Prelude Science Classics – serie

One of the most illuminating, useful and exciting books ever published in the mathematical fieldTaking only a modicum of knowledge for granted, Lancelot Hogben leads readers of this famous book through the whole course from simple arithmetic to calculus.His illuminating explanation is addressed to the person who wants to understand the place of mathematics in modern civilization but who has been intimidated by its supposed difficulty.Mathematics is the language of size, shape, and order – a language Hogben shows one can both master and enjoy.

"Swords and lances, arrows, machine guns and even high explosives have had far less power over the fate of nations than the typhus louse, the plague flea and the yellow-fever mosquito."Both shocking and entertaining, this masterpiece of popular science writing tells the tragic story of the struggle between humanity and its humble but deadly enemies, the organisms of disease.Zinsser shows how infectious disease simply represented an attempt of a living organism to survive. While from the human perspective an invading pathogen was abnormal, from the perspective of the pathogen it was perfectly normal.From the pestilence which contributed to the downfall of Rome to the dancing manias of medieval Europe, the aristocracy’s fashion for wearing wigs and the role of typhus in the First World War, Zinsser reveals just how disease and epidemics have shaped human history.

In the conventional wisdom the scientist is pictured as a data gatherer, methodically working towards general scientific laws by objective research and painstaking observation.But scientific creation is really more complex and more inspiring than this. It depends up on an imaginative leap akin to that of the poet, and an ability to select problems that allow for that leap.This beautifully written work was hugely influential when first published, and continues to inspire today.As neuroscientist V.S. Ramachandran says, 'it makes science seem like a grand, romantic adventure yet also fun’.