From the Royal Society, a peerless collection of all-new science writing
Bill Bryson, who explored all - or at least a great deal of - current scientific knowledge in A Short History of Nearly Everything, now turns his attention to the history of that knowledge. As editor of Seeing Further, he has rounded up an extraordinary roster of scientists who write and writers who know science in order to celebrate 350 years of the Royal Society, Britain's scientific national academy. The result is an encyclopedic survey of the history, philosophy and current state of science, written in an accessible and inspiring style by some of today's most important writers.
The contributors include Margaret Atwood, Steve Jones, Richard Dawkins, James Gleick, Richard Holmes, and Neal Stephenson, among many others, on subjects ranging from metaphysics to nuclear physics, from the threatened endtimes of flu and climate change to our evolving ideas about the nature of time itself, from the hidden mathematics that rule the universe to the cosmological principle that guides Star Trek.
The collection begins with a brilliant introduction from Bryson himself, who says: "It is impossible to list all the ways that the Royal Society has influenced the world, but you can get some idea by typing in 'Royal Society' as a word search in the electronic version of the Dictionary of National Biography. That produces 218 pages of results - 4,355 entries, nearly as many as for the Church of England (at 4,500) and considerably more than for the House of Commons (3,124) or House of Lords (2,503)."
As this book shows, the Royal Society not only produces the best scientists and science, it also produces and inspires the very best science writing. BILL BRYSON
INTRODUCTION & ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
JAMES GLEICK
1. AT THE BEGINNING: MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH
MARGARET ATWOOD
2. OF THE MADNESS OF MAD SCIENTISTS: JONATHAN SWIFT'S GRAND ACADEMY
MARGARET WERTHEIM
3. LOST IN SPACE: THE SPITITUAL CRISIS OF NEWTONIAN COSMOLOGY
NEAL STEPHENSON
4. ATOMS OF COGNITION: METAPHYSICS IN THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 1715—2010
REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN
5. WHAT'S IN A NAME? RIVALRIES AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN SCIENCE
SIMON SCHAFFER
6. CHARGED ATMOSPHERES: PROMETHEAN SCIENCE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY
RICHARD HOLMES
7. A NEW AGE OF FLIGHT: JOSEPH BANKS GOES BALLOONING
RICHARD FORTEY
8. ARCHIVES OF LIFE: SCIENCE AND COLLECTIONS
RICHARD DAWKINS
9. DARWIN'S FIVE BRIDGES: THE WAY TO NATURAL SELECTION
HENRY PETROSKI
10. IMAGES OF PROGRESS: CONFERENCES OF ENGINEERS
GEORGINA FERRY
11. X-RAY VISIONS: STRUCTURAL BIOLOGISTS AND SOCIAL ACTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
STEVE JONES
12. TEN THOUSAND WEDGES: BIODIVERSITY, NATURAL SELECTION AND RANDOM CHANGE
PHILIP BALL
13. MAKING STUFF: FROM BACON TO BAKELITE
PAUL DAVIES
14. JUST TYPICAL: OUR CHANGING PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE
IAN STEWART
15. BEHIND THE SCENES: THE HIDDEN MATHEMATICS THAT RULES OUR WORLD
JOHN D. BARROW
16. SIMPLE, REALLY: FROM SIMPLICITY TO COMPLEXITY — AND BACK AGAIN
OLIVER MORTON
17. GLOBE AND SPHERE, CYCLES AND FLOWS: HOW TO SEE THE WORLD
MAGGIE GEE
18. BEYOND ENDING: LOOKING INTO THE VOID
STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER
19. CONFIDENCE, CONSENSUS AND THE UNCERTAINTY COPS: TACKLING RISK MANAGEMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE
GREGORY BENFORD
20. TIME: THE WINGED CHARIOT
MARTIN REES
CONCLUSION: LOOKING FIFTY YEARS
AHEAD
FURTHER READING
NOTES BILL BRYSON is one of the best-selling and best-loved authors writing in English today. His books include A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Small Island, In a Sunburned Country, Bryson's Dictionary for Writers and Editors, and a memoir of childhood, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid. His exploration of scientific knowledge, A Short History of Nearly Everything, earned him the 2004 Aventis Prize. Bryson lives in B
