From the universally praisedNew York Timesscience writer George Johnson ("He provides some ofthe best science writing I have come acrossin a long time"-Paul Davies), an irresistible book on the ten most fascinating experiments in the history of science-moments when a curious soul posed a particularly eloquent question to nature and received a crisp, unambiguous reply.
Ch.1 -Galileo: The Way Things Really Move
Ch.2 -William Harvey: Mysteries of the Heart
Ch.3 -Isaac Newton: What a Colour Is
Ch.4 -Antoine-Laurent de Lavoisier: The Farmer's Daughter
Ch.5 -Luigi Galvini: Animal Electricity
Ch.6 -Michel Faraday: Something Deeply Hidden
Ch.7 -James Joule: How the World Works
Ch.8 -A. Michelson: Lost in Space
Ch.9 -Ivan Pavlov: Measuring the Immeasurable
Ch.10 -Robert Millikan: In the Borderland
The diligence of all these scientists was rewarded: in an instant, confusion was swept aside, and something new about nature leapt into view.
George Johnsonwrites regularly about science forThe New York Times.He has also written forScientific American, The Atlantic, Time, Slate,andWired, and his work has been included inThe Best American Science Writing. He has received awards from PEN and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, and his books were twice finalists for the Rhone-Poulenc Prize. His online show,Science Saturday, appears on bloggingheads.tv. He lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.
"Delightful, succinct, elegant."
Roger Penrose
"Johnson's mix of the personal, the erudite and crystalline prose is -- like the pull of gravity (see beautiful experiment number 1) -- an irresistible force."
Scientific American
"As a science journalist, Mr. Johnson is a seasoned translator of technical jargon. He also has a sharp eye for human plot, both in and out of the laboratory . . . a certain spirit of wonder breathes through Mr. Johnson's chapters."
New York Sun
"Johnson has a good feel for detail . . . and an easy touch with larger concepts . . . Johnson's lively book nicely evokes the lost world of the tabletop experiment ."
New York Times Book Review