Today only Amazon offer three top-rated books by the great popularizer of science Dava Sobel are available for as low as $0.99 each.
Longitude: The True Story of a Lone Genius Who Solved the Greatest Scientific Problem of His Time
Anyone alive in the eighteenth century would have known that “the longitude problem” was the thorniest scientific dilemma of the day-and had been for centuries. Lacking the ability to measure their longitude, sailors throughout the great ages of exploration had been literally lost at sea as soon as they lost sight of land. Thousands of lives, and the increasing fortunes of nations, hung on a resolution. The scientific establishment of Europe-from Galileo to Sir Isaac Newton-had mapped the heavens in both hemispheres in its certain pursuit of a celestial answer. In stark contrast, one man, John Harrison, dared to imagine a mechanical solution-a clock that would keep precise time at sea, something no clock had ever been able to do on land. Longitude is the dramatic human story of an epic scientific quest, and of Harrison’s forty-year obsession with building his perfect timekeeper, known today as the chronometer. Full of heroism and chicanery, it is also a fascinating brief history of astronomy, navigation, and clockmaking, and opens a new window on our world.
A More Perfect Heaven: How Copernicus Revolutionized the Cosmos
By 1514, the reclusive cleric Nicolaus Copernicus had written and hand-copied an initial outline of his heliocentric theory-in which he defied common sense and received wisdom to place the sun, not the earth, at the center of our universe, and set the earth spinning among the other planets. Over the next two decades, Copernicus expanded his theory through hundreds of observations, while compiling in secret a book-length manuscript that tantalized mathematicians and scientists throughout Europe. For fear of ridicule, he refused to publish.
In 1539, a young German mathematician, Georg Joachim Rheticus, drawn by rumors of a revolution to rival the religious upheaval of Martin Luther’s Reformation, traveled to Poland to seek out Copernicus. Two years later, the Protestant youth took leave of his aging Catholic mentor and arranged to have Copernicus’s manuscript published, in 1543, as De revolutionibus orbium coelestium (On the Revolutions of the Celestial Spheres)-the book that forever changed humankind’s place in the universe.
In her elegant, compelling style, Dava Sobel chronicles, as nobody has, the conflicting personalities and extraordinary discoveries that shaped the Copernican Revolution. At the heart of the book is her play And the Sun Stood Still, imagining Rheticus’s struggle to convince Copernicus to let his manuscript see the light of day. As she achieved with her bestsellers Longitude and Galileo’s Daughter, Sobel expands the bounds of narration, giving us an unforgettable portrait of scientific achievement, and of the ever-present tensions between science and faith.
Galileo’s Daughter: A Historical Memoir of Science, Faith and Love
Inspired by a long fascination with Galileo, and by the remarkable surviving letters of Galileo’s daughter, a cloistered nun, Dava Sobel has written a biography unlike any other of the man Albert Einstein called “the father of modern physics- indeed of modern science altogether.” Galileo’s Daughter also presents a stunning portrait of a person hitherto lost to history, described by her father as “a woman of exquisite mind, singular goodness, and most tenderly attached to me.”
Galileo’s Daughter dramatically recolors the personality and accomplishment of a mythic figure whose seventeenth-century clash with Catholic doctrine continues to define the schism between science and religion. Moving between Galileo’s grand public life and Maria Celeste’s sequestered world, Sobel illuminates the Florence of the Medicis and the papal court in Rome during the pivotal era when humanity’s perception of its place in the cosmos was about to be overturned. In that same time, while the bubonic plague wreaked its terrible devastation and the Thirty Years’ War tipped fortunes across Europe, one man sought to reconcile the Heaven he revered as a good Catholic with the heavens he revealed through his telescope.
With all the human drama and scientific adventure that distinguished Dava Sobel’s previous book Longitude, Galileo’s Daughter is an unforgettable story.
All My Enemies is a game for your Kindle Fire. Today you can get it just for free.
Launch into space and get ready for this challenging shooter game featuring HD graphics and realistic sound effects. Inspired by classic arcarde-style games like Gradius, Ikaruga, and R-Type, All My Enemies takes you on a journey that’s out of this world, spanning six different planets and a dozen levels. Are you ready to conquer the final frontier?
Follow Commands
“My dear servant, I, your Emperor, have strict orders for you. You must finish all opposition to my power, you must destroy all my enemies.” Your goal in All My Enemies is to embark on an action-adventure mission to defeat the enemies of your Emperor. Dodge asteroids and fire at enemy craft while gaining experience, collecting gold, and obtaining power-ups to unleash more extreme firepower.
Defeat Six Final Bosses
Use your skills to play through all 12 levels across six planets, while firing at wave after wave of enemy ships and advancing to take down six different final bosses. Climb your local leaderboard or take a stab at advancing through the ranks on the integrated Scoreloop leaderboards, which feature separate leaderboards for each of the three difficulty levels in All My Enemies.
Customize for Best Gameplay
All My Enemies offers a variety of ways to play to ensure you have a great gameplay experience. When starting a new game, players can select Modern times mode, which delivers continuous play, but takes away the weapons you’ve gained after conquering each planet. Otherwise, choose Old school mode, which will restart the level when you are killed; however, you get to maintain your weapons after each planet. Choose wisely!
Under game Options, you can adjust game controls and choose to play with Touch or Tilt Control, including a tilt calibration tool to match your device’s capabilities. If HD graphics tend to slow down your device, you can adjust the quality to maintain performance. There is even support for players who have a Zeemote joystick game controller for mobile devices. As is typical, you can also turn the music and sound off.