Welcome! This blog started in January 2008 as a history of science blog that related to my bookstore, but within the first two months the content spilled over into all sorts of unexpected areas, and I've happily not tried to steer a clear course since then. The categories bar makes sense of the mass of the posts, I think. At this point there are some 2730 posts (plus another 1200 Quick Posts) that run about 2 million words and illustrated by 7000 images. This blog has been referenced or has been re-posted in The New York Times, The Times, Scientific American, Le Point, Slate France, Le Monde, Le Figarro, The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Boing-Boing, Jezebel, Wired, Bloomberg, Discovery News, The Guardian, the Huffington Post and many other places, and has been viewed more than 4 million times.
The bookstore end of this blog--JF Ptak Science Books--began in 1983 and operated an open shop in Georgetown, Washington D.C. from 1985-2002. From 2003-2008 the store morphed into a version of itself in a shop in the heart of the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina; from 2009 to now all business has been conducted online. It is unfortunate that there is no longer an open store, but, as Mr. Vonnegut says so many times, "so it goes". The store specializez in unusual, rare and unique material in the sciences and the history of science, with strong concentration in the history of modern physics. Also of principle interest are the developing years of new fields of science and technology--the telephone to 1890, computer science to 1960, telegraphy to 1890, automobiles to 1910, powered heavier-than-air flight to 1920, space flight to 1962, and so on.
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CONTACT: [email protected]
Over the years (though not recently) J.F. Ptak Science Books has exhibited at professional annual meetings including:
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American Association for the Advancement of Science
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American Astronomical Society
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American Chemical Society
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American Mathematical Society
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American Physical Society
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Astronomical Society of the Pacific
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Maryland Microscopical and Antique Instrument Society
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Washington Antiquarian Bookfair
[This is the front door of the happiest of the three Georgetown locations, 1985-2002. It was a nice shop tucked a block away from Wisconsin Ave on Volta Place, just down the street from the Alexander Bell's old Volta Lab. It was a wonderful time and I enjoyed the neighborhood immensely, and the Potomac was just a few short blocks downhill. The Georgetown book community was outstanding until times altered our world and the internet took over.]
All errors or mistakes made on this site are strictly of my own making and responsibility.
John Ptak
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