A Matter of Degrees: What Temperature Reveals Abt Past Future Our Species Planetuniverse

by Gino Segrè

Book Overview

In a wonderful synthesis of science, history, and imagination, Gino Segr , an internationally renowned theoretical physicist, embarks on a wide-ranging exploration of how the fundamental scientific... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0670031011
• ISBN13: 9780670031016
• Release Date: July 2002
• Publisher: Viking Books
• Length: 300 Pages
• Weight: 1.03 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.1" x 5.8" x 8.7"

Customer Reviews

temperature explained.. and the effects it has

As someone who barely made it through thermodynamics at the U getting a title of mechanical engineer, I'm glad of reading this wonderful book. It puts you in a special perspective about how this property relates to our earth and our living world. be prepared to take a grand tour. Temperature is a property of mater and as suchm reveals what is happing to an active systems such as the earth. Science is all about connections; at least to me, thats where the beauty comes in. To be able to connect atmospheric events, form geology, to living systems, wisdom resides on how you can weave the threads that are loose

A fascinating and lucid book!

For me this was an excellent book and recommend it to everyone interested in always learning new things. Segre's easy way of explaining tough matters is admirable. In this book you learn lots of stuff, like the average internal temperature of humans, earth temperature, what is absolute zero and quantum dynamics, all of them sauced with lots of history.

a good philosophy/physics read...

The author is a natural teacher who explains that this work is a reflection of his observation over time that phenomena seem to have common bases. That is, the experience of an individual may be seen to have a uniformity and/or homogenity that reflects the substrata of physical processes. Thus the sub-theme of the work is human connectedness.I find this observation valid and comforting. Experience extends naturally from physical causes that manifest underlying order. Temperature is simply one dimension of uniformity that we can find evident everywhere we look in Nature.This is such a nice counter-balance for the chaos that seems increasingly inescapable. The language is reader-friendly and I recommend this book to all readers.Any reminder of just how natural humans really are can be very helpful. Routine concerns about something as mundane as the relatively stable temperature of one's own body keeps reminding us how deeply natural we really are.Thanks to Gino Segre. I look forward to the next book.

Degrees of Excellence

It is hard to say which is more compelling: A Matter of Degrees' strength as a book of science history or its strength as a work of literature. Segre writes with such elegance, clarity and charm that it is easy to forget that this is a work we read for self-improvement rather than self-indulgence.In a step-by-logical-step fashion, Segre leads the reader first to appreciate the importance of temperature and its regulation in living things into an understanding of thermo dynamics generally. We see things from the standpoint of giants like Newton, Davey, Rumford, Carnot and Kelvin, through moderns like Einstein, Bohr, Heizenberg, et al.--all the way up to discoveries circa 2001. We also see how even the great ones have stumbled and struggled with their misapprehensions, and will doubtless continue to do so.From the warmth of mammalian bodies to the warmth of the greehouse effect, from the shriek of the first steam engines to the flickering near-nothingness of the neutrino, Segre ties the first to the last to show how an understanding of temperature leads to an understanding of origin. And by that I do not mean the origin of life--I mean the origin of everything.This book is for people who--A) Did not take any science courses in college but wish they had;B) Did take science courses in college but wish they hadn't;C) Want to see how a master teacher teaches his area of mastery; or D)Are even passingly curious about How It All Began and How It All Might End.

For an egghead, he is a hoot!

This is a real contribution...not just to the field of temperature but to scientific literature. The facts are fast and furious but held together in a cohesive and compelling narrative. Also peppered with Segre's sense of humor and robust grasp of the bigger picture. As the Kirkus review put it best, to paraphrase, Segre is to temperature what Elvis is to rock and roll! Rock on ....