Science: Scientists' Biographies

David Baltimore is one of the most brilliant, powerful, and controversial scientists of our time. In his early sixties, Baltimore has made major discoveries in molecular biology, established the prestigious Whitehead Institute at MIT, been president of Rockefeller University, won the Nobel Prize, and been vilified by detractors in one of the most scandalous and protracted investigations of scientific fraud ever. He is now president of Caltech and a leader in the search for an AIDS vaccine. This book also treats the reader to a lucid account of the amazing revolution that has occurred in biology during the past forty years.

In Antoni van Leeuwenhoek, Master of the Minuscule , the Father of Microbiology is presented in the context of his time, relationships and the Dutch Golden Age. Although he lacked an academic education, he dedicated his life to investigating the microscopic world using handmade, single-lensed microscopes and magnifiers. An expert observer, he planned experiments and designed equipment to test his theories. His pioneering discoveries included blood cells, protozoa, bacteria and spermatozoa, and resulted in an international reputation among the scientific and upper classes of 17th and 18th century Europe, aided by his Fellowship of the Royal Society of London. This lavishly illustrated biography sets his legacy of scientific achievements against the ideas and reactions of his fellow scientists and other contemporaries.

James D. Watson, who shares the Nobel Prize for revealing the structure of DNA, presents a personal account of the making of a scientist. Watson shares the secrets he has found to getting along and getting ahead in a competitive world. Each phase of his life yields age-specific practical advice.

Barbara McClintock became fascinated with science in high school, was drawn to genetics in college, and pursued a career in that field despite the many obstacles in her path. Her meticulous work on the genetics of maize led to a Nobel Prize in 1983. The book focuses on her devotion to her research and her ability to do important work even in a period when women were unwelcome in her field. Though readers with no knowledge of genetics may have trouble following the explanations of her research, the import of McClintock’s work is made apparent.

The journals of early maritime explorers crossing the Atlantic Ocean often described swarms of sea turtles. Many populations had crashed by the 1950s, when Archie Carr and others raised public awareness of their plight. One species, the green turtle, has been the most heavily exploited due to international demand for turtle products, especially green turtle soup. The species has recovered some due to thirty years of conservation efforts, but remains endangered.

The stories behind scientific names and their cultural significance. Ever since Carl Linnaeus’s binomial system of scientific names was adopted, scientists have been naming organisms in ways that often honor or vilify their namesakes. This history reveals the stories behind taxonomic nomenclature, from Linnaeus himself naming a small and unpleasant weed after a rival botanist to the recent influx of scientific names based on pop-culture icons. Stephen B. Heard shows how scientific names reflect the passions and foibles of the scientific community and an indicator of the ways in which humans relate to, and impose order on, the natural world.

Biographies of contemporary physicists. To access click on the title and then click the words "Ebscohost eBook Community College Collection" to go directly to the book.

The brilliant maverick Robert Hooke was an engineer, surveyor, architect, and inventor who worked tirelessly with Christopher Wren to rebuild London after the Great Fire of 1666. He was the first Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society, and his engravings of natural phenomena seen under the new microscope appeared in his masterpiece, the acclaimed Micrographia, one of the most influential volumes of the day. But Hooke's irascible temper and his passionate idealism proved fatal for his relationships with important political figures. As a result, historical greatness eluded Robert Hooke.

In this study, historian Janet Browne delves into the long genesis of Darwin's theories, from his readings as a university student and his five-year voyage on the Beagle, to his debates with contemporaries and experiments in his garden. She explores the shock to Darwin when he read of a competing scientist's similar discoveries, and the wide and immediate impact of Darwin's theories on the world, showing why The Origin of Species can fairly claim to be the greatest science book ever published.

The double helix : a personal account of the discovery of the structure of DNA

The diverse contributions to Environmental History of the Hudson River examine how the natural and physical attributes of the river have influenced human settlement and uses, and how human occupation has, in turn, affected the ecology and environmental health of the river. The Hudson River Valley may be America's premier river environmental laboratory, and by bringing historians and social scientists together with biologists and other physical scientists, this book hopes to foster new ways of looking at and talking about this historically, commercially, and aesthetically important ecosystem.

The true adventures of David Fairchild, a late-nineteenth-century food explorer who traveled the globe and introduced diverse crops like avocados, mangoes, seedless grapes--and thousands more--to the American plate. As a young botanist with an insatiable hunger to explore and experience the world, he set out in search of foods that would enrich the American farmer and enchant the American eater. His culinary ambition came during a formative era, and through him, America's food system was transformed into the most diverse ever.

A portrait of scientist Francis Crick, the co-discoverer of the double helix structure of DNA, traces his life from a middle-class English upbringing and lackluster education to his ultimate history-making journey into the field of biology.

Describes the early lives and notable achievements of five black scientists, Susan McKinney Steward, George Washington Carver, Ernest Everett Just, Percy Lavon Julian, and Shirley Ann Jackson.

A biography of the nineteenth-century Austrian monk who discovered the laws of genetics.

This book explores the controversial life and scientific contributions of Alfred Russel Wallace - Victorian traveler, scientist, spiritualist, and co-discover with Charles Darwin of natural selection. After examining his early years, the biography turns to Wallace's twelve years of often harrowing travels in the tropics. Tracing step-by-step his discovery of natural selection the book then follows the remaining fifty years of Wallace's eccentric and entertaining life.

An illuminating memoir of a woman in science; a moving portrait of a longtime friendship; and a stunningly fresh look at plants that will forever change how you see the natural world. Jahren's probing look at plants, her astonishing tenacity of spirit, and her acute insights on nature enliven every page of this extraordinary book.

The story of the man who achieved one of the greatest feats of our era--the mapping of the human genome. The tale involves as much politics (personal and political) as science. Venter also describes the other startling projects he has conducted since his team mapped the human genome.

A pioneering scientist describes her challenge as a working wife, single parent, and field biologist studying forest treetops around the world.

David Lack, the father of evolutionary ecology and an acclaimed ornithologist. Almost all general biology texts have a figure showing the beak size differences among the finches of the Galapagos Islands from Lack's 1947 classic, Darwin's Finches. Lack's pioneering conclusions in Darwin's Finches mark the beginning of a new scientific discipline, evolutionary ecology. The Life of David Lack, Father of Evolutionary Ecology based on Ted Anderson's personal interviews with colleagues, family members and former students as well as material in the extensive Lack Archive at Oxford University.

Bonner's scientific interests are nearly as varied as the concerns of biology, ranging from animal culture to evolution, from life cycles to the development of slime molds. And the cast of characters he introduces is equally diverse, among them Julian Huxley, J.B.S. Haldane, Leon Trotsky, and Evelyn Waugh.

The Madame Curie Complex gives fresh insight into the barriers and successes for women in science, and sheds light on the way our cultural ideas of gender have shaped the profession.

As part of the team who isolated a gene from a chromosome of a living organism, Jon Beckwith warned in 1969 against the dangers of genetic engineering. His treatise on science's social responsibility covers his history to the present day, including his conviction that research--while necessary and ambivalent in and of itself--can have unforeseen social outcomes.

In this book, Georgina Ferry tells the extraordinary story of the father of molecular biology, Max Perutz, whose famous research team uncovered the structure of DNA.

David Oshinsky tells the gripping story of the polio terror and of the intense effort to find a cure, from the March of Dimes to the discovery of the Salk and Sabin vaccines and beyond. Drawing on newly available papers of Jonas Salk, Albert Sabin and other key players, A suspenseful portrait of the race for the cure, a dramatic tale centered on the furious rivalry between Salk and Sabin. Includes the story of Isabel Morgan, perhaps the most talented of all polio researchers, who might have beaten Salk to the prize if she had not retired to raise a family.

In Rachel Carson and Her Sisters, Robert K. Musil examines the achievements of environmental scientist Rachel Carson, linking her work to many American women activists and writers. Rachel Carson combined two longstanding strands of American environmentalism—love of nature and concern for human health. Carson is often perceived as a solitary “great woman,” whose work single-handedly launched a modern environmental movement. Musil demonstrates that Carson's work drew upon and was supported by already existing movements, many led by women, in conservation and public health. This book describes Carson's environmental legacy and the achievements of women writers and advocates, such as Ellen Swallow Richards, Dr. Alice Hamilton, Terry Tempest Williams, Sandra Steingraber, Devra Davis, and Theo Colborn, all of whom overcame obstacles to build and lead the modern American environmental movement.

In 1962, Maurice Wilkins, Francis Crick, and James Watson received the Nobel Prize, but it was Rosalind Franklin's data and photographs of DNA that led to their discovery. Brenda Maddox tells a powerful story of a remarkably single-minded, forthright, and tempestuous young woman who, at the age of fifteen, decided she was going to be a scientist, but who was airbrushed out of the greatest scientific discovery of the twentieth century.

Rosalind Franklin's research was central to the discovery of the double-helix structure of DNA. She never received the credit she was due during her lifetime. In this classic work Anne Sayre, a journalist and close friend of Franklin, puts the record straight.

English scientist Rosalind Franklin is remembered for making the X-ray diffraction image that led to Watson and Crick's discovery of the structure of DNA. She died of cancer at 37, never knowing that they had seen that image or that it had been crucial to their breakthrough. This is a story of a woman becoming a scientist in an age when that was still unusual and of the complex dynamics of personalities in a field sometimes thought of as impersonal.

Although devoted naturalist Gerd Heinrich specialized in wasps, Bernd Heinrich distanced himself from his father, becoming a hybrid: a modern, experimental biologist with a naturalist's sensibilities. In this extraordinary memoir, the author shares the ways his relationship with his father, combined with his unique childhood, molded him into the scientist, and man, he is today. From Gerd's days as a soldier in Europe and the family's daring escape from the Red Army in 1945 to the rustic Maine farm they came to call home, Heinrich makes science accessible and awe-inspiring.

Barbara McClintock was a geneticist who integrated classical genetics with microscopic observations of the behavior of chromosomes - regarded as a genius and as an unorthodox, nearly incomprehensible thinker. In 1946, she discovered mobile genetic elements, which she called "controlling elements." Thirty-seven years later, she won a Nobel Prize for this work. Using McClintock's research notes, newly available correspondence, and dozens of interviews with McClintock and others, Comfort shows that McClintock's work was neither ignored in the 1950s nor wholly accepted two decades later. Nor was McClintock marginalized by scientists; throughout the decades of her alleged rejection, she remained a distinguished figure in her field. Comfort replaces the "McClintock myth" with a new story, rich with implications for our understanding of women in science and scientific creativity.

This book introduces Thomas Edison and some of his most important inventions and explains how he changed the way we live.