Kategoria BISAC: Biography & Autobiography >> Science & Technology

Sixty years ago, cars and airplanes were still deathtraps waiting to happen. Today, both are safer than ever, thanks in part to one pioneering air force doctor s research on seatbelts and ejection seats. The exploits of John Paul Stapp (1910 1999) come to thrilling life in this biography of a Renaissance man who was once blasted faster than a .45 caliber bullet across the desert in his Sonic Wind rocket sled, only to be slammed to a stop in barely a second. The experiment put him on the cover of Time magazine and allowed his swashbuckling team to gather the data needed to...

Now a major motion picture starring Eddie Redmayne as Stephen Hawking and Felicity Jones as his wife Jane. It chronicles their relationship, from his early development of ALS to his success in physics

In this compelling memoir, Jane Hawking, Stephen Hawking's first wife, relates the inside story of their extraordinary marriage. As Stephen's academic renown soared, his body was collapsing under the assaults of motor-neuron disease, and Jane's candid account of trying to balance his twenty-four-hour care with the needs of their growing family will be inspirational to anyone dealing...

In 1712, English naturalist Mark Catesby (1683 1749) crossed the Atlantic to Virginia. After a seven-year stay, he returned to England with paintings of plants and animals he had studied. They sufficiently impressed other naturalists that in 1722 several Fellows of the Royal Society sponsored his return to North America. There Catesby cataloged the flora and fauna of the Carolinas and the Bahamas by gathering seeds and specimens, compiling notes, and making watercolor sketches. Going home to England after five years, he began the twenty-year task of writing, etching, and publishing his...

The evolutionist Ernst Mayr considered August Weismann "one of the great biologists of all time." Yet the man who formulated the germ plasm theory--that inheritance is transmitted solely through the nuclei of the egg and sperm cells--has not received an in-depth historical examination. August Weismann reintroduces readers to a towering figure in the life sciences. In this first full-length biography, Frederick Churchill situates Weismann in the swirling intellectual currents of his era and demonstrates how his work paved the way for the modern synthesis of genetics and evolution in...

This is the first full-scale biography of Leonhard Euler (1707-83), one of the greatest mathematicians and theoretical physicists of all time. In this comprehensive and authoritative account, Ronald Calinger connects the story of Euler's eventful life to the astonishing achievements that place him in the company of Archimedes, Newton, and Gauss. Drawing chiefly on Euler's massive published works and correspondence, which fill more than eighty volumes so far, this biography sets Euler's work in its multilayered context--personal, intellectual, institutional, political, cultural, religious,...

Nikola Tesla was a major contributor to the electrical revolution that transformed daily life at the turn of the twentieth century. His inventions, patents, and theoretical work formed the basis of modern AC electricity, and contributed to the development of radio and television. Like his competitor Thomas Edison, Tesla was one of America's first celebrity scientists, enjoying the company of New York high society and dazzling the likes of Mark Twain with his electrical demonstrations. An astute self-promoter and gifted showman, he cultivated a public image of the eccentric genius. Even at...

In the heady days of the early 1960s, the United States found itself perched on the edge of technological, sociological, and societal precipices. Advances made by its enemies with offensive ballistic-missile systems put America in catch-up mode, both on Earth and in orbit. Others were leading the race to space, and that was an affront to American safety, status, and national pride.

For the men and women employed as top-secret research workers at the General Motors Division, secrecy was a way of life. The projects they worked on including Project Jennifer, Big Bird, Thor, Titan missiles,...

A scientist's recollection of his life as a junior member of the Manhattan Project, Rider of the Pale Horse recounts McAllister Hull's involvement in various nuclear-related enterprises during and after World War II. Fresh from a summer job working with explosives in the chemistry department of an ordnance plant, Hull was drafted in 1943, after his freshman year in college. Unlike other accounts written by scientists and historians of that era, Hull's narrative offers a realistic picture of the dangerous and messy job that GIs and civilian powdermen were asked to do.

Hull's...

To celebrate the awarding of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physics to Shuji Nakamura (along with two other Japanese scientists), this newly updated edition profiles the gifted Japanese engineer who is largely responsible for the coming revolution in lighting technology. Veteran technology writer Bob Johnstone not only was the first Western journalist to meet and interview Nakamura, but also received the brilliant engineer's full cooperation in providing a series of exclusive interviews for this book.
This updated edition contains a new preface and an afterword that summarizes Nakamura's most...

Before the turn of the 20th century, electricity remained a mere scientific curiosity. Nikola Tesla, arguably more than anyone else, changed that. But Tesla's pioneering research in electricity represents only a portion of the scientific and technical innovations that elevated him to science godhood.

Prodigal Genius, The Extraordinary Life of Nikola Tesla covers, among other topics, the story of Tesla's inspiration for his career in engineering, shows his theories of electricity that went against the scientific establishment, explores his friendships, investigates the story of the lost...