Basic books mai 2009 (3 Ergebnisse)

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - There are three men whose contributions helped free science from the straitjacket of theology. Two of the three-Nicolaus Copernicus and Charles Darwin-are widely known and heralded for their breakthroughs. The third, James Hutton, never received the same recognition, yet he profoundly changed our understanding of the earth and its dynamic forces. Hutton proved that the earth was likely millions of years old rather than the biblically determined six thousand, and that it was continuously being shaped and re-shaped by myriad everyday forces rather than one cataclysmic event. In this expertly crafted narrative, Jack Repcheck tells the remarkable story of this Scottish gentleman farmer and how his simple observations on his small tract of land led him to a theory that was in direct confrontation with the Bible and that also provided the scientific proof that would spark Darwin's theory of evolution. It is also the story of Scotland and the Scottish Enlightenment, which brought together some of the greatest thinkers of the age, from David Hume and Adam Smith to James Watt and Erasmus Darwin. Finally, it is a story about the power of the written word. Repcheck argues that Hutton's work was lost to history because he could not describe his findings in graceful and readable prose. (Unlike Darwin's Origin of the Species, Hutton's one and only book was impenetrable.) A marvelous narrative about a little-known man and the science he founded, The Man Who Found Time is also a parable about the power of books to shape the history of ideas.…

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - The landmark history of France and French culture in the eighteenth century, a winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. "Robert Darnton has the inquisitiveness of an investigative reporter, the thoroughness of a rigorous scholar, and the sensitivity of a novelist." New Republic When the apprentices of a Paris printing shop in the 1730s held a series of mock trials and then hanged all the cats they could lay their hands on, why did they find it so hilariously funny that they choked with laughter when they reenacted it in pantomime some twenty times Why in the eighteenth-century version of Little Red Riding Hood did the wolf eat the child at the end What did the anonymous townsman of Montpelier have in mind when he kept an exhaustive dossier on all the activities of his native city These are some of the provocative questions the distinguished Harvard historian Robert Darnton answers inThe Great Cat Massacre, a kaleidoscopic view of European culture during what we like to call "The Age of Enlightenment." A classic of European history, it is an essential starting point for understanding Enlightenment France.…

Taschenbuch. Zustand: Neu. Neuware - An illuminatinglookat smart technology, by the legendary designer and author ofThe Design of Everyday Things. "Written with wit, authority and the pragmatic, everyman touch that probably made Norman so good at his job in the first place."BBC Focus Magazine InThe Design of Future Things,bestselling author Donald A. Norman presents a revealing examination of smarttechnology, from smooth-talking GPS units to cantankerous refrigerators.Exploring the links between design and psychology, he offers a consumer-oriented theory of natural human-machine interaction that can be put into practice by engineers and industrial designers of tomorrow's blinking machines. A fascinating lookat the perils and promise of the intelligent objects of the future,The Design of FutureThingsis a must-read for anyone interested in the dawn of a new era in technology.…