A New History of the Scientific Revolution 2015

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 Didnt find The Invention of Science [Harper] full of the excitement the name might have augured. Author David Wooton determinedly grinds through the history, with some dramatic diversions, but mostly with a focus on the act of definition of terms. The span from Tycho Brake to Isaac Newton pretty much forms the basis of the book.


The stumbling search for terms that describe 'what' the inventors were doing gets a lot of attention - that along with the murky manner in which terms like "machine", "science", "invention" and "experiment" come to describe what goes on. It is less than deft - the way that Wooton shows the birthing of clarifying words. It's laborious, at least for those who may not be his student. At times The Invention of Science is a trip through volumes of the OED. Maybe that's not so bad.

At some point, things come together, and the race is on. 

In The Invention of Science, the author focuses on locating what he terms "conceptual tools"—newly emerging facts, discoveries, and technical breakthroughs. Instruments like the telescope were central to these inflectional shifts. These elements eventually benefited from an emerging scientific network that began to coalesce during the Scientific Revolution.

Wootton characterizes the Torricellian barometer as a major technical breakthrough on the path toward modern science; it crucial in what he cubs the "first famous experiment." Evangelista Torricelli’s 1643 vacuum and mercury barometer experiment was widely replicated across Europe once the underlying mechanics were understood and the device could be easily constructed.

It was repeatable. Blaise Pascal’s 1648 Puy de Dôme experiment—carried out on a volcano in central France by his brother-in-law, Florin Périer, who had the stamina Pascal lacked—was a key link in this chain of replication. Robert Boyle in England similarly took part in this new network of experimentation, building his own barometers to verify others' claims firsthand.

They would come to call it the Age of Science. This marked the end of Aristotelian physics and "Nature abhors a vacuum" -- while also helping close the door on alchemy. As my brother likes to say, the difference between networking and not working is very thin.

Wootton bookends the revolution between 1572 (Tycho Brahe's observation of a new star) and 1704 (Isaac Newton's publication of Opticks). Got to give him credit. Too much, nitpicking is part and parcel of the post modern. But, to be honest, give me Connections by James Burke - something I avidly read over and over.

"The Invention of Science" [Harper]



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