Galileo : decisive innovator /

Galileo : decisive innovator /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Sharratt, Michael.
Imprint:	Cambridge ; New York, NY, USA : Cambridge, University Press, 1996.
Description:	xiii, 247 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm.
Language:	English
Series:	Cambridge science biographies series Cambridge science biographies series.
Subject:	Galilei, Galileo, -- 1564-1642. Galilei, Galileo, -- 1564-1642 Astronomers -- Italy -- Biography. Scientists -- Italy -- Biography. Astronomy. Astronomers. Scientists. Italy. Biography. Biographies. Biographies.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/12030627

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	0521562198 9780521562195 0521566711 9780521566711
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 234-241) and index.
Summary:	Philosopher Michael Sharratt examines the flair, imagination, hard-headedness, clarity, combativeness and penetrating intelligence of Galileo Galilei. To follow Galileo's career as he exploited unforeseen opportunities to unseat established ways of comprehending nature is to understand a crucial stage of the Scientific Revolution. Galileo was a pathbreaker for the newly-invented telescope, the decoder of nature's mathematical language and a quite brilliant popularizer of science. Even his reluctant excursion into theology has at last been officially and handsomely recognized by the Church's "rehabilitation" of the Inquisition's most famous victim, fully discussed in the last chapter. This book makes his lasting contributions accessible to nonscientists, and his mistakes are not overlooked. This is not a mythical story, but the biography of an innovator--one of the greatest ever known.--From publisher description.

Table of Contents:

Preface
1. From pharmacy to chemistry
2. Organic analysis and the Giessen Research School
3. Liebig and organic chemistry, 1820-1840
4. Liebig and the British
5. Liebig and commerce
6. Liebig and the farmers: agricultural chemistry
7. Liebig and the doctors: animal chemistry
8. Liebig on toast: the chemistry of food
9. Liebig and London: the chemistry of sewage
10. Populariser of science: chemical letters
11. Philosopher of science: the Bacon Affair
12. Death and assessment
Appendices
Bibliography
Index