The Dawn of Science

Title: The Dawn of Science – Glimpses From History for the Curious Mind

Author: Thanu Padmanabhan, Vasanthi Padmanabhan

Publisher: Springer, 2019 (First)

ISBN: 9783030259259

Pages: 286

Products bestowed by science and technology pervades every wakeful moment of humanity. In fact, they provide safety and comfort to us even when we are asleep. Today's society cannot live without electricity and its associated products and services and it is just taken for granted. But we have been fortunate to avail these facilities for only a very short fraction of time mankind was on the earth. This should make us curious to know how science developed over the centuries and the glorious milestones it had passed on in its onward march. This book is a great effort by a husband and wife team to ‘share the excitement they felt about the historical development of scientific ideas with the like-minded, curious, educated lay public’. The excellent narration is split into 24 chapters from antiquity to the seventeenth century, more particularly to Newton's contributions to physics and Lavoisier’s to chemistry which is identified as the dawn of science. Thanu Padmanabhan is an Indian theoretical physicist and cosmologist whose research spans a wide variety of topics. He has published nearly 300 papers and reviews in international journals and ten books in these areas. He is currently a Distinguished Professor at the IUCAA in Pune, India. Vasanthi Padmanabhan is his wife and she is a professor of civil engineering.

The book puts great stress on the origin and development of science in the Middle East. The earliest achievement of humanity with great science and technological skill is the Egyptian pyramids built around 2500 BCE. Such technical skill could not have come about without understanding the basics of science. All ancient civilizations claim an offshoot of science within their culture, yet Thales of Miletus who lived in the fourth century BCE spelt out the necessity of proof and developed a step-by-step logic leading to conclusions from given premises. This was the birth of the scientific method. Other civilizations like the Egyptians, Babylonians, Indians and Chinese did not bother for logical proof. What is truly remarkable is the contribution of Euclid to geometry. His thirteen-volume masterpiece called ‘Elements’ serve as a textbook to students even now. Euclid did not create the content contained in it which was developed by other great thinkers. He may not be a first-rate mathematician, but was definitely a first-rate teacher who could write excellent textbooks. The first spark of rational thinking occurred with Hippocrates who realised and emphasized that diseases arise due to natural causes and not because of divine wrath.

Most historians of science jump to Renaissance Italy after their treatment of Greek thinkers. This approach is lopsided as it does not show the path through which Greek knowledge reached mediaeval Europe. Early Christian emperors shunned Greek scholarship as evidenced by Justinian’s closure of Plato's Academy which is traditionally thought to mark the beginning of Dark Ages. It was the Arabs who kept the candle of science glowing amid the deep gloom in which Europe was then immersed. The authors provide a detailed description of the Arab thinkers who contributed greatly to science by translating the Greek texts to Arabic and enhancing on it. When the crusading Europeans came into contact with them, they translated it to Latin and used to usher in the Renaissance. The movable printing process developed around 1430 by Johannes Gutenberg exerted more influence on the scientific revolution than all the scholarly expositions of several mediaeval scientists put together.

It is common for authors to highlight the persecution of Galileo at the hands of the Church. The usual emphasis is on the superstitious yet extremely powerful clergy forcing a right thinking, simple scientist to recant his findings upon pain of death. This stereotype is completely demolished in this book. The authors argue that while it is usual to universally condemn the charge for persecuting science, a careful study of historical facts indicates that Galileo personally played a great part in aggravating the situation. Galileo acted and wrote in a way that made him several enemies, some of them quite powerful and influential. The personality of Galileo and also the antagonism of his scientific colleagues were as instrumental in bringing about his conflict with the Church as the Church itself (p.156).

Many Indian authors generally fall in the trap of forwarding magnificent but unsubstantiated claims on the development of science in ancient India. There are scholars who brag about knowledge of air travel and even nuclear weapons to have existed among our ancestors. Here, the authors keep a steady, scientific route while digging into the Indian legacy in science. It might sadden many of us, but apart from some mathematical concepts such as the invention of zero in a place value notation system, the value of Pi correct to four decimal places and some rudiments of calculus, our country has not produced that many discoveries. But the concept of zero is so powerful in mathematics that without it, the discipline’s development would have been stunted. This book also catalogues new findings about the birth of calculus in Kerala, India in the fourteenth century CE. There existed an extraordinary lineage of mathematicians of which Madhava (1350–1420 CE) developed many basic ideas of calculus. The infinite series for the sine, cosine and arctan as well as rudiments of integration are attributed to him. Information on this branch of Kerala mathematics was discovered by Charles M Whish in 1834.

The book is very informatively structured. Historic and geographic position indicators are provided at the end of each chapter enabling the readers to view the region on a map where the development had taken place and the timeline interspersed with other historical events. Lots of pictures are included, but their captions are long and often a repeat of the relevant area of the main text. Some very interesting anecdotes and titbits are given in boxes that can be read independent of the main narrative.

The book is strongly recommended.

Rating: 4 Star