Eureka! 50 Scientists Who Shaped Human History

Scientists whose contributions have shaped modern life are introduced in 50 brief biographies. They include individuals from the ancient world, including Hippocrates, Pythagoras, and Hypatia of Alexandria; well-known figures like Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, and Marie Curie; and other individuals who might have escaped readers’ notice, such as mathematician Ada Lovelace, German physicist Lisa Meitner, and Australia’s Howard Florey, a somewhat unheralded bacteriologist who played a key role in the advent of penicillin. Grant (Debunk It!) humorously describes the scientists’ missteps (Ptolemy’s “ideas of how the universe worked dominated scientific thought... for something like 1,300 years. Which was a pity, because he got just about everything wrong”), just one aspect of the informal, accessible tone he uses to create a rich and lively history of scientific innovation. Ages 12–up. (Aug.)