From Amazon.com
So many of us are blessed--or at least affected--by the fruits of science, yet how many of us really understand how we got them? Scientific creativity, like all other kinds, is a product of its times, but we can learn much from looking at the lives of its greatest practitioners; as a sizable side benefit, these lives are often tremendously entertaining. Author and BBC radio host Melvyn Bragg understands this well, and invited many of the great modern interpreters of science to discuss the lives and work of 12 greats, from Archimedes to Watson and Crick, and published the cream in
On Giants' Shoulders. These are no dry transcripts, though; Bragg has a genius for selecting the most intriguing quotes and selections from both his guests and his subjects and weaving them into his own engrossing narrative. His many novels have tightened up his prose so well that he can make even a discussion of the genesis of relativity a page-turner. He couldn't have invented better material, either: Newton's notorious snobbery, Darwin's almost-naive sincerity, and Lavoisier's turbulent life and untimely death make for compelling stories indeed (one almost wonders how they had
time to change the world). His guests, including luminaries such as Lewis Wolpert, Richard Dawkins, Oliver Sacks, and Roger Penrose, consistently cut to the heart of their subjects' importance and tie it all up neatly in the last chapter, "Where Are We Now?" An important question, of course, and one that can be better answered from
On Giants' Shoulders.
--Rob Lightner
This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
From Kirkus Reviews
A mixed bag of essays on 12 great scientists, derived from a series of radio shows hosted by the author. Bragg (The Sword and the Miracle, 1997, etc.), host of the British program Start the Week, combines a lot of direct dialogue from his radio series with background material and chronologies of the lives of his esteemed scientists. The book assembles its list of greats in chronological order, beginning with Archimedes and ending with Francis Crick and James Watson, the researchers who uncovered the double-helix structure of DNA. Each essay begins with a few of the author's thoughts, followed in short order by sound bites from the guests on his showthemselves leading contemporary scientists such as Richard Dawkins, Paul Davies, and Roger Penrose. Their insights range from the philosophical (if Einstein had not lived, would someone else have discovered relativity?) to the apocryphal (Archimedes shouting ``Eureka!'' and jumping from the bath). At times in the expository material, Bragg likes to dramatize, pointing out for example that `` . . . if you get [your hypothesis] wrong, the fate of intellectuals in China is pretty gruesome. Lots of castration, lots of people being killed. . . .'' One guest recounts Newton performing some vision experiments by sticking things into his own eye. While describing the driven nature of Marie Curie, Bragg also points out the deep love she had for her husband. After Pierre Curie was run over by a horse-drawn carriage, a devastated Marie wrote that ``he is gone for ever, leaving me nothing but desolation and despair.'' And Einstein, according to one of the radio show's guests, deliberately played upon his image as an eccentric scientist. In the end, Bragg and his guests examine, with diametrically opposing viewpoints, whether all the fundamental discoveries in science have already happened. A series of meandering discussions of great scientists that is two parts Charlie Rose to one part Bill Maher. (12 photos, not seen) --
Copyright ©1999, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
This text refers to an alternate
Hardcover
edition.
