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Seeing Further
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Seeing Further (2010) (edit title/settings)

The Story of Science, Discovery, and the Genius of the Royal Society

by Bill Bryson (Editor) (edit contributors)

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Description edit see section history

Edited and introduced by Bill Bryson, with contributions from Richard Dawkins, Margaret Atwood, Richard Holmes, Martin Rees, Richard Fortey, Steve Jones, James Gleick and Neal Stephenson amongst others, this beautiful, lavishly illustrated book tells the story of science and the Royal Society,... read more

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Quotes edit see section history

  • “When Benjamin Franklin flew his kite in a thunderstorm it was for the Royal Society that he very nearly killed himself. pg. 5.”
    Bill Bryson
  • “They loved to talk, these men. pg. 27.”
    James Gleick
  • “You can build a house with a hammer, and you can use the same hammer to murder your neighbour. pg. 56.”
    Margaret Atwood

First Sentence edit see section history

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.

Table of Contents edit see section history

Introduction & acknowledgements
1. At the beginning: more things in heaven and earth
2. Of the madness of mad scientists: Jonathan Swift's Grand Academy
3. Lost in space: the spiritual crisis of Newtonian cosmology
4. Atoms of cognition: metaphysics in the Royal Society, 1715-2010
5. What's in a name? Rivalries and the birth of modern science
6. Charged atmospheres: Promethean science and the Royal Society
7. A new age of flight: Joseph Banks goes ballooning
8. Archives of life: science and collections
9. Darwin's five bridges: the way to natural selection
10. Images of progress: conferences of engineers
11. X-ray visions: structural biologists and social action in the twentieth century
12. Ten thousand wedges: biodiversity, natural selection and random change
13: Making stuff: from Bacon to Bakelite
14. Just typical: our changing place in the universe
15. Behind the scenes: the hidden mathematics that rules our world
16. Simple really: from simplicity to complexity - and back again
17. Globe and sphere, cycles and flows: hoe to see the world
18. Beyond ending: looking into the void
19. Confidence, consensus and the uncertainty cops: tackling risk management in climate change
20. Time: the winged chariot
Conclusion: looking fifty years ahead
Further reading
List of illustrations

Glossary edit see section history

  • FRS: Fellow of the Royal Society
  • penurious: extremely stingy; parsimonious; miserly; extremely poor; destitute; indigent
  • arrear: usually, arrears. the state of being behind or late, esp. in the fulfillment of a duty, promise, obligation, or the like.often, arrears. something overdue in payment; a debt that remains unpaid.
  • tumuli: archaeology. an artificial mound, esp. over a grave; barrow
  • virtuosi: virtuoso - a person who has special knowledge or skill in a field
  • grist: a quantity or lot
  • fracas: a noisy, disorderly disturbance or fight; riotous brawl; uproar
  • august: inspiring reverence or admiration; of supreme dignity or grandeur; majestic; venerable; eminent
  • ecumenist: ecumenical doctrines and practices, esp. as manifested in the ecumenical movement (a movement promoting cooperation and better understanding among different religious groups or denominations
  • conciliate: to overcome the hostility of; placate; win over
  • epiphenomena: pathology: a secondary or additional symptom or complication arising during the course of a disease; any secondary phenomenon
  • ineluctably: incapable of being evaded; inescapable
Show all 12 glossary entries

Authors & Contributors edit see section history

  1. Bill Bryson (Editor)

Other Contributors:

  1. James Gleick (Contributor)
  2. Margaret Atwood (Contributor)
  3. Margaret Wertheim (Contributor)
  4. Neal Stephenson (Contributor)
  5. Rebecca Goldstein (Contributor)
  6. Simon Schaffer (Contributor)
  7. Richard Holmes (Contributor)
  8. Richard Fortey (Contributor)
  9. Richard Dawkins (Contributor)
  10. Henry Petroski (Contributor)
  11. Georgina Ferry (Contributor)
  12. Steve Jones (Contributor)
  13. Philip Ball (Contributor)
  14. Paul Davis (Contributor)
  15. Ian Stewart (Contributor)
  16. John D. Barrow (Contributor)
  17. Oliver Morton (Contributor)
  18. Maggie Gee (Contributor)
  19. Stephen H. Schneider (Contributor)
  20. Gregory Benford (Contributor)
  21. Martin Rees (Contributor)

First Edition edit see section history

Original Language: English
Publisher: Harper Collins
Country: United Kingdom
Publication Date: 2010
ISBN: 978-0-00-730256-7
Page Count: 490

Classification edit see section history

  • Library of Congress: Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.
  • Dewey: 509

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