TY  - BOOK
AU  - Winchester,Simon
TI  - The man who loved China: the fantastic story of the eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the Middle Kingdom 
SN  - 9780060884598
AV  - Q143.N44 W56 2008
U1  - 509.2 22
PY  - 2008///
CY  - New York
PB  - Harper
KW  - Needham, Joseph,
KW  - Scientists
KW  - Great Britain
KW  - Biography
KW  - Science
KW  - China
KW  - History
N1  - Includes bibliographical references (p. [285]-294) and index
N2  - The extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held secrets of China--long the world's most technologically advanced country. This married Englishman, a freethinking intellectual, while working at Cambridge University in 1937, fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with whom he began a lifelong affair. He became fascinated with China, and embarked on a series of extraordinary expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds of mankind's most familiar innovations--including printing, the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet paper--often centuries before the rest of the world. His dangerous journeys took him across war-torn China to far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for the Chinese people. After the war, Needham began writing what became a seventeen-volume encyclopedia, Science and Civilisation in China.--From publisher description
ER  -