Lost Discoveries

Title: Lost Discoveries – The Ancient Roots of Modern Science, from the Babylonians to the Maya

Author: Dick Teresi

Publisher: Simon & Schuster 2003 (First published 2002)

ISBN: 0-684-83718-8

Pages: 367

Dick Teresi is the author noted for his more reputed book, ‘The God Particle: If the Universe is the Answer, What is the Question?’. In the present work, he takes on a survey of ancient science and technology in the civilizations of the world, both Old and New, and traces the progress made by modern science which owes much to the inventions and discoveries of the people of a bygone era. Most of the historians of science stops short at the Old World, whereas Teresi takes the bold step to cross the Atlantic and find impressive discoveries and developments among the American Indians too. Early developments in mathematics, astronomy, geology, cosmology, chemistry and technology are investigated in the Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Chinese, Mayan and Arabic civilizations, with occasional forays into Incan, sub-Saharan African and polynesian communities.

The accepted paradigm of the growth of modern science is that it originated in Greece around 600 BCE and flourished till 146 BCE. Thereafter it lay dormant through the dark ages till renaissance, at which it sprouted again. During the middle ages, the Arabs kept the flame alive by translating works from Greek to Arabic. Modern Science is thought to begin with the works of Copernicus, with his heliocentric model of the universe. Teresi challenges this notion with the claim that Copernicus’ work was based, or rather influenced by the earlier works of two Arab mathematicians, Nasir al-Din al-Tusi and Muayyad al-Din al-Urdi. Arabic science spread from Baghdad, Basra, Cairo to Cordoba and Toledo in moorish Spain. When Christians reconquered Spain, knowledge of these works got to them which might have percolated to Copernicus during his tenure of study in Padua. Westerners normally rubbish non-western science as superstition and religious chants which is not based on objective points of view.

The author argues that the Greeks didn’t expound the principles attributed to them by original thought. They borrowed heavily from Egypt, but specialized in geometry. Concept of zero and place value notation originated in India may be called the single greatest achievement in mathematics, which revolutionized calculations everywhere. However, modern historians of science like Morris Kline and Robert Kaplan have not been sympathetic to the early developers. Both show derogatory attitude to them, with Kline characterising Egyptian and Babylonian math as scrawling of children and called Indian mathematicians fools.

Astronomy was a field well developed in the ancient societies. Babylonians excelled in them, with computational tables developed for lunar positions for three centuries beginning with the reign of Nabonassar (747-736 BCE). These tables were later extended by the Greeks and Indians. They also divided and named the constellations of the zodiac which we still follow. The degree as a basic measure of the angle with the sexagecimal system was another noted discovery by them. Egyptians gave us the 365-day year and 24-hour days. The accurate measurements were necessitated by the need to align the great pyramids along the four cardinal directions. India was at the crossroads of dissemination of astronomic knowledge, which was greatly influenced by Babylonian ideas. Later, Islamic scholars obtained the data from India, developed it and handed over to the West. Medieval muslim astronomers produced high precision instruments for observatories and they reviewed, criticized and modified Egyptians’ works, including Ptolemy’s towering magnum opus, the Almagest. Even though not endowed with instruments, the Chinese maintained the longest existing astronomical records. Data were written also on bones which were later called oracle bones. Modern scientists has successfully traced the path of a total solar eclipse in 1302 BCE in China from these records. Interestingly, they also calculated that from these records, it may be inferred that the length of a day at present is longer by 47/1000 of a second! The Chinese observed a supernova explosion in 1054 CE in the constellation Taurus, which was visible for 23 days, during daylight too. Sunspots were also recorded by them.

The Chinese contributed a great deal in geology and chemistry. Invention of the magnetic compass, oil exploration from wells through bamboo poles, gun powder, paper and printing were the areas in which their contributions enlightened the modern world too. Alchemy may be said to be the precursor of modern chemistry, in which every possible combination of the elements were tried by the practitioners. Al Biruni and Avicenna were the greatest Arab chemists while Varahamihira and Vagbhata represented India.

From this point on, the author’s handling of modern science leaves a lot to be desired. He assumes a sardonic attitude to it, belittling and projecting as points of intense disputes, the areas of lesser agreement among scientists like big bang theory and inflationary model. In fact he severely criticises the big bang and goes overboard in announcing that it is unscientific. He almost posits that god created the universe, by looking how fine tuned the fundamental parameters are, for the maintenance of life! He even shakes modern cosmology to the core in a bid to present the theories of ancient societies in a good light even though most of them are really blurred and steeped in contradictions. Some are outright ridiculous, like the polynesians’ view that the world originated from a swelling on the head of the creator or, as another island people think that it was from a primordial coconut! The Mayans’ fourth creation cycle began in 3114 BCE and ends on Dec 23, 2012! The earlier date roughly coincides with the creation cycle in India, at around 3102 BCE.

Teresi’s reviews of physics also lacks rigour. He takes bits and pieces, often ignoring contradictory arguments and projects them as gems of ancient wisdom. Similarity to a modern theory is invariably assigned to every such item. He compares the idea of Higgs field, which gives mass to fundamental particles with the concept of ‘Maya’ in ancient India! Primitive atomic theories are equated to the theory of quarks. The theories are so basic and diverse, that anything can be interpreted from them. Any invention or theory, presently existing or which may appear in the future may be argued to have anticipated by the ancient societies. The Jainist atom comes in two versions, snigdha (smooth) and ruksha (rough), which gets magnified at the hands of Teresi who claims that this is analogous to the idea of ionic bonding! The author selectively elevates some of the concepts in a compendium, while ignoring other ideas which couldn’t be conciliated to modern theories. A case in point is Vaibhasika and Sautrantika theories, which are analogous to modern atomic theory, while quietly ignoring Yoga and Madhyamika schools of thought which stipulated that the entire world is an illusion. Incorrect propositions also find honourable mention at the hands of the author, like the Persian theory that sun’s light is obtained from the moon, or the Aztec’s belief that the mountains contain great amount of water inside. Regarding the Persian theory he says that it illustrates the principle of transformation of matter to energy!

The book is good to read, with a lot of research into each one of the ancient societies, though a little harsh on the Greek. This is really a great attempt to look past the standardised western point of view and see the progress achieved by other peoples far earlier than Europe. As he says, when Haroun al-Rashid, the caliph in Baghdad was looking hard for exotic books to be translated to Arabic, Charle Magne was trying hard to write his own name!

On the other hand, a lot of negative aspects of the book has to be pointed out. Aversion to Darwin mars the progressive character of the work. He doesn’t include Darwin in a list of scientists extending from Galileo to Francis Crick. He further comments that a broad definition of science would include astrology while a tight definition would exclude evolution. The attempt to belittle particle physics by expounding that the energy involved is too little is pathetic and inclusion of little known scientists’s quotes doesn’t add value. Teresi seems to support the creation theory. He says, “Even orthodox science can’t resist invoking the name of God” (p.191) and compares inflation theory to a great pile of sh*t (p.192). The book also includes extremely comic understatements, like “No ancient or medieval culture practiced physics at the level we’ve witnessed in the West during the past four hundred years” (p.200) and “Let us hasten to add that the Chinese never put together an all-encompassing dynamic theory as Isaac Newton did” (p.200).

In his quest paint every aspect of ancient societies in a favourable light, he rightly lauds the heliocentric model of Varahamihira, while Brahmagupta’s flat-earth postulate is glossed over. Comparisons that stretches the imagination a bit too hard are abounding in the book. The Incan belief that earth quakes are caused by serpents moving underground is equated to modern theory of s-waves of quake propagation, the Hawaiian belief that those islands are floating in the ocean is compared to continental drift, African Yoruba tribe’s belief that every deity is vibrating differently with a single god’s enery is compared to molecular vibrations leading to spectroscopy. Such examples litter the pages and makes troublesome reading.

Altogether, even though the book is readable and written with good research, the net result is a backward pulling ethos. Instead of marvelling at the present and looking to the past with a sense of thankfulness, Teresi views the present contemptuously and looks longingly to the past which he presents as glorious.

Rating: 2 Star