In this thought-provoking and original exploration, Nobel Prize-winning physicist Steven Weinberg traces the rise of modern science and its impact on human understanding. From the remarkable discoveries of the Hellenistic Greeks to the unprecedented advances of the Scientific Revolution, Weinberg shows how, through the struggle to solve such mysteries as the curious apparent backward movement of the planets and the rise and fall of the tides, the modern discipline of science emerged. From ancient Miletus to Golden Age Baghdad to seventeenth century Cambridge, and from Plato's Academy to the Museum of Alexandria to the Royal Society of London, Weinberg charts the great discoveries - as well as the occasional setbacks - of towering figures such as Ptolemy, Copernicus and Newton, reminding us of the achievements as well as the difficulties faced by earlier scientists. As Weinberg shows us, not only did the scientists of the ancient and medieval eras not understand what we do about the world - they did not understand what there is to understand. Along the way, Weinberg examines historic clashes and collaborations between science and the competing spheres of religion, mathematics, technology, aesthetics, and philosophy. Looking to the future as well as the past from the perspective of a working scientist, Weinberg suggests that we are not beyond repeating earlier mistakes. He questions whether we might come to a point where further progress is impossible within the economic and intellectual resources of our species. Yet as this masterful account reveals, science is a grand story, and we have not yet reached its end. 'I read To Explain the World completely enthralled. It transmutes the base metal of a mere history of science into pure gold - into magisterial celebration of a long and heroic struggle, still incomplete, to understand nature. Only a committed scientist of Steven Weinberg's brilliance, experience and breadth of insight could have accomplished this. I ended the book exhilarated.' Ian McEwan 'Steven Weinberg, the world's preeminent physicist, provides a masterful journey through humankind's scientific coming of age. This is a story that not only traces our deep insights into nature's workings but reveals how we came to grasp the very meaning of scientific insight. With its refreshing candor and lyrical prose, To Explain the World is a delightful celebration of our passionate drive for understanding.' Brian Greene 'It would be putting it mildly to say that Weinberg triumphantly lives up to what it says on the Nobel tin: a true intellectual as well as a brilliant theoretical physicist.' Richard Dawkins 'Steven Weinberg is one of the most highly accomplished and respected scientists in the world. But even among this elite group he holds a unique position as a scientist-scholar and a writer of unparalleled clarity. No one writing on matters of science or of science and society has more wisdom to impart, nor can they impart it better than Weinberg.' Lawrence Krauss 'Weinberg writes clearly and with confidence, imbuing the reader with an irresistible sense that one is in the hands of a master physicist at play.' Sunday Times