Colleen’s Reviews > Seeing Further: Ideas, Endeavours, Discoveries and Disputes — The Story of Science Through 350 Years of the Royal Society > Status Update

Any chapter that has to deal with engineering is a good chapter for me. Just finished reading about the push and pull that went on between engineers, designers, and politicians when bridges were being built. It was a very interesting debate and topic to read about

It's interesting reading about different scientific discoveries and how they shaped the scientific community. Lots of arguments have resulted from fundamental concepts we know to be true today such a lightning rods and hot air balloons. As the book goes along it seems to be getting consistently average writers who are easier to follow and pay attention to.

Just finished a chapter by Simon Schaffer on Promethean Science. Well written, easy to follow, and very insightful on the controversy of the lightning rod in the 1780's. I enjoyed this portion of the book

The last chapter I read, by Neal Stephenson, focused on Leibniz work. Although it was informative, the author rambled on for pages about how Leibniz' work was disputed in the past, but is being studied again for his theories and thought process. I didn't particularly enjoy it.

Each chapter is a bit hit or miss. I enjoyed Bill Bryson's introduction, and the chapter written by Margaret Atwood about mad scientists. Each chapter offers an insightful point about science and its progression, but some are very dry.