# kb

id: wider-than-the-sky-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wider_than_the_Sky-0.md
category: reference
title: Wider than the Sky
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wider_than_the_Sky
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:31:59.407766+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wider-than-the-sky-20260505-0
summary:
Wider than the Sky: The Phenomenal Gift of Consciousness is an English-language book on neuroscience by the neuroscientist Gerald M. Edelman. Yale University Press published the book in 2004. The book includes a glossary, a bibliographic note, and an index. The title alludes to an English-language poem written by Emily Dickinson in about 1862. In that poem, Dickinson describes the brain as "wider than the sky", "deeper than the sea", and "just the weight of God". In the preface, Edelman describes, as follows, the purpose of the book: A scientific analysis of consciousness must answer the question: How can the firings of neurons give rise to subjective sensations, thoughts, and emotions? To some, the two domains are so disparate as to be irreconcilable. A scientific explanation must provide a causal account of the connection between these domains so that properties in one domain may be understood in terms of events in the other. This is the task I have set myself in this small book. The book's content is similar to the 2000 book Edelman co-authored: A Universe of Consciousness: How Matter Becomes Imagination. Both books put forward the theory of neuronal group selection, also known as neural Darwinism. Both


id: wormbook-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WormBook-0.md
category: reference
title: WormBook
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/WormBook
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:00.588160+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wormbook-20260505-0
summary:
WormBook is an open access, comprehensive collection of original, peer-reviewed chapters covering topics related to the biology of the nematode worm Caenorhabditis elegans (C. elegans). WormBook also includes WormMethods, an up-to-date collection of methods and protocols for C. elegans researchers. WormBook is the online text companion to WormBase, the C. elegans model organism database. Capitalizing on the World Wide Web, WormBook links in-text references (e.g. genes, alleles, proteins, literature citations) with primary biological databases such as WormBase and PubMed. C. elegans was the first multicellular organism to have its genome sequenced and is a model organism for studying developmental genetics and neurobiology. == Contents == The content of WormBook is categorized into the sections listed below, each filled with a variety of relevant chapters. These sections include: Genetics and genomics Molecular biology Biochemistry Cell Biology Signal transduction Developmental biology Post-embryonic development Sex-determination systems The germ line Neurobiology and behavior Evolution and ecology Disease models and drug discovery WormMethods == References ==


id: bully-for-brontosaurus-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_for_Brontosaurus-0.md
category: reference
title: Bully for Brontosaurus
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bully_for_Brontosaurus
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:02.081985+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bully-for-brontosaurus-20260505-0
summary:
Bully for Brontosaurus (1991) is the fifth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column "This View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book deals, in typically discursive fashion, with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution and its teaching, science biography, and probabilities. The title essay, "Bully for Brontosaurus", discusses the theory and history of taxonomy by examining the debate over whether Brontosaurus should be labelled Apatosaurus. In "Justice Scalia's Misunderstanding", Gould dissects and decisively rejects Antonin Scalia's dissent in the United States Supreme Court case Edwards v. Aguillard that overturned the last creationist statute in the country. Gould claimed his favourite essay to be "In a Jumbled Drawer" which discusses the debate between Nathaniel Shaler and William James over whether the improbability of our having evolved necessitates divine intervention (Gould, like James, argues no); the essay includes a letter from former President Jimmy Carter as a postscript, which discusses the issue. The essay "Male Nipples and Clitoral Ripples" dealt with the issue of adaptive arguments. It derives from some work by Elisabeth Lloyd, whose subsequent 2005 book was dedicated to


id: dinosaur-in-a-haystack-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_in_a_Haystack-0.md
category: reference
title: Dinosaur in a Haystack
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dinosaur_in_a_Haystack
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:03.336326+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: dinosaur-in-a-haystack-20260505-0
summary:
Dinosaur in a Haystack (1995) is the seventh volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. It collects essays culled from Gould's monthly column "The View of Life" published in Natural History magazine, which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book deals with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution, science biography, probabilities, and strange oddities found in nature. His essay "Poe's Greatest Hit" analyzes the controversial conchology textbook The Conchologist's First Book (1839), edited by Edgar Allan Poe. Poe's volume on natural history sold out within two months, and was his only book republished during his lifetime. Essay "Dinomania" is a review of Michael Crichton's novel Jurassic Park and Steven Spielberg's blockbuster film of the same name. == Reception == The book received favorable reviews in Publishers Weekly and The New York Times. == References == == External links == Up Against the Wall - by Steve Jones Essay Summaries - by Lawrence N. Goeller Dinosaur in a Haystack Review - by Danny Yee Book review by Kathryn Denning Two Cultures - by Howard A. Doughty, Innovation Journal Dinosaur in a Haystack Hooking Leviathan by Its Past Dinomania Cordelia's Dilemma Of Tongue Worms, Velvet Worms, and Water


id: eight-little-piggies-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Little_Piggies-0.md
category: reference
title: Eight Little Piggies
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eight_Little_Piggies
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:04.512301+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: eight-little-piggies-20260505-0
summary:
Eight Little Piggies (1993) is the sixth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were selected from his monthly column "The View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book covers topics that are common to Gould's writing in a discursive manner, including evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities, and common sense. The title essay, "Eight Little Piggies", is a thought piece on the prevalence of five digits on hands and feet throughout the animal kingdom. It also explores concepts such as archetypes and polydactyly via the anatomy of early tetrapods. Other essays discuss themes such as the scale of extinction, vertebrate anatomy, grand patterns of evolution, and human nature. == References == == External links == The Snail Wars - by Derek Bickerton, The New York Times Book review - by Howard A. Doughty, College Quarterly Book review - John Farrell, National Review Book review - Edward Kay, Eye Weekly W. W. Norton promotional page Google Books - contains book excerpts and jacket description


id: ever-since-darwin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Since_Darwin-0.md
category: reference
title: Ever Since Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ever_Since_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:05.662577+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ever-since-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Ever Since Darwin is a 1977 book by the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. Gould's first book of collected essays, it originated from his monthly column "This View of Life," published in Natural History magazine. Edwin Barber—who was then the editorial director for W. W. Norton & Company— encouraged Gould to produce a book. He soon commissioned Gould to write The Mismeasure of Man, but it was not until three years later, when Gould accumulated 33 columns, that it occurred to either of them that the Natural History columns should be published in a single volume. The collection of essays, written between 1973–1977, became a best-seller and propelled Gould to national prominence. == Reviews == James Gorman, "The History of a Theory", The New York Times, 20 November 1977. Richard Dawkins, "Rejoicing in Multifarious Nature. Review of Ever Since Darwin by S. J. Gould", reprinted in The Devil's Chaplain: Selected Essays, Phoenix, 2003 (ISBN 978-0-7538-1750-6). == External links == W.W.Norton Promotional page == References ==


id: the-flamingo-s-smile-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flamingo's_Smile-0.md
category: reference
title: The Flamingo's Smile
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Flamingo's_Smile
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:06.828166+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-flamingo-s-smile-20260505-0
summary:
The Flamingo's Smile: Reflections in Natural History, published in 1985, is the fourth volume of collected essays from evolutionary biologist and well-known science writer Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column The View of Life in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for more than two decades. The book deals, in typically discursive fashion, with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities and common sense. The title essay, "The Flamingo's Smile", discusses changes in morphology arising as a consequence of behavior, as illustrated by the beak and tongue of the flamingo. Topics discussed in other essays include SETI, the extinction of the dinosaurs, the Omphalos hypothesis, and the importance of taxonomy. == References == == External links == Quammen, David (22 September 1985). "Evolution and the .400 Hitter". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 September 2012.


id: full-house-the-spread-of-excellence-from-plato-to-darwin-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_House:_The_Spread_of_Excellence_from_Plato_to_Darwin-0.md
category: reference
title: Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Full_House:_The_Spread_of_Excellence_from_Plato_to_Darwin
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:07.995496+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: full-house-the-spread-of-excellence-from-plato-to-darwin-20260505-0
summary:
Full House: The Spread of Excellence from Plato to Darwin is a 1996 book by evolutionary biologist Stephen Jay Gould. It was released in the United Kingdom as Life's Grandeur, with the same subtitle and with an additional eight-page introduction entitled "A Baseball Primer for British Readers". == Summary == Full House aims to explain to the general reader how misconceptions about statistics can lead people to misunderstand the role variation plays in driving trends in complex systems. One misconception people often have is focusing too narrowly on averages or extreme values rather than the full spectrum of variation in the entire system (what Gould calls the "full house" of variation). The book focuses on two main examples of this misconception: the disappearance of the 0.400 batting average in baseball, and the perceived tendency of evolution towards "progress" making organisms more complex and sophisticated. In the first example, Gould explains that the decline of the top batting average does not imply that there has been a decline in the skill of baseball players. Quite the contrary: he shows that all that has happened is that the variance of the batting average decreased as professional baseball got better and better, while


id: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox-0.md
category: reference
title: The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:09.168207+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-0
summary:
The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox is a posthumous volume by Stephen Jay Gould released in 2003 exploring the historically complex relationship between the sciences and the humanities in a scholarly discourse. Employing the Greek proverb about the crafty cunning fox that devises many strategies versus the persistent hedgehog who knows one effective strategy, Gould offers a study of the division between the two ways of knowing, attempting to debunk the commonly assumed inextricable conflict between science and the arts as the two falsely opposed realms of the pursuit of knowledge.


id: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox-1.md
category: reference
title: The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:09.168207+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-0
summary:
== Four historical periods == Gould prefers to focus on the commonalities between the humanities and the sciences, such as creative thinking and the psychology of transcendence and discovery. He discusses four historic periods in which the supposed Science wars have been characterized falsely. In each case, the strategy for either side has been to portray centrist members of the opposing camp with radical minority views of extremist strawmen, so as to easily defeat these misrepresentations of otherwise-rational mainstream arguments. He stresses the dangers of presenting cut and dried dichotomies, such as good vs. bad or spirit vs. matter, or focusing on polar positions within continuous ranges of actions, methods, discourse and beliefs. The first period is represented by the leaders of the Scientific Revolution in the seventeenth century, the vast majority of whom had sincere religious convictions. Atheism was extremely rare among these scholars. In the Renaissance, which preceded the period under consideration, scholars focused on the recovery of lost knowledge with an associated reverence for the Ancients. Renaissance compendiums of knowledge did not necessarily discriminate between truth and fiction. Both were domains of human opinion and thought regarded as noteworthy, especially when associated with authoritative classical sources, and


id: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox-2.md
category: reference
title: The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:09.168207+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-0
summary:
He also argued that most social critics and historians of science that he was aware of were not pure relativists, and agreed that there is an external reality that may be scientifically modeled with associated benefits of acquired knowledge and applications.


id: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox-3.md
category: reference
title: The Hedgehog, the Fox, and the Magister's Pox
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hedgehog,_the_Fox,_and_the_Magister's_Pox
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:09.168207+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-hedgehog-the-fox-and-the-magister-s-pox-20260505-0
summary:
== Analysis of Consilience: The Unity Of Knowledge == Gould includes an analysis of E. O. Wilson's book Consilience: The Unity of Knowledge within the larger scope of his recommendations for a confederation of the physical sciences and humanities. He also provides an exegesis of texts participating in the development of the word consilience within a larger historical context of the concept's inception by Reverend William Whewell, who also is said to have coined the term scientist to refer to Mary Somerville in an anonymous 1834 review of her publication in the Quarterly Review, titled On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences. Gould proclaims William Whewell to be "the first modernist with joint command of both history and philosophy in the analysis of science" (Whewell being best known for his 1837 History of the Inductive Sciences and for his 1840 The Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, Founded Upon Their History.). Gould also reminds the reader that he revived Whewell's concept of consilience in print, prior to Wilson. Gould reproves Wilson's program of reductionism by utilizing two main arguments based upon the emergence and contingency or randomness found in some complex, nonlinear or non-additive systems. He indicates that there exist new


id: hen-s-teeth-and-horse-s-toes-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen's_Teeth_and_Horse's_Toes-0.md
category: reference
title: Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hen's_Teeth_and_Horse's_Toes
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:10.294802+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: hen-s-teeth-and-horse-s-toes-20260505-0
summary:
Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes (1983) is Stephen Jay Gould's third volume of collected essays reprinted from his monthly columns for Natural History magazine titled "This View of Life". Three essays appeared elsewhere. "Evolution as Fact and Theory" first appeared in Discover magazine in May 1981; "Phyletic size decrease in Hershey bars" appeared in C. J. Rubins's Junk Food, 1980; and his "Reply to Critics", was written specifically for this volume as a commentary upon criticism of essay 16, "The Piltdown Conspiracy". == Awards == The book was awarded the 1983 Phi Beta Kappa Award for Science from the Phi Beta Kappa Society. == References == == External links == Steven Rose, "And Zebra Stripes and Chocolate Bars", The New York Times, 8 May 1983, section 7, page 3. Richard Dawkins, "The Art of the Developable. Review of Pluto's Republic by Peter Medawar and Hen's Teeth and Horse's Toes by Stephen Jay Gould", reprinted in The Devil's Chaplain: Selected Essays, Phoenix, 2003 (ISBN 978-0-7538-1750-6). W. W. Norton's promotional page


id: i-have-landed-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_Landed-0.md
category: reference
title: I Have Landed
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/I_Have_Landed
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:11.495790+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: i-have-landed-20260505-0
summary:
I Have Landed (2002) is the 10th and final volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column "This View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book deals, in typically discursive fashion, with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities and common sense. The series of consecutive essays began in 1974, ending in January 2001 with the title essay "I have landed." The title refers to the very first words his grandfather Papa Joe wrote as he arrived on Ellis Island, New York as a newly arrived Hungarian immigrant, September 11, 1901. In I Have Landed, Gould examines Isabelle Duncan's writings in 1860, in which she tried to reconcile the Biblical creation story and geography. He also provides an analysis of Johann Friedrich Blumenbach's classification of humans into five races. == References == == External links == A Grand Finale - by Robin McKie, The Observer. Review of I Have Landed Book review - by Jim Walker


id: leonardo-s-mountain-of-clams-and-the-diet-of-worms-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo's_Mountain_of_Clams_and_the_Diet_of_Worms-0.md
category: reference
title: Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leonardo's_Mountain_of_Clams_and_the_Diet_of_Worms
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:12.674176+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: leonardo-s-mountain-of-clams-and-the-diet-of-worms-20260505-0
summary:
Leonardo's Mountain of Clams and the Diet of Worms (1998) is the eighth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. This collection focuses on what Gould calls "humanistic natural history". The essays were culled from his monthly column "The View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for 27 years. The book deals, in typically discursive fashion, with themes familiar to Gould's writing: evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities and common sense. == References == == External links == Book Review: by Jacqueline Boone, New York Times The Royal Road of Science: by Bryan Appleyard, Spectator Book review: by Jim Sullivan, Humanist Review by Graham Brack, Renaissance Book Review by Jim Walker Book summary: by Ryan Robinson Profile Page (with introduction) - Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive


id: the-lying-stones-of-marrakech-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lying_Stones_of_Marrakech-0.md
category: reference
title: The Lying Stones of Marrakech
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Lying_Stones_of_Marrakech
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:13.894106+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-lying-stones-of-marrakech-20260505-0
summary:
The Lying Stones of Marrakech (2000) is the ninth volume of collected essays by the Harvard paleontologist, Stephen Jay Gould. The essays were culled from his monthly column "The View of Life" in Natural History magazine, to which Gould contributed for nearly 30 years. The book addresses themes familiar to Gould's writing, including evolution and its teaching, science biography, probability, and iconoclasm. == References == == External links == Book review - by Christine Kenneally, The New York Times A Gouldian Valediction, Almost - by Henry Gee, Nature Essay Summaries - by Lawrence N. Goeller Book review - by Jim Walker Book excerpt - Random House Press Profile Page (with introduction) - Unofficial Stephen Jay Gould Archive Video interview about the book - Charlie Rose


id: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man-0.md
category: reference
title: The Mismeasure of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:15.085525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
The Mismeasure of Man is a 1981 book by paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The book is both a history and critique of the statistical methods and cultural motivations underlying biological determinism, the belief that "the social and economic differences between human groups—primarily races, classes, and sexes—arise from inherited, inborn distinctions and that society, in this sense, is an accurate reflection of biology". Gould argues that the primary assumption underlying biological determinism is that "worth can be assigned to individuals and groups by measuring intelligence as a single quantity". Biological determinism is analyzed in discussions of craniometry and psychological testing, the two principal methods used to measure intelligence as a single quantity. According to Gould, these methods possess two deep fallacies. The first fallacy is reification, which is "our tendency to convert abstract concepts into entities". Examples of reification include the intelligence quotient (IQ) and the general intelligence factor (g factor), which have been the cornerstones of much research into human intelligence. The second fallacy is that of "ranking", which is the "propensity for ordering complex variation as a gradual ascending scale". The book received many positive reviews in the literary and popular press, while scientific reception was highly polarized. Positive


id: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man-1.md
category: reference
title: The Mismeasure of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:15.085525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
=== IQ, g, statistical correlation, and heritability === As an evolutionary biologist and historian of science, Gould accepted biological variability (the premise of the transmission of intelligence via genetic heredity), but opposed biological determinism, which posits that genes determine a definitive, unalterable social destiny for each man and each woman in life and society. The Mismeasure of Man is an analysis of statistical correlation, the mathematics applied by psychologists to establish the validity of IQ tests, and the heritability of intelligence. For example, to establish the validity of the proposition that IQ is supported by a general intelligence factor (g factor), the answers to several tests of cognitive ability must positively correlate; thus, for the g factor to be a heritable trait, the IQ-test scores of close-relation respondents must correlate more than the IQ-test scores of distant-relation respondents. However, correlation does not imply causation; for example, Gould said that the measures of the changes, over time, in "my age, the population of México, the price of Swiss cheese, my pet turtle's weight, and the average distance between galaxies" have a high, positive correlation—yet that correlation does not indicate that Gould's age increased because the Mexican population increased. More specifically, a


id: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man-2.md
category: reference
title: The Mismeasure of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:15.085525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
=== Praise === Gould claimed the majority of reviews of The Mismeasure of Man were positive. Gould's colleague Richard Lewontin, a celebrated evolutionary biologist who held positions at both the University of Chicago and Harvard, wrote a glowing review of Gould's book in The New York Review of Books, endorsing most aspects of its account, and suggesting that it might have been even more critical of the racist intentions of the scientists he discusses, because scientists "sometimes tell deliberate lies because they believe that small lies can serve big truths." Gould said that the most positive review of the first edition to be written by a psychologist was in the British Journal of Mathematical & Statistical Psychology, which reported that "Gould has performed a valuable service in exposing the logical basis of one of the most important debates in the social sciences, and this book should be required reading for students and practitioners alike." In The New York Times, journalist Christopher Lehmann-Haupt wrote that the critique of factor analysis "demonstrates persuasively how factor analysis led to the cardinal error in reasoning, of confusing correlation with cause, or, to put it another way, of attributing false concreteness to the abstract". The


id: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man-3.md
category: reference
title: The Mismeasure of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:15.085525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
=== Criticism === In a review of The Mismeasure of Man, Bernard Davis, professor of microbiology at Harvard Medical School, said that Gould erected a straw man argument based upon incorrectly defined key terms—specifically reification—which Gould furthered with a "highly selective" presentation of statistical data, all motivated more by politics than by science. Davis said that Philip Morrison's laudatory book review of The Mismeasure of Man in Scientific American was written and published because the editors of the journal had "long seen the study of the genetics of intelligence as a threat to social justice". Davis also criticized the popular-press and the literary-journal book reviews of The Mismeasure of Man as generally approbatory; whereas, he said that most scientific-journal book reviews were generally critical. Davis accused Gould of having misrepresented a study by Henry H. Goddard (1866–1957) about the intelligence of Jewish, Hungarian, Italian, and Russian immigrants to the U.S., wherein Gould reported Goddard's qualifying those people as "feeble-minded"; whereas, in the initial sentence of the study, Goddard said the study subjects were atypical members of their ethnic groups, who had been selected because of their suspected sub-normal intelligence. Davis also argued that Goddard had proposed that the low IQs


id: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man-4.md
category: reference
title: The Mismeasure of Man
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Mismeasure_of_Man
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:15.085525+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-mismeasure-of-man-20260505-0
summary:
=== Responses to the second edition (1996) === Arthur Jensen and Bernard Davis argued that if the g factor (general intelligence factor) were replaced with a model that tested several types of intelligence, it would change results less than one might expect. Therefore, according to Jensen and Davis, the results of standardized tests of cognitive ability would continue to correlate with the results of other such standardized tests, and that the intellectual achievement gap between black and white people would remain. James R. Flynn, a researcher critical of racial theories of intelligence, repeated the arguments of Arthur Jensen about the second edition of The Mismeasure of Man. Flynn wrote that "Gould's book evades all of Jensen's best arguments for a genetic component in the black–white IQ gap, by positing that they are dependent on the concept of g as a general intelligence factor. Therefore, Gould believes that if he can discredit g no more need be said. This is manifestly false. Jensen's arguments would bite no matter whether blacks suffered from a score deficit on one or ten or one hundred factors." Rather than defending Jensen and Rushton, however, Flynn concluded that the Flynn Effect, a nongenetic rise in IQ


id: ontogeny-and-phylogeny-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogeny_and_Phylogeny-0.md
category: reference
title: Ontogeny and Phylogeny
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogeny_and_Phylogeny
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:16.301562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ontogeny-and-phylogeny-20260505-0
summary:
Ontogeny and Phylogeny is a 1977 book on evolution by Stephen Jay Gould, in which he explores the relationship between embryonic development (ontogeny) and biological evolution (phylogeny). Unlike his many popular books of essays, it was a technical book, and over the following decades it was influential in stimulating research into heterochrony (changes in the timing of embryonic development), which had been neglected since Ernst Haeckel's theory that ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny had been largely discredited. This helped to create the field of evolutionary developmental biology. == Context == Ontogeny and Phylogeny is Stephen Jay Gould's first technical book. He wrote that Ernst Mayr had suggested in passing that he write a book on development. Gould stated he "only began it as a practice run to learn the style of lengthy exposition before embarking on my magnum opus about macroevolution." This later work was published in 2002 as The Structure of Evolutionary Theory. == Book == === Publication === The book was published in 1977 by the Belknap Press of the Harvard University Press. === Summary === The first half of the book explores Ernst Haeckel's biogenetic law (recapitulation)—the discredited idea that embryonic developmental stages replay the evolutionary transitions of adult


id: ontogeny-and-phylogeny-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogeny_and_Phylogeny-1.md
category: reference
title: Ontogeny and Phylogeny
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ontogeny_and_Phylogeny
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:16.301562+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: ontogeny-and-phylogeny-20260505-0
summary:
The anthropologist C. Loring Brace, in American Anthropologist, noted that two years earlier, E. O. Wilson's Sociobiology had with "woeful ignorance" strayed into anthropology, and Wilson's "bright young colleague" Gould had now done the same thing, possibly making trouble for years to come. Gould was "a wonderful writer, literate, erudite, gracefully witty, and gifted with the ability to present difficult material in a straightforward and easily readable fashion." The bulk of the book was fine, though of no interest to anthropologists. But the tenth chapter, "Retardation and Neoteny in Human Evolution", would "mislead a great many people" who would be unable to make an informed judgement about its conclusions. Gould "turns out to be just as much of a teleologist and progressivist as the scholars of previous generations whom he appraises so effectively. He notes that we associate 'cute' features with mammals of higher intelligence, features that show 'the common traits of babyhood: relatively large eyes, short face, smooth features, bulbous cranium. The presence of this complex in advanced adult mammals argues for neoteny' (Gould p. 350)." In Brace's view, "Gould's main thesis founders between the Scylla of mosaic evolution and the Charybdis of Darwinian theory." Brace concluded that Gould


id: the-panda-s-thumb-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Panda's_Thumb_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Panda's Thumb (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Panda's_Thumb_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:17.485954+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-panda-s-thumb-book-20260505-0
summary:
The Panda's Thumb: More Reflections in Natural History (1980) is a collection of 31 essays by the Harvard University paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. It is the second volume culled from his 27-year monthly column "This View of Life" in Natural History magazine. Recurring themes of the essays are evolution and its teaching, science biography, probabilities and common sense. The title essay (of 1978, originally titled "The panda's peculiar thumb") presents the paradox that poor design is a better argument for evolution than good design, as illustrated by the anatomy of the panda's "thumb"—which is not an actual thumb at all, but an extension of the radial sesamoid bone. Topics addressed in other essays include the female brain, the Piltdown Man hoax, Down syndrome, and the relationship between dinosaurs and birds. The Panda's Thumb won the 1981 U.S. National Book Award in Science. == Reviews == Books of the Times - by Christopher Lehmann-Haupt, The New York Times == Notes == == References ==


id: questioning-the-millennium-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_the_Millennium-0.md
category: reference
title: Questioning the Millennium
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Questioning_the_Millennium
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:18.626227+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: questioning-the-millennium-20260505-0
summary:
Questioning the Millennium is a 1997 book by the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould that deals with the definition and calculation of the millennium, and its meaning in Western culture. New York Times reviewer Robert Eisner described it as a "slim and attractive meditation," which touches upon calendrics, Biblical exegesis, millennial cults, and includes "a charming essay on a young autistic man whose amazing ability to calculate instantly which day of the week coincided with any date mentioned over many centuries". Gould reveals that this young man was his autistic son, Jesse. Michiko Kakutani wrote that while not one of Gould's more important books, Questioning the Millennium "beguiles and entertains, even as it teaches us to reconsider our preconceptions about the natural world." Kakutani noted that its subject was much broader than simply the millennium, encompassing the human love for order and regularity. == References == == Multimedia == "Questioning the Millennium" - interview with Gould on Charlie Rose "Questioning the Millenium" - interview with Gould on All Things Considered == External links == Questioning the Millennium - by Stephen Jay Gould "The First Day of the Rest of Our Life" - by Stephen Jay Gould "Redefining the Millennium: From Sacred


id: rocks-of-ages-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_of_Ages-0.md
category: reference
title: Rocks of Ages
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rocks_of_Ages
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:19.826529+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: rocks-of-ages-20260505-0
summary:
Rocks of Ages: Science and Religion in the Fullness of Life is a 1999 book about the relationship between science and religion by the Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. First published by Ballantine Books, it was reprinted by Vintage Books. The book is a volume in the series The Library of Contemporary Thought. == Summary == Gould addresses the conflict between secular scientists and religious believers who question or deny scientific theory when it is in discrepancy with religious teachings on the origin and nature of the natural world. Borrowing a term from the Catholic Church, Gould describes science and religion as each comprise a separate magisterium of human understanding. Science defines the natural world, and religion the moral world. If each realm is separate, then according to Gould, they are not in conflict. He calls this the principle of non-overlapping magisteria, abbreviated NOMA. == Reception == The book has been reviewed extensively, and commented on by both sides of the conflict he addresses. == See also == Intelligent design Richard Dawkins Moral Landscape == References == == External links == Rocks of Ages at Ballantine Books website


id: the-structure-of-evolutionary-theory-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Evolutionary_Theory-0.md
category: reference
title: The Structure of Evolutionary Theory
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Structure_of_Evolutionary_Theory
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:21.033766+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-structure-of-evolutionary-theory-20260505-0
summary:
The Structure of Evolutionary Theory (2002) is Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould's technical book on macroevolution and the historical development of evolutionary theory. The book was twenty years in the making, published just two months before Gould's death. Aimed primarily at professionals, the volume is divided into two parts. The first is a historical study of classical evolutionary thought, drawing extensively upon primary documents; the second is a constructive critique of the modern synthesis, and presents a case for an interpretation of biological evolution based largely on hierarchical selection, and the theory of punctuated equilibrium (developed by Niles Eldredge and Gould in 1972). == Summary == According to Gould, classical Darwinism encompasses three essential core commitments: Agency, the unit of selection (which for Charles Darwin was the organism) upon which natural selection acts; efficacy, which encompasses the dominance of natural selection over all other forces—such as genetic drift, and biological constraints—in shaping the historical, ecological, and structural influences on evolution; and scope, the degree to which natural selection can be extrapolated to explain biodiversity at the macroevolutionary level, including the evolution of higher taxonomic groups. Gould described these three propositions as the "tripod" of Darwinian central logic, each being so


id: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle-0.md
category: reference
title: Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:22.239345+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-0
summary:
Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time is a 1987 history of geology by the paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould, in which the author offers a historical account of the conceptualization of Deep Time and uniformitarianism using the works of the English theologian Thomas Burnet, and the Scottish geologists James Hutton and Charles Lyell. == Deep Time == Gould ranks the development of the concept "deep time," which involved deliberately rejecting the biblical description of earth's past for nearly incomprehensible eons, with the revolutions associated with Copernicus and Charles Darwin. To illustrate this, Gould picked three major figures in the history of geology, one traditional villain (Thomas Burnet) and two traditional heroes (James Hutton and Charles Lyell). == Flimsy 'cardboard' == Standard textbook accounts of the achievements of these three figures have long provided what Gould describes as a "self-serving mythology." These flimsy "cardboard" accounts vaunt the superiority of empiricism and inductivism over the scientific nemesis of religious bigotry. This legend, as perpetuated by geology textbooks over the last century, claims that geology remained in the service of the Mosaic story of creation so long as armchair geological theorists refused to place fieldwork ahead of


id: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle-1.md
category: reference
title: Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:22.239345+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-0
summary:
== Hutton’s endless cycles of deep time == Before James Hutton, most geological theorists had dealt only with processes of decay. The earth was created and its geologic structures just wore down through catastrophic events like weathering and especially the biblical Flood. Hutton introduced the concept of repair into geology and, with it, the notion of deep time. The textbook myths see this as a triumph of science and empiricism over religion, but it was nothing of the kind. Hutton's theory of the earth as a geological clockwork of eroding continents balanced against uplifting ocean basins was not based on field observations but on a priori conceptions inspired jointly by religious considerations and "the most rigid and uncompromising version of time's cycle ever developed by a geologist." Hutton's theory grew out of what may be called "the paradox of the soil." Good soil, the product of the "denudation," or eroding, of rock strata, eventually loses its richness to the plant life it sustains. Were there no geological source for continual new soil then the world would bear the intolerable stamp of an imperfectly designed abode for man's existence. Hutton's homocentric and teleological concept of the world therefore demanded that the


id: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle-2.md
category: reference
title: Time's Arrow, Time's Cycle
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Time's_Arrow,_Time's_Cycle
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:22.239345+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: time-s-arrow-time-s-cycle-20260505-0
summary:
=== From steady state to progressionism === Nor was Lyell's eventual conversion to evolution a strictly empirical affair. When he finally took this step publicly, in 1868, it was not because he had been persuaded by Darwin's theory of natural selection. In fact, Lyell rejected that theory, accepting only a general evolutionary process without its celebrated Darwinian mechanism. Admitting nonmiraculous progression (that is, evolution) in turn allowed him to preserve three of his four uniformities (uniformity of law, process, and rate) while giving up only uniformity of state. This was as Gould notes, "the most conservative intellectual option available to him." Charles Lyell may have lost the battle over progressionism to Darwinism, but through rhetoric he won a battle against catastrophism, which enabled his hypothesis of the uniformity of rate to become a textbook shibboleth. The catastrophists of Lyell's day, Gould nevertheless maintains, were right all along. The literal fossil evidence of major rapid changes in previous faunas does not need to be interpreted away, as Lyell tried to do by appealing to the imperfection of the geological record. Gould sees supreme irony in the recent hypothesis of the Berkeley scientists Luis and Walter Alvarez that mass extinctions were caused


id: an-urchin-in-the-storm-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Urchin_in_the_Storm-0.md
category: reference
title: An Urchin in the Storm
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/An_Urchin_in_the_Storm
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:23.418361+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: an-urchin-in-the-storm-20260505-0
summary:
An Urchin in the Storm is a 1987 essay collection from paleontologist and science writer Stephen Jay Gould. == Overview == All but one of the essays had originally appeared in The New York Review of Books. Grouped by theme, the sections of the book deal respectively with the irreducibility of history (and the pleasures and challenges of contingency) in its two principal domains of life and the earth, nature's complexity, the theory and consequences of biological determinism, and rationalism in explanation. The book is dedicated to Peter Medawar and Isaiah Berlin. It was reviewed in The New York Times by Michiko Kakutani, who noted that although the pieces were technically book reviews, Gould "tends to use the subject at hand as a jumping-off point for more general discussions". == References ==


id: wonderful-life-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Life_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Wonderful Life (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wonderful_Life_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:24.616556+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: wonderful-life-book-20260505-0
summary:
Wonderful Life: The Burgess Shale and the Nature of History is a 1989 book on the evolution of Cambrian fauna by Harvard paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould. The volume made The New York Times Best Seller list, was the 1991 winner of the Royal Society's Rhone-Poulenc Prize and the American Historical Association's Forkosch Award, and was a 1991 finalist for the Pulitzer Prize. Pulitzer juror Joyce Carol Oates later revealed the non-fiction jury had unanimously recommended the book for the prize, but the selection was rejected by the Pulitzer board. Gould described his later book Full House (1996) as a companion volume to Wonderful Life. == Summary == Gould's thesis in Wonderful Life was that contingency plays a major role in the evolutionary history of life. He based his argument on the extraordinarily well preserved fossils of the Burgess Shale, a rich fossil-bearing deposit in Canada's Rocky Mountains, dating 505 million years ago. Gould argues that during this period just after the Cambrian explosion there was a greater disparity of anatomical body plans (phyla) than exist today. However most of these phyla left no modern descendants. All of the Burgess animals, Gould argues, were exquisitely adapted to their environment, and there


id: the-4-percent-universe-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4_Percent_Universe-0.md
category: reference
title: The 4 Percent Universe
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_4_Percent_Universe
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:26.202392+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-4-percent-universe-20260505-0
summary:
The 4 Percent Universe: Dark Matter, Dark Energy, and the Race to Discover the Rest of Reality is a nonfiction book by writer and professor Richard Panek and published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt on January 10, 2011. In October 2011, the Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded to Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt, and Adam Riess, three of the main figures discussed in the book for the primary discovery that is the topic of The 4 Percent Universe. == Content == The book's namesake comes from the scientific confusion over how ordinary matter makes up only four percent of the mass–energy in the universe, with the rest consisting of mysterious dark matter and dark energy that are both invisible and almost impossible to detect. It is due to dark matter that galaxies are able to keep their shape, with the mass of dark matter creating enough gravitational force to hold the stars that make up a galaxy together. Dark energy, however, is a substance or force responsible for the accelerating expansion of the universe over time. The significant focus of The 4 Percent Universe is on the developments of astronomical science in the 20th century, including the formation of the expanding


id: the-50-most-extreme-places-in-our-solar-system-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_50_Most_Extreme_Places_in_Our_Solar_System-0.md
category: reference
title: The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_50_Most_Extreme_Places_in_Our_Solar_System
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:27.363954+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-50-most-extreme-places-in-our-solar-system-20260505-0
summary:
The 50 Most Extreme Places in Our Solar System is a science book by David Baker, professor of physics at Austin College and Todd Ratcliff, a planetary geophysicist at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory. The book explores the most extreme environments found across the Solar System, from the tallest peaks and deepest valleys to the hottest and coldest places. It was published to provide insights into the diverse conditions present within the Solar System and to highlight the extremes that can exist on other planets and moons. == Content Detail == The book is divided into several chapters, each detailing a specific "extreme" location within the Solar System. These locations are selected based on their unique physical characteristics and their scientific interest. The authors utilize data and images from various space missions and telescopes to illustrate the conditions of these extreme sites. Each chapter explains the formation, discovery, and importance of these locations in the broader context of planetary science and astronomy. Valles Marineris on Mars: The largest canyon in the Solar System, Valles Marineris stretches over 4,000 km long and reaches depths of up to 7 km. The authors explore its geological formation and discuss its comparison to Earth’s Grand


id: accessory-to-war-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_to_War-0.md
category: reference
title: Accessory to War
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Accessory_to_War
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:28.533234+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: accessory-to-war-20260505-0
summary:
Accessory to War: The Unspoken Alliance Between Astrophysics and the Military is the fifteenth book by American astrophysicist and science communicator Neil deGrasse Tyson which he co-wrote with researcher and writer Avis Lang. It was released on September 11, 2018 by W. W. Norton & Company. The book chronicles war and the use of space as a weapon going as far back as before the Ancient Greeks, and includes examples such as Christopher Columbus' use of his knowledge of a lunar eclipse and the use of satellite intelligence by the United States during the Gulf War. While speaking on the book, Tyson told National Geographic that he regards the collaboration between science and the military as a "two-way street." Marcelo Gleiser wrote that the book "rings like a wake-up call, even if an uncomfortable one." == References == == Further reading == The long entanglement of war and astrophysics - Sharon Weinberger, nature.com Neil deGrasse Tyson on ‘Accessory to War’ and the ‘moon situation’ - Brian McElhiney, stripes.com Neil deGrasse Tyson on the Surprising Alliance Between Astrophysicists and the Military - John Ismay, The New York Times


id: alien-oceans-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Oceans-0.md
category: reference
title: Alien Oceans
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alien_Oceans
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:29.704749+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: alien-oceans-20260505-0
summary:
Alien Oceans: The Search for Life in the Depths of Space is a 2020 non-fiction book by American writer and scientist Kevin Peter Hand. The book explores the possibility of life on planets and moons with subsurface oceans, and argues that the common understanding of the habitable zone should include natural satellites around gas giants. Satellites discussed in the book include Europa, Enceladus, Titan, and Ganymede. Hand wrote the book to make the scientific information it discusses readily accessible to the public. == References ==


id: almagest-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest-0.md
category: reference
title: Almagest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:30.906530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: almagest-20260505-0
summary:
The Almagest ( AL-mə-jest) is a 2nd-century mathematical and astronomical treatise on the apparent motions of the stars and planetary paths, written by Claudius Ptolemy (c. AD 100 – c. 170) in Koine Greek. One of the most influential scientific texts in history, it canonized a geocentric model of the Universe that was accepted for more than 1,200 years from its origin in ancient Greece, through to the medieval Byzantine and Islamic worlds, and in Western Europe through the Middle Ages and early Renaissance until the Scientific Revolution. It is also a key source of information about ancient Greek astronomy. Ptolemy set up a public inscription at Canopus, Egypt, in 147 or 148. Norman T. Hamilton found that the version of Ptolemy's models set out in the Canopic Inscription was earlier than the version in the Almagest. Hence the Almagest could not have been completed before about 150, a quarter-century after Ptolemy began observing. == Names == The name comes from Arabic اَلْمَجِسْطِيّ al-majisṭī, with اَلـ al- meaning 'the' and majisṭī being a corruption of Greek μεγίστη megístē 'greatest'. The Arabic name was popularized by a Latin translation known as Almagestum made in the 12th century from an Arabic translation,


id: almagest-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest-1.md
category: reference
title: Almagest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:30.906530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: almagest-20260505-0
summary:
The layout of the catalogue has always been tabular. Ptolemy writes explicitly that the coordinates are given as (ecliptical) "longitudes" and "latitudes", which are given in columns, so this has probably always been the case. It is significant that Ptolemy chooses the ecliptical coordinate system because of his knowledge of precession, which distinguishes him from all his predecessors. Hipparchus' celestial globe had an ecliptic drawn in, but the coordinates were equatorial. Since Hipparchus' star catalogue has not survived in its original form, but was absorbed into the Almagest star catalogue (and heavily revised in the 265 years in between), the Almagest star catalogue is the oldest one in which complete tables of coordinates and magnitudes have come down to us. As mentioned, Ptolemy includes a star catalog containing 1022 stars. He says that he "observed as many stars as it was possible to perceive, even to the sixth magnitude". The ecliptic longitudes are given in terms of a zodiac sign and a number of degrees and fractions of a degree. The zodiac signs each represent exactly 30°, starting with Aries representing longitude 0° to 30°. The degrees are added to the lower limit of the 30-degree range to obtain the


id: almagest-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest-2.md
category: reference
title: Almagest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:30.906530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: almagest-20260505-0
summary:
==== Constellations in the star catalogue ==== The star catalogue contains 48 constellations, which have different surface areas and numbers of stars. In Book VIII, Chapter 3, Ptolemy writes that the constellations should be outlined on a globe, but it is unclear exactly how he means this: should surrounding polygons be drawn or should the figures be sketched or even line figures be drawn? This is not stated. Although no line figures have survived from antiquity, the figures can be reconstructed on the basis of the descriptions in the star catalogue: The exact celestial coordinates of the figures' heads, feet, arms, wings and other body parts are recorded. It is therefore possible to draw the stick figures in the modern sense so that they fit the description in the Almagest. These constellations form the basis for the modern constellations that were formally adopted by the International Astronomical Union in 1922, with official boundaries that were agreed in 1928. Of the stars in the catalogue, 108 (just over 10%) were classified by Ptolemy as 'unformed', by which he meant lying outside the recognized constellation figures. These were later absorbed into their surrounding constellations or in some cases used to form new


id: almagest-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest-3.md
category: reference
title: Almagest
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Almagest
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:30.906530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: almagest-20260505-0
summary:
== Modern assessment == Under the scrutiny of modern scholarship, and the cross-checking of observations contained in the Almagest against figures produced through backwards extrapolation, various patterns of errors have emerged within the work. A prominent example is Ptolemy's use of measurements said to have been taken at noon, but which systematically produce readings that are off by half an hour, as if the observations were taken at 12:30pm. However, an explanation for this error was found in 1969. The overall quality of Claudius Ptolemy's scholarship and place as "one of the most outstanding scientists of antiquity" has been challenged by several modern writers, most prominently by Robert R. Newton in the 1977 book The Crime of Claudius Ptolemy, which asserted that the scholar fabricated his observations to fit his theories. Newton accused Ptolemy of systematically inventing data or doctoring the data of earlier astronomers, and labelled him "the most successful fraud in the history of science". One striking error noted by Newton was an autumn equinox said to have been observed by Ptolemy and "measured with the greatest care" at 2pm on 25 September 132, when the equinox should have been observed at 9:54am the day prior. Herbert Lewis,


id: american-eclipse-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Eclipse_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: American Eclipse (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Eclipse_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:32.056506+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: american-eclipse-book-20260505-0
summary:
American Eclipse: A Nation's Epic Race to Catch the Shadow of the Moon and Win the Glory of the World is a non-fiction book by journalist David Baron, published by Liveright in 2017, about the popular impression of the 1878 solar eclipse as observed across the United States. It won the American Institute of Physics Science Writing Award in 2018. == Background == Baron was inspired to write the book after viewing his first total solar eclipse in Aruba in 1998. He decided that he would publish it in 2017 in order to coincide with the solar eclipse of August 21, 2017. == Synopsis == American Eclipse follows three scientists, James Craig Watson, Maria Mitchell, and Thomas Edison as they traveled to view the total solar eclipse on July 29, 1878. == Reception == Kirkus Reviews described American Eclipse as a "compelling... timely, energetic combination of social and scientific history." Graham Ambrose, writing for The Denver Post, lauded Baron's social history of a scientific topic and that Baron "successfully swerves from the dry, impenetrable prose of science writing, grasping instead at something poetic, often funny." == Publication == American Eclipse was released in hardcover in June 2017, paperback in 2018,


id: aryabhatiya-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhatiya-0.md
category: reference
title: Aryabhatiya
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhatiya
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:33.274391+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: aryabhatiya-20260505-0
summary:
Aryabhatiya (IAST: Āryabhaṭīya) or Aryabhatiyam (Āryabhaṭīyaṃ), a Sanskrit astronomical treatise, is the magnum opus and only known surviving work of the 5th century Indian mathematician Aryabhata. Historian of astronomy Roger Billard estimates that the book was composed around 510 CE based on historical references it mentions. == Structure and style == Aryabhatiya is written in Sanskrit and divided into four sections; it covers a total of 121 verses describing different moralitus via a mnemonic writing style typical for such works in India (see definitions below): Gitikapada (13 verses): large units of time—kalpa, manvantara, and yuga—which present a cosmology different from earlier texts such as Lagadha's Vedanga Jyotisha (ca. 1st century BCE). There is also a table of [sine]s (jya), given in a single verse. The duration of the planetary revolutions during a mahayuga is given as 4.32 million years, using the same method as in the Surya Siddhanta. Ganitapada (33 verses): covering mensuration (kṣetra vyāvahāra); arithmetic and geometric progressions; gnomon/shadows (shanku-chhAyA); and simple, quadratic, simultaneous, and indeterminate equations (Kuṭṭaka). Kalakriyapada (25 verses): different units of time and a method for determining the positions of planets for a given day, calculations concerning the intercalary month (adhikamAsa), kShaya-tithis, and a seven-day week


id: aryabhatiya-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhatiya-1.md
category: reference
title: Aryabhatiya
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aryabhatiya
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:33.274391+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: aryabhatiya-20260505-0
summary:
Sanskrit language: Prabhakara (c. 525) Bhaskara I (c. 629) Someshvara (c. 1040) Surya-deva (born 1191), Bhata-prakasha Parameshvara (c. 1380-1460), Bhata-dipika or Bhata-pradipika Nila-kantha (c. 1444-1545) Yallaya (c. 1482) Raghu-natha (c. 1590) Ghati-gopa Bhuti-vishnu Telugu language Virupaksha Suri Kodanda-rama (c. 1854) The estimate of the diameter of the Earth in the Tarkīb al-aflāk of Yaqūb ibn Tāriq, of 2,100 farsakhs, appears to be derived from the estimate of the diameter of the Earth in the Aryabhatiya of 1,050 yojanas. The work was translated into Arabic as Zij al-Arjabhar (c. 800) by an anonymous author. The work was translated into Arabic around 820 by Al-Khwarizmi, whose On the Calculation with Hindu Numerals was in turn influential in the adoption of the Hindu-Arabic numeral system in Europe from the 12th century. Aryabhata's methods of astronomical calculations have been in continuous use for practical purposes of fixing the Panchangam (Hindu calendar). == Apparent errors in Aryabhata's statements == O'Connor and Robertson state: "Aryabhata gives formulae for the areas of a triangle and of a circle which are correct, but the formulae for the volumes of a sphere and of a pyramid are claimed to be wrong by most historians". For example Ganitanand describes as


id: the-assayer-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assayer-0.md
category: reference
title: The Assayer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assayer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:34.439118+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-assayer-20260505-0
summary:
The Assayer (Italian: Il saggiatore) is a book by Galileo Galilei, published in Rome in October 1623. It is generally considered to be one of the pioneering works of the scientific method, first broaching the idea that the book of nature is to be read with mathematical tools rather than those of scholastic philosophy, as generally held at the time. Despite the retroactive acclaim given to Galileo’s theory of knowledge, the empirical claim conjectured in the book — that comets and their observed properties are the product of optical phenomena — is incorrect. == Background – Galileo vs. Grassi on comets == In 1619, Galileo became embroiled in a controversy with Father Orazio Grassi, professor of mathematics at the Jesuit Collegio Romano. It began as a dispute over the nature of comets, but by the time Galileo had published The Assayer, his last salvo in the dispute, it had become a much wider controversy over the very nature of science itself. === An Astronomical Disputation === The debate between Galileo and Grassi started in early 1619, when Father Grassi anonymously published the pamphlet, An Astronomical Disputation on the Three Comets of the Year 1618 (Disputatio astronomica de tribus cometis anni


id: the-assayer-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assayer-1.md
category: reference
title: The Assayer
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Assayer
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:34.439118+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-assayer-20260505-0
summary:
Philosophy [i.e. natural philosophy] is written in this grand book—I mean the Universe—which stands continually open to our gaze, but it cannot be understood unless one first learns to comprehend the language and interpret the characters in which it is written. It is written in the language of mathematics, and its characters are triangles, circles, and other geometrical figures, without which it is humanly impossible to understand a single word of it; without these, one is wandering around in a dark labyrinth. Galileo used a sarcastic and witty tone throughout the essay. The book was read with delight at the dinner table by Urban VIII. In 1620 Maffeo Barberini wrote a poem entitled Adulatio Perniciosa in Galileo's honor. An official, Giovanni di Guevara, said that The Assayer was free from any unorthodoxy. === Perceived vs. real phenomena === In The Assayer Galileo described heat as an artifact of our minds. He wrote that heat, pressure, smell and other phenomena perceived by our senses are apparent properties only, caused by the movement of particles, which is a real phenomenon. Galileo also theorized that senses such as smell and taste are made possible by the release of tiny particles from their host


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-0.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
Astronomia nova (English: New Astronomy, full title in original Latin: Astronomia Nova ΑΙΤΙΟΛΟΓΗΤΟΣ seu physica coelestis, tradita commentariis de motibus stellae Martis ex observationibus G.V. Tychonis Brahe) is a book, published in 1609, that contains the results of the astronomer Johannes Kepler's ten-year-long investigation of the motion of Mars. One of the most significant books in the history of astronomy, the Astronomia nova provided strong arguments for heliocentrism and contributed valuable insight into the movement of the planets. This included the first mention of the planets' elliptical paths and the change of their movement to the movement of free floating bodies as opposed to objects on rotating spheres. It is recognized as one of the most important works of the Scientific Revolution. == Background == Prior to Kepler, Nicolaus Copernicus proposed in 1543 that the Earth and other planets orbit the Sun. The Copernican model of the Solar System was regarded as a device to explain the observed positions of the planets rather than a physical description. Kepler sought for and proposed physical causes for planetary motion. His work is primarily based on the research of his mentor, Tycho Brahe. The two, though close in their work, had a tumultuous


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-1.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
=== Part 2 === In part 2, Kepler introduces the vicarious Hypothesis, his first hypothesis to explain the motion of Mars. In chapters 7-10, Kepler tells the story of how he was introduced to the problem of Mars' orbit. Tycho and his assistant had been working on a theory of Mars, but they had failed to accurately account for the observed position of Mars. Tycho's observational data included 12 oppositions of Mars, for which he had determined its position in ecliptic longitude and latitude. They had managed to fit a theory to the observed ecliptic longitudes accurate to within 2 minutes of arc, yet it failed completely to account for the ecliptic latitudes. Kepler was then tasked with determining a more accurate theory to match this observational data. His first step was to establish a precise definition of opposition. Since planets do not orbit in the same plane, in general they never reach precisely 180 ∘ {\textstyle 180\circ } in angular separation. Ptolemy had assumed the planet reaches opposition when its ecliptic longitude is 180 degrees from the mean position of the sun. This definition ignores the ecliptic latitude, so when constructing the table of oppositions, Tycho's assistant suggested a


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-2.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
The actual correction Kepler shows to be less than 1 minute of arc, which is smaller than the error in Tycho's observations, and for practical purposes can be ignored. So, opposition can be defined as the moment when the ecliptic longitude of the sun and Mars are 180 ∘ {\textstyle 180\circ } apart. Although the ecliptic longitude of Mars is the same from the Earth and sun at this point, the same is not true for the ecliptic latitude. In the diagram above G {\textstyle G} is the sun, H {\textstyle H} is the Earth and I {\textstyle I} is Mars. The line G H {\textstyle GH} is in the plane of the ecliptic. The angle β {\textstyle \beta } is the angle that Mars appears above the ecliptic when viewed from Earth; this is the ecliptic latitude. The angle α {\textstyle \alpha } is the ecliptic latitude viewed from the sun, which is smaller than β {\textstyle \beta } . The relation between these angles tells us something about the ratio of the Earth-sun distance G H {\textstyle GH} and the Mars-Sun distance G I {\textstyle GI} . In chapter 11, Kepler attempts to determine the parallax of Mars.


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-3
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-3.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
In the diagram above, let A {\textstyle A} be the sun, B {\textstyle B} be the center of the circular orbit, and C {\textstyle C} be the equant point. The points I {\textstyle I} and H {\textstyle H} are the perihelion and aphelion respectively. Let G {\textstyle G} be the position of Mars at a particular observation. The angle ∠ G A H {\textstyle \angle GAH} Kepler refers to as the true anomaly, and the angle ∠ G C H {\textstyle \angle GCH} the mean anomaly. For any observation, the true anomaly could be deduced if we knew the longitude of aphelion, by finding the difference between this and the longitude of the observation. The mean anomaly could be deduced if we knew the time when Mars it at aphelion, and by using the fact the Mars, viewed from the equant, traverses equal angles in equal times. If the true anomaly and the mean anomaly were known, we could likewise determine the location of the point G {\textstyle G} by finding where the lines drawn from B {\textstyle B} and A {\textstyle A} intersect. For the purposes of calculation, we can take the length of the line C A ¯


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-4
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-4.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
In chapters 18-21, Kepler compares the theory to observations. First, he compares the longitude of the remaining 8 oppositions and finds that they all fit the predicted position of Mars to within Tycho's observational accuracy of two minutes of arc. This means that the vicarious hypothesis can be taken as an accurate theory for the true anomaly. Despite this remarkable accuracy, however, Kepler shows that the theory is false. He remarks:Who would have thought it possible? This hypothesis, so closely in agreement with the observations, is nevertheless false. Using the latitudes of the opposition and the latitude triangle from figure 1, Kepler is able to find the ratio of the Earth and Mars distances from the sun. The Earth-Sun distances G H {\textstyle GH} are taken from an existing theory given by Tycho Brahe in his Progymnasmata, even though these values are not precisely correct, and the goal of the next part will be to determine a more accurate theory for the Earth's motion. The angles ∠ I H E {\textstyle \angle IHE} are determined by the latitude of the observations, and the angle I G H {\textstyle IGH} is determined from the orbital inclination and the angle between Mars


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-5
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-5.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
=== Part 3 === In the third part, Kepler aims to determine an accurate theory for the motion of the Earth, which will be the steppingstone for determining a more accurate theory for Mars in the next section. In chapters 22-27, Kepler shows that the Earth does not move uniformly about the center of its orbit. The primary observations for determining the Earth's motion around the sun are direct observations of the sun; its ecliptic longitude as seen from the Earth is the opposite to that seen from the sun. Remarkably, uniform circular motion can match these observations to within an accuracy of one minute of arc, less than the accuracy of Tycho's observation. Tycho himself determined the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit based on his observations and the assumption of uniform circular motion to be 0.03584 {\textstyle 0.03584} . Using the observations of Mars, Kepler finds several methods to show that the eccentricity of the Earth's orbit calculated, on the basis of uniform circular motion, cannot possibly be correct. One method that Kepler uses is based on the fact that after one complete orbit, Mars returns to exactly the same physical location. Since the orbital period of Mars is


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-6
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-6.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
In chapter 40, Kepler gives a method for computing the orbit of the Earth based on these physical hypotheses. Kepler notes the extreme difficulty that arises when trying to compute the speed of the planet as the distance is constantly changing. For this reason, he introduces a shortcut, inspired by Archimedes' method of computing pi. If we break the orbit up into little triangles drawn from the sun, then the distance the planet travels is given by the base of the triangle, and the distance from the sun is given by the height of the triangle. If we choose triangles that divide the planet's motion into equal units of time, then the triangles are shown to have equal area, because as the height decreases, the base must increase by the same amount, as the planet moves faster, and vice versa. Kepler therefore introduces his law of areas, equal areas correspond to equal times. To calculate the orbit from this, we define the mean anomaly as the time since planet has last reached aphelion divided by the orbital period times 360 degrees. The true anomaly is defined as the angle between the planet and aphelion as viewed from the sun, and


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-7
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-7.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
In the diagram above, A {\textstyle A} is the sun and B {\textstyle B} is the center of the circle; G {\textstyle G} is aphelion and D {\textstyle D} is the planet. The area of the sector G A D {\textstyle GAD} is the area swept by the line drawn from the planet to the sun. From the area law, this is proportional to the time that the planet has traversed the segment G D {\textstyle GD} in its orbit, and therefore also the mean anomaly. Thus the area G A D {\textstyle GAD} gives the mean anomaly. The eccentric anomaly is defined by the angle ∠ G B D {\textstyle \angle GBD} . Since the angle of a sector, centered on a circle, is always proportional to its area, we can also express this by the area G B D {\textstyle GBD} . The relation between these two areas gives the relation between the mean anomaly (and therefore time) and eccentric anomaly. From the diagram, it is clear that the mean anomaly is simply the eccentric anomaly plus the area of the triangle D A B {\textstyle DAB} . The base of this triangle A B ¯ {\textstyle {\overline


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-8
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-8.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
=== Part 4 === In part 4, Kepler develops an accurate theory to account for the motion of Mars based on the observations and the physical hypotheses that were laid out in the previous section. In chapters 41-44, Kepler proves that the orbit of Mars is not a circle. The procedure once again uses the fact that the Earth, sun and Mars form a triangle. The Earth-sun distance can now be calculated accurately from the theory developed in the previous section, and the heliocentric longitude of Mars is determined from the vicarious hypothesis. For any given observation of Mars, the position of Mars can now be plotted accurately using the following procedure: plot the position of Earth using the theory developed in the previous section. Then, draw a line extending from the sun in the direction given by the vicarious hypothesis. Draw a line from the Earth in the direction corresponding to the heliocentric longitude that Mars is observed. The intersection between these two lines is the position of Mars. Finally, a correction is made for the fact that Mars is not in the plane of the ecliptic when observed, by using the latitude determined from the sun. By plotting


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-9
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-9.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
I laid [the original equation] aside, and fell back on ellipses, believing that this was quite a different hypothesis, whereas the two, as I shall prove in the next chapter, are one in [sic] the same... Ah, what a foolish bird I have been! === Part 5 === In the final section, Kepler gives an accurate account of the ecliptic latitude of Mars. He also outlines a physical hypothesis to explain why the orbit of planets are not precisely in the same plane. In chapters 61-62, Kepler determines the values for Mars' ascending and descending nodes. Using the distance to Earth and Mars computed from the previous section, and the observed geocentric latitude of Mars, Kepler is able to determine the heliocentric latitude of Mars at any point in its orbit. From this, Kepler determines each of the parameters using the same methods from chapters 11-14. For the ascending node he finds 46 ∘ 32 1 2 ′ {\textstyle 46^{\circ }32{\frac {1}{2}}'} and for the descending nodes 226 ∘ 32 1 2 ′ {\displaystyle 226^{\circ }32{\frac {1}{2}}'} . He also determines the orbital inclination to be 1 ∘ 49 ′ {\displaystyle 1^{\circ }49'} . In chapter 63, Kepler gives a


id: astronomia-nova-20260505-10
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova-10.md
category: reference
title: Astronomia nova
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomia_nova
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:35.649868+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomia-nova-20260505-0
summary:
The sphere of the attractive virtue which is in the moon extends as far as the earth, and entices up the waters; but as the moon flies rapidly across the zenith, and the waters cannot follow so quickly, a flow of the ocean is occasioned in the torrid zone towards the westward. If the attractive virtue of the moon extends as far as the earth, it follows with greater reason that the attractive virtue of the earth extends as far as the moon and much farther; and, in short, nothing which consists of earthly substance anyhow constituted although thrown up to any height, can ever escape the powerful operation of this attractive virtue. Kepler also clarifies the concept of lightness in terms of relative density, in opposition to the Aristotelian concept of the absolute nature or quality of lightness as follows. His argument could easily be applied today to something like the flight of a hot air balloon. Nothing which consists of corporeal matter is absolutely light, but that is comparatively lighter which is rarer, either by its own nature, or by accidental heat. And it is not to be thought that light bodies are escaping to the surface of


id: astronomicum-caesareum-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomicum_Caesareum-0.md
category: reference
title: Astronomicum Caesareum
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astronomicum_Caesareum
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:36.856966+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astronomicum-caesareum-20260505-0
summary:
Astronomicum Caesareum (Astronomy of the Caesars; also translated as The Emperor's Astronomy) is a book by Petrus Apianus first published in 1540. Astronomicum was initially published in 1540. Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor, and his brother Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor, both commissioned the work. It was printed at Apianus's press in Ingolstadt, Bavaria, and took eight years to produce. It expanded and changed when reprinted; the final version has 55 leaves. Apianus evidently changed his plans while producing a single edition. A volvelle in one version of Astronomicum has "an entirely irrelevant base of an astrolabe" underneath, suggesting that he considered creating one and then abandoned the idea. Twenty-one of its 36 woodcuts are volvelles. Astronomicum's volvelles rely on a geocentric model of the universe. However, despite the false science on which they depended, knowledgeable readers could still use them to predict planetary movements. Nicolaus Copernicus published De revolutionibus orbium coelestium shortly after Astronomicum appeared, which began a transition to heliocentrism as the standard astronomical model. Although other 16th-century books used volvelles, Astronomicum's are distinctive because they take precedence over the book's text, as opposed to serving as illustrations. According to Ronald Brashear and Daniel Lewis, Astronomicum is "really


id: astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics_for_People_in_a_Hurry-0.md
category: reference
title: Astrophysics for People in a Hurry
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astrophysics_for_People_in_a_Hurry
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:38.015967+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: astrophysics-for-people-in-a-hurry-20260505-0
summary:
Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a 2017 popular science book by Neil deGrasse Tyson, centering around a number of basic questions about the universe. Published on May 2, 2017, by W. W. Norton & Company, the book is a collection of Tyson's essays that appeared in Natural History magazine at various times from 1997 to 2007. == Contents == Neil deGrasse Tyson's Astrophysics for People in a Hurry is a popular introduction to the main concepts and issues of modern astrophysics. The author explains the origin and structure of the Universe, the force of gravity, light, dark matter and dark energy, about our place in the Cosmos and how we try to understand its laws. The book is written in a simple and lively language, using vivid analogies. It is intended for a wide range of readers who want to get a general idea of astrophysics without complex formulas and details. The book consists of 12 short chapters, based on essays published in Natural History magazine. == Sales == The book debuted at #1 on The New York Times Non-Fiction Best Seller list when it first appeared in May, 2017. It sold 48,416 copies in its first week,


id: atlas-coelestis-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Coelestis-0.md
category: reference
title: Atlas Coelestis
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlas_Coelestis
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:39.210473+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: atlas-coelestis-20260505-0
summary:
The Atlas Coelestis is a star atlas published posthumously in 1729, based on observations made by the First Astronomer Royal, John Flamsteed. The Atlas – the largest that ever had been published and the first comprehensive telescopic star catalogue and companion celestial atlas – contains 26 maps of the major constellations visible from Greenwich, with drawings made in the Rococo style by James Thornhill. It also presents two planispheres designed by Abraham Sharp. == History == The first stellar atlas based in telescopic observations, the Atlas Coelestis was published only ten years after the death of Flamsteed, by his widow, assisted by Joseph Crosthwait and Abraham Sharp. It was preceded by the opus "Stellarum inerrantium Catalogus Britannicus" (or simply "British Catalogue", published in 1725, with 2919 stars). One of Flamsteed's main motivations to produce the Atlas, was to correct the representation of the figures of the constellations, as made by Bayer in his "Uranometria" (1603). Bayer represented the figures viewed from behind (not from the front, as was done since the time of Ptolemy), and these new positions contradicted the traditional star descriptions (i.e., Ptolemy's "star in the right shoulder" of Orion had become, in Bayer's rendering, the star in


id: bad-astronomy-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Astronomy-0.md
category: reference
title: Bad Astronomy
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bad_Astronomy
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:40.345989+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bad-astronomy-20260505-0
summary:
Bad Astronomy: Misconceptions and Misuses Revealed, from Astrology to the Moon Landing "Hoax" is a non-fiction book by the American astronomer Phil Plait, who is also known as "the Bad Astronomer". The book was published in 2002 and deals with various misunderstandings about space and astronomy, such as sounds being audible in space (a misconception because in the vacuum of space, sound has no medium in which to propagate). Plait's first book received generally favorable reviews within the academic and astronomy communities and was the first volume in the Bad Science series by John Wiley & Sons Publishing == Overview == Inspired by the author's web site, "Bad Astronomy", the book attempts to explore twenty-four common astronomical fallacies and explain the scientific consensus concerning these topics within the field of astronomy. The book explains and corrects many ideas relating to space that, according to Plait, are mistaken but nevertheless often portrayed in popular movies. Plait also dedicates much of the book to debunking the idea of a Moon landing hoax and explains why astrology should not be taken seriously. A part of the book describes the Moon's tidal effects and explains the Coriolis effect, why the sky is blue, the


id: bibliography-of-encyclopedias-astronomy-and-astronomers-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_encyclopedias:_astronomy_and_astronomers-0.md
category: reference
title: Bibliography of encyclopedias: astronomy and astronomers
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bibliography_of_encyclopedias:_astronomy_and_astronomers
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:41.522052+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bibliography-of-encyclopedias-astronomy-and-astronomers-20260505-0
summary:
This is a list of encyclopedias and encyclopedic/biographical dictionaries published on the subject of astronomy and astronomers in any language. Entries are in the English language except where noted. == A == Amils, Ricardo; Quintanilla, José Cernicharo; Cleaves, Henderson James (1 June 2011). Encyclopedia of Astrobiology. Springer. ISBN 978-3-642-11271-3. Angelo, Joseph A. (1 January 2009). Encyclopedia of Space and Astronomy. Infobase Publishing. ISBN 978-1-4381-1018-9. Angelo, Joseph A. Encyclopedia of space exploration. Facts on File, 2000. ISBN 0816039429. Angelo, Joseph A. The Extraterrestrial Encyclopedia: Our Search for Life in Outer Space. Facts on File, rev. ed., 1991. Angelo, Joseph A., Jr., Facts on File. The Facts on File space and astronomy handbook. Facts on File, 2002. ISBN 0816045429. Asimov, Isaac. Isaac Asimov's Library of the Universe. Gareth Stevens, 1988. == B == Baker, David. Larousse Guide to Astronomy. Larousse, 1978. Bakich, Michael E. (10 July 2003). The Cambridge Encyclopedia of Amateur Astronomy. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-521-81298-6. == C == Cambridge Encyclopedia of Astronomy. Crown, 1977. Clapham, Frances M.; Taylor, Ron B. (1982). Rand McNally astronomy encyclopedia. Children's Press. ISBN 978-0-516-09853-1. == D == Daintith, John; Gould, William (September 2006). Collins Dictionary of Astronomy. Collins. ISBN 978-0-00-722092-2. Daintith, John; Gould, William;


id: big-bang-singh-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_(Singh_book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Big Bang (Singh book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Big_Bang_(Singh_book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:42.682757+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: big-bang-singh-book-20260505-0
summary:
Big Bang: The most important scientific discovery of all time and why you need to know about it is a book written by Simon Singh and published in 2004 by Fourth Estate. Big Bang chronicles the history and development of the Big Bang model of the universe, from the ancient Greek scientists who first measured the distance to the Sun to the 20th century detection of the cosmic radiation still echoing the dawn of time. The book discusses how different theories of the universe evolved, along with a personal look at the people involved. == Before Big Bang theories == The book takes up how the inaccuracies of the theories of Copernicus and Galileo lead them to be dismissed. Copernicus and Galileo used false arguments to persuade people that the Earth went in circles around the Sun, and that the Sun was the center of the universe. Both these statements were alien to the public at the time, and are still alien to a modern public. Only the finally mathematically correct interpretation of Johannes Kepler made the theories accepted, within a single generation. As Singh points out, the old generation must die before a new theory can be accepted. ==


id: the-big-splash-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Splash_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: The Big Splash (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Big_Splash_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:43.920954+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-big-splash-book-20260505-0
summary:
The Big Splash: A Scientific Discovery That Revolutionizes the Way We View the Origin of Life, the Water We Drink, the Death of the Dinosaurs, the Creation of the Oceans, the Nature of the Cosmos, and the Very Future of the Earth Itself is a 1990 book written by Louis A. Frank with Patrick Huyghe. In the book, Frank claims to have found scientific evidence that every year, millions of small comets (made of ice and water) strike the Earth's atmosphere, and that these comets created Earth's lakes, rivers and oceans. While many scientists disputed Frank's hypothesis, he continued to argue that there are tests which can be performed which would either rule it out or confirm it. == Authors == Louis A. Frank was a Carver/James A. Van Allen Professor of Physics at the University of Iowa, and principal investigator for the auroral imaging instruments for NASA's Dynamics Explorer mission. Patrick Huyghe is a science writer. == References == == External links == Book Review: Overbye, Dennis (November 11, 1990). "IN SHORT: NONFICTION - THE BIG SPLASH: ..." The New York Times. Retrieved 2007-07-28. Excerpt: "The Original Discovery". Small Comets. University of Iowa. Retrieved 2007-07-28.


id: the-birth-and-death-of-the-sun-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_and_Death_of_the_Sun-0.md
category: reference
title: The Birth and Death of the Sun
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Birth_and_Death_of_the_Sun
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:45.172530+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-birth-and-death-of-the-sun-20260505-0
summary:
The Birth and Death of the Sun is a popular science book by theoretical physicist and cosmologist George Gamow, first published in 1940, exploring atomic chemistry, stellar evolution, and cosmology. The book is illustrated by Gamow. It was revised in 1952. == Reception == Critical reception has been positive. In February 1941, Gerard F. W. Mulders gave a favorable review for The Birth and Death of the Sun, writing that "[i]t gives authentic information in nontechnical language from which mathematical formulae have been completely eliminated. The entertaining presentation of the most modern developments in physics and astrophysics, the sparkling humor, and the original drawings and graphs will be enjoyed by scientist and amateur alike." In April 2015, physicist and Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg included The Birth and Death of the Sun in a personal list of "the 13 best science books for the general reader". == See also == Formation and evolution of the Solar System == References == == External links == The Birth and Death of the Sun at the Internet Archive


id: bnf-m-langes-de-colbert-60-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BnF,_Mélanges_de_Colbert_60-0.md
category: reference
title: BnF, Mélanges de Colbert 60
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/BnF,_Mélanges_de_Colbert_60
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:46.404683+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: bnf-m-langes-de-colbert-60-20260505-0
summary:
Mélanges de Colbert 60 (Mel. Col. 60) is a medieval astronomical multiple-text manuscript preserved in the funds of Bibliothèque nationale de France. This manuscript was compiled, approximately, at the end of the 15th century, using different codicological units originating from the 14th and 15th century. The main interest in the Mel. Col. 60 in the history of astronomy, are the different versions of the Oxford tables and John of Lignères' Tabule magne, which underlines the circulation of these famous alfonsine texts between continental Europe and the British Isles starting in the 14th century. Another peculiarity of this manuscript is that the canons and tables of the Tabule magne are conserved within the same codex, which is unusual for the transmission of this work == History == Little is known about the composition and provenance of Mel. Col. 60. It was composed around the end of the 15th century. However, the codex consists of several quires, some of which might be from the 14th century, while the others are from the 15th century. The manuscript is made partly of parchment, and partly of paper, which makes it easier for scholars to distinguish the quires of different provenance. The identity of the


id: canon-of-eclipses-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Eclipses-0.md
category: reference
title: Canon of Eclipses
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canon_of_Eclipses
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:48.727232+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: canon-of-eclipses-20260505-0
summary:
The Canon of Eclipses (German: Canon der Finsternisse), published in 1887 at the Imperial Academy of Sciences of Vienna by Theodor Ritter von Oppolzer, is a compilation of over 13000 (8000 solar and 5200 lunar) eclipses, including all solar and all umbral lunar eclipses between the years 1208 BC and 2161 CE. It was republished by Dover Books in 1962. == References == == External links == 1887 Original German edition at Internet Archive


id: the-case-for-mars-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_Mars-0.md
category: reference
title: The Case for Mars
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_Mars
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:49.896282+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-case-for-mars-20260505-0
summary:
The Case for Mars: The Plan to Settle the Red Planet and Why We Must is a nonfiction science book by Robert Zubrin, first published in 1996, and revised and updated in 2011. The book details Zubrin's Mars Direct plan to make the first human landing on Mars. The plan focuses on keeping costs down by making use of automated systems and available materials on Mars to manufacture the return journey's fuel in situ. The book also reveals possible Mars colony designs and weighs the prospects for a colony's material self-sufficiency and for the terraforming of Mars. == Mars Direct == The Mars Direct plan was originally detailed by Zubrin and David Baker in 1990. The Case for Mars is, according to Zubrin, a comprehensive condensation for laymen of many years' work and research. Chapters 1 and 4 deal primarily with Mars Direct. == Colonization == For Robert Zubrin, the attractiveness of Mars Direct does not rest on a single cost-effective mission. He envisions a series of regular Martian missions with the ultimate goal of colonization, which he details in the seventh through ninth chapters. As initial explorers leave hab-structures on the planet, subsequent missions become easier to undertake. Large


id: the-case-for-mars-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_Mars-1.md
category: reference
title: The Case for Mars
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Case_for_Mars
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:49.896282+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-case-for-mars-20260505-0
summary:
=== Viability === In the third and tenth chapters, The Case for Mars addresses the politics and costs of the ideas described. The authors argue that the colonization of Mars is a logical extension of the settlement of North America. They envision a frontier society, providing opportunities for innovation and social experimentation. Zubrin suggests three models to provide the will and capital to drive Mars exploration forward: the J.F.K. model, in which a far-sighted U.S. leader provides the funding and mobilizes national public opinion around the idea; the Sagan model, in which international co-operation is the driving force; and the Gingrich approach, which emphasizes incentives and even prizes for private sector actors who take on research and development tasks. In keeping with the third idea, Zubrin describes twelve challenges that address various aspects of the exploration program. A monetary prize – from five hundred million to twenty billion dollars – is offered to companies who successfully complete the challenges. The prize-based approach to hardware development has emerged within the private aeronautics community, though not yet on the scale envisioned by Zubrin. Ventures such as the Ansari X-Prize and Robert Bigelow's America's Space Prize seek low-cost spaceflight development through private enterprise,


id: comet-book-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(book)-0.md
category: reference
title: Comet (book)
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_(book)
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:51.078430+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: comet-book-20260505-0
summary:
Comet is a 1985 popular-science book by Carl Sagan and Ann Druyan. The authors describe the scientific nature of comets, as well as their varying roles and perceptions throughout history. The evolution of human understanding of comets is also detailed, and thinkers and astronomers such as Edmond Halley, Immanuel Kant, and William Huggins are discussed. The publication of the first edition was months ahead of the 1986 appearance of Halley's Comet. A 1997 edition includes additional material. == References ==


id: commentariolus-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus-0.md
category: reference
title: Commentariolus
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:52.246082+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: commentariolus-20260505-0
summary:
The Commentariolus (Little Commentary) is Nicolaus Copernicus's brief outline of an early version of his revolutionary heliocentric theory of the universe. After further long development of his theory, Copernicus published the mature version in 1543 in his landmark work, De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres). Copernicus wrote the Commentariolus in Latin by 1514 and circulated copies to his friends and colleagues. It thus became known among Copernicus's contemporaries, though it was never printed during his lifetime. In 1533, Johann Albrecht Widmannstetter delivered a series of lectures in Rome outlining Copernicus' theory. Pope Clement VII and several Catholic cardinals heard the lectures and were interested in the theory. On 1 November 1536, Nikolaus von Schönberg, Archbishop of Capua and since the preceding year a cardinal, wrote to Copernicus from Rome and asked him for a copy of his writings "at the earliest possible moment". Although copies of the Commentariolus circulated for a time after Copernicus's death, it subsequently lapsed into obscurity, and its previous existence remained known only indirectly, until a surviving manuscript copy was discovered and published in the second half of the nineteenth century. == Summary == The Commentariolus is subdivided into eight sections


id: commentariolus-20260505-1
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus-1.md
category: reference
title: Commentariolus
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:52.246082+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: commentariolus-20260505-0
summary:
Including the annual revolution around the Sun, which the Moon shares with the Earth in his system, Copernicus explains the Moon's motion as composed of five independent motions. Its motion around the Earth lies in a plane which is inclined at an angle of 5° to the plane of the Earth's orbit, and which precesses from east to west around an axis perpendicular to that plane, with a period of between 18 and 19 years with respect to the fixed stars. The remaining three motions, which take place within this orbital plane, are depicted in the diagram to the right. The first of these is that of the first, and larger, of two epicycles, whose center (represented by the point e1 in the diagram) moves uniformly from west to east around the circumference of a deferent centred on the Earth (represented by point T in the diagram), with a period of one draconitic month. The centre of the second, smaller epicycle (represented by the point e2 in the diagram) moves uniformly from east to west around the circumference of the first so that the period of the angle β in the diagram is one anomalistic month. The Moon itself, represented


id: commentariolus-20260505-2
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus-2.md
category: reference
title: Commentariolus
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Commentariolus
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:52.246082+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: commentariolus-20260505-0
summary:
Like the Moon's motion, that of the outer planets, represented in the diagram to the right, is produced by a combination of a deferent and two epicycles. The centre of the first, and larger of the two epicycles, represented by the point e1 in the diagram, revolves uniformly from west to east around the circumference of a deferent whose centre is the centre of the Earth's orbit, represented by the point S in the diagram, with a period relative to the fixed stars as given in the section The order of the spheres above. The centre of the second epicycle, represented by the point e2 in the diagram, revolves uniformly from east to west around the circumference of the first, with the same period relative to the radial line joining S to e1. As a consequence, the direction of the radial line joining e1 to e2 remains fixed relative to the fixed stars, parallel to the planet's line of apses EW, and the point e2 describes an eccentric circle whose radius is equal to that of the deferent, and whose centre, represented by the point O in the diagram, is offset from that of the deferent by the radius of


id: the-conquest-of-space-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conquest_of_Space-0.md
category: reference
title: The Conquest of Space
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Conquest_of_Space
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:53.403477+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-conquest-of-space-20260505-0
summary:
The Conquest of Space is a 1949 speculative science book written by Willy Ley and illustrated by Chesley Bonestell. The book contains a portfolio of paintings by Bonestell depicting the possible future exploration of the Solar System, with explanatory text by Ley. Most of the 58 illustrations by Bonestell in Conquest, were previously published in color, in popular magazines. == Influences on fiction == Some of Bonestell's designs inspired the look of George Pal's 1955 science fiction movie Conquest of Space, which also takes its title from the book, but uses it as a framework on which to hang a melodramatic plot. Bonestell's illustrations of the Moon in The Conquest of Space were used by Hergé as a basis for his illustrations of the lunar surface in his 1952–53 The Adventures of Tintin comic, Explorers on the Moon. Arthur C. Clarke was also an admirer of The Conquest of Space; in his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, Clarke refers to Saturn's moon Iapetus as "Japetus" due to that being the spelling used by Ley in The Conquest of Space. Larry Niven's 1967 short story "The Soft Weapon" is set on a planet around Beta Lyrae; Niven's description of Beta Lyrae


id: the-cosmic-connection-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosmic_Connection-0.md
category: reference
title: The Cosmic Connection
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Cosmic_Connection
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:54.624992+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: the-cosmic-connection-20260505-0
summary:
The Cosmic Connection: An Extraterrestrial Perspective is a book by the astronomer Carl Sagan, produced by Jerome Agel. It was originally published in 1973; an expanded edition with contributions from Freeman Dyson, David Morrison, and Ann Druyan was published in 2000 under the title Carl Sagan's Cosmic Connection. The book contains artwork by Jon Lomberg and other artists. The book was listed as number thirteen in a list of the "25 Greatest Science Books of All Time" by Discover Magazine in 2006. == Summary == Sagan covers several topics, and focuses mainly on the possibility of extraterrestrial intelligence, the likelihood of the existence of more advanced civilizations, and their distribution in the local galaxy, and in the universe. He describes the hypothetical opinions of more advanced intelligences and their views of the Earth, as well as communication with mankind. He also discusses the popularity of UFO sightings and attempts mathematically to portray the probability of such events. Sagan also discusses his view of astrology as a pseudoscience. == References == == External links == Cambridge catalogue listing


id: cosmic-evolution-20260505-0
file: data/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Evolution-0.md
category: reference
title: Cosmic Evolution
tags: science, encyclopedia
source_url: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmic_Evolution
date_saved: 2026-05-05T08:32:55.807812+00:00
instance: kb-cron
parent: cosmic-evolution-20260505-0
summary:
Cosmic Evolution: The Rise of Complexity in Nature (2001) is a book by Harvard astrophysicist Eric Chaisson. It examines cosmic evolution which includes the history of natural evolution from the Big Bang to the present from the perspective of the emerging multi-scientific discipline of Big History. It offers an explanation of why simple structures billions of years ago gave way to more complex structures, such as stars, planets, life, and human beings in complex civilizations. It is written for a general audience interested in science. == Overview == Chaisson argues that cosmic history can be examined from the perspective of energy flows. He analyzes the flows of energy through various objects and argues that these flows are relevant to understanding the relative complexity of these objects. He suggests that a key measure for scientific analysis should be energy per second per gram, termed "energy rate density," and that analysis using this yardstick can be used to explain not only human evolution but cosmic evolution. He sees energy as "work per unit time" which he equates with power, and shows how energy rate density in some structures has increased over time. For example, in Chaisson's view, the human brain uses a


