Susannah Gibson is an affiliated scholar at the Department of History and Philosophy of Science, University of Cambridge. She holds a PhD from the University of Cambridge on the history of the life sciences in the eighteenth century. She also hold a master's degree in history of nineteenth-century science, and a bachelor's degree in experimental physics. She works at Cambridge Literary Festival.
An outstandingly readable book on a highly interesting period of the history of biology that is instructive for amateurs and professionals alike. * Wolfgang Lefevre, Ambix * ...this is an excellent book. Not only is it full of interesting historical stories; it is also an amusing read and, ultimately, a wonderful reminder that history of science is fun. * Victoria Pickering, ISIS * Gibson's book does an excellent job in describing how our ideas about the order of nature changed and developed during the eighteenth century. * Paul Lawrence Farber, Metascience * Highly readable. * Isabelle Charmantier, Archives of Natural History * Susannah Gibson unpacks the experiments and speculations that underpinned Enlightenment natural history, showing how finds pushed at disciplinary boundaries... Gibson's story whisks us from one taxonomical can of worms to the next. * Nature, Jennifer Rampling * [An] attractive and clearly written study... Gibson's account does justice to the reach of technical work by individuals, sometimes enthusiasts as much as scientists. And her plain style opens out for the reader enduring arguments about life, its sources and its varients. * Daily Telegraph, Gillian Beer * Animal, Vegetable, Mineral? is replete with relevance for today. After all, from genetically modified food, to debates about environmental policy, to medical advances, biology remains central to many scientific, political and popular controversies ... an excellent, valuable and engaging introduction to the intellectual trends that helped shape the modern scientific world, and demonstrates how history can inform debates facing us today. * Mark Greener, Fortean Times * This is a book well worth reading and it will enliven many a classroom lecture. * Elof Axel Carlson, Quarterly Review of Biology *