false 2200247 3 <p>From the acclaimed <i>New York Times</i> science writer George Johnson, an irresistible book on the ten most fascinating experiments in the history of science&#8212;moments when a curious soul posed a particularly eloquent question to nature and received a crisp, unambiguous reply. <br><br>Johnson takes us to those times when the world seemed filled with mysterious forces, when scientists were dazzled by light, by electricity, and by the beating of the hearts they laid bare on the dissecting table. <br><br>We see Galileo singing to mark time as he measures the pull of gravity, and Newton carefully inserting a needle behind his eye to learn how light causes vibrations in the retina. William Harvey ties a tourniquet around his arm and watches his arteries throb above and his veins bulge below, proving that blood circulates. Luigi Galvani sparks electrical currents in dissected frog legs, wondering at the twitching muscle fibers, and Ivan Pavlov makes his now-famous dogs salivate at ascending chord progressions.<br><br>For all of them, diligence was rewarded. In an instant, confusion was swept aside and something new about nature leaped into view. In bringing us these stories, Johnson restores some of the romance to science, reminding us of the existential excitement of a single soul staring down the unknown.</p> 2206005 2006 The Ten Most Beautiful Experiments total:139|5:6|4:53|3:53|2:25|1:2| 139 453 362 47 4 1 false false Mon Jan 26 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sat Jan 24 11:44:00 -0800 2009 Mon Jan 26 10:25:29 -0800 2009 4 0 false false Mon Mar 09 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 15:10:37 -0700 2009 Fri Mar 13 15:13:08 -0700 2009 the ten m...more...]]> 0 0 false false Sun Jun 14 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 19:10:32 -0700 2009 Tue Jun 23 19:57:21 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 1 false false Sun Jun 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Jun 01 11:16:43 -0700 2008 Thu Jun 26 19:33:04 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 12 17:30:35 -0700 2009 Mon Apr 20 16:33:01 -0700 2009
I'm an enormous fan of James Burke's original 1978 Connections Series - I'll go so far as this: it may be the greatest documentary in the history of the genre. So it seemed natural that George Johnso...more...]]> 4 0 false false Tue Sep 29 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 18:08:01 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 12 18:12:21 -0700 2009
The thing that I really learned from this book is that so much of science is just looking, measuring, and asking why? The thing that was so...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 12 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 13:20:47 -0800 2009 Sun Jan 18 13:27:09 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Mar 22 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 12:24:34 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 26 12:26:44 -0700 2009
The one thing I found really fascinating about the book...more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Apr 27 13:16:54 -0700 2009 Wed Jun 24 23:00:06 -0700 2009 I found it to be well written and easily accessible to anyone. I fully understood and enjoyed where three of the experiments/experimenters were coming from and was ab...more...]]> 2 0 false false Tue Oct 28 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Oct 19 23:06:57 -0700 2008 Tue Oct 28 22:13:26 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Wed Aug 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Aug 23 15:02:50 -0700 2008 Thu Aug 28 10:50:38 -0700 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Sun Jul 27 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Jun 04 19:25:05 -0700 2008 Sun Jul 27 11:23:50 -0700 2008 I am not a scientist. But I enjoyed this book-- I enjoyed understanding some of the meticulous grace of "tabl...more...]]> 0 0 false false Mon Mar 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 04:55:36 -0700 2009 Sun Apr 05 04:59:20 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu Jan 22 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Wed Nov 19 20:30:17 -0800 2008 Thu Jan 22 09:47:49 -0800 2009
"Science in the twenty-first century has become industrialized.... But until very recently the most earthshaking science came from individual pairs of hands.... The great experiments that mark the edges of our understanding were mo...more...]]> 4 0 false false Fri Apr 03 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 12:36:12 -0700 2009 Fri Apr 03 12:42:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 07:43:54 -0800 2008 Sun Dec 07 07:50:31 -0800 2008 4 0 false false Sun Apr 20 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 20 15:12:15 -0700 2008 Sun Apr 20 15:18:13 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Thu May 07 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 06:05:40 -0700 2009 Thu May 07 06:10:13 -0700 2009 2 0 false false Mon May 11 06:47:57 -0700 2009 Thu Sep 04 18:48:19 -0700 2008 Mon May 11 06:47:57 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Mon Oct 05 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Wed Sep 30 09:28:22 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 09:13:53 -0700 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=2200247