Dimensions
150 x 225 x 25mm
The Greatest Inventions of the Last 2000 Years
This book is an expanded collection of the news-making responses from some of the leading scientists and thinkers of our time, including several Nobel Prize-winners. The nominations range from the familiar, such as the printing press, the birth control pill and the computer, to the less obvious, such as reading glasses, the calculus, anaesthesia, the atom bomb and genetic engineering. Even hay, board games, Western classical music and mirrors get a look in, as do concepts such as the scientific method, democracy, the number zero and the unconscious mind.
Whether readers agree or disagree with the selections, they will not fail to be impressed by the powerful cases made for why the world would be a very different place without these inventions. 'The Big Idea' is a wonderfully eclectic, original and stimulating anthology, ranging widely across many areas of current science as well as providing fresh perspectives on the past.
