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. _______________ 'This
treasure trove of a book puts the case persuasively and
compellingly that modern science did not develop solely in Europe.
Hugely important' Jim Al-Khalili 'Brilliant. Revolutionary and
revelatory' Alice Roberts 'Remarkable. Challenges almost everything
we know about science in the West' Jerry Brotton, author of A
History of the World in 12 Maps 'Perspective-shattering' Caroline
Sanderson, The Bookseller, 'Editor's Choice'
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