The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism.
Alexander von Humboldt (1769–1859) was an intrepid explorer and the most famous scientist of his age. In North America, his name still graces four counties, thirteen towns, a river, parks, bays, lakes, and mountains. His restless life was packed with adventure and discovery, whether he was climbing the highest volcanoes in the world or racing through anthrax-infected Siberia or translating his research into bestselling publications that changed science and thinking. Among Humboldt’s most revolutionary ideas was a radical vision of nature, that it is a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone.
Now Andrea Wulf brings the man and his achievements back into focus: his daring expeditions and investigation of wild environments around the world and his discoveries of similarities between climate and vegetation zones on different continents. She also discusses his prediction of human-induced climate change, his remarkable ability to fashion poetic narrative out of scientific observation, and his relationships with iconic figures such as Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson. Wulf examines how Humboldt’s writings inspired other naturalists and poets such as Darwin, Wordsworth, and Goethe, and she makes the compelling case that it was Humboldt’s influence that led John Muir to his ideas of natural preservation and that shaped Thoreau’s Walden.
With this brilliantly researched and compellingly written book, Andrea Wulf shows the myriad fundamental ways in which Humboldt created our understanding of the natural world, and she champions a renewed interest in this vital and lost player in environmental history and science.

鲁道夫维特科尔编的《人文主义时代的建筑原理》*初是于1949年作为《瓦尔堡学院研究》第19卷出版的。第二版则是由Alec Tiranti有限公司于1952年出版的，该出版社随后于1962年出了修改过的第三版。此版由Academy Editions出版社于1962年再版。1973年，Academy Editions出版社为此书图片进行了重新标号并将之直接插入正文内，以这样新版式的完整版，发行了本书的第四版。 这一版本里包含了一些维特科尔教授迄今为止尚未发表过的论比例的讲演稿和文章。这些文本是由他的遗孀慷慨提供给我们的。附录四是我们依据维特科尔不同手稿进行摘录编辑成文的。

 从宇宙大爆炸到宇宙的未来，从量子物理学的困惑到力与粒子的大统一，物理学家与宇宙学家面前的一切难题，归根结底的关键问题都是：时间。那么，时间是什么？
 物理学发展史上，诸多物理学家、宇宙学家、思想家，包括伽利略、柏拉图、牛顿、爱因斯坦等，都认为时间不过是一个终极假象；他们的理论也多是独立于时间的。
 在《时间重生》中作者斯莫林教授认为，在量子力学的诠释中，在量子力学与时空、引力与宇宙学的终极大统一中，时间发挥着至关重要的作用。这种时间观，是如何形成的？
 在将时间驱逐出物理学与宇宙学研究的过程中，我们会付出什么代价？在接受时间真实性之后，我们又将付出什么，收获什么？《时间重生》将告诉你答案和一个与众不同的时间观！

In this new book, neuroscientist Eric R. Kandel, whose remarkable scientific career and deep interest in art give him a unique perspective, demonstrates how science can inform the way we experience a work of art and seek to understand its meaning.

From Galileo to today’s amateur astronomers, scientists have been rebels, writes Freeman J. Dyson. Like artists and poets, they are free spirits who resist the restrictions their cultures impose on them. In their pursuit of nature’s truths, they are guided as much by imagination as by reason, and their greatest theories have the uniqueness and beauty of great works of art.Dyson argues that the best way to understand science is by understanding those who practice it. He tells stories of scientists at work, ranging from Isaac Newton’s absorption in physics, alchemy, theology, and politics, to Ernest Rutherford’s discovery of the structure of the atom, to Albert Einstein’s stubborn hostility to the idea of black holes. His descriptions of brilliant physicists like Edward Teller and Richard Feynman are enlivened by his own reminiscences of them. He looks with a skeptical eye at fashionable scientific fads and fantasies, and speculates on the future of climate prediction, genetic engineering, the colonization of space, and the possibility that paranormal phenomena may exist yet not be scientifically verifiable.Dyson also looks beyond particular scientific questions to reflect on broader philosophical issues, such as the limits of reductionism, the morality of strategic bombing and nuclear weapons, the preservation of the environment, and the relationship between science and religion. These essays, by a distinguished physicist who is also a prolific writer, offer informed insights into the history of science and fresh perspectives on contentious current debates about science, ethics, and faith.