MARIO BIAGIOLO is Distinguished Professor of STS, Law, and History at the University of California at Davis, USA. JESSICA RISKIN is an Associate Professor of History at Stanford University, USA.

'The nature/nurture dichotomy has lost its grip in biology. So too, in the new history of science on display in this volume, science and culture no longer struggle against one another. Mutually entangled, they are also mutually enriching and constantly throw up surprises, from the boiling point of water to the meaning of a sundial to the legal status of a gene.' - M. Norton Wise, University of California, Los Angeles, USA 'In this remarkable assembly of essays, the authors take some of the oldest topics in the history of science (priority, experiments, devices, international meetings, for example) and rewrite them in a strikingly new register. Thoroughly historical, engagingly written, these inquiries show us how patents rewrite the very idea of innovation, how mechanisms alter philosophy, how biblical chronology engages astronomy. In the range and depth of their vision of history of science in a world of war, industry, and the academy, the book is a fine tribute to John Heilbron's illustrious career in history of science; at the same time, Nature Engaged stands on its own as a delightful glimpse of some of the best work we have.' - Peter L. Galison, Joseph Pellegrino University Professor and Director, Collection of Historical Scientific Instruments, Hardvard University, USA

• Introduction: Nature Engaged; M.Biagioli  & J.Riskin PART I: CONVENTIONS Scientific Meetings and Technical Standards; K.Alder Practicing Eighteenth-Century Science Today; H.Chang The Textbook Case of a Priority Dispute; M.D.Gordin Complex Systems and Total War; D.Pestre PART II: LAWS Witnessing Astronomy: Kepler on the Uses and Misuses of Testimony; M.Biagioli Improvement for Profit: Calculating Machines and the Prehistory of Intellectual Property; M.L.Jones Genes, Railroads and Regulations; D.J.Kevles Epidemiology in Court; T.Golan PART III: NARRATIVES Mercator Maps Time; A.Grafton Rethinking 1633: Writing about Galileo After the Trial; P.Findlen PART IV: THINGS Machines in the Garden; J.Riskin Cosmography and the Meaning of Sundials; J.Bennett The Web of Knowing and Doing: William Thomson's Apparatus Room and the History of Electricity; G.Pancaldi