J. L. Heilbron

A biography of the scientist considered to be the father of nuclear physics for his development of the nuclear theory of the atom in 1911 and discovery of alpha and beta rays and protons.

"Through much of the Scientific Revolution, between 1650 and 1750, Catholic churches were the best solar observatories in the world. Constructed initially to solve the pressing problem of providing an unquestionable date for Easter, the instruments that made the churches' observatories also threw light on the disputed geometry of the solar system."--BOOK JACKET. "A tale of politically canny astronomers and cardinals with a taste for mathematics, The Sun in the Church explains the unlikely accomplishments of the Church-sponsored observers. It engagingly describes Galileo's political overreaching, his subsequent trial for heresy, and his slow and steady rehabilitation in the eyes of the Catholic Church. Despite the Church's prohibition against advocating sun-centered astronomy, Italian clerics managed to teach and advance it. Heilbron describes, with dry wit, the diplomatic discretion on all sides that allowed them to do so."--BOOK JACKET.

Max Planck came to prominence after proposing the quantum idea in 1900 and rose steadily to the forefront of scientific leadership in Germany, which retained its lead in science especially in physics, chemistry, and mathematics during the first several decades of the 20th century. A close colleague of Einstein and most major continental scientists of his period, Planck fought a losing battle against overwhelming odds by defying the Nazi regime. Heilbron's biography carefully details the life of this courageous, humane, and brilliant scientist.

In this entertaining and authoritative new biography the author examines the flair and imagination, the hard-headedness and clarity, the combativeness and penetration of the person many people call the founder of modern science - Galileo Calilei. No great scientist has excelled him in making novel ideas intelligible to nonexperts. To follow his career as he exploited unforeseen opportunities to unseat established ways of understanding nature is to understand a crucial stage of what is now known as the scientific revolution. Galileo was a path-breaker for the newly invented telescope, the decoder of nature's mathematical language and a quite brilliant popularizer of science. Even his reluctant excursion into theology has at last been officially and handsomely recognized in Pope John Paul's recent and widely reported 'rehabilitation' of the Inquisition's most famous victim. (This condemnation and subsequent rehabilitation is fully discussed in the last chapter.). Galileo appears here with all his zest for living, gregariousness, impulsiveness, vulnerability, prickliness, unfairness and creativity. This book makes his lasting contributions accessible to those who are not scientists and his mistakes are not passed over. This is not a mythical story, but the biography of an innovator - one of the greatest ever known.

"Encompassing more than 200 alphabetically arranged entries, The Oxford Guide to the History of Physics and Astronomy traces the evolution of these bodies of knowledge as well as planetary science from the Renaissance to the beginning of the twenty-first century. For students, teachers, scientists, and readers of popular science books, the Guide deciphers the techniques and philosophies of physics and astronomy as well as the historical periods from which they emerged. Inside are Galileo's falling bodies, Newton's world system, pulsars and quasars, and proper quanta of other topics as illuminating as Light, as absorbing as Black Holes, and as expansive as the Theory of Everything. Biographies of leading contributors to natural knowledge, arranged where appropriate in pairs as in Plutarch's Lives, connect the personal with the general development of scientific ideas and the wider course of discovery." "The entries follow an elaborate organizational plan, which amounts to a new classification of knowledge, its institutional settings, and its applications. This plan is reprinted in the opening pages of the Guide." "Thoroughly cross-referenced, and accented with attractive black and white artwork, no other source is as systematic and authoritative or as informative and inviting in its coverage of physics, astronomy and planetary science."--Jacket.

Publisher's description: The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science is a one-volume encyclopedia offering an excellent overview of the field of science and its development over the past few generations, ranging from biographies on Galileo and Dorothy Hodgkin to the discussions chronicling the change of science from simply a tool of learning to a major force in society. Along with chemistry, physics, and biology, the major scientific disciplines are represented in this alphabetically arranged work including astrology, ethnology, and zoology, among many others. The coverage is not limited to just one geographical area but is world-wide, tracing science from its traditional centres and explaining how non-western societies have modified and contributed to its global arena.

This title presents unpublished excerpts from extensive correspondence between Niels Bohr and his immediate family, and uses it to describe and analyze the psychological and cultural background to his invention of the quantum theory of the atom.