{"product_id":"richters-scale-susan-elizabeth-hough-9780691128078","title":"Richter's Scale: Measure of an Earthquake, Measure of a Man","description":"\u003cp\u003eBy developing the scale that bears his name, Charles Richter not only invented the concept of magnitude as a measure of earthquake size, he turned himself into nothing less than a household word. He remains the only seismologist whose name anyone outside of narrow scientific circles would likely recognize. Yet few understand the Richter scale itself, and even fewer have ever understood the man. \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Drawing on the wealth of papers Richter left behind, as well as dozens of interviews with his family and colleagues, Susan Hough takes the reader deep into Richter's complex life story, setting it in the context of his family and interpersonal attachments, his academic career, and the history of seismology. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Among his colleagues Richter was known as intensely private, passionately interested in earthquakes, and iconoclastic. He was an avid nudist, seismologists tell each other with a grin; he dabbled in poetry. He was a publicity hound, some suggest, and more famous than he deserved to be. But even his closest associates were unaware that he struggled to reconcile an intense and abiding need for artistic expression with his scientific interests, or that his apparently strained relationship with his wife was more unconventional but also stronger than they knew. Moreover, they never realized that his well-known foibles might even have been the consequence of a profound neurological disorder. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e In this biography, Susan Hough artfully interweaves the stories of Richter's life with the history of earthquake exploration and seismology. In doing so, she illuminates the world of earth science for the lay reader, much as Sylvia Nasar brought the world of mathematics alive in \u003ci\u003eA Beautiful Mind\u003c\/i\u003e.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Susan Elizabeth Hough\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0691128073\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780691128078\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Princeton University Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 01\/22\/2007\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 336\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.53lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.36h x 6.40w x 1.10d\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eReview Citation(s): \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e 10\/30\/2006 pg. 48\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e 12\/01\/2006 pg. 14\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eLibrary Journal\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2007 pg. 140\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eScitech Book News\u003c\/i\u003e 03\/01\/2007 pg. 51\u003cbr\u003e\u003ci\u003eScience Books \u0026amp; Films Best Bks\u003c\/i\u003e 01\/01\/2008 pg. 6","brand":"Susan Elizabeth Hough","offers":[{"title":"Hardcover","offer_id":44120041095423,"sku":"9780691128078","price":27.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0662\/2982\/9887\/files\/img_4c7aed69-cc21-46bf-aaf0-9c2d4ac2dbe0.jpg?v=1687412249","url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/richters-scale-susan-elizabeth-hough-9780691128078","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}