The Invention of Science

Author: David Wootton
Publisher: Harper Collins
ISBN: 0062199250
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 1068

Book Description
"Captures the excitement of the scientific revolution and makes a point of celebrating the advances it ushered in." —Financial Times A companion to such acclaimed works as The Age of Wonder, A Clockwork Universe, and Darwin’s Ghosts—a groundbreaking examination of the greatest event in history, the Scientific Revolution, and how it came to change the way we understand ourselves and our world. We live in a world transformed by scientific discovery. Yet today, science and its practitioners have come under political attack. In this fascinating history spanning continents and centuries, historian David Wootton offers a lively defense of science, revealing why the Scientific Revolution was truly the greatest event in our history. The Invention of Science goes back five hundred years in time to chronicle this crucial transformation, exploring the factors that led to its birth and the people who made it happen. Wootton argues that the Scientific Revolution was actually five separate yet concurrent events that developed independently, but came to intersect and create a new worldview. Here are the brilliant iconoclasts—Galileo, Copernicus, Brahe, Newton, and many more curious minds from across Europe—whose studies of the natural world challenged centuries of religious orthodoxy and ingrained superstition. From gunpowder technology, the discovery of the new world, movable type printing, perspective painting, and the telescope to the practice of conducting experiments, the laws of nature, and the concept of the fact, Wotton shows how these discoveries codified into a social construct and a system of knowledge. Ultimately, he makes clear the link between scientific discovery and the rise of industrialization—and the birth of the modern world we know.

The Invention of Science: Why History of Science Matters for the Classroom

Author: Catherine Milne
Publisher: Springer Science & Business Media
ISBN: 9460915256
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 187

Book Description
The Invention of Science: Why History of Science Matters for the Classroom introduces readers to some of the developments that were key for the emergence of Eurocentric science, the discipline we call science. Using history this book explores how human groups and individuals were key to the invention of the discipline of we call science. All human groups have a need and desire to produce systematic knowledge that supports their ongoing survival as a community. This book examines how history can help us to understand emergence of Eurocentric science from local forms of systematic knowledge. Each chapter explores elements that were central to the invention of science including beliefs of what was real and true, forms of reasoning to be valued, and how the right knowledge should be constructed and the role of language. But most importantly this book presented these ideas in an accessible way with activities and questions to help readers grapple with the ideas being presented. Enjoy!

The Invention of Modern Science

Author: Isabelle Stengers
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 9780816630554
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 194

Book Description
"The Invention of Modern Science proposes a fruitful way of going beyond the apparently irreconcilable positions, that science is either "objective" or "socially constructed." Instead, suggests Isabelle Stengers, one of the most important and influential philosophers of science in Europe, we might understand the tension between scientific objectivity and belief as a necessary part of science, central to the practices invented and reinvented by scientists."--pub. desc.

The Invention of Nature

Author: Andrea Wulf
Publisher: Vintage
ISBN: 0345806298
Category : Nature
Languages : en
Pages : 586

Book Description
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • The acclaimed author of Founding Gardeners reveals the forgotten life of Alexander von Humboldt, the visionary German naturalist whose ideas changed the way we see the natural world—and in the process created modern environmentalism. "Vivid and exciting.... Wulf’s pulsating account brings this dazzling figure back into a dazzling, much-deserved focus.” —The Boston Globe Alexander von Humboldt (1769-1859) was the most famous scientist of his age, a visionary German naturalist and polymath whose discoveries forever changed the way we understand the natural world. Among his most revolutionary ideas was a radical conception of nature as a complex and interconnected global force that does not exist for the use of humankind alone. In North America, Humboldt’s name still graces towns, counties, parks, bays, lakes, mountains, and a river. And yet the man has been all but forgotten. In this illuminating biography, Andrea Wulf brings Humboldt’s extraordinary life back into focus: his prediction of human-induced climate change; his daring expeditions to the highest peaks of South America and to the anthrax-infected steppes of Siberia; his relationships with iconic figures, including Simón Bolívar and Thomas Jefferson; and the lasting influence of his writings on Darwin, Wordsworth, Goethe, Muir, Thoreau, and many others. Brilliantly researched and stunningly written, The Invention of Nature reveals the myriad ways in which Humboldt’s ideas form the foundation of modern environmentalism—and reminds us why they are as prescient and vital as ever.

The Royal Society

Author: Adrian Tinniswood
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 154167376X
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 172

Book Description
An engaging new history of the Royal Society of London, the club that created modern scientific thought Founded in 1660 to advance knowledge through experimentally verified facts, The Royal Society of London is now one of the preeminent scientific institutions of the world. It published the world's first science journal, and has counted scientific luminaries from Isaac Newton to Stephen Hawking among its members. However, the road to truth was often bumpy. In its early years-while bickering, hounding its members for dues, and failing to create its own museum-members also performed sheep to human blood transfusions, and experimented with unicorn horns. In his characteristically accessible and lively style, Adrian Tinniswood charts the Society's evolution from poisoning puppies to the discovery of DNA, and reminds us of the increasing relevance of its motto for the modern world: Nullius in Verba-Take no one's word for it.

Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries

Author: Rodney Carlisle
Publisher: Turner Publishing Company
ISBN: 0470306920
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 711

Book Description
A unique A-to-Z reference of brilliance in innovation and invention Combining engagingly written, well-researched history with the respected imprimatur of Scientific American magazine, this authoritative, accessible reference provides a wide-ranging overview of the inventions, technological advances, and discoveries that have transformed human society throughout our history. More than 400 entertaining entries explain the details and significance of such varied breakthroughs as the development of agriculture, the "invention" of algebra, and the birth of the computer. Special chronological sections divide the entries, providing a unique focus on the intersection of science and technology from early human history to the present. In addition, each section is supplemented by primary source sidebars, which feature excerpts from scientists' diaries, contemporary accounts of new inventions, and various "In Their Own Words" sources. Comprehensive and thoroughly readable, Scientific American Inventions and Discoveries is an indispensable resource for anyone fascinated by the history of science and technology. Topics include: aerosol spray * algebra * Archimedes' Principle * barbed wire * canned food * carburetor * circulation of blood * condom * encryption machine * fork * fuel cell * latitude * music synthesizer * positron * radar * steel * television * traffic lights * Heisenberg's uncertainty principle

Concise History of Science & Invention

Author: Jolyon Goddard
Publisher: National Geographic Books
ISBN: 1426205449
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 355

Book Description
A global view of science and technology as it developed over the centuries.

The Invention of Clouds

Author: Richard Hamblyn
Publisher: Macmillan
ISBN: 9780312420017
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 306

Book Description
Presents the story of Luke Howard, an ameteur meterologist, and his groundbreaking work that began with naming and classifying clouds.

The Scientific Revolution

Author: Steven Shapin
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022639848X
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 255

Book Description
This scholarly and accessible study presents “a provocative new reading” of the late sixteenth- and seventeenth-century advances in scientific inquiry (Kirkus Reviews). In The Scientific Revolution, historian Steven Shapin challenges the very idea that any such a “revolution” ever took place. Rejecting the narrative that a new and unifying paradigm suddenly took hold, he demonstrates how the conduct of science emerged from a wide array of early modern philosophical agendas, political commitments, and religious beliefs. In this analysis, early modern science is shown not as a set of disembodied ideas, but as historically situated ways of knowing and doing. Shapin shows that every principle identified as the modernizing essence of science—whether it’s experimentalism, mathematical methodology, or a mechanical conception of nature—was in fact contested by sixteenth- and seventeenth-century practitioners with equal claims to modernity. Shapin argues that this contested legacy is nevertheless rightly understood as the origin of modern science, its problems as well as its acknowledged achievements. This updated edition includes a new bibliographic essay featuring the latest scholarship. “An excellent book.” —Anthony Gottlieb, New York Times Book Review

The Illustrated Almanac Of Science, Technology, And Invention

Author: Raymond L. Francis
Publisher: Basic Books
ISBN: 9780306456336
Category : Science
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
A beautifully illustrated volume, this almanac serves as an invaluable companion for those who have an insatiable curiosity about the world around them. Entertaining and engrossing, this book can be used as a learning tool, a reference book, or as a fun "read." From prehistoric excavations to the invention of the X ray to the discoveries of the Hubble Space Telescope, each entry may surprise, provoke, and titillate you. Explore the wonders of science, invention, and medicine. Learn the important birthdays and dates of invention, as well as some captivating lesser-known stories behind such great names as Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, Alexander Graham Bell, Thomas Edison, Marie Curie, Louis Leakey, Neil Armstrong, and many more.