In this engaging, lyrical book, physicist Sander Bais shows how science can liberate us from our cultural straitjacket of prejudice and intolerance. We're living in a time in which technology is taken for granted, yet belief in such standard scientific facts as evolution is actually decreasing. How is it possible for cell phones and Creationism to coexist? Science--fundamental, fact-based knowledge, not the latest technological gadget--can give us the global and local perspectives we need to make the world a better place. Bais argues that turning points in the history of science have been accompanied by similar milestones in social change, deeply affecting our view of nature, our perception of the human condition, and our understanding of the universe and our place in it. After a lively description of how curiosity trumps prejudice and pseudoscience in matters ranging from lightning rods to the transmission of HIV, Bais considers what drives science and scientists, a quest that culminates in that miraculous mixture of creativity and ingenuity found in the greatest scientists. He describes what he calls the "circle of science"--the microcosm and the macrocosm as mirror images--and demonstrates unity in a dazzling sequence of topics, including the hierarchy of structures, the forces of nature, cosmological evolution, and the challenge of complexity. Finally, Bais takes on the obstacles science encounters in a world dominated by short-term political and economic interests. Science, he says, needs to get its message out. Drawing on sources that range from Charles Darwin and Karl Popper to Herbert Marcuse and Richard Feynman, with In Praise of Science, Bais does just that.

桑德尔•柏斯，1945年出生于荷兰斯塔德•格林，物理学家。

1971年，柏斯在荷兰代尔夫特理工大学获得物理学学士学位；1973年，获得应用物理学硕士学位；1977年在加利福尼亚大学完成学术研究，成为理论物理学博士。1985年至今，任阿姆斯特丹大学理论物理学专业教授。1997年至2005年期间担任阿姆斯特丹理论物理研究院院长。

柏斯在其专业方面著作宏丰，其中较新一部具有影响力的作品是《方程式：知识的图标》（The equations; icons of knowledge, 2005）。此书大获成功，先后被译成荷兰语、德语、葡萄牙语、法语、意大利语和日语。该书深入浅出地解释了物理中一些基本的方程式。这些方程式均在人们对大自然的思考中扮演过重要角色，是物理学中非常重要的转折点。

2007年，柏斯的又一力作《图解爱因斯坦相对论》（Very special relativity, a pictorial lecture，2007）出版，此书已被译成繁体中文。