Literature Science Breakthroughs

"Literature & Science Breakthroughs offers strategies for using fiction and non-fiction...to bring all aspects of science to life for children." -- BACK COVER.

"Scientific discoveries are remarkably varied in scope and content--made in the field, on the lab bench, or at the computer, with apparatus as sophisticated as a space-based telescope or as simple as a pencil and paper. But all of the discoveries of science are ultimately disseminated through the written word. In countless professional periodicals and technical treatises, the men and women of science have followed the same writing formula: What did I discover? How can you repeat what I did? What does it mean? This reader, conceived as a companion to "The Sciences: An Integrated Approach," employs the ""Great Ideas in Science"" approach. Science forms a seamless web of knowledge about the universe, and a few overarching concepts (the ""great ideas"") unify astronomy, biology, chemistry, geology, and physics. Our goal is to serve the educational needs of people who will not be scientists but who need some knowledge of science to function as citizens. Throughout this volume you will share in these discoveries, as they were first presented to the public, and you will understand why we believe that science is the greatest ongoing adventure. Robert M. Hazen, research scientist at the Carnegie Institution of Washington's Geophysical Laboratory and Clarence Robinson Professor of Earth Science at George Mason University, received degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard University. Past President of the Mineralogical Society of America, Hazen's recent research focuses on the role of minerals in life's origin and the co-evolution of the geo- and biospheres. James Trefil, Clarence Robinson Professor of Physics at George Mason University, is author of more than 40 books on science for the general public as well as several university level textbooks. He has been involved in a variety of science education projects--from middle school textbooks to the building of science museums. He developed his ideas on scientific literacy as co-author of "The Dictionary of Cultural Literacy.""

Explore the world's most significant, innovative and amazing discoveries in association with the Science Museum. Find out how, when and why vital discoveries took place, and learn more about the people who made the breakthroughs. Learn how the principles they discovered became the basis of inventions and other advances that shaped our history and the way we live today. Find out about the combination of inspiration and perspiration that helped pioneers piece together an ever-deeper understanding of ourselves, our planet and the universe around us. Featuring more than 40 discoveries, from gravity to the circulation of the blood, the Big Bang to the movement of subatomic particles, this brilliant STEM-themed read will get kids interested in the fundamental ideas and laws that make the world go round.

An intriguing and illuminating read for science buffs, those fascinated by the lives and minds of great men and women, and anyone curious about how we came to understand the physical world The ideas, experiments, and inventions of great scientists have revolutionized our understanding of the world around us. Theories, discoveries, and technologies—from relativity, the genetic code, and the periodic table to synthetic drugs, nuclear weapons, and brain scans—have transformed the physical world and our lives. Copernicus, Crick, Watson, Galileo, Marie Curie: these are some of the forty pioneers behind modern science whose stories are explored here. The scientists come from around the globe and represent multiple nationalities—American, English, German, French, Dutch, Czech, Indian, Japanese, and more. Often unorthodox thinkers, they frequently had to struggle against hostile contemporaries to gain recognition for their ideas and discoveries. All the major scientific disciplines are covered, including astronomy, biology, biochemistry, chemistry, computing, ecology, geology, medicine, neurology, physics, and psychology, as well as mathematics.

An extraordinarily accessible, illuminating chronicle of the great moments of scientific discovery in the 20th century, and an exploration into the minds of the remarkable men and women behind them. We know and read the literary masterpieces; how many of us have had the opportunity not only to read but understand the masterpieces of science that describe the very moment of discovery? The last century has seen an explosion of creativity and insight that led to breakthroughs in every field of science: from the theory of relativity to the first quantum model of the atom to the mapping of the structure of DNA, these discoveries profoundly changed how we understand the world and our place in it. Alan Lightman tells the stories of two dozen breakthroughs made by such brilliant scientists as Einstein, Bohr, McClintock and Pauling, among others, drawing on his unique background as a scientist and novelist to reveal the process of scientific discovery at its greatest. He outlines the intellectual and emotional landscape of each discovery, portrays the personalities and human drama of the scientists involved, and explains the significance and impact of the work. Finally, he gives an unprecedented and exhilarating guided tour through each of the original papers.

Many of the scientific breakthroughs of the twentieth century were first reported in the journal Nature. A Century of Nature brings together in one volume Nature's greatest hits—reproductions of seminal contributions that changed science and the world, accompanied by essays written by leading scientists (including four Nobel laureates) that provide historical context for each article, explain its insights in graceful, accessible prose, and celebrate the serendipity of discovery and the rewards of searching for needles in haystacks.

With forty-four newly commissioned articles from an international cast of leading scholars, The Routledge Companion to Literature and Science traces the network of connections among literature, science, technology, mathematics, and medicine. Divided into three main sections, this volume: links diverse literatures to scientific disciplines from Artificial Intelligence to Thermodynamics surveys current theoretical and disciplinary approaches from Animal Studies to Semiotics traces the history and culture of literature and science from Greece and Rome to Postmodernism. Ranging from classical origins and modern revolutions to current developments in cultural science studies and the posthumanities, this indispensible volume offers a comprehensive resource for undergraduates, postgraduates, and researchers. With authoritative, accessible, and succinct treatments of the sciences in their literary dimensions and cultural frameworks, here is the essential guide to this vibrant area of study.

An accessible compendium of the world’s greatest scientists and the stories behind their dramatic breakthroughs From the early Greek mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes through to present-day Nobel Prize winners, this collection charts the great breakthroughs in scientific understanding. Each entry describes the story of the research, the significance of the science, and its impact on the scientific world, along with a résumé of each scientist’s career. From Roger Bacon’s revolutionary work on optics and Copernicus’s heliocentric model of the universe to Feynman diagrams and gravitational waves, this latest book in the award-winning “100” series serves as a short history of world science, illustrated with drawings, diagrams, and photographs.