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Magazine Issue 9 Book Review: Cambridge Scientific Minds, edited by Peter Harman and Simon Mitton
| Book Review: Cambridge Scientific Minds, edited by Peter Harman and Simon Mitton |
| Wednesday, 09 May 2007 | |
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The University of Cambridge boasts a world-renowned reputation for excellence in science. But do you really know the full extent of the heritage of this great institution? From the likes of William Gilbert in the sixteenth century to our most recent superstar Professor Stephen Hawking, this book details the history of scientific research at the University of Cambridge spanning six centuries and boasting more than seventy Nobel Prize winners, which incidentally earns the University its own section in the Nobel Museum in Stockholm. Editors Peter Harman and Simon Mitton take you on a wonderful journey through the scientific minds that flourished and impressed here in Cambridge. This collection of chapters tells the stories of most of the greatest scientific minds this planet has seen. It will inspire any budding scientist studying at Cambridge. Not only that, it is a fascinating souvenir for anyone who has a connection to this University.
Each chapter tackles a different scientist, linking them with their collaborators and making sense of how science has evolved through the ideas of so many great Cambridge minds. With accounts of twenty-three Cambridge scientists, there is something for everyone. Readers can dip into any chapter to find out about their favourite, well-known or seemingly less-famous scientific hero. Naturally, the book describes the work of three of the greatest figures in the history of science, Isaac Newton, Charles Darwin and James Clerk Maxwell. However, it also presents the reader with a few lesser-known figures such as Charles Sherrington and the physiology of the nervous system, Mary Cartwright and her contribution to the field of mathematics and Frederick Gowland Hopkins, the founder of British biochemistry. It is not surprising that Cambridge has nurtured such geniuses when you consider that Frederick Gowland Hopkins lectured a later great mind in Joseph Needham and Mary Cartwright attended lectures by the mathematicians Hardy and Littlewood before developing her theorem. In short, this book is a delightful collection of accounts that will interest all kinds of readers, from the scientifically-minded to those simply inspired by the achievements of so many great minds from the past. Cambridge Scientific Minds Edited by Peter Harman and Simon Mitton (Cambridge University Press, 2002) Beth Ashbridge is a graduate student in the Department of Chemistry |
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