• See large image

  The Queen of Science: Personal Recollections of Mary Somerville (Canongate Classics S.) (Paperback) By (author) Mary Somerville, Volume editor Dorothy McMillan

  

  $18.95 - Free shipping worldwide (to United States and
  all these other countries) Usually dispatched within 24 hours Add to basket | Add to wishlist |

  Short Description for The Queen of Science Mary Fairfax was given the kind of education which prized gentility over ability. Nevertheless, she taught herself algebra in secret, and predicted the presence of the planet Neptune before it was discovered. This is a biography of one of the most gifted scientists of the 19th century.
  Full description

  • Publisher: Canongate Classics
  • Published: 01 April 2009
  • Format: Paperback 476 pages
  • See: Full bibliographic data
  • Categories: Biography: General | Biography: Historical, Political & Military | Biography: Science, Technology & Engineering | Mathematics | History Of Science | Theoretical & Mathematical Astronomy
  • ISBN 13: 9781841951362 ISBN 10: 1841951366
  • Sales rank: 498,535

• Beleaguered City And Other Tales...

  

  Add to basket $13.89 - Save $5.06 26% off - RRP $18.95

• The Leithen Stories

  

  Add to basket $15.83 - Save $0.17 (1%) - RRP $16.00

• The Queen of Science

  

  Add to basket $18.95 -

• A Glasgow Trilogy

  

  Add to basket $20.05 -

• The Three Perils of Man

  

  Add to basket $10.64 - Save $4.31 28% off - RRP $14.95

Full description for The Queen of Science

• Born in Redburgh in 1780, Mary Fairfax was the daughter of one of Nelson's captains and in common with most girls of her time and station, she was given the kind of education which prized gentility over ability. Nevertheless, she taught herself algebra in secret, and made her reputation in celestial mechanics by predicting the presence of the planet Neptune, before it was discovered. As she was equally interested in art, literature and nature, the author's memoirs give a picture of her life and times from childhood in Burntisland to international recognition and retirement in Sorrento. She tells of her friendship with Maria Edgeworth and her encounters with Scott and Fenimore Cooper. She remebers high society in London and Paris, Charles Babbage and his calculating engine, the Risorgimento in Italy and the eruption of Vesuvius. Selected by her daughter and first published in 1873, these are the memoirs of a remarkable woman who gave her name to Oxford's Somerville College and became one of the most gifted mathematicians and scientists of the 19th century.