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a very public offering "Stephan Paternot has incredible drive, the kind of drive you see in people once in a lifetime. He's a young Richard Branson. He has this ‘positive irreverence' that allows him to tackle incredible things against all odds and the establishment, and lift people with his vision and enthusiasm. What he did with theglobe.com is purely phenomenal. He made business history." --Laurent Massa, Co-founder and Former CEO of Xoom.com "Even for one who was there, Stephan's recounting of the entrepreneurial journey of theglobe.com is a great read. It brings back the thrills and spills of this Internet saga. Those reading it afresh are in for a real treat." --David H. Horowitz, 'Angel' investor and (until 2000) a director of theglobe.Com and former CEO of MTV Networks
Genius demystified, the Dummies way!
In 1905, Albert Einstein revolutionized modern physics with his theory of relativity. He went on to become a twentieth-century icon-a man whose name and face are synonymous with "genius." Now, at last, ordinary readers can explore Einstein's life and work in this new For Dummies guide. Physicist Carlos Calle chronicles Einstein's career and explains his work-including the theories of special and general relativity-in language that anyone can understand. He shows how Einstein's discoveries affected everything from the development of the atom bomb to the theory of quantum mechanics. He sheds light on Einstein's personal life and beliefs, including his views on religion and politics. And he shows how Einstein's work continues to affect our world today, from nuclear power to space travel to artificial intelligence.
(2)Soaked in the sunshine of Corfu, where Gerald Durrell lived as a boy with his "family and other animals," this book evocatively chronicles his five-year sojourn on the Greek island. With hilarious yet endearing portraits of his eccentric family and their many unusual hangers-on, My Family and Other Animals also captures the beginnings of Durrell's lifelong love of animals. In its passionate understanding of Corfu's natural history, this is an entertaining and enduring memoir.
"A real page-turner.... If Victor McElheny is not already a prince among science writers, this book should elevate him to that high position." --Judah Folkman, Nature Medicine The most influential scientist of the last century, James Watson has been at dead center in the creation of modern molecular biology. This masterful biography brings to life the extraordinary achievements not only of Watson but also all those working on this cutting edge of scientific discovery, such as Walter Gilbert, Francis Crick, FranAois Jacob, and David Baltimore. From the ruthless competition in the race to identify the structure of DNA to a near mutiny in the Harvard biology department, to clashes with ethicists over issues in genetics, Watson has left a wake of detractors as well as fans. Victor McElheny probes brilliantly behind the veil of Watson's own invented persona, bringing us close to the relentless genius and scientific impresario who triggered and sustained a revolution in science.
(1)In Tesla: Man Out of Time, Margaret Cheney explores the brilliant and prescient mind of one of the twentieth century's greatest scientists and inventors. Called a madman by his enemies, a genius by others, and an enigma by nearly everyone, Nikola Tesla was, without a doubt, a trailblazing inventor who created astonishing, sometimes world-transforming devices that were virtually without theoretical precedent. Tesla not only discovered the rotating magnetic field -- the basis of most alternating-current machinery -- but also introduced us to the fundamentals of robotics, computers, and missile science. Almost supernaturally gifted, unfailingly flamboyant and neurotic, Tesla was troubled by an array of compulsions and phobias and was fond of extravagant, visionary experimentations. He was also a popular man-about-town, admired by men as diverse as Mark Twain and George Westinghouse, and adored by scores of society beauties. From Tesla's childhood in Yugoslavia to his death in New York in the 1940s, Cheney paints a compelling human portrait and chronicles a lifetime of discoveries that radically altered -- and continue to alter -- the world in which we live. Tesla: Man Out of Time is an in-depth look at the seminal accomplishments of a scientific wizard and a thoughtful examination of the obsessions and eccentricities of the man behind the science.
(3)Gene Kranz was present at the creation of America's manned space program and was a key player in it for three decades. As a flight director in NASA's Mission Control, Kranz witnessed firsthand the making of history. He participated in the space program from the early days of the Mercury program to the last Apollo mission, and beyond. He endured the disastrous first years when rockets blew up and the United States seemed to fall further behind the Soviet Union in the space race. He helped to launch Alan Shepard and John Glenn, then assumed the flight director's role in the Gemini program, which he guided to fruition. With his teammates, he accepted the challenge to carry out President John F. Kennedy's commitment to land a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s. Kranz was flight director for both Apollo 11, the mission in which Neil Armstrong fulfilled President Kennedy's pledge, and Apollo 13. He headed the Tiger Team that had to figure out how to bring the three Apollo 13 astronauts safely back to Earth. (In the film Apollo 13, Kranz was played by the actor Ed Harris, who earned an Academy Award nomination for his performance.) In Failure Is Not an Option, Gene Kranz recounts these thrilling historic events and offers new information about the famous flights. What appeared as nearly flawless missions to the Moon were, in fact, a series of hair-raising near misses. When the space technology failed, as it sometimes did, the controllers' only recourse was to rely on their skills and those of their teammates. Kranz takes us inside Mission Control and introduces us to some of the whiz kids -- still in their twenties, only a few years out of college -- who had to figure it all out as they went along, creating a great and daring enterprise. He reveals behind-the-scenes details to demonstrate the leadership, discipline, trust, and teamwork that made the space program a success. Finally, Kranz reflects on what has happened to the space program and offers his own bold suggestions about what we ought to be doing in space now. This is a fascinating firsthand account written by a veteran mission controller of one of America's greatest achievements.
(5)'This book is important for everyone . . . I love this book' (Oprah Winfrey )
"Highly Recommended" 'surprisingly compelling reading' (Good Reading )
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EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson
‘Isaacson’s biography is readable and highly professional, based on extensive research and thorough checking by expert physicists and historians. Anyone coming to Einstein’s life and work for the first time will be accurately informed and intellectually stimulated…A memorable conclusion: “For some people, miracles serve as evidence of God’s existence. For Einstein it was the absence of miracles that reflected divine providence. The fact that the world is comprehensible, that it follows laws, is worthy of awe.” This is as pithy as Einstein himself’
Andrew Robinson, New Scientist 14/4
‘What captures the public attention will be the biographer’s revelation that Einstein fathered a daughter, Lieserl, before he married his fellow mathematician, Mileva Mari, and that the child mysteriously disappears from the record’
Lisa Jardine, The Times 28/4
‘[A] brilliant biography, rich with newly available archival material’
Literary Review, June issue
‘Beautifully written, it renders the physics understandable… Einstein was one of the creators of the modern world, and anyone that does not possess a biography of him should acquire this one’
Sunday Telegraph 3/6
‘With prodigious effort and businesslike calm, Isaacson has given us much more than Einstein the magus, he has given us Einstein the mensch’
Bryan Appleyard, Sunday Times 3/6
‘Isaacson is excellent at explaining the science…. But moments later the reality of the understanding has slipped away and one’s sense of amazement returns. This is because Einstein is analyzing a world beyond the direct perception of our senses’
Daily Express 8/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… Einstein: His Life and Universe by Walter Isaacson: a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 10/6
‘This book is popular science, biography, history and dramatic writing at its very best’
5 stars, London Lite 12/6
'A thorough exploration of his subject's life, a skilful piece of scientific literature and a thumping good read...It's one of the greatest stories of modern science and to his credit and my surprise, Isaacson has done a first-rate job in telling it. This is, quite simply, a riveting read'
Robin McKie, Observer 10/6
'This book is a splendid achievement'
Daily Telegraph 23/7
'[Isaacson] has written a great book, one that provides everything one would want from a biography of Einstein'
The Spectator 30/6
'YOU REALLY MUST READ… a highly readable, dramatic and revelatory biography'
Sunday Times 17/6
'A readable, dramatic and revelatory life, based on a mass of new letters'
Sunday Times 1/7
‘The popular Einstein story is impossible to resist. A young man fails his mathematics exams yet becomes the world’s greatest scientist. He works in obscurity. When he publishes his great papers, he’s ignored. Despite all this – and his autism – he triumphs. But he does so only with the help of his wife, a key source of his ideas. It turns out that none of that is true. The reality, however, is even better’
FT 4/8
‘This book reads very much like a labour of love… While Einstein may have changed from scientific revolutionary to reactionary during his career, his life remained fascinating and complex to the end, and this book does him justice’
Independent on Sunday 12/08
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
‘His sympathetic biography of “science’s pre-eminent poster boy” can justifiably claim to be more comprehensive than any before.
‘Isaacson still manages to explain Einstein’s revolutionary thinking with infectious enthusiasm, but it is the man behind the science who is now brought into sharper focus’
Guardian 25/8
‘Walter Isaacson’s achievement is to take us beyond the myth of the huge brain. Through an artful mix of biography and lucid illumination of the most mind-blowing theoretical leaps in science, he makes the case that Einstein’s genius depended not on ‘brute processing power’, but imagination, independence, creativity and passion’
5 stars, Mail on Sunday 2/9
'It is the portrayal of [Einstein's] weaknesses and foibles that makes this book and Albert himself such a delight. He might have been able to understand quantum theory and imagine the universe as a series of equations that swept through existence like a wave, but people! He was just like the rest of us. His private life as a lover, husband and father shows many faults and mistakes. The book is a glorious attempt to showing a towering genius in human terms' Venue 28/9
'A compelling biography of the little scientist who never wore socks and who changed the way we see the world. Isaacson elegantly and fluently interweaves Einstein's interestingly chaotic personal life with confidently lengthy accounts of the work'
Favourite Biographies of 2007, Sunday Times 25/11
'A wealth of information about a complex and divided character. Einstein said his public acclaim made him feel a fraud, but he was an adept manipulator of his own image; when it was rumoured that he was too absent-minded to remember his socks in the morning, he stopped wearing them so as not to disappoint anyone'
Tim Martin, Biographies of the Year Daily Telegraph 24/11
EINSTEIN by Walter Isaacson - 9781847370488
'In the end, Einstein left his mark on the world because he always had the courage to stand up to conventional wisdom and was never afraid to ask seemingly naïve questions, most of which began with the words "what if?". This tendency to rebel was the source of his creativity and his real talent was an ability to focus on mundane things that his contemporaries had overlooked. He has always deserved a biography that radiates intelligence, wit and eloquence - and now, thanks to Walter Isaacson, he finally has one'
Sunday Business Post (Ireland) 5/8
"Albert comes vividly to life and so do his space-warping, mind-bending theories. Isaacson uses personal letters that have only recently become available and it turns out he was as passionate about the female of our species as he was about the rest of the universe"
Alan Alda, Hawkeye and Science buff, The Times 8/11
