Book Description
\'Well-known English journalist Melvyn Bragg presents stimulating portraits. . . [and] well-rounded evaluations of each pioneer's life and influence. '--Publishers WeeklyExplore the greatest minds in the history of science with some of today's top scientific thinkers On Giants' Shoulders elucidates the milestones in the history of science, focusing on twelve of the greatest minds and their extraordinary breakthroughs. From Galileo and Newton to Darwin, Freud, and Einstein, author Melvyn Bragg explores the life, work, and legacy of these remarkable people in conversations with today's leading scientists and historians, including Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Martin Rees, Oliver Sacks, John Gribbon, and Paul Davies. Ranging from the foundation of hydrostatics in the third century B. C. to the discovery of DNA's structure in our own time, this is an accessible and thought-provoking roundtable on the seminal scientific discoveries of the past 2,500 years. Melvyn Bragg is an acclaimed journalist in England, host of the popular television interview show the South Bank Show (broadcast in the U. S. on Bravo), and the author of seventeen novels and five works of nonfiction.
From the Back Cover
Explore the twelve greatest minds in the history of science with some of today's top scientific thinkers Ranging from the foundation of hydrostatics in the third century b. c. to the discovery of DNA's structure in our own time, On Giants' Shoulders is an accessible and thought-provoking round table on the seminal discoveries of science and the originators behind them. 'Well-known English journalist Melvyn Bragg presents stimulating portraits. . . [and] well-rounded evaluations of each pioneer's life and influence. '-Publishers Weekly 'What makes this book work so well is that Bragg is a fine journalist applying his skills as an outsider to blow away the pretensions and reveal some of the mechanics and motivations of what is still a remarkably closed world. ' -New Scientist 'Each life is pored over in a brief but brilliant intellectual postmortem with the help of prominent contemporary scientists. . . . Here are the paranoia, the blind alleys of research, the rivalry, and many collisions of intellectual heavyweights. . . . On Giants' Shoulders holds delights for both scientist and lay person. '-KEVIN O'SULLIVAN, Irish Times 'What makes the result special is Bragg's unusual relationship to his subject. His gentle probing and the selection of material address exactly the questions about science and scientists that interest outsiders. '-JOHN GRIBBIN, The Independent 'This is an enchanting book, because it is a book produced by a clever man listening intently. . . . Science is not, in truth, a daunting alien territory. But characteristically, it seems to want to tell us the answers dogmatically, before we are sure what questions we would like to ask. On Giants' Shoulders asks just those kinds of questions. '-LISA JARDINE, The Times (London)
