Ingenious Pursuits
Subtitle: Building the Scientific Revolution
Publisher: Anchor; Anchor Books
Published: December 5, 2000
Language: eng
Number of pages: 464
ISBN-13: 9780385720014
First sentence: Two comets in such quick succession caused as much astonishment among London's professional star-gazers as they did with the general public.
Description: "In this fascinating look at the European scientific advances of the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, historian Lisa Jardine demonstrates that the pursuit of knowledge occurs not in isolation, but rather in the lively interplay and frequently cutthroat competition between creative minds. The great thinkers of that extraordinary age, including Isaac Newton, Johannes Kepler, and Christopher Wren, are shown in the context in which they lived and worked. We learn of the correspondences they kept with their equally passionate colleagues and come to understand the unique collaborative climate that fostered virtuoso discoveries in the areas of medicine, astronomy, mathematics, biology, chemistry, botany, geography, and engineering. Ingenious Pursuits brilliantly chronicles the true intellectual revolution that continues to shape our very understanding of ourselves and of the world around us. Book jacket."--Jacket.