a little history of science

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 For Alex and Peter

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 WILL IA M B Y NUM

A LITTLE
HISTORY OF
SCIENCE

YA L E U N I V E R S I T Y P R E S S
NEW HAV E N A ND LOND ON

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 Copyright © 2012 William Bynum

All rights reserved. This book may not be reproduced in whole or in part,
in any form (beyond that copying permitted by Sections 107 and 108 of the
US Copyright Law and except by reviewers for the public press) without
written permission from the publishers.

For information about this and other Yale University Press publications,
please contact:
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Set in Minion Pro by IDSUK (DataConnection) Ltd

Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd, Padstow, Cornwall

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Bynum, W. F. (William F.), 1943–

A little history of science / William Bynum.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978–0–300–13659–3 (hardback)
1. Science—History. 2. Science and civilization. I. Title.
Q125.B98 2012
509—dc23
2012026738

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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 Contents

1 In the Beginning 1
2 Needles and Numbers 6
3 Atoms and the Void 14
4 The Father of Medicine: Hippocrates 19
5 ‘The Master of Those Who Know’: Aristotle 24
6 The Emperor’s Doctor: Galen 30
7 Science in Islam 35
8 Out of the Darkness 39
9 Searching for the Philosopher’s Stone 44
10 Uncovering the Human Body 50
11 Where is the Centre of the Universe? 56
12 Leaning Towers and Telescopes: Galileo 62
13 Round and Round: Harvey 68
14 Knowledge is Power: Bacon and Descartes 74
15 The ‘New Chemistry’ 81
16 What Goes Up . . .: Newton 87
17 Bright Sparks 94
18 The Clockwork Universe 100
19 Ordering the World 107

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 vi contents

20 Airs and Gases 113

21 Tiny Pieces of Matter 120
22 Forces, Fields and Magnetism 127
23 Digging Up Dinosaurs 133
24 The History of Our Planet 139
25 The Greatest Show on Earth 146
26 Little Boxes of Life 154
27 Coughs, Sneezes and Diseases 161
28 Engines and Energy 169
29 Tabling the Elements 175
30 Into the Atom 182
31 Radioactivity 189
32 The Game-Changer: Einstein 196
33 Moving Continents 203
34 What Do We Inherit? 209
35 Where Did We Come From? 217
36 Wonder Drugs 224
37 Building Blocks 231
38 Reading ‘the Book of Life’: The Human Genome Project 237
39 The Big Bang 243
40 Science in Our Digital Age 251
Index 257

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