Get Free Ebook Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi
Based upon some encounters of many individuals, it remains in reality that reading this Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi can help them making better option and also provide more experience. If you want to be one of them, let's acquisition this book Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi by downloading and install the book on link download in this website. You could obtain the soft file of this publication Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi to download and install as well as deposit in your available digital devices. What are you awaiting? Let get this publication Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi online and also read them in whenever and also any sort of location you will read. It will not encumber you to bring hefty book Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi within your bag.
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi
Get Free Ebook Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi
Envision that you obtain such specific amazing experience and knowledge by simply reading a publication Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi. Exactly how can? It seems to be better when a book can be the very best point to uncover. Publications now will certainly appear in published as well as soft file collection. One of them is this e-book Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi It is so normal with the published e-books. However, lots of people often have no room to bring the book for them; this is why they can not read the book wherever they really want.
If you desire really obtain the book Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi to refer currently, you should follow this web page consistently. Why? Keep in mind that you require the Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi source that will offer you appropriate assumption, don't you? By seeing this site, you have begun to make new deal to always be current. It is the first thing you can start to get all take advantage of being in a site with this Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi and also other compilations.
From currently, finding the finished website that offers the finished publications will be several, yet we are the relied on site to check out. Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi with very easy link, easy download, and also completed book collections become our excellent services to obtain. You can locate and make use of the benefits of picking this Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi as every little thing you do. Life is constantly creating and also you require some new publication Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi to be recommendation constantly.
If you still require more publications Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi as referrals, visiting browse the title as well as theme in this website is readily available. You will certainly find even more lots publications Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi in different disciplines. You can likewise as soon as possible to review guide that is currently downloaded and install. Open it as well as conserve Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi in your disk or device. It will alleviate you any place you need the book soft file to review. This Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots Of Modern Science--from The Babylonians To The Maya, By Dick Teresi soft documents to review can be reference for everybody to improve the ability and capability.
Boldly challenging conventional wisdom, acclaimed science writer and Omni magazine cofounder Dick Teresi traces the origins of contemporary science back to their ancient roots in an eye-opening account and landmark work.
This innovative history proves once and for all that the roots of modern science were established centuries, and in some instances millennia, before the births of Copernicus, Galileo, and Newton. In this enlightening, entertaining, and important book, Teresi describes many discoveries from all over the non-Western world -- Sumeria, Babylon, Egypt, India, China, Africa, Arab nations, the Americas, and the Pacific islands -- that equaled and often surpassed Greek and European learning in the fields of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology.
The first extensive and authoritative multicultural history of science written for a popular audience, Lost Discoveries fills a critical void in our scientific, cultural, and intellectual history and is destined to become a classic in its field.
- Sales Rank: #437919 in Books
- Brand: Brand: Simon n Schuster
- Published on: 2003-10-07
- Released on: 2003-10-07
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 8.44" h x 1.20" w x 5.50" l, .95 pounds
- Binding: Paperback
- 464 pages
- ISBN13: 9780743243797
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Amazon.com Review
Did Nicolas Copernicus steal his notion that the earth orbited the sun from an Islamic astronomer who lived three centuries earlier? "The jury is still out," writes Dick Teresi, whose intriguing survey of the non-Western roots of modern science offers several worthy arguments that Copernicus in fact ripped off Nasir al-Din al-Tusi. Common belief is that Westerners have been the mainspring of most scientific and technical achievement, but in Lost Discoveries Teresi shows that other cultures had arrived at much of the same knowledge at earlier dates. The Babylonians were using the Pythagorean theorem at least 15 centuries before Pythagoras drew his first triangle, and in A.D. 200 a Chinese mathematician calculated an incredibly accurate value for pi. The Mayans and other Mesoamericans were outstanding sky watchers and stargazers. The greatest advances occurred in math and astronomy, though Teresi also devotes chapters to physics, geology, chemistry, technology, and even cosmology. Sometimes he is a bit overeager to ascribe great thoughts to long-dead people (he casually suggests that "many ancient cultures had inklings of quantum theory"), but on the whole his book is a reliable and fascinating guide to the unexplored field of multicultural science. --John J. Miller
From Publishers Weekly
Science journalist Teresi (coauthor of The God Particle) has combed the literature to catalogue the scientific advances made by early non-Western societies and to determine their impact on Western science. His work spans millennia and encompasses the full extent of the globe. He points out, for example, that five millennia ago the Sumerians concluded that the earth was round. He also provides information on cultures of the Middle East, India, China, Africa and Oceania, as well as a host of New World cultures, predominately those of Mesoamerica. Throughout, readers learn that scientific knowledge of various sorts in diverse forms has been a part of all cultures. In chapters on mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry and technology, Teresi makes a convincing argument that Western science has often been indebted to advances made elsewhere (mineralogy was studied in Africa as early as 5000 B.C.). Teresi is at his strongest in the section on mathematics, where he discusses the evolution of Arabic numerals from the ancient Indians and the earliest conceptualizations of zero and infinity. Much less compelling are his assertions that early societies foreshadowed the ideas of quantum mechanics. Although a bit uneven, Teresi offers a great deal of fascinating material largely ignored by many histories of science.
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
What a terrific read! Teresi, a reviewer, essayist, and cofounder of Omni magazine, brings to light the many fascinating advances made by ancient, non-Western cultures. If you think that modern science is rooted in the golden age of Greece, you owe it to yourself to read his book. Supported by exhaustive research and a board of expert advisers, the author details the rich intellectual gifts from peoples whose histories are often neglected by our Eurocentric culture. He explores important contributions in the areas of mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology made by Pacific Islanders, Africans, Chinese, Indians, Arabs, and others. While it is an excellent multidisciplinary text for college-level classes, Teresi's work will also appeal to readers interested in science and intrigued by cultural histories. Extensive notes and a selected bibliography are organized by discipline. A wonderful addition to both academic and public libraries. Denise Hamilton, Franklin Pierce Coll. Lib., Rindge, NH
Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Most helpful customer reviews
23 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
Fascinating ancient beliefs with tenuous modern connections
By D. Cloyce Smith
The author of "Lost Discoveries" claims he began to write "with the purpose of showing that the pursuit of evidence of nonwhite science is a fruitless endeavor," but his goal changed when he kept finding "examples of ancient and medieval non-Western science that equaled and often surpassed ancient Greek learning." The book he wrote instead is a compendium of miscellaneous ancient, non-Western discoveries or beliefs in what he calls the "hard sciences." (An unfortunate lapse: By "nonwhite," Teresi apparently means non-European; his investigation includes other Caucasian civilizations.)
Non-Western scientific background is definitely a topic worthy of a book for the general reader, and, although there's some fascinating stuff here (and a solid bibliography that will expand anyone's reading list), "Lost Discoveries" suffers from several shortcomings. One problem is the book's organization. Teresi divides his discussion into distinctions that were unknown a few centuries ago--mathematics, astronomy, cosmology, physics, geology, chemistry, and technology--and then divides each of these chapters by localities. As a result, the book has little narrative flow and makes for some awfully dry reading--the type of disconnected paragraphs one usually finds in textbooks or reference works. I found it difficult to read this book for more than a few pages at a stretch.
Furthermore, since modern scientific specialties were, of course, unknown to ancient investigators, his categorization results in some odd choices. For example, beliefs concerning the shape of the earth (round, flat, or square) are discussed in geology as well as cosmology. Similarly, he arbitrarily divides up the work of alchemists among several chapters. Since ancient and medieval studies span many disciplines, there is a lot of annoying (and often verbatim) repetition: we read about the yin-yang duality and ch'i in the sections on astronomy, physics, geology, and chemistry; about Jainism with regards to cosmology, physics, and chemistry; and how Avicenna influenced physics, geology, and chemistry.
Teresi was cofounder of Omni Magazine, which had a reputation (some might call it notoriety) for including articles on topics that strayed well beyond science and into paranormal exploration and New Age quackery. Although "Lost Discoveries" is usually on firmer scientific ground, the author occasionally recalls his earlier career with an eager enthusiasm to find direct or symbolic connections between ancient learning and modern scientific investigation. This is particularly true in his chapter on cosmology. (Teresi's obvious distaste for Big Bang theory doesn't help here.) The Mangaian creation myth, describing an infant universe emerging from a coconut root, may offer interesting literary and cultural insights, but it in no way "anticipates" modern cosmological theories of an inflationary universe. Elsewhere, it's simply preposterous to find intimations of quantum theory in the ancient Indian "yadrccha" (chance) or of the Higgs field in the Buddhist "maya" (the weight of the universe). One may as well argue that William Bennett is a quantum physicist every time he walks into a casino.
It's too bad that Teresi didn't organize his research by civilization and time period, compare these societies on their own terms (rather than ours), chart their influences on each other and on subsequent cultures, and avoid misguided attempts to find inklings of 21st-century theories and knowledge in every ancient myth. Readers looking for a stronger investigation of the wonders of non-Western science, technology, and civilization should check out Jared Diamond's "Guns, Germs, and Steel" or Felipe Fernandez-Armesto's "Civilizations."
18 of 21 people found the following review helpful.
An innaccurate, poorly written, worthless book on a fascinating subject
By Procopius
This book is about the scientific achievements of non-Western peoples such as the Babylonians, Arabs, Mayans, Chinese and others. This is a fascinating subject that is given inadequate attention, and thus this could have been a great book. Unfortunately it's trash.
The book's author, Dick Teresi, is formerly from Omni magazine, a "science" magazine best known for its credulity about UFOs and the paranormal- not the best sign. The book is badly written, full of innaccuracies, exaggerations, and misinterpretations. At his loopiest, Teresi insists that ancient peoples anticipated modern theories such as quantum mechanics and modern cosmology, based upon very vague connections to their religious and metaphysicial beleifs. This rather indicates that Teresi has a limited understanding of the basis of science itself (based upon verifiability and predictability) and probably isn't qualified to write a book on this subject
Teresi also seems to have a big axe to grind against the West and against Western science, and the book is full of denigrations of Western civilization. Teresi goes beyond noting that it was influenced by non-Western achievements and seems to argue that it stole all its achievements from them. After awhile, this becomes irritating, especially since his reasoning is so poor.
The book had a lot of interesting information that I hadn't heard before, but given the book's low credibility, I was never sure whether the info was trustworthy.
It's too bad, because it's a fascinating subject, which deserves a better-written popularization than this.
15 of 18 people found the following review helpful.
Poorly Written and Full of Inaccuracies
By C Wheat
I bought this book because I liked its premise. However, I was thoroughly disappointed before I could even finish the first chapter. The book is filled with repetitious statements on the one hand and inconsistancies on the other. If you can get over the poor writing style, you will come up against the flagrant factual errors. For example, Teresi denegrates the Greeks for thinking the world is flat. Huh? Most of the greatest Greek philosophers, including Pythagoras and Ptolemy, thought Earth was a sphere. Aristotle even used the evidence that Earth casts a round shadow on the moon during an eclipse to support this idea.
This was just one of many factual errors that popped out at me while I tried to read this poorly executed book. As an archaeologist myself, I couldn't agree more that non-Westerners have made great contributions to science. However, believe it or not, so have Westerners!
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi PDF
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi EPub
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi Doc
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi iBooks
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi rtf
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi Mobipocket
Lost Discoveries: The Ancient Roots of Modern Science--from the Babylonians to the Maya, by Dick Teresi Kindle
Tidak ada komentar:
Posting Komentar