Kategoria BISAC: Science >> History

Japan's performance in the field of scientific research has been less than might be expected. There has been a curious dichotomy between what has gone on in the laboratory and the country's outstanding technical sophistication and economic success. However, this may be about to change. This new ethnograpic study of Japan's scientists looks firsthand at the career structures and organizational issues that have hampered their advancement. It provides an analysis of the problem of career mobility in science, the status quo in university and government laboratories, relations between scientists...

Answering questions such as whether the interesting parts of science be conveyed in sermons, poems, pictures and journalism, Knight explores the history of science to show how the successes and failures of our ancestors can help us understand the position science comes to occupy now.

Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is perhaps the best-known and most widely studied literary representation of science. Yet it is by no means the only text of its time to fictionalize the latest experiments and discoveries of natural philosophers. Science was burgeoning in the years 1760-1840. It was professionalizing fast and revolutionizing people's understanding of their world and where they stood in it.

In the 15th century the printing press was the new technology. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organizing and disseminating knowledge. As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines? This work looks at the development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the...

In the 15th century the printing press was the new technology. The first ever information revolution began with the advent of the printed book, enabling Renaissance scholars to formulate new ways of organizing and disseminating knowledge. As early as 1500 there were already 20 million books in circulation in Europe. How did this rapid explosion of ideas impact upon the evolution of new disciplines? This work looks at the development of new methods of information storage and retrieval which took place at the very beginning of print culture. And it asks some crucial questions about the...

We all want to understand the world around us, and the ancient Greeks were the first to try and do so in a way we can properly call scientific. Their thought and writings laid the essential foundations for the revivals of science in medieval Baghdad and Renaissance Europe.

We all want to understand the world around us, and the ancient Greeks were the first to try and do so in a way we can properly call scientific. Their thought and writings laid the essential foundations for the revivals of science in medieval Baghdad and renaissance Europe. Now their work is accessible to all, with this invaluable introduction to c.100 scientific authors active from 320 BCE to 230 CE.
The book begins with an outline of a new socio-political model for the development and decline of Greek science, followed by eleven chapters that cover the main disciplines:
* the science...

Science and Spirituality offers a new history of the interaction between Western science and faith, which explores their volatile connection, and challenges the myth of their being locked in inevitable conflict.

Science and Spirituality offers a new history of the interaction between Western science and faith, which explores their volatile connection, and challenges the myth of their being locked in inevitable conflict.

This book focuses on some of the major developments in the history of contemporary (19th and 20th century) mathematics as seen in the broader context of the development of science and culture. Avoiding technicalities, it displays the breadth of contrasting images of mathematics favoured by different countries, schools and historical movements, showing how the conception and practice of mathematics changed over time depending on the cultural and national context. Thus it provides an original perspective for embracing the richness and variety inherent in the development of mathematics....

We are in the midst of a digital revolution - until recently, the majority of appliances used in everyday life have been developed with analogue technology. Now, either at home or out and about, we are surrounded by digital technology such as digital "film," audio systems, computers and telephones.

From the late 1940s until the 1970s, analogue technology was a genuine alternative to digital, and the two competing technologies ran parallel with each other. During this period, a community of engineers, scientists, academics and businessmen continued to develop and promote the analogue...

Does science work best in a democracy? Were 'Soviet' or 'Nazi' science fundamentally different from science in the USA? These questions have been passionately debated in the recent past. Particular developments in science took place under particular political regimes, but they may or may not have been directly determined by them.
Science and Ideology brings together a number of comparative case studies to examine the relationship between science and the dominant ideology of a state. Cybernetics in the USA is compared to France and the Soviet Union. Postwar Allied science policy in...

As historians of science increasingly turn to work on recent (post 1945) science, the historiographical and methodological problems associated with the history of contemporary science are debated with growing frequency and urgency.

Bringing together authorities on the history, historiography and methodology of recent and contemporary science, this book reviews the problems facing historians of technology, contemporary science and medicine, and explores new ways forward.

With contributions from key researchers in the field, the text covers topics that will be of ever...

We are now accustomed to conceive of science as an instrumental activity, producing numbers, measurements and graphs by means of sophisticated devices. This book investigates the historical process that gave rise to this instrumental culture. The contributors trace the displacement of instruments across the globe, the spread of practices or precision and the circulation and appropriation of skills and knowledge.
Through comparative and contextual approaches, the volume confronts the tension between the local and the global, examining the process of the universalization of science....

Presenting a historical analysis of the evolution of systematics during the last one hundred years, Milestones in Systematics reviews many of the major issues in systematic theory and practice that have driven the working methods of systematics during the 20th century and looks at the issues most likely to preoccupy systematists in the immediate future.
The book highlights:
The development of evolutionary, phenetic and cladistic methods of phylogenetic analysis and the associated computer algorithms
The changing influence of paleontological techniques
The impact of new molecular...

The Subtle Beast: Snakes, from Myth to Medicine introduces you to the complex and absorbing world of these mysterious creatures. Each of the fourteen chapters in this volume can be read independently, but read together they trace a fascinating journey from the macroscopic features of snakes to the molecular description of their venom components.
The first three chapters detail how snakes inspired fear and worship, served as sources of medicine, and represented good and evil throughout the ages. The remaining sections describe much of the scientific work that has eroded these supernatural...

With over 40 chapters, this comprehensive volume represents work in America, Europe, and Asia. Geographical diversity of the authors is reflected in the different perspectives devoted to the subject, and all major disciplinary developments are covered. There are also sections concerning the countries that have made the most significant contributions, the relationship between science and industry, the importance of instrumentation, and the cultural influence of scientific modes of thought. Students and professionals will come to appreciate how, and why, science has developed - as with any...

What is international science and how does it function? This book answers these questions through a detailed study of international congresses on genetics held from 1899 to 1939. It presents a portrait of international science as a product of continuous interactions that involved scientists and their patrons within specific political, ideological, and disciplinary contexts. Drawing on a variety of archival sources - ranging from Stalin's personal papers to the records of the Gestapo and from the correspondence among scientists in different countries to the minutes of the Soviet government's...

As historians of science increasingly turn to work on recent (post 1945) science, the historiographical and methodological problems associated with the history of contemporary science are debated with growing frequency and urgency.

Bringing together authorities on the history, historiography and methodology of recent and contemporary science, this book reviews the problems facing historians of technology, contemporary science and medicine, and explores new ways forward.

With contributions from key researchers in the field, the text covers topics that will be of ever...

The Daoist canon is the definitive fifteenth century compilation of texts concerning ritual, alchemical and meditation practices within Daoist religion. Many of these texts are undated and anonymous, so dating them is essential for a clear understanding of the development of Chinese alchemy, and the place of these texts in history.

Ho Peng Yoke's Explorations in Daoism brings together an extraordinary compendium of data on alchemical knowledge in China, describing the methods used for dating important alchemical texts in the Daoist canon, and reconstructing and translating a number of...