A great book for Middle School students and the reluctant reader. The selections are easily read and comprehended. It can be helpful for students that need quick concise information for a project. The illustrations and pictures are engaging and entice students to read. ( )

From skyscrapers to jet aircraft, from mobile phones to computers, the products of modern science surround us on all sides.
Perhaps the most significant product of science, however, is not the microwave, or the space station or the widescreen TV; it is the scientific method itself, and it is hardly an exaggeration to state that those societies that have actively embraced this method have flourished; those societies that have preferred instead to rely on superstition, witchcraft and religion have failed.
The men and women who appear in The Great Scientists have all excelled in their chosen field of science; some have excelled across a range of scientific ideas, while still others can, with some justification, claim to be the founders of their own disciplines.
The road out from under the darkness of superstition into the light of reason has not always been an easy one: scepticism, mockery, threats and worse have often been the lot of the experimental scientist who has dared to challenge the accepted 'truths'. Yet they have persevered, and in doing so have provided a shining example for the rest of humanity.
The great scientists have burned, in Bertrand Russell's telling phrase, 'with all the noonday brightness of human genius'. The Great Scientists tells their story.

Great Scientists is a great book from cover to colorful cover. From Aristotle (who I did not know was a scientist), to Dorothy Hogdkin who won the Nobel Prize for Chemistry for finding the B12 structure, this book provides small excerpts of information on several of the world’s leading scientists, but not all of them and not at an in depth level. The strengths of the book would be the use of color pictures and images to draw the reader into each scientist and discovery. For young children this book may be the catalyst that causes them to search for more answers on a specific scientist or discovery. However, if a child wanted to use this book as a reference source, they would be hard-pressed to find answers to all of their research questions. This book would be great to have in a middle to high school classroom library and in the school library as a high interest book for students interested in science. It comes with a CD Rom of science-related clip art. ( )

Chronologically ordered, this book is great read front to back. However, you can just as easily read from specific areas. Overall, the book is great for younger kids but lacking in content for older students. ( )