An absorbing introduction to the growth of scientific knowledge over the last 500 years. It sets important discoveries in a context of time and place, and introduces the reader to the people who brought them to life. Along the way, it provides a framework for understanding the concepts and theories which collectively form our modern scientific view. Entries are arranged chronologically from around 1500 to the present day. This book can be used as a question and answer book, as a book for dipping into, as an overview of a particular discipline or the work of a particular scientists, or it can be simply read as the unfolding story of discovery.