Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society

Seeing Further: The Story of Science, Discovery & the Genius of the Royal Society with Bill Bryson as the editor is a marvelous book. I have read thousands of times that the pace of science and innovation causes knowledge to double and replace itself at an alarmingly fast rate. Of course, it's not in the actual doubling of knowledge that a problem exists but in the fact that it is virtually impossible for us to keep track of that very same new knowledge. However, even in a world that is creating so much new knowledge it is reassuring to consider that the Royal Society is celebrating its 350th anniversary this year. That is a marvelous accomplishment and to be honest I can't name many institutions that have been around that long.Bill Bryson is the perfect person to have headed this project. As a general science writer Bryson is aware of how important science and the Royal Society has been to the development of modern society. Then there is the rather eclectic group of contributors that have each offered a discussion on the development of science. Authors include James Gleick, Margaret Atwood, Margaret Wertheim, Neal Stephenson, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein, Simon Schaffer, Richard Holmes, Richard Fortey, Richard Dawkins, Henry Petroski, Georgiana Ferry, Steve Jones, Philip Ball, Paul Davies, Ian Stewart, John D. Barrow, Oliver Morton, Maggie Gee, Stephen H. Schneider, Gregory Benford, and Martin Rees. I'd have to admit that Margaret Atwoods discussion of Jonathan Swift's Academy, and Richard Dawkins' Darwin's Five Bridges: The Way to Natural Selection is for me the highlight of the book. However, each and every chapter is eye opening and worthy of your time.It is a difficult fact to get your head around that when the Royal Society was established in 1660 we knew so little of the causes of the physical phenomenon of our planet. Whether the topic was the causes of the tides or why summer was warmer than winter, mystery tended to shroud almost everything. The Royal Society created the scientific method thus allowing discoveries to be measured and duplicated and encouraged good scientific exploration. "Good" in this case is relative, meaning that it was better than what preceded it. "Good" by today's standard still left much to be desired.Seeing Further is written for the general public and even the most "unscientific" of us will have no problem making sense of what is read.Well written and containing a section devoted to further reading, Seeing Further is a fun and inspiring read.I give it five stars after reading the whole book.Peace to all.

At times it got a little preachy about economic, social or environmental issues but I was expecting more about physical science development over the years. Interesting but not really my kind of book.

Published in the 350th anniversary year of the Royal Society of London, "Seeing Further: The Story of Science and the Royal Society" is more a book about science than a book about the Royal Society.Of all the qualifications in the world, the letters FRS (fellow of the Royal Society) would certainly be the mostly highly prized ones, much better than PhD (which merely indicates that the individual at one time did enough work to earn a degree). FRS indicates that the individual has accomplished work of high standard over a prolonged period recognised by his or her fellow scientists.This book is worth reading, but one caveat; be aware that the American eBook doesn't come with the illustrations (not in itself a bad thing - the illustrations are pretty to look at, but in the main don't add much to the text), but do include the captions, in the middle of the text, which is a little off-putting. One example, in a discussion of the experiments which could have been performed on the peak of Tenerife, the Kindle version includes:... And many more: candles, vials of smoky liquor, sheep's bladders filled with air, pieces of iron and copper, and various living things, to be carried thither.Opposite & Previous Page:A record of the founding of the Royal Society and the first meeting, 28 November 1660.A stew of good questions, but to no avail ...Buyer beware! This is the reason I initially gave it 1 star as a warning.The book consists of 21 essays by 21 authors, so it's difficult to give an overall opinion. What I liked, others won't (and vice versa). I personally prefer books to be written by the one author who then has enough space to develop his or her ideas (there's a chapter by Paul Davies who has condensed several of his books, such as "the Eerie Silence" and "the Goldilocks Zone" and one by Richard Holmes writing about ballooning, which was also discussed in his "the Age of Wonder").The chapter I liked most of all was the one by Oliver Morton "Globe and Sphere, Cycles and Flows: How to See the World" which starts with the evocative image from Apollo 17 on December 7, 1972 of the fully illuminated Earth from 29,000 km. It finishes with the Earth as seen by the Mars Exploration Rover 'Spirit'. Without the images, it wouldn't mean much ...

Review on the Kindle book as of November 10th...Someone has argued that a poor review solely based on the formatting of the book is inadequate. However good the point may be, I still would not recommend a book, whether paperback or Kindle, to a friend if the organization of it were bad. This book is poorly formatted, and given the dramatically increasing number of people using Kindle, I think the two stars I am giving this book are relevant.The content is great. Fascinating as usual with Bryson, though most of it obviously has not been written by himself but by 21 different scholars.But the KINDLE formatting make reading it a slightly annoying experience. As mentioned previously, not only have the illustrations been completely omitted, but their captions have been left behind right in the text. Really?Kindle books are outrageously expensive, sometimes more than plain, good old paperbacks. Don't get me wrong, I love the Kindle. But if we're going to pay so much for a book (that we can't sell, exchange or return) the least we can expect from Amazon is to provide quality stuff.EDIT: Amazon sent out an email informing me that there was a free update available for this book!!! It downloaded in a few seconds and all the pictures are now available! So I now there are no reasons whatsoever for not buying this great read!As usual, great Amazon customer service.Disappointed I have to say. If you are looking into the paperback, you should go for it though.