Book Review ~~ The Ascent of Man — The Starry Messenger ~~

Recently, I finished reading the sixth chapter in “The Ascent of Man,” by J. Bronowski — The Starry Messenger. It was very interesting, this time explaining astronomy’s impact on human evolution and the ideas introduced and eventually accepted about the nature of the planets. At first, astronomy was used only for timekeeping and to guide travelers. People assumed that the sun and various other planets revolved around Earth, but by the fifteenth century, Copernicus presented a different idea: he suggested that all planets, including Earth, revolved around the sun, but for several more decades, his idea went unaccepted until Galileo Galilei used his telescope to look at the stars and proved Copernicus’s theory. However, for various political reasons, those ideas were shunned by the authorities at the time. Forgeries were produced to show that Galileo had not been allowed to use the theory as a hypothesis, and despite the lack of Galileo’s signature on the documents, he was still found guilty of violating the law. I found it a morally reprehensible action to deny his claims merely because of common belief, especially since Galileo’s ideas were eventually proved true. The book provided an accurate, quick summary of astronomy, almost a timeline of what humans accomplished with astronomy, and I recommend it to anyone interested in astronomy or evolution. I would rate it 9.7/10.

Book Review ~~ The Ascent of Man — The Music of the Spheres ~~

Today I read the fifth chapter in “The Ascent of Man,” by J. Bronowski, The Music of the Spheres. In it, he explains that nature and numbers are closely related, referring to the Pythagorean Theorem as an example, since it is often used to build structures such as ancient Egyptian pyramids and The Hanging Gardens. He continues to explain how the religion of Islam spread the invention of the astrolabe and used it to calculate latitude, sunrise, and sunset. He also explains how Arabs created the use of modern decimal notation and symmetrical designs. I was particularly interested in his description of how Alhazen realized that we can see because objects reflect rays into our eyes, not because our eyes create light that bounce back to us from objects. I found the chapter very interesting and learned a lot of information about mathematics and its relationship with nature. I would recommend it to anyone who enjoys learning about how humans progressed in terms of science and mathematics and rate it 9.6/10.