Robert Meynell's Books

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science

By: Robert K. Merton,Elinor Barber

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The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

A Study in Sociological Semantics and the Sociology of Science

By: Robert K. Merton,Elinor Barber

From the names of cruise lines and bookstores to an Australian ranch and a nudist camp outside of Atlanta, the word serendipity--that happy blend of wisdom and luck by which something is discovered not quite by accident--is today ubiquitous. This book traces the word's eventful history from its 1754 coinage into the twentieth century--chronicling along the way much of what we now call the natural and social sciences. The book charts where the term went, with whom it resided, and how it fared. We cross oceans and academic specialties and meet those people, both famous and now obscure, who have used and abused serendipity. We encounter a linguistic sage, walk down the illustrious halls of the Harvard Medical School, attend the (serendipitous) birth of penicillin, and meet someone who "manages serendipity" for the U.S. Navy. The story of serendipity is fascinating; that of The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity, equally so. Written in the 1950s by already-eminent sociologist Robert Merton and Elinor Barber, the book--though occasionally and most tantalizingly cited--was intentionally never published. This is all the more curious because it so remarkably anticipated subsequent battles over research and funding--many of which centered on the role of serendipity in science. Finally, shortly after his ninety-first birthday, following Barber's death and preceding his own by but a little, Merton agreed to expand and publish this major work. Beautifully written, the book is permeated by the prodigious intellectual curiosity and generosity that characterized Merton's influential On the Shoulders of Giants. Absolutely entertaining as the history of a word, the book is also tremendously important to all who value the miracle of intellectual discovery. It represents Merton's lifelong protest against that rhetoric of science that defines discovery as anything other than a messy blend of inspiration, perspiration, error, and happy chance--anything other than serendipity.

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Page Count

342

Publisher

Princeton University Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0691126305

ISBN 13

9780691126302

Gene Function

E. coli and its heritable elements

By: Robert E. Glass

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Gene Function

E. coli and its heritable elements

By: Robert E. Glass

My aim in writing Gene Function has been to present an up-to-date picture ofthe molecular biology of Escherichia coli. I have not attempted a chronological description, believing that a mechanistic account is more useful for such a highly developed field. I have divided the book into four parts. Part I is a general introduction to bacterial systems, their genetic material, structure, composition and growth. It has seemed desirable to include herein a brief preview of the remaining text, to introduce the nomenclature and to help place subsequent chapters in perspective. The expression of genetic material and its perturbation through mutation is considered in Part II. Part III discusses how the transfer of prokaryotic genetic material can be mediated by plasmids and bacteriophages. It describes the DNA transactions involved (replication, recombination and repair) and ends with a description of the genetic and biochemical techniques employed in the study of gene organisation. Finally, Part IV considers the control of expression of bacterial, plasmid and phage genes. Key reviews are listed at the end of each chapter.

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Page Count

496

Publisher

Springer Science & Business Media

Published Date

ISBN 10

1468466895

ISBN 13

9781468466898

The Law of Real Property

By: Robert Megarry,William Wade,Charles Harpum,Stuart Bridge,Martin J. Dixon

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The Law of Real Property

By: Robert Megarry,William Wade,Charles Harpum,Stuart Bridge,Martin J. Dixon

Megarry and Wade : The Law of Real Property

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Page Count

1955

Publisher

Sweet & Maxwell

Published Date

ISBN 10

0414045963

ISBN 13

9780414045965

The Hound of Heaven at My Heels

The Lost Diary of Francis Thompson

By: Robert G. Waldron

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The Hound of Heaven at My Heels

The Lost Diary of Francis Thompson

By: Robert G. Waldron

This book is a poignant and inspiring story about the great poet Francis Thompson. Addicted to opium as a young man and reduced to homelessness on the streets of London, the poet, in a last effort to regenerate himself, sends to the editor of a Catholic monthly samples of his writing. Months pass before the editor reads the soiled manuscript; he immediately perceives its genius and sets out to find the young poet but to no avail. He publishes the poetry in the hopes that Thompson will contact him. The Hound of Heaven at My Heels is a fictional reconstruction of the poet's lost diary; it is a heart-breaking and soul-lifting account of his spiritual, psychological, and physical regeneration. It is the story of a young man who finally finds his soul and his vocation.

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Page Count

100

Publisher

Ignatius Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

0898707455

ISBN 13

9780898707458

Two Thousand Years One Hundred Generations Again

By: Robert Page

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Two Thousand Years One Hundred Generations Again

By: Robert Page

The Page family tree

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Page Count

366

Publisher

Lulu.com

Published Date

ISBN 10

1446193993

ISBN 13

9781446193990

The Visitacion of Staffordschire

By: Henry Sydney Grazebrook,Robert Glover

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The Visitacion of Staffordschire

By: Henry Sydney Grazebrook,Robert Glover

Reprint of the original, first published in 1883.

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Page Count

242

Publisher

BoD – Books on Demand

Published Date

ISBN 10

3385355516

ISBN 13

9783385355514

Spies and Commissars

The Early Years of the Russian Revolution

By: Robert Service

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Spies and Commissars

The Early Years of the Russian Revolution

By: Robert Service

The early years of Bolshevik rule were marked by dynamic interaction between Russia and the West. These years of civil war in Russia were years when the West strove to understand the new communist regime while also seeking to undermine it. Meanwhile, the Bolsheviks tried to spread their revolution across Europe at the same time they were seeking trade agreements that might revive their collapsing economy. This book tells the story of these complex interactions in detail, revealing that revolutionary Russia was shaped not only by Lenin and Trotsky, but by an extraordinary miscellany of people: spies and commissars, certainly, but also diplomats, reporters, and dissidents, as well as intellectuals, opportunistic businessmen, and casual travelers. This is the story of these characters: everyone from the ineffectual but perfectly positioned Somerset Maugham to vain writers and revolutionary sympathizers whose love affairs were as dangerous as their politics. Through this sharply observed exposéf conflicting loyalties, we get a very vivid sense of how diverse the shades of Western and Eastern political opinion were during these years.

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Page Count

482

Publisher

PublicAffairs

Published Date

ISBN 10

1610391411

ISBN 13

9781610391412

Keepers of the Code

English-Canadian Literary Anthologies and the Representation of Nation

By: Robert Lecker

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Keepers of the Code

English-Canadian Literary Anthologies and the Representation of Nation

By: Robert Lecker

Robert Lecker explores the ways in which these anthologies contributed to the formation of a Canadian literary canon, the extent to which this canon was tied to an ideal of English-Canadian nationalism, and the material conditions accounting for the anthologies' production.

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Page Count

401

Publisher

University of Toronto Press

Published Date

ISBN 10

1442613963

ISBN 13

9781442613966

Book's by Robert Meynell

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

The Travels and Adventures of Serendipity

Gene Function

Gene Function

The Law of Real Property

The Law of Real Property

The Hound of Heaven at My Heels

The Hound of Heaven at My Heels

Two Thousand Years One Hundred Generations Again

Two Thousand Years One Hundred Generations Again

The Visitacion of Staffordschire

The Visitacion of Staffordschire

Spies and Commissars

Spies and Commissars

Keepers of the Code

Keepers of the Code

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