The truth is out there—a universe waiting to be discovered, but what we can or choose to see is shaped in part by the culture that shapes us. That’s one of the themes in The Oxford Illustrated History of Science, which despite its title (and many illustrations) is a collection of essays by authorities in various fields. Spanning ancient astrology and the origins of mathematics through quantum physics and the expanding universe, the OIHS strives for a global scope with chapters on China, India and the Near East. However, the book’s compact size (less than 450 pages including index) mandates many omissions. Another of the book’s themes is the inseparability of religion and magic from what we call science until the 18th century. Although science has the capacity to verify theories as factual, many fundamental ideas continued to be debated, with genetics providing a good contemporary example. According to OIHS, the question of what exactly we inherit genetically and what can be predicted from that legacy has no clear answer, despite sweeping claims heard in pop culture or made by advocates of one theory or another.
