You may have to Search all our reviewed books and magazines, click the sign up button below to create a free account.
A timely and stimulating collection of essays about the impact of Darwin's ideas on visual culture
Kaye Stacey‚ Helen Chick‚ and Margaret Kendal The University of Melbourne‚ Australia Abstract: This section reports on the organisation‚ procedures‚ and publications of the ICMI Study‚ The Future of the Teaching and Learning of Algebra. Key words: Study Conference‚ organisation‚ procedures‚ publications The International Commission on Mathematical Instruction (ICMI) has‚ since the 1980s‚ conducted a series of studies into topics of particular significance to the theory and practice of contemporary mathematics education. Each ICMI Study involves an international seminar‚ the “Study Conference”‚ and culminates in a published volume intended to promote and assist d...
If not for the work of his half cousin Francis Galton, Charles Darwin's evolutionary theory might have met a somewhat different fate. In particular, with no direct evidence of natural selection and no convincing theory of heredity to explain it, Darwin needed a mathematical explanation of variability and heredity. Galton's work in biometry—the application of statistical methods to the biological sciences—laid the foundations for precisely that. This book offers readers a compelling portrait of Galton as the "father of biometry," tracing the development of his ideas and his accomplishments, and placing them in their scientific context. Though Michael Bulmer introduces readers to the curio...
Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species By Means of Natural Selection is both a key scientific work of research, still read by scientists, and a readable narrative that has had a cultural impact unmatched by any other scientific text. First published in 1859, it has continued to sell, to be reviewed and discussed, attacked and defended. The Origin is one of those books whose controversial reputation ensures that many who have never read it nevertheless have an opinion about it. Jim Endersby's major scholarly edition debunks some of the myths that surround Darwin's book, while providing a detailed examination of the contexts within which it was originally written, published and read. Endersby provides a very readable introduction to this classic text and a level of scholarly apparatus (explanatory notes, bibliography and appendixes) that is unmatched by any other edition.
Who made us see the atom, our minds, our planet and the universe afresh? How did we uncover the mysteries of life on earth? What next? The theories, discoveries and inventions of scientists have revolutionized our consciousness. Think of gravity, evolution, relativity, radioactivity and the Big Bang; electric motors, vaccines, nuclear power and computers. Behind these breakthroughs lie the personal stories of men and women with vision and determination: singular thinkers who defied adversity in their quest for answers. This book tells the remarkable lives of the pioneers from Galileo, Faraday and Darwin, through Pasteur and Marie Curie, to Einstein, Freud and Turing. Written by an international team of distinguished scientists, historians and science writers, it will intrigue budding scientists; those fascinated by the lives of great individuals; and anyone curious to know how we came to understand the exterior world and the pulse of life within.
The incredible achievements of modern scientific theories lead most of us to embrace scientific realism: the view that our best theories offer us at least roughly accurate descriptions of otherwise inaccessible parts of the world like genes, atoms, and the big bang. In Exceeding Our Grasp, Stanford argues that careful attention to the history of scientific investigation invites a challenge to this view that is not well represented in contemporary debates about the nature of the scientific enterprise. The historical record of scientific inquiry, Stanford suggests, is characterized by what he calls the problem of unconceived alternatives. Past scientists have routinely failed even to conceive ...