THE standard view of the history of science has experimentalists such as William Harvey and Robert Boyle leading the way to arrive at modern scientific method. This in many ways leaves the natural sciences trailing behind the rest. In this beautifully illustrated, fascinating book, Brian Ogilvie shows how the natural sciences developed in a vigorous and quite different way to the experimentalism of the “hard” sciences. He shows how botany arose out of a network of plant lovers who got together to exchange bulbs and cultivation tips, then started exchanging scientific ideas.
The Science of Describing
University of…
