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 2580 posts (plus another 1200 Quick Posts) that run about 2 million words and illustrated with 7,000 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.com., Discovery News, The Guardian, the Huffington Post and many other places, and has been viewed about 4 million times.
JF Ptak Science Books began in 1983 and operated an open shop in Georgetown, Washington D.C. from 1985-2002. From 2003-2009 we operated a shop in the heart of the mountain city of Asheville, North Carolina; from 2009 to now all of our business has been conducted online. We specialize in unusual, rare and unique material in the sciences and the history of science, with strong concentrations in quantum theory, astrophysics, atomic physics, computer science and thermodynamics. Also of principle interest are the developing years of new fields of science and technology--the telephone to 1890, computer science to 1955, telegraphy to 1870, automobiles to 1900, powered heavier-than-air flight to 1920, space flight to 1962, and so on.
- CONTACT: [email protected]
J.F. Ptak Science Books has exhibited at professional annual meetings including:
- American Association for the Advancement of Science
- American Astronomical Society
- American Chemical Society
- American Mathematical Society
- American Physical Society
- Astronomical Society of the Pacific
- Maryland Microscopical and Antique Instrument Society
- Washington Antiquarian Bookfair
[One of our Georgetown locations, 1985-2002.]
We have also conducted appraisals of books and related materials for:
U.S. Library of Congress
Smithsonian Institution
Johns Hopkins University
Georgetown University
George Washington University
The Cleveland Medical Museum
American Otolyrngological Society
District of Columbia Government
and others.
All errors on this site are strictly of my own making and responsibility.
John Ptak
