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The use of images has been critical to the pursuit of science for centuries. This book explores, within an art historical framework how to comprehend images not as illustrative representations, but as productive agents and distinctive multi-layered elements of the epistemic process. If scientific images play a constructive role in shaping the findings and insights they illustrate, the representation of an observation in images, however mechanical, however detached from the individual researcher s choices their appearance may be, likewise becomes an instance of the style of a period, a mindset, a research collective, and a device. The Technical Image emerges from an institute in Germany, which has married art and historical analysis of technical images, and serves as a methodological reference and inspiration for visual representation in the sciences. The work opens with a series of methodological chapters that introduce a set of questions about representations in sciences and medicine, and the core of the work consists of historical case studies around specific images that in turn illustrate themes ranging from "objectivity and evidence" to "digital images." Within these case studies are also definitions and elaborations of selected terms that have in recent years become key concepts in the analysis of scientific imagery."
With a fleet of telescopes in space and giant observatories on the ground, professional astronomers produce hundreds of spectacular images of space every year. These colorful pictures have become infused into popular culture; we find them on billboards, in commercials, and on our computers. But they also invite questions: Is this what outer space really looks like? Are the colors real? How are these images made? "Coloring the Universe" uses accessible language to describe how these giant telescopes work, what scientists learn with them, and how they are used to make color images. Both informative and beautiful, this book is filled with brilliant images of deep space as well as an insider s perspective by the people who make them."
This fast-paced action novel is set in a future where the world has been almost destroyed. Like the award-winning novel Freak the Mighty, this is Philbrick at his very best.It's the story of an epileptic teenager nicknamed Spaz, who begins the heroic fight to bring human intelligence back to the planet. In a world where most people are plugged into brain-drain entertainment systems, Spaz is the rare human being who can see life as it really is. When he meets an old man called Ryter, he begins to learn about Earth and its past. With Ryter as his companion, Spaz sets off an unlikely quest to save his dying sister -- and in the process, perhaps the world.
In the popular imagination, archives are remote, largely obsolete institutions: either antiquated, inevitably dusty libraries or sinister repositories of personal secrets maintained by police states. Yet the archive is now a ubiquitous feature of digital life. Rather than being deleted, e-mails and other computer files are archived. Media software and cloud storage allow for the instantaneous cataloging and preservation of data, from music, photographs, and videos to personal information gathered by social media sites. In this digital landscape, the archival-oriented media theories of Wolfgang Ernst are particularly relevant. Digital Memory and the Archive, the first English-language collection of the German media theorist’s work, brings together essays that present Ernst’s controversial materialist approach to media theory and history. His insights are central to the emerging field of media archaeology, which uncovers the role of specific technologies and mechanisms, rather than content, in shaping contemporary culture and society. Ernst’s interrelated ideas on the archive, machine time and microtemporality, and the new regimes of memory offer a new perspective on both current digital culture and the infrastructure of media historical knowledge. For Ernst, different forms of media systems—from library catalogs to sound recordings—have influenced the content and understanding of the archive and other institutions of memory. At the same time, digital archiving has become a contested site that is highly resistant to curation, thus complicating the creation and preservation of cultural memory and history.
What's Out There draws upon discoveries by the most recent space probes, bringing together more than 150 breathtaking images of the universe - from close-ups of the surface of Mars to the far reaches of space. Structured alphabetically for ease of use, the journey includes highlights such as a volcano on Jupiter's satellite Io, nebulas in Orion's belt, and the birth-pangs and death-throes of the stars. For each topic covered there is concisely accessible expert commentary, and for each photograph a caption with a data box providing key facts.
Using space photographs and scaled maps, demonstrates the actual size of objects in the cosmos, from Buzz Aldrin's historic footprint on the Moon to the entire visible universe, with a gatefold of the Gott-Juric Map of the Universe.
For 20 years the Hubble Space Telescope has been hurtling around our planet at 17,500 mph sending spectacularly sharp images of the universe back to Earth. Hubble is a visual celebration of this large and versatile telescope's astonishing scientific and technical achievements. This fully revised and updated edition of Hubble: Window on the Universe (Legacy Edition) showcases the very latest and clearest images of galaxies, nebulae, quasars, exploding stars and stellar nurseries. More than 200 remarkable cosmic images reveal the inner workings of the solar system, the expansion of the Universe, the birth and death of stars, the formation of planetary nebulae, the dynamics of galaxies and the mysterious force known as 'dark energy'. Featuring the history of the project from its origins and launch in 1990, the discovery and emergency repair of a defective mirror, the impact of subsequent servicing missions and finally, its extraordinary legacy this stunning giant volume will take you on a journey through the universe via 200 glorious full-colour images.
A brief overview of astronomy and cosmology is presented in five different ways, through the lenses of space, time, evolution, process, and structure. Specific topics are chosen for their contribution to a "big picture" understanding of the interconnectedness of knowledge in astronomy and cosmology. Thus, many topics (stellar astronomy for example) are treated in multiple sections, but from different viewpoints—for example, sizes and distances of stars (space); when stars appeared in the history of the universe (time); stellar evolution (evolution); hydrostatic equilibrium and stellar spectra (process); and stellar structure (structure). Some topics traditional to the introductory astronomy curriculum—eclipses and lunar phases, for example—are omitted altogether as they are inessential for the big-picture goals of the book, and excellent summaries are easily available elsewhere. On the other hand, the book treats some topics not usually covered in an introductory astronomy course, for example the roles played by equilibrium processes and symmetry in our understanding of the universe. The level is for the beginning undergraduate, with only basic skills in rudimentary algebra assumed. But more advanced students and teachers will also find the book useful as both a set of practical tools and a point of departure for taking stock (in five different ways) of the current state of knowledge in astronomy and cosmology.
