The Folio Book of Science

Coverage begins in antiquity, with Aristotle’s insights into animal anatomy and the Roman naturalist Pliny’s first-century musings on amber. In later eras, Leonardo da Vinci considers the courses of rivers, while Robert Hooke and Maria Sibylla Merian give contrasting perspectives on dead and living insects.  

Voices from the 18th century include French mathematician Emilie du Châtelet on the nature of fire, and Caroline Herschel, who describes her sightings of new comets. Renowned British scientist Mary Somerville examines the connections between the sciences, and we enjoy the pedagogic brilliance of Michael Faraday’s celebrated ‘Chemical History of a Candle’ (one of the earliest Royal Institution Christmas lectures for children). Charles Darwin succinctly presents his conclusion to his theory of evolution by natural selection, and ornithologist Florence Merriam Bailey gives her loving observations on ‘Birds Through an Opera Glass’.

Examples from more recent times include J. B. S. Haldane on being the right size; Rachel Carson on humanity’s obligation to the environment; Richard Dawkins considering the biology of selfishness and altruism; Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman eulogising the pleasures of intellectual and scientific discovery; and Carolyn Porco on NASA and the depths of space exploration.

While including some of the most illustrious names from 24 centuries of scientific research and exploration, this book also casts a spotlight on the role and contribution of female scientists. It demonstrates that even if they were renowned during their lifetimes for their ground-breaking scholarship, history has often subsequently pushed them into the shadows of their male counterparts. Thought-provoking in their content and beautiful in their eloquence, the articles are drawn from every scientific discipline, ranging from the biological and physical sciences to geology and palaeontology. An unprecedented, eminently accessible tribute to the great scientists (of both sexes) throughout the ages.

The book is blocked with a pewter foiling, and its beautiful binding and attractive endpapers are adorned with a design by popular illustrator Neil Gower. The text is enhanced by black-and-white line diagrams and illustrations reproduced from the original essays, with the volume being housed in a magnificent blocked slipcase.

Aristotle ‘The History of Animals’ (Fourth Century BC)

Pliny the Elder ‘Amber: The Many Falsehoods that Have been Told about It’ (AD 77-79)

Leonardo da Vinci ‘Physical Geography’ (c.1500) 

Robert Hooke ‘Some Physiological Descriptions of Minute Bodies’ (1665)

Maria Sibylla Merian ‘Notes on the Insects of Suriname’ (1705)

Emilie du Chatelet ‘On the Nature of Fire’ (1744)

Caroline Herschel ‘New Comets’ (1786–95)

Mary Somerville ‘On the Connexion of the Physical Sciences’ (1834)

Michael Faraday ‘Lectures on the Chemical History of a Candle’ (1848)

Richard Owen ‘On the Nature of Limbs’ (1849)

Charles Darwin ‘Recapitulation and Conclusion’ (1859)

Thomas Henry Huxley ‘On a Piece of Chalk’ (1868)

Florence Merriam Bailey ‘Birds Through an Opera-Glass’ (1890)

J. B. S. Haldane ‘On Being the Right Size’ (1926)

Winifred Goldring ‘The Nature of Fossils’ (1960)

Rachel Carson ‘The Obligation to Endure’ (1962)

Richard Dawkins ‘Why Are People?’ (1976)

Richard Feynman ‘The Pleasure of Finding Things Out’ (1981)

Stephen Jay Gould ‘Hyena Myths and Realities’ (1981)

Dian Fossey ‘In the Mountain Meadow of Carl Akeley and George Schaller’ (1983)

Ut a Frith ‘The Enigma of Autism’ (1989)

Lynn Margulis ‘Symbiosis Everywhere’ (1998)

Sarah Blaffer Hrdy ‘A New View of Mothers’ (1999)

Carolyn Porco ‘NASA Goes Deep’ (2007)