The present age is sometimes called the Scientific Age. This does not imply that every member of the community is an expert scientist—far from it. It does mean, however, that the labours of the scientists have given the age certain features which influence the life of every citizen to some degree. Accordingly it is desirable that as many as possible should have some understanding of the scientists' work, of their aims, their point of view, and their methods. If we had a wishing-rug or some sort of spare-time car that could transport us at will to any place and time, we might visit the scientists of every age, see them at work, listen to their discussions, and even take a hand in the proceedings. The wishing-rug is not available but the literature of science will serve the purpose for anyone who will do the necessary searching, reading, and thinking. Unfortunately, some of that literature is decidedly inaccessible. To meet the difficulty this book has been written in the hope of bringing some of the most important passages of the literature of science within the reach of everyone. Every past of the vast edifice of science is necessarily the work of some human being, and most of us become more interested in the building, and are able to understand and appreciate it better when we know who were the architects and builders and when, how, and why they did their work. The story of science is a noble epic of the struggle of man from ignorance toward knowledge and wisdom and toward the mastery of nature and of himself. One purpose of science is to systematize experience, and a knowledge of the story of science has helped many in that process of organization. This book, therefore, offers the reader a cordial invitation to embark on a tour of visits with great scientists to learn from them the parts they played in the advancement of science and of the human race. Here is a treasure-house of fascinating information for all who are interested in the world around us, and the history of man's understanding of it.

Everyone knows that the universe is extremely old and extremely large. But how did scientists determine just how old and how large? How do astronomers know that there are upwards of 100 billion galaxies in the universe if the nearest one is over 40,000 light-years away? How do we know what the stars are made of? The answer is that our current knowledge of the universe has arisen from the work and ideas of scientists and philosophers over hundreds of years. While it's only been during the last several decades that scientists have had the technology and theories to really understand how the universe works, humans have thought about such issues for millennia. And the scientists who today are attempting to understand the most complex issues of the universe build upon the work and thought of the thinkers of the last hundreds of years. The Cosmos: A Historical Perspective provides an accessible introduction to the many ways humans have conceived of the universe throughout history and what ideas have led to our current understanding of the cosmos. The book examines: the Scientific Revolution and the new ideas of the Earth's place in the cosmos; the importance of nineteenth-century physics and chemistry in determining the compositions of stars; Einstein's Theory of Relativity and how it altered how scientists thought about gravity; and new, cutting-edge science that may alter, yet again, our conceptions of the cosmos, such as the inflationary universe and the possibility of dark energy. Jargon and mathematics is kept to a minimum, and the volume includes an annotated bibliography and a timeline. The Cosmos is an ideal introduction for students studying space science and the history and nature of the scientific understanding of the universe.

This essay explores key features of the intensification of animal production in relation to animal welfare and animal ethics. It looks at some traditional ethical ideas about animal care in order to help explain why the intensification of animal production has become such a prominent social and ethical issue. It suggests that some of the standard claims made by critics of intensive animal production are seriously flawed, and proposes an alternative interpretation to account for some of the key developments in the intensification of animal production. Finally, it explores how this interpretation, if correct, leads us to a different set of actions to address animal welfare concerns in intensive production systems.

Relating the story of the transatlantic struggle for subnuclear domination, The Quark Machines: How Europe Fought the Particle Physics War, Second Edition covers the history, the politics, and the personalities of particle physics. Extensively illustrated with many original photographs of the key players in the field, the book sheds new light on the sovereignty issues of modern scientific research as well as the insights it has produced. Throughout the twentieth century, Europe and the United States have vied for supremacy of subnuclear physics. Initially, the advent of World War II and an enforced exodus of scientific talent from Europe boosted American efforts. Then, buoyed along by the need to develop the bomb and the ensuing distrust of the Cold War, the United States vaulted into a commanding role-a position it retained for almost fifty years. Throughout this period, each new particle accelerator was a major campaign, each new particle a battle won. With the end of the Cold War, U.S. preeminence evaporated and Europe retook the advantage. Now CERN, for four decades the spearhead of the European fightback, stands as the leading global particle physics center. Today, particle physics is at a turning point in its history-how well Europe retains its advantage remains to be seen.

The Arab-Israeli conflict has been one of the most defining features of recent world history, flaring up into open war fare yet again in Gaza at the end of 2008 and provoking large-scale demonstrations in the streets of cities across the world. The decision in 1919 by the Paris Peace Conference to award the Mandate for Palestine to Great Britain—which had announced its commitment to the creation of a national home for the Jewish people in the Balfour Declaration two years previously—sowed the seeds of this seemingly intractable problem, yet when the Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann (1874-1952) spoke before the Conference on 27 February 1919, he would have appeared as only one of the many representatives of minor nationalities putting their case to the peacemakers, and, what is more, one whose people had no territory of their own. How a Jewish chemistry professor from an obscure part of Eastern Europe could find himself at the heart of international diplomacy, and later become the first president of the State of Israel, is one of the most fascinating stories of the Paris Peace Conference and its aftermath. Ninety years after the Conference, what Weizmann said and did there is an essential part of our understanding of how this small, but critical, part of the world evolved out of the deliberations.

A reprint of a book originally published in 1964, with new contributions setting a modern context. The original book is comprised of 10 chapters covering and describing the methods of intensive farming of poultry and livestock during the 1960s. It was aimed at creating awareness regarding the production of animals under artificial and damaging conditions that prevail in factory-like installations. Focus is given on broiler chickens, poultry packing stations, battery birds, veal calves, basis of quality, quantity versus quality and animal cruelty and legislation.