We all know that modern science was born in Europe from the enlightened thoughts of people like Copernicus, Newton, Darwin, and Einstein. Wrong. Or, at least, inaccurate. Science has never been an exclusively European affair.

Copernicus used mathematical techniques that were passed down in Arabic and Persian texts, Newton formulated the laws of motion based on astronomical observations made in Asia and Africa, while Einstein, delving into quantum mechanics, was inspired by the Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose.

Darwin and Einstein were not alone in transcending the boundaries of Europe, examining scientific discoveries across the breadth and length of the earth and formulating the view that the history of science is a story of global exchange of ideas.

Challenging our entrenched perceptions, James Poskett illuminates through his research the great scientists who have been overlooked by history, such as Graman Quashi, the 17th-century African botanist who discovered a cure for malaria, or the 20th-century Chinese physicist Zhao Zhongyao, who discovered antimatter (although the Nobel was awarded to an American colleague).

An exciting book that invites us to see everything we know in a different light and makes the long journey of science through the ages more colorful, vibrant, and interesting than ever before.