patricia fara science a four thousand year history

I love that her book is not organized chronologically, but is thematic. She makes the connections between science and public and private interests clear, not just today, but in the past. As history progresses, the sponsors may change but they are never disinterested. Science is not free, it requires patrons, kings, scientific societies, entrepreneurial sponsors, governments, defense departments, pharmaceuticals and agricultural companies. Scientists (a word she likes to point out did not exist 200 years ago) like to think of their work as free of ideology, with pure motives in pursuit of knowledge for thee sake of knowledge. She also brings a perceptive class analysis to how science developed and why some scientists were less successful despite their great achievements while men with lesser accomplishment carried the day for a time. Well, where they are still considered lesser. Mara takes time to point out the contributions of women to science, and how hard it often was for them to make those contributions in a world where they were considered lesser. And Mendel never even knew the significance of his discoveries. For a time, Lysenkoism seemed as sensible as Mendelism, until millions starved to death as a result of his dominance of Soviet science. The answers change over time and one thing she wants readers to understand is that today’s answers may one day sound as wrong headed as yesterday’s alchemists. It’s all about classification, isn’t it? The Arts & Sciences? What is art, what is science and who decides? Why is astronomy science and astrology hoodoo?

This brings Mara to one of the central themes of the book, what gets to be science and what is left out. It has many scientific, religious, mathematical and cultural points of significance. Her first chapters is called Sevens and talks about the special properties of seven. Science: A Four Thousand Year History is organized in seven units of seven chapters–a prime number product of prime numbers. She points out how often a false scientific theory reaches preeminence because of good marketing, good luck or good connections, though in the end, science’s self-correcting ethos of trying to prove everything wrong works in the long run.

It is enlivened by her strong opinions that make it clear that more than one of our science heroes were unpleasant people to know. Patricia Mara’s Science: A Four Thousand Year History is the most enjoyable science history I have ever read and I have read a few.

Patricia fara science a four thousand year history