The Seven Follies of Science [2nd ed.] A popular account of the most famous scientific impossibilities and the attempts which have been made to solve them.

The Seven Follies of Science by John Phin invites listeners on a lively tour of the grandest scientific impossibilities and the daring attempts to overcome them. Phin’s popular-science classic—revised in its early 20th-century second edition—weaves historical narrative with clear explanations, tracing puzzles such as squaring the circle, perpetual-motion schemes, and other long-standing enigmas that challenged thinkers from antiquity through the Industrial Age. Part history and part intellectual detective story, the audiobook examines why certain problems proved intractable, how misguided ingenuity gave rise to memorable failures, and how those failed quests nevertheless propelled real scientific progress. Phin balances accessible technical discussion with anecdotes, paradoxes, illusions, and marvels, offering both conceptual clarity and period flavor. Numerous illustrative examples illuminate the boundary between what is theoretically impossible and what merely seemed so for a time. Ideal for lovers of history of science, curious autodidacts, students, and anyone fascinated by puzzles and invention, this audiobook makes complex ideas approachable and entertaining—perfect for listeners who enjoy popular science that explains not only how science works, but why certain problems endure.