Joel N. Shurkin

This is the first biography of William Shockley, founding father of Silicon Valley - one of the most significant and reviled scientists of the 20th century. Drawing upon unique access to the private Shockley archives, veteran technology historian and journalist Joel Shurkin gives an unflinching account of how such promise ended in such ignominy.

Now available with a new chapter, for the fiftieth anniversary of the computer. When John Mauchly and Presper Eckert developed the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC) at the University of Pennsylvania during World War II, their intention was to aid artillerymen in aiming their guns. Since then, in the past fifty years, ENIAC and its offspring have changed the way we go about both business and science. Along with the transistor, the computer has brought about transformation on a scale unmatched since the industrial revolution.Now, in a lively and evenhanded account, Joel Shurkin introduces us to the often-feuding players and the discoveries that made the computer possible-from the first models to the creation of the chip and beyond. Here is the first full account of an invention that changed the world.For this new paperback edition, Shurkin has added an epilogue and a new chapter on the latest milestones in the ongoing computer revolution.

Richard Garwin was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom by President Barack ObamaCalled a "true genius" by Enrico Fermi, Richard Garwin has influenced modern life in far-reaching ways, yet he is hardly known outside the physics community. This is the first biography of one of America's great minds--a top physicist, a brilliant technological innovator, and a trusted advisor of presidents for sixty years. Among his many contributions to modern technology are innovations we now take for air-traffic control systems, touch screens, color monitors, laser printers, GPS satellite navigation, and many other facets of everyday contemporary life.But certainly his most important work has been on behalf of nuclear disarmament. As a key member of the Los Alamos team that developed the hydrogen bomb (he created the final design), Garwin subsequently devoted much of his career to ensuring that nuclear weapons never again be used. He has spent hundreds of hours testifying before Congress, serving on government advisory committees, and doing work that is still classified, all the while working for IBM as a researcher. A genuine polymath, his ideas extend from propulsion systems for interplanetary flight to preventing flu epidemics. Never shy about offering his opinions, even to rigid government bureaucracies unwilling to change, Garwin continues to show leaders how to do the smart thing. The world is a more interesting and safer place because of his many accomplishments.

Exposes previously classified files and interviews with surviving subjects to follow up on the studies of psychologist Lewis Terman, who believed intelligence was inherited and tried to prove it by working with gifted children in 1921.

The story of mankind's victory over the ancient scourge of smallpox. Smallpox, one of the deadliest of all diseases, was eradicated in 1979, the only disease to have been wiped from the earth. The deadly virus exists now only in a few labs in the world--we hope. But before it was conquered the disease changed history. Written by an award-winning science writer, The Invisible Fire is the only complete history of the scourge and of the brave and idiosyncratic men and women who defeated one of nature's most lethal viruses.

Discusses our solar system's largest planet including Galileo's observations of it with the first telescope and revealing data supplied by the recent Pioneer X space probe.

Discusses the cosmic and geophysical forces that created and continue to move and change the earth.

Am I Crazy, or Is It My Shrink? - How to Get The Help You Need (98) by Beutler, Larry E - Bongar, Bruce - Shurkin, Joel N [Paperback (2001)]