Synopses & Reviews
Presented in an informal, narrative style, this text looks at science, from the ancient world , to medieval science, the scientific revolution, through to 20th century physics. This edition offers more coverage of 20th century history , wars, and technology; more on Albert Einstein; and more on quantum mechanics and philosophy. For all those interested in science, history, philosophy, physics, and engineering.
Table of Contents
I. BEGINNINGS: SCIENCE IN ANTIQUITY. 1. Man, Gods, and the Cosmos. 2. Lighting the Lamp: Early Greece.
3. The Elements of All Things: Numbers and Ideas.
4. The First Scientist: Aristotle.
5. The Temple of the Muses: Science after Aristotle.
6. Greek to Latin: Science in the Age of Rome.
II. REASON AND FAITH: THE MIDDLE AGES. 7. Athens and Jerusalem: Pagan Science and Christianity.
8. The Cosmic Garden: Islamic Science and the Twelfth Century Renaissance.
9. The Errors of the Philosophers.
10. The Gate and the Key: Empiricism, Mathematics, and Experiment.
11. Medieval Skeptics. Interlude: Chickens and the Scientific Method.
III. THE SCIENTIFIC REVOLUTION. 12. "Man Can Do All Things..." The Renaissance.
13. The Earth Moves!
14. From Magic to Mechanism.
15. The Language of Nature: Galileo.
16. "Such a Wonderful Uniformity."
17. Skeptical Chemists.
18. Optimism, or Cultivating the Garden.
IV. LIFE ITSELF. 19. The Dark Abyss of Time.
20. The Law of Higgledly-Piggledy.
21. Progress in the Nineteenth Century: Life and Matter.
22. Progress in the Nineteenth Century: Classical Physics.
V. THE SECOND REVOLUTION AND BEYOND. 23. Strange New World: Relativity.
24. The Story ofh.
25. Things Past, Things to Come: Cosmology.
26. The Secret of Life.
EPILOGUE: "Human, All-Too-Human."