Best of
Science

1966

The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences


Michel Foucault - 1966
    The result is nothing less than an archaeology of the sciences that unearths old patterns of meaning and reveals the shocking arbitrariness of our received truths.In the work that established him as the most important French thinker since Sartre, Michel Foucault offers startling evidence that “man”—man as a subject of scientific knowledge—is at best a recent invention, the result of a fundamental mutation in our culture.

Birds of North America: A Guide to Field Identification


Chandler S. Robbins - 1966
    Birds of North America By Chandler S Robbins, Bertel Bruun, and Herbert S Zim, Illustrated By Arthur Singer - Golden Press New York Western Publishing Company Inc - Copyright 1966 By Western Publishing Company Inc - Library of Congress Catalog Card Number 66-16454 - 340 Pages - ISBN 0307136566 - 13656 - Robbins, Bruun, Zim, Singer - Golden A Guide to Field Identification - Quick Guide to Major Families - Loons, Grebes, Albatrosses and Petrels, Geese, Surface Ducks, Bay and Sea Ducks, Hawks and Eagles, Grouse, Quail, Herons, Rails and Coots, Plovers, Sandpipers, Gulls and Terns, Alcids, Pigeons and Doves, Cuckoos, Owls, Swifts, Hummingbirds, Woodpeckers, Flycatchers, Swallows, Jays and Crows, Chickadees and Titmice, Nuthatches and Creepers, Wrens, Thrashers, Thrushes and Bluebirds, Kinglets, Vireos, Warblers, Blackbirds and Orioles, Finches, Sparrows - Table of Contents - How to Use This Book - Loons, Grebes, Tubenoses, Pelicans and Allies, Waterfowl, Vultures Hawks and Falcons, Gallinaceous Birds, Herons and Allies, Canes and Allies, Shorebirds Gulls and Alcids, Pigeons and Doves, Cuckoos Anis and Roadrunners, Owls, Goatsuckers, Swifts and Hummingbirds, Parrots, Trogons, Kingfishers, Woodpeckers, Perching Birds, Bibliography, Index

Thirty Years that Shook Physics: The Story of Quantum Theory


George Gamow - 1966
    Gamow, physicist and gifted writer, has sketched an intriguing portrait of the scientists and clashing ideas that made the quantum revolution…”—Christian Science MonitorIn 1900, German physicist Max Planck postulated that light, or radiant energy can exist only in the form of discrete packages or quanta. This profound insight, along with Einstein's equally momentous theories of relativity, completely revolutionized man's view of matter, energy, and the nature of physics itself.In this lucid layman's introduction to quantum theory, an eminent physicist and noted popularizer of science traces the development of quantum theory from the turn of the century to about 1930—from Planck's seminal concept (still developing) to anti-particles, mesons and Enrico Fermi's nuclear research. Gamow was not just a spectator at the theoretical breakthroughs which fundamentally altered our view of the universe, he was an active participant who made important contributions of his own. This “insider's” vantage point lends special validity to his careful, accessible explanation of Heisenberg's Uncertainty Principle, Neils Bohr's model of the atom, the pilot waves of Louis de Broglie and other path-breaking ideas.In addition, Gamow recounts a wealth of revealing personal anecdotes which give a warm human dimension to many giants of 20th-century physics. He end the book with the Blegdamsvej Faust, a delightful play written in 1932 by Niels Bohr's students and colleagues to satirize the epochal developments that were revolutionizing physics. This celebrated play is available only in this volume.Written in a clear, lively style, and enhanced by 12 photographs (including candid shots of Rutherford, Bohr, Pauli, Heisenberg, Fermi and other notables), Thirty Years that Shook Physics offers both scientists and laymen a highly readable introduction to the brilliant conception that helped unlock many secrets of energy and matter and laid the groundwork for future discoveries.(Back Cover)

The Art of Memory


Frances A. Yates - 1966
    Yates traces the art of memory from its treatment by Greek orators, through its Gothic transformations in the Middle Ages, to the occult forms it took in the Renaissance, and finally to its use in the seventeenth century. This book, the first to relate the art of memory to the history of culture as a whole, was revolutionary when it first appeared and continues to mesmerize readers with its lucid and revelatory insights.

The Universe: From Flat Earth to Quasar


Isaac Asimov - 1966
    A readable introduction to scientific facts about the earth, the solar system, and the universe.

Understanding Physics


Isaac Asimov - 1966
    In this reader-friendly, unabridged edition of three of his best-selling books, renowned science writer Isaac Asimov demystifies physics, teaching the fundamentals in a manner easily understood by lay people. Including the complete text of Motion, Sound and Heat, Light, Magnetism and Electricity, and The Electron, Proton and Neutron, this volume will guide you through the evolution of physics from its early Greek beginnings up to the modern theories of the creation of time, space and matter. Each volume relates the tale of the human quest through the ages for answers to the fundamental questions of how the universe works. Told in its historical context, this quest for knowledge is a story of high drama and uncommon valor, when men put their very lives on the line for the sake of scientific truth.3 Volumes in One: Motion, Sound & Heat; Light, Magnetism & Electricity; The Electron, Proton & Neutron. 1993 Barnes & Noble reprint of three Isaac Asimov classics. Originally published in 1966.

Spacetime Physics


Edwin F. Taylor - 1966
    Written by two of the field's true pioneers, Spacetime Physics can extend and enhance coverage of specialty relativity in the classroom. This thoroughly up-to-date, highly accessible overview covers microgravity, collider accelerators, satellite probes, neutron detectors, radioastronomy, and pulsars.  The chapter on general relativity with new material on gravity waves, black holes, and cosmology.

The Bog People: Iron-Age Man Preserved


Peter Vilhelm Glob - 1966
    Thinking they had stumbled upon a murder victim, they reported their discovery to the police, who were baffled until they consulted the famous archaeologist P.V. Glob. Glob identified the body as that of a two-thousand-year-old man, ritually murdered and thrown in the bog as a sacrifice to the goddess of fertility. Written in the guise of a scientific detective story, this classic of archaeological history--a best-seller when it was published in England but out of print for many years--is a thoroughly engrossing and still reliable account of the religion, culture, and daily life of the European Iron Age. Includes 76 black-and-white photographs.

Understanding Physics: Volume 1: Motion, Sound, and Heat


Isaac Asimov - 1966
    These centuries gave birth to the basic concepts from which modern physics has evolved. In this first volume of his celebrated UNDERSTANDING PHYSICS, Isaac Asimov deals with this fascinating, momentous stage of scientific development with an authority and clarity that add further lustre to an eminent reputation. Demanding the minimum of specialized knowledge from his audience, he has produced a work that is the perfect supplement to the student’s formal textbook, as well as offering invaluable illumination to the general reader.

The Tacit Dimension


Michael Polanyi - 1966
    Polanyi aims to show that science must be understood as a community of inquirers held together by a common faith; science, he argues, is not the use of 'scientific methods' but rather consists in a discipline imposed by scientists on themselves in the interest of discovering an objective, impersonal truth.

The Normal and the Pathological


Georges Canguilhem - 1966
    It takes as its starting point the sudden appearance of biology as a science in the nineteenth century and examines the conditions determining its particular makeup.Canguilhem analyzes the radically new way in which health and disease were defined in the early nineteenth century, showing that the emerging categories of the normal and the pathological were far from objective scientific concepts. He demonstrates how the epistemological foundations of modern biology and medicine were intertwined with political, economic, and technological imperatives.Canguilhem was an important influence on the thought of Michel Foucault and Louis Althusser, among others, in particular for the way in which he poses the problem of how new domains of knowledge come into being and how they are part of a discontinuous history of human thought.

Physics, Volume 1


Robert Resnick - 1966
    The Fourth Edition of volumes 1 and 2 is concerned with mechanics and E&M/Optics. New features include: expanded coverage of classic physics topics, substantial increases in the number of in-text examples which reinforce text exposition, the latest pedagogical and technical advances in the field, numerical analysis, computer-generated graphics, computer projects and much more.

Principia: Vol. I: The Motion of Bodies


Isaac Newton - 1966
    As Entitled

A Natural History of Trees: of Eastern and Central North America


Donald Culross Peattie - 1966
    One of two genuine classics of American nature writing now in paperback; the other is A Natural History of Western Trees.

The Phenomenon of Life: Toward a Philosophical Biology


Hans Jonas - 1966
    A classic of phenomenology and existentialism and arguably Jonas's greatest work, The Phenomenon of Life sets forth a systematic and comprehensive philosophy -- an existential interpretation of biological facts laid out in support of Jonas's claim that mind is prefigured throughout organic existence.At the center of this philosophy is an attack on the fundamental assumptions underlying modern philosophy since Descartes, primarily dualism. Dissenting from the dualistic view of value as a human projection onto nature, Jonas's critique affirms the classical view that being harbors the good. In a brilliant synthesis of the ancient and modern, Jonas draws upon existential philosophy to justify core insights of the classical tradition. This critique transcends the historical limits of its phenomenological methodology and existential ethical stance to take its place among the most scientifically nuanced contemporary accounts of moral nature. It lays the foundation for an ethic of responsibility grounded in an assignment by Being to protect the natural environment that has allowed us to spring from it.

Life on a Little Known Planet


Howard Ensign Evans - 1966
    The world of insects is Howard Evans' "little-known planet," the realm of the cockroach and the cricket, the wasp and the bedbug. With the precision and authority of a distinguished biologist, and the wit and grace of an accomplished writer, Howard Evans muses on the uniqueness of dragonflies, the romantic impulses of butterflies, the musicianship of crickets, and the mysteries of the firefly. The insect realm never fails to enlighten, entertain, and sometimes provoke: as Evans asks, "Is the fly a more intricate machine than he appears, or are we less clever than we suppose ourselves to be?"

Adaptation and Natural Selection: A Critique of Some Current Evolutionary Thought


George C. Williams - 1966
    In 1966, simple Darwinism, which holds that evolution functions primarily at the level of the individual organism, was threatened by opposing concepts such as group selection, a popular idea stating that evolution acts to select entire species rather than individuals. George Williams's famous argument in favor of the Darwinists struck a powerful blow to those in opposing camps. His Adaptation and Natural Selection, now a classic of science literature, is a thorough and convincing essay in defense of Darwinism; its suggestions for developing effective principles for dealing with the evolution debate and its relevance to many fields outside biology ensure the timelessness of this critical work.

New Mathematical Diversions (Spectrum Series)


Martin Gardner - 1966
    He stimulates, challenges, and delights his readers. Answers are provided for problems, as well as references for further reading and a bibliography. The Postscript provides updates to the problems.Martin Gardner published his first book in 1935. Since then he has charmed, puzzled, and delighted countless reader. He is best known for the "Mathematical games" column that he edited for Scientific American for twenty-five years and from which much of the material in this book was drawn.He has published more than forty books including a novel, The Flight of Peter Fromm, and his Why of a Philosophical Scrivener. He has received many honors, among them an honorary doctorate form Bucknell University and prized for his science and mathematical writing from the American Institute of Physics and the American Mathematical Society. He is an honorary member of the Mathematical Association of America. Also by Martin Gardner and available from the Mathematical Association of America are Riddles of the Sphinx and Other Mathematical Puzzle Tales, Mathematical Carnival, Mathematical Circus.

Fish Do the Strangest Things


Leonora Hornblow - 1966
    Describes seventeen fish that have peculiar characteristics and habits, including fish that spit, fly, climb trees, blow up like balloons, and sleep out of water.

Decision Control


Stafford Beer - 1966
    Deals with a philosophy of science relevant to management and particularly with the nature of models. Demonstrates all major points through examples quoted of management science applications to industry and government.

How Things Work: Childcraft #7: The How and Why Library (Volume 7)


Childcraft International - 1966
    Hardcover, Volume 7 ONLY, Published 1974 by Field Enterprises Educational Corporation, 336 pages.

The Psychology of Science: A Reconnaissance


Abraham H. Maslow - 1966
    Maslow contrasts humanistic science with value-free, orthodox science, and offers a new knowledge paradigm to replace classical "scientific objectivity". This eBook edition contains the complete 168 page text of the original 1966 hardcover edition. Contents: Preface by Abraham H. Maslow Acknowledgments 1. Mechanistic and Humanistic Science 2. Acquiring Knowledge of a Person as a Task for the Scientist 3. The Cognitive Needs Under Conditions of Fear and of Courage 4. Safety Science and Growth Science: Science as a Defense 5. Prediction and Control of Persons? 6. Experiential Knowledge and Spectator Knowledge 7. Abstracting and Theorizing 8. Comprehensive Science and Simpleward Science 9. Suchness Meaning and Abstractness Meaning 10. Taoistic Science and Controlling Science 11. Interpersonal (I - Thou) Knowledge as a Paradigm for Science 12. Value-Free Science 13. Stages, Levels, and Degrees of Knowledge 14. The Desacralization and the Resacralization of Science Endnotes Bibliography Index

ABC's of Quantum Mechanics


V. Rydnik - 1966
    Our twentieth century then produced the theory that has been serving physicists so faithfully for over sixty years - quantum mechanics. The landscape of the new world is quire unlike our own. So different that physicists frequently lack words to describe it. Quantum mechanics had to create new conceptions for the world of the ultra-small, bizarre conceptions beyond the scope of pictorial imagery. Customary physical laws cease to operate in the new world. Particles lose their dimensions and acquire the properties of waves. Electrons and the other building stones of matter can pass through impenetrable barriers, or they can vanish altogether leaving only photons in their place. Those are the things quantum mechanics dealt with. This book will tell you about the origin and development of quantum mechanics, about its new concepts. It will describe how the new theory deciphered the secrets of the structure of atoms, molecules, crystals, atomic nulei, and how quantum mechanics is dealing with the problem of the most fundamental of all properties of matter - the interaction of particles and the relationships between fields and matter.

Physik


David Halliday - 1966
    It was a new paradigm at the time and continues to be the dominant model for all texts. Physics is the most realistic option for schools looking to teach a more demanding course.

Geology Illustrated


John S. Shelton - 1966
    Pictorially develops the main principles of physical & historical geology.

The Nature of Solids: with 173 Illustrations


Alan Holden - 1966
    It can be read by any student with a background of high school physics or chemistry, and will serve scientists and engineers well as a primer in the field of solid-state theory.The first half of the book develops basic concepts in modern atomic physics. Included are illuminating discussions of heat, heat capacity, order, symmetry, atoms and ions, molecules and metals and structures. The second part then applies the concepts elucidated to the structural and electrical properties of solid materials. This involves treatment of atomic motions, particles and waves, electrons in atoms, electrons in solids, electrical conduction, semiconductors and magnets. An appendix entitled "Scales of Energy" rounds out the book.Dr. Holden, a former research scientist with Bell Telephone Laboratories and former visiting professor at M.I.T., does not delve deeply into the interaction between theory and experiment. Rather, these pages are devoted, in his words, to "explaining the theories — to picturing the models — that provide the best means known today for unifying our knowledge of solids and connecting it with a broader field of science." Readers will find that this lucid, well-written study achieves its purpose, combining elements of physics, chemistry, and crystallography to produce a comprehensive, interconnected picture of solid-state theory and its role in the wider scope of modern science.

Dementia Praecox: Or the Group of Schizophrenias


Eugen Bleuler - 1966
    

The Relevance of Physics


Stanley L. Jaki - 1966
    

Cajal: Recollections of My Life


Santiago Ramón y Cajal - 1966
    

The Balloonists: The History of the First Aeronauts


L.T.C. Rolt - 1966
    Beginning in 1783, the year in which balloons first took flight, it ends in 1903, the year in which the Wright Brothers first heavier-than-air flight at Kittyhawk changed the history of aviation for ever. The exploits of balloonists attracted the attention and admiration of the masses like nothing before: within weeks of the first flights, its form featured in designs of wallpaper and fabrics, in jewels and on snuff boxes, and as balloon clocks and chandeliers. The aeronauts themselves became heroes of their time. From the first flight, by the Montgolfier brothers in a balloon of paper and cloth, through the first Channel crossing by air, showman aeronauts, female aeronauts, efforts to cross the Atlantic and the use of balloons in war, this is a wholly fascinating and riveting book. Lightly and entertainingly written, it includes lively extracts from journals and contemporary accounts, as well as engravings of the period. This new edition has a foreword by one of the foremost aeronauts of today, Don Cameron.

Functional Analysis


George Bachman - 1966
    Text covers introduction to inner-product spaces, normed, metric spaces, and topological spaces; complete orthonormal sets, the Hahn-Banach Theorem and its consequences, and many other related subjects. Includes detailed proofs of theorems, bibliography, and index of symbols. 1966 edition.

Properties of Expanding Universe


Stephen Hawking - 1966
    In Chapter 1 it is shown that this expansion creates grave difficulties for the Hoyle-Narlikar theory of gravitation. Chapter 2 deals with perturbations of an expanding homogeneous and isotropic universe. The conclusion is reached that galaxies cannot be formed as a result of the growth of perturbations that were initially small. The propogation and absorption of gravitational radiation is also investigated in this approximation. In Chapter 3 gravitational radiation in an expanding universe is examined by a method of asymptotic expansions. The 'peeling off' behaviour and the asymptotic group are derived. Chapter 4 deals with the occurrence of singularities in cosmological models. It is shown that a singularity is inevitable provided that certain very general conditions are satisfied.

What Is Science?


Richard P. Feynman - 1966
    

The Genetic Effects of Radiation


Isaac Asimov - 1966
    In the years ahead it will affect increasingly all the peoples of the earth. It is essential that all Americans gain an understanding of this vital force if they are to discharge thoughtfully" their responsibilities as citizens and if they are to realize fully the myriad benefits that nuclear energy offers them. The United States Atomic Energy Commission provides this booklet to help you achieve such understanding.

The Secret Islands: An Exploration


Franklin Russell - 1966
    New Zealand born Russell, too long caged on Manhattan, longs to visit some remote islands. He finds them off the coast of Newfoundland, almost solely inhabited by gulls, petrels and near-relatives of the great auk. Although he is physically stimulated by the outdoor life, he is also plunged into exhausting speculation about the meaning of life and death in the natural orders...Russell's wasteland scenery is climactic, effective, and this is natural history with philosophical overtones." - Kirkus Review

Mushrooms, Molds, and Miracles


Lucy Kavaler - 1966
    Time Magazine called it "Fascinating" in a lead review. The little-known kingdom of fungi is revealed as never before or since-from the potato blight to the hallucinogenic mushroom, the bread mold that produced penicillin and the prized truffle. Mushrooms, Molds, and Miracles proves that a book about fungi can be compulsively readable. Sales soared the moment it reached the bookstores, and it has become a classic. Hard to put down, it is exciting from beginning to end.

Benny's Animals and How He Put Them In Order


Millicent E. Selsam - 1966
    Two boys, with the help of a professor at the museum, learn to divide their animal pictures into the proper groups.

The Noble Gases (Science & Discovery)


Isaac Asimov - 1966
    

Algebra: Volume I


B.L. van der Waerden - 1966
    It clearly and succinctly formulated the conceptual and structural insights which Noether had expressed so forcefully and combined it with the elegance and understanding with which Artin had lectured. This text is a reprinted version of the original English translation of the first volume of B.L. van der Waerden's Algebra.

A New Look at Geometry


Irving Adler - 1966
    In addition to the relationship between physical and mathematical spaces, it examines the interactions of geometry, algebra, and calculus. The text proves many significant theorems and employs several important techniques. Chapters on non-Euclidean geometry and projective geometry form brief, self-contained treatments.More than 100 exercises with answers and 200 diagrams illuminate the text. Teachers, students (particularly those majoring in mathematics education), and mathematically minded readers will appreciate this outstanding exploration of the role of geometry in the development of Western scientific thought.Introduction to the Dover edition by Peter Ruane.

A History of the Thermometer and Its Use in Meteorology


W.E. Knowles Middleton - 1966
    Not until 1800 did people interested in thermometers begin to see clearly what they were measuring, and the impetus for improving thermometry came largely from study of the weather—the liquid-in-glass thermometer became the meteorologist's instrument before that of the chemist or physicist. This excellent introductory study follows the development of indicating and recording thermometers until recent times, emphasizing meteorological applications.

The Six-Cornered Snowflake


Johannes Kepler - 1966
    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 across the Charles Bridge in Prague late in 1610, the eminent astronomer Johannes Kepler asked himself the following question: Why do snowflakes, when they first fall, and before they are entangled into larger clumps, always come down with six corners and with six radii tufted like feathers?In his effort to answer this charming and never-before-asked question about snowflakes, Kepler delves into the nature of beehives, peapods, pomegranates, five-petaled flowers, the spiral shape of the snail's shell, and the formative power of nature itself. While he did not answer his original question—it remained a mystery for another three hundred years—he did find an occasion for deep and playful thought."A most suitable book for any and all during the winter and holiday seasons is a reissue of a holiday present by the great mathematician and astronomer Johannes Kepler…Even the endnotes in this wonderful little book are interesting and educationally fun to read."—Jay Pasachoff, The Key ReporterNew English translation by Jacques BrombergLatin text on facing pagesAn essay, "The Delights of a Roving Mind" by Owen GingerichAn essay, "On The Six-Cornered Snowflake" by Guillermo BleichmarSnowflake illustrations by Capi Corrales RodriganezJohn Frederick Nims' poem "The Six-Cornered Snowflake"Notes by Jacques Bromberg and Guillermo BleichmarJohannes Kepler (1571-1631) was an important figure in the seventeenth century astronomical revolution. He is best known for his eponymous laws of planetary motion. Kepler wrote: "If there is anything that can bind the heavenly mind of man to this dusty exile of our earthly home…then it is verily the enjoyment of the mathematical sciences and astronomy."