Seventeenth-century England was racked by civil war, plague, and fire, a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. But then a series of meetings of natural philosophers in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. At the heart of this renaissance were the founding fathers of modern western science: The Royal Society. Seventeenth-century England was racked by civil war, plague, and fire, a world ruled by superstition and ignorance. But then a series of meetings of natural philosophers in Oxford and London saw the beginning of a new method of thinking based on proof and experiment. At the heart of this renaissance were the founding fathers of modern western science: The Royal Society. John Gribbins gripping, colorful account of this unparalleled time of discovery explores the birth of the Society and brings its prime movers to life. Gribbin shows how the triumph of the scientific revolution changed the world--and still continues to change it 350 years later. The Fellowship reveals that all that ensued was ultimately not the work of any single isolated genius, but of a Fellowship of brave and inquisitive men in search of the truth.