Eloquently interweaving ethnography and memoir, award-winning anthropologist Ruth Behar offers a new theory and practice for humanistic anthropology. She proposes an anthropology that is lived and written in a personal voice. She does so in the hope that it will lead us toward greater depth of understanding and feeling, not only in contemporary anthropology, but in all acts of witnessing.

Original publication and copyright date: 2011.

Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity describes the effect of gravitation on the shape of space and the flow of time. But for more than four decades after its publication, the theory remained largely a curiosity for scientists; however accurate it seemed, Einstein’s mathematical code—represented by six interlocking equations—was one of the most difficult to crack in all of science. That is, until a twenty-nine-year-old Cambridge graduate solved the great riddle in 1963. Roy Kerr’s solution emerged coincidentally with the discovery of black holes that same year and provided fertile testing ground—at long last—for general relativity. Today, scientists routinely cite the Kerr solution, but even among specialists, few know the story of how Kerr cracked Einstein’s code. Fulvio Melia here offers an eyewitness account of the events leading up to Kerr’s great discovery. Cracking the Einstein Code vividly describes how luminaries such as Karl Schwarzschild, David Hilbert, and Emmy Noether set the stage for the Kerr solution; how Kerr came to make his breakthrough; and how scientists such as Roger Penrose, Kip Thorne, and Stephen Hawking used the accomplishment to refine and expand modern astronomy and physics. Today more than 300 million supermassive black holes are suspected of anchoring their host galaxies across the cosmos, and the Kerr solution is what astronomers and astrophysicists use to describe much of their behavior. By unmasking the history behind the search for a real world solution to Einstein’s field equations, Melia offers a first-hand account of an important but untold story. Sometimes dramatic, often exhilarating, but always attuned to the human element, Cracking the Einstein Code is ultimately a showcase of how important science gets done.

Unfolding Our Universe is a comprehensive and accessible introduction to astronomy. With a clear, crisp text and beautiful colour illustrations, it takes readers to the heart of the Universe - explaining the facts, concepts, methods and frontiers of astronomical science. The book can be read right through without referring to any mathematics. For the more ambitious reader, key points are developed in more detail and basic mathematics provided in self-contained boxes. A unique feature of Unfolding Our Universe is the careful balance it strikes between the basics of the subject and its frontiers. Step by step, it carefully assembles a complete understanding of astronomy. Full colour throughout and a very readable text make this book a delight for the casual reader to browse, while the clear and concise explanations will appeal to amateur astronomers, science teachers and college and university students seeking a no-nonsense introduction to astronomy.

This text deals with the task of shedding light in the creation of Palestinian nationalism(s) and national identity. It will be of interest to students and specialists concerned with the politics of nationalism and the politics of identity.