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Nature 457, 31-32 (1 January 2009) | doi:10.1038/457031b; Published online 31 December 2008

Year of astronomy: Voyaging to discovery, alone

David Bodanis1

BOOK REVIEWEDThe Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science

by Richard Holmes

HarperPress/Pantheon: 2008/2009. 380 pp/576 pp. £25/$40

Everyone knows how to be a great scientist. First, you have to be really smart.