Human interest in the origins of life and the possibility of life on other planets extends far back into antiquity. Throughout history, each society's "creation myth" reflected that particular people
When two streams of technical development remote sensing and space flight joined forces in the middle of the 20th century, this technological union caused a major revolution in observational astronom
Human Spaceflight explores the epoch journeys of human beings as they first ventured beyond Earth's atmosphere, starting in the early 1960s, and traveled into outer space. One of the most memorable of
Here is a ready-reference guide for the nonspecialist with current information about developments in space technology as well as the present and future social, political, and technical impact of those
Energy and its relationship to matter started with big bang—a widely accepted theory in contemporary cosmology, which concerns the origin and evolution of the universe. According to this theory
The human use of solid materials began when a prehistoric ancestor of modern man picked up a stone and used it as a tool. The Paleolithic period, or Old Stone Age, represents the longest phase in hum
Liquids are actually quite rare in nature, when considered on a cosmic scale. Stars are plasmas (the fourth state of matter); giant planets are mainly gases, with frigid liquids occurring only at gre
The rise of civilization parallels the ability of humans to measure and physically describe matter. The English word quantitative is an adjective that means "pertaining to, or susceptible of measurem
Extreme states of matter include exceptionally high and low temperatures, incredibly high pressures, intense magnetic fields, and intense gravitational fields. Because scientists are curious individu
The scientific study of fluids concentrated first on the behavior of gases and then, as thermodynamics matured in the 19th century, incorporated the behavior of liquids under a variety of important p
A reference guide that provides nonspecialists with current information on seminal developments in nuclear technology, as well as covering the social, political, and technical impacts of those develop
