Longitude

Biographies & Memoirs

SOBEL, DAVA.

Professionals & Academics

Walker and Company

AN OBSERVER BOOK OF THE YEAR
‘A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves’ The Economist
#1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel returns with a captivating, little-known true story of women in science
In the mid-nineteenth century, the Harvard College Observatory began employing women as calculators, or “human computers,” to interpret the observations their male counterparts made via telescope each night. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the women turned to studying images of the stars captured on glass photographic plates, making extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what the stars were made of, divided them into meaningful categories for further research, and even found a way to measure distances across space by starlight .
Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of a group of remarkable women whose vital contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

The Glass Universe

Community & Culture

Fourth Estate

Trade Pb. Many of Galileo's drawings, letters and instruments. Printed in Great Britain. Biography/Autobiography.

Galileo's Daughter

History

Europe

Walker&Company

LONGITUDE - The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Harper-perennial

Xstranger Than Longitude

BLOOMSBURY

The Glass Universe: The Hidden History of the Women Who Took the Measure of the Stars

What makes the articles found in The Best American Science Writing 2004 "the best"? As Dava Sobel, best-selling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, writes in her introduction, "First and most important, all are extremely well written. This sounds obvious, and it is, but for me it means the pieces impart genuine pleasure via the writers' choice of words and the rhythm of their phrases ... 'I wish I'd written that,' was my own frequent reaction to the articles I ultimately chose."
This year, Jennifer Kahn's "Stripped for Parts" was selected as the lead story because, as Sobel reveals, "it begins with one of the most arresting openings I have ever read." In "Columbia's Last Flight," William Langewiesche recounts the February 1, 2003, space shuttle tragedy, along with the investigation into the nationwide complacency that brought the ship down. K. C. Cole's "Fun with Physics" is a profile of astrophysicist Janet Conrad that blends her personal life with professional activity. In "Desperate Measures," the doctor and writer Atul Gawande profiles the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore, whose experiments in the 1940s and '50s pushed medicine harder and farther than almost anyone had contemplated. Also included is a poem by the legendary John Updike, "Mars as Bright as Venus." The collection ends with Diane Ackerman's "ebullient" essay "We Are All a Part of Nature."
Together these twenty-three articles on a wide range of today's most current topics in science -- from biology, physics, biotechnology, and astronomy, to anthropology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition -- represent the full spectrum of scientific writing from America's most prominent science authors, proving once again that "good science writing is evidently plentiful" (Scientific American).

The Best American Science Writing 2004

Science & Math

Ecco

Jennifer Kahn's "Stripped for Parts" was selected as the lead story of this year's Best American Science Writing because, as Dava Sobel, best-selling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, reveals, "it begins with one of the most arresting openings I have ever read." In "Columbia's Last Flight," William Langewiesche recounts the February 1, 2003, space shuttle tragedy, along with the investigation into the nationwide complacency that brought the ship down. K. C. Cole's "Fun with Physics" is a profile of astrophysicist Janet Conrad that blends her personal life with professional activity. In "Desperate Measures," the doctor and writer Atul Gawande profiles the surgeon Francis Daniels Moore, whose experiments in the 1940s and '50s pushed medicine harder and farther than almost anyone had contemplated. Also included is a poem by the legendary John Updike, "Mars as Bright as Venus." The collection ends with Diane Ackerman's "ebullient" essay "We Are All a Part of Nature."
Together these twenty-three articles on a wide range of today's most current topics in science -- from biology, physics, biotechnology, and astronomy, to anthropology, genetics, evolutionary theory, and cognition‚ represent the full spectrum of scientific writing from America's most prominent science authors, proving once again that "good science writing is evidently plentiful" (Scientific American).

Literature & Fiction

United States

An award-winning science journalist traces the development of the marine chronometer by an obscure, uneducated clock maker--an invention that revolutionized sailing by allowing navigators to determine their ship's longitude. Reprint. Tour.

Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time

Penguin??Books

The tender, inspiring relationship between Galileo and his daughter, a nun, is revealed through letters written between the two. Reprint.

Galileo's Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

Historical

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Books by SOBEL, DAVA.