Hal Harris

Owen Gingerich is author of The Book Nobody Read, and an article about Kepler in Physics Today that I have recommended in the past.

Pioneer 10 and 11 are spacecrafts launched in 1972 and 1973. You may remember that they include a plaque that shows nude human figures for the titillation of any aliens who may discover them. Physicists have been worried about the fact that they are not moving quite as fast as one would expect (by about 300 miles per year).

I have in my library several chemistry textbooks from before 1860, but "Chemistry No Mystery" is not one of them.  Reflecting as they do an approximation of the chemistry known at the time, they provide insight about the history of both science and pedagogy.

 

Suppose that the earth’s atmosphere continues to warm, beyond the levels that we know are already inevitable.  Suppose that the arctic permafrost melts, releasing millions of tons of methane, which is about thirty times more effective at warming than is carbon dioxide, as well as much CO₂ as is already in the atmosphere. Within a few years, the mean temperature rises by five degrees Celsius or more, sea levels rise, crops fail and millions starve.