HISTORIAN OF SCIENCE
Judith R. Goodstein
Millikan's School
A History of the California Institute of Technology​
​
“Millikan’s School presents an interesting and thoroughly reliable account of the astonishing change over a period of a few years of a small technical school in Pasadena, California, into one of the world’s leading scientific institutions.” ―Linus Pauling
Written in honour of its centenary, this history explores the school's contribution to science and technology through profiles of its famous scientists, such as von Karman in aeronautics, Morgan in biology, Gutenberg in seismology and Noyes in physical chemistry.
Feynman's Lost Lecture
The Motion of Planets Around the Sun​
(with David L. Goodstein)
​
Rescued from obscurity, Feynman's Lost Lecture is a blessing for all Feynman followers. With this book and CD, one hears the voice of one of the century's greatest physicists and his acumen for argument. This breathtaking lost lecture uses nothing more than high-school geometry to explain why the planets orbit the sun elliptically rather than in perfect circles, and demonstrates the astonishing fact that has mystified thinkers since Newton: Nature obeys mathematics. This beautifully written memoir includes the exciting story of finding Feynman's these lectures.
The Volterra Chronicles
The Life and Times of an Extraordinary Mathematician, 1860-19​40
​
‘”…captures the human, political and social environment of the age." – Salvatore Coen, Nature
“…a vivid, very readable depiction of the whole of Volterra's life... Overall, a fascinating, intimate portrait. Highly Recommended." – S.J. Colley, Choice
Vito Volterra was only in his 20s when he became a leading light in the scientific world. But in 1931, Mussolini stripped Volterra, who was born into an Italian Jewish home, of his affiliations, when he refused to sign a loyalty oath to the regime. The story of an exceptional life and times of a man whose work influenced fields as diverse as economics, physics and ecology.