This article charts the rise of global science and a global science infrastructure as part of the emerging international knowledge system exemplifying a geography of knowledge and the importance of new info-communications networks. The article theorises the rise of global science, which still strongly reflects a Western bias and is highly nationalistic, in terms of an historical account that sketches three "moments"--classical science, colonial science, "big" science. The historical sketch is a basis against which to raise questions about the emerging political economy of international research collaborations.