Acclaimed popular-science writer Kitty Ferguson investigates little-explored by-roads in the history of science, from Johannes Kepler's nearly disastrous venture into the realm of science fiction to a mid-20th-century experiment involving cats and rocket fuel. She introduces such under-appreciated geniuses as Mary the Jewess, first-century ancestress of modern chemistry, and Lise Meitner, whose role in the discovery of nuclear fission was ignored by the Nobel committee, and takes us on astounding adventures with the likes of Jesuit astronomer Ferdinand Verbiest, who invented the first automobile and saved his life by winning a bizarre astronomy competition in 17th-century China.