This book explores the streets, shops, back alleys, and gardens of Elizabethan London where a boisterous and diverse group of men and women shared a keen interest in the study of nature. These assorted merchants, gardeners, barber-surgeons, midwives, instrument makers, mathematics teachers, engineers, alchemists, and other experimenters formed a patchwork scientific community whose practices set the stage for the Scientific Revolution, Deborah Harkness contends. While Francis Bacon has been widely regarded as the father of modern science, scores of his London contemporaries also deserve a share in this distinction. It was their collaborative, yet often contentious, ethos that helped to develop the ideals of modern scientific research.The book examines six particularly fascinating episodes of scientific inquiry and dispute in sixteenth-century London, bringing to life the individuals involved and the challenges they faced. These men and women experimented and invented, argued and competed, waged wars in the press, and struggled to understand the complexities of the natural world. Together their stories illuminate the blind alleys and surprising twists and turns taken as medieval philosophy gave way to the empirical, experimental culture that became a hallmark of the Scientific Revolution.

德博拉·哈剋尼斯，學者、小說傢、曆史學傢，現為美國南加州大學曆史學教授，講授歐洲史和科學史等課程。專長研究領域為科學史、技術史、現代早期歐洲史、文藝復興等，尤其精通15世紀至18世紀的相關曆史。其小說作品《萬靈三部麯》在美國十分暢銷。

張誌敏，中國科普研究所副研究員，2007年於中國社會科學院研究生院獲得文學博士學位。主要研究方嚮為科普創作、科普評估和科普活動。

姚利芬，博士，主要研究方嚮為科普科幻文學，現就職於中國科普研究所。

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