Jardine's book is meticulously researched, throwing interesting light on the development of science in the 17th and 18th centuries. It shows that science is not some abstract pursuit, divorced from real concerns, but tied up with military ambitions, commerce, colonialism. The first authors of guides to aspects of the natural world - fishes, plants, insects - were as concerned with turning a profit from selling specimens and drugs as they were in furthering knowledge. Also, the first pioneer scientists are an eccentric bunch. Isaac Newton and Robert Boyle shared an interest in alchemy. Robert Hooke, the Royal Society's foremost inventor and experimenter, was a talented artist, who supplied the engravings for his own Micrographia, one of the first collections of everyday objects (fleas, plant seeds) as seen through the microscope. He was also a keen self-medicator, dosing himself with everything from opium to mercury and lead (a practice also maintained by many of his contemporaries). We also learn interesting facts: St Paul's Cathedral was originally designed with a view to providing means to conduct scientific experiments; scientific collaboration continued between scientists of different nationalities, even when their countries were at war. Lisa Jardine writes well, and succeeds in giving fresh life to this early stage of the scientific revolution, and the book is a worthy read for anyone interested in the history of science. However, I do feel that it lacks commentary, to an extent. Whilst tracing the complicated web of influences upon the development of science, she rarely stands back and draws any explicit lessons or contribute her own observations. Some may applaud this lack of editorialising. Personally, however, I think such a survey as this would have benefited from more of this type of commentary, without which the book tends to degenerate at times into a mass of data - a sea of names, projects, publications, incidents, dates. And the history of science, like science itself, is more than just data collection.

Gareth Southwell is a philosopher, writer and illustrator.

This is a gem of a book. Basically a snapshot of science & scientists in the 1600's, it brings to life the sudden change in the intellectual world away from accepting received wisdom, and to the modern scientific age based on direct observation and experimentation. Loved it.
Read in Samoa June 2002 ( )

A year or so ago, I greatly enjoyed reading another book by Lisa Jardine, "Worldly Goods: A New History of the Renaissance", but I couldn't justify it for "Hal's Picks" because it didn't have much scientific content. When I heard about "Ingenious Pursuits", I bought it from a book club and read it right away. My regret is that I didn't buy the hardcover version, because this is a book that I will keep for a long time. Lisa Jardine is Professor of English at Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London, but she is also a daughter of Jacob Bronowski, and she displays the independence of thought and the ability to view history in creative ways that characterized her late father. In "Ingenious Pursuits", she follows the early history of Western science (mostly 17th and 18th centuries) by focusing on the work of the inventors who created the equipment essential to the progress of science. Many of these names are already familiar: Hooke and Huygens, for example. I, for one, was unaware of the extent of the scientific interests of the famous architect, Christopher Wren, until I read this book. I also didn't know that many of the early experiments with vacuum pumps involved the asphyxiation of small animals, often for entertainment. Wren and Robert Boyle, famous to chemists for his contribution to gas laws, were involved in gruesome experiments to discover how respiration works by vivisecting large numbers of dogs. ( )

This interesting book from Lisa Jardine is almost a history of the early years of the Royal Society. Jardine fixes on the latter half of the seventeenth century where scientists were either competing on collaborating to drive forward a host of new technological developments that led to many of the devices that we take for granted today. For instance, the clock, telescope and microscope all leapt forward during that period, largely as a consequence of the exertions of the various polymaths who gathered to share and discuss their respective discoveries at the regular meetings of the Royal Society.
This is an accessible book - one of Professor Jardine's strengths is her ability to explain scientific theories in a concise, clear and readily understood manner. ( )

Not as interesting as I thought it would be. I had trouble following the book, mostly from lack of interest; there was more information than I needed. There is a cast of characters, but since the book is not organized chronologically, a timeline would have been helpful. ( )