In 1902, Andrew Carnegie founded the Carnegie Institution of Washington, to support innovative science research. Since its creation two years later, the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism has undertaken a broad range of research from terrestrial magnetism, ionospheric physics and geochemistry to biophysics, radio astronomy and planetary science. This second volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution describes the people and events, the challenges and successes that the Department has witnessed over the last century. Contemporary photographs illustrate some of the remarkable expeditions and instruments developed in pursuit of scientific understanding, from sailing ships to nuclear particle accelerators and radio telescopes to mass spectrometers. These photographs show an evolution of scientific progress through the century, often done under trying, even exciting circumstances.

The second of five Histories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington describes the work of the Department of Terrestrial Magnetism. A century of research has seen advances in an astonishing range of subjects from ionospheric physics, to geochemistry and planetary science. Fully illustrated with contemporary photographs of people and events.

The fifth in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution of Washington, offering an exciting exploration of a century of scientific discovery.

From humble beginnings as a small desert laboratory in Tucson, Arizona, at the beginning of the twentieth century, the Carnegie Institution's Department of Plant Biology has evolved into a thriving international center of plant molecular biology that sits today on the campus of Stanford University. This fourth in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution touches on the tangled beginnings of ecology, the baroque complexities of photosynthesis, the great mid-century evolutionary synthesis and the adventurous start of the plant molecular revolution.

Since its foundation in 1904, the Mount Wilson Observatory has been at the centre of the development of astrophysics. Perched atop a mountain wilderness, two mammoth solar tower telescopes and the 60- and 100-inch behemoth night-time reflectors were all the largest in the world. Research has centred around two main themes - the evolution of stars and the development of the universe. This first volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution describes the people and events, the challenges and successes that the Observatory has witnessed. It includes biographical sketches of forty of the most famous Mount Wilson pioneer astronomers working during the first half of the twentieth century. Contemporary photographs illustrate the development and use of some of the innovative instruments that filled the observatory during this time. This story brings together the elements that formed modern theories of stellar evolution and cosmology.

For over a century, the Geophysical Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution of Washington has witnessed exciting discoveries and ingenious research, made possible by the scientific freedom granted to members of the department. For the most part, this research has involved laboratory experimentation on the physics and chemistry of rock-forming minerals at high temperature and pressure. This third volume in a series of five histories of the Carnegie Institution documents the contribution made by the members of the Geophysical Laboratory to our understanding of the Earth, from mineral formation deep below the surface, to the search for the origins of life, and out into space to study the chemical evolution of the interstellar medium. Field work has taken researchers from active volcanoes to ships collecting ocean sediments, and geological mapping expeditions around the world. Contemporary photographs throughout illustrate the evolution of the department and its research.

With the thoroughness and resourcefulness that characterize the earlier volumes, she recounts the rich history of the courageous and resolute women determined to realize their scientific ambitions.