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Convergence: The Idea at the Heart of Science

Peter Watson

3.83 · Rating details · 126 ratings · 25 reviews

A brilliant history of science over the past 150 years that offers a powerful new argument—that the many disparate scientific branches are converging on the same truths.

Convergence is a history of modern science with an original and significant twist. Various scientific disciplines, despite their very different beginnings, have been coming together over the past 150 years, ...more

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Hardcover, 576 pages

Published February 21st 2017 by Simon Schuster (first published July 28th 2016)

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Jun 09, 2017 Peter Tillman rated it it was ok

Shelves: sci-tech

Very cool idea, but the mid-19th century historical sketches drag a bit. Well, we'll see. Not quite a doorstop, but at 575 pages, a substantial commitment. I think I'll jump ahead to a chapter where I have some expertise....

OK, chapter 14, "Big History," gives extensive weight to a 1998 book by a British pediatrician: "Eden in the East", which proposes a pretty radical revision in the melt-off of the last ice age as it affected SE Asia. Not my area of expertise, but certainly sets off the BS de Very cool idea, but the mid-19th century historical sketches drag a bit. Well, we'll see. Not quite a doorstop, but at 575 pages, a substantial commitment. I think I'll jump ahead to a chapter where I have some expertise....

OK, chapter 14, "Big History," gives extensive weight to a 1998 book by a British pediatrician: "Eden in the East", which proposes a pretty radical revision in the melt-off of the last ice age as it affected SE Asia. Not my area of expertise, but certainly sets off the BS detector. "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary proofs", not a book by an an enthusiastic amateur. Mind, he could be right, but Watson is using a dubious source for a major argument here. Also a long discourse on the possible historic roots of tribal myths. Proceed with caution!

Ah, here's the NY Times review, by J.L. Heilbron, a science historian at UC Berkeley:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/03/10/bo...
"Watson’s apparent mastery of the ingredients and recipes of all the sciences might stagger a general reader used to the works of mortals. What will stagger the knowledgeable is the confidence with which he presents nonsense. ..."

"The main reason Watson has been able to compile so much varied material is that he has perfected the journalist’s art of epitome. Whether accurately or not, he can boil a book down to a striking sentence or two and an article to a sound bite. When he has read the primary material himself, he can make a very good job of it. But in areas where he lacks time or competence, he relies on secondary literature, and that not always of the best." E.g., the British pediatrician's flood book, and the hash Watson makes of the supposed astronomical causes of glaciation, and de-glaciation, which is a controversial topic and not at all settled. I'm a geologist, and know the topic pretty well.

So, read Heilbron's review first, before you make any major commitment to Watson's book. Skimming ahead, I see more instances of easy generalizations from dubious sources.

Watson (and others) may be right about convergence. But his book really doesn't demonstrate it, or at least not nearly so well as Watson thinks.

Caveat: my review is based on reading and skimming maybe a quarter of the book, and careful rereading of the NY Times review. The problems in Watson's book are fundamental, and I'm not going to spend more time on it. ...more

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Mar 26, 2018 Emma Sea rated it really liked it

Shelves: paperback, i-own-it, sciencey-science

3.82 stars overall, but 5 shiny stars for the book excluding chapters 14 & 15.

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Jun 01, 2017 D.L. Morrese rated it really liked it

Carl Sagan once said that science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge. In Convergence, historian and journalist Peter Watson demonstrates one important aspect of this profound insight. Individual scientific disciplines once regarded as separate are converging, influencing and fueling one another to reveal a clearer and more detailed picture of reality. The findings of geology help answer questions in biology. Discoveries in physics shed light on issues in cosmology. Ass ...more

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Oct 01, 2020 Juan Camilo Vélez Johnson rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Este es otro de esos libros a los que les he pegado dos enviones. El primero hace unos cuatro años en donde a duras penas llegué a terminar el prefacio y esta, en la que literalmente conté las horas y los minutos para volver a sentarme a leer. La realidad es que el libro es el mismo, el que cambié fui yo.

Este es uno de tantos títulos del afamado Peter Watson que por cosas que he oído escribe tremendos ladrillos... o MUROS como se lo comenté recientemente a un amigo cercano. Afortunadamente Conve Este es otro de esos libros a los que les he pegado dos enviones. El primero hace unos cuatro años en donde a duras penas llegué a terminar el prefacio y esta, en la que literalmente conté las horas y los minutos para volver a sentarme a leer. La realidad es que el libro es el mismo, el que cambié fui yo.

Este es uno de tantos títulos del afamado Peter Watson que por cosas que he oído escribe tremendos ladrillos... o MUROS como se lo comenté recientemente a un amigo cercano. Afortunadamente Convergencias: El Orden Subyacente en el Corazón de la ciencia es una delicia de lectura... Ahh pero los detallistas me preguntarán: Si es tan deliciosa la lectura ¿por qué le tuvo que dar dos enviones?

A continuación la respuesta:

En primer lugar debo confesar que leo para hablar de lo que leo, y tenía mucha información suelta sobre ciencia, psicología y biología que mi cerebro no era capaz de hilar de manera coherente en la historia de la humanidad. Este libro logra hilar de manera sencilla, profunda y muy acertada la manera de cómo las ciencias se complementan unas a otras desde el prefacio del libro utilizando los casos de los diferentes científicos que se aproximaron al concepto de conservación de la energía y de la manera como la geología apoyó la construcción de la teoría de la evolución de las especies de Darwin.

En segundo lugar el libro es funcional, te permite entender porque la época dorada de 1850 fue el caldo de cultivo para que la filosofía natural, la biología y las matemáticas demostraran cómo la especialización de saberes y disciplinas era el camino incorrecto. Se hace referencia a una mujer, Mary Somerville quien se merece la ovación y mención en esta reseña por ser ella, una mujer de los 1800 quien se atreviera a ganarse un puesto en la conversación culta de la época gracias a su gran habilidad con las matemáticas, quien puso al frente de todos que la unidad y la convergencia de los conocimientos era el camino correcto para el avance del conocimiento de nuestra especie.

En tercer lugar el libro se deja leer porque tengo nuevamente hábito. Es un libro que no es para empezar a tomar el hábito de la lectura. Si no tiene hábito tengo varios libros que recomendarle y puede encontrarlos en mis reseñas, pero si ya tiene hábito e interés en la historia y la ciencia (sin ser científico ni historiador) este ejemplar es un boccato di cardinale.

Usted se va a dar cuenta de la genialidad de los experimentadores y teóricos es asombrosa pero muy insuficiente si es que no hubieran tejido lazos de amistad y de celos para usar los avances y sospechas de amigos y contendores. Como dicen por ahí: La ciencia avanzó de funeral en funeral. También se va a dar cuenta que lo que sabemos de ciencia, medicina, biología, astronomía, psicología, entre otras cosas que hoy en día le mejoran su calidad de vida son conocimientos recientes, que apenas estamos comenzando en estos asuntos y que la colaboración entre naciones, personas e instituciones será la clave para que los pasos sean cada vez más acelerados hacia un mundo mejor para todos. ...more

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Jul 27, 2018 Tom rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction, science

I found this book challenging, not because it isn't clearly written, the author is very skilled at explaining scientific concepts in an easily grasped manner. In fact, his review of inorganic and organic chemistry would have been welcome when I was in university. The challenge was more how his argument runs counter to where my reading and thinking has been tending for some time.

Watson is a confirmed reductionist. All will eventually be explained by further advances in our understanding of the un I found this book challenging, not because it isn't clearly written, the author is very skilled at explaining scientific concepts in an easily grasped manner. In fact, his review of inorganic and organic chemistry would have been welcome when I was in university. The challenge was more how his argument runs counter to where my reading and thinking has been tending for some time.

Watson is a confirmed reductionist. All will eventually be explained by further advances in our understanding of the underlying material of matter. Beginning with the marriage of physics (the queen of the sciences) to chemistry and progressing up the hierarchy of the universe, we will come to understand even anthropology, psychology, consciousness, the arts etc. To Watson, understanding, means mathematizing these domains. He considers that describing human behavior in mathematical terms to represent the 'hardening' of psychology for example. In this, and elsewhere, he seems to occasionally part ways with those aspects of science that emphasized empirical verification. If mathematical formulations could be derived for a phenomenon that hasn't yet been observed (e.g. subatomic physics), but fits existing concepts, it is tacitly accepted. There seemed to be a tendency to not treat these as hypotheses to be tested. Since some of them cannot be tested they fail Karl Popper's stringent criteria, however. Does finding a mathematical description of natural phenomena actually explain it?
Watson considers "...science itself ..the basis for comprehending other forms of knowledge" p313. In this while acknowledging that there are other forms of knowledge (one might consider for example self-knowledge), he gives primacy to science. This is where I was disappointed. He criticizes those who he considers 'anti-reductionists' such as Ernest Nagel, Richard Rorty, Peter Galison, but we don't learn too much about them. No where does he mention Ken Wilber's work.
Several times he describes his book as a narrative and I think that is an apt description. Like all narratives or stories, there is selection in what is included and what is not. Whatever adds to the story line is given more credence and some other material is left out. In the end, Watson sees. the sciences and the humanities coming together....converging. When you stand looking down a railroad track the rails seem to converge in the distance too. Sometimes lines that appear to come together are actually parallel and that too needs to be respected. What appears to be an end, is actually the means to another end altogether. In pursuit of his story, Watson seems to have left out critical self examination of one's beliefs. He has made me re-examine my views and so I'm pleased to have read the book. ...more

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Jul 08, 2017 Mishehu rated it really liked it

Overall, a very interesting synthesis of research crosscutting the natural and the social sciences. The first half of the book -- which dealt mostly with key developments in the history of physics and with the advent of modern biology -- was tightly and compellingly argued. The second half of the book -- in particular, the protracted discursus on the origins of human beings, society, and culture -- were less so, not because these are any less fascinating topics but because the treatment was a) s ...more

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May 09, 2020 K Veysel Kaya rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: 2020-challenge, dropped

Büyük umutlarla başlayıp yaklaşık yüzde 30'unu okuduktan sonra bıraktığım bir kitap oldu. Kitap için yapabileceğim en sade yorum gereksiz bilgilerle dolu olduğu olur. Bu da kitabı okumayı oldukça zorlaştırıyor. Bununla ilgili örneklere geçmeden önce kitapla ilgili diğer yorumlarda da özellikle Biyoloji ve Jeoloji alanlarında yanlış bilgi ve yorumların yer aldığının belirtildiğini söylemeden geçemeyeceğim.

Yazarın neredeyse okuduğu her dergi veya internet makalesine atıfta bulunarak alıntıladığı v ...more

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Feb 12, 2017 Murray rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: intellectual-history, physics, general-history

Convergence is another example of Peter Watson's ability to write an accessible and excellent synthesis of intellectual history. In this case, Watson turns to the history of science over the past 150-years, atypically arranging developments by their converging insights, ending in a crescendo of the inspiring emerging order in quantum biology.

My challenge; a fascinating thesis of convergence was largely left until the end. A history of scientific discoveries needs weaving with this thesis if it ...more

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Feb 17, 2018 Joseph M. O'Connor rated it liked it · review of another edition

Disappointed...

Is the only term i can use, having reached almost the midpoint of this book. I was going along full speed just lapping up Watson's accounts of convergence of disciplines in the early days of chemistry and physics and mathematics. It was mesmerizing. Dry as the subjects were, he made them interesting and brought together advancements in parallel fields as they merged and melded.

Then he came to the DNA part and something seemed a little off from what I had heard and read about in t Disappointed...

Is the only term i can use, having reached almost the midpoint of this book. I was going along full speed just lapping up Watson's accounts of convergence of disciplines in the early days of chemistry and physics and mathematics. It was mesmerizing. Dry as the subjects were, he made them interesting and brought together advancements in parallel fields as they merged and melded.

Then he came to the DNA part and something seemed a little off from what I had heard and read about in the 1960s as I started my fledgling career as a biologist. When Mr. Watson got to Wegener and continental drift he just missed the mark completely, never completing the transition of scientific thinking from "continental drift" to Plate Tectonics. (Which is VERY different.)

Then on to biology. Oh, boy. Misunderstanding, misinterpretation, overstatement, understatement, fatal errors and on occasion, a brilliant deduction dominate these sections. An uninformed reader is likely to emerge from reading these sections MISinformed rather than informed as to the biological history of our planet.I

Sad to say, these sections lead me to question the validity of some of Mr. Watson's accounts related in earlier chapters. Do I trust him? Has he actually added anything to previous accounts of scientific progress that I love to read about? Had he muddied the waters? Are his characteristics of the players accurate? Thinking back on it I can see little cracks in the seams that don't make sense. Can I write off the inconsistencies to style, rather than to accuracy? If he can be SO far off on Wegener and father and son Alvarez and extinction patterns, am I being misled, ever so slightly, throughout the book?I

I don't know if pre-completion reviews are allowed. Perhaps Mr. Watson will redeem himself later on. After all, I am only At 49%. But I wonder if I'm being fed a line from faulty reasoning. To write an exposition on something so profound as the ultimate convergence of the sciences seems to me to require the most careful research, the most fastidious personal characterizations, the most embracing reductions.

Mr. Watson... You had me At "convergence!" You lost me at " continental drift. "

More to follow At completion.

JMOC

At this point I just urge prospec ...more

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Mar 16, 2019 Anthony L rated it did not like it

Shelves: read-or-owned

I gave up after reading (speeded-read or skimmed rather) through the first few chapters. It is very unfortunate that books like this are so heavily padded with words just to produce the pages for a book. For example, unnecessary biographic details are so extensive (". . . impressed by his telescopes and intrigued by his diminutive sister Caroline . . .") that most of book is not focused on its theme. The reader had to speed-read or skim to try and get to the point. I regret buying this book and ...more

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Jan 14, 2021 Daniela Orozco rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Me gustó mucho la forma de divulgar del autor. Hace bastante tiempo ya que no leía un libro sobre historia de la ciencia y éste en particular, me gustó mucho para refrescar conocimientos que tenía y que se me habían ido olvidando. La forma de informar del autor es magistral, es concisa, clara y sin titubeos. Quizás la tesis del libro no se desarrolla muy bien a lo largo de sus páginas y por ende no se exponen congruentemente las convergencias entre las ciencias como propósito real del libro. Sin ...more

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Apr 16, 2020 Deniz Bakkalcı rated it liked it · review of another edition

Peter Watson bu kitapta bilimin 150 yıllık tarihinin bir özetini yapmış. Fizik, matematik, kimya, biyoloji ve toplum bilimleri alanlarının ortaya çıkışı ve bu alanlardaki güncel gelişmeler hakkında aşinalığını artırmak isteyenler için bu kitap uygun. Fakat kitabın ana fikri olan tüm bilimlerin "yakınsaması"nın çok ikna edici bir argüman olmadığını ve yazarın da kitabı bu çatıda birleştirmek için çok ikna edici argümanlar sunamadığını düşünüyorum. Özellikle de günümüzde bilgide ilerlemenin alanla ...more

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Jul 07, 2018 Suzy rated it really liked it

Peter Watson does a great job of making high-level science almost understandable to someone such as myself who has high interest in science in general, but only a smattering of basic college-level courses under my belt--much of which is now outdated. He writes in an even, mature style that is neither too academic nor too patronizing or folksy--just right, I'd say. I found the connections he draws among the sciences and almost-sciences very fascinating, and thought his discussions of points of co ...more

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May 29, 2017 Jeffrey rated it liked it

The main thing I liked about this book was the excellent future reading list it provided me in the form of the notes & references section. The thesis of the book is not particularly interesting or well argued, but the first few hundred pages of the book are a very nice capsule history of science from the mid-19th to mid-20th centuries, incorporating interesting little micro-biographies of many of the scientists involved in major developments. The quality of the book steeply declines as it moves ...more

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Dec 01, 2020 Erdem Yılmaz rated it liked it

Adı güzel kendi güzel Peter Watson "Hitabetim iyi, cebimde de bol bol bilim ve tarih bilgisi var, yaşım da ilerlediği için anektodal hikayeler anlatmayı sevmeye başladım" diyerek bilgisayarının başına oturmuş anlaşılan.

Neden böyle diyorum? Bir mucidin yaptığı çalışmayı anlatmaya o mucidin kız kardeşinin başından geçen tüberküloz hastalığıyla başlamak mantıklı değil. Watson da böyle düşünmüş olacak ki mucidin kardeşini de yeterli görmeyerek tüberküloz için çözüm üreten şifacıyı anlatmak istemiş. ...more

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Nov 04, 2017 Nguyen Hoang Phong rated it really liked it

The author is not a scientist. Let me preface with that. He is a science historian. So some of the scientific explanations in the book are not entirely correct, more like pop-science versions of the true ideas (especially regarding more esoteric subjects such as quantum mechanics). The last few chapters do get slightly incoherent, as the science gets more cutting-edge, philosophical, and the link across discoveries more tenuous. However, the first 80-or-so% of the book is solid, entertaining, mi ...more

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Aug 18, 2018 John Everard Griffith rated it it was amazing

This history of the developments of science since 1850 was thorough and fascinating. It shows how the various disciplines in science have contributed to the one story of the evolution of the universe and the evolution of the human species. It also shows how the different disciplines have been influencing each other as well. For anyone who is interested in more specifics as to how our understanding of the universe is evolving this is an excellent book. It is not just about one discipline but all ...more

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Aug 08, 2018 Cop Deb rated it it was amazing

Shelves: ciencia-y-tecnologia, filosofia, peter-watson, inglaterra

Excellente book.

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Jan 30, 2019 Sean rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science

WOW the 20th century waa certainly an impressive one in terms of advances in scienific discoveries.

Worth reading.

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Aug 20, 2018 Dinithi rated it really liked it

One of the most interesting things I've ever read, the book is rife with facts you can pull out in any kind of discussion. Lots of physics though, so a bit hard to get your head around the details. ...more

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Jan 08, 2018 Volker rated it liked it

Surely, this book has some flaws and some major wrong statements (electrons made out of quarks ?!) but in the long run, it gets quite some stuff right. In particular the 19th century is a nice read.

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Sep 17, 2018 Bjorn Delbeecke rated it really liked it

Great book. Very enjoyable. However, skip chapters 14 and 15; they are kinda ... speculative, to say the least.

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Sep 17, 2018 John Bleasdale rated it liked it · review of another edition

Basically all knowledge and science begins as one discipline; then splinters into many and then gradually they come back together again. Chemistry becomes physics biology becomes chemistry and everything becomes maths.

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About Peter Watson

Peter Watson

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Peter Watson was educated at the universities of Durham, London and Rome, and was awarded scholarships in Italy and the United States.

After a stint as Deputy Editor of New Society magazine, he was for four years part of the Sunday Times ‘Insight’ team of investigative journalists. He wrote the daily Diary column of the London Times before becoming that paper’s New York correspondent. He returned t ...more