Table of Contents

Preface. Lapses, Sources, and Acknowledgments. I. THE DOMAIN OF PHYSICS AND ASTRONOMY. 1. The Mafia Invents the Barometer. 2. The Riddle of the Sphinx: Thomas Young's Experiment. 3. Joseph Henry and the (Near) Discovery of (Nearly) Everything. 4. Neptune: The Greatest Triumph in the History of Astronomy, or the Greatest Fluke? 5. Invisible Light: The Discovery of Radioactivity. 6. Light, Ether, Corpuscles, and Charge: The Electron. 7. Einstein's Miraculous Year (and a Few Others). 8. What Did the Eclipse Expedition Really Show? And Other Tales of General Relativity. 9. Two Quantum Tales: Bohr and Hydrogen, Dirac and the Positron. 10. A Third Quantum Tale: Southpaw Electrons and Discounted Luncheons. II. THE DOMAIN OF TECHNOLOGY. 11. What Hath God Wrought? Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors, Samuel Morse, and the Telegraph. 12. Fiat Lux: Edison, the Incandescent Bulb, and a Few Other Matters. 13. "Magna Est Veritas et Praevalet": The Telephone. 14. A Babble of Incoherence: The Wireless Telegraph, a.k.a. Radio. 15. Mind-Destroying Rays: Television. 16. Plausibility: The Invention of Secret Electronic Communication. III. THE DOMAIN OF CHEMISTRY AND BIOLOGY. 17. The Evolution of Evolution: Erasmus, Charles, Gregor, and Ronald. 18. Dreams with Open Eyes: Kekule, Benzene, and Loschmidt. 19. Chance, Good and Bad: Penicillin. IV. THE DOMAIN OF MATHEMATICS: CLOSED FOR RENOVATION. References and Notes. Index.

About the Author

TONY ROTHMAN is a physicist and writer. He is the author of seven other critically acclaimed science books and a frequent contributor to leading science publications, including Scientific American and Discover.

Reviews

"... its real strength is the way it rehabilitates some of the great unknowns in scientific history..." (Focus, May 2004) "The writing is witty, scientifically sound, and unburdened with extensive footnotes and literature references." (The Alchemist, 26 March 2004) "...informative and well researched, this is a surprisingly new look at some very old stories." (Good Book Guide, April 2004) "It's hard to think of a more wonderful science writer than Tony Rothman." (San Francisco Examiner) "...enthralling..." (New Scientist, 17 January 2004)