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Oh for the days when fearless scientists turned their hands to anything. When Edmond Halley, now remembered just for his eponymous comet, would turn aside from mapping the trade winds to devise a diving bell, invent the mercury barometer or write a learned paper on the (obviously considerable) benefits of opium-taking. Lisa Jardine’s Ingenious Pursuits (Abacus, £15) is a rollicking celebration of the salad days of science, before the 18th century “enlightenment” took the fun away.