The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science

Edited by:
  • J. L. Heilbron
Oxford University Press: 2003. 960 pp. $110, £40

The value of a person's life is not to be judged by the length of the obituary. However, more than 100 biographies of scientists in The Oxford Companion to the History of Modern Science are all approximately one page in length, regardless of the achievement of the scientist or the amount of information available about the person. This modified egalitarianism is illuminating not only of the subject at issue, but of current attitudes towards personal achievement and great men or women. Linus Pauling, who uniquely won two individual Nobel prizes, made enormous contributions to several areas, including insights into the nature of the chemical bond, and lived to a ripe age of 93, still working on controversial issues. Rosalind Franklin made an important, but single, contribution to the elucidation of the structure of DNA, and died at the early age of 37. These two scientists get the same consideration as Galileo.

By almost any measure, modern science begins with Galileo Galilei (1564–1642). He made enormous theoretical and practical contributions to areas as disparate as astronomy and the measurement of time. He tore down the dusty shed of aristotelian physics that had blocked the daylight for so long. He was also one of the first rational investigators to fall foul of government and orthodoxy. His entry in this book describes him as the father of modern science, and the preface to the book begins with a quotation from him.

Conspicuously absent is an entry on Giordano Bruno, who was burnt at the stake for his iconoclastic but rational views of astronomy a few years before Galileo faced the Inquisition. Who can doubt that Galileo's recanting of his 'heresies' of heliocentrism was fuelled by the fire that consumed Bruno? Bruno receives three mentions en passant, on the influences on him, and on his views of an infinite Universe and stellar distances. Bruno was a hermeticist. Hermeticism, which does get a deserved entry in this book, was a part rational, part mystical system of thought, significant in the development of modern science. However, Galileo was surely the first modern scientist.

The editor-in-chief, J. L. Heilbron, is a witty and erudite contributor. His entry on 'ether' begins: “A possibly nonexistent entity”, a description that in itself conjures up various philosophical issues. Are Plato's 'ideal horses' entities? Heilbron is aided by 5 editors, 7 consultants and 217 contributors, in producing almost a thousand pages of double-column text.

The thematic listing at the front of the volume of main headings and subheadings was more useful than the index. Thus, an index entry of page 357 for 'civil rights' leaves the reader scanning two densely printed columns in search of the elusive reference.

Some of the entries, such as that on 'progress', seem overly general. Others seem non-intuitive, such as 'tacit knowledge', 'shift of hegemony', 'diffusion in the east' (which has nothing to do with gases), or 'brain drains and paperclip operations'. 'Standard model' discusses GUTs and TOEs but not body parts (TOEs being 'theories of everything' and GUTs referring to 'grand unified theories'). The value of the thematic listing is shown by finding 'tacit knowledge' as a subheading of 'Epistemology and methodology', which, in turn, is an entry under 'The body of scientific knowledge'.

This volume is the culmination of much scholarship and enormous effort (one rare error is a reference to the “noble” prize in the preface). The result is delightful to browse, but it is difficult to see how the book could be used systematically. It is of no help, for example, in tracing the history of anaesthesia. Unintentional insight into the planned use of the book is perhaps given by repeated phrases such as “depicts for a general audience”, indicating an emphasis more on seeing and hearing than on reading. Indeed, I cannot escape a feeling that the time for print publication of such texts is passing. Electronic publication would provide easier searching and updating, and could more easily accommodate changing fashions. In short, this is one of those useful books for which it may be hard to find a use.