Science Changed the World

Science Changed the World is an introductory survey that examines and promotes critical thinking about the origin, development, and impact of science from ancient times to the present. Publication of this historical survey of science marks another milestone in the steady growth of college history of science courses. Science Changed the World’s eleven chapters examine eleven themes that have dominated the emergence of science. They provide an integrated view of how science developed in different times and diverse cultures and offer a pathway to understanding the emergence and evolution of modern science and how science shaped modern society.

Science Changed the World has four objectives:

To broadens students’ worldview and perspective by introducing them to the origin, growth, and impact of science on society. To neglect the history of science in discussing the history of global societies is to neglect the major force that has shaped and continues to shape our world. To make clear that science is a human activity or enterprise. People do science, science does not happen spontaneously. To show that science is dynamic, not static, and that science changes over time. Scientists are not infallible and neither are their ideas. To expose and eliminate misconceptions and erroneous beliefs that have crept into the sciences. Misconceptions and erroneous beliefs, once inserted in science, are difficult to remove and leave students with a false sense of historical and scientific truth.

Science Changed the World tells us how our modern scientific society has emerged.