History
-
Napoleon. Deel 1: van strateeg tot Keizer, Johan op de Beeck (ISBN , 9789022329115, WPG Uitgevers)
Read this biography a second time while on vacation in Austria. I had read the book a few years ago when it first came out in 2019. As the title says it is the first part of a 2 book biography, spanning a little over 1000 pages in total. Johan Op De Beeck worked many…
-
10 women who changed science and the world, Catherine Whitlock & Rhodri Evans (ISBN 9781472137432, Robinson)
Another book I picked up in bookstore Dominicanen in July 2022. It is a cheap paperback edition and I have to say I have read better written books of this type of collection of short biographies. Somehow I found the biographies were too much a collection of facts without a soul that inspires. But there…
-
First Light, Richard Preston (ISBN 9780679449690, Random House)
I came across a reference to this book while reading The Hot Zone, also from Richard Preston. I wrote another post about The Hot Zone earlier on this blog. Although The Hot Zone is a bit on the sensational side it was definitely well written so I decided to read First Light as well especially…
-
Chasing Venus, Andrea Wulf (ISBN 978-009953832-5, Windmill Books)
This book came out in 2012 when there was another transit of Venus approaching and describes the attempts in the eighteenth century to measure the transit of Venus to determine the size of the solar system. I read this book in a Dutch translation at the end of 2014 the first time and recently read…
-
Mathematical Scandals
Short little book by an American math teacher for people (teenagers) who think mathematics is dull. The idea is to do this by bringing the human side of mathematicians to the forefront. 21 mathematicians are covered in 136 pages. Each chapter starts with a fictitious dialogue to outline the ‘scandal’. If you are interested in…
-
Karl Marx
Who rushes behind with wild bluster ? A swarthy fellow from Trier, a vigorous monster. He walks not, he hops not, he leaps on his heals And raves, full of rage, as if he wanted to seize The broad canopy of heaven, and pull it down to earth, His arms extended very wide in the…
-
Knowledge
‘The known is finite, the unknown infinite; intellectually we stand on an islet in the midst of an illimitable ocean of inexplicability. Our business in every generation is to reclaim a little more land, to add something to the extent and solidity of our possessions.‘― Thomas Henry Huxley
-
Poetic Linnaeus
‘Poets are born, not made. I was not born a poet, but a botanist instead, so I offer the fruit of the little harvest which God has vouchsafed me.‘― Carolus Linnaeus
-
A bit of common sense
‘Let all reasoning be silent when experience gainsays its conclusion.‘― William Harvey
Response 418 