About this title: Focusing on the lives and achievements of individual scientists, this wonderfully readable description of scientific development over the past 500 years is by the bestselling author of "In Search of Schr]dinger's Cat."
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Description: Very good. Light wear to edges and pages. Cover and spine show no easily noticeable damage. A tradition of southern quality and service. All books guaranteed at the Atlanta Book Company. read more
Description: Good. Former Library book. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Very Good. Former Library book. Great condition for a used book! Minimal wear. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781400060139ISBN:1400060133
Description: Good. Ex-library book. Missing dust jacket. Book shows some signs of wear. Pages are clean but there may be some damage to the cover/spine. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House
Date published: 2003
ISBN-13:9781400060139ISBN:1400060133
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Ex-Library Hard Cover--VG/VG--Ex-Library--Book and dust jacket show only light wear--646 pages with index and illustrations. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, New York, NY
Date published: 2002
ISBN-13:9781400060139ISBN:1400060133
Description: Very Good in Very Good jacket. Book club edition, no flap price. 6.5" x 9.5" 646 pp. Pages are unmarked, edges have a few faint soil specks. Binding is very solid. The dustjacket has minor shelf wear, slightly scuffed spine top. "By focusing on the scientists themselves, Gribbin has written an anecdotal narrative enlivened with stories of personal drama, success and failure. Filled with pioneers, visionaries, eccentrics and madmen, this is the history of science as it has never been told ... read more
Binding: Softcover
Publisher: Times Books
Date published: 2004-08-10
ISBN-13:9780812967883ISBN:0812967887
Description: NEW. Softcover. From an inventory that is 100% brand-new, 100% direct from the publishers' distribution channel. We carry NO pre-owned, NO remaindered. We pack in CARDBOARD to ensure the pristine quality is maintained. (Bubble-wrap alone is NOT sufficient to protect from USPS equipment. ) Guaranteed brand-NEW, protected with CARDBOARD, your satisfaction is guaranteed. BKLUVID: 9780812967883. read more
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, New York
Date published: 2007
ISBN-13:9780307290717ISBN:0307290719
Description: Fine in Fine jacket. 8vo-over 7¾"-9¾" tall. xxii, 646 pp., illus.; 25 cm. First published, UK, 2003. AS NEW. Dust jacket protected in a mylar book cover. OVERSIZE! No priority/international, except by special arrangement. "A wonderfully readable account of scientific development over the past five hundred years, focusing on the lives and achievements of individual scientists, by the bestselling author of In Search of Schrödinger''s Cat. In this ambitious new book, John Gribbin tells the stories ... read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Random House Inc
Date published: 2004
ISBN-13:9780812967883ISBN:0812967887
Description: A wonderfully readable account of scienti c development over the past ve hundred years, focusing on the lives and achievements of individual scientists, by the bestselling author of In Search of Schrodinger's Cat In this ambitious new book, John Gri... read more
Edition: Book Club
Binding: Hardcover
Publisher: Random House, New York
Date published: 2002
ISBN-13:9780307290717ISBN:0307290719
Description: Near Fine in Near Very Good jacket. 6.5 x 9.5 hard cover book. White and yellow lettering on the color illustrated dust jacket spine and cover. A history of science told through the lives of its greatest inventors. 646 pages. Book Club Edition. Dust jacket sliced and bent-now in mylar. Tight binding. Near Fine/Near Very Good condition. read more
"Overall a very good book about the history of science and the people who made the discoveries. I would say the first half of the book was the most informative talking about how everything led up to each discovery. The only part I disliked was that the second half of the book was so rushed."
"I should preface this by saying that I love learning about science, especially chemistry.
I wondered at the outset if I would ever finish this book because it contained over 600 pages about the history of science, but I found myself turning pages much faster than expected. Gribbin does a fantastic job of keeping science history interesting by intermingling fascinating tales about the lives of several prominent scientists and squabbles had amongst those great thinkers. He manages to mention almost every notable scientist (that I can think of) from Ptolemy to present, with accompanying details that are often new to the reader.
I found his description of the relationship between Hooke and Newton to be particularly interesting. It is the relationships among all the different scientists that is handled in great light in this book. Gribbin acknowledges which scientists came before or after others, those who lived and worked along side one another, those who were close friends, those who built on the ideas of others, and those who were great competitors. For example, Robert Darwin found an unusual fossil near his home and brought it to the Royal Society where he met Newton (the Society's President at the time). His son Erasmus Darwin was a great thinker and mingled with James Watt, Ben Franklin, and Joseph Priestly. Erasmus' son Robert Darwin was a physician. His son was Charles Robert Darwin, now famous for his ideas on evolution by natural selection. Thus, Charles Darwin's great-grandfather had met Isaac Newton.
Three scientists independently "discovered" a wealth of information pertaining to heredity and were about to publish in 1900, when one learned that Gregor Mendel had already published it in 1867. The true nature of scientific discovery is described well. The author argues, "It is the luck of the draw, or historical accident, whose name gets remembered as the discoverer of new phenomenon." "Geniuses maybe; but irreplaceable certainly not." His only exception to these criteria is Isaac Newton, without whom the author thinks science would have been held back a very long time.
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