Henri Poincar was one of the greatest mathematicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He revolutionized the field of topology, which studies properties of geometric configurations that are unchanged by stretching or twisting. The Poincar conjecture lies at the heart of modern geometry and topology, and even pertains to the possible shape of the universe. The ...(展开全部)

"O'Shea tells the fascinating story of this mathematical mystery and its solution by the eccentric Mr. Perelman."--"Wall Street Journal "In 1904, Henri Poincare, a giant among mathematicians who transformed the fledging area of topology into a powerful field essential to all mathematics and physics, posed the Poincare conjecture, a tantalizing puzzle that speaks to the possible...(展开全部)

"O'Shea tells the fascinating story of this mathematical mystery and its solution by the eccentric Mr. Perelman."--"Wall Street Journal "In 1904, Henri Poincare, a giant among mathematicians who transformed the fledging area of topology into a powerful field essential to all mathematics and physics, posed the Poincare conjecture, a tantalizing puzzle that speaks to the possible...(展开全部)

Henri Poincar was one of the greatest mathematicians of the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. He revolutionized the field of topology, which studies properties of geometric configurations that are unchanged by stretching or twisting. The Poincar conjecture lies at the heart of modern geometry and topology, and even pertains to the possible shape of the universe. The ...(展开全部)

Dr John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge before becoming a full-time science writer. He has worked for the science journal Nature, and the magazine New Scientist and has contributed articles on science topics to The Times, the Guardian and the Independent, and has made several acclaimed science series for BBC Radio 4. John Gribbin has received...(展开全部)

Dr John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at the University of Cambridge before becoming a full-time science writer. He has worked for the science journal Nature, and the magazine New Scientist and has contributed articles on science topics to The Times, the Guardian and the Independent, and has made several acclaimed science series for BBC Radio 4. John Gribbin has received...(展开全部)

First Light is perhaps the best book about astronomy ever written. It tells the story of the men and women at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California who peer through the amazing Hale Telescope at the farthest edges of space, attempting to solve the riddle of the beginning of time. "Science is a lot weirder and more human than most people realize," Pr...(展开全部)

Seven years before Richard Preston wrote about horrifying viruses in The Hot Zone, he turned his attention to the cosmos. In First Light, he demonstrates his gift for creating an exciting and absorbing narrative around a complex scientific subject--in this case the efforts by astronomers at the Palomar Observatory in the San Gabriel Mountains of California to peer to the farthe...(展开全部)