This Wild Abyss: The Story of the Men Who Made Modern Astronomy

Christianson, Gale E.

Science & Math

Simon&Schuster

Free Pr

Analyzing the global climate change, the author pulls together disparate events from history and geology to demonstrate that the earth is getting warmer and explains why. Reprint. throughout Earth's history. Reprint.

Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming

History & Philosophy

Penguin??Books

In 1665, when an epidemic of the plague forced Cambridge University to close, Isaac Newton, then a young, undistinguished scholar, returned to his childhood home in rural England. Away from his colleagues and professors, Newton embarked on one of the greatest intellectual odysseys in the history of science: he began to formulate the law of universal gravitation, developed the calculus, and made revolutionary discoveries about the nature of light. After his return to Cambridge, Newton's genius was quickly recognized and his reputation forever established. This biography also allows us to see the personal side of Newton, whose life away from science was equally fascinating. Quarrelsome, quirky, and not above using his position to silence critics and further his own career, he was an authentic genius with all too human faults. Oxford Portraits in Science is an on-going series of scientific biographies for young adults. Written by top scholars and writers, each biography examines the personality of its subject as well as the thought process leading to his or her discoveries. These illustrated biographies combine accessible technical information with compelling personal stories to portray the scientists whose work has shaped our understanding of the natural world.

Isaac Newton: And the Scientific Revolution (Oxford Portraits in Science)

Children's Books

Biographies

Oxford University Press

In 1665, when an epidemic of the plague forced Cambridge University to close, Isaac Newton, then a young, undistinguished scholar, returned to his childhood home in rural England. Away from his colleagues and professors, Newton embarked on one of the greatest intellectual odysseys in the history of science: he began to formulate the law of universal gravitation, developed the calculus, and made revolutionary discoveries about the nature of light. After his return to Cambridge, Newton's genius was quickly recognized and his reputation forever established. This biography also allows us to see the personal side of Newton, whose life away from science was equally fascinating. Quarrelsome, quirky, and not above using his position to silence critics and further his own career, he was an authentic genius with all too human faults.

Quarrelsome and quirky, a disheveled recluse who ate little, slept less, and yet had an iron constitution, Isaac Newton rose from a virtually illiterate family to become one of the towering intellects of science. Now, in this fast-paced, colorful biography, Gale E. Christianson paints an engaging portrait of Newton and the times in which he lived. We follow Newton from his childhood in rural England to his student days at Cambridge, where he devoured the works of Copernicus, Kepler, and Galileo, and taught himself mathematics. There ensued two miraculous years at home in Woolsthorpe Manor, where he fled when plague threatened Cambridge, a remarkably fertile period when Newton formulated his theory of gravity, a new theory of light, and calculus--all by his twenty-fourth birthday. Christianson describes Newton's creation of the first working model of the reflecting telescope, which brought him to the attention of the Royal Society, and he illuminates the eighteen months of intense labor that resulted in his Principia, arguably the most important scientific work ever published. The book sheds light on Newton's later life as master of the mint in London, where he managed to convict and hang the arch criminal William Chaloner (a remarkable turn for a once reclusive scholar), and his presidency of the Royal Society, which he turned from a dilettante's club into an eminent scientific organization. Christianson also explores Newton's less savory side, including his long, bitter feud with Robert Hooke and the underhanded way that Newton established his priority in the invention of calculus and tarnished Liebniz's reputation. Newton was an authentic genius with all too human faults. This book captures both sides of this truly extraordinary man.

Isaac Newton (Lives and Legacies Series)

Biographies & Memoirs

Historical

"How can one make a life out of six cardboard boxes full of tailor's bills, love letters and old picture postcards?" asked the novelist Virginia Woolf, who once tried her hand at literary biography. "Yes," she concurred, "writing lives is the devil!" It is also the most widely read form of historical nonfiction. Here, Gale E. Christianson, author of the standard biographies of Isaac Newton, Loren Eiseley, and the founders of modern astronomy, writes eloquently of the subject he knows so well in thirteen essays. Ranging in tone from humorous to melancholy, they trace the complex and fascinating process of creating a biography, from the point of selecting a subject to the book's publication and review. Rather than offer a "how-to-guide," or "art of biography," Christianson delves anecdotally into what does not get into the finished biography. He makes the reader a partner to the creative struggle, to the gathering of the mounds of information, to the sifting and the winnowing, to the writing and the rewriting, to the small triumphs and the nagging doubts when commitment fails to imitate art, as seems inevitable - nothing more and nothing less than the personal reflections of a biographer at work.

Writing Lives Is the Devil!: Essays of a Biographer at Work

Literature & Fiction

History & Criticism

Archon Books

Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae

In 1923 Edwin Hubble confirmed the existence of other galaxies. By the end of the decade, he proved that the universe is expanding, thus laying the very cornerstone of the big bang theory. A revealing portrait of a scientific genius at work, this book also offers an incisive narrative of the history of astronomy, and an evocation of what we see when gazing at the stars. "Highly entertaining. . . . Hubble may have been the most important astronomer since Galileo. Perhaps since Copernicus."—Dick Teresi, New York Times Book Review "Hubble's own story has not been adequately told until now. . . . A riveting portrait of a great scientist and a haunted man, and the best look we are likely to have of the real Hubble."—Dennis Overby, Los Angeles Times Book Review "Displays remarkable strength in its steadfast balance and scrupulous honesty. The greatness of the discoveries is set off against the contrasting pettiness of the man."—Hans Christian von Baeyer, Boston Sunday Globe "Fascinating. . . . This is one of the most impressive scientific biographies of recent years."—Kirkus Review, starred review — "Notable Books for the Year 1995" selection, New York Times Book Review —"Best Books of 1995" selection, Library Journal —Selected as one of the five best science books in 1995 by Carl Sagen, Washington Post

Professionals & Academics

University of Chicago Press

A biography of the famous astronomer reveals the man who offered observational evidence supporting the theory of the expanding universe and demonstrated the existence of other galaxies, worked on the revolutionary velocity-distance relationship, and moved easily in celebrity circles.

Farrar. Straus & Giroux

An intriguing study of the Greenhouse Effect and its impact on human history and the environment examines the causes and consequences of global warming and cooling, the rise in carbon dioxide atmospheric levels, and the various cycles that have occurred throughout Earth's history.

Crafts, Hobbies & Home

Gardening & Landscape Design

Walker Co

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Christianson, Gale E.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Christianson, Gale E.

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Christianson, Gale E.. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

This Wild Abyss: The Story of the Men Who Made Modern Astronomy

This Wild Abyss: The Story of the Men Who Made Modern Astronomy

Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming

Isaac Newton: And the Scientific Revolution (Oxford Portraits in Science)

Isaac Newton: And the Scientific Revolution (Oxford Portraits in Science)

Isaac Newton (Lives and Legacies Series)

Writing Lives Is the Devil!: Essays of a Biographer at Work

Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae

Edwin Hubble: Mariner of the Nebulae

Greenhouse: The 200-Year Story of Global Warming