A Science Odyssey: 100 Years of Discovery (The Companion Book to the PBS Series) - Hardcover

Charles Flowers

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0688151965 ISBN 13: 9780688151966

Publisher: William Morrow, 1997

Synopsis

Foreword by Charles Osgood

Introduction by Charles Kuralt

The Science Odyssey seriesan end-of-the-century look at what we know, what it means to our lives, and what we have yet to learnconsists of five two-hour documentary programs to air nationally during prime time on PBS on January 1115.

The book is a companion, adjunct, enhancement, and augmentation of the series. It explores the sweeping changes that have revolutionized both our lives and our thinking in technology, physics, astronomy, earth science, biology, chemistry, paleoanthropology, medicine, public health, and the behavioral sciences over the course of the century.

Reflecting the organization of the television series, the book is divided into five sections: Bigger, Better, FasterTechnology and Engineering; Mysteries of the UniverseAstronomy and Physics; OriginsEarth Sciences and Life Sciences; Matters of Life and DeathMedicine and Public Health; In Search of OurselvesHuman Nature and Behavior.

This colorfully illustrated, accessible, and enlightening journey over the twentieth centurys astonishing scientific terrain probes the discoveries, the people, and the historical events that have shaped this centurys explosion of scientific ideas.

Visit the companion websiteclick on the link, above left.

About this title

About the Author:

Charles Flowers, the award-winning author or coauthor of sixty-two books, has also written television documentaries, magazine articles, art and theater criticism, and opinion columns in such publications as the New York Times, The Virginia Quarterly Review, and City Newspaper. A former newspaper reporter, high school teacher, and university professor, he wrote the screenplay for the feature film The Nation, and, with composer Sorrel Hays, the three-act opera Our Giraffe.

From Kirkus Reviews:

This companion volume to an upcoming PBS series (to begin airing in January) offers a swiftly paced survey of many of the major scientific discoveries made over the past hundred years, including the evolution of modern physics and cosmology, the emergence of the revolutionary theory of plate tectonics, the development of airplanes, the exploration of space, and the long medical struggle to understand and control such ravaging diseases as polio, diabetes, and pellagra. This is certainly not fresh terrain, but Flowers offers particularly lucid and enthusiastic descriptions of the trial-and-error scientific process, and he sets his narrative of repeated failures leading up to extraordinary breakthroughs firmly within the larger frame of society and technological change, reminding the reader that science has always emerged out of a society and been shaped by that society's needs and expectations. A lively collection of vignettes. Those needing a detailed history, however, should certainly look elsewhere. (60 color, 90 b&w photos, not seen) -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

About this edition

• Publisher: William Morrow
• Publication date: 1997
• ISBN 10: 0688151965
• ISBN 13: 9780688151966
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 316