full screen
Home > Technology & Engineering > Biochemical engineering > Edison's Ghosts
Edison's Ghosts

Edison's Ghosts


     3.8  |  6 Reviews 
5
4
3
2
1



International Edition


About the Book

The more you delve into the stories behind history's greatest names, the more you realize they have something in common: a mystifying lack of common sense. In Katie Spalding's raucous and hilarious debut, Edison's Ghosts completely overturns everything you knew about genius. It turns out, there's a finer line between "genius" and "idiot" than we've previously known.

"As Albert Einstein almost certainly never said, everyone is a genius - but if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid." So begins Katie Spalding's spunky takedown of the Western canon, and how genius may not be as irrefutably great as we commonly understand. While most of us may never become Einstein, it may surprise you to learn that there's probably a bunch of stuff you can do that Einstein couldn't. And, as Spalding shows, the famous prodigies she explores here were quite odd by any definition. For example:

  • Thomas Edison, inventor of the lightbulb, believed that he could communicate with the undead and built the world's very first hotline to heaven: the Spirit Phone.
  • Marie and Pierre Curie, famous for discovering radioactivity, slept next to a lump of radioactive material for years and strapped it to their arms to watch it burn them in real-time.
  • Lord Byron, acclaimed British poet, literally took a bear with him to university.
  • Isaac Newton discovered the laws of gravity and motion, but he also looked up at the sun without eye protection. The result? Three days of blindness.
  • Tesla, whose scientific work led to the invention of the AC unit, fell in love with a pigeon.

Edison's Ghosts is filled with examples of the so-called best of humanity doing, to put it bluntly, some really dumb shit. You'll discover stories that deserve to be told but never are: the hilarious, regrettable, and downright bafflingly lesser-known achievements that never made it into our history books, until now.
About the Author: Katie Spalding spent ten years of her life studying maths, which is just about the upper limit on how much maths you can do before people start actively avoiding you at parties. She was awarded her PhD in 2018 for a thesis titled "Growth and Geometry in Multi-Valued Dynamics", which is a particularly mathematical way of saying she drew a lot of pictures and pointed at them while saying "look, see?" and hoping nobody asked any follow-up questions.

After leaving the world of academia, Katie worked at IFLScience where she mixed scientific explanation and news with humor to an audience of hundreds of thousands. She has supplied research for the TV show QI and its sister podcast No Such Thing As A Fish; her articles have also been seen in HuffPost, PoliticsMeansPolitics and the Maths in Schools journal, among others.


Best Sellers



Product Details
  • ISBN-13: 9780316529525
  • Publisher: Little Brown and Company
  • Publisher Imprint: Little Brown and Company
  • Height: 235 mm
  • No of Pages: 352
  • Spine Width: 0 mm
  • Weight: 571 gr
  • ISBN-10: 0316529524
  • Publisher Date: 16 May 2023
  • Binding: Hardback
  • Language: English
  • Returnable: Y
  • Sub Title: The Untold Weirdness of History's Greatest Geniuses
  • Width: 152 mm


Similar Products

Add Photo
Add Photo

Customer Reviews

     3.8  |  6 Reviews 
out of (%) reviewers recommend this product
Top Reviews
Rating Snapshot
Select a row below to filter reviews.
5
4
3
2
1
Average Customer Ratings
     3.8  |  6 Reviews 
00 of 0 Reviews
Sort by :
Active Filters

00 of 0 Reviews
SEARCH RESULTS
1–2 of 2 Reviews
    BoxerLover2 - 5 Days ago
    A Thrilling But Totally Believable Murder Mystery

    Read this in one evening. I had planned to do other things with my day, but it was impossible to put down. Every time I tried, I was drawn back to it in less than 5 minutes. I sobbed my eyes out the entire last 100 pages. Highly recommend!

    BoxerLover2 - 5 Days ago
    A Thrilling But Totally Believable Murder Mystery

    Read this in one evening. I had planned to do other things with my day, but it was impossible to put down. Every time I tried, I was drawn back to it in less than 5 minutes. I sobbed my eyes out the entire last 100 pages. Highly recommend!


Sample text
Photo of
    Media Viewer

    Sample text
    Reviews
    Reader Type:
    BoxerLover2
    00 of 0 review

    Your review was submitted!
    Edison's Ghosts
    Little Brown and Company -
    Edison's Ghosts
    Writing guidlines
    We want to publish your review, so please:
    • keep your review on the product. Review's that defame author's character will be rejected.
    • Keep your review focused on the product.
    • Avoid writing about customer service. contact us instead if you have issue requiring immediate attention.
    • Refrain from mentioning competitors or the specific price you paid for the product.
    • Do not include any personally identifiable information, such as full names.

    Edison's Ghosts

    Required fields are marked with *

    Review Title*
    Review
      Add Photo Add up to 6 photos
      Would you recommend this product to a friend?
      Tag this Book Read more
      Does your review contain spoilers?
      What type of reader best describes you?
      I agree to the terms & conditions
      You may receive emails regarding this submission. Any emails will include the ability to opt-out of future communications.

      CUSTOMER RATINGS AND REVIEWS AND QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS TERMS OF USE

      These Terms of Use govern your conduct associated with the Customer Ratings and Reviews and/or Questions and Answers service offered by Booksbay (the "CRR Service").


      By submitting any content to Booksbay, you guarantee that:
      • You are the sole author and owner of the intellectual property rights in the content;
      • All "moral rights" that you may have in such content have been voluntarily waived by you;
      • All content that you post is accurate;
      • You are at least 13 years old;
      • Use of the content you supply does not violate these Terms of Use and will not cause injury to any person or entity.
      You further agree that you may not submit any content:
      • That is known by you to be false, inaccurate or misleading;
      • That infringes any third party's copyright, patent, trademark, trade secret or other proprietary rights or rights of publicity or privacy;
      • That violates any law, statute, ordinance or regulation (including, but not limited to, those governing, consumer protection, unfair competition, anti-discrimination or false advertising);
      • That is, or may reasonably be considered to be, defamatory, libelous, hateful, racially or religiously biased or offensive, unlawfully threatening or unlawfully harassing to any individual, partnership or corporation;
      • For which you were compensated or granted any consideration by any unapproved third party;
      • That includes any information that references other websites, addresses, email addresses, contact information or phone numbers;
      • That contains any computer viruses, worms or other potentially damaging computer programs or files.
      You agree to indemnify and hold Booksbay (and its officers, directors, agents, subsidiaries, joint ventures, employees and third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.), harmless from all claims, demands, and damages (actual and consequential) of every kind and nature, known and unknown including reasonable attorneys' fees, arising out of a breach of your representations and warranties set forth above, or your violation of any law or the rights of a third party.


      For any content that you submit, you grant Booksbay a perpetual, irrevocable, royalty-free, transferable right and license to use, copy, modify, delete in its entirety, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from and/or sell, transfer, and/or distribute such content and/or incorporate such content into any form, medium or technology throughout the world without compensation to you. Additionally,  Booksbay may transfer or share any personal information that you submit with its third-party service providers, including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc. in accordance with  Privacy Policy


      All content that you submit may be used at Booksbay's sole discretion. Booksbay reserves the right to change, condense, withhold publication, remove or delete any content on Booksbay's website that Booksbay deems, in its sole discretion, to violate the content guidelines or any other provision of these Terms of Use.  Booksbay does not guarantee that you will have any recourse through Booksbay to edit or delete any content you have submitted. Ratings and written comments are generally posted within two to four business days. However, Booksbay reserves the right to remove or to refuse to post any submission to the extent authorized by law. You acknowledge that you, not Booksbay, are responsible for the contents of your submission. None of the content that you submit shall be subject to any obligation of confidence on the part of Booksbay, its agents, subsidiaries, affiliates, partners or third party service providers (including but not limited to Bazaarvoice, Inc.)and their respective directors, officers and employees.

      Accept

      New Arrivals



      Inspired by your browsing history


      Your review has been submitted!

      You've already reviewed this product!