Dava Sobel's Books

The Glass Universe

How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

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The Glass Universe

How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Dava Sobel, the "inspiring" (People), little-known true story of women's landmark contributions to astronomy A New York Times Book Review Notable Book Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, The Economist, Smithsonian, Nature, and NPR's Science Friday Nominated for the PEN/E.O. Wilson Literary Science Writing Award "A joy to read.” —The Wall Street Journal 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. At the outset this group included the wives, sisters, and daughters of the resident astronomers, but soon the female corps included graduates of the new women's colleges—Vassar, Wellesley, and Smith. As photography transformed the practice of astronomy, the ladies turned from computation to studying the stars captured nightly on glass photographic plates. The “glass universe” of half a million plates that Harvard amassed over the ensuing decades—through the generous support of Mrs. Anna Palmer Draper, the widow of a pioneer in stellar photography—enabled the women to make extraordinary discoveries that attracted worldwide acclaim. They helped discern what stars were made of, divided the stars into meaningful categories for further research, and found a way to measure distances across space by starlight. Their ranks included Williamina Fleming, a Scottish woman originally hired as a maid who went on to identify ten novae and more than three hundred variable stars; Annie Jump Cannon, who designed a stellar classification system that was adopted by astronomers the world over and is still in use; and Dr. Cecilia Helena Payne, who in 1956 became the first ever woman professor of astronomy at Harvard—and Harvard’s first female department chair. Elegantly written and enriched by excerpts from letters, diaries, and memoirs, The Glass Universe is the hidden history of the women whose contributions to the burgeoning field of astronomy forever changed our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

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353

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0143111345

ISBN 13

9780143111344

Longitude

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

By: Dava Sobel

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Longitude

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

By: Dava Sobel

The dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of one man's forty-year obsession to find a solution to the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day--"the longitude problem." Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that "the longitude problem" was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives and the increasing fortunes of nations hung on a resolution. One man, John Harrison, in complete opposition to the scientific community, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest and of Harrison's forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.

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Page Count

209

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802779433

ISBN 13

9780802779434

Galileo's Daughter

A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

By: Dava Sobel

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Galileo's Daughter

A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith, and Love

By: Dava Sobel

Presents a biography of the scientist through the surviving letters of his illegitimate daughter Maria Celeste, who wrote him from the Florence convent where she lived from the age of thirteen.

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433

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Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802779654

ISBN 13

9780802779656

And the Sun Stood Still

By: Dava Sobel

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And the Sun Stood Still

By: Dava Sobel

Using her deep knowledge, her skills as a storyteller, and her imagination, Dava Sobel illuminates one of history's most significant and far-reaching meetings. In the spring of 1539, a young German mathematician--Georg Joachim Rheticus--journeyed hundreds of miles to northern Poland to meet the legendary, elderly cleric and reluctant astronomer Nicolaus Copernicus. Some two decades earlier, Copernicus had floated the mind-boggling theory that the Sun, not the Earth, was stationary at the center of the universe, and he was rumored to have crafted a book that could prove it. Though exactly what happened between them can never be known, Rheticus shepherded Copernicus's great work into production and De revolutionibus orbium coelestium ultimately changed the course of human understanding. Dava Sobel imagines their dramatic encounter, and with wit and erudition gives them personality. Through clever and dramatic dialogue, she brings alive the months Rheticus and Copernicus spent together--the one a heretical Lutheran, the other a free-thinking Catholic--and in the process illuminates the historic tension between science and religion. An introduction by Dava Sobel will set the stage, putting the scenes in historical context, and an afterword will describe what happened after Copernicus's book was published detailing the impact it had on science and on civilization.

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Page Count

115

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802716946

ISBN 13

9780802716941

The Planets

By: Dava Sobel

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The Planets

By: Dava Sobel

Dava Sobel's The Glass Universe will be available from Viking in December 2016 With her bestsellers Longitude and Galileo's Daughter, Dava Sobel introduced readers to her rare gift for weaving complex scientific concepts into a compelling narrative. Now Sobel brings her full talents to bear on what is perhaps her most ambitious topic to date-the planets of our solar system. Sobel explores the origins and oddities of the planets through the lens of popular culture, from astrology, mythology, and science fiction to art, music, poetry, biography, and history. Written in her characteristically graceful prose, The Planets is a stunningly original celebration of our solar system and offers a distinctive view of our place in the universe. * A New York Times extended bestseller * A Featured Alternate of the Book-of-the-Month Club, History Book Club, Scientific American Book Club, and Natural Science Book Club * Includes 11 full-color illustrations by artist Lynette R. Cook "[The Planets] lets us fall in love with the heavens all over again." -The New York Times Book Review "Playful . . . lyrical . . . a guided tour so imaginative that we forget we're being educated as we're being entertained." -Newsweek " [Sobel] has outdone her extraordinary talent for keeping readers enthralled. . . . Longitude and Galileo's Daughter were exciting enough, but The Planets has a charm of its own . . . . A splendid and enticing book." -San Francisco Chronicle "A sublime journey. [Sobel's] writing . . . is as bright as the sun and its thinking as star-studded as the cosmos." -The Atlanta Journal-Constitution "An incantatory serenade to the Solar System. Grade A-" -Entertainment Weekly "Like Sobel's [Longitude and Galileo's Daughter] . . . [The Planets] combines masterful storytelling with clear, engaging explanations of the essential scientific facts." -Physics World

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Page Count

290

Publisher

Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1101659483

ISBN 13

9781101659489

Backache

What Exercises Work

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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Backache

What Exercises Work

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

An introduction to helpful exercises to perform to help find relief from backache.

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Page Count

210

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312142811

ISBN 13

9780312142810

The Glass Universe

The Hidden History of the Women Who Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

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The Glass Universe

The Hidden History of the Women Who Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

A biographical orrery - intricate, complex and fascinating' The Observer 'A peerless intellectual biography. The Glass Universe shines and twinkles as brightly as the stars themselves' Economist Bestselling author Dava Sobel returns with a captivating, little-known true story of women in science Before they even had the right to vote, a group of remarkable women were employed by Harvard College Observatory as 'Human Computers' to interpret the observations made via telescope by their male counterparts each night. The author of Longitude, Galileo's Daughter and The Planets shines light on the hidden history of these extraordinary women who changed the burgeoning field of astronomy and our understanding of the stars and our place in the universe.

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Fourth Estate

Published Date

ISBN 10

0007548206

ISBN 13

9780007548200

Galileo's Daughter

A Drama of Science, Faith and Love

By: Dava Sobel

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Galileo's Daughter

A Drama of Science, Faith and Love

By: Dava Sobel

Galileo is seen as one of the greatest scientists ever, but little is known of his illegitimate daughter, Virginia. As a nun, she wrote 120 letters to her father from 1623 to her death from exposure and malnutrition ten years later. This text investigates the father-daughter relationship.

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Page Count

429

Publisher

HarperPerennial

Published Date

ISBN 10

1841154946

ISBN 13

9781841154947

The Elements of Marie Curie

How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science

By: Dava Sobel

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The Elements of Marie Curie

How the Glow of Radium Lit a Path for Women in Science

By: Dava Sobel

The acclaimed Pulitzer Prize finalist and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Galileo’s Daughter crafts a luminous chronicle of the life and work of the most famous woman in the history of science, and the untold story of the many young women trained in her laboratory who were launched into stellar scientific careers of their own “Even now, nearly a century after her death, Marie Curie remains the only female scientist most people can name,” writes Dava Sobel at the opening of her shining portrait of the sole Nobel laureate decorated in two separate fields of science—Physics in 1903 with her husband Pierre and Chemistry by herself in 1911. And yet, Sobel makes clear, as brilliant and creative as she was in the laboratory, Marie Curie was equally passionate outside it. Grieving Pierre’s untimely death in 1906, she took his place as professor of physics at the Sorbonne; devotedly raised two brilliant daughters; drove a van she outfitted with x-ray equipment to the front lines of World War I; befriended Albert Einstein and other luminaries of twentieth-century physics; won support from two U.S. presidents; and inspired generations of young women the world over to pursue science as a way of life. As Sobel did so memorably in her portrait of Galileo through the prism of his daughter, she approaches Marie Curie from a unique angle, narrating her remarkable life of discovery and fame alongside the women who became her legacy—from France’s Marguerite Perey, who discovered the element francium, and Norway’s Ellen Gleditsch, to Mme. Curie’s elder daughter, Irène, winner of the 1935 Nobel Prize in Chemistry. For decades the only woman in the room at international scientific gatherings that probed new theories about the interior of the atom, Marie Curie traveled far and wide, despite constant illness, to share the secrets of radioactivity, a term she coined. Her two triumphant tours of the United States won her admirers for her modesty even as she was mobbed at every stop; her daughters, in Ève’s later recollection, “discovered all at once what the retiring woman with whom they had always lived meant to the world.” With the consummate skill that made bestsellers of Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, and the appreciation for women in science at the heart of her most recent The Glass Universe, Dava Sobel has crafted a radiant biography and a masterpiece of storytelling, illuminating the life and enduring influence of one of the most consequential figures of our time.

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363

Publisher

Grove Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802163831

ISBN 13

9780802163837

Arthritis

The Complete Guide to Relief

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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Arthritis

The Complete Guide to Relief

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

This guide to treating arthritis combines two bestsellers in one, Arthritis: What Really Works and Arthritis: What Exercises Really Work. Together they attempt to provide answers for every arthritis problem: conventional medicine, drugs, alternative therapies, surgery, self-help techniques, diet and 200 pages of illustrated exercise plans.

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Page Count

704

Publisher

Constable

Published Date

ISBN 10

1854879952

ISBN 13

9781854879950

A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

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A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

The bestselling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter tells the story of Nicolaus Copernicus and the revolution in astronomy that changed the world.

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289

Publisher

A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

1408822385

ISBN 13

9781408822388

The Glass Universe

How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

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The Glass Universe

How the Ladies of the Harvard Observatory Took the Measure of the Stars

By: Dava Sobel

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353

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0143111345

ISBN 13

9780143111344

Arthritis, What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief For The Rest Of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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Arthritis, What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief For The Rest Of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

What is the most powerful arthritis treatment ever developed to help restore you to a healthy, pain-free, and vigorous life--for the rest of your life? It's the very same breakthrough that has: --Helped more arthritis sufferers than drugs, surgery, or any other treatment--without dangerous side effects. --Been widely prescribed by medical doctors and other health practitioners. The answer? Exercise. Here are the right exercised for your kind of arthritis, pain-level, age, occupation, and hobbies. And they're the most effective exercises for arthritis available anywhere--rated "best" by arthritis sufferers themselves in an unprecedented nationwide survey...supported by medical doctors...and backed by the latest research. Let Dava Sobel and Arthur C. Klein's Arthritis: What Exercises Work work wonders in ending your arthritis pain--forever!

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222

Publisher

Macmillan

Published Date

ISBN 10

0312130252

ISBN 13

9780312130251

The Planets

By: Dava Sobel

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The Planets

By: Dava Sobel

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290

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Penguin

Published Date

ISBN 10

0142001163

ISBN 13

9780142001165

Galileo's Daughter

A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love

By: Dava Sobel

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Galileo's Daughter

A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love

By: Dava Sobel

Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of Galileo's daughter, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has written a biography unlike any other of the man Albert Einstein called "the father of modern physics- indeed of modern science altogether." Galileo's Daughter also presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as "a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me." Galileo's Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment of a mythic figure whose seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion. Moving between Galileo's grand public life and Maria Celeste's sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity's perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. In that same time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty Years' War tipped fortunes across Europe, one man sought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope. With all the human drama and scientific adventure that distinguished Dava Sobel's previous book Longitude, Galileo's Daughter is an unforgettable story

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436

Publisher

Bloomsbury Publishing USA

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802777473

ISBN 13

9780802777478

A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

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A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionised the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

The bestselling author of Longitude and Galileo's Daughter tells the story of Nicolaus Copernicus and the revolution in astronomy that changed the world.

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289

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A&C Black

Published Date

ISBN 10

1408822385

ISBN 13

9781408822388

The Best American Science Writing 2004

By: Dava Sobel

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The Best American Science Writing 2004

By: Dava Sobel

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).

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292

Publisher

Harper Collins

Published Date

ISBN 10

0060726407

ISBN 13

9780060726409

A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

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A More Perfect Heaven

How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos

By: Dava Sobel

Traces the story of the reclusive sixteenth-century cleric who introduced the revolutionary idea that the Earth orbits the sun, describing the dangerous forces and complicated personalities that marked the publication of Copernicus's findings.

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273

Publisher

Walker & Company

Published Date

ISBN 10

0802717934

ISBN 13

9780802717931

Arthritis: What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life, Even After Drugs and Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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Arthritis: What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life, Even After Drugs and Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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200

Publisher

St. Martin's Griffin

Published Date

ISBN 10

1466843705

ISBN 13

9781466843707

Backache: What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

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Backache: What Exercises Work

Breakthrough Relief for the Rest of Your Life, Even After Drugs & Surgery Have Failed

By: Dava Sobel,Arthur C. Klein

What is the most powerful backache treatment ever developed to help prevent recurring back pain and restore you to a healthy, pain-free life? The answer is exercise. Exercise has: Helped more backache sufferers than drugs, surgery, or any other treatment--without dangerous side effects Been widely prescribed by medical doctors and other health practitioners. Been rated the best source of relief by backache sufferers themselves Been uniformly supported by current medical research Each exercise is explained in words and diagrams so that even a beginner can put together an individualized exercise program that works. Included are: Exercises to relieve acute and chronic plain, plus preventative measures Self evaluation checklists Instructions for increasing activity levels Tips on performing everyday activities without pain Let Dava Sobel and Arthur C. Klein's Backache: What Exercises Work work wonders in ending your back pain. Only this book has the techniques you need.

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St. Martin's Griffin

Published Date

ISBN 10

125006869X

ISBN 13

9781250068699

Maya Lin

Topologies

By: Maya Lin

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Maya Lin

Topologies

By: Maya Lin

The first comprehensive monograph on the acclaimed American artist and architect, known for her environmental works and memorials that distill a tranquil yet texturally rich minimalism. Maya Lin is one of the most important public artists of this century. As an architecture student at Yale, Lin designed the Vietnam Veterans Memorial as a class project, entering it in the largest design competition in American history. Her winning proposal, a V-shaped wall of black stone etched with the names of 58,000 dead soldiers, has since become the most visited memorial in the nation’s capital. This visually rich volume presents 50 projects from the last three decades that demonstrate the scope of Lin’s creative process, featuring her own sketches and drawings and linked by her ideal of making a place for individuals within the landscape. With her environmental works Storm King Wavefield, Eleven-Minute Line (Sweden), and Pin River–Yangtze (Beijing), Lin maintains a balance between art and architecture, drawing inspiration from culturally diverse sources. From the moment she entered the national spotlight with her design for the Vietnam Memorial, Lin has been proposing ways of thinking and imagining that resist categories, genres, and borders.

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National Geographic Books

Published Date

ISBN 10

0847846091

ISBN 13

9780847846092

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