"Warmly recommended. It is that rare achievement, a lively book which at the same time takes the fullest possible advantage of scholarly knowledge."—Charles C. Gillespie, New York Times Book Review
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What is the world made of? This, one of the most basic questions in the scientific domain, has nagged at philosophers for thousands of years, long before science as we know it came along to provide verifiable answers. The Architecture of Matter, by historians Stephen Toulmin and June Goodfield, addresses the long, often tortured struggle to conceptualize and understand the world around us. Turning their attention to the transformation of ideas, rather than sequentially listing the names and dates of those who "got it right," the authors better capture the evolution of our modern notions of life, atoms, and fundamental forces.
Beginning with prehistory, they explore the knowledge required to produce crafts and crops before moving on to the ancient Greeks and their intellectual descendants. Following the ideas rather than the thinkers gives the impression of a centuries-long relay race; the stories are on a greater-than-human scale. Still, the authors never forget that each step of the race was taken by individual men and women, and they succeed in showing the reader how it was done in terms that are direct and compelling. Borrowing their style more from the humanities than their subjects, Toulmin and Goodfield find poetry in mechanics and invite us all to do the same. The Architecture of Matter is essential reading for anyone with more than a passing interest in the development of the microscopic sciences from the first flint-shaper to the latest in genetic engineering. --Rob Lightner
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Inside This Book
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First Sentence:
BEFORE we start to look at the earliest theories about matter and material things, we must go back a little further in history. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
red calx, chemical atomism, respirable air, mechanistic physiology, alchemical theory, ideas about matter, natural gold, corpuscular philosophy Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Robert Boyle, Claude Bernard, Middle Ages, Boyle's Law, Royal Society, William Harvey, Middle East, Francis Bacon, Hero of Alexandria, Julien de la Mettrie, New York, Newton's Opticks, René Descartes, Albert Einstein, Breath of Life, Cavendish Laboratory, Robert Brown, Robert Hooke, Gregor Mendel, Humphry Davy, Joseph Priestley New!
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Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
BEFORE we start to look at the earliest theories about matter and material things, we must go back a little further in history. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
red calx, chemical atomism, respirable air, mechanistic physiology, alchemical theory, ideas about matter, natural gold, corpuscular philosophy Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Robert Boyle, Claude Bernard, Middle Ages, Boyle's Law, Royal Society, William Harvey, Middle East, Francis Bacon, Hero of Alexandria, Julien de la Mettrie, New York, Newton's Opticks, René Descartes, Albert Einstein, Breath of Life, Cavendish Laboratory, Robert Brown, Robert Hooke, Gregor Mendel, Humphry Davy, Joseph Priestley New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 87
books:
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59
books
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- A Source Book in Greek Science (Source Books in the History of the Sciences) by Morris R. Cohen in Front Matter (1), Front Matter (2), and page 91
- History of Embryology (History, Philosophy and Sociology of Science) by Joseph Needham on page 91, page 170, and page 357
- The Evolution of Physics by Albert Einstein in Front Matter, page 268, and page 302
- Introduction to the Study of Experimental by C Bernard on page 335, and page 337
- Man a Machine by Julien Offray de La Mettrie on page 314, and page 317
See all 87 books this book cites
- Patterns of Thought in Africa and the West: Essays on Magic, Religion and Science by Robin Horton on 7 pages
- Toy Medium: Materialism and Modern Lyric by Daniel Tiffany in Back Matter (1), Back Matter (2), and Back Matter (3)
- A History of Greek Philosophy: Volume 2, The Presocratic Tradition from Parmenides to Democritus by W. K. C. Guthrie on page 498, page 499, and Back Matter
- The Village Enlightenment in America: Popular Religion and Science in the Nineteenth Century by Craig Hazen in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Quintessence: The Mystery of the Missing Mass by Lawrence M. Krauss in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
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