Brief Description
This book takes the reader on an exhilarating tour through scientific discoveries that have benefited humanity.
Learn More about the Book
Remarkable Discoveries! shows how scientists have made great discoveries that have pushed back the frontiers of knowledge and have changed the way we look at the world. Frank Ashall, scientist and writer, takes us on a magical mystery tour of eighteen major scientific discoveries. Electricity, X-rays, DNA fingerprinting and the Big Bang are but a few of the achievements on which the author writes. We delve into the world of the researcher and experience the excitement as each discovery is unfolded. Can we thank chance or just intelligence and hard work for the scientists' success? We learn that most discoveries are in fact made by accident, or from the curiosity of scientists who are interested in learning more about Nature's laws.
On the Back Cover
This book shows how scientists have made great discoveries that have pushed back the frontiers of knowledge and have changed the way we look at the world. This author takes us on a magical mystery tour of eighteen major scientific discoveries.
About the Author
Frank Ashall is a Doctor of Medicine, a Doctor of Biochemistry, and a campaigner for human rights in healthcare. He obtained a first-class honours degree in biochemistry and a doctorate from the University of Oxford, then spent thirteen years doing biochemical research to Assistant Professor level. His research involved studies of the biochemistry of cancer cells, then later on, the biochemistry of parasitic organisms, in particular the proteases of Trypanosoma cruzi, the cause of Chagas' disease. He left research to do a medical degree (MD) in the USA, where he did his internship and residency, and practised as a physician in internal medicine there for eleven years. Currently he is working as a Professor of Biochemistry at Addis Ababa University/Black Lion Hospital, as a volunteer with Voluntary Service Overseas (VSO) UK. He is an enthusiastic supporter for human rights, particularly in healthcare. He is an active campaigner against tobacco, its adverse health effects on people and society, and against the tobacco industry. In particular, he is a strong opponent of the increase in advertising and marketing of tobacco products in developing countries, where smoking rates are generally on the rise, afflicting the world's poor with further health burdens. He has written over thirty-five academic articles and numerous newspaper articles on popular science. He has also given numerous talks to the general public on preventive medicine issues.
Review Quotes
1. "Ashall is a fresh voice in popular science writing. In a book directed at those with little knowledge of the scientific world and its major figures, he covers 18 topics, most in life sciences...Ashall is an able expository writer who doesn't spare the reader the language of experiments, giving this anthology an air of immediacy and authenticity." Publishers Weekly
2. '... helps interested readers prepare for the new miracles of science and leaves them also eager to learn more about them'. The Chemical Intelligencer
3. 'Diverting, readable ... but where it scores is in the way it sets discoveries - such as X rays, buckminsterfullerene and DNA in context and also explains them. Very good for project work.' Vivienne Parry, Tomorrow's World web site, March 1997
4. ..."the stories of discovery are fascinating..." Roy Herbert, New Scientist
5. "Remarkable Discoveries! is an enlightening and informative celebration of scientific achievement, succeeding within its own modest ambitions." Times Literary Supplement
6. .,."the stories of discovery are fascinating..." Roy Herbert, New Scientist
7. ."..the stories of discovery are fascinating..." Roy Herbert, New Scientist
8. ..".the stories of discovery are fascinating..." Roy Herbert, New Scientist
