Science by Patricia Fara
In Science, Patricia Fara rewrites science's past to provide new ways of understanding and questioning our modern technological society. Sweeping through the centuries from ancient Babylon right up to the latest hi-tech experiments in genetics and particle physics, Fara's book also ranges internationally, challenging notions of European superiority by emphasizing the importance of scientific projects based around the world, including revealing discussions of China and the Islamic Empire alongside the more familiar stories about Copernicus's sun-centered astronomy, Newton's gravity, and Darwin's theory of evolution. We see for instance how Muslim leaders encouraged science by building massive libraries, hospitals, and astronomical observatories and we rediscover the significance of medieval Europe--long overlooked--where, surprisingly, religious institutions ensured science's survival, as the learning preserved in monasteries was subsequently developed in new and unique institutions: universities. Instead of focussing on esoteric experiments and abstract theories, she explains how science belongs to the practical world of war, politics, and business. And rather than glorifying scientists as idealized heroes, she tells true stories about real people--men (and some women) who needed to earn their living, who made mistakes, and who trampled down their rivals.
a surprise and a subversive pleasure * Tim Radford, Guardian: Science Bookclub *
Review from previous edition Fara's book could not be more wide-ranging, beginning [with] the quest to take the story of science as far back as she story of science as far back as she possibly can, and ending bang up to dateThe content is ambitious. jusiciously and fairly handled...The narrative moves forward in an engaging way, while the enthusiasm and opinions of the author are never far from the surface. It is a book to provoke thought and argument. An impressive achievement. * Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine *
Epic history of science * Jo Marchant, New Scientist *
Wide-ranging and provocative...Romps through history at a terrific rate. * The Economist *
An impressive and commendable effort to square the circle, to tell science's history, from the beginning. * Martin D. Gordin, Science *
An engaging book...Fara is to be commended for stepping back - way back - to assess the history of science in its entirety * Robert J Malone, excutive director of the History of Science Society *
Review from previous edition Fara's book could not be more wide-ranging, beginning [with] the quest to take the story of science as far back as she story of science as far back as she possibly can, and ending bang up to dateThe content is ambitious. jusiciously and fairly handled...The narrative moves forward in an engaging way, while the enthusiasm and opinions of the author are never far from the surface. It is a book to provoke thought and argument. An impressive achievement. * Jim Bennett, BBC History Magazine *
Epic history of science * Jo Marchant, New Scientist *
Wide-ranging and provocative...Romps through history at a terrific rate. * The Economist *
An impressive and commendable effort to square the circle, to tell science's history, from the beginning. * Martin D. Gordin, Science *
An engaging book...Fara is to be commended for stepping back - way back - to assess the history of science in its entirety * Robert J Malone, excutive director of the History of Science Society *
Patricia Fara lectures in the History and Philosophy of Science at the University of Cambridge and is the Senior Tutor of Clare College. Her major research speciality is eighteenth-century England, but she has published a range of academic and popular books on the history of science, increasingly with an emphasis on analysing scientific imagery. These include Sympathetic Attractions: Magnetic Practices, Beliefs, and Symbolism in Eighteenth-Century England (1996), Newton: The Making of Genius (2002), Sex, Botany and Empire: The Story of Carl Linnaeus and Joseph Banks (2003) and Pandora's Breeches: Women, Science and Power in the Enlightenment (2004). She has written many reviews and articles for academic journals as well as for general publications, including History Today, New Scientist, Nature, The Times and New Statesman; she writes a regular column on scientific portraits for Endeavour. She is currently working on a biography of Erasmus Darwin.
| SKU | Unavailable |
| ISBN 13 | 9780199580279 |
| ISBN 10 | 0199580278 |
| Title | Science |
| Author | Patricia Fara |
| Condition | Unavailable |
| Binding Type | Paperback |
| Publisher | Oxford University Press |
| Year published | 2010-02-11 |
| Number of pages | 512 |
| Prizes | Winner of Winner of the 2011 Dingle Prize, awarded by The British Society for the History of Science. |
| Cover note | Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary. |
| Note | Unavailable |