Harwit, Martin (Author)
Cambridge University Press
Physical Details: 408 pp.
Language: English
Astrophysicist and scholar Martin Harwit examines how our understanding of the Cosmos advanced rapidly during the twentieth century and identifies the factors contributing to this progress. Astronomy, whose tools were largely imported from physics and engineering, benefited mid-century from the U.S. policy of coupling basic research with practical national priorities. This strategy, initially developed for military and industrial purposes, provided astronomy with powerful tools yielding access - at virtually no cost - to radio, infrared, X-ray, and gamma-ray observations. Today, astronomers are investigating the new frontiers of dark matter and dark energy, critical to understanding the Cosmos but of indeterminate socio-economic promise. Harwit addresses these current challenges in view of competing national priorities and proposes alternative new approaches in search of the true Universe. This is an engaging read for astrophysicists, policy makers, historians, and sociologists of science looking to learn and apply lessons from the past in gaining deeper cosmological insight.
...MoreReview Marc Rothenberg (2017) Review of "In Search of the True Universe: The Tools, Shaping, and Cost of Cosmological Thought". Journal for the History of Astronomy (pp. 364-365).
Similar Citations
Book
Weintraub, David A.;
(2011)
How Old Is the Universe?
(/isis/citation/CBB001220411/)
Article
Smith, Robert W.;
(2009)
Beyond the Galaxy: The Development of Extragalactic Astronomy 1885--1965, Part 2
(/isis/citation/CBB000930146/)
Book
Massimo Capaccioli;
(2020)
L’incanto di Urania: Venticinque secoli di esplorazione del cielo
(/isis/citation/CBB768291559/)
Book
John Johnson Jr;
(2019)
Zwicky: The Outcast Genius Who Unmasked the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB329186395/)
Article
Helge Kragh;
(2017)
Is the Universe expanding? Fritz Zwicky and the early tired-light hypothesis
(/isis/citation/CBB261331348/)
Article
Kragh, Helge;
(2007)
Cosmic Radioactivity and the Age of the Universe, 1900--1930
(/isis/citation/CBB000773361/)
Book
Roberto Battiston;
(2022)
First Dawn: From the Big Bang to Our Future in Space
(/isis/citation/CBB989007197/)
Article
Jean-Patrice Boudet;
(2017)
L'harmonie du monde dans le "De radiis" attribué à al-Kindī
(/isis/citation/CBB246138695/)
Article
O'Raifeartaigh, Cormac;
McCann, Brendan;
Nahm, Werner;
Mitton, Simon;
(2014)
Einstein's Steady-State Theory: An Abandoned Model of the Cosmos
(/isis/citation/CBB001421690/)
Chapter
Virginia Trimble;
Carmen J. Giunta;
Vera V. Mainz;
Gregory S. Girolami;
(2021)
Astronomy Meets the Periodic Table, Or, How Much Is There of What, and Why?
(/isis/citation/CBB872104248/)
Book
Gribben, John;
(1999)
The Birth of Time: How Astronomers Measured the Age of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB000110945/)
Book
Bartusiak, Marcia;
(2009)
The Day We Found the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB000952835/)
Book
Gingerich, Owen;
(2006)
God's Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB000741839/)
Chapter
Palmeri, JoAnn;
(2009)
Bringing Cosmos to Culture: Harlow Shapley and the Uses of Cosmic Evolution
(/isis/citation/CBB001032622/)
Book
Christiaan Huygens;
Lorenzo De Piccoli;
(2023)
Cosmotheoros: Congetture sulle Terre celesti e sui loro ornamenti (1698)
(/isis/citation/CBB685104486/)
Article
Lepeltier, Thomas;
(2005)
Nouveau dialogue sur les deux grands systèmes du monde
(/isis/citation/CBB000670008/)
Article
Ferraro, Bruno;
(2006)
Giordano Bruno's Infinitely Numerous Worlds and “Lunar” Literature
(/isis/citation/CBB000760722/)
Thesis
Heather Stephanie Crandall;
(2018)
The Expansion of a Legacy: Astronomy's Great Debate on the Size of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB200504751/)
Book
Michéla Malpangotto;
(2021)
Theoricae novae planetarum Georgii Peurbachii. Dans l'histoire de l'astronomie
(/isis/citation/CBB433768298/)
Book
Roberta J. M Olson;
Jay M Pasachoff;
(2019)
Cosmos: The Art and Science of the Universe
(/isis/citation/CBB461605364/)
Be the first to comment!