The Age of Science: What We Learned in the 20th Century

When historians of the future come to examine western civilization in the twentieth century, one area of intellectual accomplishment will stand out above all others: more than any other era before it, the twentieth century was an age of science. Not only were the practical details of daily life radically transformed by the application of scientific discoveries, but our very sense of who we are, how our minds work, how our world came to be, how it works and our proper role in it, our ultimate origins, and our ultimate fate were all influenced by scientific thinking as never before in human history. In The Age of Science, the former editor and publisher of Scientific American gives us a sweeping overview of the scientific achievements of the twentieth century, with chapters on the fundamental forces of nature, the subatomic world, cosmology, the cell and molecular biology, earth history and the evolution of life, and human evolution. Beautifully written and illustrated, this is a book for the connoisseur: an elegant, informative, magisterial summation of one of the twentieth century's greatest cultural achievements.

Author: Gerard Piel
Publisher: Basic Books
Published: 01/01/2001
Pages: 480
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 2.24lbs
Size: 9.50h x 7.70w x 1.42d
ISBN: 9780465057559

Review Citation(s):
Publishers Weekly 10/01/2001 pg. 46
Kirkus Reviews 10/01/2001 pg. 1406
Booklist 10/15/2001 pg. 364
New York Times 11/11/2001 pg. 29
Library Journal 11/15/2001 pg. 95
LJ Best Sci-Tech Books 03/01/2002 pg. 60
Asimov's Science Fiction 05/06/2002 pg. 140
Choice 04/01/2002 pg. 1440
Scitech Book News 12/01/2001 pg. 19

About the Author
Gerard Piel was a founder of the revived Scientific American and served as its publisher from 1948 until his retirement in 1986. He lives in New York City.