Joseph Needham is best known for his authorship of the seventeen volumes of Science and Civilization in China. This series married his lifelong interests in science and religious philosophy, which began during his medical and biochemistry training at Cambridge.

The son of a physician, Needham earned a doctoral degree in 1924 from the University of Cambridge. He then joined the newly formed Dunn Institute of Biochemistry, his principle affiliation for the remainder of his life. In 1931, Needham published his three-volume Chemical Embryology. Containing a comprehensive history of embryology in the introduction, Chemical Embryology was one of the first historical accounts of developmental biology, and Needham's first contribution among many to the history of natural sciences.

In the late 1930s, his collaboration with Chinese biochemists sparked his interest in China's language and civilization. This interest prompted his relocation to China from 1942 to 1946, as director of the Sino-British Science Co-operation Office, a British scientific mission.

His experiences in China led to his spearheading the inclusion of science in the then formative UNESCO. He became the first head of UNESCO's science division. After serving as director from 1946 to 1948, he returned to Cambridge and began work on Science and Civilization.

This series surveys the history of Chinese chemistry, mechanics, navigation, medicine, and other disciplines. The work examined the relationship between the Confucian and Taoist traditions and Chinese scientific innovation and explored the differences between Chinese and Western philosophies of scientific inquiry.