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Kepler's Dream
''Somnium'' (Latin for "The Dream") — full title: ''Somnium, seu opus posthumum De astronomia lunari'' — is a novel written in Latin in 1608 by Johannes Kepler, and first published in 1634 by Kepler's son, Ludwig Kepler. In the narrative, an Icelandic boy and his witch mother learn of an island named Levania (our Moon) from a daemon. ''Somnium'' presents a detailed imaginative description of how the Earth might look when viewed from the Moon, and is considered the first serious scientific treatise on lunar astronomy. Carl Sagan and Isaac Asimov have referred to it as one of the earliest works of science fiction. Plot summary The story begins with Kepler reading about a skillful magician named Libussa. He falls asleep while reading about her. He recounts a strange dream he had from reading that book. The dream begins with Kepler reading a book about Duracotus, an Icelandic boy who is 14 years old. Duracotus' mother, Fiolxhilde, makes a living selling bags of herbs and cloth ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Johannes Kepler
Johannes Kepler (; ; 27 December 1571 – 15 November 1630) was a German astronomer, mathematician, astrologer, natural philosopher and writer on music. He is a key figure in the 17th-century Scientific Revolution, best known for his laws of planetary motion, and his books ''Astronomia nova'', ''Harmonice Mundi'', and ''Epitome Astronomiae Copernicanae''. These works also provided one of the foundations for Newton's theory of universal gravitation. Kepler was a mathematics teacher at a seminary school in Graz, where he became an associate of Prince Hans Ulrich von Eggenberg. Later he became an assistant to the astronomer Tycho Brahe in Prague, and eventually the imperial mathematician to Emperor Rudolf II and his two successors Matthias and Ferdinand II. He also taught mathematics in Linz, and was an adviser to General Wallenstein. Additionally, he did fundamental work in the field of optics, invented an improved version of the refracting (or Keplerian) telescope, an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
University Of Wisconsin Press
The University of Wisconsin Press (sometimes abbreviated as UW Press) is a non-profit university press publishing peer-reviewed books and journals. It publishes work by scholars from the global academic community; works of fiction, memoir and poetry under its imprint, Terrace Books; and serves the citizens of Wisconsin by publishing important books about Wisconsin, the Upper Midwest, and the Great Lakes region. UW Press annually awards the Brittingham Prize in Poetry, the Felix Pollak Prize in Poetry, and The Four Lakes Prize in Poetry. The press was founded in 1936 in Madison and is one of more than 120 member presses in the Association of American University Presses. The Journals Division was established in 1965. The press employs approximately 25 full and part-time staff, produces 40 to 60 new books a year, and publishes 11 journals. It also distributes books and some annual journals for selected smaller publishers. The press is a unit of the Graduate School of the University ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved throughout history as the main liturgical language of Judaism (since the Second Temple period) and Samaritanism. Hebrew is the only Canaanite language still spoken today, and serves as the only truly successful example of a dead language that has been revived. It is also one of only two Northwest Semitic languages still in use, with the other being Aramaic. The earliest examples of written Paleo-Hebrew date back to the 10th century BCE. Nearly all of the Hebrew Bible is written in Biblical Hebrew, with much of its present form in the dialect that scholars believe flourished around the 6th century BCE, during the time of the Babylonian captivity. For this reason, Hebrew has been referred to by Jews as '' Lashon Hakodesh'' (, ) since an ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Yaakov Shabtai
Yaakov Shabtai ( he, יעקב שבתאי; March 8, 1934 – August 4, 1981) was an Israeli novelist, playwright, and translator. Biography Shabtai was born in 1934 in Tel Aviv, Mandatory Palestine. In 1957, after completing military service, he joined Kibbutz Merhavia, but returned to Tel Aviv in 1967.Shabtai, Yaakov – Jewish Writers of the Twentieth Century ''Bookrags,'' accessed July 14, 2011 His daughter, , wrote a science fiction novel that foresaw the . Another daughter, Orly, is a clinical p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Past Continuous
''Past Continuous'' is a 1977 novel originally written in Hebrew by Israeli novelist Yaakov Shabtai. The original title, Zikhron Devarim ( he, זכרון דברים) is a form of contract or letter of agreement or memorandum, but could also be translated literally as ''Remembrance of Things''. ''Past Continuous'' is Shabtai's first, and only completed, novel. It was written as one continuous 280-page paragraph (broken up in the English translation), with some sentences spanning several pages. Plot summary The novel focuses on three friends, Goldman, Caesar, and Israel, in 1970's Tel Aviv, as well as their acquaintances, love interests, and relatives. The story begins with the death of Goldman's father on April 1 and ends a little after Goldman's suicide on January 1. The past is woven into this short "present" period, through a complex stream of associations. The three men, lurching between guilt and depression, lose themselves in sexual adventures, amateur philosophy or compar ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Galileo's Dream
''Galileo's Dream'' (2009) is a science fiction novel with elements of historical fiction written by author Kim Stanley Robinson. The book itself describes the life of 17th-century scientist and astronomer Galileo Galilei, and the far-future society living on the Galilean moons he discovered. Italicised portions of the text within the novel are actually translations of Galileo and his contemporaries own recorded writings. It was published in hardcover on August 6, 2009, in the United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Europe, off the north-western coast of the European mainland, continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ... and on December 29, 2009, in the United States. Reception Robinson was praised for his depiction of Galileo in both his greatness and his weaknesses, and for the handling of themes such as the relation between our perception of time and memor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kim Stanley Robinson
Kim Stanley Robinson (born March 23, 1952) is an American writer of science fiction. He has published twenty-two novels and numerous short stories and is best known for his ''Mars'' trilogy. His work has been translated into 24 languages. Many of his novels and stories have ecological, cultural, and political themes and feature scientists as heroes. Robinson has won numerous awards, including the Hugo Award for Best Novel, the Nebula Award for Best Novel and the World Fantasy Award. Robinson's work has been labeled by ''The Atlantic'' as "the gold-standard of realistic, and highly literary, science-fiction writing." According to an article in ''The New Yorker'', Robinson is "generally acknowledged as one of the greatest living science-fiction writers." Early life and education Robinson was born in Waukegan, Illinois. He moved to Southern California as a child. In 1974, he earned a B.A. in literature from the University of California, San Diego. In 1975, he earned an M.A. in Eng ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mannheim Steamroller
Mannheim Steamroller is an American neoclassical new-age music ensemble founded and directed by percussionist/composer Chip Davis in 1974. The group is known primarily for its ''Fresh Aire'' series of albums, which blend classical music with elements of new age and rock, and for its modern recordings of Christmas music. The group has sold 28 million albums in the U.S. alone. History Beginnings Mannheim Steamroller began as an alias for record producer and composer Chip Davis. The name "Mannheim Steamroller" comes from an 18th-century German musical technique, '' Mannheim roller'' (German: ''Mannheimer Walze''), a crescendo passage having a rising melodic line over an ostinato bass line, popularized by the Mannheim school of composition. Before the fame of Steamroller, Davis had been best known for collaborating with his friend Bill Fries on the songs of the country music character "C. W. McCall", of "Convoy" fame. The song was based on the character created by Fries and musi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Fresh Aire V
''Fresh Aire V'' is an album by Mannheim Steamroller, released in 1983. The music is inspired by Johannes Kepler's book '' The Dream''. This is the first album in the ''Fresh Aire'' series to feature the London Symphony Orchestra. Excerpts from "Dancin' in the Stars" was used as music in several local TV news opens, and a large portion of "Escape from the Atmosphere" was used as the main theme to KOMO-TV's Sunday evening public affairs talk show "Town Meeting" throughout most of the 1980s and 1990s. Part of the intro of "Escape from the Atmosphere" was used during the Gulf War for a Saudi Arabian emergency population warning broadcast during an Iraqi SCUD missile attack on the Eastern Province. Track listing #"Lumen" – 1:29 #"Escape from the Atmosphere" – 10:38 #"Dancin' in the Stars" – 5:13 #"Z-Row Gravity" – 3:50 #"Creatures of Levania" – 3:51 #"Earthrise/Return" – 8:58 #"The Storm" – 0:42 *All tracks composed by Chip Davis Perso ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Katharina Kepler
Katharina Kepler (née: Guldenmann; 1546 – 13 April 1622) was a woman from Stuttgart, Württemberg, who was the mother of the famous astronomer Johannes Kepler. She was accused of witchcraft in 1615, but was defended by her son and released. Life Katharina Kepler was married to Heinrich Kepler and had one daughter and three sons, one of whom was Johannes Kepler. In 1615, a witch trial was initiated by Lutherus Einhorn who in his reign as vogt of the Protestant town of Leonberg (1613 - 1629) accused 15 women of sorcery and executed 8 of them. He acted in accordance with the will of the government and the public, which had asked for an investigation of sorcery, and issued an arrest of Katharina Kepler in 1615. Ursula Reinbold had accused Katharina Kepler of giving her a potion after an argument that had made her sick. Johannes Kepler defended his mother himself, with the assistance of his university in Tübingen. One of his student friends, Christopher Besoldus, assisted her jur ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jacob Bartsch
Jakob Bartsch or Jacobus Bartschius (c. 1600 – 26 December 1633) was a German astronomer. Biography Bartsch was born in Lauban (Lubań) in Lusatia. He was taught how to use the astrolabe by Sarcephalus (Christopher Hauptfleisch), a librarian in Breslau (Wrocław). He also studied astronomy and medicine at the University of Strassburg (Strasbourg).Ioan James. ''Remarkable Physicists: From Galileo to Yukawa''. Cambridge University Press, 2004. In 1624 Bartsch published a book titled ''Usus astronomicus planisphaerii stellati'' containing star charts that depicted six new constellations introduced around 1613 by Petrus Plancius on a celestial globe published by Pieter van den Keere. These six new constellations were Camelopardalis, Gallus, Jordanis, Monoceros (which he called Unicornu), Tigris and Vespa. He also mentioned but did not depict Rhombus, a separate invention by Isaac Habrecht II. Bartsch was often wrongly credited with having invented these figures. Only Came ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's surface is made up of the ocean, dwarfing Earth's polar ice, lakes, and rivers. The remaining 29% of Earth's surface is land, consisting of continents and islands. Earth's surface layer is formed of several slowly moving tectonic plates, which interact to produce mountain ranges, volcanoes, and earthquakes. Earth's liquid outer core generates the magnetic field that shapes the magnetosphere of the Earth, deflecting destructive solar winds. The atmosphere of the Earth consists mostly of nitrogen and oxygen. Greenhouse gases in the atmosphere like carbon dioxide (CO2) trap a part of the energy from the Sun close to the surface. Water vapor is widely present in the atmosphere and forms clouds that cover most of the planet. More solar e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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