The Great Scientists is a lavishly-illustrated collection of essays, each devoted to one of history's greatest scientists.

From the Greek mathematicians Euclid and Archimedes, whose work is even now required reading, to the theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, the greatest practitioners from a wide range of scientific disciplines are represented here. Each essay gives a biographical background for its subject and a description of the main themes of their work, together with concise expositions of some of their key ideas.

The thirty-four chronologically-organized essays in this book add up to a biography of science itself.

John Farndon lives in London and is the author of over 200 books on a wide range of subjects, including the best-selling Harper Collins Children's Encyclopedia, the Dorling Kindersley Pocket Encyclopedia, How the Earth Works, The Wildlife Atlas and many more. His specialty is science, and he has been short-listed three times for the Copus Junior Science book prize.

Alex Woolf is an experienced writer and editor of children's information books, specializing in modern history and science at secondary level. He has written more than twenty books, includ...