Knowledge is Power: How Magic, the Government and an Apocalyptic Vision Helped Francis Bacon to Create Modern Science

Francis Bacon is a leading figure in the history of science. Yet her never made a major discovery, nor provided a lasting explanation of any physical phenomena, nor revealed any hidden laws of nature.

How then can he rank as he does alongside Newton?

Bacon was the first major thinker to describe how science should be done, and to explain why. Scientific knowledge should not be gathered for its own sake but for practical benefit to mankind. And Bacon promoted experimentation, coming to outline and define the rigorous procedures of the 'scientific method' that today forms the very bedrock of modern scientific progress.

John Henry gives a dramatic account of the background to Bacon's innovations and the sometimes unconventional sources for his ideas, and tells us why his ideas still resonate today.