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The Light of Alexandria By James Maynard This is the history of science, in the first thousand years, from the birth of the world’s first two scientists, Thales and Anaximander, until the final destruction of the greatest library of the ancient world, the Library of Alexandria, in the year 415. Journeying through time and space, we visit ancient Ionia, Greece, Egypt and Rome as we meet Pythagoras, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates, Aristarchus, Galen and many more of the people who created ancient science. We will see how the ideas of science, many thousands of years ahead of their times, were postulated and argued in the fields of astronomy, medicine, physics, evolution and much more. But more than that, this book also tells of the history of the Mediterranean world in that era and about what life was like for the people of that long-forgotten time. Here, we learn of their dress, styles of music, poetry, art and theatre. The ancient world is brought to life through the eyes of the scientists/philosophers who inhabited that time and place. The Light of Alexandria contains comprehensive biographies of the most famous scientists of ancient Ionia, Greece, and Egypt including: Plato, Aristotle, Pythagoras, Hippocrates, Euclid and Archimedes. The work also includes several lesser known, yet just as important, scientists such as: Eratosthenes, Galen, Aristarchus, Anaxagoras, Empedocles, Hypatia and many more. Astronomers, mathematicians, doctors and other scientists mix with philosophers, historians, polticians, warriors and lovers. The life stories of the most famous and important people in history from 600 BCE to 415 CE are also told: the romantic intrigue of Cleopatra, Caesar and Marc Antony, the cruelness of Draco and the bravery of Spartacus, the madness of Caligula and the genius of Hannibal. The invention of many devices people associate with modern life are profiled: the first vending machines, automatic doors, shopping malls, machine guns, mechanized stage machinery for plays, automated con games and even an analog computer invented nearly 2100 years ago. The Light of Alexandria tells how the first thousand years of science helped to shape the world of twenty centuries ago, as well as our world today and how science dimmed, faded and was nearly snuffed out, leading to the Dark Ages. The human mind never stops wondering, and this is the story of the first thousand years of our commitment to that wonder. © Copyright 2005 James Maynard |
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