Boffinology

Book excerpt: The history of science is often seen as a story of advancement but nothing could be further from the truth. Science, it is true, has progressed, but rarely in the direction intended and seldom for the reasons given. This has a lot to do with the people responsible. From the strange to the eccentric, meet Thales, credited as 'the father of science', whose only real claim to fame is that he often fell into ditches, discover how Archimedes never said Eureka and hated baths anyway and how the most lucrative ancient Greek invention was not democracy but the slot machine. Justin Pollard also fills us in on Issac Newton, who thought gravity was created by the Holy Spirit, how eleven people claimed to have invented the steam engine and why the first website was twelve foot across and made of wood.