In the span of a single lifetime, we have moved from the Model T to supersonic jets, from AM radios to digital cameras, from outer space to cyberspace. Now you can join the editors of TIME as they bring together the 100 most significant and compelling discoveries of our time. Youll marvel at the treasures of King Tut's tomb, explore the depths of the ocean with Jacques Cousteau. Youll witness the first nuclear chain reaction, travel with polar explorers to the ends of the earth, gaze in awe at the wonders of space only recently revealed by the Hubble Telescope.

Here is a book designed to inspire the heart, challenge the mind, delight the eye, engage the armchair traveler and, yes, encourage your bootheels to be wanderin'. The editors of Time have sought out the most exciting new discoveries in the fields of geography, paleontology, astronomy and archaeology and combined them with classic tales of exploration to present a book that is vast in scope and pulsing with the energy of fresh knowledge. It includes the latest updates on the fascinating fossilized dinosaur-birds of China; reports of revelatory recent digs in Egypt; and an overview of new findings from the swarm of craft now investigating Mars, Jupiter and the moons of Saturn. The book's journey takes us from Siberia's Yamal Peninsula, where the 40,000-year-old carcass of the baby mammoth Lyuba emerged from the permafrost, to a mysterious cave on Indonesia's island of Flores, where an unusual species of miniature early humans, dubbed "the hobbits," once lived. The cast of striking characters includes the brilliant Chinese paleontologist Xing Xu, Egypt's famed tomb-raider Zahi Hawass-and nasa's plucky Martian rovers, Opportunity and Spirit. Readers will be surprised to learn how much new information has emerged in recent years about subjects we thought we knew well, from the wreck of the Titanic to the mysteries of the Pueblo cliff-dwellers of the American Southwest. In addition to its probing, wide-ranging account of great discoveries past and present, the book offers a host of arresting photographs that create a spectacular visual panorama of Planet Earth's most powerful forces and most exotic regions. Welcome aboard-and bon voyage!

In 1675, Antony van Leeuwenhoek, an unlearned haberdasher from Delft, placed a drop of rainwater under his microscope and detected thousands of tiny animals in it. Leeuwenhoek proceeded to examine the microscopic activity of his spittle, teeth plaque, and feces, and as the result of his findings the field of bacteriology was born. Some two hundred years later, Wilhelm Conrad Roentgen, a professor of theoretical physics at the University of Wurzburg, invited his wife to his laboratory, asked her to place her hand on an unexposed photographic plate, turned on an electric current, and showed this terrified woman a picture of the bones of her hand. And so came the discovery of the X-ray. This absorbing book is the first to describe these and eight other monumental medical discoveries throughout history, bringing to life the scientific pioneers responsible for them and the excitement, frustrations, and jealousies that surrounded the final achievements. Two distinguished physicians, Meyer Friedman and Gerald W. Friedland, have drawn on their many years of experience as well as on that of world-renowned antiquarian book dealers, physician collectors of old and new medical publications, and medical school professors to single out these medical breakthroughs from thousands of candidates, and, in several cases, to provide information never before available. Their engrossing stories of the ten most significant discoveries will be read with enjoyment by anyone fascinated by the mysteries of medicine.

An absorbing retelling of the adventures of the most revolutionary scientists of all time.

Introduces one hundred discoveries that changed science, including information on who discovered it, how it was discovered, and what makes it one of the one hundred greatest scientific breakthroughs.

A unique A-to-Z reference of brilliance in innovation and invention Combining engagingly written, well-researched history with the respected imprimatur of Scientific American magazine, this authoritative, accessible reference provides a wide-ranging overview of the inventions, technological advances, and discoveries that have transformed human society throughout our history. More than 400 entertaining entries explain the details and significance of such varied breakthroughs as the development of agriculture, the "invention" of algebra, and the birth of the computer. Special chronological sections divide the entries, providing a unique focus on the intersection of science and technology from early human history to the present. In addition, each section is supplemented by primary source sidebars, which feature excerpts from scientists' diaries, contemporary accounts of new inventions, and various "In Their Own Words" sources. Comprehensive and thoroughly readable, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries is an indispensable resource for anyone fascinated by the history of science and technology. Topics include: aerosol spray * algebra * Archimedes' Principle * barbed wire * canned food * carburetor * circulation of blood * condom * encryption machine * fork * fuel cell * latitude * music synthesizer * positron * radar * steel * television * traffic lights * Heisenberg's uncertainty principle