Copernican revolution indeed
356839
This collection of essays, all of which originally appeared in the late 1960s and 70s, is essential reading for every would-be historian or even amateur history buff.  White unpacks interpretation and meaning in history, arguing that literary or psychic tropes govern the discourse of history just as clearly as they are manifest in the other arts and sciences; and that history that lacks self-consciousness of the constitutive forces of its own discourse can rightly be criticized as inherently meaningless, if not merely a propaganda tool for the justification of the status quo.
Historians are artists, White argues:  they represent their understanding of history in their writings, they do not reproduce the history itself; their creations should be understood as we understand modern art, and not encumbered with outdated assumptions about 'realism' as the validating quality by which they can be judged.  White notes in "The Burden of History," the first essay, that we do not judge the works of an artist or a scientist by asking ourselves if we perceive the world in exactly the same way, but rather we look to see that their representations do not include any deliberate falsifications.  We don't compare the works of John Constable and Paul Cezanne to see which of them painted landscapes 'better' -- instead we appreciate the particular vision of truth each artist demonstrated in his work.  So with historians, whose true calling, White believes, is to free humanity from deterministic history by pointing out that the present is the result of human choices, and encouraging people to consider the power their choices might have in shaping the future.
Although it helps to have some familiarity with nineteenth century historiography, the works of Hegel, Marx, Nietzsche, Freud and Weber in order to understand White's arguments, this background reading isn't strictly necessary, and White's exposition of the arguments he uses as illustrations is educational for people who haven't had this kind of exposure.
2655290
Thought provoking alternative science built on the Electric Universe paradigm.  Testable predictions (travel to Mars and beyond required!).  Makes the Saturn sun hypothesis seem more credible.
3848144
This translation of an important Byzantine document, first uncovered by the great astronomy historian Otto Neugebauer from Vatican sources, gives us insight into the contributions made by Byzantine astronomers to cosmological theory.  It produces evidence that in addition to preserving the ideas of Ptolemy and Islamic contribitors such as al-Tusi, the Byzantines added their own modifications to this corpus.  The authors of this translation and commentary suggest that the original document made its way to Italy and may even have influenced Copernicus, who spoke Greek and traveled in Italy.  Although this book is somewhat technical with its formulae and epicycles, the more casual reader can skim through these and still get the point.  Also, the side-by-side photos of the original text and illustrations with clear schematics next to them, and the translations of their content, will appeal to the more visually-oriented reader.  It is exciting to see an original 13th Century document opened up before one's eyes!
3357773
I strongly recommend The Day Without Yesterday to anyone with an interest in physics, astronomy and the history of the universe. As well as being an excellent layperson's introduction to Lemaitre's development of the expanding model of the universe (what has become known as the "Big Bang") it provides an excellent description of how real scientists deal with new data, theories and their philosophical implications.

Up until the mid Twenties, virtually all scientists (from ancients like Aristotle and Lucretius to the greats of early and modern science such as Newton and Einstein) had envisioned an essentially static universe. Lemaitre (a World War I veteran, Catholic priest, and physics/mathematics PhD) realized that Einstein's field equations equations implied an expanding universe, which must have had its origin in a "primeval atom" containing all matter in the universe. Lemaitre also made important contributions to "black hole" theory and other areas of theoretical physics.

He was appointed to the Pontifical Academy of Sciences by Pope Pius XI and was made its president by John XXIII, who also (somewhat to Lemaitre's confusion) appointed him to the pontifical commission to study birth control. (Lemaitre died well before the commission provided its report to Paul VI.)

Although a certain amount of familiarity with mathematics will help, you don't need a great deal of knowledge about the field to enjoy Farrell's writing. I would class The Day Without Yesterday with books like Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, which provide a good popular introduction to an important transitional period in science while remaining accessible to the general reader.
3831804
This is an important and interesting book, for anyone willing to know about the Galileo affair, beyond the prejudices of conventional wisdom.
Giving a brief and clear explanation of the Aristotelian world view, it describes how that view was overcome by the theories and discoveries of Copernicus and Galileo. It also shows that, contrary to what is generally believed, many important catholic authorities shared Galileos views and protect him from a confused and over-defensive Counter Reformist Inquisition.
1315816
As I become more interested in documentaries, I was very happy to stumble upon the work of Carl Sagan.  Sagan's respect for our ancestors is his most admirable quality as a scientist I believe.  He realizes our ancestors were able to do amazing things with very limited tools.  The reason we are able to go so far today is because we, "stand on the shoulders," as he puts it, of our ancestors.

Sagan looks back at scientists like Kepler, who pursued what we would consider mystical nonsense today involving pure shapes, but at the same time figured out the motion of the planets when no one else could.  Sagan is able to educate without ridiculing those who were wrong.  He stands his ground on evolution, but doesn't berate anyone who disagrees with him on anything.  He's a very open scientist, and doesn't throw away what he doesn't observe.  He keeps the possibility of the divine open, but doesn't rely on it for scientific findings.

So I have a lot of respect for Sagan even though he did accuse Plato, a favorite philosopher of mine, with holding back science for centuries.  Most of this Cosmos documentary I watched in awe, simply because the presentation of the findings was so amazing.  Some of the findings I already knew, and some I had no clue of.  But I was given a lot of background on what I already did know, which I am grateful for.  Now I know Kepler the man, not just Kepler the name behind a physics equation.  And it's all thanks to Sagan.
3106826
I really am pleased that I read this book because within its pages you can see the birth of our modern world.

Despite the fact that Rene contorted himself to try to prove that God exists; he still managed to create a great work.  He began the inquiry into reality wherein we try to understand the world through experimentation.  I think he failed in many ways to develop a coherent philosophical structure due to his attempts to please the Church but given the social conditions of the day this was the best that he could do.  Even in this flawed analysis Rene paved the way for what would later become the Scientific Method.

I only wish that he could live today and write without fears of reprisal from religious entities.
3215087
Tycho Brahe (1546-1601) made very accurate measurements of the planets' positions over several decades. Johannes Kepler (1571-1630) derived from these data three planetary laws, which formed the basis for Newton's brilliant work, which in turn formed the basis for Einstein's brilliant work. But, it all started with numerous, accurate measurements in the real world.
Thomas Sowell also has made numerous, accurate measurements in the real world, but of races, economics, and cultures. He reports his data in this scholarly book (with many Notes and an extensive Index) in eight chapters, dividing the material into Culture as affected by Migration/Conquest, and Race as affected by Economics/Politics/Intelligence/Slavery/History. He takes a World View, so that important parts of problems are not left out. I get the impression that Dr. Sowell actually seeks solutions to racial problems - this book is the groundwork for that search. As such, he is in no hurry to rush out 'solutions' to today's problems . . . he doesn't have to make the 6 o'clock news.
The purpose of Race and Culture " . . . is not to offer some grand theory explaining cultural differences. Its goal is to demonstrate the reality, persistence, and consequences of cultural differences . . . ." "This book deliberately offers little in the way of direct policy prescription, for its underlying premise is that what is most needed is an understanding of existing realities, . . . ." "There is seldom a shortage of people willing to draw up blueprints for salvation.  What is important is that such people and those who judge their propositions both understand what they are talking about."
If history repeats itself, a 'Kepler' will step forth, sift through the voluminous material in this book, and then derive succinct laws that will benefit all of us. The position is open to anyone. Be forewarned, though, the real Kepler spent decades at his task. And, there is no guarantee even that there are any laws to derive. As I wrote recently, "Winning the game by making the discovery is open to all who wish to participate. Their willingness to try and fail, to persevere in chasing false leads, and to go forward where no path exists determines the possibility of winning. . . . Luck determines the winner."
4088819
Obviously there's no point claiming that the evolution of the universe can be made simple- it wasn't, and it can't.  However, Professor Longair, in this book, focusses on ideas rather than details and manages to strike what I think is a good balance between straightforward explanation and including enough detail to make the book a worthwhile exercise.  A good example are the many graphs and charts that the book contain.  As a maths teacher I had to work hard to understand what they were saying and how they related to the text, but I always felt it was worthwhile to do so.  A picture (or a graph!) definitely paints a thousand words, even when the words are long and technical.
The book tells the story of the universe by explaining and discussing significant epochs and periods in the universe's early history, and their significance today.  It explains the recently-discovered cosmic background radiation, the question of the ultimate fate of the universe and other fundamental and currently-undecided questions.  You will quickly become used to considering the first second, micro-second, nano-second and pico-second of the universe and I can guarantee your head will throb after a while.
This is, in my view, a stunning book mainly due to the subject matter...  though it would have been easy to obscure its nature.  The pictures are wonderful and it is a "page-turner" for those who marvel at the cosmos.  Read it, love it and then read Alan Guth's book on Inflation (I can't remember the title but I'm sure you can find it!)
1232208
This book, based on the 1950's and 1960's Amateuar Scientist columns in Scientific American, does not spare you the fuss and muss of real experimentation. And only personal experiment prevents science from being a matter of faith. It is not outmoded. It is not out-dated. The manner in which the physical universe behaves has not been altered by the digital era. If you wish to truly develop an innate sense for "the garden of the real" (my apologies to deconstructionists), then build these things, develop a tactile understanding of the universe surrounding you. You will then be able to speak about the workings of the universe with an appropriate humility.
2798251
This book has resolved my personal quest of almost 50 years.

My first search into what I now call `cosmological science' was over 50 years ago.  Every since my college days, I asked myself the question: "What is the universe and how do I fit into it?"

In the past few years, I've have read how astronomers and cosmologists were getting very close to answers to these basic questions.  In the past decade, satellite observations from Hubble plus data from many Earth and satellite telescope systems have been looking at the heavens over a much greater frequency range than the visible spectrum.  In addition, astronomers were becoming confident that their measurements from supernova were giving accurate measure of the expansion of the universe.  Now we also understand the `snow' we see on our TV sets is just reception of radio signals that were caused by the cosmic background noise.  And that goes almost all the way back to the Big Bang.

What does that have to do with this book?  Well, in this recently published book (2006), the authors have taken and pieced together the major pieces of the cosmological puzzle:  Who are we and where we are going?

The book is separated into three parts: The first part, three chapters, is a historical sequence of how man and mankind adopted to his environment.  This part reviews religious icons, myths and mysticism.  If this makes you uncomfortable, I suggest you move on to what I consider the 'main event' in Part Two.  I'll warn you now:  There are a lot of footnotes, sometimes 4 or 5 for each page of text.  I recommend, as the authors do, that you try to read all the bold numbers as soon as possible on the page since they hold significant background or clarification information.  Some of the notes are quite detailed and can be more than a page long, but are necessary in the authors' development of the facts of the subject discussed.

One of the most profound statements that I found in this book is that there is a very good chance the human race is a unique event in the history of the universe.  The chance of another high level civilization existing 'out there' is very, very remote.  We're alone!!

That leads to the last portion of this book, and why I think it is so terribly important.  Public media, TV, magazines and newspapers have had a lot of dialog lately about how humans are not doing a very good job of preserving our planet.  This book suggests that the problem is bigger than the limited view of our environment.  The authors suggest that humans and their civilization can and MUST change but we have to change our way of thinking and approaching the problem.

The solution is out there:  The authors only invite us to seek it in our own way.

I thought that the message in this book was important enough to purchase a copy for each of my children.  My hope is that after they have finished the reading we could some good interesting dialog concerning each of our impressions of the universe as it now is, and our place in it
2034104
The odd phenomenon's of "Brownian motion", and Hertz's "photoelectric effect",... the failure of the classical equipartition theorem to account for experimental results of specific heats and blackbody radiation, set the stage for the revolution that was to come.

Abraham Pais is one of the finest physics historians you're likely to find. The experimental and theoretical events leading up to the scientific revolution of the twentieth century are meticulously described here. What is particularly appealing about this history is the presentation of the struggle, the dead-ends, and reluctances in accepting the conceptual paradigm shift necessary from the classical view of reality.

Pais also has written exceptional biographies of Albert Einstein, Niels Bohr, and Paul Dirac.

"Subtle is the Lord - Life and Time of Albert Einstein"
"Niels Bohr's Times, in Physics, Philosophy, and Polity"
"Paul Dirac: The Man and his Work"
2291587
The Greatest Revolution will be the Revelation of Truth. mls
This book tells it the way is should have been told from the beginning.
Its the old preveribal tale, they feed us like mushrooms...
3255585
This book covers 400 years of debate within the rabbinic world regarding the heliocentric theory first promoted by Nicolaus Copernicus (1473 - 1543). With stunning erudition, it surveys the views of an amazingly broad spectrum of Jewish thinkers, from sixteenth-century Prague to contemporary Monsey, and from well-known names in rabbinic history to much more obsecure commentators.  A significant part of the book's appeal is that it brings its discussion right up to the present time.  The book is exceptionally well organised and very clearly written, with a dry humour occasionally surfacing!
It shows, on the one hand, the complex acrobatics that some thinkers had to make to acknowledge the revolutionary implications for traditional Jewish belief about the cosmos' heliocentricity occasioned by Copernicus; on the other, the (perhaps even more) complex acrobatics performed by others who were unwilling to contradict what they perceived as traditional rabbinic doctrine, which maintained that the sun revolved around the earth.  It is both a case study in Jewish reaction to modernity, taking as its subject an issue whose veracity is incontrovertible by most; and a general illustration of traditional religion coping with the challenges of modernity and science.
No review should fail to mention the fact that the author is not even an academic in the field - he is a Professor of Emergency Medicine in real life, which makes his achievement even more impressive!  How on earth did he find the time to write this?  Has to be a candidate for a "Book Award' somewhere!
2596392
I enjoyed this series better than any I've seen in a long time, with the obvious exception of "Game of Thrones!"  For many years, I've been a fan of the original "Cosmos" series with Carl Sagan.  When I bought this version with Neil deGrasse Tyson, I was skeptical that it would measure up.  The very reasonable price tag, however, convinced me to take a chance.  I was not disappointed.  Even though the format was very similar, this new "Cosmos" explored new areas of wonder and did so with a flair that made every minute interesting.  Like Sagan's masterpiece, this one was accessible to all viewers, not simply those with expertise in the sciences.  When I finished watching "Cosmos - A Spacetime Odyssey," I felt much better informed and much more connected to the world and the universe around us.  It was a wonderful feeling and one I plan to experience again through repeated viewings.
1654033
Marcus Chown deserves an award. He jumps forward without wasting time for rewriting Newton's or Einstein's history, and expands on what is new and controversial:  Schulman's reversed time, Maris' electron bubbles, Tegmark quantum interpretation, Harrison's natural selection of self-reproducing universes, Mark Hadley's unification of QT and GR, Gnienko's and Foot's "mirror" matter, plus very interesting probability calculation by Arhipov - whether we can find ET junk on Earth; just a few subjects that you will not find even in currently published new Brian Greene's book "The Fabric of the Cosmos".
Excellent writing, so well, that lack of any pictures or drawings is not detrimental at all.
1835383
At his death in 1543 Nicholas Copernicus published De Revolutionibus, arguing that the sun, not the earth, was at the center of the known universe. There were over 600 copies of two editions that began to interest astronomical historian Gingerich who set out to scrutinize each copy in libraries and personal collections around the world, partly out of curiosity and partly to judge how widely the book had been read. The author engages in intriguing detective work, extending the known provenance of each book to include other owners while tracing its impact on scientific thinking in 16th and 17th century Europe. Since many of the copies contained marginal comments and were owned by astronomers, it became apparent from studies of handwriting who the students and who the professors were, giving us an insight about the readership. We learn about the formation of watermarks, types of glue, and how papermaking, printing and binding were accomplished. The author's expertise has been called upon to trace prior ownership of stolen copies offered at auction, and we learn that parts of one copy were sometimes used to round out the contents of another copy. Eight pages of bibliographic notes; good 16-page index; 8-pages of color; two appendices, one of which gives the location of extant copies. Highly recommended for history enthusiasts of astronomy and the Renaissance.