Andrew T. Still, the founder of osteopathic medicine, reveals how he matured into a medical pioneer from humble beginnings in the rural frontier of the United States. Beginning with his upbringing in rural Missouri, we witness how Still became accustomed to practicality at a young age. At the time he was a boy in the 1840s, the area he and his family lived in was barely settled - many basic public amenities such as hospitals and schools simply did not exist. Still's father became the local doctor, and would introduce his son to the medicine. The outbreak of the American Civil War in the 1860s disrupted the young Still's apprenticeship in medicine and surgery, although he gained valuable experience treating sick and wounded soldiers as a hospital steward. During and after the war, Still was astonished at how ineffectual so many medical techniques were - this, coupled with researches and a further course in medicine, spurred him to create the science of osteopathy.

The extraordinary life of Bernard Lovell began before the First World War and his story encompasses many of the great events of last hundred years: the Second World War, the invention of radio astronomy, the space race, the Moon landings, the exploration of the Solar System, the Cold War, the Cuban missile crisis and the defence of Britain against nuclear attack. It can now be revealed that he was also a spy. "He ranks as one of the great visionary leaders of science," Martin Rees, the Astronomer Royal, said of him. The great radio telescope which Lovell built became and remains one of the most important scientific instruments in the World. The Jodrell Bank Observatory and the Lovell Telescope have held their place at the frontier of research for fifty five years. This book seeks to explore succinctly and accessibly Lovell's life and achievements in the scientific and political context of the time. His legacy remains great, as can be seen from the extensive media coverage and personal tributes that his death in 2012 attracted all over the world. With the seventieth anniversaries of many wartime events in which he played a crucial role, as well as the recent declassification of information relating to his activities as an agent in the Cold War, this biography is sure to have a broad and timely interest.