A BRIEF HISTORY OF SCIENCE

Book ID/图书代码： 03275006B03298

English Summary/英文概要： A fascinating exploration of scientific advances

From earliest pre-history, with the dawning understanding of fire and its many uses, up to the astonishing advances of the twenty-first century, Thomas Crump traces the ever more sophisticated means employed in our attempts to understand the universe. The result is a vigorous and readable account of how our curious nature has continually pushed forward the frontiers of science and, as a consequence, human civilization.

Chinese Summary/中文概要： 从科技发明追溯科学发展的道路，讲述人类的好奇心如何改变历史。绝对不容错过！

极少有作家试着去表达对科学发展历史的看法，因为它过于凌乱庞大。然而，托马斯•克拉普却通过人类的自我创造能力及科学工具仪器这面棱镜成功地观察到了科学历史的进程。

从史前到近些年来科学的惊人进步, 克拉普追溯了我们探索宇宙所采用的最先进的方法。古老的日晷从欧洲文艺复兴时期演变到由阿拉伯数字记录的标准测量单位。现代仪器有显微镜，X-射线和微处理机，乃至用于在零度下观察事物的新型设备。作者向我们所叙述的这些激动人心和详实可读的科学突破让我们了解人类的猎奇心如何不断地推动科学进程乃至人类文明的进步。

目录
1.从掌握火的使用到科学使用日晷
2.科学的重生：从牛顿到哥白尼
3.科学，技术，和通讯
4.电的发现
5.能量：重建科学体系
6.化学：事物及其转化
7.物理学的新时代
8.天文学: 1542-2001
9.物理：爆心投影点
10.重大科学 (YM)

Awards/获奖情况：’Crump successfully conveys the rich grainy texture of science and discovery, yet in an accessible way... [This] is a serious and fully furnished history of science, from which anyone interested in the development of ideas - or indeed, in history itself - will greatly profit.’ - A.C. Grayling, Financial Times; ’He provides lively summaries of the progress in different fields, and succeeds in breathing new life into familiar stories.’---Economist

The Guardian, ’Provides an enduring sense of the extraordinary ingenuity that defines our relationship with nature.’---October 26, 2002

’Crump dispenses layman-friendly explanations and absorbing biographical details of major figures with equal ease.’---The Scotsman, October 19, 2002

There have been many histories of Western science, but Crump’s take is an original one: to look at the part played by scientific instruments in the development of science. As Crump points out, without instruments that enable us to measure the world around us most scientific ideas are merely speculation. For most of human history, people’s ability to understand the world was limited by two things: the fact that they never ventured outside their immediate locale, and so didn’t become aware of the variety that exists in other parts of the world; and the fact that they experienced the world only through their five senses, and so could have no knowledge of anything they couldn’t see with the naked eye. This didn’t stop people trying to understand the way the world works, but it did mean they were often badly mistaken. Thus it was that Aristotle’s explanation of the way the world works, with his insistence that the earth was at the centre of the universe and all matter was composed of four basic elements, held sway for 1500 years. The two most significant instruments that changed the course of scientific progress, says Crump, were the telescope and the microscope. The first made the science of astronomy possible; the second opened the way to the study of microbiology and atomic physics. Crump concentrates mainly on the physical sciences - chemistry, physics and astronomy - and takes in the major figures, such as Copernicus, Newton, Galileo and, more recently, Einstein and Rutherford. Of necessity, the book’s focus is skewed towards developments in the last couple of hundred years, with the last chapters tackling the increasingly complex area of what Crump calls ’big science’: quantum mechanics and the study of subatomic particles, a study made possible by the astonishingly powerful and precise nature of modern scientific instruments. The whole study is engagingly written: Crump knows how to make his subject come alive. He’s good both at showing the human stories behind many scientific developments, and at explaining the science itself, even the very difficult science of the later chapters. At the same time, he never talks down to the reader. It’s an excellent overview of the subject, and will be enjoyed equally by scientists and non-scientists alike.---Kirkus UK

西方科学的历史浩淼如烟，但克朗普的捕获历史方法具有开创性。他通过在科学发展历程中科学仪器所起的作用来观察科学历史发展的各个阶段。正如克朗普所指：如果没有科学仪器帮助我们测量周遭的世界，那么大部分的科学想法只能是猜想。在人类的历史中，人们认知世界的能力很大程度上受到俩样事物的限制：其一就是人类从未敢走出自己所处的地带，因此他们不会意识到外部世界的多样性；其二是人类只是通过视觉﹑嗅觉﹑听觉﹑味觉和触觉来感知世界，因此他们对于肉眼无法看到的事物一无所知。克朗普说，改变科学历史进程的最重要的两样重要仪器是望远镜和显微镜。第一样成就了天文学；第二样开启了研究微生物学和原子物理学的大门。整本书写得引人入胜：克朗普知晓如何使这个话题活跃起来。他不仅擅长展示许多科学发展背后的人类故事，也善于解说科学本身，其中包括后几章中复杂难懂的科学。同时，他从不试图说服读者。本书纵观历史科学并进行了很好的总结，将受到科学家和普通人的喜爱。 ---柯尔克斯评论 英国

About the Author/作者介绍： Thomas Crump, successful author of A Brief History of Science, recently underwent a hip operation and brings to this book an understanding of the needs and concerns of the patient.
His passionate interest in science and its history has given rise to a number of books, most recently Solar Eclipse and The Anthropology of Numbers. A mathematician and anthropologist, until his retirement in 1994, he taught anthropology at the University of Amsterdam.

托马斯•克拉普，数学家与人类学家，至1994年退休之前在阿姆斯特丹大学教授人类学课程。对于科学及科学历史的兴趣激发他写了一部又一部的作品，最新的有《日蚀》和《数字人类学》。

Format:照片

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