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Beyond Measure - James Vincent *****

Although not all science is quantitative, most fundamental science is - and measurement is, in effect, the foundation of quantitative science. In this engaging exploration, James Vincent looks into both the historical origins of measurement and the development of standards, including the way that they have changed over the centuries. For those who regard metres and kilograms an evil imposition of the EU, he gives the heretical view that the introduction of the metric system in France was 'the single most significant event in the history of measurement' - and it's hard to imagine any scientist would argue with this.

What's clever about Vincent's approach is that he combines the TV documentary style of visiting places and talking to people (arguably not strictly necessary for the topic, but making it more engaging) with far more depth than a TV show can ever cover. So, for example, to bring us into the early days of measurement in the Nile delta, he starts us off in a car with a professor of Eygyptology from the American University in Cairo, who we discover 'addresses everyone she talks to [on the phone] as "sweetie" or "habibi"' which she explains is not because she's on friendly terms with all these people but because she can't remember anyone's name. This kind of little personal detail that can make a popular science title accessible to readers who don't often dip into a science book.

Vincent goes on to cover topics such as temperature, the metric system, land measurement (the origin of the word geometry), statistics and the place of measurement in modern society. Politics and sociological impact come into this to a, perhaps, surprising extent. I've already hinted at the culture clash between metric and Imperial units - something that has left the UK in a state of weird compromise, while the US outside of science still pretty much ignores metric units (with occasional problematic outcomes). However, from early on Vincent highlights that the scientific need for measurement isn't met with delight by everyone - noting the criticism, for example, of Newton for supposedly ignoring the beauty of nature by only focussing on metrics. This is a claim that has been easily refuted by pointing out that with science we can still appreciate the beauty, but get far more out of what we observe as well... but Vincent shows us other impacts of measurement that (particularly historically) have had negative impact when those measurements were misinterpreted and misused to political ends.

If I'm honest, I'm probably not the ideal target for Vincent's approach, in that I find most TV science documentaries unwatchable because of the journalistic, interview-oriented style - but having said that I can cope with this when there's as much detail underlying it, as Vincent is able to provide. I did, however, almost give up after reading the introduction, which is distinctly stodgy. Reading 'Measurement is the root of all tectonic arts' made me wonder if the book was going to be painfully pretentious - but thankfully, this seems primarily an issue limited to the introduction.

All in all, I can confidently say this is a book that measures up extremely well to expectations.

A quick postscript on the cover - I usually show the UK version of a book here, but for this book I was first contacted by the US publisher several months after the UK publication, hence this being the US cover and quite a late review.

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Review by Brian Clegg - See all Brian's online articles or subscribe to a weekly email free here
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