Patricia Fara has now been twice nominated for the Aventis Science Prize
Praise for Sex, Botany and Empire (Icon 2003):
"Delectable" Marina Warner
"An entertaining account of the appliance of science to the needs of empire." Financial Times
"Absorbing" Observer
"Enticing ... with a sharp eye for 18th-century mores, this is an engrossing exploration of the growth of the British Empire." Good Book Guide
Deftly written story of nature's most mysterious force - magnetism - and the spell it cast over three champions of Enlightenment.
At the end of the 17th century, magnetism was a dark, mysterious force, known about since ancient Greece but still misunderstood. Tales abounded of magnets' ability to attract reluctant lovers, but magnetic expertise lay in the hands of seafarers, who had long used compasses to guide their ships.
Fatal Attraction tells the stories of three men who were lured by nature's strangest power. Edmond Halley set out to map the Earth's magnetic patterns and improve navigation - he wanted to show that science could help England improve her trade and expand her empire. Gowin Knight, a poor clergyman's son, hoped to make a fortune from his inventions; he climbed to fame by developing powerful artificial magnets used in compasses, scientific experiments and popular magic tricks. And although Franz Mesmer claimed that his medical therapy, based on harnessing invisible streams of magnetic fluid, was the revolutionary science of the future, he was ultimately denounced as a quack.
Enlightenment fascination with magnetism was vital for the Victorian electrical revolution that laid the foundations of our modern technological society.
Patricia Fara is a Fellow of Clare College at the University of Cambridge where she teaches history of science. She is an expert on magnetism in the eighteenth century, and has also written and lectured widely on scientific portraits, the northern lights and international exploration. Her most recent book, Newton: The Making of Genius, examines how Newton came to be celebrated as a national hero and the worlds first scientific genius.
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