Poetry. Like lyric field notes from a worldwide anthropological journey, Briante's poems scrutinize human and urban situations. "Amid a riot of signals, cranes, and circuitry--from Mexico City to Antarctica--the reader succumbs to a sense of non-stop construction, to the craven expansion of cities in the glistening fields. In the chaos of sensory overload, the poet still manages to detect 'droplets of pollen slip from anther to stamen,' to feel a stream running dry inside. It's a work of shuddering velocity--an ode, a screed, a lament, a love song of 'pristine and inarticulate mornings.' Susan Briante's PIONEERS IN THE STUDY OF MOTION details the ravages of the world in a voracious struggle to savor its sweetness"--C.D. Wright.
One of the greatest scientific minds of the past 500 years, Sir Isaac Newton laid the groundwork for the theory of gravity and the laws of motion. This volume, dedicated to his life and work, goes beyond the biography of a great, and sometimes controversial, man. It also addresses the lives of others who influenced and were influenced by his findings. Additionally, it explores and explains the science at the heart of his work and how we continue to study it today.
Contains informal interviews with 13 significant figures in the development of the field of popular culture studies. The interviews explore the academic revolution inaugurated in the late 1960s and early 1970s in the fields of the humanities and social sciences with the founding and subsequent influence of the Popular Culture Association and American Culture Association and the interviewees' thoughts about the changes. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR
In 1872 an Englishman called Edward Muybridge photographed a horse in California and thereby invented the essentials of motion picture technology. His patron wanted to know if the horse ever lifted all four hooves at once. This is the story of Muybridge and modern technology.
"A remarkable work which will remain a document of the first rank for the historian of mechanics." — Louis de Broglie In this masterful synthesis and summation of the science of mechanics, Rene Dugas, a leading scholar and educator at the famed Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, deals with the evolution of the principles of general mechanics chronologically from their earliest roots in antiquity through the Middle Ages to the revolutionary developments in relativistic mechanics, wave and quantum mechanics of the early 20th century. The present volume is divided into five parts: The first treats of the pioneers in the study of mechanics, from its beginnings up to and including the sixteenth century; the second section discusses the formation of classical mechanics, including the tremendously creative and influential work of Galileo, Huygens and Newton. The third part is devoted to the eighteenth century, in which the organization of mechanics finds its climax in the achievements of Euler, d'Alembert and Lagrange. The fourth part is devoted to classical mechanics after Lagrange. In Part Five, the author undertakes the relativistic revolutions in quantum and wave mechanics. Writing with great clarity and sweep of vision, M. Dugas follows closely the ideas of the great innovators and the texts of their writings. The result is an exceptionally accurate and objective account, especially thorough in its accounts of mechanics in antiquity and the Middle Ages, and the important contributions of Jordanus of Nemore, Jean Buridan, Albert of Saxony, Nicole Oresme, Leonardo da Vinci, and many other key figures. Erudite, comprehensive, replete with penetrating insights, AHistory of Mechanics is an unusually skillful and wide-ranging study that belongs in the library of anyone interested in the history of science.
This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach, and impact. Drawing on a backlist dating to 1893, Voices Revived makes high-quality, peer-reviewed scholarship accessible once again using print-on-demand technology. This title was originally published in 1934.
“[A]n autobiography that, happily, is an engrossing, full-bodied reflection of the man, a neatly balanced combination of technical insights and always pertinent, often irreverent anecdotes... an upbeat tale of a man who had a great love of life and a well-merited sense of achievement, told with genuine gusto and fascinating detail.” — Richard Witkin, The New York Times “It is the triumph of this book that it manages to combine a chatty, anecdotal, and highly readable tale of a distinguished scientist’s everyday life with a substantial number of penetrating insights into the creative process.” — I. B. Holley, Jr., Science “The present biography is eminently readable, sometimes puckish, and von Karman himself is rather inspiring in his faith in science.” — Kirkus “Every paragraph grips the reader’s attention... a book almost impossible to put down until it is read.” — Aerospace Historian “This account of von Kármán’s life and his contributions to the science of aerodynamics is most fascinating reading.” — The Science Teacher “Every page of this superb classic is infused with von Karman’s humanity. As his narrative makes clear, he was not simply a clever technician but a man of character whose vision advanced the aerospace sciences and fostered international cooperation.” — Aviation History
This extraordinarily comprehensive, well-documented, biographical dictionary of some 1,500 photographers (and workers engaged in photographically related pursuits) active in western North America before 1865 is enriched by some 250 illustrations. Far from being simply a reference tool, the book provides a rich trove of fascinating narratives that cover both the professional and personal lives of a colorful cast of characters.
