'The astronomical observations of William Herschel (1738-1822) made him question the accepted model of the clockwork universe. This volume explains the development of Herschel's thoughts on what he called 'the construction of the heavens' and reprints his principal papers on this subject. The preliminary chapters provide an introduction to Herschel, including his unusual path to astronomy, the discovery of Uranus and his work on the evolution of stellar clusters, which eventually led him to challenge theunchanging Newtonian universe. The second half of the text comprises eight of Herschel's key papers on what we today would call cosmology, representing his progress between 1783 and 1814, fully annotated with historical notes and modern astrophysical explanations. Ideal for undergraduate and postgraduate students in the history of science and in astronomy, this volume explains Herschel's pivotal role in the transformation from the clockwork universe to the 'biological' universe of modern astronomy'--

L'autore di questo libro, bandito da 6 paesi arabi, rapito due volte, č il cronista perfetto di questo terribile e apparentemente irrisolvibile conflitto. Tra i tanti temi sottoposti a profonda analisi: il processo di Pace di Oslo, l'occupazione israeliana della West Bank e di Gaza, l'effetto degli insediamenti ebraici nei territori, la seconda Intifada e gli attacchi suicidi, il crescente peso della lobby pro Israele negli Stati Uniti, l'aumento del dissenso interno a Israele e tra la popolazione israelo-americana, la partita tra Sharon e Arafat e lo spettro della catastrofe nucleare che minaccia l'intera regione.