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Fifty years ago, no one could explain mountains. Arguments about their origin were spirited, to say the least. Progressive scientists were ridiculed for their ideas. Most geologists thought the Earth was shrinking. Contracting like a hot ball of iron, shrinking and exposing ridges that became mountains. Others were quite sure the planet was expanding. Growth widened sea basins and raised mountains. There was yet another idea, the theory that the world's crust was broken into big plates that jostled around, drifting until they collided and jarred mountains into existence. That idea was invariably dismissed as pseudo-science. Or "utter damned rot" as one prominent scientist said. But the doubtful theory of plate tectonics prevailed. Mountains, earthquakes, ancient ice ages, even veins of gold and fields of oil are now seen as the offspring of moving tectonic plates. Just half a century ago, most geologists sternly rejected the idea of drifting continents. But a few intrepid champions of plate tectonics dared to differ. The Mountain Mystery tells their story.
Clear, concise explanation of logical development of basic crystallographic concepts. Topics include crystals and lattices, symmetry, x-ray diffraction, and more. Problems, with answers. 114 illustrations. 1969 edition.
2012 marked the centenary of one of the most significant discoveries of the early twentieth century, the discovery of X-ray diffraction (March 1912, by Laue, Friedrich, and Knipping) and of Bragg's law (November 1912). The discovery of X-ray diffraction confirmed the wave nature of X-rays and the space-lattice hypothesis. It had two major consequences: the analysis of the structure of atoms, and the determination of the atomic structure of materials. This had a momentous impact in chemistry, physics, mineralogy, material science, and biology. This book relates the discovery itself, the early days of X-ray crystallography, and the way the news of the discovery spread round the world. It expla...
*Shortlisted for the 2019 Royal Society Insight Investment Science Book Prize* One of the most fascinating scientific detective stories of the last fifty years, an exciting quest for a new form of matter. “A riveting tale of derring-do” (Nature), this book reads like James Gleick’s Chaos combined with an Indiana Jones adventure. When leading Princeton physicist Paul Steinhardt began working in the 1980s, scientists thought they knew all the conceivable forms of matter. The Second Kind of Impossible is the story of Steinhardt’s thirty-five-year-long quest to challenge conventional wisdom. It begins with a curious geometric pattern that inspires two theoretical physicists to propose a ...
"In 1611, Kepler wrote an essay wondering why snowflakes always had perfect, sixfold symmetry. It's a simple enough question, but one that no one had ever asked before and one that couldn't actually be answered for another three centuries. Still, in trying to work out an answer, Kepler raised some fascinating questions about physics, math, and biology, and now you can watch in wonder as a great scientific genius unleashes the full force of his intellect on a seemingly trivial question, complete with new illustrations and essays to put it all in perspective."—io9, from their list "10 Amazing Science Books That Reveal The Wonders Of The Universe" When snow began to fall while he was walking ...
Teyler’s Foundation in Haarlem and its ‘Book and Art Room’ of 1779, edited by Ellinoor Bergvelt and Debora Meijers, examines for the first time this institution in the context of scientific, museological, political, artistic, religious and philosophical developments. The key moment was the decision in 1779 to give a free interpretation to the testament of its founder, the Mennonite entrepreneur Pieter Teyler van der Hulst (1702–1778): stimulated by the naturalist Martinus van Marum, the Foundation’s board decided to build an impressive museum room and to establish a natural science collection. The institution thus entered an era in which older scientific and collecting traditions engaged with new developments towards a research institution and a public museum of natural history, physics and art. Contributors: Ellinoor S. Bergvelt, Terry van Druten, Arnold Heumakers, Eric Jorink, Paul Knolle, Debora Meijers, Wijnand Mijnhardt, Bert Sliggers, Koenraad Vos, and Holger Zaunstöck.
This book takes readers back and forth through time and makes the past accessible to all families, students and the general reader and is an unprecedented collection of a list of events in chronological order and a wealth of informative knowledge about the rise and fall of empires, major scientific breakthroughs, groundbreaking inventions, and monumental moments about everything that has ever happened.