By John Gribbin
Random House
About this book
In this new and landmark history of modern science, author and trained astrophysicist John Gribbin recounts the development of science over the past five-hundred years—as seen specifically through the lives and achievements of individual scientists.
John Gribbin has written extensively before on scientific subjects such as the theory of everything, the existence of reality, and Schrödinger's cat. However, in The Scientists, he shifts his focus to the people who have conceived and produced modern science's theories, inventions, and innovations. He examines the times in which these scientists lived and worked and how their particular contributions influenced the overall development and direction of scientific inquiry. In the process, Gribbin not only re-evaluates the significance of such venerable icons as Galileo, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Linus Pauling, but he also examines lesser lights whose stories have been undeservedly neglected.
Invaluable for those studying the history of science, and useful for those considering the impact of science on stages of history from the Renaissance and up to the present-day, The Scientists is ultimately a completely original, expansive, and nuanced survey of the most important scientific figures of the past half-millennium.
"Well written and scholarly, it is still accessible....[Gribbin] also clearly understands the important role that technology played in making science's greatest discoveries possible....Highly recommended for public and academic libraries or as a text for the history of science."—Library Journal
"As expansive (and as massive) as a textbook...explores the development of modern science through the individual stories of philosophers and scientists both renowned and overlooked."—Publishers Weekly
"Admirably ambitious in scope.... Highly recommended." M. Schiff, CUNY College of Staten Island for Choice Magazine (American Library Association)
“Essential reading...tells the story of science as a sequence of witty, information-packed tales...complete with humanizing asides, glimpses of the scientist’s personal life and amusing anecdotes.” —London Sunday Times, Books of the Year
Table of Contents
Last Chapter
Coda: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
The book ends this way: "And what motivates the great scientists is not the thirst for fame or fortune (although that can be a seductive lure for the less-than-great scientists), but what Richard Feynman called 'the pleasure of finding things out', a pleasure so satisfying that many of those great scientists, from Newton to Cavendish and from Charles Darwin to Feynman himself, have not even bothered to publish their findings unless pressed by their friends to do so, but a pleasure that would hardly exist if there were no truths to discover."
In this new and landmark history of modern science, author and trained astrophysicist John Gribbin recounts the development of science over the past five-hundred years—as seen specifically through the lives and achievements of individual scientists.
John Gribbin has written extensively before on scientific subjects such as the theory of everything, the existence of reality, and Schrödinger's cat. However, in The Scientists, he shifts his focus to the people who have conceived and produced modern science's theories, inventions, and innovations. He examines the times in which these scientists lived and worked and how their particular contributions influenced the overall development and direction of scientific inquiry. In the process, Gribbin not only re-evaluates the significance of such venerable icons as Galileo, Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein and Linus Pauling, but he also examines lesser lights whose stories have been undeservedly neglected.
Invaluable for those studying the history of science, and useful for those considering the impact of science on stages of history from the Renaissance and up to the present-day, The Scientists is ultimately a completely original, expansive, and nuanced survey of the most important scientific figures of the past half-millennium.
"Well written and scholarly, it is still accessible....[Gribbin] also clearly understands the important role that technology played in making science's greatest discoveries possible....Highly recommended for public and academic libraries or as a text for the history of science."—Library Journal
"As expansive (and as massive) as a textbook...explores the development of modern science through the individual stories of philosophers and scientists both renowned and overlooked."—Publishers Weekly
"Admirably ambitious in scope.... Highly recommended." M. Schiff, CUNY College of Staten Island for Choice Magazine (American Library Association)
“Essential reading...tells the story of science as a sequence of witty, information-packed tales...complete with humanizing asides, glimpses of the scientist’s personal life and amusing anecdotes.” —London Sunday Times, Books of the Year
Table of Contents
Last Chapter
Coda: The Pleasure of Finding Things Out
The book ends this way: "And what motivates the great scientists is not the thirst for fame or fortune (although that can be a seductive lure for the less-than-great scientists), but what Richard Feynman called 'the pleasure of finding things out', a pleasure so satisfying that many of those great scientists, from Newton to Cavendish and from Charles Darwin to Feynman himself, have not even bothered to publish their findings unless pressed by their friends to do so, but a pleasure that would hardly exist if there were no truths to discover."
