About the book: 1958 / This book, published in 1958, talks about the people who laid the foundation of biology. Harvey, Gesner, Malpighi, Darwin and Huxley, Mechnikov and Kovalevsky - the book contains essays on the life and work of outstanding scientists from hoary antiquity to the beginning of the 20th century. Perhaps some of their reasoning or achievements will seem naive or completely wrong, but they were a step in understanding the secrets of life. The reader will learn how differently the lives of these scientists turned out, what thoughts worried them, what they fought for, and finally what discoveries they did in biology - the science of life.