Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations

Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations

by RoyPorter (Editor), W.F.Bynum (Editor)

Synopsis

The original words announcing great scientific discoveries, from the first 'Eureka!' to the cloning of Dolly the sheep, can all be found in this fascinating new collection, a major addition to the world-famous Oxford Quotations range. An essential reference tool, put together over 15 years with the assistance of a distinguished team of specialist advisers, it includes full author descriptions, exact sources, and a word-finding index for easy reference. Scholarly but accessible, it also presents the human face of science, as scientists reflect on achievements and failures in their own lives and those of others. Darwin not only describes natural selection, but carefully assesses the pros and cons of marriage, while James Clerk Maxwell constructs an electric but poetic Valentine as well as his 'demon'. From Archimedes to Einstein and beyond, the Oxford Dictionary of Scientific Quotations charts the progress of the great ideas of science. Schrodinger's wave-mechanics is not a physical theory but a dodge - and a very good dodge too. - Arthur Eddington. I have little patience with scientists who take a board of wood, look for its thinnest part and drill a great number of holes where drilling is easy. - Albert Einstein. Science and everyday life cannot and should not be separated. - Rosalind Franklin. I do not feel obliged to believe that same God who has endowed us with senses, reason, and intellect has intended to forgo their use and by some other means to give us knowledge which we can attain by them. - Galileo Galilei. I try to identify myself with the atoms...I ask what I would do if I were a carbon atom or a sodium atom. - Linus Pauling.

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More Information

Format: Hardcover
Pages: 736
Publisher: OUP Oxford
Published: 03 Mar 2005

ISBN 10: 0198584091
ISBN 13: 9780198584094

Media Reviews
Great stuff. Nicholas Bagnall, The Sunday Times An excellent job. The ODSQ is a valuable reference book that is both instructive and fun to browse. Chris Llewellyn Smith, Times Higher Education Supplement The dictionary is a good source material, richly produced in the best Oxford University Press manner. Nature marvellous...There are other dictionaries of scientific quotations. But this extraordinay compliation is infinately richer than a trawl through existing collections nor is it like most dictionaries of quotations, which often deal in sound-bites. Spectator Serendipitous is the word for this book stuffed with memorable words. New Scientist Impressive Tome...An aexcellent reference work but also perfect for browsing
Author Bio

W. F. Bynum is Professor Emeritus of the history of medicine at the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. He has edited many books, including (with Janet Browne and Roy Porter) The Macmillan Dictionary of the History of Science, and (with Roy Porter) Companion Encyclopedia of the History of Medicine and the author of Science and the Practice of Medicine in the Nineteenth Century. Roy Porter was until his retirement Professor of the Social History of Medicine at the Wellcome Centre for the History of Medicine at University College London. His most recent books include Madness: A Brief History and Flesh and the Age of Reason. He died in March 2002.