Table Of Contents:
Introduction & Acknowledgments 1(16)

Bill Bryson

1 At the Beginning: More Things in Heaven and Earth 17(20)

James Gleick

2 Of The Madness of Mad Scientists: Jonathan Swift's Grand Academy 37(22)

Margaret Atwood

3 Lost in Space: The Spititual Crisis of Newtonian Cosmology 59(24)

Margaret Wertheim

4 Atoms of Congnition: Metaphysics in the Royal Society. 1715-2010 83(24)

Neal Stephenson

5 What's in a Name? Rivalries and the Birth of Modern Science 107(24)

Rebecca Newberger Goldstein

6 Charged Atmospheres: Promethean Science and the Royal Society 131(26)

Simon Schaffer

7 A New Age of Flight: Joseph Banks Goes Ballooning 157(26)

Richard Holmes

8 Archives of Life: Science And Collections 183(20)

Richard Fortey

9 Darwin's Five Bridges: The Way to Natural Selection 203(26)

Richard Dawkins

10 Images of Progress: Conferences of Engineers 229(22)

Henry Petroski

11 X-Ray Visions: Structural Biologists and Social Action in the Twentieth Century 251(22)

Georgina Ferry

12 Ten Thousand Wedges: Biodiversity, Natural Selection and Random Change 273(22)

Steve Jones

13 Making Stuff: From Bacon to Bakelite 295(26)

Philip Ball

14 Just Typical: Our Changing Place in the Universe 321(20)

Paul Davies

15 Behind The Scenes: The Hidden Mathematics That Rules Our World 341(20)

Ian Stewart

16 Simple Really: From Simplicity to Complexity-and Back Again 361(24)

John D. Barrow

17 Globe And Sphere Cycles and Flows: How to See The World 385(20)

Oliver Morton

18 Beyond Ending: Looking Into The Void 405(20)

Maggie Gee

19 Confidence, Consensus and The Uncertainty Cops: Tackling Risk Management in Climate Change 425(20)

Stephen H. Schneider

20 Time: The Winged Chariot 445(22)

Gregory Benford
Conclusion: Looking Fifty Years Ahead 467(19)

Martin Rees
Further Reading 486(4)
List of Illustrations 490(1)
Index 491