Coming of Age in the Milky Way
Timothy Ferris
Language: English
Pages: 512
ISBN: 0060535954
Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub
From the second-century celestial models of Ptolemy to modern-day research institutes and quantum theory, this classic book offers a breathtaking tour of astronomy and the brilliant, eccentric personalities who have shaped it. From the first time mankind had an inkling of the vast space that surrounds us, those who study the universe have had to struggle against political and religious preconceptions. They have included some of the most charismatic, courageous, and idiosyncratic thinkers of all time. In Coming of Age in the Milky Way, Timothy Ferris uses his unique blend of rigorous research and captivating narrative skill to draw us into the lives and minds of these extraordinary figures, creating a landmark work of scientific history.
The Earth and the Moon (The Solar System) (Revised Edition)
Touring the Universe through Binoculars: A Complete Astronomer's Guidebook
Beaglehole, J.C. The Exploration of the Pacific. London: Black, 1966. Beazley, Charles Raymond. Prince Henry the Navigator. New York: Putnam’s, 1904. Beer, Arthur, and K.A. Strand, eds. Copernicus: Yesterday and Today. New York: Pergamon, 1975, Beiser, Arthur. Concepts of Modem Physics. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1981. College-level textbook. Bell, A.E. Christiaan Huygens and the Development of Science in the Seventeenth Century. London: Arnold, 1947. Emphasizes Huygens’s contributions to a.
Dover, 1965, —————. My Life. New York: Scribner’s, 1978. —————. The Restless Universe, trans. Winifred M. Deans. New York: Dover, 1951. Illustrated introduction to quantum physics and field theory. Bowker, J. The Sense of God. London: Oxford University Press, 1973, Boxer, Charles R., The Portuguese Seaborne Empire: 1415–1825. New York: Knopf, 1969. Bracewell, Ronald N. The Galactic Club. San Francisco: Freeman, 1975. Discusses interstellar probes. Bradshaw, M.J. A New Geology. London:.
(satellite of Saturn), 156 Minkowsky, Hermann, 197–198 Moon, 22 Galileo’s observation of, 88, 90 Newton’s laws of gravitation and, 107 Moon rocks, 252 Morrison, Philip, 371 Music, symmetries in, 304–305 Mutuality of gravitation, 117–118 NASA’s interstellar spacecraft study, 375 Natural selection theory of evolution, see Darwinism Navigation astronomy as tool for, 20–21, 47–49, 52 determination of longitude and, 128–130 Nebulae, 151–152 bright, 143–144 elliptical, 144, 146, 148,.
Obviously imperative, and more than a few inventors took it on, encouraged by the large cash prizes proffered by the governments of seafaring states like Spain, Portugal, Venice, Holland, and England. The richest of these was a prize of twenty thousand pounds, offered by the British Board of Longitude to anyone who could devise a practicable method of determining longitude on a transatlantic crossing to within one-half a degree, which equals sixty-three nautical miles at the latitude of London.
Uniformitarianism (each of which would in any case prove to contain seeds of the truth). The real choice was between a closed science, resigned to turn a blind eye on any evidence that contradicted the existing consensus, and an open science that dared to follow the evidence toward unknown inferences. If the first path, as Lyell wrote, was “calculated … to blunt the keen edge of curiosity,” the second “cherishes a sanguine hope that the resources to be derived from observation and experiment, or.