DescriptionMany believe the "Middle Ages" lacked progress, yet during this time algebra was developed, and Islamic scholars preserved and extended Greek thought (which otherwise was lost). Metallurgy (and its speculative counterpart, alchemy) led to a deeper understanding of materials. These advances set the stage for the Renaissance and a scientific revolution. The Science and Discovery series recreates one of history's most successful journeys: 4, 000 years of scientific efforts to better understand and control the physical world. Science has often challenged and upset conventional wisdom or accepted practices; this is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers, experiments and theories, change and progress. Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, Galileo, Newton, Darwin, Einstein, and many others are featured.
DescriptionNewton was a natural philosopher (the word "scientist" had not yet been coined) who described a planetary system held together by gravitational forces. His "Principia" changed science forever; gravity not only explained the orbits of stars, it explained common earthly events as well. Newton established a way of thinking that still shapes our everyday understanding of how the world works. The Science and Discovery series recreates one of history's most successful journeys: 4, 000 years of scientific efforts to better understand and control the physical world. Science has often challenged and upset conventional wisdom or accepted practices; this is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers, experiments and theories, change and progress.
DescriptionThe scientific impulse can be said to have existed forever. But only with the written word did there emerge a record of speculations about how and why things happen. Middle Eastern civilizations developed ways to measure and describe (e.g., math and the alphabet); Greek philosophers classified natural objects and studied cause and effect. This is the story of ancient science from Asia to the Mediterranean Basin. 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.
DescriptionNewtonian physics described a regular, clock-like world of forces and reaction; randomness was equated with incomplete knowledge. But scientists in the late 20th century have found patterns in things formerly thought to be "chaotic"; their theories help explain the unstable, irregular, yet highly structured features of everyday experience. It now seems likely that randomness and chaos play an essential role in the evolution of the living world and in intelligence itself. The Science and Discovery series recreates history's 4, 000-year journey to better understand the world through scientific means. Scientific discovery has often disrupted conventional wisdom. This is a story of vested interests and independent thinkers, experiments and theories, change and progress.
