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Maoist, devout Christian, linguist, diplomat, biochemist and author of a
magnificent series of books on the history of Chinese science and technology,
Joseph Needham was one of the great polymaths of the 20th century. Maurice
Goldsmith’s slim, readable and admiring biography, Joseph Needham (UNESCO,
£17, ISBN 92 3 103192 9), is a foretaste of a larger work on the great
man, who died in Cambridge last year.