This book is about the history of science – astronomy, physics, chemistry, life sciences, earth sciences and computer science. It is not a book about the lives of the scientists, though brief biographical details are given for important figures. It is not about other history going on at the same time as the science. It is about science, and it aims to get to the bottom of the great discoveries of the modern era. Moreover, this book is about 78,000 words long – about a quarter of the size of the competition – but it contains more actual science than most of the others.No one doubts that there are some difficult ideas in science – for example the general theory of relativity, the laws of thermodynamics or quantum mechanics. Yet these need to be explained, and in my opinion can be explained, in quite simple terms. What is more, science can be fun! However, I try not to let the funny side of it override the serious business, for example of explaining famous experiments. These include Young’s Double-slit light experiment and the Michelson-Morley experiment to detect the ether wind.Some books try to get over the basics of science for the non-scientist without the historical context. However I personally believe that the best way to approach this subject is a historical one. In this way it is possible to see how the sciences evolved, starting from the point of view of someone – late medieval man in 1510 – who knew almost nothing about how the real world actually works. This is one of the themes of the book – science simply defies common sense, again and again, and the understanding of its processes has taken 500 years so far. This book begins with the Greeks but moves on rather quickly to the start of real science in 1510, the year in which Copernicus first described his heliocentric solar system. No special knowledge beyond basic school science is required to read this book. There are 35 illustrations including diagrams, photographs and portraits.
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