The Demon Under the Microscope Book
Score: 4
From 7 Ratings

The Demon Under the Microscope


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Crown
  • File Size : 19,5 Mb
  • Release Date : 2007-08-28
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 354
  • ISBN 10 : 9781400082148

GET BOOK

Download The Demon Under the Microscope Book in PDF and ePub

In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of sulfa, the first antibiotic and the drug that shaped modern medicine. The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness. A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.

The Demon Under the Microscope Book
Score: 4
From 8 Ratings

The Demon Under the Microscope


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Crown
  • File Size : 19,9 Mb
  • Release Date : 2006-09-19
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 352
  • ISBN 10 : 9780307352286

GET BOOK

Download The Demon Under the Microscope Book in PDF and ePub

In The Demon Under the Microscope, Thomas Hager chronicles the dramatic history of sulfa, the first antibiotic and the drug that shaped modern medicine. The Nazis discovered it. The Allies won the war with it. It conquered diseases, changed laws, and single-handedly launched the era of antibiotics. Sulfa saved millions of lives—among them those of Winston Churchill and Franklin Delano Roosevelt Jr.—but its real effects are even more far reaching. Sulfa changed the way new drugs were developed, approved, and sold; transformed the way doctors treated patients; and ushered in the era of modern medicine. The very concept that chemicals created in a lab could cure disease revolutionized medicine, taking it from the treatment of symptoms and discomfort to the eradication of the root cause of illness. A strange and colorful story, The Demon Under the Microscope illuminates the vivid characters, corporate strategy, individual idealism, careful planning, lucky breaks, cynicism, heroism, greed, hard work, and the central (though mistaken) idea that brought sulfa to the world. This is a fascinating scientific tale with all the excitement and intrigue of a great suspense novel.

Ten Drugs Book
Score: 4
From 1 Ratings

Ten Drugs


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Abrams
  • File Size : 16,8 Mb
  • Release Date : 2019-03-05
  • Genre: Medical
  • Pages : 308
  • ISBN 10 : 9781683355311

GET BOOK

Download Ten Drugs Book in PDF and ePub

“The stories are skillfully told and entirely entertaining . . . An expert, mostly feel-good book about modern medicine” from the award-winning author (Kirkus Reviews, starred review). Behind every landmark drug is a story. It could be an oddball researcher’s genius insight, a catalyzing moment in geopolitical history, a new breakthrough technology, or an unexpected but welcome side effect discovered during clinical trials. Piece together these stories, as Thomas Hager does in this remarkable, century-spanning history, and you can trace the evolution of our culture and the practice of medicine. Beginning with opium, the “joy plant,” which has been used for 10,000 years, Hager tells a captivating story of medicine. His subjects include the largely forgotten female pioneer who introduced smallpox inoculation to Britain, the infamous knockout drops, the first antibiotic, which saved countless lives, the first antipsychotic, which helped empty public mental hospitals, Viagra, statins, and the new frontier of monoclonal antibodies. This is a deep, wide-ranging, and wildly entertaining book. “[An] absorbing new book.” —The New York Times Book Review “[A] well-written and engaging chronicle.” —The Wall Street Journal “Lucidly informative and compulsively readable.” —Publishers Weekly “Entertaining [and] insightful.” —Booklist “Well-written, well-researched and fascinating to read Ten Drugs provides an insightful look at how drugs have shaped modern medical practices. Towards the end of the book Hager writes that he ‘came away surprised by some of the things he had learned.’ I had the very same reaction.” —Penny Le Couteur, coauthor of Napoleon’s Buttons: How 17 Molecules Changed History

The Alchemy of Air Book
Score: 4
From 5 Ratings

The Alchemy of Air


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Crown
  • File Size : 15,7 Mb
  • Release Date : 2009-08-18
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 338
  • ISBN 10 : 9780307351791

GET BOOK

Download The Alchemy of Air Book in PDF and ePub

A sweeping history of tragic genius, cutting-edge science, and the Haber-Bosch discovery that changed billions of lives—including your own. At the dawn of the twentieth century, humanity was facing global disaster: Mass starvation was about to become a reality. A call went out to the world’ s scientists to find a solution. This is the story of the two men who found it: brilliant, self-important Fritz Haber and reclusive, alcoholic Carl Bosch. Together they discovered a way to make bread out of air, built city-sized factories, and saved millions of lives. But their epochal triumph came at a price we are still paying. The Haber-Bosch process was also used to make the gunpowder and explosives that killed millions during the two world wars. Both men were vilified during their lives; both, disillusioned and disgraced, died tragically. The Alchemy of Air is the extraordinary, previously untold story of a discovery that changed the way we grow food and the way we make war–and that promises to continue shaping our lives in fundamental and dramatic ways.

Marie Antoinette s World Book

Marie Antoinette s World


  • Author : Will Bashor
  • Publisher : Rowman & Littlefield
  • File Size : 12,6 Mb
  • Release Date : 2020-06-15
  • Genre: History
  • Pages : 320
  • ISBN 10 : 9781538138250

GET BOOK

Download Marie Antoinette s World Book in PDF and ePub

This riveting book explores the little-known intimate life of Marie Antoinette and her milieu in a world filled with intrigue, infidelity, adultery, and sexually transmitted diseases. Will Bashor reveals the intrigue and debauchery of the Bourbon kings from Louis XIII to Louis XV, which were closely intertwined with the expansion of Versailles from a simple hunting lodge to a luxurious and intricately ordered palace. It soon became a retreat for scandalous conspiracies and rendezvous—all hidden from the public eye. When Marie Antoinette arrived, she was quickly drawn into a true viper's nest, encouraged by her imprudent entourage. Bashor shows that her often thoughtless, fantasy-driven, and notorious antics were inevitable given her family history and the alluring influences that surrounded her. Marie Antoinette's frivolous and flamboyant lifestyle prompted a torrent of scathing pamphlets, and Bashor scrutinizes the queen's world to discover what was false, what was possible, and what, although shocking, was most probably true. Readers will be fascinated by this glimpse behind the decorative screens to learn the secret language of the queen’s fan and explore the dark passageways and staircases of endless intrigue at Versailles.

Electric City Book
Score: 4.5
From 2 Ratings

Electric City


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Abrams
  • File Size : 20,5 Mb
  • Release Date : 2021-05-18
  • Genre: Biography & Autobiography
  • Pages : 304
  • ISBN 10 : 9781647000448

GET BOOK

Download Electric City Book in PDF and ePub

The extraordinary, unknown story of two giants of American history—Henry Ford and Thomas Edison—and their attempt to create an electric-powered city of tomorrow on the Tennessee River During the roaring twenties, two of the most revered and influential men in American business proposed to transform one of the country’s poorest regions into a dream technological metropolis, a shining paradise of small farms, giant factories, and sparkling laboratories. Henry Ford and Thomas Edison’s “Detroit of the South” would be ten times the size of Manhattan, powered by renewable energy, and free of air pollution. And it would reshape American society, introducing mass commuting by car, use a new kind of currency called “energy dollars,” and have the added benefit (from Ford and Edison's view) of crippling the growth of socialism. The whole audacious scheme almost came off, with Southerners rallying to support what became known as the Ford Plan. But while some saw it as a way to conjure the future and reinvent the South, others saw it as one of the biggest land swindles of all time. They were all true. Electric City is a rich chronicle of the time and the social backdrop, and offers a fresh look at the lives of the two men who almost saw the project to fruition, the forces that came to oppose them, and what rose in its stead: a new kind of public corporation called the Tennessee Valley Authority, one of the greatest achievements of the New Deal. This is a history for a wide audience, including readers interested in American history, technology, politics, and the future.

Bedeviled Book

Bedeviled


  • Author : Jimena Canales
  • Publisher : Princeton University Press
  • File Size : 16,9 Mb
  • Release Date : 2020-11-10
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 416
  • ISBN 10 : 9780691186078

GET BOOK

Download Bedeviled Book in PDF and ePub

How scientists through the ages have conducted thought experiments using imaginary entities—demons—to test the laws of nature and push the frontiers of what is possible Science may be known for banishing the demons of superstition from the modern world. Yet just as the demon-haunted world was being exorcized by the enlightening power of reason, a new kind of demon mischievously materialized in the scientific imagination itself. Scientists began to employ hypothetical beings to perform certain roles in thought experiments—experiments that can only be done in the imagination—and these impish assistants helped scientists achieve major breakthroughs that pushed forward the frontiers of science and technology. Spanning four centuries of discovery—from René Descartes, whose demon could hijack sensorial reality, to James Clerk Maxwell, whose molecular-sized demon deftly broke the second law of thermodynamics, to Darwin, Einstein, Feynman, and beyond—Jimena Canales tells a shadow history of science and the demons that bedevil it. She reveals how the greatest scientific thinkers used demons to explore problems, test the limits of what is possible, and better understand nature. Their imaginary familiars helped unlock the secrets of entropy, heredity, relativity, quantum mechanics, and other scientific wonders—and continue to inspire breakthroughs in the realms of computer science, artificial intelligence, and economics today. The world may no longer be haunted as it once was, but the demons of the scientific imagination are alive and well, continuing to play a vital role in scientists' efforts to explore the unknown and make the impossible real.

Force of Nature Book

Force of Nature


  • Author : Thomas Hager
  • Publisher : Unknown
  • File Size : 14,7 Mb
  • Release Date : 1995
  • Genre: Chemistry
  • Pages : 736
  • ISBN 10 : UOM:39015035021826

GET BOOK

Download Force of Nature Book in PDF and ePub

In this thoroughly researched biography of one of the greatest American scientists of this century--the only person ever to win two unshared Nobel Prizes--Hager had the full cooperation of his subject, plus unrestricted access to Pauling's personal papers. of photos.

Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging Book

Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging


  • Author : Douglas B. Murphy
  • Publisher : John Wiley & Sons
  • File Size : 12,6 Mb
  • Release Date : 2012-08-22
  • Genre: Medical
  • Pages : 552
  • ISBN 10 : 9781118382936

GET BOOK

Download Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging Book in PDF and ePub

Fundamentals of Light Microscopy and Electronic Imaging, Second Edition provides a coherent introduction to the principles and applications of the integrated optical microscope system, covering both theoretical and practical considerations. It expands and updates discussions of multi-spectral imaging, intensified digital cameras, signal colocalization, and uses of objectives, and offers guidance in the selection of microscopes and electronic cameras, as well as appropriate auxiliary optical systems and fluorescent tags. The book is divided into three sections covering optical principles in diffraction and image formation, basic modes of light microscopy, and components of modern electronic imaging systems and image processing operations. Each chapter introduces relevant theory, followed by descriptions of instrument alignment and image interpretation. This revision includes new chapters on live cell imaging, measurement of protein dynamics, deconvolution microscopy, and interference microscopy. PowerPoint slides of the figures as well as other supplementary materials for instructors are available at a companion website: www.wiley.com/go/murphy/lightmicroscopy

I m Buffy and You re History Book

I m Buffy and You re History


  • Author : Patricia Pender
  • Publisher : Bloomsbury Publishing
  • File Size : 14,5 Mb
  • Release Date : 2016-06-28
  • Genre: Performing Arts
  • Pages : 256
  • ISBN 10 : 9781786730107

GET BOOK

Download I m Buffy and You re History Book in PDF and ePub

Buffy the Vampire Slayer gave contemporary TV viewers an exhilarating alternative to the tired cultural trope of a hapless, attractive blonde woman victimized by a murderous male villain. With its strong, capable heroine, witty dialogue, and a creator (Joss Whedon) who identifies himself as a feminist, the cult show became one of the most widely analysed texts in contemporary popular culture. The last episode, broadcast in 2002, did not herald the passing of a fleeting phenomenon: Buffy is a media presence still, active on DVD and the internet, alive in the career of Joss Whedon and studied internationally. I'm Buffy and You're History puts the entire series under the microscope, investigating its gender and feminist politics.In this book, Patricia Pender argues that Buffy includes diverse elements of feminism and reconfigures - and sometimes revises - the ideals of American second wave feminism for a wide third wave audience. She also explores the ways in which the final season's vision of collective feminist activism negotiates racial and class boundaries.Exploring the Slayer's postmodern politics, her position as a third wave feminist icon, her placing of masculinity in extremis, and her fandom and legacy in popular culture, this is a fresh and challenging contribution to the growing literature on the pitfalls and pleasures of a great cult TV show.

Linus Pauling in His Own Words Book
Score: 3
From 1 Ratings

Linus Pauling in His Own Words


  • Author : Barbara Marinacci
  • Publisher : Simon and Schuster
  • File Size : 11,6 Mb
  • Release Date : 1995-10-30
  • Genre: Philosophy
  • Pages : 330
  • ISBN 10 : 9780684813875

GET BOOK

Download Linus Pauling in His Own Words Book in PDF and ePub

Two-time Nobel Prize winner, Linus Pauling was known for his scientific discoveries and of his breadth of knowledge, which spanned disciplines. The author, who knew Pauling well, has chosen from among more than 60 years of essays, letters, articles, books, speeches and interviews. As Pauling himself says in the Introduction, "This book will take me as close to writing my memoirs or autobiography as I shall ever get".

The Demon in the Machine Book

The Demon in the Machine


  • Author : Paul Davies
  • Publisher : Penguin UK
  • File Size : 15,5 Mb
  • Release Date : 2019-01-31
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 320
  • ISBN 10 : 9780241309605

GET BOOK

Download The Demon in the Machine Book in PDF and ePub

'A gripping new drama in science ... if you want to understand how the concept of life is changing, read this' Professor Andrew Briggs, University of Oxford When Darwin set out to explain the origin of species, he made no attempt to answer the deeper question: what is life? For generations, scientists have struggled to make sense of this fundamental question. Life really does look like magic: even a humble bacterium accomplishes things so dazzling that no human engineer can match it. And yet, huge advances in molecular biology over the past few decades have served only to deepen the mystery. So can life be explained by known physics and chemistry, or do we need something fundamentally new? In this penetrating and wide-ranging new analysis, world-renowned physicist and science communicator Paul Davies searches for answers in a field so new and fast-moving that it lacks a name, a domain where computing, chemistry, quantum physics and nanotechnology intersect. At the heart of these diverse fields, Davies explains, is the concept of information: a quantity with the power to unify biology with physics, transform technology and medicine, and even to illuminate the age-old question of whether we are alone in the universe. From life's murky origins to the microscopic engines that run the cells of our bodies, The Demon in the Machine is a breath-taking journey across the landscape of physics, biology, logic and computing. Weaving together cancer and consciousness, two-headed worms and bird navigation, Davies reveals how biological organisms garner and process information to conjure order out of chaos, opening a window on the secret of life itself.

Miracle Cure Book

Miracle Cure


  • Author : William Rosen
  • Publisher : Penguin
  • File Size : 6,7 Mb
  • Release Date : 2017-05-09
  • Genre: Medical
  • Pages : 368
  • ISBN 10 : 9780698184107

GET BOOK

Download Miracle Cure Book in PDF and ePub

The epic history of how antibiotics were born, saving millions of lives and creating a vast new industry known as Big Pharma. As late as the 1930s, virtually no drug intended for sickness did any good; doctors could set bones, deliver babies, and offer palliative care. That all changed in less than a generation with the discovery and development of a new category of medicine known as antibiotics. By 1955, the age-old evolutionary relationship between humans and microbes had been transformed, trivializing once-deadly infections. William Rosen captures this revolution with all its false starts, lucky surprises, and eccentric characters. He explains why, given the complex nature of bacteria—and their ability to rapidly evolve into new forms—the only way to locate and test potential antibiotic strains is by large-scale, systematic, trial-and-error experimentation. Organizing that research needs large, well-funded organizations and businesses, and so our entire scientific-industrial complex, built around the pharmaceutical company, was born. Timely, engrossing, and eye-opening, Miracle Cure is a must-read science narrative—a drama of enormous range, combining science, technology, politics, and economics to illuminate the reasons behind one of the most dramatic changes in humanity’s relationship with nature since the invention of agriculture ten thousand years ago.

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States Book

Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States


  • Author : National Research Council
  • Publisher : National Academies Press
  • File Size : 9,7 Mb
  • Release Date : 2009-07-29
  • Genre: Law
  • Pages : 348
  • ISBN 10 : 9780309142397

GET BOOK

Download Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States Book in PDF and ePub

Scores of talented and dedicated people serve the forensic science community, performing vitally important work. However, they are often constrained by lack of adequate resources, sound policies, and national support. It is clear that change and advancements, both systematic and scientific, are needed in a number of forensic science disciplines to ensure the reliability of work, establish enforceable standards, and promote best practices with consistent application. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States: A Path Forward provides a detailed plan for addressing these needs and suggests the creation of a new government entity, the National Institute of Forensic Science, to establish and enforce standards within the forensic science community. The benefits of improving and regulating the forensic science disciplines are clear: assisting law enforcement officials, enhancing homeland security, and reducing the risk of wrongful conviction and exoneration. Strengthening Forensic Science in the United States gives a full account of what is needed to advance the forensic science disciplines, including upgrading of systems and organizational structures, better training, widespread adoption of uniform and enforceable best practices, and mandatory certification and accreditation programs. While this book provides an essential call-to-action for congress and policy makers, it also serves as a vital tool for law enforcement agencies, criminal prosecutors and attorneys, and forensic science educators.

The Demon in the Freezer Book
Score: 4
From 38 Ratings

The Demon in the Freezer


  • Author : Richard Preston
  • Publisher : Fawcett
  • File Size : 6,8 Mb
  • Release Date : 2003-08-26
  • Genre: Science
  • Pages : 306
  • ISBN 10 : 9780345466631

GET BOOK

Download The Demon in the Freezer Book in PDF and ePub

“The bard of biological weapons captures the drama of the front lines.”—Richard Danzig, former secretary of the navy The first major bioterror event in the United States-the anthrax attacks in October 2001-was a clarion call for scientists who work with “hot” agents to find ways of protecting civilian populations against biological weapons. In The Demon in the Freezer, his first nonfiction book since The Hot Zone, a #1 New York Times bestseller, Richard Preston takes us into the heart of Usamriid, the United States Army Medical Research Institute of Infectious Diseases at Fort Detrick, Maryland, once the headquarters of the U.S. biological weapons program and now the epicenter of national biodefense. Peter Jahrling, the top scientist at Usamriid, a wry virologist who cut his teeth on Ebola, one of the world’s most lethal emerging viruses, has ORCON security clearance that gives him access to top secret information on bioweapons. His most urgent priority is to develop a drug that will take on smallpox-and win. Eradicated from the planet in 1979 in one of the great triumphs of modern science, the smallpox virus now resides, officially, in only two high-security freezers-at the Centers for Disease Control in Atlanta and in Siberia, at a Russian virology institute called Vector. But the demon in the freezer has been set loose. It is almost certain that illegal stocks are in the possession of hostile states, including Iraq and North Korea. Jahrling is haunted by the thought that biologists in secret labs are using genetic engineering to create a new superpox virus, a smallpox resistant to all vaccines. Usamriid went into a state of Delta Alert on September 11 and activated its emergency response teams when the first anthrax letters were opened in New York and Washington, D.C. Preston reports, in unprecedented detail, on the government’ s response to the attacks and takes us into the ongoing FBI investigation. His story is based on interviews with top-level