Scientists come in all shapes - the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the ... » 

Scientists come in all shapes - the obsessive and the dilettantish, the genial, the envious, the brilliant and the slow-witted who sometimes see further in the end, recluses and arrivistes. From the death of Archimedes at the hands of an irritated Roman soldier to the concoction of a superconducting witches' brew at the end of the twentieth century, the 181 stories in this book pour out, told with wit and relish. A glorious parade unfolds to delight the reader, with stories to astonish, to instruct, mand to entertain. «