Knowledge, know-how, and social change -- Writing makes science possible -- Inventing reason and knowledge -- The birth of natural science -- Mathematics as the order of nature -- The birth of techno-science -- Universities relaunch the idea of knowledge -- The medieval revolution in know-how -- Progress enters into history -- The printed book : Gutenberg to Galileo -- Renaissance painting and techno-science -- Copernicus moves the Earth.
The birth of modern science -- Algebra, calculus, and probability -- Conservation and symmetry -- Instruments as extensions of the mind -- Time, change, and novelty -- The atomic theory of matter -- The cell theory of life -- The germ theory of disease -- The gene theory of inheritance -- Energy challenges matter -- Fields : the immaterial become real -- Relationships become physical.
Evolution as process science -- Statistical laws challenge determinism -- Techno-science comes of age -- Institutions empower innovation -- The quantum revolution -- Relativity redefines space and time -- Reconceiving the universe, again -- The idea behind the computer -- Three faces of information -- Systems, chaos, and self-organization -- Life as molecules in action -- Great ideas, past and future.
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