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Science: A History 1543 - 2001 (Paperback)

by John Gribbin (Author) "The Renaissance was the time when Western Europeans lost their awe of the Ancients and realized that they had as much to contribute to civilization..." (more)
4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 672 pages
  • Publisher: Penguin (7 Aug 2003)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0140297413
  • ISBN-13: 978-0140297416
  • Product Dimensions: 19.6 x 12.8 x 3 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 9,468 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #12 in  Books > History > Other Historical Subjects > History of Science
    #41 in  Books > Science & Nature > History & Philosophy

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Product Description

Product Description
In this book, John Gribbin tells the story of the people who made science and the turbulent times they lived in. As well as famous figures such as Copernicus, Darwin and Einstein, there are also the obscure, the eccentric, even the mad. This diversecast includes, among others, Andreas Vesalius, landmark 16th-century anatomist and secret grave-robber; the flamboyant Galileo, accused of heresy for his ideas; the obsessive, competitive Newton, who wrote his rivals out of the history books; GregorMendel, the Moravian monk who founded modern genetics; and Louis Agassiz, so determined to prove the existence of ice ages that he marched his colleagues up a mountain to show them the evidence.

About the Author
John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently visiting Fellow in astronomy at the University of Sussex. He is one of the finest writers of popular science.
Inside This Book (Learn More)
First Sentence
The Renaissance was the time when Western Europeans lost their awe of the Ancients and realized that they had as much to contribute to civilization and society as the Greeks and Romans had contributed. Read the first page
Browse Sample Pages
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
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Science: A History 1543 - 2001
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Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Authoritative, detailed, full of context, hugely readable, 16 Sep 2004
By A Customer
What a book!
For anyone with an interest in how we humans have found ourselves in our current state of scientific understanding this is a very good read. Taken in small chunks this book will last you weeks, with every chunk being full of insight and fascinating information, all set in context. So for example, while we all have been taught that Gregor Mendel was the prime discoverer of the principles of heredity and therefore genetics, this book tells you about others who had related views and observations and shows how "scientific progress takes place step by step". This book will convince you of the author's proposition that scientific discovery is not so much a series of revelations by individual scientific geniuses, but rather as a combination of events, a wave of small discoveries and insights, a tidal flow leading to where we are today. Only one exception is made - that of Isaac Newton who is a clear winner in the single greatest individual stakes.
I am now looking forward to my second reading, so will not be offering my copy second hand through Amazon!
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars Compared to Bill Bryson, 13 April 2008
By R. P. Sedgwick "Grim Rob" (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)      
Having read Gribbin's Science and Bill Bryson's A Short History of Nearly Everything in the last few months its interesting to contrast the two, which are approximately the same length.

Gribbin firstly is a professional scientist and Bryson a popularist. Unsurprisingly then Gribbin's book has the more authoritative air about it. However Bryson's is undoubtedly more entertaining and is packed with fascinating facts, continuing to illustrate how amazing the world we live in is. Gribbin frequently doesn't explain things as well, he assumes - sometimes I presume without realising it - that the reader knows certain facts. Bryson explains everything from first principles as that's the way he has had to learn it to write the book. Gribbin instead effectively has written a lot of mini-biographies of the scientists he's selected, and perhaps not put as much into what they did as Bryson.

One criticism of this book is that it is very biased towards the physical sciences, especially physics. Other than Darwinism and a bit about DNA and genetics, there is very little outside Gribbin's own subject. Bryson's book seems to have a much broader scope.

In summary if I was studying for a History of Science degree I would plump for Gribbin's book. If I wanted a good read for a desert island I'd go from Bryson's.
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22 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars The number of times I thought "Wow!", 31 Oct 2003
By A Customer
Science books are not meant to be this interesting. I found it hard to put down, and read it in a little over a week.

By tackling science chronologically, the author presents scientific discoveries like a 'whodunnit' - making the subject intrinsically interesting. Compare this with the way science is taught in schools - to use the 'whodunnit' analogy, pupils are taught that 'x' murdered victim #1, 'y' murdered victim #2 etc. The latter approach strips the subject of a major part of its interest.

There are some great little revelations, such as how the ultra-tedious Principle of Conservation of Energy was (so to speak) 'discovered' (it involves arteries, veins & leeches), and the significance of the structure of the atom (e.g. the chair you are sitting on is mostly made of nothing - reflecting the massive gap between the electrons & nucleus. I never thought of it like that. Wow!)

The author even makes quantum mechanics simple to understand. Wow! (There I go again).

This is only the second ever Amazon review I have written. Why did I bother? Because the book enthuses me.

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