Galileo's Finger: The Ten Great Ideas Of Science

Why Galileo's finger? Galileo, one of whose fingers is preserved in a vessel displayed in Florence, provided much of the impetus for modern science, pointing the way out of medieval ignorance. In this account of the central ideas of contemporary science, Peter Atkins celebrates the effectiveness of Galileo's symbolic finger for revealing the nature of our universe, our world, and ourselves. The book explores ten central ideas of science, including evolution, entropy, energy, symmetry, cosmology, and spacetime, making complex concepts accessible and engaging for general readers.