Archimedes

Most people know about the Greek streak's leap from the bathtub and his subsequent exposure of King Hieron's fraudulent goldsmith but few realise how nearly this never happened. For so intense a scientist was the great man, that it was only on the rarest of occasions that he could be persuaded to take a bath - and even then he would let the water go cold while he drew geometrical patterns on his tummy. Presenting Archimedes as 'the most knowledgeable man of his time', Peter Lafferty's very readable sci-biog sets him firmly in that time, when logic and experiment were new to science. His cardinal mechanical contributions - screw, lever and pulley, are all chronicled here and explained - as are the Principle itself, his evaluation of pi and his construction of the first hydraulic planetarium (with the earth as its centre, mind, so he missed that one). His spirited application of his discoveries in defence of his native Syracuse is also well recounted, and his ignominious death at the hands of a Roman squaddy. It's been a long while since 'The Radium Woman' won the Carnegie Medal and sci-biog is due for a comeback. This enjoyable account of how many bits of our National Curriculum got there is a good example of the genre, and prime stuff for the beefing up of maths and mechanics projects.