Eyewitness to Science
Scientists and Writers Illuminate Natural Phenomena from Fossils to Fractals
John Carey
Plotting the development of modern science from Leonardo da Vinci to Chaos Theory, John Carey chooses accounts by scientists themselves that are both elegant and arrestingly written. The classic science-writers are here: Darwin, Huxley, Fabre. So, too, are the luminaries of the late-twentieth-century genre of popular science-writing which, Carey argues, challenges contemporary poetry and fiction in its imaginative power.
John Carey is Merton Professor of English at Oxford University, a distinguished critic, reviewer and broadcaster, and the author of several books, including The Intellectuals and the Masses.