Max Planck Institut für Wissenschaftsgeschichte

Books of 2011

Edited Book

Critical neuroscience: a handbook of the social and cultural contexts of neuroscience

Choudhury, Suparna; Slaby, Jan

'Critical Neuroscience' brings together multi-disciplinary scholars from around the world to explore key social, historical and philosophical studies of neuroscience, and to analyze the socio-cultural implications of recent advances in the field. Mehr

Edited Book

Science and faith within reason: reality, creation, life and design

Navarro, Jaume

In this book leading authors in the field of science and religion, highlight the oft-neglected and profound philosophical foundations that underlie some of the most frequent questions at the boundary between science and religion: the reality of knowledge, and the notions of creation, life and design. Mehr

Edited Book

From earth-bound to satellite: telescopes, skills and networks

Morrison-Low, Alison D.; Dupré, Sven; Johnston, Stephen; Strano, Giorgio

Marking the anniversary of the telescope 's invention, these collected essays highlight a number of significant historical episodes concerning this well-loved instrument, which has played a crucial role in Man 's thinking about his position literally and philosophically in the universe. Mehr

Edited Book

U4 du11-ga-ni sá mu-ni-ib-du11: ancient Near Eastern studies in memory of Blahoslav Hruška

Vacín, Luděk

This collection of papers by Bibek Hruška's friends, students and colleagues was intended as a 'Festschrift' to celebrate his 65th birthday in 2010. Sadly, his life came to an abrupt end almost full two years before. The contributions to this volume reflect Bibek's vast range of scholarly interests very well. Mehr

Edited Book

Cultures of knowledge: technology in Chinese history

Schäfer, Dagmar

Looking at knowledge transmission as a cultural feature, this book isolates and examines the individual factors that affect knowledge in the making and created uniquely Chinese cultures of knowledge. The volume is organized into four sections: Internode, Imperial Court, Agora, and Scholarly Arts. Mehr

Edited Book

One hundred years at the intersection of chemistry and physics: the Fritz Haber Institute of the Max Planck Society 1911 - 2011

Steinhauser, Thomas; James, Jeremiah; Hoffmann, Dieter; Friedrich, Bretislav

The volume, occasioned by the centenary of the Fritz Haber Institute, formerly the Institute for Physical Chemistry and Electrochemistry, covers the institute's scientific and institutional history from its founding until the present. Mehr

Book

Die missionarische Gesellschaft: Mikrostrukturen einer kolonialen Globalisierung

Wendt, Helge

Aus kulturhistorischer Perspektive wird die Gesellschaftsgestaltung durch katholische und protestantische Missionare aus verschiedenen europäischen Kolonialstaaten zwischen 1700 und 1900 nachgezeichnet. Mehr

Edited Book

Silent messengers: the circulation of material objects of knowledge in the Early Modern Low Countries

Dupré, Sven; Lüthy, Christoph

This book speaks about a world of mute objects ranging from plant bulbs, divining rods, and archeological findings to drawn, painted or printed images. Mehr

Edited Book

Bernardino Baldi's In mechanica Aristotelis problemata exercitationes

Nenci, Elio

The "Exercitationes" display a systematic application of Archimedean principles to the explanation of the questions discussed in "Mechanical Problems" illustrating the patchwork character of preclassical mechanics. Mehr

Book

Between Raphael and Galileo: Mutio Oddi and the mathematical culture of late Renaissance Italy

Marr, Alexander

In "Between Raphael and Galileo", Alexander Marr resurrects the career and achievements of Oddi in order to examine the ways in which mathematics, material culture, and the book shaped knowledge, society, and the visual arts in late Renaissance Italy. Mehr

Edited Book

Herausforderung Energie: ausgewählte Vorträge der 126. Versammlung der Gesellschaft Deutscher Naturforscher und Ärzte e. V.

Renn, Jürgen; Schlögl, Robert; Zenner, Hans-Peter

Die Atomdiskussion des Jahres 2011 berührt vielschichtige Aspekte der Energieversorgung. Das Buch bietet dazu aus der Sicht unterschiedlicher Fachdisziplinen aktuell Informationen und Hintergründe in allgemein verständlicher Form. Mehr

Book

Honoré Fabri and the concept of impetus: a bridge between conceptual frameworks

Elazar, Michael

This book discusses the impetus-based physics of the Jesuit natural philosopher and mathematician Honoré Fabri, a senior representative of Jesuit scientists during the period between Galileo's death (1642) and Newton's Principia (1687). Mehr

Edited Book

Saccheri, Gerolamo: Euclide vendicato da ogni neo

De Risi, Vincenzo

Primo volume della collana Mathematica dedicato alla figura del matematico Gerolamo Saccheri (1667-1733), di cui Vincenzo De Risi presenta qui una delle opere fondamentali in una traduzione corredata di apparato critico. Mehr

Book

Hormones of life : endocrinology, the pharmaceutical industry, and the dream of a remedy for sterility, 1930-1970

Nordlund, Christer

In the summer of 1948, the Danish pharmaceutical company Leo called a press conference. The next day, news spread that in collaboration with scientists at the Royal Caroline Hospital in Stockholm, the company had discovered a cure for sterility to be called Gonadex. Mehr

Book

The crafting of the 10.000 things : knowledge and technology in 17th century China

Schäfer, Dagmar

Offering an overview of a thousand years of scholarship, "The Crafting of the 10,000 Things" explains the role of technology and crafts in a culture that had an outstandingly successful tradition in this field and was a crucial influence on the technical development of Europe on the eve of the Industrial Revolution. Mehr

Book

Die Erzeugung des 'ganzen Menschen' : zur Entstehung von Anthropologie und Ästhetik an der Universität Halle im 18. Jahrhundert

Borchers, Stefan

Die Ästhetik wird als eigenständige philosophische Disziplin im zweiten Drittel des 18. Jahrhunderts begründet. Zur gleichen Zeit treibt die Frage nach dem ganzen Menschen die Gemüter um: Eine neue Wissenschaft vom Menschen, die Anthropologie, kündigt sich an. Mehr

Working Group Book

Histories of Scientific Observation

Daston, Lorraine; Lunbeck, Elizabeth

Observation is the most pervasive and fundamental practice of all the modern sciences, both natural and human. Its instruments include not only the naked senses but also tools such as the telescope and microscope, the questionnaire, the photographic plate, the notebook, the glassed-in beehive, and myriad other ingenious inventions designed to make the invisible visible, the evanescent permanent, the abstract concrete. Mehr

Edited Book

Eine Naturgeschichte für das 21. Jahrhundert : hommage à, zu Ehren von, in honor of Hans-Jörg Rheinberger

Azzouni, Safia; Brandt, Christina; Gausemeier, Bernd; Kursell, Julia; Schmidgen, Henning; Wittmann, Barbara

Die in diesem Band versammelten Beiträge machen deutlich, dass sich zu Anfang des 21. Jahrhunderts keine Übereinkunft für die 'Natur' der Naturalien erzielen lässt. Die modernen Lebenswissenschaften haben die Grenze zwischen Natürlichem und Künstlichem ebenso nachhaltig in Frage gestellt wie die Ontologie der Objekte selbst. Mehr

Working Group Book

Neurocultures : glimpses into an expanding universe

Ortega, Francisco; Vidal, Fernando

Neurocultures offers «glimpses» into an expanding universe of knowledge, beliefs and practices characterized by the conviction that human activity is governed by the structure and functioning of the brain. The 1990s were the Decade of the Brain, and the first hundred years of the new millennium have been proclaimed its Century. Mehr

Edited Book

'Fremde' Wissenschaftler im Dritten Reich : die Debye-Affäre im Kontext

Hoffmann, Dieter; Walker, Mark

Ausgehend von der sogenannte »Debye-Affäre« im Frühjahr 2006 analysieren die Autoren nicht nur die wissenschaftlichen und politischen Kontexte im Leben und Werk von Peter Debye, sondern kontrastieren seine Biographie vor allem mit Lebensläufen anderer Wissenschaftler, die im Dritten Reich wirkten. Mehr