SCIENCE always marches on, but don’t tell Patricia Fara.

Her history of global science from Ancient Babylon to Silicon Valley, from primitive irrigation to advanced physics, debunks the idea of continual progress to show how the world of science has advanced and receded throughout the centuries – just compare the Dark Ages to the Renaissance, and that scientists, far from being aloof, academics are just as ambitious and down-dirty as the rest of us.

Fara presents real stories about real people and succeeds in making science interesting rather than intimidating.