Stimulating exploration of several areas of science.
The unraveling of a scientific treasure hidden in the pages of a decaying palimpsest.
Noel, curator of documents at the Walters Art Institute in Baltimore, obtained custody of a medieval prayer book that had been copied onto parchment that contained the erased remnants of several unique texts by the greatest of Greek scientists, Archimedes. The owner, “Mr. B,” not only gave the Walters the right to display it, but the task of learning what mathematical treasures some medieval scribe had written over. To help in that task, he enlisted the aid of Netz, a leading expert on ancient mathematics. Thus began the process of recovering Archimedes’ text, letter by letter, from the palimpsest. The difficulty of that task was multiplied by the fragility of the parchment, as well as clumsy efforts by previous owners to preserve it or to increase its value by inserting forged illustrations. Noel called in experts in high-tech imaging to apply sensitive but non-destructive methods. After a number of false starts, they began to uncover text that Noel could read—and he rapidly discovered that Archimedes had far more sophisticated mathematical ideas than previously thought, including a use of infinities that wouldn’t reappear until the invention of calculus. Even more surprising was a previously enigmatic treatise, the Stomatichon, which turned out to deal with the science of combinations—a topic historians thought had been unexplored before the 17th century. Netz and Noel alternate chapters, each shedding light on his own area of expertise and giving a fuller picture of both ancient science and modern technology. In the end, the reader is likely to agree with Netz that Archimedes was among the greatest scientists of all time.
Stimulating exploration of several areas of science.Pub Date: Sept. 1, 2007
ISBN: 978-0-306-81580-5
Page Count: 320
Publisher: Da Capo
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Aug. 1, 2007
A measured account of the development of the Soviet bomb program by Holloway (Political Science/Stanford, The Soviet Union and the Arms Race, 1983) that contrives to be both technically comprehensive and gripping. Using interviews with some of the main protagonists, such as Kapitsa and Sakharov (though before they were able to talk fully), and access to those archives that have become available in Russia, Holloway clarifies a number of issues. He confirms that the Soviets were heavily dependent on espionage to provide both a sense of the seriousness with which the British (and later the Americans) were pursuing nuclear weapons, and guidelines to their methods. Still, the success of the Soviet Union in constructing such a weapon, in almost the same amount of time as the US, was a ``remarkable feat,'' given the devastation of the Soviet economy after the war. The Communist command-administrative system, Holloway notes, ``showed itself able to mobilize resources on a massive scale, and to channel them into a top priority project.'' It was, however, at immense cost both in terms of the hundreds of thousands of prisoners toiling in the uranium mines and elsewhere, the appalling health and safety record, and the damage to the environment. The building of the hydrogen bomb, by contrast, was largely and no less remarkably an indigenous Soviet achievement. Little credit seems due to Stalin, who was responsible for shooting many of the top physicists during the purges and who understood the significance of nuclear weapons only after the explosion at Alamogordo. Nor does Holloway think much of Stalin's postwar policies, which succeeded in unifying the West and causing it to rearm, though he concludes that Stalin's refusal to be browbeaten made the US more cautious about asserting its nuclear monopoly. What could have been a dry technical and analytical study is enlivened by the immensity of the issues at stake and the extraordinary characters populating the story.
Pub Date: Sept. 21, 1994
ISBN: 0-300-06056-4
Page Count: 480
Publisher: Yale Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
A useful and brief, but comprehensive, history of Bosnia from earliest times to the brutal present. Until its virtual dismemberment in the past three years, Bosnia was a unique political and cultural crossroads, a product of four great empires (from Rome through Austro-Hungary) and four major faiths. Some pundits suggest that this last situation is the one that has caused the small country so much grief, but in his tracing of Bosnia's history, Malcolm, a political columnist for the Daily Telegraph, thinks otherwise. He says that the lesson of history is ``not that Bosnia had to be kept in check by a larger power to prevent it from destroying itself from within, but...what had always endangered Bosnia was...the ambitions of larger powers and neighboring states.'' Although the truth of this statement applied to the familiar recent history is transparent, most readers will be less well acquainted with the events that led to Bosnia's current state. The book traces this history, full of upheavals and a swirling mix of ethnic and political tensions, methodically if a bit drily. Throughout, Malcolm makes the point that almost everything that occurs in Bosnian history gets interpreted to suit somebody's nationalist schema; to his credit, he is extremely careful in balancing claims and interpretations for the period leading up to this century. When the more familiar events of the First and Second World Wars, the Cold War, and the break-up of Yugoslavia in its aftermath, are reached, he is no less candid in expressing his own point of view, sympathetic to Bosnia, outraged at the manipulations of Milosevic, Karadzic, and the gangsterlike apostles of Greater Serbia and the criminal stupidity with which the EC and the US have handled the situation. A very serviceable introduction to a complicated history.
Pub Date: Sept. 15, 1994
ISBN: 0-8147-5520-8
Page Count: 340
Publisher: New York Univ.
Review Posted Online: May 19, 2010
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 1994
BOOK REVIEW
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