Bücher von Dava Sobel

The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest: the search for the solution of how to calculate longitude and the unlikely triumph of an English genius. With a Foreword by Neil Armstrong.'Sobel has done the impossible and made horology sexy - no mean feat' New ScientistAnyone alive in the 18th century would have known that 'the longitude problem' was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day - and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution.The quest for a solution had occupied scientists and their patrons for the better part of two centuries when, in 1714, Parliament upped the ante by offering a king's ransom (GBP20,000) to anyone whose method or device proved successful. Countless quacks weighed in with preposterous suggestions. The scientific establishment throughout Europe - from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton - had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution.Full of heroism and chicanery, brilliance and the absurd, LONGITUDE is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation and clockmaking.Note that it has not been possible to include the same picture content that appeared in the original print version.

'Eine fabelhafte Reise durch Raum und Zeit.' Die Zeit John Harrison, ein schottischer Uhrmacher, setzt sich Anfang des 18. Jahrhunderts ein ehrgeiziges, unmöglich erscheinendes Ziel: eine Methode zur Bestimmung des Längen-grads auf See zu entwickeln - ein bis dahin ungelöstes Problem der Navigation auf den Weltmeeren. Über vierzig Jahre arbeitet Harrison wie besessen an der Herstellung eines perfekten Chronometers. Schließlich erlebt er einen beispiellosen Triumph ...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, the "e;inspiring"e; (People), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomyA New York Times Book Review Notable Book of 2017Named one of the best books of the year by NPR,TheEconomist,Smithsonian, Nature,and NPR'sScience FridayNominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award"e;A joy to read.' The Wall Street Journal In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or ';human computers,' to interpret the observations their male counterpartsmade via telescope each night. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's collegesVassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The ';glass universe' of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decadesthrough the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photographyenabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne,who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvardand Harvard's first female department chair. Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universeis the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.