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As the gateway to scientific thinking, an understanding of the scientific method is essential for success and productivity in science. This book is the first synthesis of the practice and the philosophy of the scientific method. It will enable scientists to be better scientists by offering them a deeper understanding of the underpinnings of the scientific method, thereby leading to more productive research and experimentation. It will also give scientists a more accurate perspective on the rationality of the scientific approach and its role in society. Beginning with a discussion of today's 'science wars' and science's presuppositions, the book then explores deductive and inductive logic, probability, statistics, and parsimony, and concludes with an examination of science's powers and limits, and a look at science education. Topics relevant to a variety of disciplines are treated, and clarifying figures, case studies, and chapter summaries enhance the pedagogy. This adeptly executed, comprehensive, yet pragmatic work yields a new synergy suitable for scientists and instructors, and graduate students and advanced undergraduates.
When this work first appeared in 1767, electricity was seen as such a minor aspect of natural philosophy that its investigation was not considered a priority for contemporary scientists. The polymath Joseph Priestley (1733–1804) was one of the few who devoted serious effort to advancing the field. Here he charts the history of electrical study from experiments with amber in ancient Greece to the most recent discoveries. The book comprises explanations of the principal theories of electricity - both historical and contemporary - in addition to a selection of well-known experiments carried out by previous researchers. Priestley also details his own experiments, covering such topics as the colour of electric light, the effects of temperature, and even the musical tone of electrical discharges. One of his most successful works, testifying to the clarity of his explanations, the book remains an important text in the history of science.
Science and the Enlightenment is a general history of eighteenth-century science covering both the physical and life sciences. It places the scientific developments of the century in the cultural context of the Enlightenment and reveals the extent to which scientific ideas permeated the thought of the age. The book takes advantage of topical scholarship, which is rapidly changing our understanding of science during the eighteenth century. In particular it describes how science was organized into fields that were quite different from those we know today. Professor Hankins's work is a much needed addition to the literature on eighteenth-century science. His study is not technical; it will be of interest to all students of the Enlightenment and the history of science, as well as to the general reader with some background in science.
William Thomson, first Baron Kelvin (1824–1907), is best known for devising the Kelvin scale of absolute temperature and for his work on the first and second laws of thermodynamics, though throughout his 53-year career as a mathematical physicist and engineer at the University of Glasgow he investigated a wide range of scientific questions in areas ranging from geology to transatlantic telegraph cables. The extent of his work is revealed in the six volumes of his Mathematical and Physical Papers, published from 1882 until 1911, consisting of articles that appeared in scientific periodicals from 1841 onwards. Volume 1, published in 1882, includes articles from the period 1841–1853 and covers issues relating to heat, especially its linear motion and theories about it. Other topics include aspects of electricity, thermodynamics and research relating to magnetism.
Published in 1858, this memoir recounts the life and work of the natural historian and geologist Hugh Edwin Strickland (1811–53). Written by his father-in-law, the Scottish naturalist Sir William Jardine (1800–74), the book covers Strickland's early childhood, his education at Oxford, his involvement in and influence upon the establishment of the Ray Society and his notable academic pursuits in natural history before his life was tragically cut short by a freak railway accident in 1853, when he was just forty-two. The reader will gain an insight into Strickland's character, his scientific acquaintances, including Henslow and Darwin, and his wide-ranging interests in the area of natural history, including geology, zoology, palaeontology and especially ornithology, demonstrated by his study The Dodo and its Kindred (1848). Drawing upon revealing and informative extracts from Strickland's journals throughout, the book also contains a wide selection of Strickland's shorter scientific writings.
This classic work by F. W. L. Sladen (1876–1921) was published in 1912. Captivated by the bees in the grounds of his home, he produced his first essay on them in 1892, and later began to keep bees and produce honey as a livelihood, at the same time studying and breeding honeybees. Moving in 1912 to Canada, he eventually received the title of Dominion Apiarist, but unfortunately his work was cut short by his sudden death in 1921. When this book was published, there were no detailed accounts of the life cycles of the humble-bee (or bumblebee) species. Sladen provides these, with a guide to distinguishing the different British species (with colour plates which can be viewed at http://www.cambridge.org/9781108075725), and instructions on how to domesticate these important pollinators. Combining the enthusiasm of a naturalist with the precision of a scientist, this work is of continuing interest and importance in environmental studies.