Thrifty science : making the most of materials in the history of experiment

The Resource Thrifty science : making the most of materials in the history of experiment

Label

Thrifty science : making the most of materials in the history of experiment

Title remainder

making the most of materials in the history of experiment

Statement of responsibility

Simon Werrett

Language

eng

Summary

If the twentieth century saw the rise of "Big Science," then the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries were surely an age of thrift. As Simon Werrett's new history shows, frugal early modern experimenters transformed their homes into laboratories as they recycled, repurposed, repaired, and reused their material possessions to learn about the natural world. Thrifty Science explores this distinctive culture of experiment and demonstrates how the values of the household helped to shape an array of experimental inquiries, ranging from esoteric investigations of glowworms and sour beer to famous experiments such as Benjamin Franklin's use of a kite to show lightning was electrical and Isaac Newton's investigations of color using prisms. Tracing the diverse ways that men and women put their material possessions into the service of experiment, Werrett offers a history of practices of recycling and repurposing that are often assumed to be more recent in origin. This thriving domestic culture of inquiry was eclipsed by new forms of experimental culture in the nineteenth century, however, culminating in the resource-hungry science of the twentieth. Could thrifty science be making a comeback today, as scientists grapple with the need to make their research more environmentally sustainable?

Cataloging source

YUS

Dewey number

507.8

Illustrations

illustrations

Index

index present

LC call number

Q182.3

LC item number

.W444 2019

Literary form

non fiction

Nature of contents

bibliography

Context

Context of Thrifty science : making the most of materials in the history of experiment

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