Book - BookDetective

Name: When the Earth Was Flat

Author: Graeme Donald
Year: 2012
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Genres/categories:
Science, Non Fiction, History

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Science is continually evolving, with a history rich in experimentation. This book investigates the origins of its strangest ideas - once widely accepted to be true, but which have since been disregarded.

When the Earth Was Flat expertly traces the developments of a range of dubious scientific theories. In a series of extraordinary revelations we learn why Queen Victoria guzzled a tincture of opium on her physician's advice; how reluctance to accept the idea of germ theory led to murder; and why Catholic explorers concocted the myth that South American tribes indulged in cannibalism.

Entertaining yet authoritative, When the Earth Was Flat is an absorbing study of all the bits of science we got wrong.