Scientific Curiosity - Hardcover

From the length of the human genome to the number of stars in the sky, within these pages lies a fascinating collectio of stories of mankind's speculation and discovery. When the great Isaac Newton looked back on his life's work, he felt he had bee 'like a boy playing on the sea-shore, and diverting myself in now and then finding a smoother pebble or a prettier shell than ordinary, whilst the great ocean of truth lay all undiscovered before me.' Given Newton's prickly personality, we may guess he would have been very upset had anyone else referred to his achievements in such terms. But the image he conjured up has captivated scientists ever since, and Cyril Aydon has cast his eye over the last 2000 years at the pebbles discovered by others. Here is his selection of nearly two hundred famous scientists, and their astonishing discoveries, retold in amusing and illuminating anecdotes. the first-ever achievement of controlled atomic fission, in Chicago in 1941 Wallace wins his wager - how Alfred Russel Wallace proved the Earth was round Henrietta and the Harvard Computers - Henrietta Leavitt transformed our understanding of the scale of the universe Counting in sixties - the Babylonians taught us to measure minutes, seconds and degrees A kangaroo in wolf's Clothing - appearances can be deceptive in animal evolution