Servants of Nature : A History of Scientific Institutions, Enterprises and Sensibilities

A penetrating account of how science, perhaps above all other human endeavors, has shaped --and been shaped by --the world that we inhabit today. Servants of Nature explores the fascinating interaction between scientific practice and public life from antiquity to the present. The authors reveal how, in Asia, Europe, and the New World, advances in science have been closely allied to changes in three distinct areas of society: the institutions that sustain science; the moral, religious, political, and philosophical sensibilities of scientists themselves; and the goal of the scientific enterprise. The book proceeds to trace how the bodies that shape scientific tradition and guide innovation have acquired their authority. And in conclusion the authors consider how scientific goals have changed, as they examine the relationship between science, the military, and industry in modern times. Servants of Nature probes the culture of science from its origins to the present and promises to be an indispensable contribution to the history of science.