A Little History of Science Book

1 In the Beginning 1

2 Needles and Numbers 6

3 Atoms and the Void 14

4 The Father of Medicine: Hippocrates 19

5 'The Master of Those Who Know': Aristotle 24

6 The Emperor's Doctor: Galen 30

7 Science in Islam 35

8 Out of the Darkness 39

9 Searching for the Philosopher's Stone 44

10 Uncovering the Human Body 50

11 Where is the Centre of the Universe? 56

12 Leaning Towers and Telescopes: Galileo 62

13 Round and Round: Harvey 68

14 Knowledge is Power: Bacon and Descartes 74

15 The 'New Chemistry' 81

16 What Goes Up …: Newton 87

17 Bright Sparks 94

18 The Clockwork Universe 100

19 Ordering the World 107

20 Airs and Gases 113

21 Tiny Pieces of Matter 120

22 Forces, Fields and Magnetism 127

23 Digging Up Dinosaurs 133

24 The History of Our Planet 139

25 The Greatest Show on Earth 146

26 Little Boxes of Life 154

27 Coughs, Sneezes and Diseases 161

28 Engines and Energy 169

29 Tabling the Elements 175

30 Into the Atom 182

31 Radioactivity 189

32 The Game-Changer: Einstein 196

33 Moving Continents 203

34 What Do We Inherit? 209

35 Where Did We Come From? 217

36 Wonder Drugs 224

37 Building Blocks 231

38 Reading 'the Book of Life': The Human Genome Project 237

39 The Big Bang 243

40 Science in Our Digital Age 251

Index 257