A major retelling of the history of science from 1450 to the present day that explodes the myth that science began in Europe, instead celebrating how scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific were integral to this very human story.
We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. But this is wrong. Science is not, and has never been, a uniquely European endeavour. Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques borrowed from Arabic and Persian texts.
When Newton set out the laws of motion, he relied on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. When Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopaedia. And when Einstein was studying quantum mechanics, he was inspired by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose.
Horizons pushes beyond Europe, exploring the ways in which scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific fit into the history of science, and arguing that it is best understood as a story of global cultural exchange.
Challenging both the existing narrative and our perceptions of revered individuals, above all this is a celebration of the work of scientists neglected by history. Among many others, we meet Graman Kwasi, the seventeenth-century African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria, Hantaro Nagaoka, the nineteenth-century Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom, and Zhao Zhongyao, the twentieth-century Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter (but whose American colleague received the Nobel prize).
Scientists today are quick to recognise the international nature of their work. In this ambitious and revisionist history, James Poskett reveals that this tradition goes back much further than we think.
| ISBN: | 9780241394090 |
| Publication date: | 24th March 2022 |
| Author: | James Poskett |
| Publisher: | Viking an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd |
| Format: | Hardback |
| Primary Genre | Popular Science |
| Other Genres: |
A major retelling of the history of science from 1450 to the present day that explodes the myth that science began in Europe, instead celebrating how scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific were integral to this very human story.
We are told that modern science was invented in Europe, the product of great minds like Nicolaus Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and Albert Einstein. But this is wrong. Science is not, and has never been, a uniquely European endeavour. Copernicus relied on mathematical techniques borrowed from Arabic and Persian texts.
When Newton set out the laws of motion, he relied on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa. When Darwin was writing On the Origin of Species, he consulted a sixteenth-century Chinese encyclopaedia. And when Einstein was studying quantum mechanics, he was inspired by the Bengali physicist, Satyendra Nath Bose.
Horizons pushes beyond Europe, exploring the ways in which scientists from Africa, America, Asia and the Pacific fit into the history of science, and arguing that it is best understood as a story of global cultural exchange.
Challenging both the existing narrative and our perceptions of revered individuals, above all this is a celebration of the work of scientists neglected by history. Among many others, we meet Graman Kwasi, the seventeenth-century African botanist who discovered a new cure for malaria, Hantaro Nagaoka, the nineteenth-century Japanese scientist who first described the structure of the atom, and Zhao Zhongyao, the twentieth-century Chinese physicist who discovered antimatter (but whose American colleague received the Nobel prize).
Scientists today are quick to recognise the international nature of their work. In this ambitious and revisionist history, James Poskett reveals that this tradition goes back much further than we think.
Horizons features in the following genres: Popular Science, History of science, General and world history, Globalization, History of ideas, Asian history, Middle Eastern history, African history, History of mathematics, History of engineering and technology, Science: general issues, Mathematics and Science, History, History and Archaeology, Interdisciplinary studies, Reference, Information and Interdisciplinary subjects, Cultural studies, Cultural and media studies, Society and culture: general, Society and Social Sciences, Mathematics, Technology: general issues, Technology, Engineering, Agriculture, Industrial processes
Horizons is available in Paperback, Hardback, Ebook
Horizons was written by James Poskett and published by Viking an imprint of Penguin Books Ltd
