On Giants' Shoulders: Great Scientists and Their Discoveries from Archimedes to DNA

By Melvyn Bragg

Book Overview

Explore the greatest minds in the history of science with some of the top scientific thinkers of today. Archimedes Galileo Galilei Sir Isaac Newton Antoine Lavoisier Michael Faraday Charles Darwin Jules Henri PoincarT Sigmund Freud Marie Curie Albert Einstein Francis Crick James Watson The story of science is the greatest adventure of the human mind over the last 2,500 years, as scientists have progressively advanced humankind's understanding and control of the universe. Yet for many, the scientific theories that underpin the modern world can be hard to grasp. On Giants' Shoulders elucidates the milestones in the history of science, focusing on twelve individuals and their extraordinary breakthroughs. From a layman's perspective, acclaimed journalist and author Melvyn Bragg discusses the life, work, and legacy of these remarkable people with leading scientists and historians in each field, including Stephen Jay Gould, Richard Dawkins, Roger Penrose, Martin Rees, Oliver Sacks, John Gribbin, and Paul Davies. Interviewed by journalist Melvyn Bragg, a selection of scientists discuss twelve of the pioneers of science history--and the fascinating personalities behind the discoveries. 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 post mortem 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 layperson.--Kevin O'Sullivan, Irish Times Each chapter has the pace and liveliness of a round table discussion. . . In a surprisingly brief space, one can thus taste a flavor of true debate as each contemporary scientist brings in their own angle.--Susan Greenfield, Independent on Sunday Bragg explores the contribution made by great scientists, from Archimedes to Crick and Watson, to the development of our understanding of the world. What makes the result special is Bragg's unusual relationship to his subject. His gentle probing, and the selection of material, addresses exactly the questions about science and scientists that interest outsiders.--John Gribbin, The Independent 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, thought-provoking, and fascinating account of the seminal discoveries of the past and their originators. The book also illuminates the issues with which scientists are wrestling today, poised on their forerunners' shoulders to carry scientific inquiry into the next millennium. 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 kind of questions.--Lisa Jardine, The Times (London) Nobody in the media has worked harder than Melvyn Bragg to promote science as a culture and scientists as creators. In a sea of indifference to the educational and cultural nature of science, he seems to be the only person with perception.--Professor Sir Harry Kroto, The Sunday Times (London)

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0471357324
• ISBN13: 9780471357322
• Release Date: August 1999
• Publisher: Wiley
• Length: 384 Pages
• Weight: 1.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.3" x 5.6" x 8.1"

Customer Reviews

Unique study of giants

Bragg demonstrates how a "dabbler" in science can lead one more deeply into the research realm. Using his generalist background, he shows how anyone can appreciate what science can achieve and what it means to us all. A feeling of "being left out piqued his interest and he decided to seek out what he had missed. His technique is one any of us can follow - his interest was piqued by the growing number of works for the general reader. He didn't expect to become an "expert player", but through these works could at least be "at the game".His study of fifteen key figures in science becomes a summation of what he garnered through reading and interviews. Bragg's long journalism career gave him an entry key and many insights in dealing with the "giants" and their interpreters. Having discovered several in this role, he has formulated a survey that will be valuable to many. Using a technique combining the interview with the works of good writers, he's created a readable, cogent overview of what science is and what it means. From Archimedes through Newton, Darwin and Curie to Watson and Crick you are given a variety of views of the key figures. The importance of each is stated clearly, mixed with what is known of their characters and background. In his conclusion, titled "Where Are We Now?", Bragg makes an excellent summary of the impact of these seminal thinkers. As an observer, he claims to have produced a "map" of scientific thinking. The map is incomplete, but evokes an image of science as a "human exercise intent on examining the meaning and purpose as much as the structure of life today". It's a fine summary conclusion to his outstanding effort to help bring science to anyone wishing to learn its values. The future, his interviewees stress, will be one of further, deeper discoveries. His "giants" are in reality the ideas they developed, not in any way the scientists themselves. From Newton's irascibility to Darwin's diffidence, all these figures retain a strongly variant human identity. If nothing else, this book imparts the idea that science belongs to us all and can be furthered by anyone interested enough to undertake investigating unanswered questions. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]

This outstanding science history is superbly written

Melvyn Bragg's On Giants' Shoulders: Great Scientists And Their Discovers From Archimedes To DNA explores the twelve greatest minds in the history of science and ranges from the foundation of hydrostatics in the third Century B.C. to the discovery of the human DNA structure and gene mapping of our present day. This outstanding science history is superbly written, splendidly presented, totally reader friendly, and ideal for both the science history student and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in knowing more about the science and scientists who have made modern life possible.

Broad Shoulders Indeed

As a non-scientist, I especially appreciate this book which "focuses on twelve scientists who, in the last two thousand five hundred years, changed the world as we perceive it and as we live in it. From Archimedes in Ancient Greece to Francis Crick and James Watson in mid-twentieth century England, these landmark minds, their lives, their struggles, their colleagues and rivals are explored and unravelled by some of today's leading scientists. In combination, their stories and discoveries constitute a single guide to the history of science." We are indeed provided with a wealth of information about both their "stories" and their "discoveries." I especially enjoyed the chapters on Newton, Darwin, Freud, and Einstein but found all of the other commentaries well worth reading, also. The history of science is, in essence, a history of discovery, and the most important discoveries are of ideas. In this invaluable volume, Bragg makes understandable what has been until now (for this non-scientist, at least) a "marvellous enterprise" of human experience and intellectual achievement otherwise inaccessible.

PERSONALITY OF SCIENTISTS COME TO LIFE!

On Giants' Shoulders is a tribute to twelve scientists who, in the last two thousand five hundred years, changed the world both as we perceive it and as we live in it. Their minds, their lives, their struggles, their colleagues and rivals are explored and unravelled by some of today's leading scientists. Taken together, their stories and discoveries constitute a guide to the history of science.A bestseller in England, this book combines engaging portraits of these figures with accessible discussions of their most important discoveries. Those profiled are Archimedes, Galileo, Newton, Lavoisier, Faraday, Darwin, Poincaré, Freud, Curie, Einstein, Francis Crick and James Watson. Their stories are enhanced by insights provided by interviews with some of today's leading scientists, including Paul Davies, Richard Dawkins, Stephen Jay Gould, John Gribbin, Sir Roger Penrose, Sir Martin Rees and Oliver Sacks.Based on interviews broadcast over British radio, this book differs from the radio series in the ampler amount of material contained, as it was possible to include more material from the original transcripts, which had been mercilessly pruned for the thirty-minute radio programmes.Melvyn Bragg is an acclaimed journalist and the host of the popular BBC Radio 4 programme Start the Week. He is also the author of seventeen novels and five works of non-fiction, including biographies of Richard Burton and Laurence Olivier.

On Giants Shoulders: Great Scientists and Their Discoveries

In a search for science biographies to add to our college's science library collection, I first purchased On Giants' Shoulders based upon a favorable review from Choice (Jan. 2000) that characterized the book as ". . . a well-written volume that can be understood by anyone." Science biographies can be very technical or very dry and, consequently, not for the non-specialist. Also, scholarly biographies that cover a collection of scientists usually follow a theme (such as women in science or great minds in biology), so I was taken with the idea of a chronology of scientific discoveries through a biographical approach. Since its arrival in the library, I have read the book twice. Its appeal lies in its conversational style (the text is partly based on radio interviews with famous scientists) and recurrent themes addressed from many different points of view - a technique reminiscent of the book The Ghost in the Atom (Cambridge University Press, 1986). One reviewer refers to the book's style as "gossip" and likens the presentation of events to a soap opera. Why not? Science is a world full of intrigue and scientists should be portrayed as having a human side as well as an intellectual side. The book is a wonderful way to introduce young people to the realm of science, and I have ordered personal copies for children of my friends and relatives.