Ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle deserves credit for nothing less than inventing biology – perhaps even science. This is the basic argument that Armand Marie Leroi, a biologist at Imperial College London, quested to prove in his book The Lagoon: How Aristotle invented science.

The author retraces Aristotle's footsteps to Kalloni lagoon on the island of Lesvos, where the philosopher studied nature. His work was largely forgotten even though it was the birth of biology and the foundation of the modern classification of animals. He was further the first to attempt an evidence-based natural philosophy (or "science"), merging empiricism with logic.

Aware that scientists tend to distort past thinkers by imposing present conceptions and values on them, Leroi argues that today's biologists can think like Aristotle because he forged their basic concepts, and because nature shows us the same phenomena. But to best understand Aristotle, a biologist must see what he saw in Lesvos.

BBC: Aristotle’s Lagoon, Financial Times: "The Lagoon: How Aristotle Invented Science" by Armand Marie Leroi