Good vibrations: [Review of] Peter Pesic, Music and the Making of Modern Science, MIT Press

Historians of science used to tell stories about theoretical advances made by lone geniuses fighting prejudice to get at the facts of nature. This “big picture” of the origins of objective scientific knowledge contrasted science with religion, fiction and all the epistemic “distortions” of socio-politics and culture. Now, instead, cultural historians of science document science’s continual engagement with religion. The “conflict ­thesis” has become defunct. Literary historians see science writing as imaginative, stylish and in dialogue with genre. Art historians, too, consider the visual culture of past science as crucial non-verbal representation and communication. What, then, of science’s engagement with sonic culture – or music?