The author provides a sweeping overview of the whole of Western science, from the Renaissance to the present. In it, he translates the most important, and often impenetrably obscure, scientific developments into a vernacular that aims to be accessible and illuminating.

'This book is a report of the scientific campaign up to now. It is not a history of science but rather an account of the major battles, the frequently eccentric generals and the ways in which science has deeply influenced man's picture of the world and of himself. It is not a final summing-up. We know that we are far from a real understanding of nature. We press on. Michelangelo's divine discontent gives us no rest. And although the history of science may be a trail littered with broken theories and discarded concepts, science is also a triumph of reason, luck, and above all imagination. There are few more successful, exciting, or strange journeys.' From the author's preface In The Ascent of Science, Brian Silver provides a sweeping and dynamic overview of the whole of Western science, from the Renaissance to the present. In it, he translates the most profoundly important, and often impenetrably obscure, scientific developments into a vernacular that is not only accessible and illuminating but highly enjoyable as well.

Preface
Introduction
Part 1
1. Newton Gets It Completely Wrong
2. I Believe
Part 2
3. Thomas Aquinas Vs. Neil Armstrong
4. The Second Law
5. Predicting Catstrophe
6. From Newton to de Sade - The Partial Triumph of Reason
7. From Rousseau to Blake - The Revolt Against Reason
Part 3
8. Lodestone, Amber, and Lightning
9. Belief and Action
Part 4
10. The Demise of Alchemy
11. The Nineteenth Century
12. The Material Trinity - The Atom
13. The Stuff of Existence
14. Scipio's Dream
Part 5
15. Making Waves
16. The Ubiquity of Motion
17. Energy
18. Entropy - Intimations of Immortality
19. Chaos
Part 6
20. The Slow Birth of Biology
21. In A Monastery Garden
22. Evolution
23. The Descent of Man
24. The Gene Machine
25. The Lords of Nature?
26. Life - The Molecular Battle
27. The Origin of Life? Take your Choice
Part 7
28. The Inexplicable Quantum
29. New Ways of Thinking
30. The Land of Pradox
31. The Elementary Particles
Part 8
32. Relativity
33. Cosmology
34. The Cosmos and Peeping Tom
35. The Impossibility of Creation
Part 9
36. The Tree of Death
37. "What the Devil Does it All Mean?"
Part 10
38. The Future