The Fellowship: The Story of the Royal Society and a Scientific Revolution

Description

THEY DEMANDED TO SEE THE WORLD FOR THEMSELVES - AND CHANGED THE COURSE OF HISTORY . . . Seventeenth-century England was racked by civil war, plague and fire; another event was also turning the world upside down- the revolution in science. This is the story of how the founding fathers of the Royal Society-from the extravagant 'natural philosopher' Francis Bacon to the polymath, inventor and adventurer Edmund Halley, from the fiery Robert Hooke, whose work was written out of history, to his ambitious rival Isaac Newton-brought about an end to superstition and ignorance, and created a whole new model of the universe. 'Gribbin's lucid pen and narrative skill make him a leader in the field of popular science writing . . . highly readable' INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY Rich and readable' THE TIMES 'A crowded story of politics, science and opportunism' GUARDIAN 'We can be proud that the scientific revolution happened here' DAILY TELEGRAPH 'The master of popular science writing . . . Gribbin reveals the complex relationship between science and the politics of the day, to show how so much was achieved against the odds' SCOTSMAN

John Gribbin gained a PhD from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (then under the leadership of Fred Hoyle) before working as a science journalist for Nature and later New Scientist. He is the author of a number of bestselling popular science books, including In Search of Schr dinger's Cat, In Search of the Multiverse, Science- A History and The Universe- A Biography. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex and in 2000 was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature. John Gribbin is one of today's greatest writers of popular science and the author of bestselling books including In Search of Schrodinger's Cat, Stardust, Science- A History, Deep Simplicity and The Fellowship. He is famous to his many fans for making complex ideas simple, and says that his aim in his writing - much of it done with his wife Mary Gribbin - is to share his sense of wonder at the strangeness of the universe with his readers. John Gribbin trained as an astrophysicist at Cambridge University and is currently Visiting Fellow in Astronomy at the University of Sussex. He also enjoys working on science-fiction stories in his spare time, and does most of his writing in a shed in his back garden.