The Cat in the Box ─ A History of Science in 100 Experiments

This book distills the history of science into 100 epic experiments that have fueled our understanding of Earth and the Universe beyond.

Everything in the scientific world view is based on experiment, including observations of phenomena predicted by theories and hypotheses, such as the bending of light as it goes past the Sun. As the Nobel Prize-winning physicist Richard Feynman said, “If it disagrees with experiment, it is wrong.”

From the discovery of microscopic worlds and gravitational waves, to the weighing the Earth, to making electricity, this stunning book by renowned science writers John and Mary Gribbin tells the enlightening, fascinating, and somewhat oddball story of scientific innovation.

John Gribbin got his PhD from the Institute of Astronomy in Cambridge (then under the leadership of Fred Hoyle), before working as a science journalist for Nature and later New Scientist. His wife Mary is a teacher with a special gift for communicating difficult concepts. They have co-written several titles for adults and children. John is the “go-to” man for quantum physics and author of many bestselling popular science books, including Schrodinger’s Kittens and the Search for Reality, In Search of Schrodinger’s Cat, and The Scientists. He is a Visiting Fellow at the University of Sussex and a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature.

 

Mary Gribbin is a teacher with a special gift for communicating difficult concepts. She and her husband, John Gribbin, have co-written several titles for adults and children.