The Ascent of Man

The Ascent of Man,
by Jacob Bronowski.

One book that had a big impact on me when I was young is Jacob Bronowski’s The Ascent of Man. The book is based on a television series by the same name, broadcast by the British Broadcasting Corporation. You could call The Ascent of Man a history of science, but it is a rich and philosophical history, covering all the sciences. The book was published in 1973, so I probably first read it in high school.

Bronowski is an example of a type of physicist who we encounter often in Intermediate Physics for Medicine and Biology: one who made the transition to biology. He writes in the book’s foreword:

There has been a deep change in the temper of science in the last twenty years: the focus of attention has shifted from the physical to the life sciences. As a result, science is drawn more and more to the study of individuality. But the interested spectator is hardly aware yet how far-reaching the effect is in changing the image of man that science moulds. As a mathematician trained in physics, I too would have been unaware, had not a series of lucky chances taken me into the life sciences in middle age. I owe a debt for the the good fortune that carried me into two seminal fields of science in one lifetime; and though I do not know to whom the debt is due, I conceived The Ascent of Man in gratitude to repay it.

The book is well written and beautifully illustrated. I highly recommend it. 

To view The Ascent of Man TV series, Part 1 click on the link below.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CH7SJf8BnBI