""Delve into Needham's delightful prose, and be awed with him at the wondrous things Chinese science and civilization have wrought."" Michael T. Stieber, Huntia ""[An] astonishing and enduring study...[Needham brings] depth of emotion and technical finesse to his task."" Jonathan Spence, New York Review of Books ""Perhaps the greatest single act of historical synthesis and intercultural communication ever attempted by one man."" Laurence Picken, Cambridge University