DescriptionAlexander Von Humboldt and others sparked a centuries-long debate about natural history and geological destiny by discussing what today we call the environment. Some now believe the earth cannot safely accommodate its growing burdens; others say longer life spans and more people are signs of progress. Are humans destroying the earth, or building a better world? Will the future bring despair and destruction, or hope and improvement? The Science and Discovery series recreates history's 4, 000-year journey to better understand the world through scientific means. It is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers, experiments and theories, change and progress.
DescriptionWe think of science as a way of discovering certainty in an unpredictable world; experiments are designed to objectively measure cause and effect. Yet science often produces more new questions than answers, and all scientific theories can change with new…
DescriptionThough medical science began with the ancient Greek physician Hippocrates, dissection and the study of the human body was prohibited for religious reasons until the Renaissance. Only in 1628 did William Harvey theorize that blood circulates in the body; g…
DescriptionEinstein overthrew Newtonian physics, but like Newton, he still believed that physical events have definite causes. Then Niels Bohr, a Danish physicist, joined others in describing a strange new world of uncertainty and mystery. Quantum mechanics has intr…
