Customer Reviews

Science Firsts: From the Creation of Science to the Science of Creation

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Robert Adler's book is truly an engaging read. Once I started reading it was a true journey through time and I could hardly wait to find out what "Science First" had occurred next. Robert Adler highlights the sudden brilliance of a select number of scientists, which actually seems to be a result of serious study and contemplation.

You can literally see how ideas evolved through time and how each scientist discovered inner genius despite immense discouragement and conflict, not to mention religious persecution and their own human foibles. You can see how humans started to observe the exterior surroundings and then started to delve into the areas of cell structure and the invisible atom.

This book presents scientists in all their human glory and the honesty gives each scientist a true personality. Many struggled to overcome physical and psychological adversities or were led to their death by their own natural curiosity. It was not uncommon for these individuals to be a living part of their own experiments. However, not even plagues could hinder scientific research and the work went on through time despite a seemingly eternal and chaotic war of life itself that seemed determined to thwart their efforts.

Thales, Anaximander, Pythagoras, Aristotle, Aristarchus, Archimedes, Ibn al-Haitham, Copernicus, Galileo, Kepler, Van Leeuwenhoek, Newton, Joseph Priestley, Humphry Davy, Darwin, Gregor Mendel, Dmitri Mendeleev, Marie Curie, Guglielmo Marconi, Max Planck, Ernest Rutherford, Albert Einstein, Alfred Wegener, Edwin Hubble, Raymond Dart, Barbara McClintock, Claude Shannon, James Watson, Francis Crick, Rosalind Franklin, Karl Jansky, Lynn Margulis, Michel Mayor, Didier Queloz, Ian Wilmut and Keith Campbell all make their appearances.

Robert Adler shows how Charles Babbage (1792-1871) and Ada Byron Lovelace were at the cutting edge of technology and how Babbage designed a machine that functioned like a modern computer. If you become especially interested in any of the scientists or chapters, there is a reference section for further reading. The index is perfect for your own research or for locating a subject of interest. I thought each chapter was perfect in content and it definitely made me more interested in reading about additional scientific discoveries.

Quotes are found throughout the chapters and I was especially impressed by the letter Einstein wrote to Marie Curie who had to overcome great personal trials to achieve her goals. I liked how Robert Adler refutes the myth of Einstein being a slow learner and he makes his points most eloquently. Pictures throughout the text gives this book an additional dose of personality and the biographical information is especially interesting.

Robert Adler presents a scientific journey through time that is filled with insight and a depth of clarity that is stunning. This is one of the most highly crafted books I've ever read. Not only does Robert Adler delve into complex ideas about physics, biology and astronomy, he makes the ideas accessible to readers who may faintly remember these subjects from high school, college or the news. I can't wait to read his book about medical discoveries.

Science Firsts is truly a book about how scientific discovery changed the world. It is a fascinating read and I can highly recommend it to students of science, teachers and the casual reader who has an interest in progress itself. After reading this book, I think I might be ready to read about "the theory of everything."

~The Rebecca Review

You may also enjoy reading the DK e.encyclopedia

Robert Adler does a superb job of guiding the reader through an engaging survey of the milestones of Western science. With exceptional skill, Adler explains scientific discoveries in a wonderfully clear and vivid manner. Avoiding dense descriptions and technical jargon, he distills the essence of fundamental concepts, striking the difficult balance of being accurate, yet approachable to a wide range of readers.

The greatest strength of the book, however, lies in its placement of scientific discoveries in the context of the discoverers' backgrounds. These descriptions make the science come to life in a captivating way -we learn, for example, that Copernicus was a "world-class procrastinator," while Newton suffered from emotional problems throughout his life, including "an implacable, anger-driven vindictiveness." More importantly, Adler builds a picture of the historical context that helps the reader grasp the significance of each scientific contribution. By concisely explaining prevailing thoughts, beliefs and assumptions, he exposes the novelty of each scientific advance with singular clarity. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in science and its history.

I would not describe myself as a science buff, but this book held my attention until the end. Robert Adler skillfully leads the reader through a history of scientific discovery and his enthusiasm, though restrained, clearly shows through. For me, there were plenty of surprises. I'm sure I'm not alone in having thought of atomic theory as a twentieth or perhaps late nineteenth century concept. So I was astounded to learn that Leucippus and Democritus outlined the theory more than 2,400 years ago. Similarly, Aristarchus, whom Adler refers to as "the forgotten Copernicus" articulated his heliocentric theory 1,700 years before Copernicus. Maybe if these guys had just had decent press agents...

These seminal scientific achievements are even more impressive considering the difficult and sometimes tragic personal circumstances of so many of these great thinkers. From Johannes Kepler's premature birth, near blinding by smallpox at age four, and his sickly condition most of his life to Marie Curie's almost paralyzing grief over the death of her husband and collaborator and, five years later, her public castigation over her affair with a married man, the book is full of short buy fascinating accounts of personal lives. There is plenty of genius to go around, but I was struck by the sheer focus and guts it took for many to follow where their genius led them.

It is impossible for a survey approach of scientific advances such as this to develop in the lay reader a true understanding of something like quantum physics, but I was nevertheless able to see the importance of a scientific development and where it fit into the evolution of science. And the extensive bibliography points readers to more information on individual thinkers and their lives.

This is a book which I think could work equally well for recreational readers and as reading for a college level survey of science course. And it might be a worthwhile stretch for high school seniors as well. It has the right combination of lucid explanation, personal stories, and the sheer joy of discovery that could well stimulate a budding interest in science into something approaching a passion. I highly recommend it.

I read a lot of "science for laymen" books and this is among the very best. Well written, easy to understand. I learned a lot, even when I was reading about stuff I thought I knew about already. It's hard to imagine what the world was like when knowledge that we now take for granted was not yet known. The author does a great job of making you feel you were there when some of the most innovative men and women conceived -- or stumbled across -- the greatest of scientific discoveries. And it's full of human interest details that make the past come alive.

Science Firsts is an excellent introduction to 35 major scientific discoveries and the people who made them. In addition to the expected names--Galileo, Darwin, Einstein--Adler discusses a number of lesser-known researchers who made valuable contributions (e.g., Claude Shannon and digital computers). Each chapter covers one person and one discovery in just a few pages. Adler's writing is straightforward and easily accessible to those with little science knowledge.

Unlike many other books on scientific discoveries, Science Firsts also offers a glimpse into the lives of the scientists. The best chapters are the ones on recent researchers whom it appears Adler was able to interview. But, even when writing about Kepler or Planck, Adler includes details that show the scientist to be first and foremost a human being. Science Firsts also provides historical and political context for the discoveries, for science is inevitably intertwined with government and culture.

My main frustration with the book was its brevity. I was left at the end of many chapters wanting to know more. I enthusiastically recommend Science Firsts as an overview of the history of science, but don't be surprised if you find yourself looking for full-length works on some of these researchers.

More than twenty-six centuries ago, the Greek thinker Thales asked a simple but provocative question: "what is the world made of?" His unwillingness to accept explanations based on gods and myths, and his insistence on answers based on testable facts, argues author Robert Adler, launched the discipline now call science. In Science Firsts, Adler tells the story of how Thales and 34 other scientific pioneers whose unconventional thinking has fundamentally advanced humanity's perception of how the world works. In a series of mini-biographies, Adler limns out the often turbulent life and times of people such as Galileo and Marie Curie, and demonstrates how their backgrounds and circumstances may have factored into their discoveries. And although luminaries such as Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein are included, the book offers much more than the standard tour of the superstars of science. Less well-known but equally important thinkers such as Anaximander, the world's first cosmologist, and Barbara McClintock, who insists that the primary force behind evolution is the blending of DNA, also get their due. The chapters show how each scientist took the knowledge of those who came before, and built new tools to peer ever further into the darkness. The result is an illuminating and easily digestible view of the continuum of ideas that is the history of science.

Science Firsts is the first book to read for an accessible and enjoyable dip into the history of science. Science writer Robert Adler introduces readers to a pageant of 35 fascinating minds, from the 6th century BC thinker Thales, who insisted that the world is an essentially rational and material place, to the 20th century biologist Lynn Margulis, who has persuaded two generations of reluctant biologists that life, whether in the form of cells or ecosystems, is symbiotic. Science Firsts offers an excellent introduction to the most important scientific ideas of the last 26 centuries. Very nice!

I wish I had known about this book last Christmas. I would have sent a copy to every nephew and niece I have, in an attempt to interest them more in science. This book is a great idea, tying the pivotal ideas of science to stories of individual discoverers. Very palatable for the young reader. I'm hoping it will be out in paperback soon, so I can send a bundle out this Christmas. A nice job by Mr. Adler.

I read the sparkling and stimulating "Science Firsts" by Robert E. Adler soon after it was published. I have found it so well-documented and lucid that I have recommended and ordered it for friends ever since. The author covers science AND understanding of nature admirably, from Thales and Pythagoras (6th-7th c. BC - Before the Current dating system)to Marie Curie, Albert Einstein, Enrico Fermi and to the bioscientists and cosmologists of the late 20th century. Minor points, such as whether Plutarch was a "Roman historian" (p.26) or a Greek writing in Roman times, is for scholars to debate. Impressively, ancient Greek science, as well as the dawn of modernity (Copernicus, Galileo, Newton) can be read as "news". Perhaps the author will consider a volume II, with another 35 "firsts" including philosophy (Socrates?) and the social sciences (why not Marx and Heidegger too).

This is a fastinating history of several of science's most important discoveries. It is written for the layman, and will be completely enjoyed by any science buff. I would make this book and Simon Singh's "Bing Bang" two required reading items for every high school and college student in America. Both books contain a history of science that everyone should know.