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Seeing Further
THE STORY OF SCIENCE & THE ROYAL SOCIETY
EDITED & INTRODUCED BY BILL BRYSON
CONTRIBUTING EDITOR JON TURNEY
HarperPress
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF www.harpercollins.co.uk
Visit our authors’ blog: www.fifthestate.co.uk
First published in Great Britain by HarperPress in 2010
Copyright © 2010 The Royal Society
Introduction copyright © Bill Bryson 2010
Individual contributions copyright © the individual
authors 2010
The individual authors assert their moral right to be identified as the authors of this work.
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Source ISBN: 9780007302567
Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2010 ISBN: 9780007358007
Version: 2019-01-15
Table of Contents
BILL BRYSON INTRODUCTION
1 JAMES GLEICK AT THE BEGINNING: MORE THINGS IN HEAVEN AND EARTH
2 MARGARET AT WOOD OF THE MADNESS OF MAD SCIENTISTS: JONATHAN SWIFT’S GRAND ACADEMY
3 MARGARET WERTHEIM LOST IN SPACE: THE SPIRITUAL CRISIS OF NEWTONIAN COSMOLOGY
4 NEAL STEPHENSON ATOMS OF COGNITION: METAPHYSICS IN THE ROYAL SOCIETY, 1715-2010
5 REBECCA NEWBERGER GOLDSTEIN WHAT’S IN A NAME? RIVALRIES AND THE BIRTH OF MODERN SCIENCE
6 SIMON SCHAFFER CHARGED ATMOSPHERES: PROMETHEAN SCIENCE AND THE ROYAL SOCIETY
7 RICHARD HOLMES A NEW AGE OF FLIGHT: JOSEPH BANKS GOES BALLOONING
8 RICHARD FORTEY ARCHIVES OF LIFE: SCIENCE AND COLLECTIONS
9 RICHARD DAWKINS DARWIN’S FIVE BRIDGES: THE WAY TO NATURAL SELECTION
10 HENRY PETROSKI IMAGES OF PROGRESS: CONFERENCES OF ENGINEERS
11 GEORGINA FERRY X-RAY VISIONS: STRUCTURAL BIOLOGISTS AND SOCIAL ACTION IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
12 STEVE JONES TEN THOUSAND WEDGES: BIODIVERSITY, NATURAL SELECTION AND RANDOM CHANGE
13 PHILIP BALL MAKING STUFF: FROM BACON TO BAKELITE
14 PAUL DAVIES JUST TYPICAL: OUR CHANGING PLACE IN THE UNIVERSE
15 IAN STEWART BEHIND THE SCENES: THE HIDDEN MATHEMATICS THAT RULES OUR WORLD
16 JOHN D. BARROW SIMPLE REALLY: FROM SIMPLICITY TO COMPLEXITY – AND BACK AGAIN
17 OLIVER MORTON GLOBE AND SPHERE, CYCLES AND FLOWS: HOW TO SEE THE WORLD
18 MAGGIE GEE BEYOND ENDING: LOOKING INTO THE VOID
19 STEPHEN H. SCHNEIDER CONFIDENCE, CONSENSUS AND THE UNCERTAINTY COPS: TACKLING RISK MANAGEMENT IN CLIMATE CHANGE
20 GREGORY BENFORD TIME: THE WINGED CHARIOT
21 MARTIN REES CONCLUSION: LOOKING FIFTY YEARS AHEAD
INTRODUCTION
Bill Bryson is the internationally bestselling author of The Lost Continent, Mother Tongue, Neither Here Nor There, Made in America, Notes from a Small Island, A Walk in the Woods, Notes from a Big Country, Down Under, The Life and Times of the Thunderbolt Kid and A Short History of Nearly Everything, which was shortlisted for the Samuel Johnson Prize, won the Aventis Prize for Science Books in 2004, and was awarded the Descartes Science Communication Prize in 2005.
I CAN TELL YOU AT ONCE THAT MY FAVOURITE FELLOW OF THE ROYAL SOCIETY WAS THE REVEREND THOMAS BAYES, FROM TUNBRIDGE WELLS IN KENT, WHO LIVED FROM ABOUT 1701 TO 1761. HE WAS BY ALL ACCOUNTS A HOPELESS PREACHER, BUT A BRILLIANT MATHEMATICIAN. AT SOME POINT – IT IS NOT CERTAIN WHEN – HE DEVISED THE COMPLEX MATHEMATICAL EQUATION THAT HAS COME TO BE KNOWN