Smithsonian Treasury of 20th-century Science


Book Description

Preface / S. Dillon Ripley -- Introduction by the editor -- Beyond the Milky Way / Thornton Page -- Advances in astronomical technology / Aden B. Meinel -- The challenge of space exploration / Robert C. Seamans Jr. -- Rocket propulsion / Ralph S. Cooper -- Navigation - from canoes to spaceships / Charles S. Draper -- Some astronomical aspects of life in the universe / Su-shu Huang -- The electron : its intellectual and social significance / Karl T. Compton -- Ultrasonics / Arthur R. Laufer -- Digital computers : their history, operation, and use / E.M. McCormick -- The new uses of the abstract / George A.W. Boehm -- Organic chemistry : a view and a prospect / Alexander Todd -- Earthquakes and related sources of evidence on the earth's internal structure / K.E. Bullen -- The new age of the sea / Philip B. Yeager -- Drilling beneath the deep sea / William E. Benson -- The opening of the Arctic Ocean / James T. Strong -- The IGY in retrospect / Elliott B. Roberts -- The place of genetics in modern biology / George W. Beadle -- Does natural selection continue to operate in modern mankind? / Theodosius Dobzhansky and Gordon Allen -- Man as a maker of new plants and new plant communities / Edgar Anderson -- Some mysteries of life and existence / R.E. Snodgrass -- What is cybernetics? / Donald M. MacKay -- The promise of underwater archeology / George F. Bass -- The carbon-14 method of age determination / Frank H.H. Roberts Jr. -- Jet streams / R. Lee -- An appraisal of cloud seeding as a means of increasing precipitation / Henry G. Houghton -- The science of yesterday, today, and tomorrow / W.F.G. Swann.




National Information Center


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The Reporter


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The Stranger and the Statesman


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"After Smithson's death, nineteenth-century American politicans were given the task of securing his half-million dollars - the equivalent today of fifty million - and then trying to determine how to increase and diffuse knowledge from the muddy, brawling new city of Washington. Burleigh discloses how Smithson's bequest was nearly lost due to fierce battles among many clashing Americans - Southern slavers, state's rights advocates, nation-builders, corrupt frontiersmen, and Anglophobes who argued over whether a gift from an Englishman should even be accepted. She also reveals the efforts of the unsung heroes, mainly former president John Quincy Adams, whose tireless efforts finally saw Smithson's curious notion realized in 1846, with a castle housing the United States' first and greatest cultural and scientific establishment."--BOOK JACKET.




Climate Change: Improvements Needed to Clarify National Priorities and Better Align Them with Federal Funding Decisions


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Climate change poses risks to many environmental and economic systems, including agriculture, infrastructure, and ecosystems. This report examines: (1) federal funding for climate change activities and how these activities are organized; (2) the extent to which methods for defining and reporting climate change funding are interpreted consistently across the federal government; (3) federal climate change strategic priorities, and the extent to which funding is aligned with these priorities; and (4) what options, if any, are available to better align federal climate change funding with strategic priorities. Includes recommendations. Charts and tables. This is a print on demand edition of an important, hard-to-find publication.




Saturday Review


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Hearings


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Archives of the Universe


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An unparalleled history of astronomy presented in the words of the scientists who made the discoveries. Here are the writings of Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Newton, Halley, Hubble, and Einstein, as well as that of dozens of others who have significantly contributed to our picture of the universe. From Aristotle's proof that the Earth is round to the 1998 paper that posited an accelerating universe, this book contains 100 entries spanning the history of astronomy. Award-winning science writer Marcia Bartusiak provides enormously entertaining introductions, putting the material in context and explaining its place in the literature. Archives of the Universe is essential reading for professional astronomers, science history buffs, and backyard stargazers alike.