Great Discoveries Series

Um die Mitte des 19. Jahrhunderts entdeckte der Frauenarzt Ignaz Semmelweis Keime als Ursache für das Kindbettfieber und damit für Infektionen. Doch der Hygiene-Pionier wurde damals kaum ernstgenommen. Sherwin B. Nuland erzählt die bewegende Geschichte eines großen Entdeckers und tragischen Genies. Ein wichtiges Stück Medizingeschichte.

The life of Ernest Rutherford, born in colonial New Zealand, reveals a journey from frontier life to becoming a pivotal figure in modern physics. His groundbreaking discoveries include the orbital structure of the atom and the concept of radioactive half-life. Alongside his team, he was the first to split the atom, foreshadowing the development of the atomic bomb. Richard Reeves vividly portrays Rutherford as a warm and approachable man whose contributions significantly shaped the scientific landscape.

Marie Curie remains the only woman to win two Nobel prizes - the first in 1903 for the discovery of radioactivity and the second in 1911 for the discovery of radium and polonium. Her discovery of radium opened the door to the exploration of the atom. What is even more remarkable is that the Nobel prize wasn't awarded to another woman until twenty years later, and it was Marie's daughter - Irene Joliot-Curie - who received it for discovering artificial radioactivity. In turn Irene's daughter, Helene Langevin-Joliot, helped create the first atomic pile in France. The legacy of Marie Curie, her daughter and grand-daughter makes for a fascinating story of the family who released the radioactivity that has transformed our world.

An insightful new book putting Einstein's work in a contemporary context Few figures loom as large as Albert Einstein in our contemporary culture. It is truly remarkable that a man from such humble beginnings, an unemployed dreamer without a future or a job, who was written off by his professors as a hopeless loser, could to dare to scale the heights he reached. In this enlightening book Michio Kaku reasseses Einstein's work by centering on his three great theories - special relativity, general relativity and the Unified Field Theory. The first yielded the equation E =mc2 which is now such a fixture in our culture that it is practically a ubiquitous slogan. But the subsequent theories led to the Big Bang theory and have changed irrevocably the way we perceive time and space. Michio Kaku gives a new, refreshing look at the pioneering work of Einstein, giving a more accurate portrayal of his enduring legacy than previous biographies. As today's advanced physicists continue their intense search to fulfill Einstein's most cherished dream, a 'theory of everything', he is recognised as a prophet who set the agenda for modern physics.

The story of Alan Turing, the persecuted genius who helped break the Enigma code and create the modern computer, and who received a royal pardon in 2013

"A gem…An unforgettable account of one of the great moments in the history of human thought." —Steven PinkerProbing the life and work of Kurt Gödel, Incompleteness indelibly portrays the tortured genius whose vision rocked the stability of mathematical reasoning—and brought him to the edge of madness.

A gripping new scientific biography of the revered Nobel Prize-winning physicist (and curious character) Richard Feynman.

The period from the 5th to the 7th century AD was characterised by far-reaching structural changes that affected the entire west of the Roman Empire. This process used to be regarded by scholars aspart of the dissolution of Roman order, but in current discussions it is nowexamined more critically. The contributions to this volume of conference papers combine approaches from history and literature studies in order to review the changing forms and fields of the establishment of collective identities, and to analyse them in their mutual relationships.

The author expands on his acclaimed trilogy, vividly capturing the tumultuous 18th-century Haitian uprisings and the revolutionary spirit of the time. Focusing on the influential works of Antoine Lavoisier, the narrative intertwines scientific exploration with the fervor of social change, highlighting the interplay between reason and revolution during this pivotal historical period.

21 years passed between Charles Darwim's epiphany that 'natural selection' formed the basis of evolution and the scientist's publication of 'On the Origin of Species'. This text looks at why Darwin delayed the publication and examines what happened during the course of those two decades.