Contains 181 anecdotes which are more like miniature essays, brilliantly crafted by a lead reviewer for Nature and illuminating individuals, their work and context, and also the whole cultural structure of science.
'There is astonishment and delight on every page' Oliver Sacks, Nature.
A SELECTION OF ANECDOTES..; Cats and dogmas; A mathematical death; The Bucklands deflate a miracle; Farmyard thermodynamics; Chemistry in the kitchen: the discovery of nitrocellulose; Fortune favours the ham fist; Rutherford finds a solution; The unbreakable cypher; Mathematical peril; The Pauli principle; The first Eureka; Baccy and quanta; Hewn in marble; Koch on cooking; Ben Franklin stills the waves; Loving an enzyme; The poltergeist next door; Tug-of-war on the thread of life; The living fossil; Smoking for the Fuhrer; AND MANY MORE (SOME 200 ENTRIES)