To see accurate pricing, please choose your delivery country.
 
 
United States
£ GBP
All Shops

British Wildlife

8 issues per year 84 pages per issue Subscription only

British Wildlife is the leading natural history magazine in the UK, providing essential reading for both enthusiast and professional naturalists and wildlife conservationists. Published eight times a year, British Wildlife bridges the gap between popular writing and scientific literature through a combination of long-form articles, regular columns and reports, book reviews and letters.

Subscriptions from £33 per year

Conservation Land Management

4 issues per year 44 pages per issue Subscription only

Conservation Land Management (CLM) is a quarterly magazine that is widely regarded as essential reading for all who are involved in land management for nature conservation, across the British Isles. CLM includes long-form articles, events listings, publication reviews, new product information and updates, reports of conferences and letters.

Subscriptions from £26 per year
Academic & Professional Books  Reference  Physical Sciences  Physical Sciences: General

From Clockwork to Crapshoot A History of Physics

By: Roger G Newton
364 pages, 17 figures
From Clockwork to Crapshoot
Click to have a closer look
Select version
  • From Clockwork to Crapshoot ISBN: 9780674034877 Paperback Apr 2010 Not in stock: Usually dispatched within 6 days
    £26.95
    #182447
  • From Clockwork to Crapshoot ISBN: 9780674023376 Hardback Jan 2007 Out of Print #160700
Selected version: £26.95
About this book Contents Customer reviews Biography Related titles

About this book

Science is about 6000 years old while physics emerged as a distinct branch some 2500 years ago. As scientists discovered virtually countless facts about the world during this great span of time, the manner in which they explained the underlying structure of that world underwent a philosophical evolution. From Clockwork to Crapshoot provides the perspective needed to understand contemporary developments in physics in relation to philosophical traditions as far back as ancient Greece.

Roger Newton, whose previous works have been widely praised for erudition and accessibility, presents a history of physics from the early beginning to our day--with the associated mathematics, astronomy, and chemistry. Along the way, he gives brief explanations of the scientific concepts at issue, biographical thumbnail sketches of the protagonists, and descriptions of the changing instruments that enabled scientists to make their discoveries. He traces a profound change from a deterministic explanation of the world--accepted at least since the time of the ancient Greek and Taoist Chinese civilizations--to the notion of probability, enshrined as the very basis of science with the quantum revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century. With this change, Newton finds another fundamental shift in the focus of physicists--from the cause of dynamics or motion to the basic structure of the world. His work identifies what may well be the defining characteristic of physics in the twenty-first century.

Contents

Prologue 1. Beginnings 2. The Greek Miracle 3. Science in the Middle Ages 4. The First Revolution 5. Newton's Legacy 6. New Physics 7. Relativity 8. Statistical Physics 9. Probability 10. The Quantum Revolution 11. Fields, Nuclei, and Stars 12. The Properties of Matter 13. The Constituents of the Universe Epilogue Notes Sources and Further Reading Index

Customer Reviews

Biography

Roger Newton is Distinguished Professor Emeritus of Physics at Indiana University. His books include Galileo's Pendulum, What Makes Nature Tick, and The Truth of Science (all from Harvard).
By: Roger G Newton
364 pages, 17 figures
Media reviews
Newton's account is superb. He is magnificent at explaining the profound influence of mathematics on the development of physics. The historical relationships between subdisciplines, such as thermodynamics and statistical physics, are illuminated. Numerous biographical sketches add a lively dynamic to an enjoyable book. -- Simon Mitton Times Higher Education Supplement 20070112 This book attempts in one volume to give a history of physics, from the dawn of mankind to the present day. It is a formidable task but one which I believe has been largely successful. -- Peter Ford History of Physics Newsletter From the properties of matter to the constituents of the universe, this book illustrates how discoveries old and new have created modern physics. Science News 20070201
Current promotions
Best of WinterNHBS Moth TrapNew and Forthcoming BooksBuyers Guides