Nature/Science
TYCHO & KEPLER.
Author: Ferguson, Kitty
Country: New York
Language: English
Year Published: 2002
No. of pages: 402
Illustrations: 17 Color Illustrations. 64 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Hardbound with Jacket
Size: 8”x 6”
Weight: 2.00
ISBN: 802713904
Biblio/Bio: Index. Bibl.
Code: 5884
Price: $29.50
Set in a singularly turbulent and colorful era in European history, at the turning point when medieval gave way to modern, this book is about Tycho Brahe, the Danish nobleman and greatest naked-eye astronomer and his colleague, Johannes Kepler. It is both a highly original dual biography and masterful recreation of how science advances. From Tycho’s fabulous Uraniborg Observatory on an island off the Danish coast to the court of the Holy Roman Emperor, Rudolph II; from the religious conflict of the Thirty Years’ War that rocked all of Europe to Kepler’s extraordinary leaps of understanding, Ferguson recounts a fascinating interplay of science and religion, politics and personality. Her insights recolor the established characters of Tycho and Kepler, and her book opens a rich window into our place in the universe.
VIKING IN THE WHEAT FIELD, THE .
Author: Dworkin, Susan
Country: New York
Language: English
Year Published: 2009
No. of pages: 239
Illustrations: 0 Color Illustrations. 20 B&W Illustrations.
Binding: Hardbound
Size: 9 1/2”x 6”
Weight: 1.00
ISBN: 82717403
Biblio/Bio: Index.
Code: 6963
Price: $19.50
In 1999, a destructive new form of wheat stem rust—spotted in Uganda and dubbed "UG99"—quickly turned robust golden fields into dark, tangled ruins. Unchecked, UG99 could spread all over the world, including the United States. Breeders began searching seed collections for sources of resistance, assisted in large part by the Center for Improvement of Maize and Wheat in Mexico, developed by Danish scientist Bent Skovmand, who for decades had amassed, multiplied, and documented thousands of wheat varieties. Susan Dworkin profiles a scientist who, in an era when breeding information is jealously guarded by corporations and governments, fights to keep his seed bank a center for free, open scientific exchange.