A brief history of science : as seen through the development of scientific instruments

"From the earliest prehistory, with the dawning of understanding of fire and its many uses, including cooking and pottery, up to the twenty-first century and the 26-kilometre underground particle accelerator, this is a fascinating exploration of mankind's innovative nature. Thomas Crump describes how our creativity, expressed in the design and production of tools and scientific instruments has continually extended the frontiers of science, and, as a consequence, human civilization. Ever more sophisticted means have been employed in our attempts to understand the universe. The gnomons and sundials of antiquity led on, in Renaissance Europe, to standardized measurements recorded in Arabic numerals. Starting around 1600, the modern age [...] followed with instruments such as microscopes, thermometers and chemical balances, spectroscopes, vacuum pumps and X-rays, particle counters and accelerators, semi-conductors and micro-processors - all continuously developing according to the state-of-the-art technology. The book also describes the apparatus designed to create and observe matter at temperatures close to absolute zero, below that of any gas, where normal properties such as electrical resistance no longer hold."--Provided by the publisher.