First published in 2005. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Scholars from ancient and early modern studies, art history, literary criticism, philosophy, and the history of science explore the interplay between nature, science, and art in influential ancient texts and their reception in the Renaissance.

What these extracts are, first and foremost, are stories of discovery. The Art of Science is not necessarily a book about great scientific theories, complicated equations, or grand old men (or women) in their laboratories; instead, it's about the places we draw our inspiration from; it's about daily routines and sudden flashes of insight; about dedication, and - sometimes - desperation; and the small moments, questions, quests, clashes, doubts and delights that make us human. From Galileo to Lewis Carroll, from Humphry Davy to Charles Darwin, from Marie Curie to Stephen Jay Gould, from rust to snowflakes, from the first use of the word "scientist" to the first computer, from why the sea is salty to Newtonian physics for women, The Art of Science is a book about people, rather than scientists per se, and as such, it's a book about politics, passion and poetry. Above all, it's a book about the good that science can - and does - do.

A guide to ancient accomplishments and inventions unearths the origins of modern creations, including computers in ancient Greece, plastic surgery in India in the first century B.C., and a postal service in medieval Baghdad

Technology of the Gods lays out the mind-bending evidence that long-lost civilizations had attained and even exceeded our "modern" level of advancement. Westerners have been taught that humankind has progressed along a straight-line path from the primitive past to the proficient present, but the hard, fast evidence (literally written in stone!) proves that the ancients had technologies we cannot even replicate today.

'This book is a gem! Truly 'A Journey Through Active Learning'.Dudley HerschbachNobel Laureate in Chemistry'Incredible! Because it's credible. What is absolutely remarkable about Jehane Ragai and Tamer Shoeib's book is that a textbook (!) draws us in so. It accomplishes this by imagined tales of artistic authentication that are exciting both as human stories and as detailed, documented accounts of scientific detection that teach! The theatrical staging of the scientific detective work, and the factual credibility (and limits) of the scientific techniques applied — remarkably clearly laid out in a voluminous endnotes section — intertwine in this book in a unique way. And sometimes, just as in the real world, the evidence and the experts disagree — the decision is left in your hands. I think that many young people reading this adventurous book will be drawn to become art analysts.'Roald HoffmannNobel Laureate in Chemistry (1981) and writerIn the last few years, the problems of authenticity in paintings have reached untenable proportions in tandem with a lack of understanding from connoisseurs and collectors of the insights that modern scientific investigation can offer. In some cases, because of this lack of knowledge, the results of scientific analysis are treated with suspicion.The art world has gradually come to realize the need to develop educational programs that aim at improving the technical know-how of collectors, connoisseurs, and young students who seek work as art scientists. As an introductory textbook, Technical Art History is an essential contributor to addressing this need.Traditional and innovative scientific techniques are introduced and explained through separate case studies, using the analysis of paintings and their authentication as a vehicle. This book will equip the reader with the ability to discern the most appropriate techniques in an authenticity endeavor and to have an increased appreciation of the value of an integrated approach in the evaluation of an artwork.This is the first undergraduate textbook in the new field of Technical Art History, a teaching guide with all the answers is available for all teachers.

The book describes current research into all aspects of craftwork in ancient Egypt.

First published in 2006. This classic work examines the modern history of Europe from an unusual perspective. European history has usually focussed on the urban life elite and the middle classes, but before World War II more than half of the entire population of the continent was composed of rural peasants occupying a territory stretching from the Black Seas to the Baltic forming a natural barrier between East and West. These people- Poles, Ukrainians, Czechs, Slovaks, Hungarians, Southern Slavs and others- are the focus of this book. First published in the 1930s, Tiltman's Peasant Europe strays from the normal look at Europe during this time period. While much of the continent is concerned with problems of international relations, industry and the future of armaments, Tiltman goes a step further than most writers and speaks with the common peasant to uncover their day-to-day concerns. He finds that most simply want consideration and a reasonable standard of living for themselves and their children. Accompanying the text are full page photographs, most of which are taken by the author himself, which offer a candid look at peasant life.