Discover the wonders of the Age of Exploration with The Discovery of New Worlds, featuring thrilling stories from history, from 4AD to the Renaissance. From Nero and Rome to Marco Polo and Dante, Vasco da Gama to Montezuma, The Discovery of New Worlds takes readers on a fascinating journey through time and space, revealing the triumphs and tragedies of the men and women who shaped the world we know today. With vivid descriptions and captivating stories, this book brings to life the sights, sounds, and struggles of the early figures, as well as the impact they had on the world.
Describing an era of exploration during the Renaissance that went far beyond geographic bounds, this book shows how the evidence of the New World shook the foundations of the old, upsetting the authority of the ancient texts that had guided Europeans so far afield. What Anthony Grafton recounts is a war of ideas fought by mariners, scientists, publishers, and rulers over a period of 150 years. In colorful vignettes, published debates, and copious illustrations, we see these men and their contemporaries trying to make sense of their discoveries as they sometimes confirm, sometimes contest, and finally displace traditional notions of the world beyond Europe.
Describes the science of planet hunters, the prospects for the discovery of alien life, and discusses the controversies surrounding extrasolar-planet research.
A fascinating narrative history of the great voyages of discovery, and is the only book of its kind to span the crucial period 1400-1600 in one readable book.
Discovering New Worlds in Medicine has been conceived under the auspices of the Christopher Columbus Committee for Medical Science, on the occasion of the Quincentennial of the discovery of America. The intent of this volume is twofold: first, to delineate an ideal itinerary of medical sciences from the time of Columbus to our own times, and from then, hopefully, to the new worlds of medical sciences in the not-too-distant future. Cancer, AIDS and many other unexplored or still dark continents of incurable diseases still await their Colombus. Second, to offer both to the public and to people engaged in health sciences a clear and up to date review of what is going on in the vastly diversified fields of medical sciences in a way promptly intelligible to the layman, but at the same time attractive and informative to specialists. To ahieve these objectives a task force of over 40 leading medical scientists of the United States of maerica and of Italy, including a Nobel Prize winner, has been assembled and all the Authors have responded with enthusiasm and without personnal profit. The pros and cons of every medical progress have been analyzed and ealuated, and the future teasks of medicine are squarely met and discussed. There will be great changes in the new world of tomorrow, including the unrelenting rise of the world's population, and the medical sciences are expected to meet also this challenge. The authors and the editors of this book are confident that the reponse will be affirmative.
Exploration tells the intriguing story of the navigators who crossed oceans to chart the coastlines of distant continents, the adventurers who traversed deserts and polar wastes, and the traders who sought new markets and commodities in faraway lands. The secrets of the planet and its living inhabitants have been unraveled thanks to the efforts made by these navigators and adventurers. This new, full-color book begins with a narration of the earliest seagoing ships and the vehicles that transported diplomats, warriors, and merchants around the Mediterranean region and later around the world. It explores the Vikings who terrorized Western Europe and colonized Greenland as well as the swift outrigger vessels that sailed from Asia to the islands of the Pacific. This accessible resource describes the development of navigational instruments to help on long journeys out of sight of landOCoincluding the sextant and compassOCoand explains how to calculate latitude and longitude."
Driven by discoveries, and enabled by leaps in technology and imagination, our understanding of the universe has changed dramatically during the course of the last few decades. The fields of astronomy and astrophysics are making new connections to physics, chemistry, biology, and computer science. Based on a broad and comprehensive survey of scientific opportunities, infrastructure, and organization in a national and international context, New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics outlines a plan for ground- and space- based astronomy and astrophysics for the decade of the 2010's. Realizing these scientific opportunities is contingent upon maintaining and strengthening the foundations of the research enterprise including technological development, theory, computation and data handling, laboratory experiments, and human resources. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics proposes enhancing innovative but moderate-cost programs in space and on the ground that will enable the community to respond rapidly and flexibly to new scientific discoveries. The book recommends beginning construction on survey telescopes in space and on the ground to investigate the nature of dark energy, as well as the next generation of large ground-based giant optical telescopes and a new class of space-based gravitational observatory to observe the merging of distant black holes and precisely test theories of gravity. New Worlds, New Horizons in Astronomy and Astrophysics recommends a balanced and executable program that will support research surrounding the most profound questions about the cosmos. The discoveries ahead will facilitate the search for habitable planets, shed light on dark energy and dark matter, and aid our understanding of the history of the universe and how the earliest stars and galaxies formed. The book is a useful resource for agencies supporting the field of astronomy and astrophysics, the Congressional committees with jurisdiction over those agencies, the scientific community, and the public.
Along the way we meet all the major players, from astronomer Peter van de Kamp, whose dreams of discovery lived on undeterred even after years of painstaking observations proved futile, to maverick NASA administrator Daniel Goldin, who dared to suggest in 1992 that "perhaps, just perhaps, the next generation's legacy will be an image of a planet 30 light years from Earth." We watch as the brilliant innovators Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz invent a new method for detection and, defying all odds, make the first major discovery by looking in territory where seasoned astronomers said no planets could ever be found.
This book discusses the big questions about how the discovery of extraterrestrial life, whether intelligent or microbial, would impact society and humankind.
The amazing science behind the search for Earth-like planets Ever since Carl Sagan first predicted that extraterrestrial civilizations must number in the millions, the search for life on other planets has gripped our imagination. Is Earth so rare that advanced life forms like us—or even the simplest biological organisms—are unique to the universe? How to Find a Habitable Planet describes how scientists are testing Sagan's prediction, and demonstrates why Earth may not be so rare after all. James Kasting has worked closely with NASA in its mission to detect habitable worlds outside our solar system, and in this book he introduces readers to the advanced methodologies being used in this extraordinary quest. He addresses the compelling questions that planetary scientists grapple with today: What exactly makes a planet habitable? What are the signatures of life astronomers should look for when they scan the heavens for habitable worlds? In providing answers, Kasting explains why Earth has remained habitable despite a substantial rise in solar luminosity over time, and why our neighbors, Venus and Mars, haven't. If other Earth-sized planets endowed with enough water and carbon are out there, he argues, chances are good that some of those planets sustain life. Kasting describes the efforts under way to find them, and predicts that future discoveries will profoundly alter our view of the universe and our place in it. This book is a must-read for anyone who has ever dreamed of finding other planets like ours—and perhaps even life like ours—in the cosmos. In a new afterword, Kasting presents some recent breakthroughs in the search for exoplanets and discusses the challenges facing space programs in the near future.
