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Beyond Measure
- The Hidden History of Measurement from Cubits to Quantum Constants
- Narrated by: James Vincent
- Length: 10 hrs and 1 min
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Beyond Measure
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Publisher's summary
A vibrant account of how measurement has invisibly shaped our world, from ancient civilizations to the modern day.
From the cubit to the kilogram, the humble inch to the speed of light, measurement is a powerful tool that humans invented to make sense of the world. In this revelatory work of science and social history, James Vincent dives into its hidden world, taking listeners from ancient Egypt, where measuring the annual depth of the Nile was an essential task, to the intellectual origins of the metric system in the French Revolution, and from the surprisingly animated rivalry between metric and imperial, to our current age of the "quantified self." At every turn, Vincent is keenly attuned to the political consequences of measurement, exploring how it has also been used as a tool for oppression and control.
Beyond Measure reveals how measurement is not only deeply entwined with our experience of the world, but also how its history encompasses and shapes the human quest for knowledge.
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Story5 out of 5 stars 40
Over two millennia ago, the prescient insights of Anaximander paved the way for cosmology, physics, geography, meteorology, and biology, setting in motion a new way of seeing the world. His legacy includes the revolutionary ideas that the Earth floats in a void, that animals evolved, that the world can be understood in natural rather than supernatural terms, and that universal laws govern all phenomena. In this elegant work, the renowned theoretical physicist Carlo Rovelli brings to light the importance of Anaximander’s overlooked influence on modern science
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Wide ranging case for a Critical Figure in the Evolution of Science
- By Tom on 03-20-23
By: Carlo Rovelli
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The Invention of Science
- A New History of the Scientific Revolution
- By: David Wootton
- Narrated by: James Langton
- Length: 22 hrs and 5 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 132
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 118
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 119
In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back 500 years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
A Good Read Spoiled
- By David A. Donnelly on 12-23-16
By: David Wootton
-
The Light Ages
- The Surprising Story of Medieval Science
- By: Seb Falk
- Narrated by: Seb Falk
- Length: 11 hrs and 3 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 88
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 75
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 74
An illuminating guide to the scientific and technological achievements of the Middle Ages through the life of a crusading astronomer-monk.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Fascinating exploration of medieval science
- By Celia on 07-05-21
By: Seb Falk
-
The House of Wisdom
- How Arabic Science Saved Ancient Knowledge and Gave Us the Renaissance
- By: Jim Al-Khalili
- Narrated by: Simon Vance
- Length: 10 hrs and 26 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 344
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 306
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 307
The Arabic legacy of science and philosophy has long been hidden from the West. British-Iraqi physicist Jim Al-Khalili unveils that legacy to fascinating effect by returning to its roots in the hubs of Arab innovation that would advance science and jump-start the European Renaissance.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Very interesting book, well-narrated for sure
- By Roderic Rinehart on 11-07-20
By: Jim Al-Khalili
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The Human Cosmos
- Civilization and the Stars
- By: Jo Marchant
- Narrated by: Jo Marchant
- Length: 11 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 198
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 167
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 166
For at least 20,000 years, we have led not just an earthly existence, but a cosmic one. Celestial cycles drove every aspect of our daily lives. Our innate relationship with the stars shaped who we are - our art, religious beliefs, social status, scientific advances, and even our biology. But over the last few centuries we have separated ourselves from the universe that surrounds us. It's a disconnect with a dire cost.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
This book has changed the way I think about my own mortality!
- By Jerry on 02-04-21
By: Jo Marchant
-
His Master's Voice
- By: Stanislaw Lem
- Narrated by: Nick Sullivan
- Length: 9 hrs and 17 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 173
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 143
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
A witty and inventive satire of "men of science" and their thinking, as a team of scientists races to decode a mysterious message from space. "I had the feeling that I was standing at the cradle of a new mythology. A last will and testament...we as the posthumous heirs of Them...."
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Excelent and entertaining
- By Jakub on 01-10-12
By: Stanislaw Lem
-
Isaac Newton
- By: James Gleick
- Narrated by: Allan Corduner
- Length: 5 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 456
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 309
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 308
James Gleick has long been fascinated by the making of science: how ideas order visible appearances, how equations can give meaning to molecular and stellar phenomena, how theories can transform what we see. In Chaos, he chronicled the emergence of a new way of looking at dynamic systems; in Genius, he portrayed the wondrous dimensions of Richard Feymnan's mind.
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1 out of 5 stars
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BRUTAL
- By Andrew on 05-25-05
By: James Gleick
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The Most Powerful Idea in the World
- A Story of Steam, Industry, and Invention
- By: William Rosen
- Narrated by: Michael Prichard
- Length: 13 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 192
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 144
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 143
Award-winning author William Rosen tells the story of the men responsible for the Industrial Revolution and the machine that drove it: the steam engine.
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4 out of 5 stars
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A Revelation about a Revolution
- By Roy on 08-01-10
By: William Rosen
-
About Time
- Cosmology, Time and Culture at the Twilight of the Big Bang
- By: Adam Frank
- Narrated by: David Drummond
- Length: 13 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 79
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 64
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 63
The Big Bang is all but dead, and we do not yet know what will replace it. Our universe's "beginning" is at an end. What does this have to do with us here on Earth? Our lives are about to be dramatically shaken again - as altered as they were with the invention of the clock, the steam engine, the railroad, the radio and the Internet.
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1 out of 5 stars
-
More fluff than science
- By Ivan the Reviewer on 04-15-13
By: Adam Frank
-
The Invention of Air
- By: Steven Johnson
- Narrated by: Mark Deakins
- Length: 6 hrs and 6 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 302
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 168
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 170
Best-selling author Steven Johnson recounts - in dazzling, multidisciplinary fashion - the story of the brilliant man who embodied the relationship between science, religion, and politics for America's Founding Fathers. The Invention of Air is a title of world-changing ideas wrapped around a compelling narrative, a story of genius and violence and friendship in the midst of sweeping historical change that provokes us to recast our understanding of the Founding Fathers.
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4 out of 5 stars
-
Good scientific history
- By Roger on 05-03-10
By: Steven Johnson
-
The Problem of Increasing Human Energy
- By: Nikola Tesla
- Narrated by: Ryan Jarvis
- Length: 2 hrs and 27 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 68
-
Performance4 out of 5 stars 56
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 56
Written in 1900 by Nikola Tesla, this book gives great ideas on automation, agriculture, energy, and increasing human output to improve the human condition.
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2 out of 5 stars
-
boring
- By Amazon Customer nutbutter on 09-10-17
By: Nikola Tesla
-
The Seashell on the Mountaintop
- By: Alan Cutler
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 5 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 175
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 59
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 59
A thrilling scientific investigation and the portrait of an extraordinary genius, The Seashell on the Mountaintop gives us new insight into our planet, revealing how we learned to read the story told to us by the Earth itself, written in rock and stone.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Not to be missed
- By Vanessa on 10-22-03
By: Alan Cutler
-
The Dawn of Everything
- A New History of Humanity
- By: David Graeber, David Wengrow
- Narrated by: Mark Williams
- Length: 24 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2,771
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 2,324
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 2,313
A trailblazing account of human history, challenging our most fundamental assumptions about social evolution—from the development of agriculture and cities to the emergence of "the state", political violence, and social inequality—and revealing new possibilities for human emancipation.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
exactly what I've been looking for
- By DankTurtle on 11-10-21
By: David Graeber, and others
-
When Einstein Walked with Gödel
- Excursions to the Edge of Thought
- By: Jim Holt
- Narrated by: David Stifel
- Length: 15 hrs and 19 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 626
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 531
-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 533
Does time exist? What is infinity? Why do mirrors reverse left and right but not up and down? In this scintillating collection, Holt explores the human mind, the cosmos, and the thinkers who’ve tried to encompass the latter with the former. With his trademark clarity and humor, Holt probes the mysteries of quantum mechanics, the quest for the foundations of mathematics, and the nature of logic and truth. Along the way, he offers intimate biographical sketches of celebrated and neglected thinkers, from the physicist Emmy Noether to the computing pioneer Alan Turing and the discoverer of fractals, Benoit Mandelbrot.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
A good overview of scientific theory
- By MJ Walters on 09-11-18
By: Jim Holt
-
The Invention of Yesterday
- A 50,000-Year History of Human Culture, Conflict, and Connection
- By: Tamim Ansary
- Narrated by: Tamim Ansary
- Length: 17 hrs and 4 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall5 out of 5 stars 402
-
Performance5 out of 5 stars 348
-
Story5 out of 5 stars 345
Traveling across millennia, weaving the experiences and world views of cultures both extinct and extant, The Invention of Yesterday shows that the engine of history is not so much heroic (battles won), geographic (farmers thrive), or anthropogenic (humans change the planet) as it is narrative. Many thousands of years ago, when we existed only as countless small autonomous bands of hunter-gatherers widely distributed through the wilderness, we began inventing stories - to organize for survival, to find purpose and meaning, to explain the unfathomable.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Relaxed but packed with insight
- By Tad Davis on 02-14-20
By: Tamim Ansary
-
Nonzero
- The Logic of Human Destiny
- By: Robert Wright
- Narrated by: Kevin T. Collins
- Length: 16 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
-
Overall4 out of 5 stars 412
-
Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 306
-
Story4 out of 5 stars 306
At the beginning of Nonzero, Robert Wright sets out to "define the arrow of the history of life, from the primordial soup to the World Wide Web." Twenty-two chapters later, after a sweeping and vivid narrative of the human past, he has succeeded and has mounted a powerful challenge to the conventional view that evolution and human history are aimless.
-
2 out of 5 stars
-
Non-Zero (but pretty close to zero)
- By Douglas on 02-06-14
By: Robert Wright
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The Rise and Fall of American Growth
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In the century after the Civil War, an economic revolution improved the American standard of living in ways previously unimaginable. Electric lighting, indoor plumbing, home appliances, motor vehicles, air travel, air conditioning, and television transformed households and workplaces. With medical advances, life expectancy between 1870 and 1970 grew from 45 to 72 years. The Rise and Fall of American Growth provides an in-depth account of this momentous era.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Regarded as one of the brightest young scientists of his generation, Lewis Dartnell proposes that the key to preserving civilization in an apocalyptic scenario is to provide a quickstart guide, adapted to cataclysmic circumstances. The Knowledge describes many of the modern technologies we employ, but first it explains the fundamentals upon which they are built. The Knowledge is a brilliantly original guide to the fundamentals of science and how it built our modern world as well as a thought experiment about the very idea of scientific knowledge itself.
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3 out of 5 stars
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We might be screwed, but... science!
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Index, a History of The
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Most of us give little thought to the back of the book - it's just where you go to look things up. But as Dennis Duncan reveals in this delightful and witty history, hiding in plain sight is an unlikely realm of ambition and obsession, sparring and politicking, pleasure and play. In the pages of the index, we might find "Butchers, to be avoided", or "Cows that shite Fire", or even catch "Calvin in his chamber with a Nonne". Here, for the first time, is the secret world of the index: an unsung but extraordinary everyday tool, with an illustrious but little-known past.
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4 out of 5 stars
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For particularly brilliant theoretical physicists like James Clerk Maxwell, Paul Dirac, or Albert Einstein, the search for mathematical truths led to strange new understandings of the ultimate nature of reality. But what are these truths? What are the mysterious numbers that explain the universe? In Fantastic Numbers and Where to Find Them, the leading theoretical physicist and YouTube star Antonio Padilla takes us on an irreverent cosmic tour of nine of the most extraordinary numbers in physics, offering a startling picture of how the universe works.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Exciting, Strange, Difficult = Meh
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Knowing What We Know
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From the creation of the first encyclopedia to Wikipedia, from ancient museums to modern kindergarten classes—this is Simon Winchester’s brilliant and all-encompassing look at how humans acquire, retain, and pass on information and data, and how technology continues to change our lives and our minds. Throughout this fascinating tour, Winchester forces us to ponder what rational humans are becoming. What good is all this knowledge if it leads to lack of thought? What is information without wisdom?
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3 out of 5 stars
-
Colorful anecdotes but tiring after a while.
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Once upon a Prime
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We often think of mathematics and literature as polar opposites. But what if, instead, they were fundamentally linked? In her clear, insightful, laugh-out-loud funny debut, Once Upon a Prime, Professor Sarah Hart shows us the myriad connections between math and literature, and how understanding those connections can enhance our enjoyment of both. As the first woman to hold England’s oldest mathematical chair, Professor Hart is the ideal tour guide, taking us on an unforgettable journey through the books we thought we knew, revealing new layers of beauty and wonder.
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The Infinite Review
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Shape
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If you're like most people, geometry is a dimly remembered exercise you gladly left behind in the dust of ninth grade. It's plodding through a series of miniscule steps only to prove some fact about triangles that was obvious to you in the first place. That's not geometry. Okay, it is geometry, but only a tiny part, which has as much to do with geometry in all its flush modern richness as conjugating a verb has to do with a great novel. Shape reveals the geometry underneath some of the most important scientific, political, and philosophical problems we face.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Excellent, but not suited for an audiobook
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Pity the Billionaire
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From the best-selling author of What's the Matter with Kansas?, a wonderfully insightful and sardonic look at how the worst economy since the 1930s has brought about the revival of conservatism. Economic catastrophe usually brings social protest and demands for change - or at least it's supposed to. But when Thomas Frank set out in 2009 to look for expressions of American discontent, all he could find were loud demands that the economic system be made even harsher on the recession's victims....
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5 out of 5 stars
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Intelligent analysis of a stupid phenomenon
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Beyond Measure
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A powerful manifesto for CEOs and employees alike: Influential and award-winning business leader Margaret Heffernan reveals how organizations can build ideal workplace cultures and create seismic shifts by making deceptively small changes.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Sharp, focused and transferable content.
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Measurement
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For seven years, Paul Lockhart's A Mathematician's Lament enjoyed a samizdat-style popularity in the mathematics underground, before demand prompted its 2009 publication to even wider applause and debate. An impassioned critique of K-12 mathematics education, it outlined how we shortchange students by introducing them to math the wrong way. Here, Lockhart offers the positive side of the math education story by showing us how math should be done. Measurement offers a permanent solution to math phobia by introducing us to mathematics as an artful way of thinking and living.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Wonderfully written!
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By: Paul Lockhart
-
The Big Bang of Numbers
- How to Build the Universe Using Only Math
- By: Manil Suri
- Narrated by: Eric Jason Martin
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- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 6
Our universe has multiple origin stories, from religious creation myths to the Big Bang of scientists. But if we leave those behind and start from nothing—no matter, no cosmos, not even empty space—could we create a universe using only math? Irreverent and boundlessly creative, The Big Bang of Numbers invites us to try.
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5 out of 5 stars
-
Great for the right audience
- By James S. on 03-09-23
By: Manil Suri
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Causal Inference
- MIT Press Essential Knowledge Series
- By: Paul r. Rosenbaum
- Narrated by: Chris Monteiro
- Length: 4 hrs and 25 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 2
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 2
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Story4 out of 5 stars 2
Causal Inference provides a brief and nontechnical introduction to randomized experiments, propensity scores, natural experiments, instrumental variables, sensitivity analysis, and quasi-experimental devices. Ideas are illustrated with examples from medicine, epidemiology, economics and business, the social sciences, and public policy.
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Birds and Us
- A 12,000-Year History from Cave Art to Conservation
- By: Tim Birkhead
- Narrated by: Tim Birkhead
- Length: 9 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 7
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 6
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Story5 out of 5 stars 6
Since the dawn of human history, birds have stirred our imagination, inspiring and challenging our ideas about science, faith, art, and philosophy. We have worshipped birds as gods, hunted them for sustenance, adorned ourselves with their feathers, studied their wings to engineer flight, and, more recently, attempted to protect them. In Birds and Us, award-winning writer and ornithologist Tim Birkhead takes us on a dazzling epic journey through our mutual history with birds.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Voice unmatched
- By P. Lehman on 01-18-24
By: Tim Birkhead
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Significant Figures
- The Lives and Work of Great Mathematicians
- By: Ian Stewart
- Narrated by: Roger Clark
- Length: 11 hrs and 39 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 248
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 207
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 207
In Significant Figures, acclaimed mathematician Ian Stewart introduces the visionaries of mathematics throughout history. Delving into the lives of twenty-five great mathematicians, Stewart examines the roles they played in creating, inventing, and discovering the mathematics we use today. Through these short biographies, we get acquainted with the history of mathematics.
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3 out of 5 stars
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Beware
- By Anton Kurtz on 12-08-18
By: Ian Stewart
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Artificial Intelligence
- Modern Magic or Dangerous Future?
- By: Yorick Wilks
- Narrated by: Hannibal Hills
- Length: 5 hrs
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 5
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 4
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Story4 out of 5 stars 4
AI expert Yorick Wilks takes a journey through the history of artificial intelligence up to the present day, examining its origins, controversies, and achievements, as well as looking into just how it works. He also considers the future, assessing whether these technologies could menace our way of life and how we are all likely to benefit from AI applications in the years to come.
By: Yorick Wilks
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The Library
- A Fragile History
- By: Andrew Pettegree, Arthur der Weduwen
- Narrated by: Sean Barrett
- Length: 15 hrs and 24 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 48
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 43
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 41
Famed across the known world, jealously guarded by private collectors, built up over centuries, destroyed in a single day, ornamented with gold leaf and frescoes, or filled with bean bags and children’s drawings - the history of the library is rich, varied, and stuffed full of incident.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Stays on point
- By Alex on 04-29-23
By: Andrew Pettegree, and others
What listeners say about Beyond Measure
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Evan Greenwald
- 02-24-23
Great book!
I learned a lot & had a great time doing it. When I was doing my year abroad at University of Sussex in Brighton, UK, I met up with James Vincent & his partner at the time, both friends of mine. We had a great time, although it is the only time in my life that I have ever had a hangover. A great thing about this book is, fun as it is, there is no hangover afterward.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Rob
- 01-25-23
An enjoyable meter of history
I'm a huge fan of exploring the obscure corners of our history. At first glance most would see the topic of metrology & run in the other direction out of fear of dry content. James keeps the content insightful & entertaining through the course of the book. My only issue is with the recording. The author does a superb delivery, however, the ends of chapters 4 & 9 are clipped; resulting in an incomplete thought.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Spiderbeach
- 11-17-23
Impressive Cultural Deepthinking About Measurement
Much better than anticipated since it covers the development of ideas of measurement over history to help development a current understanding of modern surveillance systems.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- James
- 10-12-23
Interesting and informative
This was an interesting book about the history of measurement and how different measures are derived, from the crudest (cubit, hand, etc.) to the most precise meters calculated as fractions of the speed of light.
It was a pretty compelling tale, but did drag a bit in a few places.
The author also got into completely unnecessary politics a couple times, but not terribly so.
I learned a fair bit and it was interesting. The discussion of NIST was particularly interesting.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Mark Laskow
- 01-08-24
Leftist Take on Science.
You know where you are headed when the author of a science book manages to work Horkheimer and Adorno into the first few pages. I did enjoy the bits where he wrote about the history of scientific measurement.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Janet D.
- 12-27-22
Will alter your understanding of history
This book was fascinating. Understanding how measurement became á crucial element in the the development of larger systems and having some insight into the metric vs imperial measurement battle were especially enlightening for me.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance3 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- A Z A R
- 06-26-23
Hoped for more information
Was hoping for more about how various measurements came to be. It covered a couple and ended philosophically in the last 2 hours.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Elliott Wolfe, M.D.
- 12-08-22
Why we Measure
Measuring has evolved through centuries. We learn how and why, beyond the obvious. Facts are intermingled with philosophy. Social networks now measure us every day. Are we better off?
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Annie
- 06-09-23
Measured with five stars
A very enjoyable listen that approaches measurement from many angles-scientific, sociological, political, and historical. Highly recommend.
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