@article{324370,
      recid = {324370},
      author = {Winchester, Simon.},
      title = {The man who loved China : the fantastic story of the  eccentric scientist who unlocked the mysteries of the  Middle Kingdom /},
      publisher = {Harper,},
      address = {New York, NY :},
      pages = {xii, 316 p. :},
      year = {2008},
      abstract = {The extraordinary story of Joseph Needham, the brilliant  Cambridge scientist who unlocked the most closely held  secrets of China--long the world's most technologically  advanced country. This married Englishman, a freethinking  intellectual, while working at Cambridge University in  1937, fell in love with a visiting Chinese student, with  whom he began a lifelong affair. He became fascinated with  China, and embarked on a series of extraordinary  expeditions to the farthest frontiers of this ancient  empire. He searched everywhere for evidence to bolster his  conviction that the Chinese were responsible for hundreds  of mankind's most familiar innovations--including printing,  the compass, explosives, suspension bridges, even toilet  paper--often centuries before the rest of the world. His  dangerous journeys took him across war-torn China to  far-flung outposts, consolidating his deep admiration for  the Chinese people. After the war, Needham began writing  what became a seventeen-volume encyclopedia, Science and  Civilisation in China.--From publisher description.},
      url = {http://library.usi.edu/record/324370},
}