(The version I read was called Pathfinders, but I believe it's the same book, just has a different title in the UK) Second book I've read on this topic this year, but this is the more interesting one. It focuses more on the story of how Arabic science developed, especially how Baghdad became a centre of learning and discovery first through the translation movement processing Greek and Roman texts, then moving into their own age of discovery. There's a series of interesting profiles of key figures in different fields, looking at how they moved things forward, but the book also looks at the wider history going on, and how this happened within the development and expansion of the Islamic world. Only at the end does he move on to how this influenced later Western science, so it's not the focus of the book but an interesting addition. Could have been longer and gone into more detail, especially about the wider society around these discoveries and how it changed with them, but still a fascinating read.