Author: Shobhit Mahajan
Publisher: Penguin/Puffin
Year: 2005
Language: English
Pages: 150
ISBN/UPC (if available): 0143335014
Description
Did you know that…
The first alarm clock could ring only at 4 a m?
John Dalton, who formulated the theory of the atom, started running a school at the age of twelve?
Isaac Newton spent his later years trying to transform base metals into gold?
The last samples of the smallpox virus are kept in two secret laboratories in Siberia and in the US?
Charles Babbage, who invented the first computer, once baked himself in an oven?
The world’s first telephone directory was a single sheet of paper with fifty names?
We take so many things for granted today: we have clocks that show the time; electric lights; music on the radio; telephone conversations with friends, work on our computers,; antibiotics that cure us if we are ill. But even as recently as 150 years ago, many of these things were not available or possible.
This fascinating book examines twenty concepts and things that have transformed our lives and the way we live. It looks at the thought behind these ideas and inventions, and the people who finally pulled it all together. Inspirational, funny, irreverent, and filled with fascinating facts and memorable stories, From Bugs to Black Holes is essential reading for those who love science as well as for those who never thought it could be fun.
Contents
INTRODUCTION
The Beginning of Time
Why Things Float
The Printed Word
The Nature of The Universe
The Falling Apple
The Age of Steam
That Dread Disease
The Smallest World
The First Computer
The Age of Electricity
The Age of Steel
The Descent of Man
Calling Across The Miles
The Age of The Automobile
Let there be Light
The Invisible Enemy
Ruling the airwaves
Seeing Within
The Magical Mould
The Particles of Life