was the best basketball player Princeton had ever seen. McPhee delineates for the reader the training and techniques that made Bradley the extraordinary athlete he was, and this part of the book is a blueprint of superlative basketball. But athletic prowess alone would not explain Bradley's magnetism, which is in the quality of the man himself--his self-discipline, his rationality, and his sense of responsibility. Here is a portrait...

Science, biography, and arctic exploration coverage in this extraordinary true story of the life and work of Norwegian scientist Kristian Birkeland, the troubled genius who solved the mysteries of one of nature s most spectacular displays.
Captivated by the otherworldly lights of the aurora borealis, Birkeland embarked on a lifelong quest to discover their cause. His pursuit took him to some of the most forbidding landscapes on earth, from the remote snowcapped mountains of Norway to the war-torn deserts of Africa. In the face of rebuke by the scientific establishment, sabotage by a...

-- Newsday

aking us through the upheavals in biological thought which made The Origins of Species possible, Jonathan Miller introduces us to that odd revolutionary, Charles Darwin -- a remarkably timid man who spent most of his life in seclusion; a semi-invalid riddled with doubts, fearing the controversy his theories might unleash; yet also the man who finally undermined belief in God's creation. Along the way we meet a fascinating cast of characters: Darwin's scientific...

Reaching back as far as Babylon (for the origins of mathematics) and the Etruscans (who thought they could handle lightning), this book takes us through the revolutions in electrical communications and technology that made the theory of relativity possible. In the process, we meet scientific luminaries and personalities of imperial Germany, as well as Galileo, Faraday, and Newton; learn why moving clocks run slower than stationary ones, why nothing...

With the grace of a natural storyteller, NASA engineer Homer Hickam paints a warm, vivid portrait of the harsh West Virginia mining town of his youth, evoking a time of innocence and promise, when anything was possible, even...