Horace Freeland Judson

This book is about hard science, the basic knowledge explaining the physical world and how the great insights that created that knowledge came to be. Rich with examples from the lives of the mathematicians and scientists that created that knowledge, the book is a good read for someone like myself, uneducated in the sciences, but fascinated with how we think, create, and solve problems. More than good stories, Judson makes useful generalizations and indicates methodology. Emphasizing great show more minds and their best moments the book can be an inspiration to the more ambitious in any field. Photographers who aspire to produce not only unique work, but uniquely useful imagery can benefit reading here. show less

"The best book yet written about modern biology." Tom Wilkie, The Independent, 13 June 1995. I started to read this book in 1995, but found it hard work. I tried again in Covid-19 lockdown, and again found it hard work. For a book to prove both fascinating and difficult to read was unexpected. It is a significant record of biological research in the 20th century, but of its era.

Science has several rewards, but the greatest is that it is the most interesting, difficult, pitiless, exciting, and beautiful pursuit that we have yet found. Science is our century's art.’