Circles 
Subtitle: Fifty Roundtrips Through History Technology Science Culture
Edition: 1st edition
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Published: December 5, 2000
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 286
ISBN-13: 9780743200080
Subjects: History of engineering & technology; History of science; History Of Technology; Science/Mathematics; General; Science / General; History; Science; Technology
First sentence: "I SUPPOSE MY view of history tends away from the orderly and toward the chaotic, in the sense of that much overused phrase from chaos theory about the movement of a butterfly's wing in China causing storms on the other side"
Description: "From the author of The Knowledge Web come fifty journeys into the history of technology, each following a chain of consequential events that ends precisely where it began. Whether exploring electromagnetic fields, the origin of hot chocolate, or DNA fingerprinting, these essays - which originally appeared in James Burke's popular Scientific American column - all illustrate the serendipitous and surprisingly circular nature of change.".

"In "Room with (Half) a View," for instance, Burke muses about the partly obscured railway bridge outside his home on the Thames. Thinking of the bridge engineer, who also built the steamship that laid the first transatlantic telegraph cable, causes him to recall Samuel Morse; which, in turn, conjures up Morse's neighbor, firearms inventor Sam Colt, and his rival, Remington.

One dizzying connection after another leads to Karl Marx's daughter, who attended Socialist meetings with a trombonist named Gustave Holst, who once lived in the very house that blocks Burke's view of the bridge on the Thames. Burke's essays all evolve in this organic manner, highlighting the interconnectedness of seemingly unrelated events and innovations. Romantic poetry leads to brandy distillation; tonic water connects through Leibniz to the first explorers to reach the North Pole."--BOOK JACKET.