We live in a world made by science. How and when did this happen? This book tells the story of the extraordinary intellectual and cultural revolution that gave birth to modern science and mounts a major challenge to the prevailing orthodoxy of its history. Before 1492, it was assumed that all significant knowledge was already available; there was no concept of progress; people looked for understanding to the past, not the future. This book argues that the discovery of America demonstrated that new knowledge was possible: indeed, it introduced the very concept of 'discovery' and opened the way to the invention of science. The first crucial discovery was Tycho Brahe's nova of 1572: proof that there could be change in the heavens. The telescope, introduced in 1610, rendered the old astronomy obsolete. Torricelli's experiment with the vacuum in 1643 led directly to the triumph of the experimental method.