Spaceflight historian Amy Shira Teitel tells the riveting story of the female pilots who each dreamed of being the first American woman in space. When the space age dawned in the late 1950s, Jackie Cochran held more propeller and jet flying records than any pilot of the twentieth century-man or woman. She had led the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots during the Second World War, was the first woman to break the sound barrier, ran her own luxury cosmetics company, and counted multiple presidents among her personal friends. She was more qualified than any woman in the world to make the leap from atmosphere to orbit. Yet it was Jerrie Cobb, twenty-five years Jackie's junior and a record-holding pilot in her own right, who finagled her way into taking the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts. The prospect of flying in space quickly became her obsession. While the American and international media spun the shocking story of a "woman astronaut" program,... Views: 101
From pre-First World War Warsaw to the New York of the 1930s, Nobel Prize-winner Isaac Bashevis Singer traces the early years of his life in this autobiographical trilogy. In A Little Boy in Search of God, he remembers his bookish boyhood as the son of an Orthodox rabbi, equally absorbed in science, philosophy and cabbala. Later, the pursuit of women came to obsess him almost as much as the pursuit of knowledge, and in A Young Man in Search of Love he chronicles the intricacies of his first love affairs. When he emigrated to the United States from Poland on the eve of the Second World War loneliness and depression overwhelmed him, and he relives those dark years in Lost in America. From beginning to end, Love and Exile sheds new light on Singer's own life and the fictional lives mirrored in it. Views: 89
In *Tesla: Man Out of Time,* Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties. From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. *Tesla: Man Out of Time* is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science. Views: 86
True con artists - the Bernie Madoffs, the Clark Rockefellers, the Lance Armstrongs - are elegant, outsized personalities, artists of persuasion and exploiters of trust. They hold a deep, enigmatic fascination for us. But how do they do it? Why are they successful? And what keeps us falling for it, over and over again? Whether it's a suspicious-looking email or a multimillion-dollar global swindle, Maria Konnikova investigates the psychological principles that underlie each stage of the confidence game - from the initial put-up, where the artist identifies the victim, to the eventual fix, where the artist persuades the victim to stay quiet. Exploring the psychological profile of both the con artist and his mark, we learn how grifters can be so persuasive, even to those of us who consider ourselves immune, and how we can train ourselves to discern the signs of a story that isn't quite what it seems. Insightful and entertaining, telling fascinating stories about some of the most... Views: 84
‘I have a truly marvellous demonstration of this proposition which this margin is too narrow to contain.’ It was with these words, written in the 1630s, that Pierre de Fermat intrigued and infuriated the mathematics community. For over 350 years, proving Fermat’s Last Theorem was the most notorious unsolved mathematical problem, a puzzle whose basics most children could grasp but whose solution eluded the greatest minds in the world. In 1993, after years of secret toil, Englishman Andrew Wiles announced to an astounded audience that he had cracked Fermat’s Last Theorem. He had no idea of the nightmare that lay ahead. In ‘Fermat’s Last Theorem’ Simon Singh has crafted a remarkable tale of intellectual endeavour spanning three centuries, and a moving testament to the obsession, sacrifice and extraordinary determination of Andrew Wiles: one man against all the odds. Views: 77
Scientific method reigns supreme as "a tool for penetrating the complexities of the universe"; this superb one-volume guide provides a synthesis of what we have learned so far.Reviewers described earlier editions of this book as "a masterpiece of unpatronizing popularization" (Observer), exciting, authoritative and readable. Now, in this completely revised new edition, Asimov has once again produced a masterly summary of current knowledge in all the physical and biological sciences -- from subatomic particles to immense galaxies, from dinosaurs to bacteria. Only Asimov could make even Einstein accessible (without simplifying his ideas), and only Asimov could present all the vital topics of today in clear, non-technical terms: quarks and quasars, rockets and robots, intelligent machines and oncogenes, immune reactions and genetic engineering. More than that, his brilliantly comprehensive book is impressive testimony to his deep faith in "the unconquerability of the human spirit"."Asimov is as fluent as ever" -- The Times Educational Supplement"The text is 'a jolly good read', being clear, colourful and witty, with many a pleasing anecdote thrown in" -- New Scientist Views: 73
Danger is his destiny... When his homecoming is rocked by an explosion, former FBI agent Rick Cloud puts R & R on hold. His undercover instincts warn him he's the target; his Navajo gifts tell him the reason is well hidden...deep in the walls of Copper Canyon. And only local beauty Kim Nelson can lead him to it. He saved her life in the explosion, now she must help him save his. Is love his legacy? Concealed in the canyon is a message from his medicine-man foster father that only Rick can decipher. But someone will kill to keep it there. Trapped in the line of fire, the lawman loner knows only one thing: he must protect Kim from danger...and himself from giving in to desire. Views: 72
