{"product_id":"curiosity-how-science-became-interested-in-everything-9780226045795","title":"Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything","description":"\u003cp\u003eWith the recent landing of the Mars rover Curiosity  it seems safe to assume that the idea of being curious is alive and well in modern sciencethat its not merely encouraged but is seen as an essential component of the scientific mission. Yet there was a time when curiosity was condemned. Neither Pandora nor Eve could resist the dangerous allure of unanswered questions  and all knowledge wasnt equalfor millennia it was believed that there were some things we should not try to know. In the late sixteenth century this attitude began to change dramatically  and in Curiosity: How Science Became Interested in Everything  Philip Ball investigates how curiosity first became sanctionedwhen it changed from a vice to a virtue and how it became permissible to ask any and every question about the world.  Looking closely at the sixteenth through eighteenth centuries  Ball vividly brings to life the age when modern science began  a time that spans the lives of Galileo and Isaac Newton. In this entertaining and illuminating account of the rise of science as we know it  Ball tells of scientists both legendary and lesser known  from Copernicus and Kepler to Robert Boyle  as well as the inventions and technologies that were inspired by curiosity itself  such as the telescope and the microscope. The so-called Scientific Revolution is often told as a story of great geniuses illuminating the world with flashes of inspiration. But Curiosity reveals a more complex story  in which the liberationand subsequent tamingof curiosity was linked to magic  religion  literature  travel  trade  and empire. Ball also asks what has become of curiosity today: how it functions in science  how it is spun and packaged for consumption  how well it is being sustained  and how the changing shape of science influences the kinds of questions it may continue to ask.  Though proverbial wisdom tell us that it was through curiosity that our innocence was lost  that has not deterred us. Instead  it has been completely the contrary: today we spend vast sums trying to reconstruct the first instants of creation in particle accelerators  out of a pure desire to know. Ball refuses to let us take this desire for granted  and this book is a perfect homage to such an inquisitive attitude.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"My Store","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":45647085273141,"sku":"ByrdShop_022604579X","price":28.01,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0627\/8139\/0901\/files\/9780226045795.jpg?v=1781688354","url":"https:\/\/atxbooks.com\/products\/curiosity-how-science-became-interested-in-everything-9780226045795","provider":"ATX Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}