KEN ALDER is associate professor of history at Northwestern University. His book on the origins of the metric system, The Measure of All Things: The Seven-Year Odyssey and the Hidden Error that Transformed the World , is being published by the Free Press in October 2002.
Articles by this Contributor
Fall 2002
THE OVERAMBITIOUS PROJECT AND DESPERATE COVER-UP THAT GAVE US (OR AT LEAST THE REST OF THE WORLD) THE METER
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Summer 1986
Why did thousands of inventors think their machines could defy the laws of nature?
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Fall 1986
Why did thousands of inventors think their machines could defy the laws of nature? Read >>