One January morning in 1734, cloth merchant Peter Collinson hurried down to the docks at London's Custom House to collect cargo just arrived from John Bartram in the American colonies. But it was not bales of cotton that awaited him, but plants and seeds.[...]
United by the transit of Venus, scientists from around the globe came together to answer the essential question: how can the universe be measured? The author paints a portrait of the rivalries, triumphs and misfortunes that befell these men, along with their passion and determination to succeed.[...]
The author of the highly acclaimed "Founding Gardeners" now gives us an enlightening chronicle of the first truly international scientific endeavor--the eighteenth-century quest to observe the transit of Venus and measure the solar system.
On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous[...]
On June 6, 1761, the world paused to observe a momentous occasion: the first transit of Venus between the Earth and the Sun in more than a century. Through that observation, astronomers could calculate the size of the solar system--but only if they could compile data from many different points of th[...]
'A history book for gardeners; a gardening book for historians' * A follow-up to the award-winning Andrea Wulf's critically acclaimed history of British gardening, this is the story of how George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, John Adams and James Madison's passion for nature, plants, agriculture and[...]
On a summer's day in June 1761, astronomers all over the world cast their eyes to the sky to witness a rare astronomical event: the transit of Venus across the face of the sun. It was one of the most important collaborations of scientific history, as by racing to different points around the world an[...]
Jakten på Venus är den fascinerande historien om hur vetenskapsmän över hela världen slog sig samman i slutet av 1760-talet för att studera hur lång tid det tog för planeten Venus att passera solen. För första gången skulle det vara möjligt att beräkna avståndet till och mellan planete[...]
Jakten på Venus är den fascinerande historien om hur vetenskapsmän över hela världen slog sig samman i slutet av 1760-talet för att studera hur lång tid det tog för planeten Venus att passera solen. För första gången skulle det vara möjligt att beräkna avståndet till och mellan planete[...]