Biology An Illustrated History Of Life

The thoughts and deeds of great thinkers always make great stories, and here we have one hundred all together. Each story relates a ponderable, a weighty problem that became a discovery that changed the world.

Knowledge does not arrive fully formed, it requires many minds to puzzle over the evidence, and, step by step, edge ever closer to an answer. This book tracks the history of biology, where scientists have wondered at the great diversity of living things on Earth and set out to understand the most complex process in the Universe - life itself.

The story of biology is closely entwined with the history we share with wildlife, domesticated species - and even mythical creatures. Once it was thought that the dolphin was a fish, that unicorns were real, and that simple animals formed from mud, but the work of biologists like Carl Linnaeus, Gregor Mendel, and Louis Pasteur transformed our understanding of life. Biology has shown that a DNA chemical in every cell contains the instructions to build a human body, and all life, from bacteria to blue whales, uses the same system. Biologists today explore everything from how life developed and is maintained, to robot design, artificial intelligence, and the exploration of space.

A 12-page removable timeline embeds the story in historical context
Includes: Foldout Timeline with over 1,000 Milestone Facts
100 Discoveries that Changed History