From Kirkus Reviews:
This companion volume to the PBS series (aired in January 1998) offers a swiftly paced survey of many of the
major scientific discoveries made over the past hundred years, including the evolution of modern physics and cosmology, the
emergence of the revolutionary theory of plate tectonics, the development of airplanes, the exploration of space, and the long
medical struggle to understand and control such ravaging diseases as polio, diabetes, and pellagra. This is certainly not fresh
terrain, but Flowers (editor of Out, Loud, and Laughing, 1995) offers particularly lucid and enthusiastic descriptions of the
trial-and-error scientific process, and he sets his narrative of repeated failures leading up to extraordinary breakthroughs firmly
within the larger frame of society and technological change, reminding the reader that science has always emerged out of a
society and been shaped by that society's needs and expectations. A lively collection of vignettes. Those needing a detailed
history, however, should certainly look elsewhere.