Presents an introduction to thirty-four scientific breakthroughs, discussing the history of their discovery and providing instructions for conducting experiments which demonstrate their principles.

Smashing atoms! Making Gunpowder! Firing Rockets! Using Lasers! Raising the dead! G-forces, X-rays, black holes, DNA, and much more! --front cover. This book contains detailed information about the most dangerous scientific discoveries of all time! --front cover.

Introduction -->2 million years B.C. : the first Stone Age tools -- 1 million-1.6 million years B.C. : humans master fire -- C. 8000 B.C. : the bow and arrow -- 3500 B.C. : the Sumerian wheel -- 330 B.C. : Aristotle proclaims : Earth is not flat! -- A.D. 132 : Zhang Heng's seismometer -- C. A.D. 850 : the Chinese alchemist's gunpowder -- 1504 : Regiomontanus's lunar eclipse -- 1616 : Galileo's telescope -- 1665 : Isaac Newton's falling apple -- 1752 : Ben Franklin's electric kite -- 1771 : Galvani's circuit and Volta's battery -- 1783 : the Montgolfiers' hot-air balloon -- 1796 : Edward Jenner's miracle vaccine -- 1797 : Garnerin's parachute -- 1825 : George Stephenson's steam train -- 1854 : Otis's elevator safety brake -- 1859 : Darwin's revolutionary evolutionary book -- 1895 : Röntgen identifies X-rays -- 1898 : Marie Curie discovers radioactive isotope -- 1903 : the Wright brothers' flying machine -- 1905 : Einstein's atom -- 1926 : Robert Goddard's rocket ship -- 1936 : Igor Sikorsky's helicopter -- 1942 : Fermi's chain reaction -- 1947 : Chuck Yeager's sonic boom -- 1947 : John Stapp rides on a rocket sled -- 1953 : Watson and Crick's DNA -- 1960 : Theodore Maiman's laser beam -- 1961 : Yari Gagarin goes into orbit -- 1962 : Rachel Carson's silent spring -- 1967 : Christiaan Barnard's human heart transplant -- 1999 : Dieter Issler's avalanche -- 2008 : the large hadron collider.