Natural World Hero Image
Natural World

Nature From Within

Gustav Theodor Fechner And His Psychophysical Worldview
Format: Paperback
Pages: 456
ISBN: 9780822965473
Pub Date: 18 May 2018
Description:
Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801-1887) was a German physicist, psychologist, and philosopher, best known to historians of science as the founder of psychophysics, the experimental study of the relation between mental and physical processes. Michael Heidelberger's exhaustive exploration of Fechner's writings, in relation to current issues in the field, successfully reestablishes Fechner's place in the history and philosophy of science.
Vision, Science and Literature, 1870-1920 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 312
ISBN: 9780822965466
Pub Date: 11 May 2018
Description:
This book explores the role of vision and the culture of observation in Victorian and modernist ways of seeing. Willis charts the characterization of vision through four organizing principles—small, large, past and future—to survey Victorian conceptions of what vision was. He then explores how this Victorian vision influenced twentieth-century ways of seeing, when anxieties over visual "truth" became entwined with modernist rejections of objectivity.
Love, Order, and Progress Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9780822945222
Pub Date: 07 May 2018
Description:
Auguste Comte's doctrine of positivism was both a philosophy of science and a political philosophy designed to organize a new, secular, stable society based on positive or scientific, ideas, rather than the theological dogmas and metaphysical speculations associated with the ancien regime. This volume offers the most comprehensive English-language overview of Auguste Comte's philosophy, the relation of his work to the sciences of his day, and the extensive, continuing impact of his thinking on philosophy and especially secular political movements in Europe, Latin America, and Asia. Contributors consider Comte’s reasons for establishing a Religion of Humanity as well as his views on domestic life and the arts in his positivist utopia.
James Watt, Chemist Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780822965305
Pub Date: 26 Feb 2018
Description:
In the Victorian era, James Watt became an iconic engineer, but in his own time he was also an influential chemist. Miller examines Watt’s illustrious engineering career in light of his parallel interest in chemistry, arguing that Watt’s conception of steam engineering relied upon chemical understandings.Part I of the book—Representations—examines the way James Watt has been portrayed over time, emphasizing sculptural, pictorial and textual representations from the nineteenth century.
Shale Dilemma, The Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 416
ISBN: 9780822945130
Pub Date: 15 Feb 2018
Description:
The US shale boom and efforts by other countries to exploit their shale resources could reshape energy and environmental landscapes across the world. But how might those landscapes change? Will countries with significant physical reserves try to exploit them?
Science in an Extreme Environment Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 296
ISBN: 9780822945116
Pub Date: 07 Feb 2018
Illustrations: 16 b&w Illustrations
Description:
On February 20, 1963, a team of nineteen Americans embarked on the first expedition that would combine high-altitude climbing with scientific research. The primary objective of the six scientists on the team—who procured funding by appealing to the military and political applications of their work—was to study how severe stress at high altitudes affected human behavior. The expedition would land the first American on the summit of Mount Everest nearly three years after a successful (though widely disputed) Chinese ascent.
Domesticating Electricity Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 304
ISBN: 9780822965299
Pub Date: 05 Feb 2018
Description:
This is an innovative and original socio-cultural study of the history of electricity during the late Victorian and Edward periods. Gooday shows how technology, authority and gender interacted in pre-World War I Britain. The rapid take-up of electrical light and domestic appliances on both sides of the Atlantic had a wide-ranging effect on consumer habits and the division of labour within the home.
Brewing Science, Technology and Print, 1700-1880 Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 320
ISBN: 9780822965312
Pub Date: 23 Jan 2018
Description:
How did the brewing of beer become a scientific process? Sumner explores this question by charting the theory and practice of the trade in Britain and Ireland during the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.From an oral culture derived from home-based skills, brewing industrialized rapidly and developed an extensive trade literature, based increasingly on the authority of chemical experiment.
Correspondence of John Tyndall, Volume 3, The Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 656
ISBN: 9780822945093
Pub Date: 29 Dec 2017
Series: The Correspondence of John Tyndall
Description:
As this volume begins, John Tyndall was a PhD student living in Marburg. He was unknown, almost broke, and working himself to the brink of mental and physical exhaustion in his determination to forge a reputation in science. In the period covered by this volume, he completed his degree, published his first scientific papers, became a regular participant in the British Association meetings, established friendships with leading men of science in Berlin and London, was elected Fellow of the Royal Society, and applied for, but failed to obtain, various scientific positions.
Water in Kentucky Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 256
ISBN: 9780813175157
Pub Date: 31 Oct 2017
Illustrations: 131 color photographs, 4 tables
Description:
Home to sprawling Appalachian forests, rolling prairies, and the longest cave system in the world, Kentucky is among the most ecologically diverse states in the nation. Lakes, rivers, and springs have shaped and nourished life in the Commonwealth for centuries, and water has played a pivotal role in determining Kentucky's physical, cultural, and economic landscapes. The management and preservation of this precious natural resource remain a priority for the state's government and citizens.
Pathways to Our Sustainable Future Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 328
ISBN: 9780822965015
Pub Date: 25 Sep 2017
Illustrations: 4 color, 16 b&w Illustrations
Description:
Pittsburgh has a rich history of social consciousness in calls for justice and equity. Today, the movement for more sustainable practices is rising in Pittsburgh. Against a backdrop of Marcellus shale gas development, initiatives emerge for a sustainable and resilient response to the climate change and pollution challenges of the twenty-first century.
Molluscs in Archaeology Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 448
ISBN: 9781785706080
Pub Date: 30 Jun 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Description:
The subject of ‘Molluscs in Archaeology’ has not been dealt with collectively for several decades as most previous volumes in this subject area have been confined to studies of either land or marine molluscs, or mollusc shells as artefacts. The 23 specially commissioned papers presented here address many aspects of molluscs in archaeology. Marine molluscs are a common find on archaeological sites, where they may represent food waste or their shells having been utilised as tools, artefacts and ornaments.
Human and Animal Cognition in Early Modern Philosophy and Medicine Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 408
ISBN: 9780822944720
Pub Date: 19 Jun 2017
Description:
From the sixteenth to the eighteenth century, new anatomical investigations of the brain and the nervous system, together with a renewed interest in comparative anatomy, allowed doctors and philosophers to ground their theories on sense perception, the emergence of human intelligence, and the soul/body relationship in modern science. They investigated the anatomical structures and the physiological processes underlying the rise, differentiation, and articulation of human cognitive activities, and looked for the "anatomical roots" of the specificity of human intelligence when compared to other forms of animal sensibility.This edited volume focuses on medical and philosophical debates on human intelligence and animal perception in the early modern age, providing fresh insights into the influence of medical discourse on the rise of modern philosophical anthropology.
Foundations of Scientific Inference, The Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 208
ISBN: 9780822964568
Pub Date: 16 Jun 2017
Description:
After its publication in 1967, The Foundations of Scientific Inference taught a generation of students and researchers about the problem of induction, the interpretation of probability, and confirmation theory. Fifty years later, Wesley C. Salmon’s book remains one of the clearest introductions to these fundamental problems in the philosophy of science.
Science Museums in Transition Cover
Format: Hardback
Pages: 368
ISBN: 9780822944751
Pub Date: 13 Jun 2017
Description:
The nineteenth century witnessed a dramatic shift in the display and dissemination of natural knowledge across Britain and America, from private collections of miscellaneous artifacts and objects to public exhibitions and state-sponsored museums. The science museum as we know it - an institution of expert knowledge built to inform a lay public - was still very much in formation during this dynamic period. Science Museums in Transition provides a nuanced, comparative study of the diverse places and spaces in which science was displayed at a time when science and spectacle were still deeply intertwined; when leading naturalists, curators, and popular showmen were debating both how to display their knowledge and how and whether they should profit from scientific work; and when ideals of nationalism, class politics, and democracy were permeating the museum's walls.
Experimentation and Reconstruction in Environmental Archaeology Cover
Format: Paperback
Pages: 278
ISBN: 9780946897230
Pub Date: 31 May 2017
Imprint: Oxbow Books
Illustrations: figs and photos. ISBN 0 946897 22 0. Pb
Description:
Eighteen papers and six abstracts from the ninth symposium of the Association of Environmental Archaeology held at Roskilde, Denmark, in 1988.