Convergence

The Idea at the Heart of Science

Peter Watson

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2017
• ISBN:
  9781476754369
• Topic: History
• Subtopic: Science History
• Index: History

"Those seeking a grand overview of science's greatest hits over the past century will find it here" ( The Washington Post ). Peter Watson's bold history of science offers a powerful argument—that the many disparate scientific branches are converging on the same truths. Convergence is a history of modern science with an original and significant twist. Various scientific disciplines, despite their very different beginnings, have been coming together over the years, converging and coalescing. Intimate connections have been discovered between physics and chemistry, psychology and biology, genetics and linguistics. In this groundbreaking book, Peter Watson identifies one extraordinary master narrative, capturing how the sciences are slowly resolving into one overwhelming, interlocking story about the universe.Watson begins his narrative in the 1850s, the decade when, he argues, the convergence of the sciences began. The idea of the conservation of energy was introduced in this decade, as was Darwin's theory of evolution—both of which rocketed the sciences forward and revealed unimagined interconnections and overlaps between disciplines. Decade after decade, the story captures every major scientific advance en route to the present, proceeding like a cosmic detective story, or the world's most massive code-breaking effort."Fascinating…Highly recommended…Watson treats biology, chemistry, and physics as entangled plotlines, and readers' excitement will build as more connections are made" ( Library Journal, starred review). Told through the eyes of the scientists themselves, charting each discovery and breakthrough, Convergence is a "massive tour de force" ( Publishers Weekly ) and a gripping way to learn what we now know about the universe and where our inquiries are heading.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Preface: Convergence: “The Deepest Idea in the Universe”
• Introduction: “The Unity of the Observable World”
• Part One: The Most Important Unifying Ideas of All Time
• Part Two: The Long Arm of the Laws of Physics
• Part Three: “The Friendly Invasion of the Biological Sciences by the Physical Sciences”
• Part Four: The Continuum from Minerals to Man
• Conclusion: Overlaps, Patterns, Hierarchies: A Preexisting Order?
• Acknowledgments
• About Peter Watson
• Notes and References
• Index
• Copyright