There is a story behind every scientific word we use today. In this work, Helge Kragh tells many of these stories, taking a broad historical perspective from the Renaissance to the present. By combining elements of linguistics with the history of the natural sciences including physics, chemistry, and astronomy, this book offers a new and innovative perspective on the historical development of the natural sciences.

Following an introductory list of useful linguistic terms, the book is structured in six chapters, which cover important phases in the history of science, dealing with a vast range of scientific terminology from physics, chemistry, geology, astronomy, to cosmology. It also considers, if only briefly, how English - and not, say, Latin or French - developed to become the internationally accepted language of science.

Contrary to other works dealing with the subject, The Names of Science pays serious attention to the historical dimension of scientific language, and to the way in which scientists have, sometimes unconsciously, acted as linguists and neologists in their research work.