Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society
Since its birth in 1660, the Royal Society has pioneered scientific exploration and discovery. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, John Locke, Alexander Fleming -- all were fellows. 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, 'Seeing Further' celebrates its momentous history and achievements.
3.9 out of 5 based on 10 reviews
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Omniscore:
|
| Classification |
Non-fiction |
| Genre |
History, Science & Nature |
| Format |
Hardback |
| Pages |
496 |
| RRP |
£25.00 |
| Date of Publication |
January 2010 |
| ISBN |
978-0007302567 |
| Publisher |
HarperPress |
| |
Since its birth in 1660, the Royal Society has pioneered scientific exploration and discovery. Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Robert Hooke, Robert Boyle, Joseph Banks, Humphry Davy, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, John Locke, Alexander Fleming -- all were fellows. 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, 'Seeing Further' celebrates its momentous history and achievements.
Read Bill Bryson's introduction to the volume at Times Online
Reviews
The Independent
PD Smith
"...this superb collection of essays, extensively illustrated, is a fitting tribute... Seeing Further is a weighty tome (although regrettably with no index), but its scale is appropriate for a book celebrating the giants of science across 350 years."
22/01/2010
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The Independent on Sunday
Lisa Jardine
"As a fitting memorial to the Royal Society and all it stands for, it seems presumptuous even to consider asking whether this motley collection adds up to more than the sum of its parts. This beautiful book showcases distinguished scientists making difficult concepts exciting and accessible, and eloquent narrators diverting us with page-turning tales, all in their own distinctive ways. That, I think, is probably quite enough."
21/01/2010
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The Spectator
Marcus Berkmann
"Not all contributions are as well written as Atwood’s or Gee’s, or as accessible as Gleick’s or Jones’s, and one or two are, for this increasingly dim-witted reader at least, challengingly dense with jargon. But it’s a big book: you can safely skip those... [Bryson] was an inspired choice as editor of this book. Had a real scientist, a professional, taken on the task, the book might have been more rigorous, more esoteric, less readable."
27/01/2010
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The Guardian
Tim Radford
"This is a book of cerebral riches, heavy with history, to be consumed at leisure… Every now and then, the book begins to seem like a royal variety performance: well-known acts trip on to the stage, perform a much-loved routine and disappear, to be followed by something completely different yet equally familiar. But all contributors in their different ways also remind us that the show goes on."
08/01/2010
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The Sunday Telegraph
Helen Brown
"For the lay reader, the pill of difficult chapters (such as the science-fiction writer Neal Stephenson’s on the 17th-century polymath Gottfried Leibniz’s metaphysical theory of “monads”) is sugared by more gently anecdotal chapters, such as the biographer Richard Holmes’s piece on the 18th-century craze for hot-air ballooning... As the essays build up we deepen our appreciation of the tensions between experimentation and mathematics, function and abstraction, creation and destruction, simplicity and complexity, harmony and chaos, individual genius and collective endeavour, and scientists and laymen."
01/02/2010
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The Economist
The Economist
"“Seeing Further” is a handsome book—it is beautifully illustrated—containing thoughtful insights, eloquently expressed. As a celebration of 350 years of modern science, it is a worthy tribute."
21/01/2010
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The Financial Times
James Wilsdon
"Lavishly illustrated, it manages to strike just the right note between celebration and provocation. Reflecting on the Society’s work today, Bill Bryson concludes: “If we have an Earth worth living on 100 years from now, the Royal Society will be one of the organisations our grandchildren will wish to thank.” This is some claim, and one wonders how the instinctively sceptical fellows of 1660, or indeed of 2010, would react to such a statement."
01/02/2010
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The Sunday Times
James McConnachie
"It’s all provocative, admirable and highly readable, but it’s it’s hard to work out why most of these essays need to be written now. The standout exception is Stephen H Schneider’s brilliant briefing on how climate scientists manage uncertainty, risk and the problems of communicating the subtleties of either to the public. (Tellingly, it’s the only essay not written specifically for this volume.) Otherwise, anyone scientifically literate enough to get the best from this collection might do better to turn directly to the Royal Society’s mighty Year Book which, as Bryson admits, actually describes the splendid array of activities that the society performs."
24/01/2010
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The Daily Telegraph
Leo Hollis
"…there are some gems to be found… In the end though, this feels like a missed opportunity to tell the Society’s story to a wide audience. Perhaps what is most amiss is the fact that within the pages of this elegant book, there is not one mention of the Royal Society’s motto in any of the essays: Nullius in Verba, 'Take no man’s word’."
24/01/2010
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The Observer
Robin McKie
"So why does Seeing Further turn out to be a bit of a disappointment? It has certainly been put together with care. It should be a page-turner. Yet it is hobbled by major flaws. For a start, there is no discernible pace or structure to the assembling of its essays. The book is also low, to the point of non-appearance, in human interest and is just a little bit too smug for its own good."
24/01/2010
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