Science: A History
by John Gribbin
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Book Summary Information
Author: John GribbinEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2010-06
ISBN: 0140297413
Number of pages: 672
Publisher: Penguin Books, Limited (UK)
Book Reviews of Science: A History
Book Review: Excellent biographical approach to the history of science
Summary: 5 Stars
John Gribbon ranks among the best science writers for laymen, and this book once again reflects his ability to keep concepts accessable to non-specialists while still retaining the essential information about the scientific concepts being discussed. This books gives a detailed history of the developments of science from Copernicus to the present, focusing on biographical background as a means of aquiring a greater understanding of what was happening as the developments were unfolding. While this may sound like he might neglect science to focus on individuals, he actually does a very good job of avoiding useless information about people, and his biographical information about each scientist really does help one understand how science was developing. There are a few cases where he goes into a bit more biography than in really necessary, but when he does it is about people who were so interesting that I really wish he would have done it more often. As far as general histories of science go, this is the best I have encountered, though I wish he would have done a complete history instead of starting in the 16th century.
The main point of his book, outside of simply being a history of science, is to argue for an "evolutionary" view of the development of science, meaning that science moves forward in a progressive, step-by-step manner rather than by sudden revolutions as Thomas Kuhn taught. The view that science advances by revolution rather than by evolution is very influential, especially among sociologists and non-scientists. Gribbon wished to show that this is not the view among actual scientists, and that the quantum revolution was really the only case of a "revulotion" in science. He explains other advancements in science (like Newton's theory of gravity) as building upon past advancements, not as a radical revolution. I myself am rather inclined to agree with both Gribbon and Kuhn. It seems that the advancements themselves come by evolution (so Gribbon is correct), but the general acceptance of the advancement within the scientific community usually comes in the more revolutionary method (i.e. a sudden shift in thinking in the scientific community as a whole), something which Gribbon often fails to acknowledge.
As a whole, this is really a very, very good book. However, there are a few things I wish Gribbon had done differently. First, he really should have included more illustrations for difficult concepts. When he starts discussing some modern scientific discoveries, they are really quite confusing to someone who has not read about them before, and an illustration showing what he meant would have been extremely helpful (especially in the biochemistry and atomic physics sections). I imagine that they were not included to save space, as it is already a very long book. However, in the first half of the book he has a good number of full page pictures of both scientists (which is fine) and, for some reason, the first page of many of their books (which is not very useful, especially since they are in foreign languages). He should have used the space taken up by all the pictures of the first pages of the major scientific books and used those pages for illustrations of confusing concepts later in the book.
He also seems to have inexplicably passed over some fairly major scientists while including some fairly minor scientists. The most notable absentee is Nicola Tesla, whose name is never even mentioned in the book. I realize that Tesla is known mostly as an inventor, but he really did quite a bit with Alternate Current, radio, and electricity in general. Further, one of Gribbon's major themes in the book is the interconnectedness of science and technology, arguing that science leads to advancements in technology, which allow for further scientific advancements, and so on. I fail to understand why he included so many inventors from the Industrial Revolution yet failed to include Tesla, whose inventions and scientific discoveries were important to science in the early 20th century. Of course, in a book that covers the entire history of science in the last 500 years in only 700 pages, it is inevitable that some people will be left out. I only wish he had made better choices about which ones to leave out, especially since someone like Tesla would have been very fun for someone taking a biographical approach to discuss (given his extreme eccentricity).
In conclusion, this is the best history of the last 500 years in science that I know of. The biographical approach makes it much more interesting, and Gribbon writes in a way that is very accessable to laymen. The few flaws in the book are far outweighed by its strengths, making this THE book I would recommend to anyone interested in the history of science since Copernicus.
Overall grade: A+
Summary of Science: A History
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 diverse cast 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; Gregor Mendel, 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.History & Philosophy Books
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