The Life And Work Of James Bradley

The Life and Work of James Bradley: The New Foundations of 18th Century Astronomy is the first major work on the life and achievements of James Bradley for 190 years. This book offers a new perspective and new interpretations of previously published materials, together with various insights about recently researched sources. This book is a complete account of the life and work of Bradley as discerned from surviving documents of his working archive, as well as other documents and records. In addition, it offers a new interpretation of Bradley's work as an astronomer, not merely from his observations of Jupiter and Saturn and their satellites and annual aberration and the nutation of the Earth's axis, but also his corroborative work with pendulums and other horological work with George Graham. It also explores the little amount documented about his private life including a degree of speculation about his personal relationships. This work on 18th century astronomy is intended for students of the history of science, astronomy and 18th century English society, and for scholars seeking new lines of inquiry. It contains an extensive bibliography and a detailed chronology, both of which offer support for further reading and research.

Greenwich has been a centre for scientific computing since the foundation of the Royal Observatory in 1675. Early Astronomers Royal gathered astronomical data with the purpose of enabling navigators to compute their longitude at sea. Nevil Maskelyne in the 18th century organised the work of computing tables for the Nautical Almanac, anticipating later methods used in safety-critical computing systems. The 19th century saw influential critiques of Charles Babbage’s mechanical calculating engines, and in the 20th century Leslie Comrie and others pioneered the automation of computation. The arrival of the Royal Naval College in 1873 and the University of Greenwich in 1999 has brought more mathematicians and different kinds of mathematics to Greenwich. In the 21st century computational mathematics has found many new applications. This book presents an account of the mathematicians who worked at Greenwich and their achievements. Features A scholarly but accessible history of mathematics at Greenwich, from the seventeenth century to the present day, with each chapter written by an expert in the field The book will appeal to astronomical and naval historians as well as historians of mathematics and scientific computing.

A provocative, urgent novel about time, family and how a changing planet might change our lives, from James Bradley, acclaimed author of The Resurrectionist and editor of The Penguin Book of the Ocean. Compelling, challenging and resilient, over ten beautifully contained chapters, Clade canvasses three generations from the very near future to late this century. Central to the novel is the family of Adam, a scientist, and his wife Ellie, an artist. Clade opens with them wanting a child and Adam in a quandary about the wisdom of this. Their daughter proves to be an elusive little girl and then a troubled teenager, and by now cracks have appeared in her parents' marriage. Their grandson is in turn a troubled boy, but when his character reappears as an adult he's an astronomer, one set to discover something astounding in the universe. With great skill James Bradley shifts us subtly forward through the decades, through disasters and plagues, miraculous small moments and acts of great courage. Elegant, evocative, understated and thought-provoking, it is the work of a writer in command of the major themes of our time. ‘Epic . . . Riveting.’ Missy Higgins 'Clade opens up to become that rarest of novels: one that stares down its harrowing beginning to find a sense of peace and even of wonder, while being true to itself. All the way through, the prose is achingly beautiful. Bradley's a magnificent writer and it's all on display here: sentences and images float, poetic and sharp as crystal.' The Saturday Paper 'James Bradley's lithe and inventive novels defiantly resist the present . . . Clade triumphs because Bradley renders his characters graspable . . . prioritises the human touch . . . It is impossible not to be swept along by the sheer pace of the narrative . . . [There is] a palpable sense of urgency and consequence that is conveyed subtly, without any heavy-handed didacticism or sententiousness.' Malcolm Forbes, The Australian 'Before it is about anything else, Clade is about family . . . There's a real Dickensian sweep to both its structure and its passionate despair about humanity's dearth of improvement or compassion . . . Complex and beautifully paced, Clade is the first great novel of climate change. So well does it predict our possible future, it is unlikely to be the last.' James Tierney, Kill Your Darlings 'A melodic, intense rendering . . . sharp, inventive and ultimately hopeful.' Herald Sun '[Bradley's] attitude is sanguine . . . Time is long and the universe is vast: while the novel deals throughout in very familiar human emotions, it sets them finally in a thought-provokingly wider perspective.' Katharine England, The Advertiser (Adelaide) 'Provocative . . . Haunting.' John Affleck, Weekend Gold Coast Bulletin 'A compelling story of the triumph of hope over devastation . . . Clade is a visionary book.' Elaine Fry, West Australian 'A remarkable and important novel.' Surf Coast Times 'In these relentless, brilliantly imagined apprehensions, Clade's foretellings movingly bind the reader to the lives we all-too-human spirits live—and may live. This is the unstinting dreaming and devoted craft-work of a deeply serious, marvelously accomplished artist taking on the absolutely essential.' Thomas Farber, author of Brief Nudity, On Water and The Beholder 'A beautifully written meditation on climate collapse, concentrating on three generations of an Australian family. Bradley skilfully evokes the particularity of lived experience, and the novel is full of vivid little moments, although its real triumph is in setting these in their larger context: a world wrecked by storms and floods, changes in vegetation and the collapse of bird and bee populations . . . Bradley's short, intense novel is as much a hymn to hope as it is a warning.' New Scientist '[Clade] is among the most literate and humane contributions to that slowly emerging tradition of what is sometimes called ''slow apocalypse'' fiction . . . It's his astute management of chronology, as each section leaps years ahead of the preceding one, that generates the novel's haunting and elegiac feeling, making it a near-epic of loss, remembrance, and steadily diminishing hope.' Gary K. Wolfe, Locus online 'What is really important in this novel is not these brilliantly rendered future disaster scenarios, but the way epic events are juxtaposed with very human stories. Clade is a book full of people struggling to find connections, not only with each other, but the wider world around them . . . There is a beauty in the way Bradley depicts sadness with such truthfulness and honesty. And in very important ways Clade is, in fact, a hopeful novel. It is a book that depicts human life and love as a shining star in the great dark abyss of time . . . Clade is not a novel about what is lost, but what we can never lose.' Luke Brown, sffworld.com 'In Australia, there is no one like [Bradley] in the imagining of the imminent end time of the way we live now.' Sydney Review of Books

"Deep Water is a major achievement....Bradley's skills both as novelist and essayist converge here to create this wise, compassionate and urgent book, characterized throughout by a clarity of prose and a bracing moral gaze that searches water, self and reader." —ROBERT MACFARLANE, bestselling author of Underland In this thrilling work—a blend of history, science, nature writing, and environmentalism—acclaimed writer James Bradley plunges into the unknown to explore the deepest recesses of the natural world. Seventy-one percent of the earth’s surface is ocean. These waters created, shaped, and continue to sustain not just human life, but all life on Planet Earth, and perhaps beyond it. They serve as the stage for our cultural history—driving human development from evolution through exploration, colonialism, and the modern era of global leisure and trade. They are also the harbingers of the future—much of life on Earth cannot survive if sea levels are too low or too high, temperatures too cold or too warm. Our oceans are vast spaces of immense wonder and beauty, and our relationship to them is innate and awe inspired. Deep Water is both a lyrically written personal meditation and an intriguing wide-ranging reported epic that reckons with our complex connection to the seas. It is a story shaped by tidal movements and deep currents, lit by the insights of philosophers, scientists, artists and other great minds. Bradley takes readers from the atomic creation of the oceans, to the wonders within, such as fish migrations guided by electromagnetic sensing. He describes the impacts of human population shifts by boat and speaks directly and uncompromisingly to the environmental catastrophe that is already impacting our lives. It is also a celebration of the ocean’s glories and the extraordinary efforts of the scientists and researchers who are unlocking its secrets. These myriad strands are woven together into a tapestry of life that captures not only our relationship with the planet, but our past, and perhaps most importantly, what lies ahead for us. A brilliant blend of Robert MacFarlane’s Underland, Susan Casey’s The Underworld, and Simon Winchester’s Pacific and The Atlantic, Deep Water taps into the essence of our planet and who we are.

Profiles more than 130 scientists from around the world who made important contributions in the fields of space and astronomy, including John Couch Adams, Albert Einstein, and Plato.