tell me why ideas that changed the world

I A that changed the Wor.ld Why was the life of Early Man changed by the invention of tools?. These tools were first used just for hunting, and gradually, they developed into weapons tha

WhOi�this , What IS he dOing •

TELLMEWHY

January 2013 • Volume: 7 • No: 1

From the house of MAGIC POT, THE WEEK, MANORAMA YEAR BOOK, VANITHA

& THE MAlAYAlA MANORAMA DAilY

THE BIG BANG OF I DEAS Some child in ancient times must have said, as he watched a bird soar u p in the sky, "If only I could fly like that!" Obviously his elders would have laughed, hearing this But it was the birth of an idea that inspired generations to come, through countless centuries, to

be realized in modern times through the efforts of the Wright brothers

An idea is invisible and weightless, having no material substance And yet it has the power to change your life or even the course of history Any invention, discovery or historical event had its origin

in a spark ofthought that developed into an idea

In this issue ofTell Me Why, we are making an attempt to present some path-breaking ideas that changed the way we live

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to you by gnv64

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I A that changed the Wor.ld Why was the life of Early Man changed by the invention of tools?

Most of the first inventions made by Early Man came about

because of a need, or by accident Our earliest ancestors were hunters, and the first tools that were made were used for cutting, throwing, or hammering These early tools were mostly made of stone and sticks Pieces of stone were chipped to make a sharp edge for cutting, and the tips of sticks were sharpened to make spears forth rowing Handles made of sticks were fixed to stones to form hammers, and grasses were woven into nets These tools acted as an extension of Man's hands, and helped him to hunt animals more efficiently Though these devices were very basic, they were important in that they led to further inventions as Man tried to improve them and these inventions led to changes

in the way Early Man lived

Hands up! This is my brand new ' stone gun'! "

or maybe, those early tool-makers noticed that the rocks they chipped sent out sparks that could start fires

In any case, Man discovered that fire could completely change his way of life Early Man made fire either by striking stones, or by rubbing pieces

of wood together

The discoverY of fire had many far reaching consequences So, it is considered as the single most important discovery that made Man superior to animals

He invented not only fire, but also the rocket!

Tel l Me Why

The wheel was not invented by one man,

or in one country It was the result of the ideas of many men and many cultures over a long period of time The first primitive wheels were fou nd in the remains of Assyrian, Babylonian, and Egyptian cultures

The wheel is probably the most important mechaniCal invention of all ,time The key aspect of a wheel is that it made the invention of many other objects easy- and it also made it very easy

to move larger objects Nearly every machine built since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution involves the use of the wheel, fr.om tiny watch gears to computer discs

Habeas Corpus

� 'E-.,

�Il F �" Habeas Corpus is a fundamental element of all

legal systems that have sources in Enalish

common law It states that anyone bei�gffi!td in �us�odymust

be brought before the court, and the c!Ourt mustbe convinced that there is sufficient reason to ke� him in custody

MININ G:

The Quest fo Ro c ks and Minera l s Early Man used rocks for tools and weapons, and also to extract minerals When the rocks on the surface were used

up, he dug shallow pits to get the rocks he wanted These were the very first mines Underground mines came later

agriculture change

Man's way of life?

Early Man needed

food to survive, as all

living things do At

first, he hunted

animals by chasing

and trapping them,

and ate their meat

He also discovered

that certain wild

plants, fruits, and

berries could be

eaten Later, he

started cooking food

too However, he had

to keep moving in

search of fresh

sources of food

When he discovered

that he cou Id actually

grow certain plants

for food, it made a

t r e m e n d o u s

difference to his way

8

Threshing of Grain in Ancient Egypt

of life It meant that instead of wandering from place to place, he could now stay in one place, and grow what he needed to eat

Farming of land began first in the Middle East Hunter-gatherers, who had travelled

to the area in search of food, began to gather the wild grains they found growing there for food They then scattered spare grains on the ground to grow more food

As a result, people began to live in settled communities

Tel l Me Why

Why were weapons invented?

Man's first tools were stones which he

had picked up He chose stones that had

been worn and sharpened by the weather

into shapes that could be used as clubs for

cutting and scraping The right shaped

stones were not always easy to find, so in

time Man learned to fashion primitive

tools to suit his purposes These tools were

first used just for hunting, and gradually,

they developed into weapons that were

deadly to people too

Prehistoric Man's tools could be made

of bone, tooth, or more frequently stone,

and in particular, flint At first, these

primitive weapons would be held directly

in the hand Eventually, however, Man

learned how to attach these axe-heads to

a wooden shaft, and the power of the

weapon was increased As Man became

more experienced in making stone tools,

the tools became more and more

advanced in their design

Arrowheads were a great advance,

because they meant that for the first time,

Stop Brother! I just want to test this weapon

Man could kill his prey or an enemy from a Bronze Age Weapons

distance, without putting himself at risk

When was time first recorded?

The ancient Sumerians and Egyptians

were the first to divide the day into

different parts Around 3500 BC, slender

tapering monuments were built to record

time Their moving shadows made it

possible to divide a day into two parts by

marking the time when the shadow is at

its shortest, as midday or noon These

monuments were called obelisks, and

they also showed the longest and shortest

days, when the shadow at noon was the

shortest, or longest in the year

The passageofhours wasfirst measured

around 1 500 BC when the first sundials

were built The sundial divided a sunlit

day into ten parts, plus two parts for the

twilight hours in the morning and

evening

Over the centuries, clock making

became more developed and time

keeping more refined, till today, there are

devices that record time accurately to

one hundredth of a second

One of the weapons developed

by Early Man was the

boomerang It is a curved

flat weapon that is thrown

There are two types of boomerangs, and

one type can return to the same place

from which it is thrown, when in the

hands of an expert

1 0

An Hour Glass

Tell Me Why

POTTERY:

Transforming Clay Once Man discovered how to make fire,

he started making pots by heating soft clay in fire Because an ordinary fire did not heat the clay evenly, the first pots were fragile, and not very waterproof

When were herbal medicines first discovered?

Medicinal herbs were Early Man's first line of defence against the many ills and accidents that plagued him Ancient humans learned from the observation of animals, including birds, howto use leaves, earth, mud, and water to make soothing applications Although the methods were crude, several of today's medicines are based upon sources as simple as those of Ancient Man

Ayurveda, perhaps the most ancient of all healing systems, uses herbs and the gifts of nature to treat diseases References to different drugs and

therapies can be found

in the Rigveda and

old, is based on two

separate theories about

the natural laws that

govern good health and

longevity, namely 'Yin

and Yang', which are in

After finishing that

medicine, you can take

this too

Egyptian medicine dates from at least

3000 BC, the last known and most

important pharmaceutical record is

the Papyrus Ebers The uses of certain

herbs used in Ancient Egypt were later

documented by the Greek physician

Dioscorides in 1 00 AD The works of

the Greeks, such as Hippocrates Galen

also used in parts of the Papyrus Ebers

Therefore Greek, and ultimately

modern medicine, has its origin in

Ancient Egyptian medicine

Papyrus Ebers

Copper Utensils

COPPER: The Popular Metal The first metal to be widely used was copper Copper was used to make small objects as early as

6500 BC in Turkey

By 3000 Be copper was popular throughout the Middle East and the Mediterranean

Tel l Me W hy

Why is the Phoenician alphabet

called the ancestor of all modern

Western alphabets?

The advent of a writing system started

when Early Man started farming and

settled in one place.Around 41 00-3800

BC, symbols impressed on clay began to

be used to keep records The symbols

were in the form of pictures, and

eventually, certain pictures began to

represent first ideas, and then sounds

The Sumerians and Egyptians were the

first ancient civilizations to develop this

form of written communication

The developers of the first true

alphabet were the Phoenicians They

developed a crude script in which each

letter stood for a sound, and had a

symbol of its own This alphabet, dating

from 1 600 Be, was further developed by

the Ancient Greeks It was changed and

improved, and had 24 characters The

Romans later adopted this alphabet, and

adapted it to their own needs This Latin

alphabet is theforerunnerofthe modern

English alphabet- so, we can say that the

Phoenician alphabet is the ancestor of

all modern Western alphabets

Ideas that changed the world

1 3

Seals from Mohenjo Daro Why is the history of writing a fascinating one?

The very first writing was in the form of painting of animals and birds on the walls of caves Between 3300 and 2000 BC, seals were used in the ancient civilizations of Harappa and Mohenjo Daro They were made of clay or ceramic, but no one knows how to read them yet

The Sumerians used tablets

with impressions made on them

in wet clay The first form of

writing is known as cuneiform

writing It was based on picto­

grams or drawings of actual

things, and developed by the

Sumerians over 5000 years ago

From pictograms, cuneiform

writing developed into signs

that looked like small wedges

The Ancient Egyptians also

had their own form of writing

They wrote on papyrus, a type

of paper made from reeds, and

their writing is known as hiero­

glyphics

1 4

How's

my brand new tablet?

Tel l Me Why

Why was language an

i mportant step in man's

development?

Before the development

of a spoken language,

Early Man communicated

with members of his group

As things became more complicated around them, humans needed a more complex system to convey information to one another The development of spoken language allowed group members to exchange thoughts and ideas, and pass on their culture from one generation to the next

TRADING:

A Step towards Prosperity

Trading was an important step forward for civilization It allowed people to exchange what they had too much of, for what they needed Trading became popular when the first cities were established When trading flourished, the cities prospered

Fragments

of Euclid's

Elements

Why is it said that geometry

fired Man ' s imagination?

The word geometry means to

'measure the earth,' and geometry

is the science of shape and size of

things Geometry began with a

practical need to measure shapes It

is believed that geometry first

became important when an Egyptian

pharaoh wanted to tax farmers who

raised crops along the Nile River To

1 6

I got this magic scale

calculate the correct amount oftax, the pharaoh's agents had to be able to measure the amount of land being cultivated

Around 2900 BC, the first Egyptian pyramid was constructed Knowledge of geometry was essential for building pyramids

Geometry was thoroughly organized in about 300 BC, when the Greek mathema­tician Euclid gathered what was known at the time, added original work of his own, and arranged 465 propositions into 1 3 books, called 'Elements'

Geometry dealt with forms so mind boggling that they fired Man's imagi­nation to new heights of creativity and logic

Tell Me Why

Why is King Hammurabi is called 'the king of law'?

Hammurabi was an ancient Babylonian king He created the first written set of laws, using the cuneiform script developed by the Sumerians These laws were known as Hammurabi's Code They consisted of a collection of 282 laws inscribed on an upright stone pillar

Although Hammurabi was concerned with keeping order in his kingdom, this was not his only reason for compiling the list of laws When he began ruling the city-state of Babylon, he had control of only 50 square miles of territory As he conquered other city-states and his empire g rew, he saw the need to unify the various groups he controlled Hammurabi keenly understood that to achieve this goal, he needed one universal set of laws for all of the diverse peoples he conquered

Therefore, he sent legal experts throughout his kingdom to gather existing laws These laws were reviewed, and some were changed oreliminated before compiling his final list

In Hammurabi's court, it did not matter if you were rich or poor If you broke the law, and were found guilty, yO'll would be punished Since the laws were clearly written down, everyone was expected to obey them The

code was found by French archaeologists in 1 901 Fif(ures on Hammurabi Stele

1 7

Engl ish - language Names

The English-language names for each day are derived from a combination

of Roman and Norse gods Sunday and Monday, of course, are for the

sun and the moon Tuesday is derived from Tyr, the Norse God of War and Wednesday from

Woden, the Chief God of the Norse Thursday comes from Thor, the God ofThunder, Friday from Freya, Woden's wife, and Saturday is named after Saturn, the Roman God of

agriculture and harvest

How did the week get seven days?

The seven-day week started with the first civilizations of the Middle East Mesopotamian astrologers designated one day for each of the seven most prominent objects in the sky-the Sun, the Moon, and the five major planets visible to the naked eye

1 8

Cut one day from

the week

The Jews also adopted a seven-day cycle, based on the time it took the Lord to create the universe The Romans thought of a week as the 8 days between market days But after the Romans adopted the Julian calendar in the first century AD, the seven-day week gradually came into use, until it was officially adopted

by the Emperor (onstantine in

321 AD The British Empire used the seven-day week, and spread it worldwide Today, the seven-day week is accepted globally

Tell Me W hy

Most of the oldest calendars were lunar calendars, based on the time interval from one new moon to the next Ice-age hunters in Europe over 20,000 years ago scratched lines and gouged holes in sticks and bones, possibly counting the days between phases of the moon

The earliest Egyptian calendar was based on "the moon's cycles, but later, the Egyptians devised a 365-day calendar

On the other hand, the Mayans of Central America relied on notonlythe sun and moon, but also the planet Venus, to establish 260-day and 365-day calendars Their calendars later became portions of the great Aztec calendar stones Other civilizations, including the modern West, have adopted a 365-day solar

ca lenda r with a leap yea r occu rri ng every fourth year

Where was democracy

born?

In ancient times, people

were ruled by kings,

pharaohs and emperors The

idea that people could rule

themselves was first born in

Athens, a city state in Ancient

Greece The concept was

introduced by a statesman

named Cleistheses in 509

BC He divided the Athenian

citizens into small commu­

nities called demes Demes

were grouped together into

ten tribes Each tribe had an

equal number of citizens

the people Every ten days,

the male citizens met in an

assembly, and any man who

wished to could speak or

propose laws The men

voted to determine the final

laws Women and slaves

could not take part in the

proceedings because they

were not considered

citizens The Ancient

Romans later adapted the

Greek form of government

to create a republic

This machine

is of the democracy, for the democracy and

by the democracy

IRRIGATION:

Year Round Water for Plants Irrigation helps plants to grow even when there is no rain, and the soil is dry The Ancient Egyptians used to trap the waters

of the Nile River when it flooded every year They stored the water in ponds, and sent it to their fields through channels

Why is Confucius considered a guide of the ancient world?

Confucius was one of the greatest philosophers of Ancient China He lived in China during 500 BC, and was a teacher, magis­trate, and chief minister of his city Later, he q uit all official posts, and spent the rest of his life

travelling from town to town Confucius

around China with his students,

giving advice to different rulers

wherever he went Due to the

turmoil and injustices he saw, he

set himself to develop a new moral

code based on honesty, education,

and strong family bonds

Confucius believed that a good

government was the basis for a

peaceful and happy society He

taught that the basis for a good

government was good officials

His teachings form a complex

system of social, moral, political,

and religious ideas that served as a

guide for the individual and

society, not only in Ancient China

but throughout the ancient

world

How did ancient philoso­

phers develop the theory of

atoms?

Fromthe ]lhcenturyonwards,

ancient Greek philosophers

began to wonder about the

fundamental substance on

which all creation is based

Some believed it was water,

others thought it was air, while

still others said that it was fire

In the 5th century BC,

Leucippus and his follower

Democritus, believed that

everything was made of

something they called 'atoms'­

from the Greek word meaning

'cannot be divided' Democ­

ritus believed that all matter

was composed of atoms, and

that each atom was separated

by a distinctive amount of

space

U nfortunately, the dominant

Greek philosopher of the era,

Aristotle, vehemently opposed

all ideas concerning atomic

theory, and refused to believe

that anything such as an atom

could even exist So, the atomic

theory gradually faded into

oblivion, until it was revived

centuries later, proving that

Democritus was right when he

said that the Universe is

up of infinitely tiny particles

22

BRIC KS:

Bu i ld in g Block s The first bricks were made from mud Mud was mixed with straw, shaped in wooden moulds and then dried in the sun Around 3500 BC better bricks were made

in the Middle East by heating clay in a kiln This made them hard and waterproof too

I think this is an atom, can't break it

Tell Me W hy

Who were the three great philoso­

phers who shaped the ancient

world?

Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle were

three great Greek philosophers whose

ideas shaped the ancient world

Socrates taught Plato, and Plato taught

Aristotle

Socrates was the first to make a clear

distinction between the body and soul

He said that the soul was actually more

important than the body He had an

enquiring mind, and taught by asking

questions about life Some people did

not like his teachings, and this noble

man was finally put to death His

teachings were written down by Plato,

his student

Plato founded a school of philosophy

called the Academy, which

is believed to be the first

university in the western

important work was 'The

Republic,' in which he

explains his philosophy

Aristotle was a student of

Plato, and studied at the

Academy He later founded

his own school of philosophy

called The Lyceum His most

important contribution may

have been his i nvention of

logic, and his theories have

influenced the western world

24

ROAD S :

The Way Forward

Great roads were built

in the ancient civiliza­

tions Theywere not

tarred it is true, but

they were nevertheless

impressive The

Persian Royal Road

built in 3500 Be was

2857 kms long The Silk

Road remained the

world's longest road for

2000 years The Incas

and the Egyptians also

built great roads

What were the early theories about the planetary system 1 Our ancestors believed that the Earth was the centre of the Universe, and the sun, moon, planets and stars moved around

it According to the Greek philos­opher Pythagoras, the Earth was surrounded by larger and Iilrger spheres, each containing their own sun, moon, planets and stars

As these spheres moved around the Earth, they each produced a musical note, and together this was called the m usic of the spheres Centuries later, Coper­nicus declared that the Earth was not the centre of the universe Instead, it circled around the sun This theory was very important

because it was the stepping stone

to the theory that space went on forever and was infinite

Tell Me Why

Why was the discovery of zero India's great contribution to civilization?

The word 'zero' comes from the Sanskrit

word meaning 'nothing' The biggest

invention of Ancient India's mathematicians was

the use of zero Zero was used as a placeholder It

also made it easier to add and multiply numbers In

458 AD, Indian mathematicians wrote a book, the

'Lokavibhaaga/ that uses zero in this way In 628 AD, the

mathematician Brahmagupta also wrote a book

explaining how zero worked, with rules like 'the sum of

zero and zero is zero'

The use of zero spread quickly from India to West

Asia, and then to Europe The Chinese were astute

mathematicians and astronomers, m uch like

the Indians and Mayans and other ancient

peoples But they too owe their

knowledge of zero to India

This is the zero, which makes

me a hero ;-,." ,

S AI LS:

The first sails were pieces of matting

or animal skin stretched between

poles Cloth sails appeared much

later However, the early sails

worked only when the wind was

blowing from behind the direction

in which a boat was going

Roman Why were Roman methods of building

Colosseum innovative?

Architects in Ancient Rome adopted certain aspects of Ancient Greek architecture, and by doing so, they created a new architectural style They also brought in several innovations like the arch, which was a curving span made from wedge shaped stones The Romans did not invent the arch-this was done earlier by the Greeks However, the Romans found a way to make the arch bear much heavier loads Innovation started in the first century BC, with the invention of concrete, a strong and readily available substitute for stone This concrete was a mixture of rock, lime and sandy volcanic ash, which made it possible to build arches capable of wide spans

The Pantheon is still considered to be the world's largest unreinforced solid -concrete dome The aqueducts and baths of Ancient Rome were also renowned for their excellence in construction Another impressive achievement was the multi­story apartment blocks called insulae

Why was the invention of glass important? Glass is an inorganic solid material that is usually clear or translucent with different colours Before people learned to make glass, they had found two forms of natural glass When lightning strikes sand, the heat sometimes fuses the sand into long, slender glass tubes called fulgurites The terrific heat of a volcanic eruption also sometimes fuses rocks and sand into a glass called obsidian

In early times, people shaped obsidian into knives, arrowheads, jewellery, and money Glass was probably invented around 3000 BC It is generally

Ideas that changed the world

believed that the first manufactured glass was in the form of a glaze on ceramic vessels

Modern glass originated in Alexandria when artisans created 'mosaic glass' in which slices of coloured glass were used to create decorative patterns

Early glassmaking was slow and costly, and it required hard work Glass blowing was invented about

30 BC by the glassmakers of Syria This invention made glass production easier, faster,

and cheaper As a result, glass became available to the common people for the first time

Today, glass is used for various kinds' of bottles and utensils, mirrors, windows and many other things

�7

Why did the invention of paper

change the world?

Since the invention of writing,

people had been trying to come up

with something to write on that was

easy and cheap to make Paper seems

to have been invented around 1 00 BC

in China

A government official in China

named Ts'ai Lun was the first to start a

paper-making industry Ts'ai Lun

seems to have made his paper by

mixing finely chopped mulberry bark

and hemp rags with water, mashing it

flat, and then pressing out the water,

and letting it dry in the sun

Even after people in China began to

use paper, it took another thousand

years before people were using paper

all over Eurasia By the 400's AD,

people in India were also making

paper Paper gets its name from the

Egyptian papyrus plant that was used

to make paper-like sheets as early as

2300 BC

C O T O N :

Fa b r ics f om Pla t s

Cotton was discovered about 5000

years ago, by people in the Indus

Valley Civilization They found that

the silky fibres attached to the seeds

of a plant could be woven into a fine

fabric The use of cotton spread to

Mesopotamia and then to China

28

Bill of Sale for a Donkey, Written on Papyrus

Tell Me Why

Why did the discovery of gunpowder change warfare?

The Chinese first discovered gunpowder in their search for a magic mixture that would grant a person eternal life They stumbled upon its explosive qualities quite accidentally while experimenting with saltpeter,

a waste product of bacteria that feeds on decaying organic matter

Saltpeter appeared in many parts of China as a white crust in the topsoil Gunpowder was first used mainly for fireworks and for show, but pretty soon, the Chinese learned that it could be used to make deadly weapons too These weapons included 'flying fire', an arrow with

a burning tube of gunpowder attached to the shaft

By the 1 2th century, the Chinese were packing gunpowder into hardened containers to produce bombs Later, they mastered the art of packing gunpowder in a metal tube with an open end to launch bits of metal and crockery at high speed These were the first guns Gradually, the guns became heavier, and they were mounted on wheels to make the very first canons

on June 1 9th, 1 2 1 5 It was the first formal document stating that a king had to follow the laws of the land It guaranteed the rights of individuals against the wishes of the king This meant people couldn't be arrested, imprisoned,

or have their possessions taken away, except by the law of the land This laid the way for trial by jury which means people are tried

LAMPS:

Light for the Night For almost 30,000 years, Man burnt wicks made of plant fibres dipped in oil for light

Later, proper oil lamps that had reservoirs of oil and a controlled flame came into use

Ancient China and Egypt had simple lamps with a channel or spike to hold the wick It was the Ancient Greeks who developed proper lamps with handles These lamps

used olive or nut oil

Tel l Me Why

by their peers, and

guaranteed the civil

which means 'Do

you have the body?'

in Latin This rule

means that the

reason, or for the

wrong reasons The

rights guaranteed

by the Magna Carta

became a part of

English law, and

remain so, to this

day

Florence - The Centre

of Renaissance

Ideas that changed the

Why did the Renaissance change people ' s attitude towards life?

During the Middle Ages, life was thought

to be just a preparation for death and after life But by the middle of the 1 4 th century, a new way of thinking started to spread throughout Europe It began with discovery, by the leading thinkers of the day, of the ancient classics- especially Latin works like Virgil's epic poem The Aeneid' and the writing and speeches of the Roman statesman Cicero This was the period of the Renaissance or 'rebirth' It was a rebirth

of education, science, art, literature, music, and a better life for people in general

A big partofthe Renais­

sance was a cultural movement called humanism It empha­

sized the dignity of the human race The followers of humanism were called the

h umanists

"

The Creation of Adam - A Painting by Michelangelo

Why was Renaissance art different from that of earlier times?

The Renaissance is one of the most fascinating periods of European history It started in Italy in around 1 350, and in the rest

of Europe in 1 450 The Renaissance lasted until roughly 1 620 Art is one of the best known features of the Renaissance Great artists such as Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci, and Rafael flourished

ANATOMY:

Knowing our Bodies

The study of the structure of our body is called anatomy The ancient Greek doctor Herophilus was one of the first

to describe the brain, nerves and different parts ofthe body His descrip­ tions were based on real observation and not guesswork

Why was the invention of the printing press a revolutionary one?

Around six hundred years ago, books were handwritten Johannes Gutenberg was the man who saved people the trouble of writing books by hand, by inventing the printing press.Johann started hisinverttion

by making metal letters He arranged them into a sentence, and pressed pieces

of paper against the letters that had ink on them, with his hands

However, the ink did not come out evenly on to the paper, so

he decided to make a press

Gutenberg took some· existing technologies and some of his own inventions to come up with the printing press

in the year 1 450 One key idea

he came up with was moveable type Rather than use wooden blocks to press ink onto paper, Gutenberg used moveable

pages He made innovations all

Why was Sir Thomas Moore famous?

Si r Thomas More, an Eng I ishma n, beca me famous in the 1 500's for his concept of Utopia The word first appeared in a book written by him, and referred to an ideal or perfect place In the book, Utopia is a republic where the people are free from all misery, anxiety and care

Even before More, other writers and philosophers had attempted to describe a perfect world The earliest of them was proposed by Plato in 'The Republic' The ideal community in More's Utopia is somewhat similar Men and women l ive as equals, and no one owns any private property Of course, though this sounds fine in a book, there are many people who feel that in real life Utopia would be quite a dull and boring place Perhaps it is just as well that the word 'Utopia' itself means 'no place' -for such a place is unlikely to succeed

on Earth

the way through the printing process enabling pages to be printed much more rapidly

The invention of the printing press spread quickly throughout Europe, and soon thousands of books were being printed on printing presses The printing press made books cheaper and more plentiful It made it possible for even middle class people to buy books, and spread knowledge and education like never before

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Copernicus

Health for the Public

The first public hospital opened in Rome in around AD 397 It was founded

by Fabiola, a highly educated Roman aristocrat, who became a Christian She also helped the monks, who in turn, started more hospitals Fabiola was later declared a saint

Why is Copernicus considered a great scientist?

Copernicus was a Polish astronomer who lived and worked during the late

1 400's and early 1 500's He is best known for his theory that the Sun, and not the Earth, is at the centre of the universe His theory was that the Earth rotatQS daily

on its axis, and revolves yearly around the Sun He also argued that the planets circled the Sun

Copernicus is often considered the founder of modern astronomy Before

he shared his view of the solar system, the general belief was that all the heavenly bodies revolved around the Earth Nicolaus Copernicus created the modern concept of the solar system, and changed cosmology forever He was a great scientist in that he transformed the study of astronomy when he proposed that our solar system is heliocentric­which means centred around the Sun­and not geocentric, or centred around the Earth

Why were Galileo and the

telescope, tools for scientific

change?

Galileo was a brilliant

astronomer, physicist, mathe­

matician, philosopher, and

inventor He built on the work

of others to create improved

versions of telescopes

During the 1 600's Galiled was

the first to use the telescope

systematically to observe

celestial objects, and record his

discoveries With these

telescopes, Galileo was able to

observe the skies in ways previ­

ously not achieved

In 1 61 0, he made observa­

tions about four objects

surrounding Jupiter that

behaved differently from stars

These turned outto be Jupiter's

four largest satellite moons-10,

Callisto, Europa and Ganymede

They were later renamed the

Galilean satellites in honour of

Galileo himself

Galileo's view of the u niverse

differed strongly with the

beliefs of the Church at the

time He even spent the final

years of his life under house

arrest Galileo helped open the

eyes of the world to a new way

of thinking about the solar

system and astronomy

Why was the microscope a path ­

breaking invention?

Magnifying glasses are mentioned in

the writings of Roman philosophers

Seneca and Pliny the Elder, Roman

philosophers during the first century

AD The earliest simple microscope

was merely a tube with a plate for the

object at one end, and, at the other, a

lens that magnified an object up to ten

times its actual size The development

of the conventional microscope at the

end of the 1 6th century would lead to a

great step forward for science, particu­

larly in biology and medicine

The first scientific results based on

microscopy dealt with the circulating

blood system, and changed our view of

the human body By using microscopes,

scientists were able to discover the

existence of microorganisms, study the

structure of cells, and see the smallest

parts of plants, animals, and fungi

Today, the microscope is still a

commonly used tool to diagnosis illness

in hospitals and clinics A Modern Microscope

Newspapers Newspapers in Ancient Rome were carved in metal or stone In the past, in China, they were handwritten on silk In C' = "'- Europe, merchants would distribute

�A � news letters written by hand The first q"IOU$ \ true newspaper in English was the

'London Gazette,' published in 1 666

Why is Francis Bacon credited with bringing a new approach to science and philosophy?

Francis Bacon was an English mathe­matician and theoretical physicist who lived between 1 561 and 1 626 He sought to bring a whole new approach

to philosophy and science And so, he did While many others built on his ideas, Bacon accomplished something truly revolutionary, called inductive reasoning Inductive reasoning is a process that begins with specific details and observations - of natural occur­rences or behaviour, say -and uses them

to arrive at a principle to explain them

Bacon believed that philosophy must be entirely divorced from religion, and ba ed only upon reason He was also, perhaps the first thinker to predict an improved future that would be the result

of the steady advance of scientific knowledge He truly believed in the saying 'knowledge is power'

38

The World of Algebra Algebra is a form of mathematics used to solve problems It uses constants and variables Variables are symbols that represent different values when used in different equations Constants are numbers that always have the same value Algebra wasn't invented overnight by one person The Babylonians, the Greeks, the Arabs, the Indians, the Chinese, and the

Europeans all contributed to Algebra as we know it today

In Ancient Greece, Diophantus wrote a series of books

called Arithmetica He solved equations, and even used symbols, but he didn't solve general equations

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Benjamin Franklin

How did electricity change the world?

Electricity was never discovered- rather,

it emerged through a series of discoveries The Ancient Greeks knew that electricity could be produced by rubbing a piece of amber However, it was only in 1 660 that the German physicist Otto von Guericke developed a device that produced static electricity Even in the mid 1 8th century, people did not realize the potential of electricity

In 1 752, Benjamin Franklin,an American,

positive and negative elements, and that

it flowed from positive to negative

In 1 83 1 , Michael Faraday developed the

invented the electric light bulb that-could emit continuous light - and this invention changed the world

40

Why is Isaac Newton considered one of

the most influential scientists of all time?

Born in England in the 1 7th century, Isaac Newton was

a highly influential physicist, astronomer, mathematician, philosopher, and theologian He made some very important discoveries in his lifetime In fact, within a period

of a year and half, he made three great discoveries His first discovery was the three basic laws of motion

Newton's second discovery was about light, and the

properties of light Newton's third great discovery was

in the field of maths, when he developed a kind of maths wecall calculus Sir Isaac Newton was, without doubt, one of the most influential scientists of all

time He came up with numerous theories,

and contributed ideas to many different

fields including physics, mathe­

matics, and philosophy

This apple influenced me very much!

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