Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf

Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf
Author: Alexander Atkins
Publisher:
Total Pages: 416
Release: 2020-12-28
Genre:
ISBN:

Searching for the perfect gift for a booklover, literature aficionado, word lover, student, teacher, or writer? Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf was written and designed by a bibliophile for bibliophiles. It is a beautifully designed and eloquent homage to books, reading, and lifelong learning. The book presents over 100 thoughtful and witty essays filled with fascinating insights, inspiring passages and parables, eloquent quotes about books and reading, valuable life lessons, fascinating rare English words, and arcane literary facts. Alexander Atkins, founder of the popular blog Atkins Bookshelf, takes the reader on a captivating and inspiring guided tour -- through the world of books, literature, words, phrases, wisdom, education, quotations, movies, music, and trivia -- to share fascinating serendipitous discoveries from years of book collecting, reading, and research. Learn the answers to the following questions: * What is the rarest book in American literature? * Which books should you read to be well read? * What does the most amazing personal library in the world look like? * What is the most wicked Freudian slip in a book? * What are the original titles of some of the most famous books in literature? * What are some rare words that booklovers treasure? * What makes a great teacher or a great mentor? * What is the most important life lesson? * How can college help you live a good life? * What is the story behind the painting on the cover of The Great Gatsby? * What is one of the most inspirational Shakespearean sonnets? * What are some well-known phrases that you have been misquoting for years? * Which Founding Father vandalized Shakespeare's writing chair? * Which famous singer inspired Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream" speech? * Which hit song was inspired by John Fowles' literary masterpiece, The Magus? * What is considered the most moving death monologue in cinematic history?

Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf

Serendipitous Discoveries from the Bookshelf
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2022
Genre: Best books
ISBN:

"Serendipitous discoveries from the bookshelf was written and designed by a bibliophile for bibliophiles. It is a beautifully designed and eloquent homage to books, reading, and lifelong learning. The book presents over 100 thoughtful and witty essays filled with fascinating insights, inspiring passages and parables, eloquent quotes about books and reading, valuable life lessons, fascinating rare English words, and arcane literary facts."--Page [4] of cover.

Serendipity

Serendipity
Author: Royston M. Roberts
Publisher: Wiley
Total Pages: 292
Release: 1991-01-16
Genre: Science
ISBN: 9780471602033

Many of the things discovered by accident are important in our everyday lives: Teflon, Velcro, nylon, x-rays, penicillin, safety glass, sugar substitutes, and polyethylene and other plastics. And we owe a debt to accident for some of our deepest scientific knowledge, including Newton's theory of gravitation, the Big Bang theory of Creation, and the discovery of DNA. Even the Rosetta Stone, the Dead Sea Scrolls, and the ruins of Pompeii came to light through chance. This book tells the fascinating stories of these and other discoveries and reveals how the inquisitive human mind turns accident into discovery. Written for the layman, yet scientifically accurate, this illuminating collection of anecdotes portrays invention and discovery as quintessentially human acts, due in part to curiosity, perserverance, and luck.

The Look of the Book

The Look of the Book
Author: Peter Mendelsund
Publisher: Ten Speed Press
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2020-10-06
Genre: Design
ISBN: 0399581022

Why do some book covers instantly grab your attention, while others never get a second glance? Fusing word and image, as well as design thinking and literary criticism, this captivating investigation goes behind the scenes of the cover design process to answer this question and more. NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW As the outward face of the text, the book cover makes an all-important first impression. The Look of the Book examines art at the edges of literature through notable covers and the stories behind them, galleries of the many different jackets of bestselling books, an overview of book cover trends throughout history, and insights from dozens of literary and design luminaries. Co-authored by celebrated designer and creative director Peter Mendelsund and scholar David Alworth, this fascinating collaboration, featuring hundreds of covers, challenges our notions of what a book cover can and should be.

Discovering Pluto

Discovering Pluto
Author: Dale P. Cruikshank
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 502
Release: 2018-02-27
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0816534314

The story of Pluto and its largest moon, from discovery through the New Horizons flyby--Provided by publisher.

Serendipity

Serendipity
Author: Telmo Pievani
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 215
Release: 2024-09-03
Genre: Science
ISBN: 0262379643

From the bestselling author of Imperfection, a theory of uncertainty as the very core of the scientific method—and the essence of its wonder. How many times have we looked for something and found something else? A partner, a job, an object? The same thing often happens to scientists: they design an experiment and discover the unexpected, which usually turns out to be very important. This fascinating phenomenon is called serendipity, which takes its name from the mythical Serendip, a place from which, according to a Persian fable, three princes set off to explore the world, making chance discoveries along the way. In Serendipity, the award-winning author of Imperfection Telmo Pievani returns to weave a compelling story about the unexpected in science and its fascinating role in our understanding of the world. Going far beyond the usual examples of penicillin, X-rays, the microwave oven, and Christopher Columbus, Pievani shows that the most surprising stories of serendipity in the history of science reveal profound aspects of the logic of scientific discovery. In this book, he presents for the first time: an archaeology of the idea; a taxonomy of serendipitous discoveries; an “ecology of serendipity” (the surrounding conditions and factors that can promote it); and lastly, a theory of serendipity (why it occurs so frequently in so many sciences). From Zadig to Sherlock Holmes, Pievani shows that such great discoveries are not just the product of luck. Instead, serendipity comes from a mix of cunning, curiosity, sagacity, imagination, and accidents caught on the fly. Serendipity illuminates how much we don’t know and how much we don’t even know we don’t know. Above all, Pievani reminds us that the human brain is of a piece with the world it is investigating—a world so much bigger than our knowledge—and it has also evolved within that world, adapting as it has to.

Accidental Information Discovery

Accidental Information Discovery
Author: Tammera M. Race
Publisher: Elsevier
Total Pages: 138
Release: 2016-06-13
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 1780634315

Accidental Information Discovery: Cultivating Serendipity in the Digital Age provides readers with an interesting discussion on the ways serendipity—defined as the accidental discovery of valued information—plays an important role in creative problem-solving. This insightful resource brings together discussions on serendipity and information discovery, research in computer and information science, and interesting thoughts on the creative process. Five thorough chapters explore the significance of serendipity in creativity and innovation, the characteristics of serendipity-friendly tools and minds, and how future discovery environments may encourage serendipity. Examines serendipity in a multidisciplinary context Bridges theory and practice Explores digital information landscapes of the future with essays from current researchers Brings the concept of accidental discovery and its value front and center

Researching Serendipity in Digital Information Environments

Researching Serendipity in Digital Information Environments
Author: Lori McCay-Peet
Publisher: Springer Nature
Total Pages: 91
Release: 2022-05-31
Genre: Computers
ISBN: 3031023129

Chance, luck, and good fortune are the usual go-to descriptors of serendipity, a phenomenon aptly often coupled with famous anecdotes of accidental discoveries in engineering and science in modern history such as penicillin, Teflon, and Post-it notes. Serendipity, however, is evident in many fields of research, in organizations, in everyday life—and there is more to it than luck implies. While the phenomenon is strongly associated with in person interactions with people, places, and things, most attention of late has focused on its preservation and facilitation within digital information environments. Serendipity's association with unexpected, positive user experiences and outcomes has spurred an interest in understanding both how current digital information environments support serendipity and how novel approaches may be developed to facilitate it. Research has sought to understand serendipity, how it is manifested in people's personality traits and behaviors, how it may be facilitated in digital information environments such as mobile applications, and its impacts on an individual, an organizational, and a wider level. Because serendipity is expressed and understood in different ways in different contexts, multiple methods have been used to study the phenomenon and evaluate digital information environments that may support it. This volume brings together different disciplinary perspectives and examines the motivations for studying serendipity, the various ways in which serendipity has been approached in the research, methodological approaches to build theory, and how it may be facilitated. Finally, a roadmap for serendipity research is drawn by integrating key points from this volume to produce a framework for the examination of serendipity in digital information environments.

The Accidental Scientist

The Accidental Scientist
Author: Graeme Donald
Publisher: Jaico Publishing House
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2016-04-28
Genre: Science
ISBN: 8184958390

24 Discoveries that Changed the World Have you wondered how the greatest discoveries of today actually came about? In The Accidental Scientist, author Graeme Donald takes you through some of the most crucial breakthroughs the world has ever known. From penicillin to DNA fingerprinting and cellphone to botox, the author explores the role of chance and error in scientific, medical and commercial spheres. Written in a tongue-in-cheek style, this book gives you the fascinating stories behind the science that we are so familiar with today. This book is a delightful page-turner on the world’s most intriguing technologies. GRAEME DONALD is the author of a number of books about the meaning of words and popular misconceptions, including Loose Cannons and The Man Who Shot Lincoln.

The Proceedings of the 20th Anniversary History of Medicine Days Conference 2011

The Proceedings of the 20th Anniversary History of Medicine Days Conference 2011
Author: Aleksandra Loewenau
Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2015-10-05
Genre: Medical
ISBN: 1443884545

This volume is the third in a peer-reviewed series of Proceedings Volumes from the Calgary History of Medicine Days conferences, produced by Cambridge Scholars Publishing. The History of Medicine Days is a two day, national conference held annually at the University of Calgary, Canada, where undergraduate and early graduate students from across Canada, the US, UK, and Europe give paper and poster presentations on a variety of topics from the history of medicine and health care. The selected 2011 conference papers assembled in this volume particularly comprise insights into the histories of Wome.