Research Catalog

Circles : 50 round trips through history, technology, science, culture

Title: Circles : 50 round trips through history, technology, science, culture / James Burke ; illustrated by Dušan Petričić.
Author: Burke, James, 1936-
Publication: New York : Simon & Schuster, [2000], ©2000.

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Status	Format	Access	Call Number	Item Location
Request for On-site Use Request Scan How do I pick up this item and when will it be ready?	Text	Request in advance	T18 .B86 2000	Off-site

Description

286 pages : illustrations; 24 cm

Summary

"From the author of The Knowledge Web come fifty journeys into the history of technology, each following a chain of consequential events that ends precisely where it began. Whether exploring electromagnetic fields, the origin of hot chocolate, or DNA fingerprinting, these essays - which originally appeared in James Burke's popular Scientific American column - all illustrate the serendipitous and surprisingly circular nature of change.".
"In "Room with (Half) a View," for instance, Burke muses about the partly obscured railway bridge outside his home on the Thames. Thinking of the bridge engineer, who also built the steamship that laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable, causes him to recall Samuel Morse; which, in turn, conjures up Morse's neighbor, firearms inventor Sam Colt, and his rival, Remington.
One dizzying connection after another leads to Karl Marx's daughter, who attended Socialist meetings with a trombonist named Gustave Holst, who once lived in the very house that blocks Burke's view of the bridge on the Thames. Burke's essays all evolve in this organic manner, highlighting the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events and innovations. Romantic poetry leads to brandy distillation; tonic water connects through Leibniz to the first explorers to reach the North Pole."--BOOK JACKET.

Subjects

Bibliography (note)

ISBN

074320008X

LCCN

00057335

OCLC

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries