The Italian mathematician Mario Pieri (1860-1913) played a major role in the development of algebraic geometry and foundations of mathematics around the turn of the twentieth century. This volume is the second in a series intended to make Pieri's research in diverse fields-mathe…
Animals, Museum Culture and Children's Literature in Nineteenth-Century Britain: Curious Beasties explores the relationship between the zoological and palaeontological specimens brought back from around the world in the long nineteenth century-be they alive, stuffed or fossilise…
This book examines ten materials-flint, clay, iron, gold, glass, cement, rubber, polyethylene, aluminum, and silicon-explaining how they formed, how we discovered them, why they have the properties they do, and how they have transformed our lives. Since the dawn of the Stone Age…
This book, within the vision of the study on the image history, clearly manifests the development of Chinese image science and technology of over 2000 years based on compendium, while having briefly sorted out expositions by scientists since ancient times in China, demonstrates …
This book examines the work of prominent South African geologist Alex Du Toit as a means of understanding the debate around continental drift both in segregation-era South Africa and internationally. It contextualises Du Toit's work within a particularly formative period of Sout…
Thousands of workers labored at Kennedy Space Center around the clock, seven days a week, for half a year to prepare a mission for the liftoff of Apollo 11. This is the story of what went on during those hectic six months. Countdown to a Moon Launch provides an in-depth look at …
Militarizing Outer Space explores the dystopian and destructive dimensions of the Space Age and challenges conventional narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry. Concentrating on weapons, warfare and vio lence, this provocative volume examines real and imagined endeavors of armi…
First affirmed by Plato, the concept of the world as a cosmic living being, possessed of a soul, gained great importance in the Stoic and Neo-Platonic philosophical schools. Several medieval philosophers displayed an interest in this theory of the world soul, which retained its…
History of Computing: Learning from the Past Why is the history of computing important? Given that the computer, as we now know it, came into existence less than 70 years ago it might seem a little odd to some people that we are concerned with its history. Isn't history about 'o…
This book brings together papers of the conference on 'Space, Geometry and the Imagination from Antiquity to the Modern Age' held in Berlin, Germany, 27-29 August 2012. Focusing on the interconnections between the history of geometry and the philosophy of space in the pre-Modern…
This book offers a comprehensive account of the co-evolution of technological and scientific literature in the early modern period (1450-1750). It examines the various relationships of these literatures in six areas of knowledge - Architecture, Chemistry, Gunnery, Mechanical Eng…
The volume analyzes the natural philosophical accounts and debates concerning the vegetative powers, namely nutrition, growth, and reproduction. While principally focusing on the early modern approaches to the lower functions of the soul, readers will discover the roots of these…
This book recounts the stories of the astronomical pioneers who forever changed our views of the cosmos. The chapters delve into their fascinating lives over the centuries, showing how these pivotal minds built upon the work of their predecessors and unlocked the unique properti…